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Published: September 22nd 2005
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tis me!
scuba diving, yay!! I went scuba diving! on the great barrier reef! and saw big fishies!!!!
so yeah, i went scuba diving, which was brilliant fun! didn't even get sea sick 😊 we left the marina at port douglas at about 8.45 and i believe that it took us about 1 and a half hours to get to agincourt reef (part of the great barrier reef). there were maybe about 100 people on the boat and there were only 20 of us doing actually scuba diving, the rest were snorkelling or just there for the ride i guess 😊 us scuba diver type people were briefed on the way out there and given basic safety training/skills that we had to take on board. then we had to kit up - blimey, i didn't realise just how heavy all that equipment that you have to wear is!!!! they strap you into all this gear and they tell you to stand up. yeah right! are they having a laugh or what?! had visions of me keeling over backwards and never being able to get up again 😊 still, in the end i managed it. and how tight are the wetsuits??!! apparently the tighter it is,
the warmer you'll be. i personally think its just to restrict breathing and therefore minimise the air that you use from your tank :s
oooh, they even had prescription goggles which was a bit good, because i don't think i would have been able to see much otherwise 😊 hehe.
we were split into groups of 4 to go diving in. i was in a group with an overenthusiastic american girl from seattle called nicola who thought that it was completely amazing that we both did maths at university and that we should be friends for life 😊 eep. still, she was nice. just a bit 'in your face'.
eep, did nerves kick in when we were sitting on the edge with our legs in the water. we all got in and when the water is hitting you in the face, its not nice. got extremely freaked out and scared and couldn't breathe properly when i tried to breathe through the regulator (the mouth piece of the scuba unit). glen, the dive instructor tried to get me to go under the water but by this point i was in a blind panic and totally willing to give
up and sunbathe for the day instead. tried to go under water but it seemed to get worse 😞 but nicola was the same, so glen had to try and calm us down, and eventually (after about 10 minutes, lol!!) we went down. a little scary at first, but it soon passed. and i had the best time! i'm so proud of myself for doing it! scuba diving is just amazing. it was like being on another planet, its so so strange being down there. and the fish are everywhere. they really don't care that you're swimming around and just get on with whatever it is that fish do! the fish are the most amazingly beautiful colours and shapes and sizes. ooooh and we saw a huge big ray swimming along the bottom! the coral isn't all that bright when you're down there (something to do with light not travelling as fast under water or something... science was never really my forte!) but there are still so many different colours. and the different shapes of the coral. i can't even begin to describe what its like down there really. but when you're down there, nothing else matters. all you think
and one more for luck :)
once again, good hair methinks, hehe! about is that you're in the ocean. you're swimming in the great barrier reef. everything else just seems totally insignificant.
after about half an hour we surfaced, took off all our scuba equipment and went snorkelling. after diving though, it didn't really compare. sure, when you're snorkelling the coral colours are much brighter, but i don't think that anything can compare to the freedom you experience when you're diving, that and actually being down in amongst it all.
after everyone was back on the boat we got dry and had lunch and then headed to another reef (can't remember the name!!) for our second dive! which was so much less scary than the first one 😊 didn't panic this time and the experience was just a lot better as i was far more relaxed. the fish we saw weren't as pretty but the coral was far more spectacular 😊 i took an underwater camera down with me, so hopefully when i finally get around to getting it developed i'll have some good pictures to put on here! (the ones that are on here now are ones that the dive photographer took)
we got to hold a sea
cucumber which was really strange! they feel a lot like velvet. and the don't do a hell of a lot. except kind of lie on the bottom of the ocean. hm. ah, and we held some random strange red thing. don't really know how else to describe it! but i could feel it gripping onto my hands which was just the strangest sensation! i didn't want to come back up from that dive, but kind of had to when the air started running out 😊 still, we got to snorkel for a while longer. i can't get over how beautifully clear and warm the waters are (apparently that's why you don't get dangerous sharks around the reef, because they don't like the warm water. definitely good to know!)
so yeah, that was my day of scuba diving on the great barrier reef!
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Rob
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Enjoyed reading about you experiences, going in Jan 06.