"The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef formation on the planet and in it you can find the greatest variety of coral reefs. There live 400 species of coral, 1 500 types of fish and 4 000 kinds of mollusks. As it is 2000 kilometers long, it is also the largest formation made by living creatures. Only from the air one can fully appreciate its size, and as far as its beauty and details are concerned – you should see it underwater. Some people put it among the seven wonders of the natural world – it is larger than the Great Wall of China and is the only organic thing which can be seen from the moon."
Just wanted to give you a little background on the GBR (Great Barrier Reef) before I go into my adventure details. I left Brisbane very early on Thursday the 29th of October uber early and was lucky that Ben graciously offered to take me to the airport before he and Katie went to work. It's a quick 2.5 hour flight up the coast and after a little sleep I was here. I was a little shocked that not one person asked to see my ID at any point, but I guess that just the American in me still scared from 9/11. Anyway, the hostel I had booked, Caravella, had an airport pick-up service and they scooped me up and took me back to my home for the week. Everyone there again was super nice and I was quickly checked in and go all the details on the dive course with Pro-Dive that started the next morning.
I headed for a walk around town and to find some grub before laying out at the lagoon on Cairns Esplanade. I met an American girl from California while we were sunning and we met up for dinner at a good little Thai restaurant and browsed around the night markets. The markets here in Australia really are plentiful and cheap. A great place to find locally made gifts and Aussie themed gifts. They also had tons of super cheap massage places. $15 for a 40 minute message, so I guess wine isn't the only cheap thing in Oz!
On Friday our dive course started at the training center here in Cairns. We lucked out and got an awesome instructor, Dan and a great class. We spent two days at the Pro-Dive training center in the water and in the class room.
On day three we were picked up early to leave on ScubaPro 3 for our 3 day/2 night diving trip. We we got to the wharf and saw the boat we were all very excited and pleasantly surprised. We were introduced to the crew and immediately fed a delicious breakfast before our 3 hour trip to the Great Barrier Reef.
When we arrived at our first dive location our instructor gave us quick briefing of the skills we were going to cover and what we might see. At this point we were 4 dives away from certification and had to be able to execute the skills we learned in the pool under water. I was so excited and nervous for my first actual dive. We geared up, moved to the back of the boat and jumped in. I was telling my mom that the first time I jumped in I kept telling myself that there was no way they were going to let me die, so I needn't worry. After my jump off the boat, we headed down a decent rope to about 10 meters on the ocean floor. So amazing! It is truly impossible to describe the feeling of actually breathing underwater and is a must do for all of your "bucket lists".
We did 3 dives the first day and were served food every time we came out of the water. Literally, we had breakfast, lunch, dinner, cakes, breads, snacks, etc. Our chef on the boat, Adrian, was from France and everything he served was magnificent! And he and the rest of the crew from the boat were just so nice and surpassed my expectations ten-fold! After dinner everyone would relax either on the upper deck and stargaze or in the lounge and have drink before heading to bed early in anticipation of the next mornings dive.
The second day we were up early for our dive and only 2 dives left until we were certified! Now I have to tell you that although my class was fun and I made some great friends on the boat, I had some difficulty with my dive buddies. Now for those of you don't dive, every time you go you are supposed to have a dive buddy to keep an eye out for another and ensure your safety underwater. It is s great system, except when you end up with my dive buddies. Since I was doing the class solo, I got paired with the other two solo people in our class. And let me tell you one dive is plenty to deal with underwater, especially when one was constantly having difficulties underwater or floating to the surface and the other was a 19 year old boy who couldn't seem to pay attention to what he was supposed to be doing. They were both really good people and fun to be around, but I couldn't wait to be certified and be able to actually enjoy my dives!
After our second dive we were all certified divers and on our next dive Dan wouldn't be going with us and we were on our own! They are so concerned with safety at Pro-Dive that I never worried at all about going on our own. The first dive on our own was so fun and Cole, one of my dive buddies, took some awesome underwater photos which are posted on FB, but I'll put some of the best ones below. We did get a little lost and some of the people in our group had to surface so we could find our way back to the boat. Let's just say our underwater navigation skills need some work.
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| Ralf and I in the dive area of the boat |
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| Giving the OK signal to my dive buddy |
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| Giant Clams! My favorite thing to see underwater... |
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| Just hanging around |
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| Sea turtle munching on algae |
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| Me! |
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| School of Trumpet Fish |
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| Grey Tip Reef Sharl |
On the third and final day we were in the water by 6:30am for our first dive and had another perfect day! We were allowed three dives that day, but I enjoyed a snorkel on our last dive instead. We headed back in from the reef at lunch time and it was really sad that three days passed so quickly. It really was the time of my life and an experience I will never forget. On the way home, Vivian and I went up to the wheel house to catch up with Jeff and he let her actually drive the boat which was really cool. Later he would admit that he did that so he could talk to me, but more about that in the next blog.....
We arrived at the wharf and were shuttled back to our hostels to get ready for a night out with our crew and the passengers who had become our friends on the boat.......
I will continue this story in the next blog, but right now I am back in Brisbane and need to finish my laundry, pack up my things and make some phone calls since I have decided I want to live and work in Cairns. Yesterday before I flew back to Brissy I was offered to working interviews and I also think I found and awesome share house to live in up there! I am super excited and will finish the story from the rest of my trip in my Cairns blog sequel!
Life is so very good in Australia! If you haven't been buy a ticket and coming diving, you WILL NOT regret it I promise!
All my love to my friends and family in the States!
Cheryl
1 comment:
Just know catching up!! I know!! So awesome- so proud of you for doing this C. This was a great post- loved the pics.
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