7-8.July.2016 (Day 32-33)

I like turtles

An American, a New Zealander, and two Liechtensteiners are on a boat…

…and the diving is amazing!

Two days on the Great Barrier Reef will never be enough. We spent most of the time moving the boat around a small area called Norman reef. When you look at a map of the entire reef, what felt like kilometers of pristine coral, was really only a drop in the bucket.

Fortunately I did have a camera that was able to go underwater. Unfortunately it’s only rated to go to 10m (~32 feet) and most the dives we took were below that.

For all 6 dives, and a fair bit of snorkeling, I was paired up with a kiwi and two girls from Lichtenstein (not the smallest country in the world, but with only 36,000 people it’s pretty darn tiny). We were all working o our advanced open water training which was a plus because now I can go down to 30m (~100ft) instead of only 18m (~30ft) with my previous training. Another plus was that we had an instructor/guide with us on all our dives who normally knew where all the cool stuff was.

I’m going to need to break from my standard protocol here. Rather than try to identify all the fish in my photos, I figured I’d just rattle them all off and save myself the embarrassment of terrible mis-identification.

There were fish and coral everywhere! Luckily we were far enough south (due east of Cairns) to avoid the spots that have become really bleached from climate change.

There were big fish

And little fish

Giant clams

And bizarre sea cucumbers

(even ones who spit out their intestines if you got too close)

Cryptic cephalopods you had to look hard to see

Vibrant corals

(in almost every color)

Famous fish

Pretty fish

There were fish all over!

(fish all over part deux) 

Sting-rays and sharks 

And giant anemones (again with aforementioned famous fish)

But without a doubt, my favorite animals encountered under the sea...

Turtles!!!

Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)

Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas)

One was even nice enough to allow me a seat at the dinner table

Shameless turtle selfie #4

I wish I could have captured all the moments better. I'm happy to report this diving trip is locked firmly in the memory banks. 

This video doesn't come close to giving the reefs majesty justice, but hopefully you get the picture.