Great Barrier Reef
In Cairns in the morning we mulled over the myriad options for scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We were told that the weather was pretty rough which put us off a multi-day boat trip. In the end we booked a day trip on a smaller boat and just did 2 dives.
It was a very rough journey, and we were thoroughly soaked before we even got in the water. I was almost flung off my bench a couple of times and a lot of barf bags were being used around me.
The first dive was pretty dull compared to other dives we have done in terms of fish and coral, but it was our first unaccompanied dive which added some excitement. At the end of the dive we weren't sure how close to the boat we would be, and when we surfaced we couldn't see it anywhere on the horizon which is pretty worrying until you turn around and discover the boat is right behind you.
After lunch we rinsed scraps from our plates behind the boat and an enormous Giant Travelli appeared to gobble them up. It was about 4 feet long.
The second dive had some cool, narrow swim-throughs between walls of coral which I liked and we saw an enormous giant clam. I was still a bit disappointed by how few fish there were - but we have been told that many of the reefs close to Cairns are so over-visited that the fish have been scared off. Or perhaps we are just spoilt now from the diving in Asia.
We have just two weeks left on the trip now, so I am starting to think about the return home. In many ways, it will be wonderful to sleep under the same roof for a while, but at the same time I'm sad the end of my wanderings is almost over at least for now.
It was a very rough journey, and we were thoroughly soaked before we even got in the water. I was almost flung off my bench a couple of times and a lot of barf bags were being used around me.
The first dive was pretty dull compared to other dives we have done in terms of fish and coral, but it was our first unaccompanied dive which added some excitement. At the end of the dive we weren't sure how close to the boat we would be, and when we surfaced we couldn't see it anywhere on the horizon which is pretty worrying until you turn around and discover the boat is right behind you.
After lunch we rinsed scraps from our plates behind the boat and an enormous Giant Travelli appeared to gobble them up. It was about 4 feet long.
The second dive had some cool, narrow swim-throughs between walls of coral which I liked and we saw an enormous giant clam. I was still a bit disappointed by how few fish there were - but we have been told that many of the reefs close to Cairns are so over-visited that the fish have been scared off. Or perhaps we are just spoilt now from the diving in Asia.
We have just two weeks left on the trip now, so I am starting to think about the return home. In many ways, it will be wonderful to sleep under the same roof for a while, but at the same time I'm sad the end of my wanderings is almost over at least for now.
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