diving the great barrier reef.
heading to the dive site, queensland in the background.
since getting our dive certification, we’ve done some amazing international dives: silfra fissure in iceland and then the maldives. naturally, we knew we had to dive the great barrier reef, which was a major reason for going to australia in the first place. after spending a few days in sydney, we flew into cairns in north queensland and then drove an hour north to port douglas as our jumping-off point (more about that in my next post). we booked dives (and a guide) through ABC Scuba, which takes a very small groups on a very small boat but due to weather (there was a cyclone nearby causing choppier waters) we ended up joining one of the larger Divers Den boats.
our and our guide’s gear.
just two dorks getting ready to dive.
dive site from the boat.
we did two days of diving in the agincourt reefs, and it was fantastic! the boat was really new and really catered to getting a bunch of divers and snorkelers in and out of the water quickly, but having our own guide from ABC made our underwater experience particularly excellent. even though the water was quite warm, we wore full body lyrcra stinger suits to make sure, well, we didn’t get stung by anything.
james.
the reefs we saw were absolutely gorgeous and filled with big, beautiful coral and so many fish! there were so many textures and colors i really haven’t seen before.
in the past, i’ve always just used a gopro to take photos and video. i’ve thought about getting a dive housing for my normal camera, but the casing is actually more than the camera itself and i haven’t felt like we dive quite enough for me to invest in a full super expensive rig. with this trip, i was able to rent an olympus tough & housing through our dive operator and i really enjoyed using it! it’s a point-and-shoot, so still quite compact with the housing on (can just be tucked under my arm when big-stepping into the water) but gave me much better control and confidence underwater. the camera is also already waterproof to 50’, which gives me peace of mind in case the housing does leak. and the whole setup is significantly cheaper than the housing would be for my camera. i am pretty seriously considering getting this setup for myself.
giant clam.
our guide john was awesome. he kept pointing out fun things like hermit crabs, nudibranchs, sharks, rays and jellies!
sea cucumber.
hermit crab in the shell of a venoumous cone snail.
can you spot the hermit crab?
nudibranch.
.
.snuggling nudibranchs.
whitetip reef shark.
ray spotted.
another ray.
upside down jelly.
i was absolutely obsessed with finding little fish hiding out in corals and anemones. they just made my brain squee with happiness.
so many anemone fish.
starfish among corals.
moonjelly!
we loved the two days of diving we had. we totally lucked out too, as the next day, no boats went out at all as the weather took a turn for the worse. just looking back at these photos is really making me want to go diving again soon!
space between reefs.
bubble rings.
cyclone effects at the end of our second day.
