I apologize that I don't really have any pictures of this dive, so you'll just have to rely on me to describe it for you! On Sunday, I dove for the last time in Australia. While this was bittersweet I couldn't have asked for a better day or dive experience to do so! We were diving Flinders which is just North of Moreton Island, one of the sand islands along Moreton Bay, and is the Southern most tip of the GBR. This reef is actually considered one of the top dive sites in Australia, despite its far southern location. Because of this when I found out there was a Unidive trip going the day after my 4th final I jumped at the chance!
A signed up with a friend of mine also in Unidive so we were able to buddy together for the day. We left Brisbane at 6a so it was an early morning, but the day was gorgeous. Blue skies and the water was as smooth as glass! No seasickness for anyone today! On our way out to the dive site we saw humpback whales, and they were right along side of the boat. We watched them play and breach and it was fantastic!
Our first dive site was a swim through called Eldon's Cave. We were navigating on our own in small groups and because I got some experience in Cairns I felt confident that we would be fine. And we were. We missed the cave… but that was because it really wasn't a cave and most of the divers swam right past it. But we found something better. We continued on and came to this valley with high walls of coral. On top of the walls there were heaps of large turtles hanging over the walls, and batfish hanging around the turtles. We were surrounded by a wall of turtles and it was amazing!!!! It was incredibly surreal. We headed back and our group split up because one of the divers was low on air. My buddy and I continued on, and I was so glad we did. Minutes later, a sizable octopus swam past me. It settled on the bottom right in front of me and flashed colors for about a minute before deciding it was going to blend into it's surrounding. I watched in awe as it rearranged its arms to take on the exact shape of the corals around it and turn the exact color of the corals. If I didn't know it was an octopus I would not have spotted it.
So obviously our first dive was excellent. Then for our second dive we were at a site called the turtle cleaning station. Already I was excited!!!!! Basically, this site is a enormous staghorn coral that turtles have been coming to for centuries, they've been coming there so long that they've made these flattened plates of dead spots on the corals. They sit here and damsel fish clean them. The turtles that come here are hundreds of years old, the one that we were chilling with was around 5 ft long!!! They hang in the water totally unbothered by the divers and get clean. It's absolutely amazing being apart of their world in this way. Flinders is such a diverse reef with multitudes of different coral landscapes and animals interacting freely with each other, it was such an excellent example of what makes coral reefs truly special.
As sad as I am to be ending my diving experiences in Australia, I'm so lucky that I got to dive as much as I did while I was here. I dove a total of 20 times since I got here, previously I had 5 dives under my belt, so I quadrupled my diving experience! I got better with my air and buoyancy, learned how to navigate, and generally because a better diver. I have a lot to learn still, but this was such a great way to get experience. Also going to a university with a DIVING CLUB has been so cool, it's made it incredibly easy to get a chance to do something that I love and I've meet some great people along the way. I'm going to miss being around the ocean, and being able to dive so frequently. But I know this for sure, next time I travel I want to go somewhere I can dive, and I'll try to take advantage of as many dive opportunities as I can get. Diving is unique, there is nothing else like the sensation of moving around 60 ft beneath the waves, and being an observer of some of the most wonderful animals on Earth. I love it with all my heart and can't wait until I can get back under the water again!!!
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