My Journey Round The World

So here we are… The Great Barrier Reef… THE thing I couldn’t miss in Australia! One of the best spot in the world for diving! My dear diving friends in Boulogne-sur-Mer: Baptiste, Lulu, Renaud… would have hate me!
As Gerhard is also a diver, we decided for a cruise on a sailing boat offering the first dive for free. What a good idea!
Kiana is a 16,4m lenght boat with maximum 14 passengers on board offering a 3 days-2 nights cruise around the Whitsundays Islands: food, snorkeling & diving gears, bushwalk tour included. 3 days sailing was a nice experience especially as the weather was pretty good – even if some people in the group were sea-seek! – however not good enough to go to the outer reef, as the crew told us. We were only 11: 5 German – 2 from Rostock! - 1 Austrian, 2 Norvegien and 3 French as well as 3 crew member: 2 English and only 1 Australian, the skipper!
First stop at one of the most photographed spot in Australia on the Whitsunday Islands National Park: Tongue Bay and
Whitehaven Beach – as beautifull as on a postcard! In the evening we even saw a dolphin coming around the boat, little reward as it was too cloudy to see the stars
Second day, first dive. After 5 years I was a bit anxious to dive again, especially without my usual diving buddies… But as my diving experiences were only in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Holland, Normandy and Brittany… It couldn’t be worst conditions than that?!? You’ll think diving here would be easier than anywhere else, however, even in such a warm country, and especially in this area, you have to wear a full-length suit while swimming, snorkeling or diving! Stingers may be present in these waters and anyway, water isn’ that warm when you stay long inside! So first dive at the Luncheon Bay close to the Hook Island… Well, well, well… After 39mn up to nearly 10 meters deep I was feeling like in Boulogne on a clear day! Visibility was pretty bad ! End of rainy season, cyclone last month, who knows what… Quite disappointed, not really what I – or my diving partners were expecting… Ok, I did see beautiful tropical fishes such as: clown fish, Red-linned Triggerfish, Blue Parrot fish, Blue Puller… But still, Nausicaa’s tropical lagoon – www.nausicaa.fr – tank is better and I most enjoyed snorkeling in the afternoon where we’ve even seen 2 turtles and more beautiful colored fishes: Convict Surgeon, Damsel-fish, Scarlet-breasted Maori Wrasse… In the evening, we’ve seen big Trevally fishes all around the boat that most of people took as sharks and that the skipper happily helps to feed by lighting the smaller fishes! Cloud disappeared and we could see some shooting stars
The next day I decided not to dive again and only went for snorkeling with Jérémie & Marianne. Anyway, it seems that the visibility wasn’t better!