Bucket List: Great Barrier Reef

The next place I want to go on my bucket list is The Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world. The reef spans over an area of 133,000 square miles. Which  It's so big it can be seen from space. The reef itself is is composed of 2,900 different smaller individual reef systems and coral cays. As well as having hundreds of beautiful islands with spectacular golden sandy beaches. It is the largest single structure in the world made by living organisms. The reef is host to billions of organisms and fish alike. The majority of the reef is protected by the "Great Barrier Reef Marine Park". On Wikipedia it says that CNN named The Great Barrier Reef one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Great Barrier Reef is located of the the coast of Queensland, Australia. It's to extremely immense that I'm not going to give the latitude and longitude because those coordinates would only cover a small part of the reef. I will say however that it is on the north eastern part. It literally goes along the entire side that faces north east. Slightly off topic here but scientists say they've discovered a larger version of it of the southern coast but for now it's just a rumor. The Queensland National Trust made the Great Barrier Reef the state icon.

Facts about the reef:

1. The Great Barrier Reef is as big as: Japan, Italy, Germany, Malasia, or 70 million football fields.
2. It is home to: 1625 types of fish, 133 types of sharks and rays, and 600 types of soft and hard corals.
3. There are 600 different continental islands
4. Average depth is about 35 meters in the inshore waters. Out of shores it can get as deep as 2000 meters

The reason I want to go there is because, like my post about the Maldives, I really want to go scuba diving. Scuba diving I cannot stress enough is one of the best experiences of your life. When were walking around we only worry about the 360º view we have. When you're scuba diving you have to worry about 360º movement which we are not used to because we cannot fly, which is one reason why scuba diving takes so much training in order to do. You need to learn how to efficiently move in all directions. I have heard that The Great Barrier Reef is the best place in the world to scuba dive from multiple people and sources. Most say it's the best because of how clear the water is and how diverse and beautiful everything under the water is.

This is an amazing birds-eye view of the reef. Crews to business insider

Bucket List: Dubai/Burj Khalifa

Hey Flies! Another place on my bucket list to go to is Dubai.

Dubai is on the south coast of the Persian Gulf. The rough latitude and longitude of Dubai are: 25ºN, 55ºE. Dubai has really come out as a city in the Middle East. In 1991 is was very dirty and not diverse. In 1996 oil was discovered. Now Dubai is one the most diverse places in the Middle East, as well as being a very developed city.

Dubai is home to the tallest man-made structure in the world named the "Burj Khalifa". The building itself cost USD $1.5 billion dollars. Construction started January 4 2004. The building opened January 6. The top antenna reaches to 2,722 ft tall and still stands today. There are 154 usable floors, 9 maintenance floors, 46 spire levels, and two under ground parking levels. The Burj Khalifa was built to diversify for an oil-based economy, and for Dubai to improve on international imprint. The main structure is made of reinforced concrete. The Burj Khalifa broke numerous height records making it a new tourist attraction for the rich and the regular. In the building there are 57 elevators and 8 escalators.

There are two reasons that I want to go to the Burj Khalifa.

The first reason is because I want to go to a country in the Middle East. I've only been to two countries other than the US. And in my entire lifetime I've only been of the continent twice. The first time I went off the continent is when I went to Turks and Caicos which is a part of Europe. The second time (I don't even know if this counts) I went to Maui, Hawaii. I think this should sorta count or at least count as like a half. Hawaii is 2,390 miles of the coast of California which is the closest to Hawaii you can get, so it's fairly far off and should count. So being able to not only get to get off the continent, but being able to go to a new and amazing place would be amazingly awesome.

The second reason is because I'd like to base jump off as high I can get on the Burj Khalifa. Base jumping is kind of like skydiving except you are jumping off a structure instead jumping out of a plane. Obviously you won't get nearly as much time in the air as you would skydiving because typical  skydiving height is 12,000ft and the height of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest man-made structure) is only 2,700ft tall. But the trade off is that you get to see more stuff in higher detail than if you were skydiving. I've always been a curious little kid and wondered when I've been high up how fun it would be to fly through the air. And how much it would hurt to land. So I can't wait to base jump for the first time.

I got most of this information from Wikipedia.

This is a picture of the Burj Khalifa from ground level. Unfortunately I could not get the site name or url because it is a blocked website.

Until next time Flies.

Bucket List: Maldives

These next few posts are going to about places that are on my bucket list to go to. For those very few of you who don't know what a bucket list is; it's basically a list of things one might want to do before they die. This one is dedicated the Maldives.

The Maldives is an island country and archipelago located in the Indian Ocean. It's coordinates are 3ºN and 73ºE, for those weirdos like me who love to know weird facts like this. The Maldives are just nearly off the coast of India. The Maldives stretch about 35,000 square miles. It's the smallest Asian country in both area and population.

The site where I got all of the info about the Maldives is Wikipedia.

The reason I want to go there most is to scuba dive. I got my scuba diving license when I was 14. The first place I went scuba diving was Oahu, Hawaii. But I've been told the the Maldives are simply breathtaking underwater if you know where to look and a good guide to show where to be at a moment. Utah is in the middle of the USA so a flight from here to there on a regular plane and since India is a 30 hour flight I estimate it would take about 35 hours. Now you would lose a lot more time because of the whole time switch thing and whatnot. But then again you would regain that time when you are on the way back... unless you decide to stay in that beautiful place.

Look at this beautiful picture of on of the beaches in the Maldives! Image courtesy of letsgomaldives.com