After spending 8 nights in the Northern Territory, we flew to the tropical city of Cairns in northern Queensland. (The Aussies pronounce it “cans.”) From Cairns, we would be heading out onto the Great Barrier Reef for 3 days and 2 nights aboard a diving boat. We gave ourselves a day beforehand to catch our breath and do some laundry. We also had a chance to poke around the city a bit. After grabbing some coffee, we wandered into a local open-air market.

We had a good time poking through the numerous stalls selling crafts, snacks, and produce. We were particularly intrigued by the tropical offerings, including taro, pink taro, peppers, ferns, mangos, guava, and dragon fruit.

After the market, we walked over to the Pro Dive Cairns dive shop to check in and to get sized for masks, flippers, and wet suits.

We also wanted to spend a little time familiarizing ourselves with the diving equipment we would be using, since Julie and I are still new to diving, having only gotten our certification in August when we were in Vanuatu. We then spent some time getting supplies for our upcoming three days on the boat. We ended the day with a walk through Cairns’s bustling night market before getting a beer at a local bar filled with excited Australians watching the semifinals of the Australian Football playoffs. Sadly, my Collingwood Magpies lost.

By 6 AM the next morning we were back at the dive shop, where we checked in and got a look at our fellow passengers. We could hear from the many accents that it was an international group. We’d later learn the group included people from all over the world, including China, France, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, the UK, and the US. Most of the passengers were young (20s), while the rest of us were only young at heart. If we’re being totally honest, Julie and I were the oldest scuba divers by at least a decade.

Soon, it was time to head to the nearby marina. By 7:30 AM, we were on the boat headed off towards the reef!

A little before 11, we reached the first dive site. We tied up to a fixed mooring line (anchors can damage the reef) and everyone began preparing for our first dive. This could have been chaos, since there were 30 passengers on the boat, but it turned out to be smooth sailing. To start, there were 3 passengers who only planned to snorkel, so they were mostly off on their own. Moreover, 19 of the passengers were in the process of getting scuba certified, so they did briefings and dives with their instructors.

That left just 8 certified divers, including Julie and me. For us, each dive started with a briefing from our dive coordinator, Felipe. With the aid of a rough map, he described our navigation to reach the dive site (often a combination of compass headings, depth references, and natural landmarks), the features of the dive (neat things to see), maximum depths, and dive times.

Our first dive was a little nerve wracking, as this was the first time that Julie and I dived without a guide. And only the fifth time we’ve dived at all. But it went great! We dove down to 18 meters (about 60 feet), and saw heaps of amazing fish and corals.

After our dive, we had a great lunch and settled into our cabin. Fortunately, we got one of the few double beds on the boat, which meant we also had a larger space.

After lunch we did our second dive. The navigation was a bit more complicated this time. We didn’t get lost, but there were certainly spots where we weren’t sure if we were on track. We were. We just didn’t know it. Around about the time I started to worry, we saw our first sea turtle hanging out in the coral about 14 meters deep. Soon thereafter, we spotted some familiar landmarks, and returned to the boat fired up for more diving. We did another dive (#3) and had a great dinner. We ended the day with a beautiful sunset on the reef.

Later that night, we did our first night dive (#4). Having already found the navigation to be a little challenging, we were glad to learn that this dive was guided. We geared up as usual, but this time also added colored lights to our tanks to help us stay together as a group. We also had waterproof flashlights to help us see.

As we swam we saw dozens of grey reef sharks, black tipped sharks, and giant trevally, which you can sort of see in the picture I took with our malfunctioning GoPro.

The sharks made Julie a little nervous at first, but it quickly became clear that the they wanted nothing to do with us. Indeed, the sharks didn’t like the lights and avoided us as we came near. The trevallies on the other hand liked the lights, as it helps them hunt smaller reef fish. But there were so many predators on the prowl we didn’t see any smaller fish.

Back on the boat, we showered up. Julie made friends with a bird who used our boat as a roost for the night. We named him “Larry.”

We started the next day with an early morning dive (#5). We ended up diving with a young British couple (Zoe and Reubin), and the four of us had a great encounter with a sea turtle. Zoe kindly shared with us some of her underwater footage.

We then went back to the boat and relaxed before our next dive (#6). Unfortunately, this one didn’t go quite as well.

First, my digital depth gauge stopped working. I realized the problem as soon as we started to descend, so it wasn’t hard to address. We just returned to the boat for a new one. Second, my low pressure inflator disconnected when we were about 10 meters under the water, but reconnecting it was easy peasy. Third and most significantly, the problem with my depth gauge slowed us down, making us the last buddy pair to reach the dive site. By that time, the current had picked up quite a bit, and when we turned to swim back to the boat, the current was too strong. We were swimming just to stand still. In the end, we had to surface and inflate our signal buoy to call for a pickup in the dingy.

All of this was a little tense, but it was also reassuring. All of the training we’d done in Vanuatu worked perfectly. We’d had problems, but we also had all the solutions to deal with them safely. Still, the experience with the strong current left Julie a little nervous about doing another dive. But she decided that the best thing to do was to get right back up on the (sea)horse. And our next dive (#7) went great! More great fish and corals, as well as some massive giant clams. After that dive, we did another night dive (#8), but this time without a guide. We decided to keep it simple and dove with Zoe and Reubin again.

The next morning, we decided to skip the 6:00 AM dive, but by mid morning we were ready to get back into the water (dive #9).

It was another amazing dive. Weaving between coral towers we found an epaulette shark. We surfaced, relaxed, and let some of the dissolved gasses leave our blood.

We still had one more dive to do on our trip. By this time, we had worked out the kinks in our gear, our buoyancy, and our underwater communication. Our last dive (#10) was nothing but fun, and Zoe was nice enough to film us for a bit.

We headed back to the boat and stored our gear for the last time. On the ride back to Cairns, we relaxed and read for a bit.

Once off the boat, we gathered up our things for the ride back to the Pro Dive Cairns shop.

It was an amazing experience. We’d finished 10 dives. For 9 of them, we had guided ourselves. We’d seen an amazing underwater world. And while we are still new to this, we can’t wait for our next dive!

-Will