Blogs from Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 17

diving was out of this world. Or under this world, ha. 26 degree water (celcius) 29 degree air, 10 dives, I'm now advanced diver certified, so I can go down to 35 meters in open water (no cave or wreck diving for me yet) There were 19 of us on a 4 day, 3 night trip that went waaay up the coast of Queensland out of Cairns to the Northern Ribbon reefs. All those reefs are untampered with, only about 10 % of the total divers that dive the reef get to dive up there, which uped the cost, but I figured, if I'm gonna dive the Great Barrier Reef, I should do it right! I felt like I was diving in a national geographic magazine. We did two night dives. So yes, it's pitch ... read more

... bent me! We had a great time on the Undersea Explorer, we saw sharks, beautiful underwater sceneries and we had delicious food and I finished my Advanced open water diver certificate. but... ... on Thursday, after my first dive, my face felt numb. A snorkelling and a little sleep later it was still there. Numb skin on the left side, next to the nose and on the forehead. It was lunchtime then. Because I just have learned about decompression illness and the symptoms I told my very nice dive instructor Claire. She told me to lay down on the top deck and gave me pure oxygen to breath. After 30 minutes it changed into a tingling feeling, annoying! Fortunately there was a REAL medical doctor on board, Darlene from the United States. She checked ... read more

Today we took the Oceanic boat day cruise to explore the Great Barrier Reef. Wearing stinger suits we went snorkelling in Coral Bay and took the glass bottomed boat to Upolu Cay. This is a tiny area of white sand beach in the middle of the Coral sea, where we saw an amazing array of tropical fish of all sizes and colours. We also saw lots of jelly fish and a stingray, so we knew we were not accompanied by the most friendly species. In Upolu Cay the water were very shallow so we got extremely close to the various Nemos and amazingly shaped corals in the turquoise warm waters. There were also a few beautiful deep blue starfishes lying on the sea floor. The coral here forms amazing structures of different sizes and shapes, some ... read more

url='/Videos/2720.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2720.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Swimming Through Fishurl='/Videos/2721.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2721.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Fishurl='/Videos/2722.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2722.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Sting Ray A Nudibranch, Tsunami's, and the Shortest Bungie Jump in the World Heading out of Alice Springs, I jumped the only plane to Cairns, pronounced more like Cans. Qantas is the only airline that flies out of Alice Springs, so prices aren't cheap. But the one thing that I've really been looking forward to, was getting to Cairns to finish my Scuba Diving certification on the Great Barrier Reef. As I arrived in Cairns, I got a bus to Gilligans,... read more

We were up early ready for our first dive (7:00am) - what a great way to start the day. The sun was shining, Crowded House on the radio and the aquatic life was great!!! The dives just got better and better during the day (and night). Three dives in the day and one that evening (for me) saw our dives and time on the GBR increase. As I was a bit pink, we played cards with some new friends - Liz, Ian, Ted and Becky - below deck in the afternoon, waiting for our surface interval time to pass. The night dive was amazing. Went with Les and Jackie from Bristol (as Sarah was not too keen). Saw a shark, a sleeping turtle and the most amazing star lit sky as we surfaced - COOL!... read more