Port Douglas - Great Barrier Reef

We chose Port Douglas as a vacation location because of its proximity to one of the seven natural wonders of the world - the Great Barrier Reef. We knew we couldn't go diving with the kids with us so we jumped on the opportunity to go away for a weekend by ourselves and get a chance to go back underwater.

While our diving experience is relatively limited (about twenty dives total) we have had the good fortune of diving in some of the world's best locations: Belize, Hawaii and just a year ago in Palau. We did our training the year we got married, dove on two separate trips that year and then waited ten years before picking it up again for three days straight last January. Our Palau experience was transcendent. It rekindled our love for the underwater world.

We enjoy the routine of waking early, eating in the stillness of morning, riding out over the water to your dive site and giving over to an entire day spent admiring nature. 

This trip we found it easier to get back into the rhythm of diving. We remembered the basics. We relaxed. We stressed less and we looked around and enjoyed the incredible variety of coral and fish. The GBR is the largest coral reef system in the world and boasts an estimated 1,500 different species of fish. We found it was hard to really fathom the scale of it all when all you saw was three dives along one general area. 

Diving tends to get lumped in with other adventure sports like rock climbing or bungee jumping but while there's an element of danger - and certainly a lot of gear involved - I find it more about meditation than adrenaline. To pace yourself on your air one must breath slowly and calmly. Once underwater you only communicate through hand signals. It reminds me of yoga more than anything else. It's a chance to just breath and observe - to marvel and admire. 

We saw four or five reef sharks including the one photographed below. We also finally got a good picture of the two of us in full gear - with a clown fish no less! I'm pleased that boat company had such a talented photographer.

I wish we had gotten more commentary on the biology of what we were seeing. The snorkelers on our trip got a quick intro to all the fish types and the history of the reef but as divers we were busy checking our gear and prepping to get into the water. 

Brian said for every dive he just wants to see one cool and memorable thing and this time we both were taken by a bright blue worm that grew out of the coral, waved in the water and then retracted if you got close. It sounds odd to say that was the highlight but it really was. I guess the majesty of a gigantic reef system really comes down to the wonder of a whole elaborate ecosystem working together in beautiful and mysterious ways. We didn't get a picture of the blue worm but after some Googling we think it was this one below.

Blue Christmas Tree worm

You'll also note that we wore thin full length stinger suits to protect any exposed skin from jellyfish. The suits included hoods and we could have also pulled them over our hands but we chose not to. The water itself was 80 degrees.