I was picked up from my hostel at 6:15 this morning by Pro Dive, one of the many SCUBA diving companies in Cairns. After a quick stop off at their shop to complete paperwork and store excess luggage, everyone was taken down to the marina to board Scuba Pro II which is a liveaboard boat. Along with a group of around 30 other divers, I’ll be spending the next three days diving on the outer reef, around 30 nautical miles from the coast. The boat has three decks made up mainly of bedrooms, a kitchen/dining area, and outside areas for preparing equipment. As soon as everyone was onboard the boat left the marina for the three hour journey to the reef. Meanwhile breakfast was served and the divemasters went through the various safety procedures. The divers are a mixture of those doing their open water qualification, those taking their advanced course, and certified divers.

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Despite the fairly rough trip out to the reef (seasickness tablets were strongly recommended!) everyone was looking forward to getting into the water to see one of the best dive sites in the world. There were four dives planned today, the first two at Milln Reef. As soon as we arrived, our Irish divemaster (Chris) went through the plan for the dive, including a rough route and maximum depth/time limits. As a certified diver my dives are mainly unguided, so I can explore the reef with my buddy (Steve). We put on all our equipment, ran through the safety checks, and then jumped off the back of the boat! The water temperature is 29°c at the moment and feels more like a warm bath than the sea. Much of the coral reef is in shallow water so we stayed at around 8 metres throughout. This also means we can get about an hour buy cialis viagra underwater each dive! The reef is fascinating and teeming with life. As well as plenty of fish (we saw lots of Butterflyfish, Parrotfish and a Lionfish among others) there is every variety of coral imaginable, and a good number of sea cucumbers. Other than a couple of pool refreshers this was my first dive since Tenerife 8 years ago, and it was great to get back in the water again.

The rest of the day was non-stop. Lunch was served as soon as we surfaced from the first dive, and within an hour we were back in the water again for the second. This time we swam along a coral wall which stands in about 8 metres of water and reaches to just below the surface. We were out of the water just long enough for some tea and cake while the boat moved to the next site, another wall a little further along Milln Reef in 12 metres of water. This time we saw a number of Anenomefish which have a symbiotic relationship with the anemone (a type of plant) they live in. The plant provides protection for the fish (it can sting potential predators) while the fish keeps predators away from the plant. We also met a very small (and unidentified!) yellow fish which followed us for 20 minutes all the way back to the boat.

After dinner we prepared for our first night dive, which was at the same site so we would know our way around. We had an extended briefing, and were reassured that any sharks that might come out of the darkness are normally not aggressive. The storm that had developed while we were having dinner also added to the slightly nervous atmosphere! This time we were divided into small colour-coded groups (with glow sticks to match) and each group went on a guided dive with one of the divemasters. Although many fish are hiding from predators at night, there is plenty of other marine life on show, and it is a completely different experience to diving during the day. Shining torches into the darkness picked up many pairs of shrimp eyes. We also saw a large (30-40cm) crayfish swimming along the bottom, and some worms spiralling through the water. Finally it was back to the boat for some cake before everyone had an early night (except me – I was busy writing this blog!).

Tomorrow is another full day of diving starting at 7:30am.