Scuba Diving Vacations in Australia – Great Barrier Reef
A Scuba Diving Vacation at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is something many divers dream about. There are approximately 2,000 individual reefs and 71 coral islands, scattered in the ocean.
OzDive say that Scuba Divers will get the most value if they go on a Live Aboard boat trip, because most of the best spots are quite a distance from the shorelines. They provide a list of Live Aboard Boat Dive Operators here for a
Scuba Diving Vacation at Great Barrier Reef Australia. The list is a great place to start looking and many of them have specials on offer at certain times of the year too.
I started looking at the Tourist like websites, and they’re all so good, and there’s so many, it must be difficult to choose which one to go with. Here’s a Great Barrier Reef Map
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I found some reviews of the Great Barrier Reef which have been written by people who’ve been there themselves.
A Scuba Diver over at Epinions.com gives an exciting review of his
Scuba Diving Vacation at Great Barrier Reef, Australia. This diver has obviously dived the Caribbean too, so compares a little. Here’s an extract of what he says about the Scuba Diving.
The reef (yes, I finally got to it) is astounding. Those used to the fringing reefs which hug the shoreline all over the Caribbean will be astounded at the sheer topography of the coral bommies in the GBR. The ones closest to shore are pyramidal in shape and contain a fascinating array of species which change as you spiral towards the surface. As you swim towards the open ocean side, the reef moves more uniformly towards the surface forming a wide belt of broad corals plains and tiny channels, with swimming pool like depressions to explore. In the channels you are likely to see reef sharks slowly patrolling their domain, giant clams up to 6 feet wide placidly filtering the seawater while their colorful symbiotic algaes soak up the sunlight streaming down, and the occasional octopus exploring holes in the reef for food. It really is magnificent.
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Night dives were especially exciting. Here again, it would have been nice to have my dive light which I left at home we were given small underwater flashlights which emitted a narrow, sickly yellowish beam. But when you see an 8 foot long sea turtle sleeping under a ledge you soon forget about equipment.
Melissa Rodriguez over at About.com Scuba Diving blog, gives a very comprehensive review of the Great Barrier Reef, and the popular dive spots for a Scuba Diving Vacation at Great Barrier Reef Australia
Melissa describes
Some popular dive spots include:
Cod Hole – A sheltered reef line east-northeast of Lizard Island. The reef sustains enormous cod groupers, Napoleon wrasse, moray eels, and other reef dwellers. Some dive boats visit the site, but this is essentially a live-aboard site.
Yongala Wreck – This wreck lies about 200 miles (322-km) south of Cod Hole. It supports a dense growth of coral and groups of fish. Here you’ll encounter soft corals, schooling snappers, eagle rays, jacks, cobia, Napoleon wrasse, flowery cod, and barramundi cod. Other sites include stingrays, groupers, sharks, turtles and sea snakes. Although rich with marine life, visibility is poor and currents are strong.
Pixie Pinnacle – South of Cod Hole, it’s a 90 foot (27-m) tall pinnacle of coral sitting in a tidal flow. This is a live-aboard only site. You’ll find nudibranches, clownfish, fairy basslets, rabbitfish, stonefish, and lionfish here. Beyond the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef lies the Coral Sea. It was the scene of a U.S. victory (1942) that checked the southward expansion of the Japanese forces in World War II.
Read more about a
Scuba Diving Vacation at Great Barrier Reef Australia
Bill Quigley, on Three Monkeys Online writes about his Scuba Diving Vacation at Great Barrier Reef Australia. He did his first Open Water dives in the Great Barrier Reef, so writes from the perpective of a person brand new to Scuba Diving. Great story and very well written.
This is an excerpt from Bill’s story
Light is distorted to make everything seem larger/closer, by about 33% – bear this in mind the next time a diver tells you a ten-foot manta ray swam right up to him! The colours you will see underwater are breathtaking. There are fish of every colour in the rainbow living on the reef. Not only that, but they are of such bright, vibrant, almost glowing hues, they can seem unreal, perhaps like cartoons or neon signs. Accustomed to the pastel colours of life above sea level, we simply do not expect such a vibrant display when we take the plunge. Because sound travels differently under water, you will find your ears are of little use. To begin with, everything sounds louder. Even the bubbles generated when you exhale will sound like a drum-roll until you get used to it. Secondly, it is practically impossible to tell where a sound is coming from. If you hear a humming noise daaaa dum daaaaa dum daaaa duma you can obviously be certain it is a shark playing tricks with you, but you will have no idea which direction he is coming from. Moving around underwater, the main difference is that you move in three dimensions. Ok, I know we already exist in three dimensions above ground, but realistically, if you are walking along a footpath, you are effectively moving in two dimensions, forwards/backwards and left/right. “
Scuba Diving Vacations in Australia – Yongala Wreck, near Townsville
The Yongala Wreck, off Townsville, Queensland
Yongala Dive do trips out to the Yongala Wreck while you’re on a
Scuba Diving Vacation in Australia
. Their ride out is probably the shortest and quickest of them all because of where they are located.
Read more about a Scuba Diving Vacation visiting Yongala Wreck near Townsville.
Scuba Diving Vacations Cairns Spectacular Festival in the Sea
Cairns is a city North of Queensland right on the coast and the Great Barrier Reef. This is a VERY popular place for Scuba Diving. Once a year, for a few nights in November (early summer in Australia), there is a spectacular festival in the Great Barrier Reef.
On these special nights, many corals spawn in a mass synchronised event, where the corals release eggs and sprem into the water creating what looks like an upside down snow storm. This fireworks display comes in many colours including pink, red, orange, purple and blue.
Read more about this spectacular event about a
Scuba Diving Vacation in Cairns
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