Great Barrier Reef

We are just back from three days out on the beautiful Great Barrier Reef.  We got a really good deal on a liveaboard boat that went from Cairns out to the outer reef, approx 70 km offshore.  All up we did nine dives over the three days at three different reefs.  Our favourite reef and the one that we did the most diving at was called Milln Reef.  The dives were generally around large bommies, which bottomed out around 25 m and then rose almost to the surface.  On many dives, the fish would congregate around the top of the bommies, which made our safety stops (3 mins at 5 m before going up) very entertaining.  We were also lucky enough to see whales from the boat. 

Trying to describe the dives and the creatures we saw would not really do the GBR justice, so I have loaded a selection of my underwater photos on to flikr.  A few quick highlights included seeing a friendly Hump-headed Maori Wrasse, a Bulbo metapon (hump headed parrot fish) and his feeding scars, a massive giant clam and some sleeping White Tip Reef Sharks. 

Tomorrow we begin our push for The Tip.  The first stop is the Daintree and then the wilds of Cape York.  Consequently, blog updates may be few and far between for the next three weeks.

Click here for GBR diving photos