Blogs from Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Got back from my 3 day scuba trip last night. All I can say is, WOW! It was truly remarkable. I had some reservations as I heard how damaged the reef has become due to pollution, warm waters, shipping, etc. But I was not let down. The weather was perfect, the water was a great temperature at about 79 degrees. Didn't need a wet suit but wore a stinger suit due to the possibility of jelly fish. Didn't seem necessary though, but I guess better to be safe. Don't need an Irukandji stinging you! The pictures barely do the place any justice. The videos are better, but too big to upload right now. So many fish, so much coral. Sea turtles, reef sharks, nurse sharks, barracudas, eels, you name it! Amazing place!... read more

Heron Island was THE BESTTT. Our group spent a week tanning on the beach and snorkeling. And the crazy thing was - that was class. I had a "research" project where my team had to dive to the bottom of the ocean floor to measure the rugosity of corals and count the number of dascyllus aruanus fish species there. But really, that meant some chill snorkel time and moments spent out of a classroom. Life really can't get better than that. I once woke up at 5:30am for a morning snorkel out on the jetti. The wetsuits hung dry and ready for us on the racks by the bathroom. I'm pretty sure I never used the same snorkel twice - ew. We saw dolphins, sharks, rays, giant sea turtles, bahjillions of fish, and a floating platyhelminthe ... read more

The weather was absolutely great about 4 weeks ago; warm sunny days, not much wind and calm seas, ideal for working. Port Douglas really seems like the place to be and work in these conditions. The dives I had were very good as well, with some of the sites having really good visibility. On one of the days off work that I had, I went diving on Calypso, mainly because I wanted to dive a site called "Cathedral", which we went to a few times. I wanted to be able to dive it in non-working conditions. That day, most of my friends were working, so I needed to buddy up with a customer. My buddy ended up being a pretty Norwegian girl, so even better. When we got to Cathedral, I was offered a drop off ... read more

today we got picked up at our hotel at 8:20 by the captan of the calypiso the boat we are going out today run by tropical journeys. we had a great trip to the outer reef and got 3 dives in at 3 differnet reef and on the way in we saw 3 whales a mother and calf and one other. we got droped off at out hotel and after long day decided to do room service in our room. what a fantastic day.... read more