Great course with a lovely group of learner divers and expert teachers. These photos were taken on our first solo dive as qualified PADI open water divers.

Best Fourth of July ever! Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef. It was more amazing than I could have ever imagined. We rode a three decker catamaran out to a Reefworld. Reefworld is a giant platform on the edge of the reef with tons of activities. Apparently there are a lot of these out there for different companies to take tourists to the reef. Our guide, Remmy, was very funny. He nicknamed our group, “shark bait”. When we first arrived at Reefworld we went to an underwater viewing area. It was windows down in the bottom of the platform. We learned that the part of the reef we were at was called Hardy Reef. It was named this because of the type of fish that live there. The room was really neat and looked like an aquarium except instead of a tank, it was the ocean! After the viewing room we went to the back of Reefworld to look down a hole cut out in the platform where a giant Grouper lives. This fish was huge. It looked like a small whale. After that we took a ride on an underwater submersible.  It took us around the edge of the reef while our guide pointed out the different coral and animals. I learned that during low tide some of the coral is exposed and gets sun burnt. The white coral is dead and the brown coral is alive. The plan after lunch was to go snorkeling but during the boat ride out, Jill and I realized that we could try scuba diving. We went and listened to the lecture about breathing and underwater signals. I was so excited and a little nervous about the breathing part. We paid the extra money and were signed up. When we showed up for our dive time we once again had to squeeze into wetsuits. Ugg! They strapped a weight belt around my waist along with a very heavy tank. We trudged down a set of stairs that went underneath the platform. There was about 4 feet of water on a grate. There, we met out instructor, Heath, and practiced our breathing and hand signals. He showed us what to do if you get water in your mask or loose your breathing tube. He showed us how to read our oxygen and depth gage. It was very weird breathing at first. It took a while to get used to it. With me were Jill and another man. While we were practicing they both had minor freak outs and went up to the surface. I sat there for a while underwater wondering what was going on up there. I was worried that Jill wouldn’t do it but Heath calmed her down. Finally they all came back down. There was a rope that led us down to the reef. I didn’t like holding onto it because it was hard to balance. I kept letting go and swimming on my own while the instructor wasn’t looking. When we got to the ridge the other man we were with started freaking out and swam back up. Heath made some weird buzzer noise and told us to stay there. He brought the man back up to the top. Jill and I were giving each other signals. Jill gave me the “I am not doing so well” signal. I was feeling better about the breathing at this point and was more interested in all the fish and coral. Heath came back alone. I guess the man chickened out. Now it was time to really start looking at the reef. First he took Jill away from the rope and tried to show her an anemone. Apparently she didn’t understand because she started to frantically swim away. Then he took us down a little farther. He picked up a giant clam and handed it to me. It was really heavy. The outside was white and the inside was blue and speckled. When I put my hand near the opening it quickly closed up then slowly opened. When he tried handing the clam to Jill it almost caused me to drown because I was laughing so hard. She was trying to hang onto the rope with one hand so when he put the clam in her other hand she started to tip over. It was so funny looking because the whole thing was in slow motion. She really couldn’t balance enough to stay upright and hold the clam. It took about three tries for her to get it. Finally he made her use two hands. I had to look away because I kept laughing and getting water in my mouth. After the whole clam fiasco Heath swam down and got a sea cucumber. Jill held it first and then he threw it to me like football. He pointed out its mouth and its bum. That also made me laugh. We swam on and found a small red star fish. He placed it on my hand. When I went to give it back it was suctioned to my hand. I had to shake it off and it left a few legs behind. Next he swam me down to an anemone. There were little orange fish in it. When I touched it, it felt like rubber. From there we were able to let go of the rope and swim on our own. This was much nicer. I took a lot of pictures. We saw a lot of different kinds of fish. The only ones I really knew were the Hardy fish and the Parrot fish. You could hear them scraping the algae off the reef. We even got pretty close to the giant Grouper. It was the most amazing experience. On our way back to the top he brought us into the open water, held our hands and pulled us along. When we climbed back out of the water our tanks seemed to weigh a ton. I had to pull myself up the stairs trying very hard not to fall over. We were freezing and it was time to get back on the boat to go home. Jill and I got a certificate. Now I have scuba fever and I can’t wait to go again.

When we got back to the hotel they had decorated our dinning area with red, white and blue balloons that we bought. After dinner we brought the kids by the pool and played Independence Day trivia. Then we all lit sparklers and sang the national anthem. I think all of the kids enjoyed it. Some of them thanked us. I know I had fun. It was my favorite day of the trip by far!

und viele weitere andere Freunde von Nemo unter Wasser. Ich habe die letzten 3 Tage auf dem Ozean verbracht bzw. eher im Ozean (11 Tauchgaenge in 2 1/2 Tagen) und jetzt wo ich vor dem Computer sitze habe ich ziemlich schwierigkeiten meine augen gerade zu halten, weil ich das gefuehl habe, dass sich noch alles unter mir bewegt.
aber es war ein absolut tolles erlebnis. ich wuerde fast sagen, das beste der ganzen australien reise. los ging es freitag morgen ganz frueh, um dort schon die ersten 4 Tauchgaenge zu machen. Nach dem ersten hat mich und Alicia ein Tauchlehrer gefragt, warum wir nicht die Chance nutzen und unseren Open Water Diver erweitern zum Advanced Open Water Diver. Warum nicht?! Also haben wir uns ueberreden lassen die fuenf speziellen Tauchgaenge zu machen und ein paar Fragen in einem Lehrbuch auszufuellen, um am Ende nun als Advanced Open Water Diver dazustehen. Unter anderem waren da Deep Water Diving, Navigation und Photografie dabei. Die Fotos,die ich mit der UNterwasserkamera gemacht haben zeigen noch nicht mal annaehernd wie schoen das great barrier reef ist. bei 26 metern tiefe sieht man dann nur noch blau und eine rote cola dose erscheint braun bis schwarz, aber man kann daraus trinken in 26 metern tiefe. also hab ich einen tiefen schluck cola erst mal genommen als wir am grund angekommen sind.
gesehen habe ich neben nemo, schildkroeten, riffhaie und jede menge andere fische in allen formen und farben. nicht zu vergessen die ganze flora da unten, die so schoene farben aufweist. einfach die fotos anschauen und ins schwaermen kommen ;)

I get up blearey-eyed at 7, and amazingly am washed, dressed and outside the foyer at five to 8, waiting for the 8.00am courtesy bus to Reef Fleet Terminal. This is a building the other side of the big car park from where the Greyhound dropped me off, and it's completely dedicated to Reef tour operators. Right next door is the marina where all the boats are waiting. I go and check in with Reef Magic and am given a pass to take to the boat and a sticker with my first name on that some girl plants on my t-shirt. I saunter down to the boat, give in my pass and then have my photo taken with a "Reef Magic" lifesaver ring around my neck. I don't think I'll bother buying that one. The boat itself is really nice, lots of room to sit or walk around. Apparently they never book to capacity as they like their passengers to feel comfortable and enjoy the entire day. That said there are still plenty of passengers, both upstairs in the open air seating area and down here where I am sat, in front of the bar area. There are video screens showing a dvd of the reef. We are given a safety demonstration, a brief talk by a marine biologist and also shown how to use the scuba gear and recognise hand signals. The crew also go around the passengers trying to sign them up to the various extras like diving, a guided snorkel tour and the helicopter ride. A first dive is $90 while 5 minutes in the helicopter is $75. I personally am quite happy with just the snorkelling and the semi-submersible. One of them comes round to sign me up and I simply tell him I have no money left for extras and will be going back to Sydney soon to get a job; no one bothers me after that. As the boat leaves the marina I head over to the bar and pay $6 for a wetsuit hire voucher and $5 hire and $100 credit card deposit imprint for my prescription snorkel mask; it's minus 6 which is the strongest they have, not quite matching my retarded minus 8 but I can see fairly well out of it.
The boat pulls away heading for Marine World and I have the worst most chopiest and rocking (in a bad way) boat ride I have ever experienced. I haven't had any breakfast which makes it worse but it really is awful. I listen to my mp3 player, stare straight ahead and count down the minutes until it's over, clutching hold of the seat in front of me in a bid to keep a tenuous grip on reality. Finally we reach the Marine World platform; I pick up my backpack, go to the bar and stuff two of the free small morning tea cakes in my gob, and get off this blasted boat. The tide is strong at this time of the morning and the stable platform isn't entirely living up to it's name, but it's still a lot better than the boat. I sit down on a stone bench and slowly start to feel better. The best thing is to keep active, I'm not quite ready for snorkelling just yet so I go straight over to the semi-submersible which has it's first trip just minutes after we arrive. There's only a few of us on this one, most of the other passengers are heading straight into the water. I climb down into the sub; there is a small walkway with lots of square windows on either side. You can see the moorings of the platform and lots of these big grey fish swimming past. The seats are hinged platforms which fold up when not in use and then come down to go right across the width of the walkway, from wall to wall. We sit down, the sub is rocking like the boat and I can't wait for it to move off. A mother is down here with a loud crying baby and my sickness is getting worse again. Finally we start to move, and staring out the windows I start to feel better. The trip is only about twenty minutes but I see lots of the reef and loads of bright colourful fish. I take a few photos but because of the lack of light reaching the camera (or just my camera) the colours don't come through as well as they should; it is so vibrant down here.
My sub trip over I get back on the platform and go along to the viewing observatory. It's okay but is really just like being on the sub and having it not move. I decide it's time to experience the reef the way it's meant to be seen; in the water. I go and cash in my voucher; there are two choices, either an all over Lycra suit to keep the sun off and guard against stingers or a shorter wet suit to keep warm and aid bouyancy. There is no point in the Lycra suit; for a start it's in bright pink. Secondly, stinger season is over and thirdly, the sun is hidden by what looks suspiciously like raincloud and it's not actually very hot. I choose the wetsuit; blatantly the best choice as it will keep me warm and help me to float and not have to do too much work to stay stationery while I stare at fishies.
I go into one of the platform changing rooms and clambour into my wetsuit. It's really odd as there is only one leg hole; the second is formed when you actually zip it up. I even wonder for a couple of minutes if I've been given a defective suit with a design fault and spend a good few moments opening it up and hunting in vain for the elusive second leg opening. I've never worn a wetsuit before and it feels super tight yet strangely comfortable. I put my prescription mask on, trot down the stairs and get straight it the water. I haven't used a snorkel for years but this one I've been given is really good and never lets the water in. I put my face below the surface and start to breathe. What I see is completely worth every cent of the $175 and now I see what I missed at the Whitsundays. Maybe it's especially because of the private cordoned off area exclusive to Marine World, but the coral gardens I'm looking at are breathtaking. It's like actually being part of an episode of Blue Planet; there are so many different types of coral, of every colour of the rainbow. And so bright; the colours burn your retinas at every turn. And the fish! Oh the fish! Everywhere you look the reef is teeming with life, neon blue fish chew bits of the coral while great shoals of striped black and white zebra fish (my name for them) swim around you, so close you reach out to touch but they are too quick and dart off. The wetsuit is perfect and keeps me floating floating with just the most minute wave of my hands, and I glide effortlessly over this living Atlantis. The Great Barrier Reef is apparently the world's largest living organism, so large you can see it from space, and I feel really priviledged to be here. After this I am officially a snorkelling convert and addict; I don't want to get out of the water. I find the breathing really easy, the snorkel is well designed and unlike others I've used it's not tiring to keep the mouthpiece in for long periods. I even keep it in when I surface, just to check where I am. There is quite a large area that we are allowed to snorkel in but I generally don't go too far, as there is plenty to see near the jumping-off platform. The coral rises so high some of it is actually out of the sea. I swim between two large pieces, traversing a mini underwater canyon. Passing through this gives way to even more strange looking coral, flat on the sea bed like lots of differant individual plants, with more brightly coloured fish sheltering and feeding. While I am out there I bump into the ship's photographer, who is snorkelling with an underwater camera. She gives me a very spongy orange sea cucumber to hold and snaps my photo while I give a cheery thumbs up.
At 12.30 I get out and have a really nice buffet lunch, which is included in the price. I keep my wetsuit on and after a short wait, enough to let my food go down, I head on over and get ready to go back in. However I have to wait as they are doing a fish feeding session from the submersed snorkel platform. The fish rush in to grab the food as soon as it hits the water; one of them is truly massive, one of the biggest fish I have ever seen. I believe this is Wally; he seems to live here and some of the other passengers managed to get their photos taken snorkelling and stroking him. Finally the feeding session is over and I get back in and snorkel snorkel snorkel, only getting back out to use the boat toilets (if everyone is snorkeling it's going to be very obvious if you decide to piss in the sea). I don't want to get out, it's so easy in this wetsuit and with this prescription mask I can see everything so well. I keep an eye on the time with my waterproof watch and get out and get changed at 3.00pm. The boat leaves at 3.30pm and this time we have a much nicer 90 minute journey back. The photos are out; I choose what I believe is the best one she snapped of me with the sea cucumber. It is $15 for either a print or a cd; I choose the cd option because I'd rather have a digital copy that I can use digitally and also make my own print should I choose to. To be honest, if they're going to be wasting a whole cd on just one jpeg I really don't see why they can't put all the photos they snapped of you on the same cd for the same price; it's a bit tight if you ask me. But anyway, I wanted at least one underwater photo of me and the reef and it's a keeper. The boat arrives back at Reef Fleet Terminal at 5.00pm; I hotfoot it to Lake Street and manage to get the 5.10 courtesy bus back to the hotel. Awesome day out, will stay with me forever and I can't wait to snorkel again!

If you happen to visit Australia you have to make your way up to Cairns, the gateway to the great barrier reef. I took a PADI certification course and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Diving at the Great Barrier Reef was unreal...like you're on a different planet. I met so many fabulous people from all over the world. If you don't like to scuba, at least go snorkeling for a couple days. I went on a liveaboard boat for 5 days, and it was a great experience!!!

As usual 6am start, a quick breakfast and out on the dive. The first dive was a pinnacle (Pixie Pinnacle) and again because it's a vertical thing probably not so appropriate for snorkelling but I just didn't care. With permission from Kylie I jumped back in the water – I’ve got the snorkelling bug!

I borrowed Loren's underwater camera since he wasn't using it but because I couldn't get down close enough to anything the photos were pretty rubbish apart from the two or three things that ventured close enough to me. It was still fun floating over the pinnacle though. When you slow down you can see loads of things, and most exiciting of all I saw a turtle (though was spluttering into my snorkel at the time so failed to get a piccy) and some clown fish flitting around their anenome home! I think I also saw Sixspot Rockcod, Gold and Blue Fusiliers (or Red-Bellied Fusiliers, I'm not sure), Teira Batfish and again, many types of Butterfly Fish.

I missed the second dive too (Lighthouse Bommie) because it was very deep so I wouldn't be able to see anything, but dive 3 was along a long shallow ribbon reef called Dynamite Pass so lots to explore! This is one of the only safe places to pass through the reef so it was seeded with dynamite to discourage pirates back in the day!

Arriving at the reef at first you don't notice the fish but when you get closer the wall of coral suddenly become arrayed with colour and teaming with small swimming life. I wanted to explore far left to right with the current like the divers, but the captain recommended heading straight out to the right into a little sandy reef bay. This was pretty cool as we were completely surrounded by 3 walls of beautiful colours and fish and protected from the current so we could look around at our leisure.

I only wish I could name all I have seen these few days, but when some look so similar but for a differentiating spot on the tailfin or latticing on the body instead of stripes, it is hard to remember what they look like exactly, not to mention the possibility of seeing a juvenile which may look quite different. Later in the evening, looking at the reference books I identified a few more I hadn't identified from the whole 3 days and additionally I think I saw BlackTail Humbug, White-tailed Razorfish, Racoon Butterfly fish, Lattice Butterfly Fish, Pacific Basslet, Giant Grouper, Big-Eye Trevally, Yellow Damselfish and many Fusiliers.

By dive 4 we were aching and knackered and decided to call it a day despite the promises of lots of sea snakes to see at Snake Pass. The bit that hurts most is the top of your foot to the shin where you push against the water - not a muscle that gets a lot of use usually!

That evening we anchored in a bay near Lizard Island, the first time we have moored near land since we left harbour. We enjoyed a barbecue out on the sundeck and finally indulged in some beer and wine after abstaining for dive reasons for 3 days! It was great chatting to everyone and saying thank you to the crew.

I quizzed magnificent 22 year old chef Tyson, as to how he managed to feed 30 odd people 4 or 5 times a day in such a tiny kitchen. Apparently he rises at 4am and schedules his preparation and cooking around the dive schedule which is subject to change right up till that moment because of weather. He prepares what he can when he can and grabs half hour kip while we're out diving, but if we're in a current and the boat is rolling, it's pretty difficult to bake or roast dinner! His cooking is even more impressive given the difficult circumstances.

Also I quizzed Ali, who I had not had the opportunity to cross paths with, but had been intriguing me because of some large round scars on her legs looking rather like shark bites to me! I finally plucked up the (dutch) courage to ask her and she explained that 10 years ago she'd been thrown off a cliff in a motorcyle accident and broken her back, pelvis, legs, neck, arms, fingers and ribs - all in all about 30 bones and the scars were the grafts. Amazing she walked away from it (albeit 18 months later...!)

We sat on deck enjoying some great steak, chicken and barracuda (emu, koala and alligator for the gullible ones), drinking wine and watching the fish show off the back of the boat as they swam around in our light. We even saw a couple of giant sharks swim beneath the boat!

We traveled throughout the night to the next dive area. On the top deck we suffer less noise from the engines but more of the roll, so we woke up several times in the night, at first with nightmares and intense dreams of speeding in fast cars through dangerous crossings and on boats in a storm with stomach-losing swell but later just with other crazy dreams.

We finally got up around 6am for the first of many meals, cold breakfast of fruit and cereal before the dive started just after sunrise. Sadly I wasn't permitted to dive this time (at the Cod Hole) owing to a strong current so I waited for Andy to return for hot breakfast (bacon, eggs, spaghetti, ratatuille, toast with promite and vegemite - no marmite! Promite tastes like Bovril so it will have to do....).

Similarly dive 2 was around pinnacles (Two Towers) so Kylie recommended that we would be unlikely to see much since the real exciting stuff would be on the vertical plane not the surface horizontal so we sat it out again. I didn't feel so pleased when Andy returned enthusing about the surface turtle and reef sharks they had seen and how it was his favourite site so far! Still, I would probably have cakked my wetsuit had I seen a shark anyway...

Thankfully Andy hired an underwater camera for the day so he could take lots of photos of the exciting things we can see! His first dive he didn't know to have the 'red filter' on to stop the blueness of the photos so you can't always see the fishs' colours but his photos are excellent anyway.

The 3rd dive was the 'Cod Feed' and although the initial swim against the current to the site was pretty exhausting, we joined the divers from above as they sat on the sea floor feeding pilchard to some red seabass and 2 giant maori wrasse which are half human sized! Here I saw a wonderful shoal of Oriental Sweet Lips, Gar fish, Sea Cucumbers, Hump-Headed Bat Fish, Angel Fish, Smooth Flutemouth, Spotted Rockcod, Potato Cod, Footballer Cod, Red Bass, Bluefin (or possibly blac) Trevally, Butterfly fish (several kinds), Blunthead Wrasse, some pearly fish I don't know, Lion Fish and lots of others, more than we could identify.

The 4th dive was in the ley of a long reef (Challenger Bay) so there was very little current and lots to see! Kylie took the other 2 snorkellers out who had so far sat out owing to being weaker swimmers and troubles with wetsuits and snorkels. I had been snorkelling with the help of Kylie and a life buoy which we had both been holding to keep together but this time I could explore on my own and I had an amazing time zooming around like a little mermaid!

The only downside to not being with Kylie was not being able to identify all I saw but I will try with a guide book to list them all. I saw so many types of black and yellow fish! It was impossible committing to memory each of their differences in terms of shape and fin spots etc. I swam for about an hour, happy to be 'off the leash' and explored all up and down the reef, often shadowing Andy and Clay in the hope of seeing some of the cool stuff they saw. Eventually I headed back to the boat and ran out of energy about 10m away but managed to get myself on board!

The rest of the afternoon I sat in the sun reading and covering myself in sun cream, though I still managed to get a little burnt. Dinner was rack of lamb and was followed by the 5th dive, a night dive also at Challenger Bay. I couldn't go on this and Andy was meant to (the same reef as we'd been on but at night) but after doing 4 dives in a day and wanting wine with dinner (you can't dive for 8 hours after alcohol) he decided to miss it. Dessert was meant to be served after the dive but we came back to the room and fell asleep fully clothed on the bed!

Day two of our stay in Cairns started off in a hurry.  After a wonderfully filling breakfast sans vegemite at the hotel, we sprinted off to the wharf and boarded the Big Cat, our catamaran sailing vessel that would whisk us off to Green Island in just an hour. 

Green Island is the stepping off point for many reef adventures including glass bottom boats, semi-subs, snorkeling, scuba diving, parasailing, helicopter tours, eco-tours, and relaxing on the sunny beach.  Chris and I elected to snorkel and ride the semi-sub -- a boat that allows you to sit below the waterline and view the coral and other wildlife -- while Miller elected to avoid the wonderfully warm water (remember, it is late fall here) and instead rode the glass bottom boat. The semi-sub -- called the Yellow Submarine -- was our first activity.  Along the way, the guide identified over a dozen species of hard and soft corals, none of which I could recall by name, but I do know which ones to avoid touching.  The colors of the fish are beyond anything I ever imagined.  It’s as if these fish were painted with a completely different color spectrum.  Their scales appeared to radiate orange, blue, and green light. 

While Chris and I were snorkeling we saw a two-colored parrot fish swim right in front of our eyes.  Except it’s not two colors.  Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, all were clearly visible.  Absolutely amazing.  Also along the way we found clams wedged within the coral -- which really looked like these blue mouths coming out of a rock -- along with a starfish and sea cucumber.  Sea cucumbers are apparently a delicacy in Asia where they are dried and then eaten.  They are also rumored to be an aphrodisiac, but I didn’t try it out.  We were allowed to touch some coral called spaghetti coral, which has this really feathery consistent at its tips and then feels like slimy play-dough the further you reached in.  Miller, on the other hand, was as happy as a bug in a rug with his glass bottom boat tour, which included a feeding frenzy when food pellets were thrown into the water, thus attracting hundreds of hungry fishes. 

Overall the experience was absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to come back to explore it another time.  (Note from Chris: I have never professed to be any kind of athlete, particularly in the water.  Today was no exception.  The reef bit and scraped me, thanks to low tide, but I still made it back to shore in one piece.  Although I will not be teaching snorkeling classes any time soon, I’m glad Sheldon drug me along and tolerated my spits and sputters.  Everyone should come here and see this amazing corner of the globe.)

This evening the three of us explored the nightlife of Cairns and were surprised to find dozens of odd stores in an eclectic underground style marketplace not completely unlike Underground Atlanta.  We also enjoyed more gelato and the sights and smells of the amazing restaurants. 

Tomorrow we fly 3 hours to the Outback to view the Olgas and Uluru (Ayers Rock) at sunset.  Stay tuned for more updates!

-Sheldon

PS. Things that are different “down under”…

1. The water really does go down the drain the other way.
2. Driving on the wrong side of the road is scary!
3. The money is plastic-y and very colorful…and is transparent in places.
4. Vegemite.