The Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Australia

In Cairns, we took the plunge into the blue waters of the Great Barrier Reef. We dove at three different sights on Flynn Reef. We were both a bit nervous about diving as we walked to the pier at 7:30am. Shelly was nervous about her first dive in the ocean and I was nervous about trying to remember how to dive after six years. 

When all of a sudden a bat with a three foot wing span swooped out of the sky and landed in the tree we were walking past. It scared us and made us laugh at the same time. It's funny how a huge bat can take your mind off your worries. 

After surviving a giant Australian bat encounter, we finally made it to the boat. 

Waiting to board

Unfortunately, it was a rainy day so the pictures don't do it justice.  Luckily, when you are 20 meters down, the weather doesn't matter much.  

Our nervousness quickly faded after we slipped into the water and began our first dive. Within minutes of our first dive we found a Green Sea Turtle happily munching on tidbits of food on a medium sized coral outcrop. Our guide plucked seaweed from the coral and gave it to us to feed the turtle. After I released my seaweed about 8" away from the turtle, it swam right up to Shelly and ate out of her hand. In our second dive, we swam through several coral caves and canyons. We saw several amazing sea creatures on our second dive; a nurse shark, a 4 ft white tipped reef shark, a moray eel, stingrays, a huge flounder, lots of clown fish, turtles, trumpet fish, blow fish, tons of sea slugs, a plethora of different fish, and my favorite, a two foot cuttlefish. Diving the Great Barrier Reef was an amazing experience we will never forget. Oh and I almost forgot, we had to wear stinger suits (which look really silly) to keep us safe from a 5mm jellyfish found on the reef that can kill you; but no worries mate (as the Aussies say), no one got stung :)  Shelly did develop a bad fire coral rash which is still itching two weeks later.