Diving THE Great Barrier Reef

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Today was the day, one of my lifelong dreams, ever since i first heard about the Great Barrier Reef, saw my first National Geographic Documentary on it, came true, and I went diving on the Great Barrier Reef! It was fantastic! . If i did not have that big mask on, and the regulator in my mouth to give me some O2 under water, you would be able to tell that i am grinning from ear to ear.

I went out on the reef with a company called Down Under Dive, and so after almost 2 hours on the water in this very fast boat, we arrived at our first diving site, the Saxon Reef. I was in the third diving group, so i had a bit of time before it was my turn to go out and snorkel first, which already was quite spectacular, however though, since the wind was blowing about 15- 20 knots, the ocean was quite choppy and therefore it was not the ideal conditions for snorkling.
Once my little group of four divers and one guide got underway however, we did not feel a thing below the surface, and simply set out to explore the reef, admire the 100's of species of corral and fish, and tried unfortunately with no success, to find a reef shark or a turtle in these waters. We did find a bluspotted stingray burried in the sand below however, and tons of other fish, that swam around us with as much curisouity for us as we had for them.

After a great BBQ lunch on board, we heade of to our next dive site, the Hastings Reef, and i actually ended up going for two more dives that afternoon. I just felt like this was my chance, so i had a hard time getting out of the water, and simly maximized my time down in the ocean waters. On my last dive, it was just the instructor and myself, and so it truly felt like we were the only ones among the fish and sea creatures. What a moment... I never wanted it to stop... but eventually, as the O2 got lower, and the afternoon approached rapidly it was time to say good bye to the reef, and just lock up the memories of it in the heart! An amazing day, one that was everything I hoped it to be. (well, it could have been sunnier... but i won't push it...

So after a great day, it was back to Susan's house, a little bit of ping pong and game time with the kids, and dreams of shark and fish...

cheers Steffi

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Photos

Diving the GBR
all is OK under water!!

Handling a sea cucumber!
Quite the slimy affair, but so COOL

Blue Spotted Stingray
One of the many great fish