For the second part of our journey, we went to The Great Barrier Reef, the largest marine ecosystem in the world. It is composed of several thousands of coral reefs, which are natural structures formed by the growth and deposit of corals.
One of the best ways to access the Great Barrier Reef is from Airlie Beach. This party town located on Australia’s eastern coastline is also a good destination for families owing to its small size and artificial lagoon, free of stingers.
Airlie Beach
A lot of people go to the Whitsunday Islands, a group of tropical islands just a short distance away from Airlie Beach but we chose to spend most of our time at the lagoon, enjoying the shade of the surrounding trees. Frida loved dipping her toes in the sheltered waters !
We also took a boat to a giant pontoon floating over Heart Reef, a coral formation sitting approximately 60 kilometres off the coast of Airlie Beach. The cruise trip was about 3 hours (one-way) and provided a unique opportunity for snorkelling in the turquoise waters.
Although we were able to observe a rich diversity of corals, fishes and mollusks, we were stunned by the fact that the colors on the reef are not nearly as bright as we thought. Instead, the corals were tinted in grey, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching, occurring when these living creatures are under the stress of pollution. Here is an article that explains why.
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