As the weather reports had warned, sadly it was a very wet
start to the day. In the torrential rain
we opted out of packing the camper away and instead threw all of our diving
stuff into a bag and took an Uber to the Marlin Marina. Here we met up with our boat, the T6, and ‘Tusa
Dive’ who were our crew for the day. It
was a large boat by our standards, but very well organised. Once we’d checked in and signed our lives
away we got comfy, helping ourselves to some teeny tiny breakfast muffins.
It may have been a large boat but was not overcrowded
thankfully. After a brief introduction
to the crew we attended a briefing for the certified divers on board. This is the kind of boat where all your
equipment is set up for you and your tank is re-filled between dives to make
everything run smoothly and to schedule.
It took about 90 minutes to reach the reef. A bit of history for you – the GBR is where I
first obtained my open water diving qualification, back in 1997 aged 19. It was an ambition in my teens to learn to
scuba dive on the GBR and I managed to do it. Having
heard the horror stories in the media about the damage that global warming has
done here, I was prepared in case the impact on the reef over the last 21 years
was noticeable.
 |
| A gloomy grey day heading out of Cairns |
We did three dives today and we ended up doing them all
self-guided. We were wary at first, but
the dive-masters on the boat were convinced that we were experienced enough to
be able to navigate back to the boat.
The first two were at Hastings reef where we saw some good corals and anemone fish.
 |
| Emperor angel fish and soft corals on the left |
 |
| Picture of the day.... not taken by me, obviously! |
 |
| My photo of the clown anemone fish (shows the difference with and without a red filter) |
The best section at this dive site was called the
fishbowl - a shallow coral garden where there were shoals of angel fish and
sweetlips floating in the current.
 |
| Large Sweetlips floating in the current |
The second dive was basically
heading the opposite way along the reef wall, but ending up back at the
fishbowl again, which we didn’t mind at all. During both dives there were
moments when we weren’t exactly sure where the boat was. Try having an argument about which way you
should go under water?! If I’m honest, it’s probably more thanks to Simon’s
sense of direction that we managed to end the dives right back on the anchor
line each time.
 |
| Bat fish |
 |
| Giant clam |
 |
| Clam with inverted Simon for scale! |
After a spot of lunch, which was a large array of very tasty
salads and meats, we moved on to Michaelmas reef for our last dive of the
day. The visibility was not as good as
at Hastings but we managed to not get lost despite this and enjoy the dive.
Thanks go to my sister and family who contributed towards my diving today for my 40th Birthday present.
Back on the boat, they had the air conditioning on full
blast, making it freezing cold inside, so it was actually warmer to sit up
front on the bow. I felt like we hadn’t seen the massive variety and amount of
life that I had hoped on the GBR, but now, looking back at all of the images we
captured, I feel that I am being unfair.
I’m sure that there are areas of the reef that have really been damaged
over the last couple of decades but thankfully there are still areas where the
reef is thriving, so there is hope.
We returned to Cairns at 4pm and headed straight back to the
campsite to relax and have dinner, diving really takes it out of you!
No comments:
Post a Comment