The next day we got up early for our Great Barrier Reef tour and walked out to the jetty. The day included a introductory scuba dive. I have never been scuba diving, so I was ridiculously excited if not a bit nervous. Also at this point I was also a bit gutted that Nathan and I had not done the PADI course in Koh Tao, Thailand last year. As apparently it's the cheapest and best place to do it in the world, may have to make a return trip.
We had a perfect day, the sun was shining and not too much wind so we assumed sea sickness could be avoided. However you'll soon find out this wasn't this case. We both took ginger sea sickness tablets to be on the safe side (NB.. Does not always work).
Our boat took us out to the outer reef and we stopped at Norman's reef, which according to the travel guy was meant to be one of the best. We were the third group to go on the intro scuba dive so we went snorkelling to start with. Obviously taking with us our favourite toy, the GoPro.
All suited and booted in our wetsuits, just waiting for the all go to jump in.
So there was a video I wanted to post here, which was taken from the GoPro but it won't seem to let me, might only be possible on a computer. We had an awesome time snorkelling and saw lots of colourful fish and beautiful coral.
After a half hour snorkelling session, it was our time to get into our scuba gear. Unfortunately the pictures of us in our gear was rubbish (taken by someone else) so I won't be putting it on here. And because it was our introductory dive, we weren't allowed to take any cameras underwater, as they wanted our full attention on the activity at hand. But luckily we had a professional following us around taking pictures, I have only 1 saved on my phone which I will share with you shortly.
Scuba diving is a completely crazy experience and definitely nothing like I've ever experienced before. I was pretty nervous to be quite honest. The key point to remember was 'do not stop breathing', which they drilled into us. Sounds easy right? But I was then overthinking, what if I forget to breath! Obviously I didn't but it did make you panic. Every metre or so we went further underwater we had to pop our ears and the further we went down the more I felt in my comfort zone!
It's a completely different world but I was fascinated, I felt like a mermaid. Because it was our introductory dive, the instructor took 4 of us down and we had to link arms with him the whole time, which gave us less freedom but it made sense, seeing as we weren't trained. He took us 10 metre below the surface and got us to sit on the sand and we held a starfish. Then out of no where this huge fish came over. I now know this is a humpback wrasse. It is pretty much a pet dog of the fish world, following all the divers around and we were allowed to stroke it's lips. This is my professional photo.
I mean talk about awesome!! We also saw lots of nemo fish! But before we knew it, it was time to come back to the real world. As soon as we reached the surface and had removed the breathing tube, Nathan felt really unwell. According to our instructor this is normal, as it is articifical air that we are taking it and people react differently to it. Stupid ginger tablets didn't work.
Once we were back on the boat we were given the opportunity to go on a second dive, which would be longer as we didn't have to do any training but it would cost. I decided straight away I had to do it. And we were allowed to take our cameras down. Nathan opted out as he wasn't feeling great.
The second dive was even better. We were allowed a lot more freedom and could swim by ourselves rather than linked arms with the instructor.
This is my selfie with my scuba gear.
This is my underwater selfie.
We saw a sea cucumber, a flat worm ( easily the most elegant thing I have seen which is actually a worm, wish I could upload a video), lots of colourful fish, some huge ones and lots of little ones. Don't ask me for names, because I have no idea. I was hoping to see a turtle but luck wasn't on my side. However I did see a reef shark, caught on video but not by picture. Luckily whilst I was scuba diving, Nathan went back in the water and did some more snorkelling.
Just a quick tip, those of you that go underwater with your GoPro whether it is scuba diving or snorkelling or just playing in the sea or a pool. I'd really recommend buying a floatie device. It's bright orange and attaches as a back door onto your GoPro. That way if you drop it, it will still float and you've less chance of losing it. We also attached our extendable pole, which is perfect for getting up close and personal with the fish and for taking selfies without having to ask others for help.
We had an incredible day on the reef and it's safe to say we were very tired on the trip back to Cairns.
Xoxo
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