Diving trip - Whitsunday Islands - Great Barrier Reef
With the boredom on living out of the back of our car was really beginning to set in, a great adventure was just about to start..... We booked onto a sailboat, that would take us cruising around the islands as well as give us 2 nights sleep and 8 dives. But at the last minute, the boast was cancelled and our trip seemed to be in ruin. But alas the sun was shining in Oz that day as we were givin a replacement trip for the same price which included two night dives and another night accomodation, for the same price. The only catch was that we lost out on the sailboat, this boat was a big diesel hoase-boat that could take 35 people.
The trip was great however, we dove four times the first two days and then twice on the last day. The first two days were basically get up, eat, dive, eat, dive, nap, dive, eat, dive, drink beer, and go to bed. The cook on board was fantastic, and kept the hungry hoards full, as it turned out Tim had to pull her out of the water, because her regulator was free flowing. He got her out with only 40 bar left in her tank..(not too much).
I won't bore you with the description of each dive, but I will say that each was more beautiful than the last and even though I hadn't dove many times before we came here, my confidence and ability have improved dramatically. The two night dives that we did were absolutly amazing. The night beams of our flashlights shown through the dark expanses of the water and picked up the reflections of beautiful and interesting creatures.
Many different types of shrimp shown in the darkness, their antenna and legs floating gracefully through the water. We swam with a Epalette shark that whizzed past our feet in the darkness. Tim saw a carpet shark, and one of our highlight was swimming over a coral head to discover a sleeping white-tipped reef shark. We could swim within 5 feet and he never woke up. (good thing too). On the second night dive we swam at a coral where the Green sea turtles come in to sleep at night. Within 5 minutes of being in the water a huge (approx 5 feet long carapace) turtle swam right past us and turned and swam around us for a while.
Its is very hard to tell all the highlights of all ten dives, however some of the most interesting sight that stood out were the Large moray eels, and the number of rays of all shapes and sizes, the parrot fish, giant clams, the beautiful array of coral and the chance to do that many dives in such a short amount of time.
It was a chance that we will never forget.
On January 31 at 4 p.m. we left the boat. We were very tired and worn out. We wanted to rest, but the new
millenium was about to start. We purchased some wine, and headed out to the country. Under the stars, we listened to our short wave. We heralded in the new year, and over the course of the next 25 hours, we listened to segments of every other time zone's celebration. We were ecstatic when we heard "Great Big Sea" for Newfoundland, and "The Tragically Hip" for Toronto. It was our first bit of Canadiana in over two months. On the first of January, we moved to
a nearby park, called Bowling Green Bay National Park. We spent three days resting and recovering, and had a wonderful time. Every night, over 20 different wallabies came within a one square kilometer. We even had a tame kangaroo. We are currently in the Queensland Outback, and there is a real reason it is called the outback, with 200km between close towns. We will soon be in the Northern Territory.
THE OUTBACK, JANUARY 15
For those of you following with a map, Mari and I have just crossed the border of Southern Australia and are heading south. We are in the first town of any real size, called Coober Pedy. This town is an inhospitible wasteland, and I am being generous with my compliments. Basically, this town is a opal mining community and is the only town for miles. With this in mind, imagine a barren landscape, doted with huge holes, large piles of sand and dirt (refuse from the mine), tumbleweed, and a few lonely cows, or dead kangaroos. For a more vivid picture, rent Mad Max as this is where it was filmed.
Actually, it is truly an interesting spectacle, and Mari and I have taken the time to explore some of the opal shops. One nice lady gave us a small bag of discarded rocks, but when we looked through them, we found a few cool opal pieces. She said that ifwe washed the rocks, we would find more opal fragments.
Since we have mad our last update, We have been solidly in the Northern Territory. This rough and tumble place was one of the most diverse and vivid landscapes one could imagine. We drove for miles, often with more than 200km between gas stations, and when we did find gas it was usually $1.05 a litre (its an odd feeling to have the total price higher than the total number of litres). We also realized that the Northern Territory is home to the largest population of Aboriginal People. With this in mind, we visited many galleries and art display houses. The art is very deeply rooted in the Aboriginal culture, and every piece would tell of the earth's creation, or dreamtime, as the natives call it. Having budgeted for one collector piece of art, we decided on a didgereedoo. This traditional instument is a limb from a Eucalyptus tree. Over time a group of termites hollows out the soft center, leaving a hollow tube.