Wednesday September 29, 2010

Wednesday morning we got up around 6 because we had to be at our dive boat by 7. Upon arriving at the dive boat we got some lovely, sleepy pictures taken of us (dive boats have on board photographers constantly taking pictures). We then had to fill out some paper work before we were able to leave and head out to the reef. Prior to leaving we were also assigned our guide, who I must note, looked freakishly like Mark with sideburns. He even acted like him; it was quite strange. Anyway, we could not have been luckier with the day we decided to go diving. The currents, winds and weather were so perfect that we got the opportunity to go out to Pellowes Reef, the furthest possible reef we could go to, which they are only able to make it to about once a year. For those of you who don’t know, the further out on the reef you can go, the better because it means it’s been less disturbed by humans. On the trip out to the reef we had to review a few things about diving with our guide and we also got to learn about what makes the Great Barrier Reef so great. Obviously it’s mostly due to the fact that it’s so massive, but I don’t think most people realize just how incredible it is that the reef got to the size it is given how long it actually takes coral to grow. Personally I think that in order to understand what’s so amazing about the Great Barrier Reef you just have to see it. The ride out to Pellowes took around 1.5 to 2 hours, but it was well worth the trip. Immediately after arriving we got into the water and began our guided dive. As it is diving is an incredible experience, let alone diving the Great Barrier Reef. You’re really in a whole new world when you’re diving; everything is so foreign to you and it’s so majestic that the wildlife just seems so undisturbed. Throughout the course of the day we went on three dives. The first two were in the morning at a reef that didn’t even have a name because so few people got to dive there. On those two dives we saw a huge assortment of fish from Nemo’s to Gill’s to Dory’s to parrot fish to barracudas and a shark. I would say at least 95% of the things I saw I have no idea what they’re called, but either way I’ve never seen so many fish before. The coral was also indescribable. There were both soft and hard coral in all colors, and near the surface the sun would reflect off the coral making it sparkle. Like I said, you have to see the GBR to understand why it’s called the GBR. After our second dive we ate the delicious lunch they provided for us while we moved to Thetford reef for our third dive. I don’t think I mentioned this earlier, but one of the nicest things about the trip was that we didn’t have to prepare any of our equipment; they did everything for us, which if you know anything about diving is really nice. Anyway, on our dive at Thetford reef our guide took us through a maze of coral caverns. Before anyone asks, yes the caverns were actually made entirely of coral. I’m not entirely sure how to describe the experience, but I think the best way is to just say that we were surrounded by coral. If we looked left, right or even if we rolled over to look above us we could just see coral. In all of this coral was a huge assortment of fish. In the more open areas we would see fish below us, roll ourselves over and see schools of fish above us. We were just surrounded by underwater wildlife. It was similar to the butterfly colony, but underwater. On this dive we also found three white tip sharks. White tips are just a small reef shark that are pretty scared of humans because we’re bigger than them, so m and d don’t worry, they wouldn’t harm us. Our guide brought an empty water bottle with him that he started crackling to attract the sharks. Apparently the vibrations from the water bottle are so unique to them that they are completely intrigued and will approach you. This allowed us to play with the sharks for a little while, which was unbelievable. I’m not entirely certain which dives we did what on, but throughout all of them we got to play with different underwater life forms. During the course of the day I ended up holding a sea star, different types of sea cucumbers, I played with an anemone, touched all different types of coral, played with giant clams, and played with Christmas tree coral. The whole experience was surreal. After our third dive, they brought us back to shore, and while on the trip back we filled out our dive logs with our guide. Upon returning it was almost dinnertime, so we headed back to our hostel and got some dinner. We also met our hostel roommates who just so happened to be students studying abroad at UQ and going on the same tour as us the next day. What are the odds of that? Later that night we met up with some of our other friends from UQ who also happened to be in Cairns for break and got some gelato/hung out together for a while. Once again we ended up having a fairly early night since we had to be up early again the next day for our whitewater rafting tour.