Blogs from Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 5

Fourth of July! The winds out on Great Barrier Reef had swayed us into waiting until our last full day before booking a trip to the reef. The tour company that we chose was an outfit named Quicksilver. They have a pontoon built in a lagoon on the Outer Reef that basically resembled a floating two story building. It had a seating area on the top and the bottom deck was equipped with changing rooms, a restaurant, more seating, areas to get outfitted for snorkeling and a small loading area for a semi-submersible glass-bottomed boat that toured around the reef. There was also access to an underwater viewing area. The boat ride was a bit choppy, but not too bad. Even at a relatively high speed, it still took us 90 minutes to reach the Outer ... read more

This past weekend I spent in Cairns and it was the first time I really went on my own. I travelled up with the Robson family but after they dropped me off at the hostel for the night that was it! (They did say that I was more than welcome to stay with them in their hotel room, but I really wanted to see what hostels were all about first hand so I could stop worrying about it). Well . . .lets back up, Monday Heather arrived from Perth, that was also the day we finally finished putting all of the camping stuff away, and the power went out! So out all the camping stuff came for dinner (which was Kangaroo chilli)! At least we were warm, dry, and mozzie free! The next night I got ... read more

Sur le site internet de Mike Ball Diving Expeditions, tout plongeur peut tenter sa chance pour devenir "volontaire" sur le Spoilsport, un catamaran qui navigue chaque semaine sur la mer de Corail. Il y a quelques mois quand j'ai remplis le formulaire en ligne, je me suis dit qu'il devait y avoir beaucoup de candidats et peu d'appelés mais comme toujours, qui ne tente rien n'a rien... Et voila, en ce Jeudi 9 Mai, je suis prête à embarquer sur le bateau, avec mon uniforme, mon matos de plongée et des rêves de plongée plein la tête. Le principe est simple; en échange de quelques menus services sur le bateau, je suis nourrie, logée, blanchie et... je plonge ! J'ai été prise comme "Galley Volunteer", volontaire dans la cuisine. Je rencontre rapidement Anita, l'hôtesse, qui sous ... read more

Heute morgen um 8 habe ich mich aufs Schiff Richtung Great Barrier Reef begeben. Es ging zum Saxon Reef, das wir in etwa 90 Minuten erreicht hatten. Auf dem Boot habe ich zwei Engländer und ein paar Deutsche kennengelernt. Wie fast überall, waren wir Deutschen fast in der Überzahl, von den Aussies mal abgesehen. Ich habe ein Einführungskurs Tauchen mitgebucht. Nachdem wir in Vierer-Gruppen aufgeteilt worden sind, ging es erst mal zum Schnorcheln, bis wir für den Tauchgang dran waren. Das Schnorcheln hat schon sehr viel Spaß gemacht und man hat eine Menge Fische und Korallen gesehen. Dann ging es zu unserem ersten Tauchgang. Nachdem wir einen Wetsuit, Brille und Flossen bekommen hatten, wurde uns erst mal ein Bleigürtel umgehängt, damit wir auch untergehen können. Dann hieß es sich hinzusetzen, Flossen anziehen und die Flasche anschnallen. ... read more

Today marks the end of our second week away and boy what a way to end it. WE were excited and apprehensive about our trip arguably the most beautiful part of the Great Barrier Reef. The weather was fine and forecast to get better as we set out on the fast cat with 67 other passengers to explore the reef led by a team of experts enthusiasts obsessed with the protection of the reef. After an hour we stopped for the round of snorkelling. We both found the conditions difficult and only spent about half an hour in the water most of it battling against the strong current to get back to the boat. The second stop was better – the tide was turning and more of the reef was exposed making the water calmer. This ... read more