The Great Barrier Reef

Doing something I never thought that I would do, scuba diving.

We arrived in Cairns yesterday, to find that we're now only 10 hours ahead of the UK, as Queensland doesn't have DST like NSW. Checking into the YHA, we asked about reef trips today. The bloke behind the counter asked what we wanted (we both said snorkelling) and he called up a few places. In typical Aussie style, he booked me onto an introduction dive course without asking. 'You'll love it, I'm a dive instructor' was the response I got out of him.

So at 10 this morning (whilst most of you were asleep) I squeezed into a wetsuit and after 10 minutes of briefing (which amounted to 'don't forget to breathe') off I went down into the depths of the barrier reef. The first few minutes were very strange - breathing was quite a conscious effort, but once I got used it, I really enjoyed it. I saw Clown Fish (Great Barrier Reef Variant - not a true Nemo) and amazing coral. In fact I liked it so much I went for a second time, despite seeing a shark

Second dive I saw some true Clown Fish (Nemo), a Ray of some sort (not sure if it was a Stingray or not) and some huge clams. The only thing I didn't see was a turtle, which I'm a bit disappointed about, but ah well...

Some Stats

Number of dives - 2
Total time under the water - 50 minutes
Deepest depth - 8.4 metres
Number of Nemos found - 4