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So I'm kneeling down on the ocean bed 10 metres deep in the bath-like warm water of the northern, outer Great Barrier Reef, nervously breathing through a regulator and air tank, as Scuba Steve points out a stingray that casually swims by and holds a board up to the group that reads 'welcome to the underwater world!' This was the group's first dive and the previous two days had been spent in a Pro-Dive centre in Cairns, learning about diving and jumping in the pool to practice skills like regulator recovery, which came in handy when another diver accidentally flipper-kicked my breathing apparatus out of my mouth whilst 15 metres deep on a later dive! This first dive of our 3 day live-aboard dive boat extravaganza gave us the chance to get used to scuba diving and, along with the next seven dives, the opportunity to see everything from giant clams, sea turtles, sharks, clownfish (Nemo!), stingrays and all the other freaky-looking wonders the reef has to offer.
I'm confident that our dive instructor- the legend that is Scuba Steve- is quite possibly the best dive instructor in the world and almost definitely the most enthusiastic human being on the
planet, especially when it comes to diving. It was impossible not to end this 5 day PADI course as a certified diver who can't wait for my next diving experience.
After our four certification dives, myself, Joram my giant Dutch room-mate, Swedish Andre, Mutsumi & the rest of the group were all ready to dive in pairs without supervision and the next dive- number 5 on the Gordon's site at Flynn's Reef- was without doubt the best of the trip. Paired up with big Aussie bloke Azza, we confidently made our giant step entry into the water and quickly descended, swimming our way through tunnels between brightly coloured coral and exploring some of the world's most amazing marine life in its natural habitat. On this dive we spotted 2 giant turtles (duuuude!), a 1.5 metre long white tip reef shark, a stingray, a couple of giant clams and two tiny clownfish nestling in their anemone coral. Not even Azza running low on air before me could spoil the experience and I regretted not taking an underwater camera out on this dive, although I was able to get some photos on a later dive, just unfortunately no papparazzi snaps of
any turtles or clownfish.
The photos I did manage to take generally involved myself, Joram and Andre clowning around underwater, although we did manage to get some good shots of the fish and coral, and I even chased a white tip reef shark, accidentally reaching 22 metres in depth despite only being certified to 18 metres. I still think it was definitely worth it for the photograph. Coming face to face with harmless sharks like these is not as scary an encounter as the Jaws' movies make people think, and it was certainly nowhere near as terrifying as our night dive where we were hardly able to see a thing!
I can therefore now say I've experienced what the BBC ranked as the number 2 'thing to see before you die' and I can honestly say the Great Barrier Reef did not disappoint. I'm even slightly cynical about the Grand Canyon being genuinely impressive enough to steal the number 1 spot from this truly awesome spectacle. Once our exhausting time on the boat ended, after 8 world-class dives, the group met up later that evening for a night out in Cairns, inevitably ending up in the famous Woolshed.
We'd all got pretty close during the trip and agreed to stay in touch.
My last day in Cairns before having to fly out to the big red rock and commence my employment was a free one, so I booked myself onto a day tour through the tropical rainforest of northern Queensland, where I saw crocs in their natural habitat on the Daintree River, the paradise resort town of Port Douglas and the great Cape Tribulation, where tropical rainforest meets the beach. I hung out with a loud, mad Welshman whilst being the typical tourist- visiting various lookouts and taking lots of photos of a place which made me feel like I was an extremely long way from home.
The next day brought my flight from Cairns to the airport at the Ayers Rock resort and marked the ending of this 2 month backdated blog entry, and the beginning of the next one, starting from the day I became a resident of Yulara...
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