The Great Barrier Reef is actually over 2,300 reefs in one giant coral reef system running approximately 1,400 miles along the northeastern shore of Queensland, Australia in the Coral Sea.

Queensland is like one of our states.  The reef sits about an hour and a half by boat from the city of Cairns.  Our group of 20 individuals took a catamaran out on a fairly rough day at sea.  The rain limited our visibility for photos but not for exploring.

The views looking back at the mainland were awesome.  This coastline of Australia had mangroves, humidity and palm trees like Florida.  Unlike Florida, though, it also had mountains and saltwater crocs.

We snorkeled wearing wet suits, because of a particularly bad jelly fish.  We swam out from Michaelmas Cay.

We found the diversity of life on the reef to be amazing.  Two of my most exciting moments was swimming over a giant clam…

and having a very large manta ray swim under me.

And all the other sea life!

We also took a submarine type boat to see another part of the reef in this area.

By the end of this trip, this was by far my favorite day!