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The Great Barrier Reef
Today was a day that made the trip. I woke up early (did not get up to see the sunrise on the beach like I planned), but early enough to meet all the people coming back from the sunrise service for Anzac Day at the coffee shop while I was getting breakfast.
$2.50 for a fresh made croissant with honey. Then we all met Mazz and Macca outside the hostel to walk together to the Marina where we would meet the ship taking us out to the reef. We used a company called Compass. Other than a few shortcomings that I will speak of later I will say that they are quite a good company to go with. The Arcadia group was a total of 50 people and we only made up less than half the people on the boat. This turned out to be detrimental to the experience but it couldn’t take away my high for the day. I talked to a dive instructor on the trip who said recently they have been averaging 30 people on board the boat each day. We had over 110 guests on the boat that
day.
We got on board and settled down for our two hour ride out to the reef. I took up a spot in the shade but mostly people took a chance to lay out and sunbathe. I read a little of my Bill Bryson book but spent most of the time talking with friends and Mazz. I had a pretty bad cough for a couple of days previously but I didn’t want it to affect my opportunity to dive. I wasn’t coughing too bad so I didn’t worry too much. I signed the form to go down and was very nervous but how could I not go. It’s the great barrier reef for crying out loud!
When we finally pulled up to the first spot at the reef I was excited. I was in group eight to go down, scuba style. They had shown us on the boat what we needed to do. They split all the beginner (not certified) divers into groups of four who would go down to the reef together with an instructor. They taught us the simplest things of what we needed to do and we practiced them on dry land. When it was
our group’s turn to go down we would then practice the skills in the water a couple of meters down holding onto a bar on the back of the boat. Up until this point it was all free. Then after the beginning 5 minutes we could decide to go back up or say yes to the $55 question and go see the reef.
Like I said I was in group 8 with my friend Erica. They had 3 dive instructors so they could dive 3 groups at a time. So Erica and I had a ways to wait. We snorkeled over the reef until it was our turn to dive. We were out there for about 1.5hrs. When we finally came back our dive group had been split up so she went in the group ahead of me. I took a little disposable camera down with me. I was really nervous going in but my dive instructor Blake was really nice, funny, and helpful.
He reminded me/looked a little like Jeff Clyse I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to clear my ears because of my cough but I ended up just fine. After he had
tested us on all of our skills, I said yes to the big question. I was nervous but knew I couldn’t back out now.
The five of us linked arms. Two of us on either side of Blake. I was next to him. We swam down together at a gentle angle towards the reef. Slowly going down so we could clear our ears and adjust. It was gorgeous. Such amazing sights. If felt weird to be breathing in a regulator but not scary like I thought it was going to be. Once we got to the reef Blake asked us if we were okay to let go of our linked arms. I was scared and wanted to hold on but somehow I managed to pry my arm off his and there I was alone in the water. We swam together in a pack and he took us to see some of the very cool sights. We got to see a big clam and feel the rush of the water as it closed tightly. There was a photographer that was swimming around and taking our photos at opportune spots. I wasn’t looking at my measurement thingy much but I did
look once to realize we were at about 8.5 meters underwater. It was pretty amazing and very weird when you looked up to see the top of the water. The dive was half an hour but it felt like no time at all before we were headed back up to the boat. They pulled us on board and I ran to grab a towel and eat some of what was left for lunch. There was some chicken and pasta and a piece of bread. Because there were so many people on the boat that day and because there were 12 dive groups we spent twice the time at the first site as they normally do.
After lunch we headed off to another spot on the reef. They said they could almost guarantee seeing turtles at this site. I was so excited about seeing turtles. Ever since Costa Rica I have felt a lot of attraction to turtles and turtle things. Maybe I was still on the high from the dive or maybe I was just too excited about seeing turtles but I said that I wanted to go on the second dive. SO I did. When I got to
the second dive sight I was in the third group to go down. We waited on the boat until the 1st group came back and then headed down. This time we didn’t need to go through all the intro stuff again, so we had more time on the reef. Justin was our guide this time. He was very relaxed and cool and reminded me a little of Justin Croft. This time we went a little deeper and I was more brave than I was the first time to go look at stuff. I didn’t have to concentrate on breathing and not bumping into the reef as much. I was getting the hang of it and really regretting not having taken the dive course at UT that I was signed up for once upon a time. Then it swam towards us. It was a turtle. It hung around us and was so much fun. At one point it was practically sitting in our Justin’s lap. It was hilarious! We also saw a lot of Nemos in anemine. I loved it and was so glad that I went the second time. When our thirty minutes was up I was said to head
to the boat. We got on the boat and all the people that had been snorkeling were already back on board. It was time to head home.
On the 2 hour ride back to the city I sat inside on the boat so that I wouldn’t get cold from the wind. The photographer should us the prints of the photos she took of us. Erica and I bought some and she made us a cd on the way in and gave it to us before we got off the boat We got to see a beautiful sunset behind Cairns as we headed inland. As we got off the boat all the crew had made a line outside the boat to say goodbye giving us all hi fives. They were the most enthusiastic people and they sustained it for the hole 20minutes that it took to get the 110 people off the boat. We leisurely strolled back to the hostel. We took quick showers to get some of the salt out of our hair and then headed over to eat. Arcadia had reserved the porch of Rhino Bar for us to have dinner on and get a discount. It was a good time. I had a delicious steak for 6 bucks! Afterwards Erica and I headed back to the hostel for an early night.
I enjoyed getting in my bed and going to sleep relatively early and I had a chance to read my book some more which was good. I was so glad I decided to go scuba diving and had an amazing day at the reef.
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