Monday, September 08, 2003

Finding Nemo and My Sea Legs

Another email...

Hi all

Have been back on solid ground for three hours and the ground still seems to be swaying back and forth. Quite the odd sensation.

Anyway, the dive trip was a complete blast. After two days of classroom and pool training we headed out to Reef-tel, the live-aboard boat which stays out on the reef at all times. To get to the reef from Cairns you have to cross two hours of the "marine desert" in one of the day boats. We had a particularly bad day of choppy waters which caused many passengers to lose their breakfast over the sides of the boat. Even Reef-tel was bobbing like crazy in the waves and we were a little concerned since this was to be our home for the next three days.

But eventually we became accustomed to the continual swaying back and forth. Our training dives were good, but the real fun started when we were let loose to explore the reef on our own. We of course saw the standard heaps of colourful fish (including little clown fish forever more known to all as Nemo!) But the highlights were definitely the white tipped sharks that we observed chilling out on the bottom of the ocean and the sea turtle that swam with along side the reef for several minutes. Also, completed my first night dive which involved about ten of us heading down into the pitch black depths with our torches and exploring the coral.

Living aboard the boat also gave us the opportunity to witness some of most spectacular sunsets and sunrises (yes! we were up diving at sunrise!) that I have ever seen.
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Anyway, heading tomorrow south to Mission Beach for a couple of chillout days and then on to Magnetic Island for hopefully more diving.

Thanks to everyone who has sent messages the last few days...love getting the updates from home. Hoping to get a chance to reply them all. Email is super cheap here in Cairns so hoping it continues that way down the coast.

Lots of love to all,
Alicia

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