This diving safari was the most beautiful experience I have had in my life so far. At least it's in the top 3. I can't put into words how incredibly beautiful the Great Barrier Reef is and how grateful I am to have experienced it myself before it may one day cease to exist!
I completed a total of eleven dives and spent a total of 537 minutes underwater, which is about 9 hours!!! π And I gained so many experiences. I learned how to navigate underwater alone with the compass, during the night dive I even 'led' a small group, and overall I saw sooo many amazing animals. We saw dolphins, sooo many turtles, stingrays, barracudas, a lobster, sharks, beautiful corals, and of course much more. Absolutely incredible and breathtaking. The underwater visibility was extremely good, you could see very far, and at times it actually felt like being in an aquarium! π
Our group really bonded over the three days.
We had Germans, Swedes, Canadians, Swiss, Americans, Brits, Belgians, Australians, French, Dutch, and others. It's so interesting to exchange with each other, to find out what the others do in their lives. One works for Facebook, another is a police officer, someone else is a teacher. Essentially, we were all so different, yet connected through diving. It's amazing that something like this can happen in such a short time, I think it's great!
Let me show you some pictures of my diving experiences:
This was our boat. My small cabin was located at the very bottom of the boat and had no window. But it wasn't a problem to sleep in there. On the contrary, the gentle rocking of the ship lulled me to sleep nicely. π
Before each dive, it was noted who went underwater with whom at what time. Afterwards, we checked off everyone who returned to the boat. π
That's me, after jumping into the water. The water was around 29 degrees Celsius the entire time. It was soooo nice! π
This picture was taken on our second day. Most of us were sitting on the deck when suddenly the captain pointed out our visitors. The dolphins came very close to our boat and Guille, one of the team members, jumped into a speedboat, drove it around our boat, and the dolphins swam and jumped in front of him. It was a very special moment, everyone cheered and was excited! π
This picture is probably my favorite. I must have seen a turtle about eight times during the dives and every single time I was so happy about it! π They are such graceful and majestic creatures! Here are two more photos:
Cute, right??? πππ
The following fish is a pufferfish, also one of my favorite fish. Just look at this crazy pattern! π Its nose is particularly cute, it looks like a little pig's nose:
This is a triggerfish. I already told you about them in Thailand. They are the fish that follow you within their funnel-shaped territory. It actually happened to me on the second day, I didn't notice it in time. When it started swimming purposefully after me, I quickly turned onto my back and paddled backwards to get away from it. That was quite exciting! π
If you look very closely at this photo, you can spot two clownfish. They are very shy creatures, they swim out of the anemone and then backwards back in. π
These fish here were also very impressive:
This is a bumphead parrotfish, a huge creature and we even saw a school of them! They're not particularly pretty, are they? π One thing that really impressed me was diving with so many sharks. This here is a white tip reef shark. If you look closely, you can also see how the shark got its name. The fin on its back has a small white tip! The reef sharks are very peaceful sharks, they surrounded our boat during the night and swam very close to us when we went underwater. It was a bit thrilling. But, as I said, they are harmless! π I'm especially proud of my diving mask. I bought it with a discount from the diving organization before the safari and was able to test it intensively for three days. I'm very satisfied and a bit proud to finally own my first piece of diving equipment! π The long suit with a hood was mandatory because it's jellyfish season at the moment and it allowed us to protect ourselves as best as possible from jellyfish stings.
A little bit of coral must not be missing among the pictures, of course! Here you can see a particularly beautiful specimen of fan coral. Oh, I love all of this so much!! π
The most beautiful dive was probably the first dive on the third day. We were already woken up at 5:30 in the morning, held the briefing during the sunrise, and were underwater around 6:30. Some fish were still lying on their sides in their rock niches, sleeping, others were just waking up, and with them the entire reef gradually came to life. It was a very special experience! Underwater, nothing counts that might still worry you above water. Time really stands still down there and you can completely switch off. π
I don't know if you can understand my enthusiasm, but my heart beats so fast when I think about these three days.
