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Oh my goodness, what an awesome day! I signed up to dive when I was on the boat and now I want to do more! It wasn't cheap, but the Great Barrier Reef isn't exactly my back yard and my budget is going very well so I went for it. I'm on such a high, it must be all that oxygen! We had a cloudy day and it rained, although it was still a comfortable 25 degrees. It wasn't too much of a problem since we were underwater but it did affect the visibility a little (although we could see well enough). The ride out to the reef was really choppy but we were diverted from noticing too much with safety briefings. We stopped at 2 locations. The first I snorkelled at and then it was my groups turn to dive. The ratio was fantastic as 2:1 and Jaz held our hands throughout the 30 minute dive. I felt like a beached whale getting into the water with a 13kg oxygen tank on my back as well as about 10kg of weights on my belt. Luckily once in the water, most of the weight was unnoticeable. We sank down slowly, having to equalize the pressure in our ears and sinuses about every 1 metre. I had no trouble at all with my ears which pleased me greatly. It was so cool breathing the oxygen. Now I know (kind of) how the women I look after in labour feel with the gas and air. It really does make your mouth feel dry at times. I saw lots of fish and corals and the dive was over far too quickly. We rose slowly to the surface, equalizing the pressure again on the way up. After a delicious buffet lunch, we moved to some shallower coral and I did my second dive of 30 minutes. It was more fun this time as Jaz said that I didn't have to hold her hand once we had descended and were on the sea bed. It gave me so much more freedom but was also a little scary at times as I didn't want to drift off too far or hit coral with my flippers. I saw nemo's, stingrays, parrotfish, wrasse, emperor fish, sea cucumbers, starfish and lots more. There's only one word to describe it - AWESOME! The sea temp was nice and warm at 26 degrees - I wore a short wetsuit though as I was scared of jellyfish! I took some good shots with the digital camera I rented. I pick the images up tomorrow. I feel so lucky and grateful to have been healthy enough to experience all that I have today. If family had been around me now I would have given them earache about how awesome it was!
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