So we finally arrived in Cairns at about 1.30pm on Monday 9th Feb after the interesting journey from Townsville. We stocked up on the alcohol as we decided we all deserved a celebratory drink. The evening was full of chit chat about the day’s events and how we actually made it to Cairns. It wasn’t such a late night as we were all so tired from being up t 3am! We spent a bit of time going round supermarkets trying to buy the essentials as the shelves were still bare, it took us a while and we still didn’t manage to get everything we wanted. Over the next few days we saw Jen and Alex and B and Jon off which only left the 6 of us. As the weather was picking up we decided we would book a day diving on the oh so famous Great Barrier Reef before the weather got worse again which it was meant to do. David and I were diving along with Steve and Jo, Freddie was snorkelling and Mark was to do an intro dive. We enquired about hiring an underwater camera and were told if we wanted to guarantee to get one then to sort it out before we went on the boat as they didn’t always have them and if they did they were only limited. So that’s exactly what we did, it was a bit more expensive but we weren’t bothered as we knew we had one and between 6 of us it was worth it.

It was an early start as we had been told if we wanted free parking we needed to get there early in order to beat the rush so off we went at 7.15 into Cairns Central. We found a nice spot away from the trees (apparently the bats poo is lethal and you are bound to get it on your roof by the end of the day) and set off on our days adventure. When we got to the boat they were still getting everything ready so we headed off for a walk and sat at the harbour for 15 mins. Once on the boat we signed our lives away and got all of our essentials. A stinger, suit, mask, snorkel and fins. Our tanks and BCD’s (buoyancy control device) were all set up for us which pleased us a lot!!! The boat was sectioned into groups depending on what you were doing for a talk. We were just told the norma,l nothing new apart from how the dive site was set up and what we would be likely to see. Once given our talk we sat back and relaxed or at least tried to for our 2 hour journey to the dive site. I (Carina) was quite surprised how well my travel sickness was holding up!! As we got to the dive site we pulled up next to the overnight boat and dropped some of the people we had brought off on it. We thought we would be moving onto somewhere else but when we were told to get kitted up be guessed not. We all looked fetching in our stinger suits, or not as the case may be! To give you an idea the suits were blue like superman but without the pants! We were told by the guide it would be better to go with him as we would see more off the reef and it would make the dive much more fun especially with the visibility being so small. We decided we would have him on the first dive and then do it ourselves on the 2nd dive. As there were 4 of us we didn’t think it would be a problem and didn’t fancy having to pay another $11 each for 2 dives, 1 was enough. As there was a bit of a current we swam to the front of the boat in order to get to the site easier. The surface swim nearly used all of our energy and we still had 2 dives to do! There was a few of us following the guide so the 4 of us went down first and the rest were to follow. We got the bottom and there was no sign of the other divers so the guide headed back up. About 10 mins later and just about half of our air gone they arrived. We set off following the guide, taking us deeper we thought to get better visibility. The visibility wasn’t the best, we could still see the reef but we didn’t feel it was anything special. Whether this was to do with the colour of the water due to the poor weather, we’re not too sure? We had been told we would be sent up in pairs when our air got low and you could be put with anyone depending on your air levels being the same. Luckily we use a similar amount of air so after a very short dive of not seeing much we headed up to do our safety stop before surfacing. We also had Steve join us, so much so for the going up in pairs! Once at the surface we all moaned about how it had been a disappointing dive and it we hadn’t had to wait for the others we would’ve had much more time to see more. While waiting for the others we spoke to one of the guys on board who told u to have a word with the guide once he was back, we had decided we weren’t paying $11 for waiting around for other people. As we were waiting for Jo to come up as she had been left down there with the others we did a bit of snorkelling with Mark and Freddie. The water was much clearer and we could see more there than we could when we were diving. Mark had told us about how he got to hold some of the sea life on his intro dive and as there were only 3 of them they got to see loads. This annoyed us even more and then to add to that when Jo got back up she told us she went through a tunnel and out the other side of it the visibility was much better. This tunnel we would’ve been able to see if we hadn’t waited so long. How Jo didn’t use as much air as us so quick we don’t know! After speaking to the guide he told us we didn’t have to pay for that dive as we weren’t really guided, something we didn’t need telling. After a buffet lunch of which was lovely, plenty of choice and good food we decided we were going to do the dive alone even with the visibility being the way it was. We were told which direction we needed to head in so we had an idea where we were going and as they were also going in the same direction we thought if we held back a bit we would be able to follow them, well kind of. Well the plan didn’t work, we soon lost their bubbles and definitely couldn’t see them so we made it up as we went along. We knew what to look out for and just wanted to go where we wanted so we weren’t bothered. Once we got our bearing we saw so much more than we had on our first dive. We had been told to look out for a giant clam, which luckily we found. It was amazing to see and you could put your hand it if you wanted as it didn’t close fully but none of us did. It got tighter than we felt comfortable with!! We had a much longer dive than the first one and as the visibility was much better and we were on our own so we were a lot more relaxed and enjoyed it a lot more. We saw and swam through several schools of fish along with tropical fish eating and hiding among the reef. The coral was fascinating the way it reacted and moved depending how close we were to it, while at the same time hiding the fish from as they thought danger. The colours varied depending on our depth as you lose more colour depending on your depth, but there was purple, orange, white, yellow, green clams black coral and trees with no leaves!!! But with purple ends like buds! As we didn’t go that deep we didn’t need to do a safety stop so after 30 mins we decided to head back to the surface as we were starting to run low on air, well not was we would class as low but the Queensland law states you have to be back on the surface with 50 bar left in your tank. That’s another 15 or so mins to you guys!! We had seen all sorts of fish and sea life but we must say it wasn’t the Maldives, nothing seems to live up to that, even if the water had been clearer we still feel the Great Barrier Reef isn’t the best place to dive. While I got my gear off and got settled back on the boat as I was knackered David went of snorkeling with some of the others. When he was coming back to the boat I could see a massive smile on his face and he shouted over to me saying he had seen a turtle. I was gutted I hadn’t stayed out to see it but luckily we have photos of it and some video footage. I didn’t however get to scratch its back like David did much to his delight. Once all back on the boat and all our gear rinsed and put away we noted down our dive details so we can put them in our dives books when we get home while eating a chocolate bun or 2! We didn’t really do much on the way back as we were all so tired and the boys just wanted some beer!! When we got back to the mainland we took the camera in to get the pictures produced and we explained to him we didn’t take as many pics as we would’ve liked as the battery light started flashing as soon as we turned the camera on. He checked the batteries while uploading the pics and confirmed they were dead. It probably worked out better as he gave us half the money back for the hire and even added in some pics and videos from other peoples where the quality is much better and the colours stand out more!! Once back at the campsite the boys got drinking their beer and we all retired to Steve and Jo’s nice air coned room. Half way through the film we were watching we decided it was bedtime after a long day. All in all the Great Barrier Reef was a good experience and we are glad we did it but it still doesn’t live up to the Maldives!!!!!!