Diving the Great Barrier Reef

There was a cool morning breeze coming off the Townsville harbor. I was jittery with anticipation of my second dive trip to none other than the largest reef in the world. We loitered at the dock until the boat crew had us try on our rental gear and welcomed us aboard. We had worked it out the day before when booking our trip with Adrenaline Dive- Michele and I would do one dive together while Justin and Nick snorkeled and then after lunch Justin and I would dive while the other two snorkeled. Nick was disappointing that you have to be 12 to do a Discovery Dive in Queensland. 10 is the age everywhere else in the world but where we were.

It was a two hour ride out to Lodestone reef. We got to know some Canadians on board and soaked in the ocean sun. There were about 20 other passengers on board snorkeling and diving. Before we got to the reef our dive guide Achim briefed us on some logistics. He told us it was likely we would see some reef sharks.
"Those won't hurt you, but a week ago we did have a tiger shark. If we see a tiger shark we go down" he did the signal for descend, "and make a circle on the bottom. Now hold hands." All of us 8 divers did. "Closer closer." Everyone scooted in. "And then I get in the middle" he joked.

Girls before gearing up

A mile and a half from the reef we all struggled into our wet suits and slipped into our gear. I had set mine up during the ride. The water out on the open ocean was the bluest I had ever seen. It looked like blue raspberry cotton candy!

Michele and I were dive buddies. We followed Achim around the reef as he pointed out all kinds of corals and marine life. Prior to our dive I had heard how severe reef bleaching was. Lodestone was untouched with giant sea fans swaying in the current and twisting hard corals creating a 3 dimensional labyrinth for fish. Giant clams a yard across had the most beautiful turquoise and rich purple colors and clown fish would peek out at me from their anemones. We did see a crown of thorns star fish. Crown of thorns leech life from coral reefs killing square yards at a time. They are spreading insanely quick through coral all over the pacific and doing lots of damage. Divers actually kill them by injecting vinegar into one of their limbs.

White Tips of Queensland
Image credit naturelive.net

At one point we came to a spot where table coral formed an overhang a bit like a cave. Achim straightened his hand and put it on his head with his fingers pointed towards the surface. The signal for shark. Two white tipped reef sharks were circling in the cave. White tips are harmless but still intimidating at 5 or 6 feet long. Achim beckoned me down and I keeled on the bottom a few feet away from the predators. They swam in circles their beady eyes flicking over to us and away. Over and away. I looked up to see Nick snorkeling on the surface. Little did he know 30 feet below were two circling sharks. Eventually the pair got sick of us and swam off to another part of the reef. It was a pretty incredible experience!

Having some fun before ascent

Meanwhile up above Nick and Justin also got to see the sharks and just as close up. The coral where they were was 3 or 4 feet below the surface so perfect for snorkeling. Because the closer to the surface the more colorful things are they got to see some hues us girls didn't.

We all reunited on the dive boat and swapped shark encounter stories over lunch. I slipped in a quick snorkel with Nick before my other dive and I would say the view from above was just as good if not better.

For me and Justin's dive we didn't get to see as much but we had lots of time to study things up close.

It was a really fun day and on the ride back to the main land Michele and I detailed our adventures in our dive logs. We all slept well that night and I think it's fair to say we can check Great Barrier Reef off of our bucket lists!

We had a great time with Achim and the rest of the Adrenalin crew!