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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Airlie Beach
December 11th 2009
Published: December 23rd 2009
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Me underwaterMe underwaterMe underwater

Whilst diving the guide kept following me about and taking load of photos. I started to feel like some kind of sub-aquatic celebrity
Hello,

The day after my last entry was the start of my second dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef, this time around the Whitsunday Islands. I boarded the vessel around midday, giving me a chance to have a quick look around Airlie Beach in the morning. This confirmed my initial impression- it basically has two streets, one all niceness and palm trees running along the waterfront and by a good sized swimming pool with it's own little fake beach, the other just a mass of backpacker hostels, clubs and cheap takeaways (often the same place). It must be weird to be a local- the place is basically a village, and yet with a massive transient population of backpackers.

Anyway, onto the boat I went, and after some lunch, a couple of hours sailing and a quick pre-dive brief, into the water I went. The first dive was an odd one- with a lot of easily stirred up sediment around the visibility was way less than I expected from a coral reef. Despite this I enjoyed the dive as the underwater topography was interesting with a labyrinthine array of coral bommies, outcrops and swim throughs and a good variety
Big fishBig fishBig fish

A Humphead Maori Wrasse
of marine life, including a visit by 'Priscilla', the resident Humphead Maori Wrasse. Once the dive was over there was dinner and a few drinks before bed.

Next morning was diving first thing, in the water before 7am. Being a full day on the boat I managed to do quite a lot, with a break for breakfast between the wake-up dive and another just before lunch. The dives were similar to the first, with more Humphead Maori Wrasse in the morning, and an extended photo shoot with some clownfish (or 'Nemo' as they now seem to be called, which is probably a good indicator of what sort of fish they were) during the second.

The afternoon was dedicated to a trip to Whitehaven Beach. This involved a bit of a hike through some bush inhabited by some large and very annoying flies, but rewarded at the end with views of a beach with the whitest, finest sand I have seen. I'm afraid no photos as we were warned that the sand is so fine it has a nasty habit of ruining cameras no matter how careful the owner is- and I know that if it happens to anyone
Whitehaven BeachWhitehaven BeachWhitehaven Beach

As good a Tropical Paradise as any, eh?
it will happen to me! But anyhow, after a few hours frolicking on the beach, we headed off back to the boat, where most people started drinking, but I had to wait a couple of hours, so I could do a night dive.

Only five of us (three certified divers, the guide, and the captain of the vessel on his only dive of this trip) did the night dive. Whilst the life on the reef was generally similar, night dives are always special due to a very different atmosphere, torch beams tracking through the water like light sabres or search lights.

After food and a couple of drinks it was off to bed for me, so I could get up and do the morning dive. This was the last of the trip, and sadly the least special. It was generally very similar to the others, but with no real stand out moments. Once I got out of the water it was just time to start packing up and heading back to Airlie Beach.

I had six hours to kill before the coach, which was mainly spent hanging around by the swimming pool with some people from the
The coral reefThe coral reefThe coral reef

A fairly typical scene
boat and topping up the tan. The coach trip itself was a killer- 12 hours overnight, 6pm to 6am. This took me to Hervey Bay, which is where I am right now. I should actually already be on my next trip but some kind of mis-communication between the company I booked with and the trip operator and hostel has meant a one day delay. Whilst irritating at the time because for a while I didn't know what was supposed to be happening, it has at least given me a day to relax and recuperate. Everything on my itinerary has now been shifted forward by one day, so one day less in Sydney at the end. Good job I left a couple of days grace, eh?

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