Feb 14, 2010

I had been trying to get on a dive with the local dive place for weeks. Every week we email them, but they are booked up or not going out on the Sunday I’m asking for. Anyway, one of the managers and I were going to switch days because he had a class on Sunday. So I was going to work Sunday and have Monday off. Plan for Monday was to go to Paronella Park and the Croc farm in Innisfail with Boyd, Sam, and Ricky. I’d been trying to get Vinny to take me for ages but he wouldn’t do it, so I asked other people. Anyway, that was pretty much planned and good to go and then we got word that I could get on the dive for Sunday. I figured I wouldn’t be able to go because I had to work, but Nadine said that she’d be able to handle the desk alone for the day and I could go diving! I was so a little disappointed that the Monday trip would now be cancelled, but I was pretty excited that I FINALLY got to scuba dive and go out to the Great Barrier Reef! I woke up all excited, looked out the window praying for sun and no storms (wonderfully clear skies thank goodness), pick up was at 8:30am and we went out to Dunk Island to meet the big charter boat. The little boat we took out there was pretty killer. It was called sea legs. It looked like a little boat but had wheels that pulled up and down. I’m sure I’ve seen them before, but not really around here, so it was so nice. Instead of having to slowly drift up to shore we got to drive right up onto it! It saved a lot of time, really cool. Anyway, we were pretty early so me and another girl from the hostel, Elsa, took a little wander around the island. I’d been to this part of Dunk a few times before, so I showed her a few pretty views and we went up to the jetty and waited for the boat. Besides the two of us, there were two other girls from hostels, and then about sixteen older folks going out, about twenty people on the boat plus crew. The boat was fairly big. It had two small bathrooms, a few tables, and a big open deck upstairs. We got a little briefing about boat safety and all of that, and then they separated the divers from the snorkelers, then the certified from the non-certified divers. I went with the certified divers, but warned them that I hadn’t been in about five years. They said that it wouldn’t be a problem, so the two girls from the other hostel and I were the only certified divers. Small group going out, so very awesome! I think there were three other people diving in the other “non-certified” group and the rest snorkeling. The dive guide, Nicole, gave me a quick refresher. I remembered most of the important stuff, and the important signals, but she walked me through the gear again and even showed me how to assemble it even though it was all set for me. I was happy to have the refresher. I wasn’t that nervous before the dive, but the few minutes before I started getting nervous. I was sure I’d be okay, and it’s pretty basic: breathe, equalize, okay symbol, but still nervous. Anyway, the boat ride out there was a little over an hour, but with the paperwork and refresher I only sat around for maybe ten to fifteen minutes. As we approached the reef, we could instantly tell. The water got lighter and brighter and I could see the dark reefy spots. Everyone whipped out the cameras and clicked away. When we finally got adjusted and stopped we got all dressed and jumped in. Got down to the bottom smoothly. I think the deepest we went on both dives was 10 meters. Each dive was a little less than an hour (maybe, wasn’t keeping tabs). Almost instantly when we got down there we saw a reef shark! Nicole (as with most divers) have signs for different fish so as soon as she said to “look” and “shark”, I was impressed. Very cool. Just a little one, maybe four feet long and just a little reef shark. It was just chillin on the bottom so we watched it for a minute then kept going. It was a killer way to start my scuba dive, eh? When we got to coral I was so thrilled. Everything was so so cool. Imagine all of the cool different coral in Nemo, imagine it as a dirty tan color with tints of color, and that’s what I saw, ALL OVER! Not saying that it wasn’t beautiful because of the tan color, it absolutely was! There were fish swimming all over the place and the little bursts of color we did see were incredible. I kept remembering my favorite part of Nemo in the beginning when Nemo is going off to school, with the billions of fish and coral, and just amazingness… I was in that! Colors not as bright, but same stuff, same fish. We saw a clownfish and a bunch of others that looked familiar. I hate that I’m comparing my scuba diving to a movie by the way. Anyway, we saw a jumbo clam thing. It was massive, like four feet long and two feet tall. We got to pet it and when we did, it clamped its mouth shut and kept opening it a little, then closing it again! I would have thought that it could take off my arm if its insides that we were petting weren’t so soft! We got to pet right along the ridge of his mouth! We got to pet an anemone full of fish. The little tentacles stuck to us but the bottom was so soft. There was also a sting ray! An octopus too, but it didn’t really move so we didn’t get to see his legs. There were these little jellyfish things that were in the sand that we got to play with. I’m not sure what they were… they had little jellyfish like tops but the bottoms were like little webs. They were weightless, just really soft and bounced around a little. Most of this dive I was a little nervous and just trying to make sure I kept equalizing and that I wasn’t kicking up any sand from the bottom. I was more just as nervous as I was enjoying myself. Sort of sucked, but still an amazing site! Other than the big finds (sharks) we just saw heaps of coral and fish. My favorite thing about diving is that things can be above you, below you, just all around. It’s very multi dimensional. I’d just swim above the reef and look below me and see heaps of fish swimming around. Then I’d look up and notice a school of huge fish swimming above me! I’d look around and there would be different mounds of reef or a huge wall of reef where I’m just seeing the stuff below me! After the first dive, we had about an hour to have lunch, sit around for a few, do a bit of snorkeling (I had four photos left on my underwater camera from rafting so I used those up), and then we went back out for the second dive. This time I was much more confident and enjoyed the dive much more. I think it was a better dive anyway, much more to see, but I was more comfortable so I drifted away from the group a little more. I enjoyed being at the end of the line so I could stay back and glide around. When we got to a big open spot I started doing little spins in the water, little flips and stuff; couldn’t have done that if anyone was watching. Every once in awhile Nicole would pull out her slate and write us a message. She’d tell us that there was a certain kind of fish hiding in some coral and where to look. She told us that there was a lionfish in a coral, and “do not touch”. There was also a cray fish in a little cave thing. I didn’t really get to see it, as I was the last one to look (down side to being the last one in line). On the second dive we saw another shark. For some reason this one creeped me out a little more. I know reef sharks are harmless, but this one swam off a little, but I thought for sure he was watching me, and then he started swimming toward me a little… like a tiny bit and I got a little cautious. I wasn’t scared, I knew he was harmless, and small, but still… you hear shark, you get scared. For this dive, we went out from the boat deep, then when our tanks got to about half we turned around and went back a little more shallow. We basically swam along a huge coral wall, so there was stuff everywhere! There were little cliffs and plateaus as well as coral all along the ocean floor so there was constantly something to see. Since we were basically along a wall I could drift away or go up or down a little more than the group was and see my own stuff. I felt more comfortable getting closer than I was on the first as well. After the second dive I dried off and wandered around the boat to take photos and met up with an older couple from Baltimore. They had to be at least 60. I ended up talking to the lady for the entire ride back to shore. She had been in New Zealand and the outback so she was giving advice and telling her stories of her trips there, getting me all excited for my trips there. She had been in Oz since January so she had been in the states for Christmas and had witnessed the snow, so we chatted about that as well. I was interrupted when I had to pay but that was right at the end of the trip, so I had a wonderful time with her, I loved her a lot. She’s leaving back for the states tomorrow or the day after. Sounds like she had a great trip and that she’s been all around, so hopeful for getting old and traveling. We dropped everyone off at Dunk then sat around for a bit before heading back to the mainland. Left Mission at 8:30am and got back at about 5pm. The weather was amazing! The visibility wasn’t amazing, but it was pretty damn good, and I saw so many things. The only thing I didn’t see that I wanted to see was a turtle, but I swam with one last time I was on Dunk, so I was okay with it. Actually, I would have died if I saw a seahorse (fav animal and all) but I don’t know if those are around much so I wasn’t expecting it. Amazing experience, I’m thrilled I got to do it and I hope I get to do it again! Got home, showered really quick, had to use extra makeup to cover the bright red of my face, then off to The Shrub for Sunday Session with my fav potato wedges and garlic aioli, mmmm. Wonderful day.