The diving course was hard work with early morning starts, but now completed, Lyn and Alex are certified 'open water divers'! The first 2 days were spent learning in the pool then followed by 3 days on the Great Barrier Reef, staying in a floating hotel which was a large catamaran.
Diving on the Reef there was a wealth of wildlife to observe, hundreds of different types of fish, turtles, plus the occasional shark! On the sea bed there were sea cucumbers, giant clams and beautiful coral formations. The most interesting fish were the vivid blue, pink and green Parrot fish, which have a beak-like mouth for eating coral, and look as if the are 'flying' rather than swimming.
In order to qualify we also had to master various tasks while on the sea bed 8m below the surface. These included taking off and refitting facemasks, using a compass underwater, hovering (using the amount of air in the lungs to control buoyancy) and lots of emergency procedures.
A night dive was made which was quite frightening because as we descended everything seemed to be completely black. Luckily we had torches but did not see much, other than waking a stingray who was snoozing on the sand. On surfacing the stars were bright and clear as there was so little light pollution around.
Returning from the Reef some dolphins joined us, surfing on the bow wave of the boat.
Throughout, the weather continues to be lovely, not too hot, with a constant sea breeze.
We are now planning to spend a couple of days in the rainforest before leaving Cairns and heading for Mission Beach then on to Brisbane.
More of this in the next report on Lyn and Alexs' Adventures in Oz.
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