Finally... The Great Barrier Reef

Finally it's the photos you've all been waiting so patiently for... the Great Barrier Reef!! This is the main reason why we came up to the far north Queensland. Unfortunately for us, we did not go up at the best time of the year. Although it is the end of the rainy season up here, we didn't realize that this is also the beginning of the windy/cyclone season. The week before we left a cylone hit one of the northern islands and has affected the weather system around northern Queensland. So upon many local peoples' advice, we decided to wait til the end of the week for the weather to clear up. The weather never did get much better but we decided that we were going to go anyways since we couldn't bear the thought of leaving Cairns without diving the GBR.

So here we are early in the morning boarding onto the Poseidan looking forward to our journey.

Even after taking 2 anti-nausea tablets (5 ginger pills for Todd) the rough seas were enough to make us wish we had stayed on land that day. As soon as the boat started moving into the open ocean, two people were immediately rushed outside onto the rear deck with biodegradable brown paper bags in hand. We were to sit inside the boat and listen to a one hour introduction about diving, safety and equipment. I joined the condensed version outside on the deck while Todd took in the full length talk inside. I was concentrating so hard on not getting sick that I hardly heard a word the instructor was saying. At this point I didn't even want to go diving anymore, I just wanted to be back on land again! Todd and I eventually both became violently ill along with several other touists on the boat that morning. But I somehow reluntantly got into my stinger suit and fell into the water with my oxygen tank in tow.

Here's Todd in his sexy stinger suit, ultra trendy and tres cool... much better than getting stung by a box jellyfish or any other creepy creatures that live in the underwater world.

We had to sit in a row of four at the back of the boat while someone helped suit us up with a an oxygen tank attatched to a vest. Once you have all your gear on you fall head first into the water off the back of the boat. There is a long rope for the intro divers to hang onto and slowly decend down into the water. But first you have to complete a series of tests to show the instructors that you are able to equilize your mask to get water out, equilize your ears, and most importanly find your respirator and put it back in if it happens to fall out of your mouth. Still feeling sea sick I struggled with the last test, but thanks to the great patience of the diver instructor eventually passed all three tasks and was ready for my underwater adventure.

Yes we are actually physically touching the reef in the above photo, and yes we are aware that we are not supposed to be touching the reef as it kills the coral. The photographer was the one that actually told us to hold onto the coral so that he could take a pictues, this particular part of the coral was all dead anyways... hmmm wonder why the GBR is dying? could it be because of all the tourists coming here touching and kicking the reef?

The first dive was rather uneventful other than the underwater photos that were taken of us from the photographer. We were mostly just getting used to being under the water and breathing compressed air through a respirator. The second dive site was much more spectacular, but alas you will have to wait another day for those photos. For now I will leave you with a beautiful photo of the GBR taken from the top deck of our boat
(courtesy of Todd Gee photography).