Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Anyone seen the new movie 'Open Water' based on the true story of an American couple who were left stranded on the Great Barrier Reef by a dive boat? Their bodies were never found and the commonly expressed view around Cairns is that the tiger sharks got them. I imagine it's obvious to everyone why we would not watch the film before learning to dive and living aboard a dive boat sailing from Cairns onto the Great Barrier Reef. We are also sure that it is not by accident that the film is not being screened at the Cairns cinema!

Selecting Prodive from the zillion companies offering diving out of Cairns, we spent 2 days in the pool learning the main skills such as filling our masks with seawater and trying to then clear them under water. A recipe for disaster for Beth who could only watch in dismay as her contact lenses floated away into the great blue yonder. The night before we boarded the ScubaPro dive boat we went to the Reefteach seminar to learn more about the Great Barrier Reef that we would be diving in. A crazy Irishman presented and, amongst other information, we learnt that sea cucumbers breathe out of their anus, the Great Barrier Reef extends from Papa New Guinea to South Queensland and that it's the size of Great Britain and Ireland put together. We also learnt that there hadn't been a known fatal shark attack in Queensland. Ever. It was the 'known' bit that worried us frankly.

We had 9 dives in total including a night dive that poor Steve had to miss because, in true action man style, he dived too deep on his previous dive (known as reversing your dives in the industry apparantly). It was a shaking Beth that dived without Steve but the deep and dark serenity of the coral at night calmed her - despite seeing 2 white tipped reef sharks slide sinisterly away from the group. The first dive on our own was scary without the instructor but the second dive was amazing and it was on the third dive that we finally found Nemo and saw a turtle - cool dude!

We left the ScubaPro as certified open water divers and have definitely got the bug. Trust us to have the most expensive hobbies on earth - snowboarding and scuba diving! We didn't stop swaying for 3 days but it was all worth it to have experienced diving on the beautiful Great Barrier Reef. Plus it's a skill we will have forever and we will hopefully get to dive somewhere else on our travels. It shouldn't be too hard to find a spot, after all the world is seven tenths water.