Update 25 - The Great Barrier Reef

Ok, so it's taken me 4 weeks to complete the last blog, if you are following them, apologies, I'll get us up to the present day and our new addition to the family quickly now! Read the end of the last one as there are some good pics in there. This one's going to be good also with some under water pics.
On Tuesday 30th March, we were up at 6am for a 7am departure (wondering whether it was a holiday we were on or a boot camp..) on the Tusa dive boat, bound for the Great Barrier Reef and our three scheduled dives. As with dangerous animals, Stef is a bit of a show off when it comes to scuba, she learned to dive in Egypt, taking an intensive 2-week course. And over the years prior to our meeting she's become a PADI Open Water Diver, Advanced Diver, Night Diver, Ice/Altitude Diver and a Rescue Diver! I, on the other hand had completed 2 dives in Thailand in 1988, 2 in Indonesia and 2 in Antigua, all PADI dives but without taking the full certification. However, these 3 dives on the Great Barrier Reef inspired me to take and pass the full certification, when I returned to Hong Kong. After passing the online theory course, I joined a diving club here and took the certification with a further 6 dives over a weekend and am now a fully qualified PADI Open Water Diver - hooray! So, back to these dives, it took approx 1 hour and 45 minutes to the dive site at Hastings. On the way we were briefed and split into groups. We were very pleased to see that of the 50+ people on the boat, there only turned out to be 8 scuba divers, the rest were all snorkeling. There were 4 beginner divers incl. me and 4 pro divers incl. Stef.

Our dive boat - it was really well run by the Australian crew

I hadn't dived for 11 years, but tried to keep a brave face on it ;o)

My fellow beginner divers, the girl dropped out, the blonde guy was from Yorkshire and like all good Yorkshiremen had been out drinking until 3am and had never dived before - don't try this at home kids! However, he was as good as myself and the American guy in the foreground who had done a few dives before also, so fair play to him.

And in the professionals corner...

Stef's fellow divers.

Diving is exhausting, as you're under pressure, under water for 45+ minutes each dive

Stef took some great pics with the camera we hired - as we know from Nemo, clown fish live in the anemone's..

Impressive non?

Its not called the Great Barrie Reef for no reason!

Now you can't do that easily on dry land

Hello from the Coral Sea, Australia

That's enough messing around I'm off..

Stef really took some fantastic photos!

 

Didn't she?

If we new more about fish and coral, I'd tell you something interesting here..

We swam through some tight spots - not for the really fat diver!

There I am showing off again..

A giant clam and some orange fish ;o)

Managed to get the camera off Stef without dropping it..

To get back to the boat you use a compass to find the anchor line

There was another dive boat with us

Stef with our hired camera

A professional photographer came down with us on the dives and took pics

Clams were amazing

Stef keeps clear of the coral - its fragile

The Reef is so colourful and packed with fish etc - you don't know were to look next

Live Sea slug

Dinner

Me with giant clam

Stef with giant clam

I told you at the start of the Australian blogs we swam with sharks!

The White tipped reef shark is apparently harmless, unless your bleeding..

If you don't get aggressive with him, he won't retaliate!

And finally for our dive a more passive anemone

I've always been impressed by sea planes

And finally back to the harbour - Shangri-La hotel in the background

That was it for our Great Barrier Reef scuba diving and an experience we'll try and repeat again, whilst we live on this side of the world. The Philippines are also very good for diving - unlike Hong Kong's waters which are minimal in terms of sea life and with low visibility..