Thomas and I went on the most amazing diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef, with Cairns Dive Centre.
On the first day the small boat, Sunkist, took us out to the reef, which was about 90 minutes out of Cairns. We then boarded the Kangaroo Explorer, our home for the next two nights. The Kangaroo Explorer was a surprise, considering how much money we spent for the trip (which wasn't a lot). Thomas and I had our own en-suite cabin, the food (which didn't cost extra) was fantastic. We stuffed our faces at every meal. On the top deck was 'The Library', where the ship's crazy videographer, Simon, edited all the films he made of everyone on the ship. The ship was a good base to explore the wonders of the ocean below.
And there really were wonders to see down there. Once again, one of Australia's greatest landmarks lived up to its reputation! The water was so warm, it felt like we were in a bath most of the time! The coral itself was beautiful, and so varied, and amongst these were some of the most incredible fish ever. A myriad of shapes, colours and sizes, the fish were captivating. I loved the Giant Clams. These clams were hundreds of years old, and the largest were a couple of metres wide. Their flesh was brightly coloured, owing to the bacteria that live underneath their skin. The parrot fish were also awesome, with their various colours and sizes.
The most memorable moment was when we saw a turtle. On one of our day dives, Simon came down with our group to film us, and he told us to dipserse around him so he could film us. Then I noticed everyone crowding round one point, and there was a turtle. She was loving all the attention as we scratched the back of her shell. It was a great experience.
We found Nemo! Clownfish were everywhere on the reef, and there's an interesating fact about them which Disney and Pixar conveniently left out of Finding Nemo. In their anemone (which the fish live in in exchange for keeping it clean), there's one female with a few males. When the female dies the largest and strongest male changes its sex to become the new female! (imagine explaining that to five year olds!).
We did see sharks, but as they're incredibly fast swimmers, and they're terrified of people and the bubbles from our underwater breathing, those we did see swam away within a few minutes of us spotting them.
While on the boat, Thomas and I did our advanced course. This involved, amongst other things, a deep dive. We went down to about 25m and sat there, while our insructor gave us some simple questions to see if we were narked or not (when you dive deep, the nitrogen in the iar ou breath can make you 'drunk'). He took down an empty plastic bottle with him to show how much pressure there was down at that depth (the bottle was completely squashed flat!) We also had to use a compass to navigate, learn how to identify fish and we did some photography too.
As part of our course, and also just for fun, we also went on night dives. This was an interesting experience, being down there with a torch swimming into the darkness. Despite being told that there would be a lot of interesting stuff down there, but where we dived was just bad. On the first night dive, all we saw were Red Bass, which are about a metre long and are the main predators at night. If you shone your torch on a little fish, chances were that a Red Bass would zoom over and eat it. Thomas had great fun shining his torch on fish and seeing them get eaten, but of course he would enjoy seeing innocent creatures being killed, being German :P.
It was very hectic schedule with 10 dives over the space of three days. By noon each day we'd already been diving twice and had breakfast! It was really exhausting, buch it was such a great experience. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the must see things in Australia!
On the first day the small boat, Sunkist, took us out to the reef, which was about 90 minutes out of Cairns. We then boarded the Kangaroo Explorer, our home for the next two nights. The Kangaroo Explorer was a surprise, considering how much money we spent for the trip (which wasn't a lot). Thomas and I had our own en-suite cabin, the food (which didn't cost extra) was fantastic. We stuffed our faces at every meal. On the top deck was 'The Library', where the ship's crazy videographer, Simon, edited all the films he made of everyone on the ship. The ship was a good base to explore the wonders of the ocean below.
And there really were wonders to see down there. Once again, one of Australia's greatest landmarks lived up to its reputation! The water was so warm, it felt like we were in a bath most of the time! The coral itself was beautiful, and so varied, and amongst these were some of the most incredible fish ever. A myriad of shapes, colours and sizes, the fish were captivating. I loved the Giant Clams. These clams were hundreds of years old, and the largest were a couple of metres wide. Their flesh was brightly coloured, owing to the bacteria that live underneath their skin. The parrot fish were also awesome, with their various colours and sizes.The most memorable moment was when we saw a turtle. On one of our day dives, Simon came down with our group to film us, and he told us to dipserse around him so he could film us. Then I noticed everyone crowding round one point, and there was a turtle. She was loving all the attention as we scratched the back of her shell. It was a great experience.
We found Nemo! Clownfish were everywhere on the reef, and there's an interesating fact about them which Disney and Pixar conveniently left out of Finding Nemo. In their anemone (which the fish live in in exchange for keeping it clean), there's one female with a few males. When the female dies the largest and strongest male changes its sex to become the new female! (imagine explaining that to five year olds!).We did see sharks, but as they're incredibly fast swimmers, and they're terrified of people and the bubbles from our underwater breathing, those we did see swam away within a few minutes of us spotting them.
While on the boat, Thomas and I did our advanced course. This involved, amongst other things, a deep dive. We went down to about 25m and sat there, while our insructor gave us some simple questions to see if we were narked or not (when you dive deep, the nitrogen in the iar ou breath can make you 'drunk'). He took down an empty plastic bottle with him to show how much pressure there was down at that depth (the bottle was completely squashed flat!) We also had to use a compass to navigate, learn how to identify fish and we did some photography too.
As part of our course, and also just for fun, we also went on night dives. This was an interesting experience, being down there with a torch swimming into the darkness. Despite being told that there would be a lot of interesting stuff down there, but where we dived was just bad. On the first night dive, all we saw were Red Bass, which are about a metre long and are the main predators at night. If you shone your torch on a little fish, chances were that a Red Bass would zoom over and eat it. Thomas had great fun shining his torch on fish and seeing them get eaten, but of course he would enjoy seeing innocent creatures being killed, being German :P.It was very hectic schedule with 10 dives over the space of three days. By noon each day we'd already been diving twice and had breakfast! It was really exhausting, buch it was such a great experience. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the must see things in Australia!
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