Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

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Since I was in Cairns by myself on my birthday, Dad thought it would be a nice present to go scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I agreed! So off I went for three Intro Dives aboard Tusa 5. I thought I would be the only young girl solo traveler, but I met another as soon as I found the pier. I had already met a lot of people, but most of them were from England. Arieane was from Canada and her sister actually went to UW-Madison for Grad. School. She was the first person I met from North America during my 2 weeks of travel. Another gal we met on the boat, Mellisa, was from Scotland. For all three of us it was our first diving experience.

The boat ride out to the reef was very nice, the staff were kind and fun, and the boat was very spacious. Since I have never dived before, I did an Intro Dive, they spent about 40 minutes briefing me and my fellow intro divers explaining the different safety and processes when diving, and then when we got in the water, it was me and 3 others with an expierenced diver. My first dive was very overwhelming, I had a hard time equalizing my ears, my goggles were too big and constantly leaking, and just swimming to keep out of the reef was a challenge. But my second dive was so much better! It is amazing feeling to be able to move all around in the water, to swim up and down and all around and not come up for air. It was even more amazing, specatcular to be swimming right next to all this beautiful ocean life, the coral, fishes, I even saw and swam with a sea turtle. Other divers that were expierienced, were able to dive deeper and they actually saw a reef shark! Reef sharks are fairly small and harmless to humans, but I think if I saw I don't know what I would do but I would be really scared so I'm glad I did not see a shark. The third dive I finally got the hang of everything and really enjoyed the dive and now I think I'm going to have to get certified, although after diving at the Great Barrier Reef I don't know if it can get much better! 😉

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Photos

Swimming with a Sea Turtle
That is me pointing kinda at the sea turtle. It actually let me swim with him/her for a few minutes - was the highlight of my dive!

Snorkelers on the Reef
The tide was really low so the top of this part of the reef was exposed which made the snorkeling amazing!