My experience at the Great Barrier Reef

[SimonSKL]

I just came back from Australia and spent two days at the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns scuba diving and snorkeling.

Cairns is located on the north eastern part of Australia.

The best snorkeling spot was at the Outer Barrier Reef at the top of the map

Miles and miles or coral reef ready to be explored

Here are some underwater pictures and videos from my dives.

A few more pics to come...

 

[SimonSKL]

A few more pics and a short video.

Here is a short video

 

[Monkeyfish]

Very nice. The GB reef is on my list of "must dive" locations.

 

[Speckled Grouper]

Beautiful pictures! What camera did you use?
We are going on December 1st. Can't wait, we will be diving from the Spirit of Freedom Liveaboard for 4 days.

 

[SimonSKL]

I used a rental digital camera which can take both still pics and video from a store near the pier. It costs about $50 a day and it included burning all your pics and videos plus some bonus pictures on a DVD. Don't buy any of those disposable underwater camera, it a waste of money. Have a great time on your trip!

 

[Adam P]

im here in melbourne, aus (from FL) working for a few months and i want to make it up there for some diving. any input on where you stayed, charters you took, etc?? im going up there around nov3-6 or so and want to make the most of it.

pics look great, looks like a blast!!!!!!!

 

[SimonSKL]

im here in melbourne, aus (from FL) working for a few months and i want to make it up there for some diving. any input on where you stayed, charters you took, etc?? im going up there around nov3-6 or so and want to make the most of it.

pics look great, looks like a blast!!!!!!!

Adam,
I stayed at Sebel Cairns Hotel which is a nice 5 star hotel about 7 minutes walk to the pier where all GBR tours and cruises begin each day.

My best experience has been with the Great Adventures Outer GBR Cruises. It is not as crowded like the Green Island tour and the destination is not an island but a submerged reef. The corals there are much more colorful and dense and within top 5 feet of surface. The only cons are it took almost 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to come back that leaves less than 3 hrs for underwater activities plus it is somewhat expensive $195 AUD per person.

http://www.greatadventures.com.au/

Good luck and have fun with your trip!

 

[SimonSKL]

BTW Adam, since you are in Melbourne did you take time to visit Port Campbell, The Twelve Apostles, and the coastline? The scenery there is breathtaking and worth a trip if you haven't been there. Here are a few pics from my visit of the southern coastline.

 

[thewire]

...i have family in Queensland..i have to go there one day!

 

[Patwa]

awesome shots....I learned to dive on the GBR almost 3 years ago......what an awesome experience...about to embark on a month-long dive trip to SE Asia...seeing your pics is getting me pumped up!

check out my dive pics.....I swear some of your shots have the same feel as mine!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1547582

Zach

 

[pramberg]

Thanks for sharing. I'd love to go someday.

 

[SimonSKL]

awesome shots....I learned to dive on the GBR almost 3 years ago......what an awesome experience...about to embark on a month-long dive trip to SE Asia...seeing your pics is getting me pumped up!

check out my dive pics.....I swear some of your shots have the same feel as mine!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1547582

Zach

Zach,
Just came back from your thread. Awesome pictures you took! So colorful. Despites all these great pictures, they still can't describe what it really feels like diving among all those beautiful corals and fish. My eyes and brain just couldn't process so much beautiful scenery. It was a dream came true for me.

 

[evokevin]

awsome pictures! water looks very clear!

we were there in the end of march/april for 3 weeks throughout AUS/NZ. we also spend 2 days in cairns, and 2 days on hamilton island. while in cairns we went to green island and snorkled there. we also went snorkling on one of the outer reefs on hamilton island. SUCH a beautiful place.

what fish did you all see? some of those parrot fish are huge!

 

[Adam P]

i did the whole great ocean road trip. landscape was awesome and we saw lots of wildlife (koala, kangaroo, dingos, etc). my GBR trip may be postponed for a few months as work has died off out here and im going back to FL. sucks because i heard this was the time to go, before the rainy hot season comes around

 

[SPSpirate]

Great pics!! The reef there look really healthy!!

 

[aquaticareef]

looks like fun

 

[islesfan4lyf]

Diving at the Great Barrier Reef is something that everyone who loves this hobby needs to experience. Most amazing thing I've ever witnessed.

Any of you guys run into any sharks while diving there?

I was lucky(or unlucky depending how you look at it) enough to follow around a 5 foot white tip reef shark for a few minutes. So surreal.

 

[FearTheTerps]

Wow, I'm happy I came across this. Back in 1997 when I was 14 I did the same exact tour with Great Adventures out to the platform to snorkel. We also spent a few days out on Fitzroy Island as well. It was amazing, the highlight of my life as a kid. I took tons and tons of pictures with those disposable underwater cameras, back then thats about the only option you had to take pics without shelling out a ton of money. I must have taken over 300, thats alot when you consider theres only 24 exposures per camera. Sad to say all my pics were lost a few years afterwards, with no clue where they went to. I lost all of the pictures from the entire trip which included a week in New Zealand, a week in and around Sydney, and a week on the reef.

Brings back some very fond memories. Thank You for sharing Simon.

 

[Speckled Grouper]

We got back a few hours ago from the trip of a lifetime!
Our dive trip on the Spirit of Freedom was absolutely fantastic, the weather and vis couldn't have been better. The diving was like swimming in a gigantic fish tank, we took about 2000 pictures.
After the dive, we made our way down the QLD coast from Townsville to Mackay to Yeppoon to Bundaberg and Brisbane, from there we flew to Sydney and spend our last days.
Beautiful country, awesome people, can't wait to go back!

 

[SimonSKL]

We got back a few hours ago from the trip of a lifetime!
Our dive trip on the Spirit of Freedom was absolutely fantastic, the weather and vis couldn't have been better. The diving was like swimming in a gigantic fish tank, we took about 2000 pictures.
After the dive, we made our way down the QLD coast from Townsville to Mackay to Yeppoon to Bundaberg and Brisbane, from there we flew to Sydney and spend our last days.
Beautiful country, awesome people, can't wait to go back!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I would like to go back again after I save up more money. Things are pretty expensive down-under. It seems everything costs twice as much as in U.S.