Visiting the Great Barrier Reef has been a bucket list item for Robin and me for a very long time: other than seeing our friends Sarah, Ian, Patty and Graham it was the experience we most looked forward to as we planned our trip.
We had done some snorkeling in 2004 in San Blas Panama with our kids when they were very young which was a memorable experience.
But the Reef! This was a different level,
Heron Island was particularly appealing because you were literally living on the reef itself. The island was 80 km off the coast. So many of the other sites we had investigated involved very long boat rides from the resort or accommodation out to the reef for snorkeling. Here you could literally wade out at high tide and start snorkeling. We did this on a number of occasions and always found rays and reef sharks. The area around the ship wreck was particularly popular with the larger fish.
The best snorkeling was a five minute boat ride out to the edges of the reef. On our first trip on Sunday we went to Blue Pools. A tucked away coral bay of sorts it provides a great introduction to the reef and a wonderful opportunity to get our fins wet again! The resort supplied snorkel googles and fins. Over the three days we essentially covered the sites between the North Bommie and Coral Gardens. Each location was incredible.
Before we left our son Stew had lent me his Go Pro camera and given me clear and logical instructions on how to use it. Of course I forgot his advice and struggled with the settings the first time out. We eventually got the hang of it and I’m pretty sure we have some incredible pictures. Now I just need to figure out how to get them off the Go Pro.
As we were going to be away from our home on our respective birthdays our three kids decided to treat us to the excursion of our choice. We settled on a PADI Discover Scuba program where we would be given a short orientation in a classroom; followed by a short pool session with an instructor where we would learn the basics of operating the equipment, and some essential skills (equalizing, replacing your respirator if it falls out, emptying water from mask). Sarah decided to join Robin and me and a young woman named Ellie from England who was traveling on a work visa joined us. She had completed her courses as a teenager but needed a refresh. All of us went from being chatty and excited to subdued at increasingly anxious as our fumbling attempts to perform the various tasks as we bumped into each other and the various swimmers who were in the pool.
An hour later we were geared up and heading out on the dive boat for our 30 minute discovery dive
Pete and Lisa were with us for a snorkel session and Ian, who had completed his own refresh that morning, was also on the boat with a group of experienced divers. The water seemed a lot rougher than the previous day: we pitched and tossed as the crew talked about the best spot to anchor. The snorkel group went first (Lisa equipped with Stew’s Go Pro as we weren’t allowed to bring any additional devices on our scuba dive – and for good reason!) and we felt some alarm as the current sent them flying away from us in the general direction of the channel. The experienced group went next as we had our briefing. As we began to finish checking our gear Ian and another diver re-emerged from the water along with the guide. The second diver had her o-ring seal break sending a stream of oxygen from her tank. The guide needed to support her with her emergency respirator as they returned to the surface. While everyone seemed remarkably unfazed by this I think I can speak for Robin and certainly myself in saying this didn’t assuage our anxiety! Soon after that our dive was called off- the current was just too strong.
Sarah asked if we could do a snorkel instead which was approved. We slipped into the water with Elliott and had an amazing ride in the current along the reef. In such a small group it was possible to really take in the magnificent coral and incredible range of fish, turtles sharks and rays.
Once the snorkel was over and the boat took us back to shore we were told that the dive had been rescheduled for the next day.
I’m pretty sure as we headed out in even choppier water that next morning we all thought (and maybe hoped) that it would be cancelled again. But although the waves were up (swamping the front of the boat on one occasion) the current had lessoned and we found ourselves jumping off the boat into the Blue Pools dive site again. Sarah and Robin both stepped from the boat as if they had been doing this for years. I had visualized myself leaving the boat with confidence, like a Navy Seal on a secret mission. As I stepped off I was alarmed that one of my fins seemed to have decided to remain on the boat. I sheepishly retrieved my missing fin from an incredulous crew member whose face told me that she had never seen that particular move before. A few strokes and I found myself at the rope we were to use to descend to the bottom, pausing every couple of meters to equalize. As I started down I say that Robin and Sarah had almost reached the bottom. I released the oxygen from my scuba vest and started to pull myself down. At about 8 meters I experienced some shooting pain in my ear. I scooted back up to 6 and tried to get equalize again this time succeeding and joining the group.
The next 35 minutes were incredible. Maintaining buoyancy was something I had struggled with in the pool; this time everything seemed to click. I recalled our instructor Elliot’s advice to think of scuba diving as a form of mediation and joined the others as we floated through and incredible coral wonderland. We saw the reef and it’s inhabitants from a completely different perspective than you do from the surface.
Turtles, rays, sharks, schools of fish, beautiful coral and at one point a clear sighting of a giant manta ray (for some, it was a glimpse for me). We stayed down for almost 30 minutes getting as low as 12 meters. For an experienced scuba diver like our friend Mary Lynn this would probably be pretty humdrum- for us it was magic.
This experience was duplicated the next day on our last snorkel boat. We drifted from the Coral Grotto to Coral Gardens. This time I had Stew’s Go Pro with me and put it to good use. More sharks and incredible schools of fish but this time playful turtles who swam in and out of the group even surfacing to breath before diving gracefully into the nooks and crannies of the reef. Again we were struck by their grace in the water as compared to their lumbering movements in the sands of Heron Island. These turtles were much younger- no where near the size of the 35+ year old adults who return to the islands and beaches where they were born.
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