This day began on a plane, which seems to be my MO on this trip! My flight from Perth to Cairns (pronounced CANS) landed at 4:15 and I immediately made my way to the hostel. It felt great being on a domestic flight... no customs to go through!
The hostel was all locked up for the night, but luckily there were some guys drinking and playing pool that were able to let me in and wake up the night manager. He gave me a spare bed, and I was actually able to sleep for a few hours! That was almost a disaster though, since my alarm was on silent... I ended up sleeping 20 minutes past what I wanted, but I made it to the marina and jumped aboard the Tusa 6 diving vessel before being left!
I learned something new about myself that I never knew before... Apparently, given the right conditions, I get sea sick. That was NOT a pleasant experience, but at least now I know to take something before the boat takes off!
We made it out to the first stop, out on the Great Barrier Reef. The GBR is made up of a ton of smaller reefs and is the world's largest living organism. It can be seen from space! Norman's reef, our first stop, was full of colorful anemone, fish, clams, and some people saw a shark, although my group did not. We hit the deepest point my certification allows, 18m. I actually went 18.3... oops! I was disappointed because yesterday, there was a sea turtle hanging out, but today he wasn't anywhere to be seen. He must be out helping Marlin find Nemo!
We did two dives on Norman's reef, and then had lunch on the boat. The ocean was ridiculously choppy, and the boat was heaving this way and that, causing people to drop things, and we were unable to really get up and walk anywhere. Finally we arrived at the second dive site, and the boat came to a halt. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, and began preparing for the next and final dive.
Fish hole, our final dive site, hosted a variety of fish and enormous clams... There was a barracuda hanging out under the boat, just relaxing. The colors of the reef were absolutely stunning... brilliant shades of purple, neon green, and yellow are only a few of the myriad of colors that littered the coral of the reef. All my dive photos are on a CD and my tablet doesn't have a disk drive, so you'll have to wait until I get home to see them all!
At this point, I'm just thoroughly exhausted. After a "short" nap (3 hours) I headed to the local Irish pub for which I had a meal voucher. I can't believe I ever forgot how amazing Australians are at making fish and chips... Ugh I am FULL, sleepy, and ready for BED.
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