Dag 102: I am an advance diver!

the Great Barrier Reef
Everything in Australia is huge, to make it easy for you they added 'great' to every name. Like the 'Great Barrier Reef'. 2000 km of beautiful Coral formation stretches out on the north east coast of Australia. A three hour boatride took me there and i was surprised to find very shallow water. The best parts of the coral are to be found at 5 till 18 meters.
The most famous inhabitant of the Reef is ofcourse the clownfish Nemo. I allready saw a lot of these funny clownfishes in Japan and Thailand but they all were the nephews and nieces of Nemo. The real Nemo lives here in Australia. Has everybody seen that movie? Well uncle Walt left out one important fact. If mother clownfish dies, dad has a sexchange and becomes female (including reproductive system!). Nice detail they forgot to tell you, ain't it.

Advance diving
We leave Cairns harbour for a three day divingtrip at the reef. 11 dives in 2.5 days, pretty severe. You start diving at sunrize and you end around 8 o'clock in the evening. I am trying to get my advanced certificate this way. A day before i picked up my instructionbook and start studying. I know i make a lot of strange jokes, but i can be pretty serious too. So if people ask me to study, i study (except for French that is). So i study the chapters i suppose to do and stresses the important things, with my new yellow marker. I also do all the reviews at the end of the chapter (sound familiar?) I place questionmarks at the things i do not understand. I even do an extra chapter about peak bouancy. Like i said i am pretty serious about it and i want to improve my skills.
I feel like a fool when my advance instructor just gives the answers of the reviews, which the other pupils write down, because they hadn;'t any time to read. When i ask her one of my questions, she sights out loud, she doen't seem to be interested in teaching me.(actually she don't know the answer) . It felt like a cold shower after the excellent experiences i had in Thailand when i got my Open Water. But then again i am here to enjoy my dives.

Fist fundive
Ever played football as a young kid. The trainer explains the tactics, tells you that there are defences and an offenders in this game. But as soon as the ball is in the game everyone, including the keeper, jumps on the ball. Well the first fundive is like this. Our instructor Steve debriefs the 18 divers about the route to take and he ends by saying that this is the only dive he will guide and asks us who will join him. All 18 fingers go in the air. So steve explains the rules, how to follow him in pairs of two and buddy us up. But as soon we hit the water, evrybody jumps on Steve. I lost track of my buddy. I never saw this guy before and in the water everybody looks the same in their blue stingersuit.

First Nightdive
Everybody is a little bit scared, because nobody knows what is going happen. You jump in dark water and you know there are sharks, no better yet there are so many triggerfish out there, waiting for you. There is even a triggerfish that is dressed up like a clown. That is one fish you don't want to meet in the dark. At one of my dives a triggerfish yawns at me and show me his big teeth. I think prefer the beautifull and friendly reefsharks!
So its you, you're buddy, a torch and the big dark ocean. But as soon as i get into the water i am surprised how much you can see. All those torches of your fellow divers, make the dive a bizar play. The second nightdive is really fun, now i am used to it, i try to spot the nocturnal animals. Most of the time i annoy the sleeping fish, but i do see some shrimps. I really loved the nightdives.

First Deepdive
Don't ask me to stand on a 3m ladder. do not ask me to go up a tower. Although you see me doing some stupid things, like the staircase to heaven in Korea and looking down intoKkings Canyon, i still freak out on heights.
But going down 28m in the water, no problem. This was one of the best dives this trip. Floating in front of this huge wall of coral. It was really beautifull. I didn't experience any nitogen narcose (although i think so, or did i try to kiss that clown triggerfish)

Almost the final dive
I got a new buddy. Steve briefs us the route and guidelines. Before we get in i ask my buddy what he wants to do. He replies: "like Steve said" After 3 minutes my buddy turns left in stead of right and we got stuck in a current, that drifts us away from the boat..As we ascend we are still in the current and can't get back, so we for a pick up. On board Steve asks us if we were planning to go to Fiji. Would be cheaper than flying i reply. I ask my buddy why he didn;t stick to Steve guidelines. My buddy answers that he was still sleeping during the briefing.

I am an advanced diver now
At the end of the trip i become an advanced diver. Well on paper that is, i don't feel like it.I still ran out of air pretty fast (my dives didn't last longer then 35 minutes) and most of the time i didn't had a clue where i was swimming to. I look at the compass, i read the compass, but what is it saying to me (its a Homer situation) Don't ask me to indentify a fish (the triggerfish i know by now)
Anyway it feels really good saying it slowly: a-d-v-a-n-c-e-d d-i-v-e-r. Pretty proud of it too.
And diving at the great barrier reef? It was amazing. I still can't get enough of the turttles. They are my favorite creatures. The way they swim makes my heart jump.
I learned a lot about diving with unknown buddys. When we are heading back to Cairns, i concluded that these trips are better if you got a familiar buddy. Someone who shares the same interests and goals (uh maybe the same airconsumption would be nice). So all you pretty ladies, if you like water (and if you can yell at me if i lost direction AGAIN) you know where to find me. Next divetrip i am planning is to Hawai (how convenient).


The best picture i took. This green sea turtle. There were lots of them.
They are so cute, when they swim.

Look at the dives times! 19:30 its dark! and 6:30 is early



The sun is getting up at the great barrier reef


Giant Clam




diagobal-banded sweetlips




Got lost, stuck in a current and we couldnt get back to the boat.
We needed some help