The coronavirus outbreak and the measures that we must take to fight it and stay safe have brought on a challenge that humans were not expecting - the impossibility of travel. The upside of this strange situation is that many people;ar destinations are now offering online tours and other alternative ways to enjoy the beauty of the world without moving from the couch or breaking quarantine. You can have a look at our previous articles listing the museums and national parks, which offer virtual tours.
One such initiative is the new interactive website where you can explore the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. This is one of the most impressive sights out there - the world’s largest coral reef system (2,300 kilometers, or just over 1,400 miles of Australia's coastline and twice the size of any other reef in the world), and home to dolphins, whales, sea turtles and over 1,500 species of fish.
The online tour of the reef, which is simply called Attenborough's Reef, is full of stunning underwater views of these wonders, and the best part is, it's narrated by David Attenborough.
For those of you who don’t know, David Attenborough is a British broadcaster and natural historian. He had written and narrated a succession of television programs on anthropology and natural history. The most notable would be the 9-part Life series. His more recent endeavors deal with issues of climate change, like his 2019 recent series Our Planet which can be streamed on Netflix. Attenborough had won an Emmy Award and several BAFTA awards for his work.
The naturalist was recently quoted saying in Big Issue magazine “In times of crisis, the natural world is a source of both joy and solace. The natural world produces the comfort that can come from nothing else.”
The narrated tour offers explanations on how corals grow, what the reef sounds like, and which species you can meet in each part.
Some sections will have a button offering you to explore something extra, like sound or an interactive explanation on a certain animal. Here, for example, it's the 'Have a Listen' button.
Once you are finished, simply click the back button on the left upper corner of your screen.
