Date: 9th august 2011

Place: Cairns

Weather: Sunny

Laura and I were both going on snorkelling and diving trips today but separate ones. Since we were trying to save money we decided to walk down to the marina rather than paying $5 for a lift. I got straight onto the boat and started sorting out my diving equipment. There was another English girl on the boat for once and we started chatting. She has just finished College and is going to Leeds University in September.

It took a few hours to get to the outer reef and along the way we saw dolphins and loads of whales breaching the water. It was an awesome site because they came completely out and made a huge splash as they went in. When we finally got to the reef we were staying on we started getting ready for the first dive. I was a bit nervous because I didn't know if I would remember everything but it all came back to me fine.

I cant remember exactly what we saw on each dive but I do remember that on the first one I saw a shark and a turtle which was cool. The shark was just a reef one but it was still probably the same size as me. We went on 3 dives that day and they were all awesome. The fish were so colourful and we saw turtles and sharks and sting rays and box fish and even a 2 metre wide Bullray which had a hugeee tale. I decided to stay away from that since it's how Steve Urwin died isn't it?

Between each dive we were given awesome food. I needed it though I felt hungry after every dive. The water was so clear as well it was amazing, probably about 20 metres visibility. I was so happy as well because my ears were fine this time J I was going down even quicker than other people this time around. On one of the dives I had an underwater camera as well which I hired from the boat and I was having lots of fun with that until it decided to break on me and obviously you can't fix it whilst you're underwater.

The reef was absolutely incredible though. It is so colourful under there; the pictures from the camera just don't do it justice at all. There are huge walls of coral and big bits to swim over. It always makes me laugh when fish stare at you as you swim past as if to see what the hell are you. We were told not to touch anything underwater unless the guide says it is OK. Basically everything in Queensland wants to kill you. They did make me feel better though by saying the sharks wont try to eat us because they wouldn't waste their time and energy trying to chew through us when there is so much food around for them anyway.

Whilst we were on a dive we got to hold a few things like star fish and a sea cucumber which feels really weird! We also touched giant clams so that they would shut themselves. Each dive averaged around 45 minutes and we went down between 12 and 20 metres.

That night it was time for my first night dive. I was petrified because basically we were on a search for sharks. They apparently all come out at night and there eyes glow like cats in the dark. We were also likely to see rays and lobsters and other weird things. I didn't remember too much because I was concentrated on the shark bit. We were told that if we think one is coming too close it is probably because they think our torch is a little fish so to get it to go away we would have to shine the light on our whole body to show that we are a big monster. I was a bit worried at that remark because I'm not exactly big. Sharks that are the same size as me are classed as small!

I braved it and went down, even though putting on the wetsuit was enough to put me off because it was soo cold. I put on 2 wetsuits for that dive. When we were first going down it was one of the creepiest situations I have been in. You couldn't see anything around you or below you. I just concentrated on the guide diver. When we finally got to the sand I was so relieved and then the coral came into view just about so I felt a bit more reassured. I was a bit on edge though waiting at any moment to see two eyes shining out from the darkness. If a shark thinks my light is a little fish and I don't show that I'm a big monster in time then surely it will try to eat my torch and then get my hand!!

We swam around for a bit and didn't come across anything weird. We stopped for a little while and the guide signalled for us to put our torches to our chest so that it all went dark. I thought this was to attract sharks but it wasn't thankfully, instead we had to start thrashing our hands around really fast so that the plankton started glowing. There were only tiny little sparks; no where near as good as Vietnams!

I was partly relieved but also partly disappointed that we didn't actually see anything on that dive. Once we were out of the water the guys cut up a fish they had caught earlier that day and tied it onto a rope to use as shark bait. When they had said they were using it as shark bait earlier I thought they meant whilst we were down diving!

They managed to attract a fair few reef sharks which was really cool because the water was so clear we could see them perfectly. They also would thrash around on the surface and one even wouldn't let go of the rope to Hoppy lifted it almost right out of the water!!

Everyone thought this was really amazing until suddenly a three foot hammerhead shark appeared and took over!! It was absolutely huge and you could see it planning its attack by circling the fish. I couldn't believe that they had let us just go diving in that water when there are sharks like that in it!! I also couldn't believe that I would be back in there tomorrow morning! It was an incredible site though and in the end the shark beat Hoppy and stole his rope which apparently cost like $99!