AUSTRALIA Great Barrier Reef

I booked a one day scuba diving trip to the outer Islands, the usual short trip . The dive master was assessing the participants skills and reiterating dive rules and updating participants on the non verbal communication on the way out to the dive site; matching people to the dive gear and finding a sheltered calm spot for the most inexperienced novice .

We were dropped off in a small ancillary dive boat to drop down on a small reef. The visibility was 20 feet or so and the max depth was only 25 feet . Most coral grows in the upper layers . For those who have dived there was a mixture of soft corals waving in the surge along with a myriad of hard corals . I had a partner ( dive duddy ) who was struggling with her gear . Having trouble equalising the air pressure in her ears and seemed to have an ill fitting mask because the snot kept dribbling down her face . The dive leader took over her management which left me to swim alone without the hassle of watching out for her.

The dive lasts about 40 minutes to ensure the most energetic user of air still has enough to get them back to the surface . I surfaced with plenty of air left as the dive was shallow by my normal standards.

Novice divers were up-skilled on the boat while we were underwater . We ate lunch while they were taken into the shallows to begin their underwater adventure . They returned to the boat full of wonder and awe . I have seen much better coral and fish life on the outer reef and was kicking my self internally that I hadn't gone to the outer reef .

The second dive for the day was also very tame . We did get to dive through some underwater caverns . I went last and the silt had been well and truly disturbed when I went through . The visibility dropped down to a few feet in the cavern .

I thought we would get more bang for the buck if we hire a small boat and went out to the inner Island in the Whitsundays . The Boat hirer gave a quick lesson on how to fit a life jacket and showed me how to let off a flare, advising us to use the mobile phone for advice before doing so.

The four of us , Rachel , Scott, Bev and I set off to the Big Blue for a days picnic and snorkeling .
It is the stinger season> Jellyfish abound and are washed up against the shore at high tide. I was advised the safest time to snorkel was about 2 hrs after the tide had started going out . This would disperse them away from the coral reefs and from around the shore line.


Irikanji jellyfish are as small as a thumbnail but deadly. We purchased a Stinger suit .The Nylon oversuit comes with slippers ,a hood and gloves . It has been proven to protect from stings and tentacles .
It is a most effective sun screen too.

There are millions of fish visible through the clear water but they weren't hungry enough to nibble on our lines . We tried bread, bacon , chicken , and a small shell fish . They liked the shell fish and nibbled it away from around the hook. We all had turns at snorkeling with the suit on. Blue bottles were present and easily avoided so I hoped the reports were over exaggerated.

To see more of the reef I thought of a strategy of being towed thorough the water on a long rope behind our Hire boat .
I donned the black body cover of the stinger suit ensuring the hood covered my recently shaven head and directed Rachel where to tow me . It worked a treat. I covered about two kilometers in no time .
Stingrays , Snapper, Parrot fish all darted out of the way as I bulleted across the reef hydrodynamic like . Occasionally i spotted a Jelly fish drifting on the surface . I lead with my naked lips and chin and was able to swerve around the obstacle with a simple flick of my fins and roll of my body .

No wonder seals and dolphins can get up speed and a smile.

All of a sudden a heavy patch of the stingers . Jelly galore.
I felt a burning sensation under my nose as if I had been burnt by a red hot poker . The only part of me exposed to the water was my Bulbous Bow and although I made short work of signaling to the skipper that I was coming back on board, she towed me through another 50 meters of the jello soup before letting me back in. The treatment for a sting is to pour on vinegar to the affected site . My top lip was reddened and swollen for the rest of the day.

It is back to New Zealand tomorrow

I wonder what will happen next

Alvin