17
Location: Great Barrier Reef
Today was a very long dive day filled with lots of sleeping and snacks in between. To begin, we were woken up by our dive coordinator, Flo, with a loud knocking sound as he yelled: “Wake up, wake up, dive time!” As it was 6:45 in the morning, we woke up in a turtle-like manner. After the dive briefing, we hopped into the chilly, not yet sun-warmed, water. During our last two dives on Milln Reef, we got to explore the various bommies and the giant coral mushroom. We saw a blacktip reef shark, stingray, and huge parrotfish. At around 12, with a lunch of black beans and rice, we moved to a new reef. For the evening dive and the night dive, we dove Flynn Reef, an exciting change. As we arrived at the new destination, we prepped our kit, slid into our soggy wetsuits and leaped in. We got comfortable with the dive site as we were to dive it in the dark a few hours after. For dinner, we got to enjoy some nice lasagna from the cook, Ben. When the sun fell over the seemingly endless horizon, we got briefed for the night dive and hit the water. We saw a white tip shark, another stingray, and lots of red bass. As I shined my light through the darkness, it felt as though I was breaking into the Great Barrier Reef. Our group surfaced to dry clothes, cake, and hot chocolate. Having done all of the dives, I felt exhausted like many others. We dozed off knowing that tomorrow our wake up time was to be 5:45 am 🙁 Today had relaxing moments above the surface and at depth. Overall, today was totally worth the time, drive, and energy invested!