Great Barrier Reef - Day 6

Ahh so obviously a little behind on the blog business… but I am now at work, so I am going to maximize my computer time and free internet. Of course this is not during business hours :)




Day 6 – 10/8/10 – Great Barrier Reef



AMAZING… if I ever have a chance to go back I will. We got a lift from our hostel down to the wharf. There we settled up our balance due with Jeremy the dive instructor and bee lined down to dock five to board the Osprey to the reef. The trip we selected allowed us snorkeling and a scuba dive at two different locations.



Once the boat departed we were required to release the boat from any sort of liability,,, we breezed through the fine print, did an appears reasonable test, and signed our lives away… since we were diving they also had a series of questions on recent trips, illnesses, and medicines. One specific question asking have you been sick recently and have you taken any medicines today… So I carefully contemplated, the truth was yes, I was sick and yes I took Sudafed that morning because I had a cold… but I also new the truth was if checked yes, it would raise questions… but ah well I thought, honest is the best policy and it was only Sudafed, nothing major, so I should be fine. Passed in our releases, Brendan, the collector paused, asked me some questions about my yes-es but everything seemed ok, so we headed to the bow of the boat to watch the trip.



We got fitted for wetsuits, which were stunning absolutely stunning.. but downside was the fitting was inside and the choppy water made Jules pretty nauseous. Then they sent us up stairs for a intro scuba briefing… there our dive instructor Jeremy let me know they were calling the doctor to make sure it was ok for me to dive and I should stay in the briefing because I will probably be able to dive. We listened to all the fascinating facts about how you can die diving and the importance of equalization. I think poor Jules felt more like she was dying sitting inside the cabin with all the massive rocking back and forth…. from an outsiders perspective she looked like the motion sickness was hitting her pretty hard. I wasn’t the only one with this opinion because another dive instructor handed her option B… option a is ginger tablets, option b is a yak bag. But she trooped through it and managed to sit through the whole presentation.



We arrived at the first location and jumped in for some snorkeling, literally jumped because we were to impatient to wait our turn to take the stairs down into the water. We were dive group 5 which gave us about an hour to swim around before having to suit up. Also, fortunately once Jules was in the water she felt much better, just another reason to keep floating around. The reef was amazing, super vibarant, awesome fish, the water is sooo blue. I felt like at the rainforest we were in the setting for Tarzan and at the reef were in the setting for little mermaid. We swam all around, but with in safety meters to our boat. Maria and I saw a shark.. I think it was a great white.. not 100% positive but if not a g.w. it was definitely a leopard shark.

We heard our dive number called so we headed back. Once there they told us they hadn’t reached a doctor yet and that I couldn’t dive tell they had an ok, so we collectively decided to be the last group to dive to give the dive instructors time to call the doctors. So back in the water more swimming, then back on the boat to eat lunch, except for Jules because she still felt like she was going to die on the boat. At about one they packed things up and took us to the second location. On the way there Jeremy called the doctor and came back with crappy news. Apparently, the doctor would not give their approval and I would not be allowed to dive. So bummed, like really really bummed. I may have even started crying but I could tell Jeremy felt really bad, and I acknowledged it totally wasn’t his fault… and then retired to the bow of the boat to finish crying and curse myself for being honest.

We arrived at the second spot and Jules and Maria suited up for diving… Jules was dying of nausea and Maria was dying of fear… their expressions while getting ready were classic, but their instructor, Juliano, was super nice and eased them into the water and out into the sea… prop side of not being able to dive was I was able to capture some of their diving excursion on film and video.  While they took off, I hung out with Wally, this giant fish that just hangs out by the boat and lets you touch it,..  pretty cool, but the thing was super ugly.  I also went and snorkeled the reef which was even more amazing the the last location.  The water was a little clearer and the reef was closer to the surface which meant I could get even closer, perhaps to close because I have scratches on my foot and bum from being pushed into it a few times, whoops.

Jules and Maria came back and we snorkeled around together. The safety guard from the boat let us know he could hear us laughing from 15 meters away haha, and Jules mentioned she could hear mine and Maria’s laugh under the water across the reef. Which I thought was awesome. That is why I started humming/singing in some of the videos because I wanted to see if I could capture the sound, haha, worked in a couple.



At about 3 we had to leave, it was hard to tear us out of the water. But on the way back they had a complementary wine and cheese session. It was supposed to be only one glass but the instructors felt bad that I didn’t get to dive so mine became an endless glass of complementary wine.



Returned to land, had some serious sea legs, but regardless, scurried back to the hostel to shower and change and head back to the wharf to hit up bella vista since the dive instructors invited us out. Tee-hee. We actually were more focused on the two for one drink specials since everything here is sooo expense. It is really ridiculous, the exchange rate is pretty much one for one and everything is overpriced,,, i.e. a soda is 2.50, chocolate 3, coffee 5, a tshirt $50… outta control.


here are the photos from that day....
goggles do wonders for your face

Miss Maria getting ready to jump in, soo precious.  we were excited we just jumped from the side rather than take the walking stairs down.

Jules snapping some pics at the first reef

2 of the many fish i annoyed that day

Jules going in for a closer look

The view at the second reef



Jules and Maria getting preped for the scuba session 

This is Wally, he is huge and slow.  i touched him.

Away they go!

I felt like Ariel

The coral on the right had these purple tips that glowed, really really neat

So beautiful



Kind of was in love with the purple coral

Brains



Wally and some smaller fish



pretty little yellows

A fishy I chased

The lovely lovely reef.

Maria diving down

Oh goggles

Me and the reef

Maria getting closer

Maria and the reef

So anyways, met the divers, had drinks, left for dinner, and then started to walk the downtown area trying to determine where to head next….. being the largely indecisive group we are we just ended up walking around and around and around until a rugby league team stumbled upon us and decided to take us under their wing and directed us to Gilligan’s. We had a great time people watching at Giligian’s. Oh well that’s until about 2 hours into our night, when jules elbows me and goes oh my gosh look who just sat down next to Maria. I look up and what do you know it’s Dan the taxi driver. Bahahaha!! He proceeds to try and chat us up which was super awkward because the rugby guys were like who the hell is this. After a few minutes, he kind of got the message, kind of because he still asked us what we were doing later and if we wanted to hang out… again we declined… after than we danced out little American bums off and then called it a night, only after walking ten minutes home in the intense rain, like hardcore soaked to the bone wet:) it was awesome


Rugby boys after dancing


















We’ve made the observation here that man tanks are all the rage… in fact, glamour muscles on men are all the rage here, please refer to season five episode six of it’s always sunny in Philadelphia for a detailed definition of glamour muscles.. but to demonstrate here is the glamour that was over seeing Jules and Maria on their dive, bahahha.

Another fascinating observation is that guys here are really really into dancing, and you don’t have to have girls to dance, nope dudes just rock out with each other. Much like how girls circle together to dance, guys do that… in fact I think there were many more guys dancing on the floor compared to girls that night.



Here are some videos from the day... it's so fascinating down there, the photos really don't do it justice



Sorry val, this might make you a little motion sick


Hi mom and dad


Scuba