Advertisement
Published: March 31st 2008
Edit Blog Post
The Great Barrier Reef is a pretty massive creation and it's easy to see why it's considered a top Wonder of the Word. We spent 5 days exploring different areas- and feel that we only caught a glimpse of what's out there.
The first day we spent on the Ribbon Reefs, a series of reefs on the outer fringes. These are too far out for most day boats and therefore mostly undamaged from heavy tourist traffic.
The next dive sites were located 120 nautical miles off the coast - Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. The boat traveled over night, so we didn't actually notice the trip except for the endless tossing and turning. The visibility was quite good- you could usually make out coral formations and see the fish swimming below the moment you entered the water. It was kind of scary if you looked away from the dive site - just this eerie deep blue color in any direction. It would be very easy to get disoriented out there.
Just as we had hoped, there were tons of fish. We started to recognize some of the more prevalent types- the boat had several identification books and
posters, but we've already forgotten the names. A lot of the fish always traveled as a couple, and quite often we’d see a school of hundreds of fish just float by. I wasn’t very good at sneaking up on them- they’d usually swim away as soon as they heard my bubbles. We learned that the really pretty fish are often poisonous, so we didn’t get too close to them. We were also warned of a few fish that are very territorial so made sure to stay back from them as well.
We spotted white tip sharks on most of the dives and by the end were only a "little nervous" with their presence. On one dive, Josh and I ascended before the rest of the group so we were just floating along the surface of the water. We looked down and saw a huge shark circling below us. He hung out there for quite a while. We were nervous when we couldn’t see him and didn’t know where he went- when he returned his circling seemed very focused on us, so we waved our emergency flag for a quick pick up by the boat. On another dive, the dive
Cuddlefish
These are awesome! A relative of the squid, the cuddlefish can change colors to represent it's surroundings. We saw this one at 31meters while doing our advanced deep dive. master arranged a "shark attract"- in a very organized manner, the crew lowered down a crate of dead fish which attracted tons of sharks to the area. This feeding frenzy lasted a good 30 minutes- the sharks were so focused on the bait that they weren't even phased by us. Josh moved up close to the feeding site and got some great photos and luckily came away with all ten fingers.
The coral was pretty amazing too. It forms as little "villages"- collections of several buds that multiply off of each other. It continues to build upon itself and over thousands and thousands of years, it has formed massive walls, tunnels, caves, and other intricate arrangements. We learned the basic categories of coral (brain is my favorite- it really looked like a brain!). Some of the coral had lost it’s color due to bleaching (partly a natural process, but global warming has caused a rise in water temperature which kills off the coral at a much faster rate)- really quite sad to know that it will likely get worse from here. The coral serves as a hiding spot for most of the fish- it was so fun to watch
School of fish
Don't remember what they are, in the snapper family, but they let me swim amongst them. them dart about the coral. At night the fish snuggle up against the coral and create a mucous bubble to keep them safe.
Josh was in charge of the digital camera most of the time. He had ordered one with his Christmas money but it's still lost somewhere between Maryland and Sydney. There were plenty of camera shops in the area that rented underwater cameras, so at least we had something to use. He got some great shots- about 500. These are just a few of the highlights.
Here’s a list of the places we dove just in case you want to visit (and also so we can keep track of the dive pictures!)
Osprey Reef-
North Horn
West Wall
North Horn
False Entrance
Raging Horn
Admirality Cave
Andy’s Postcard
Steve’s Bommie
While on the boat we completed our Advanced Diver Certification, so we're now qualified to go on deeper dives, explore ship wrecks, and other "advanced" stuff like that.
We booked our trip on the Nimrod. It was hard deciding because there are so many options out there, but this one gave us 15 dives over 5 days, so it seemed to give us the
Deanne Pointing
There was something very cool here, but I didn't figure out what she was pointing at so I just took a couple pictures. most for our money. The dive boat seemed pretty well run- there were 6 crew on board and they made sure that we had dry towels and happy tummies for the entire trip. Our daily itinerary went something like this: light breakfast, dive, full breakfast dive, lunch, dive, afternoon snack, dive, dinner, dive, desert, bed (no, this isn't an exaggeration).
Luckily no sea sickness on this trip. We stocked up on all sorts of meds and I wore wrist bracelet. My sea legs lasted for a couple of days after we returned (I like to think of it as a cheap buzz without the hangover).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0331s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
bogansdownunder
Josh & Deanne
Cedrick's dive
There's a picture of me pointing at "something"- it's Cedrick!!! We put him a net bag and looped it through the weight belt so that he'd stay safe. I think he liked it, even though all of the fish we bigger them him