We were back. For the last three years Martina thought that I was wrong. She always thinks that I am wrong about something, and since I actually am wrong about some things, she thinks that she is right about most things.
Of course that is not the case.
The thing that Martina thought she was right and I was wrong about was that I said that the Great Barrier Reef was the best diving spot we have ever been to.
She did not want to go there again after we have been there in 2007. But by using my usual approach of endless repetition I convinced her in March to book another trip on a live-aboard boat. We used our credit card and airline miles for the flight to and from Cairns and booked 6 months in advance which secured us the double bed cabin with a window and the security numbers 1 and 2. (Each passenger on board is assigned a security number for the trip which has to be remembered and called out to the crew whenever they check that no one has been left behind at the last dive site.)
We are on the plane back home now and needless to say, Martina already had to admit that I was right and she was wrong.The weather was average and the visibility sometimes worse than expected. But nevertheless the trip was awesome. Martina has already considered going back to the reef sometime in the future.
As always our diving pictures do not give justice to the actual experience (see some below, more to follow soon).
We saw big grey reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, a giant spotted eagle ray, turtles of all sizes, a lobster and lots of beautiful fish and corals.Since we were completely buggered at the end of the last trip after doing 11 (Martina) and 8 (Markus) dives in 2007, we expected to be dead after this trip as well and booked another two nights in a B&B in Newell Beach (just north of Port Douglas) to relax and get over the stress of diving. But we did 10 (Martina) and 11 (Markus) dives and felt fine afterwards. So instead of spending relaxing two beach days, we went to Mossman Gorge and up to Cape Tribulation.
We believe that the diving is getting easier and less tiring and I also believe that having a nice bed with a window helped as well. We were both busy the days before the trip and got little sleep the night before getting on board. So we went into our cabin for a couple of naps on the first day and to bed at 20:30. But the rest of the days we had less need for sleep and generally were well rested.
Our bodies did take some abuse (several raw spots on my body and my fingers are still peeling skin) but we pretty much could have gone on the next trip a day later.Funnily enough the trips dive supervisor was the same guy (Arek from Poland) that has also been the dive supervisor on our last trip three years back. So we recognized a couple of the same jokes and comments during the dive briefings. We also went to pretty much the same dive sites. But still it was great fun and much more enjoyable than on our first time.
We also met a very nice Canadian/Australian couple (Sara and Davo) on the boat whom we also met again by chance and had icream with in Daintree (we followed Dan and Ali’s advice to check it out). They are off to the cold Canadian winter in two weeks and might stop by in Sydney before that.
