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Other entries in Great Barrier Reef

reef madness

after a 6 AM start (brutal) and 3 hours of hurl inducing waves (go motion-sick tabs!), we get to the reef. but I mean, ummmm.....what reef? where the heck is the reef? I just see water. loads n loads of water.... was expecting maybe one of those pristine strips of white sand, a few sea gulls, 1 or 2 palm trees to make it picture perfect.... at the very least a chance to step on non-moving ground.

but alas....did you know most the reefs of the great barrier reef are buried under water? and when they say 3 days live-aborad dive boat, they really mean  'live aboard'. as in you can't get off??! saw the anchor go down, saw no land in site and it all sunk in.... at least we parked on the lee side which brought the size of the waves down from guaranteed-puke to better-not-drink-any-beers-while-I'm-aboard. all things being considered, I took this as a good thing.

before I knew it, our dive master had laid out the dive plan, we suited up (I had to sneak peeks at what petros was doing as I'd certainly forgotten everything since my last dive and I for sure didn't want to die from some idiot technicality), they pushed us in, we dropped to the bottom and BAM! there we were diving on the freekin great barrier reef - one of the worlds best (remind me what I did again to be this lucky?!).

bummer for me I was so caught up in the details (is my reg working properly? is my mask filling with water? are we lost? how's my bouyancy? does that fish want to kill me?) that my first dive was a blur. but lucky for me, there were 11 dives to pick from over 3 days so plenty of time to get re-used to it all and actually notice what I was seeing. once that happened, I saw: sharks (3), sting rays (2), octopus (2), barracuda (3), turtles (3), nemos (loads), plus I swam with schools of fish, saw heaps of brilliant coral, and loads of fish-store fish who's names I dont remember. my favorite thing was to just hover over a small patch and watch what happens. and float - totally relaxed & weightless. can't afford those space-travel prices yet so until then, diving is the next best thing.

the second day, I worked up the guts to do the night dive - that was super trippy. our flashlights were light-sabers. outside that ring was blackness, and the floating bits in the water reflected like stars. dont think we saw a single fish but who cares - night diving was the trippiest trip on this trip so far.

between dives, our job was to recover - which meant loads of deck time and just chillin in the sun. don't ask my pink butt, but I'll tell you it was a fantastic time.

so, all was good. I'm broke, but it was so worth it. a couple germans we were diving with took underwater pics so hopefully get them someday and will upload.

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