One Year Away

Joseph

We arrived in Cairns, Australia with only one thing on our to-do list; see the Great Barrier Reef.  In that way we were like the majority of tourists in this town.  It is basically a jumping off point for people who want to scuba dive or snorkel on what is often rated the best spot in the world. 

There’s a wide variety of operators offering everything from half-day glass-bottom boat tours to
multi-day live-aboard luxury diving cruises.  We went for a mid-market 3-day/2 night diving trip with a company called Deep Sea Divers Den. 

At 8 AM they collected us from our hostel and took us to their offices to complete payment and fill out the paperwork.  They asked me for my scuba diving certification card….ooops, I had forgotten that in Canada.  In Vietnam and Thailand when I wanted to go diving they had asked me for my card too.  But  when I told them I didn’t have it on me, well, they let me dive anyways.  No big deal. 

The guy from the dive shop started to say that I could go snorkeling instead or dive with an instructor up to a max of 12 meters.  I hadn’t come to one of the best dive sites in the world to go snorkeling though.  He agreed to search for my certification record in the PADI database.  In a minor miracle of modern technology he found my name and agreed to let me dive. 

An overcrowded boat called the Reef Quest took us to an outer area of the Great Barrier Reef.  From there I did my first dive of the trip.  I buddied up with a friendly English guy called Winston and we jumped into the water.  My first impression of the reef wasn’t so good.  The visibility was poor and the coral in the reef was not in the best condition.  I came out of the water thinking that maybe this side trip was going to be an expensive mistake. 

After the first dive though we changed location on the reef and this time the visibility was good and the coral was in better condition.  My spirits lifted even more when I saw the huge variety of fish on the reef; including clownfish, parrotfish, flowering cod and literally dozens of other species.  Later that afternoon we did an at-sea transfer to a larger, less crowded ship called the Ocean Quest, where we would spend the next two nights. 

After a nice dinner in the large dining room we suited up again for what would be my first ever night dive.  The sky was dark as the group waddled out to the dive deck at the back of the boat wearing our scuba gear and fins.  I had a large flashlight in my right hand.  The external ship lights were on and we could see shapes moving in the water around the boat.  They were fish being attracted to the light.  Then we saw the unmistakable shape of a large shark pass under the lights.  Then another, and another.  I had a moment to realize that not only was I willingly jumping into shark-infested waters in the dead of night, but I had paid for the privilege.  I looked up to the top deck and could see Penny and some others watching us as we prepared to jump in.  She was shaking her head.

The moment I was in the water I swung my flashlight beam around in a wide circle and there right
under the boat was a large whitetip reef shark.  I paused long enough to make sure it was ignoring us then followed the rest of the group down into the dark.  The coral was teeming with life as usual; the colours looked different under the artificial light of out flashlights.  We soon attracted a group of  4 Giant Trevally’s or GT’s as they are known.  These large fish are opportunistic hunters and followed the beam of our lights gobbling up any small fish that were stunned by our powerful lights.

The next day I did two more dives and snorkeled twice with Penny.  On some reefs the water was so shallow that you could actually see more by snorkeling on the surface than by diving.  We saw all kinds of beautiful fish and then went back on board and tried to identify them on the large charts.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a waterproof camera so we have no underwater photos to post.   

Between dives we hung out with my dive buddy Winston and his fiancee Charmaine.  They were also on an around the world trip and we swapped a bunch of travel stories.  Despite a bad start, the trip overall was great.  And as a bonus, after being surrounded by divers for three days Penny has said she might consider getting certified too!