- Snorkelling the Playground/Shark Mountain, Norman Reef
- Snorkelling Wildside Central, Norman Reef
- Snorkelling Norman Fingers, Norman Reef
- Snorkelling the outer Great Barrier Reef
This post is about snorkelling the Playground on Norman Reef, located on the Coral Coast on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It’s also referred to as Shark Mountain (located to the west of the Playground).
If you haven’t already, make sure you read about snorkelling the outer Great Barrier Reef. It gives details about the Great Barrier Reef, and Norman Reef, getting there and the tour operator we chose.
On the Norman Reef, our tour operator took us to three spots: Norman Fingers, Playgrounds/Shark Mountain and Wildside Central.
Snorkelling the Playground/Shark Mountain, Norman Reef
The Playground was our favourite snorkelling site while staying on the liveaboard on the outer Great Barrier Reef. We feel very fortunate for having seen it.
The reef is full of canyons of coral. It was a delight to swim through alley way after alley way with rich diverse life either side, not taking any notice of us (this could be because the reef is infiltrated with tourists day after day).
Again, it was another experience where we just didn’t know where to look because there was so much to see!
Conditions
Visibility was mostly good (poor in some spots). It meant we could get some good photos and sit back and enjoy the life around us.
The reef
Similar to Norman Fingers, this is a magic spot. The water depth ranged from eight to 14 metres which meant we did a lot of looking down until we got closer to the bommies.
Where the our tour operator’s boat moored, directly from the back of the boat and to the east there was plenty to see. To the west is Shark Mountain, a depth of one to two metres and that’s where the divers mostly hung out.
What captured us most, were the abundance of giant clams.
Incredible giant clams dotted all over the Playground, Norman Reef.
The Playground made up for Central Wildside, which had been smashed by cyclones and climate change. Here’s a small sample of what we saw at the Playground, Norman Reef.
Plenty of corals to see …
Our recommendation
Our recommendation is based on a comparison with other sites we’ve visited, the snorkelling guide, the abundance of corals and fish life. It also includes environmental factors such as damage to corals by tourists and/or climate change.
We’d give this snorkel 5 out 5!
Other places we visited on Norman Reef are:
