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Great Barrier Reef

Awesome. First off, here is a picture of the view from our hotel room at sunrise. Like I said, absolutely gorgeous.

So we left early this morning and headed to the piers where we got on the boat. Off we went to the outer reef, about 35km off the coast of Port Douglas which is, I don't know, about 40km north of Cairns. The boat ride out there was about an hour and 20 minutes and it was somewhat choppy and rough. My sister felt queasy the entire way out there and there was about 10 minutes or so towards the end when I was hanging over the edge ready to uh... expel. I was able to hold it back though and we finally got there much to the relief of both of us.

I signed up for an introduction to reef diving so I and a few other people took a brief class and then suited up. We had to get in the water and hold on to a rope that extended from the boat to the floor of the first level of the reef. We had to descend down the rope with an instructor and do some exercises to ensure we knew what we were doing and could handle an emergency. And then we got to the floor about 10m below the surface. It was gorgeous.

The first dive was very quick for me. I take deep breaths, evidently, and used up most of my air descending to the floor and doing exercises. But then the boat moved on to a second dive site and everybody went back out. My instructor asked if I wanted to dive again (as opposed to going snorkeling, which is what my sister did) and of course, I very much wanted to go again. This time she had nobody else to attend to, so it was just her and I. It was awesome. We got down to 10m fairly quickly and then the two of us swam around that upper edge of the reef and it was amazing. She also gave me a bigger air tank so I could last longer down there. The whole time I was swimming around down there, I just kept thinking, "I'm SCUBA diving at the Great Barrier Reef! Jesusfuck, I'm fucking awesome!"

This is a picture of an anemone with some fish living inside of it. From what I was told, clown fish - and only clown fish - live in anemone (and in fact, only clown fish can touch an anemone without getting stung). Clown fish are distinctive in that they have three white, vertical stripes on their bodies. These fish do not have that. So I'm not sure what they are exactly, but there they are, living in the anemone.

My instructor would pick things up from time to time and hand them to me to look at and feel. Then she picked up a seastar and put it on my head and took a picture. I just know she was laughing at me through her regulator.

I went diving a third time with her, but the third time there was also three other chinese kids who were not at all good divers, even for being beginners, and so she had to attend to them very closely. They were all touching the coral (which you're not supposed to do. It disturbs the delicate environment) and descending and ascending when they weren't supposed to. Very annoying. So I just kind of swam around looking at everything I could; reminding myself that I was diving at the reef.

Experienced divers dive at depths of anywhere between 15m and 40m (or deeper yet, I'm sure) so my going down only 10m is definitely very "beginner," but it was still great. I guess at lower depths there are larger and more colorful fish. Sometimes reef sharks. Other such things. I'll be certified before I go diving again, I'm sure.

Posted by Mike at May 31, 2006 07:45 AM