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25 TODAY!!!! And what a day it has been. I will remember this Birthday for the rest of my life. Absolutely AMAZING!!!!
I headed off at 6.20am to walk down to he jetty and catch my boat. At 6.20am it decided to absolutely pelt it down with rain. Not a great start to the day. My hope wavered. However, that hope was soon rebooted with the kindness of a stranger. From behind me I heard the beep of a car horn. Out of the car comes the sentence 'Would you like a lift?' A little bemused I said pardon and got the same sentence back. I was a bit weary but after a quick chat I agreed to the lift from a guy who own various house shares in the area and rented to backpackers. In fact I'd seen him loading his car with stuff belonging to a guy staying at the YHA. The nice man dropped me at the jetty, after reassuring me that the weather was only coastal and it should be fine on the reef.
I walked down to find the boat and boarded eventually. It was just me and a European lass called Maria. Both of us were doing the intro dive and made sure we went round as a pair while snorkelling and on our dives. Reassuring each other that it was perfectly normal to be nervous!
There was a good bit of banter going with Simon, the guy taking the photos of the intro dive and we had a good giggle on our way out. We were in the second dive group to go so went out for a snorkel to start. It was a good way for me to feel a bit more comfortable about doing the dive.
So the time came to do the intro dive. A little scared while having weights out on and breathing apparatus strapped and checked. That stuff is flipping heavy!
Anyway, we went through all our skill checks and then hooked arms and gradually went down. My birthday by this time had started to become known to various members of the crew.
We went down deeper, ears popping and balancing as we went. Once down on the floor of the reef we had our piccies taken and fed some fish. It was incredible. I couldn't believe I'd actually done it.
Things got better though. As we snorkelled on we saw a giant clam which really was rather giant! Best of all though we saw a turtle. He was a young turtle but soooo cute. I got to stroke him too. A sea turtle!!!!! Incredible. I got to stroke the shell of a sea turtle on the Great Barrier Reef! DUDE!!! AWESOME!!!!
Once we surfaced I found it hard not to cry to start with. I was so pleased with myself and so so excited that I seem a turtle and experienced the Great Barrier Reef in that way. We sat back down with some lunch and head to the next spot.
After not very much persuading I decided to do a second dive at our next spot. Marie decided to as well and with it just being us two we had a personal dive exploration of our second reef spot. We saw a giant clam again and played with it for a bit which was quite fun. Seeing it close and open and close and open. We also a almost saw Nemo! It was Nemo's cousin. But it was Cousin and Cousin Jnr althought the baby one didn't have a lucky fin.
I went out snorkelling again before grabbing a cuppa and some cake for the trip back to shore. I could not stop smiling. I purchased my photos from Simon and had a good old chat.
Just as we got into port Simon decide to tell the whole boat it was 'someone's' birthday. The whole boat then said Happy Birthday. A voice piped up that they should sing. Then commenced a rendition of Happy Birthday to someone which made me,Maria and Simon laugh.
I could not have asked for a better way and more memorable way to spend my 25th. I grab some dinner, wrote some postcards, had a good long chat to a friend, packed and am now going to get an earlyish nights sleep. Have an early start for Bowen by coach tomorrow. :)
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