Great Barrier Reef diving

In Australia, Diving & Snorkeling, Oceania On 16/04/2012 One comment

In order to dive on the Great Barrier Reef I decided to get a 3 day / 2 nights live aboard. Early in the morning we meet at the dive shop (ProDive) and went for a breakfast on the boat before departure. The trip to the Great Barrier Reef was smooth, no storms and no seasickness. It was interesting to notice that during the whole trip nobody got seasick. We were very lucky with the weather. Even so it was rain season, we had sun light every day. There was some rain, but not in the way to damage our dive days.

Our first stop was at Petaj Mooring, a dive site at Milln Reef. The crew of the boat was excellent in doing the dive brief. They showed us a map of the site, explained what we could see and the best way to explore the place. For the ones that did not remember how to use a compass, the give a quick refresh. The importance of using the compass was because we were in our own, there was no divemaster guiding the dive. Anyway, the dives were relaxed and it was very easy to locate oneself compare to many other places I had been diving. Here we had the great wall as a reference.

Our second dive was also at Petaj Mooring, I like diving twice at the same place. Usually the first time you are a bit worried to locate yourself, to understand the place, to find your way back to the boat. The second dive in the same spot, you take these things for granted and you enjoy more every detailed.

By the late afternoon we went to Whale Bommie for our third dive of the day, and in the same spot we had our night dive. It was a great day to start to know the Great Barrier Reef. In one day we could see turtles, sharks and a great variety of fishes.

The next two days were all about diving and the sea, our fifth dive was also at Whale Bommie. And then we went to Flynn Reef where we went diving at the Tennis Court, the Gordon’s Mooring and the Tracey’s Bommie dive site. During the 3 days we had 11 dives, they were all very easy, comfortable to dive and no worries except to enjoy the spot.

Primeiros mergulhos – Grande Barreira de Corais from Karla Brunet on Vimeo.

Traveling alone you are always on the graces of luck to know who you are going to be your dive buddy. In the past I had some unfortunate experiences: as diving with someone who was spending more then double the air them me, so we had a very short time dive; or someone very restless who would dive very fast and not stop to see the details or enjoy the nature, so I could not see small live creatures and take photos. In this trip I was very luck, Cary, my dive buddy was very calm, not afraid of anything, and she spend the same amount of air them me. We could have long dives; usually we would go back to the boat in the last minute possible stipulated by the crew.

In only 3 days we saw a large number of different species such as rays, sharks, turtles, huge clam, shell fish, sea star, angelfish, butterfly fish, cardinalfish, wrasse, triggerfish, surgeonfish, parrotfish, damselfish, cuttlefish, puffer fish, spotted grouper, lionfish among others. It was incredible the variety of life underwater.

The coral formations were very beautiful, even when there was not many fishes, it was amazing to see these different formation, mushroom like, the brain coral, the table coral, the fire coral, the staghorn coral, sea fan (Gorgonians), Cauliflower coral… They all created a kind of fantasy environment, an illusionary space. Diving for me is like escaping to another world, another dimension, you focus only in the moment, it is like meditation. Here in the Great Barrier Reef, the colorful and assorted shape corals make you feel in this “outer” space.