2011 is over, 2012 here I come

Over and Out for 2011, it was a great year for me. Ok, I got laid off, but instead I could then travel the world, and thanks to Nokia on a little more than a backpacker's budget. I will never regret having done this. Already so many memories of which not all can be shared, they had to be experienced. I was lucky enough to share many of the moments with friends on this journey, hopefully more people will do the same. I have met a lot of people, some of which I will probably never see again, others I do want to see again, somehow.
It is now 2012 and I am not done traveling, still going strong.
Happy New Year guys

Sydney, New Years evening

At the Pioneer Lodge things were coming to an end. I woke up and found most of the other guys had already left for their last sunrise tour around the National Park. I had taken too many pictures of that rock already, didn't need anymore. I didn't get their names or contacts, but since we were on the same airplane we had plenty of time. I got my stuff together and went to the reception to wait for the shuttle.
Kitty who had helped me organize my days was in the reception, so I went up to thank her for that and wish her a happy New Year. I asked her about the difficulty level of the hikes, if it was a little too much on the conservative side, and she agreed. But there are many tourists who have never hiked or been to a desert before, who come to Ayers Rock that also think they can do the different hiking trails. They have to take those people into account when writing signs, that is maybe a good thing. I suggested they could let younger or more experienced people know that they could be finished a lot faster, it would be easier to plan things. I could have saved a day...
At the airport, it turns out there are 2 flights to Sydney with 20 minutes in between, and the other guys are all on the Virgin flight, so I did not get to see them again, a pity. That doctor was a very interesting guy and had lots of travel information
We board the airplane and head for Sydney, looked like it was going to be a long flight with that propeller, but it was actually ok.
By the way, I was only going to Sydney on New Years evening because Monika told me to!
We got a good view of the landscape when we took off, saw those pieces of rock that had fascinated us all for the last couple of days. So many strange people on that plane, haha
I arrive at Sydney Airport, which is quite dead, nobody wants to travel today it seems. The free shuttle that I was promised just took off and that was of course the last one for today, so I was left with the train option. I studied the map for a second, it looked very easy and headed to the central station to switch trains.
At the central station things got crazy, so many people and I couldn't find the train I was boarding. They had some 25 different platforms in different levels, with no real good map. I eventually found my platform and took the train - the wrong direction. I then had to get out a couple of stations later when I found out and get the train the other way, which was now packed to the edge. It didn't help I had a huge backpack taking up room for another person.
I didn't have much power left on the phone, but it was enough to guide me to the street where the hostel was, then it was just following the numbers.
The hostel was the most messy hostel I have ever seen. This place you could only book with a minimum of 7 days, so people tend to stay a little longer here. They've more or less moved in. Terrible
Some of the other guys in the room literally had boxes under the bed, I guess they are not really travelers, I don't see any backpack.
I did not have anything planned myself so when Dave and Olga from the dive boat sent out an email that they were going to be in Sydney as well, I decided to go and spend the night with them.

They were hanging out in a bar not far from the observatory and planning to see the fireworks from there. I was a little skeptical that we could find any place there to see it, but went anyway. I had a place in Kings Cross which was pretty far away, maybe 30-45 minutes walk.
The streets were full of people, and I mean full. Some of them didn't move in any direction and people started pushing other people to get their kids to safety. Other ignorants just plowed through the crowd
I used the phone as a GPS and at some point the data connection stopped working, probably because of too many people at the scene. So I had to walk back, get a good look at the map and walk blindly towards the area where the bar was supposed to be. I eventually found the bar and the guys and a lot of new people too.There were a Swedish couple, an Australian younger couple, Dave and Olga and then me.

We had a few beers before heading up the hill to the observatory where we ended up getting some phenomenal spot just 20 minutes before the main firework. During the evening they had been warming up with some smaller fireworks, just to remind people not to forget the big one.

We had a view of the Sydney Harbor bridge and one of the 8 synchronized fireworks, so we should be in a good spot. Looking back at the crowd in the park a few minutes later I realized we came just in time.

Then the firework started, it was quite a spectacle, and indeed we had a super nice spot. There was a ledge where I could put the camera to get some nice firework pictures, tried to take some holding the camera, but they all look funky.
The firework was quite cool, didn't last that long but was quite impressive. I have to say though that I saw a firework show in Thailand, Chiang Mai earlier this year when they celebrated the festival of lights, that still beats any other firework I have ever seen. Also this one.
We went back to the bar again, one of the guys had his 30th birthday and we promised to come back and have a few drinks with him. Had to order some Tequila for his birthday of course, and then a few more and a few more later. His face got longer and longer and he started to really not feel well. Another German couple joined in as well, so we were talking German, Swedish and Danish, everyone understood the other languages, but were not so good at speaking them. Must have been a very interesting conversation to listen to, haha
At 2 or was it 3, can't remember the bar started to close, I guess that was what really saved the birthday boy. I helped him and his girlfriend Rachel outside, but he didn't feel well and this guy came with a bottle of water and a box for the guy to sit on. Now, that's good new years spirit. There he was sitting a few minutes before he painted the entire pavement with Tequila. Now, that's a good birthday, haha.
Now I just had to find my way back. The phone was already pretty empty from having been used as a GPS on the way to the bar, it was definitely not going to last the entire way back so I made a decision to go a little longer but then also only have to turn once. An hour later of so I returned to the Kings Cross neighborhood, which looked like it was going to keep partying till the next morning. I realized I had not had any food yet and found a place that sold a super nice chicken kebab... At least that is what I remember, haha

Kings Canyon Rim trail

Kings Canyon was next, it was almost 3 hours drive away from the resort, so we got picked up at 4 in the morning and headed for the desert.

After 2.5 hours driving with absolutely nothing to see but the never ending bush, we arrived at a place where we were going to have breakfast. I was first out of the bus and got my breakfast ordered, then went to the other building where the chef was cooking. I went in and delivered my regards from Abdul and the chef started laughing. Leroy had been working out there 10 years ago or something like that and back then he was also know as some sort of comedian. He said, because I delivered good news I would get a double portion, haha, thank you very much. The breakfast had already cost me $20, so 4 eggs and half a pound of bacon sounded more like the right price, hahaha

The bus continued towards the canyon, maybe another hours drive or so. I was beginning to wake up and was actually quite ready. Except my feet, they were a little painful. Still problems with the blisters, damn shoes got too small.
We finally arrived and were ready to set off. I asked the guide we were going to meet at some checkpoints on the way or just back at the bus before 12. He looked strangely at me and said, this is a tour, you paid for a guide so you have to follow the group now. WTF? I had to walk with all the old people too? Some of them were in their 60's, I had not intended to be walking snail pace around there. We walk as a group he said out loud, I guess that's how we walk then...
This hike was also set for 4 hours and rated difficult, again I suspected that it wouldn't take that long. First challenge was 500 steps up to the Kings Canyon Rim. 3 stops on the way so people who wasn't sure if they could make it all the way up could get a rest and go down again. One guy ended up doing that, actually a young guy a little bigger than he should have been.
Up on the rim I started talking to a family who also had an REI backpack, I figured they must be Americans too. They were from Seattle and were used to spending time in the mountains too, this was not really a challenge to them either. Seemed that there were more rules in Australia for hiking trails than the US, quite interesting. Maybe these trails in the bush were really for tourists and not like trails in the Rocky Mountains that I guess very few tourists take on.
The altitude change was no more than a 100 meters and the view wasn't actually that great as there wasn't too much to look at, haha. The guide was almost getting a heart attack when I went to the edge to take a photo. He was just being a pussy
The other day when I had been walking around the rock, my sunglasses broke. The lenses apparently got so hot and expanded that the frame eventually cracked on one side. 15 minutes later on the other side. In the afternoon sun the cheap copy sunglasses from Bali eventually gave up and the plastic frame over the nose eventually shattered as well. Talk about heat!
The most amazing thing though about the King's Canyon was that in the middle of it all there was a place called the Garden of Eden. It was a small waterhole that kept water the most of the time. Shadow enough during the day apparently makes that possible even in the harshest of environments. There were fruit trees growing, figs and other things I don't remember. Lots of tadpoles in the water as the frogs breed like crazy when there is water enough. After that they dig themselves down in the ground again, waiting for the next wet period.
On the top of the rim again we encountered the 2nd biggest lizard in the world, I would guess it was close to 70cm long. Not poisonous but still it could bite. There was not too much stuff living out here at this time of the day and half an hour later we were also back at the bus. Some people had been in quite big problems during the hike, and the rangers said that this is why we walk in a group. Blah...
it was time for some lunch and we were driven to a restaurant at the Kings Canyon Resort. Now, I have a different understanding of what a resort is, this one is not on my list of resorts I would recommend. The restaurant had 4 items on their lunch menu, burger, camel burger, sandwich or salad. I took the camel burger and only had to wait 45 minutes until it was ready. It was nothing special, but now I can tick that off my list as well.
The tour was $205 and was the bus ride to there and back plus a guide on the tour. I could have flown back to Cairns for that money and gone diving again. One of the guys in the dorm room had a car and was driving out there the same day as two others of us. We could have saved a shitload of money had we only met each other a little earlier. Lesson learned: never book anything until having talked to roommates or other travelers.
Went directly to the bar to get a cold beer again after the bus returned us to the resort. Done with Ayers Rock! I thought that it was time to reward myself for hard work the last couple of days, so I went to the DIY BBQ meat shop again and asked for the biggest and best piece of meat they had. $35 worth of Australian cattle was on my plate for dinner, cooked medium rare and washed down with a couple of beers. Ahhh, life in the Outback could be good after all, haha

Kata-Tjuta, The Olgas

Second day it was up early, headed out for a hike in the Olgas, called Valley of the Wind. That hike had to be started early as the rangers would shut it down at 11:00 if the weather forecast would be 36 degrees or above and it usually is most of the summer. We had been taking a few pictures of the sunrise on the mountains, and were among the first people on the parking lot. A few others had already taken off though with a furious pace, probably wanting to enjoy the wild life as one of the first ones.
First a steep incline up to a vista point, or continue down into a valley where there would again be a steep incline to a nice vista point and then there was the possibility of doing a long 6km loop, which you had to be in a very good physical shape to make. The hike was estimated to 4 hours and rated as difficult, so I had brought maybe 5 liters of water.
We were 12 or 13 people and started out as one big group talking a little, but already after a few minutes when it started going uphill the group broke up. 10 minutes later I look back and none of them were to be seen anywhere. I continue over the ridge into the valley of wind - now I know why it is called that. At times I could probably be leaned forward to an angle of 60 degrees without falling, lost my hat once, luckily a tree caught it. I slowly started gaining on the people who took off earlier and on the second incline I passed them as if I was a mountain goat. After passing the second vista point, I was in front of everyone and it was still early morning, I had the best chance to see some animals.
I was actually taking a picture of something else, when I saw something move into the picture, a small kangaroo was out looking for food. Kind of funny seeing the little guy jumping around on the rocks. There was a huge flat land inside the valley which had to have a lot of animals, so I slowed down a little looking for more of them. Slowly I could hear the people behind gaining on me again, talking loudly and complaining how warm it was. I picked up some speed again and came to a pit-stop area and realized how far I had come in just 1 hour. Almost done with the hike, so I slowed down and stopped here and there to see if I could spot anything else. I saw two camels walking by, yes, camels.
What are camels doing in Australia? Well, before there were any roads, the camels were brought in as they were much better in this hostile environment than the horses. Eventually when there real roads to drive on the people set the camels free, thinking they would not survive in the wild. Today Australia is the place in the world with the most freely roaming camels, 2.5 millions estimated. They don't have any natural predator and is now considered a real pest as they just become more and more. The Australian cattle farmers were struggling and started farming camels for food and export to North African countries.
Moments later I was standing in the shadow of a tree looking for stuff, when 2 kangaroos jumped out in front of me, just 5 meters away. One stood there looking at me when the second one jumped onto the path as well and there they were, so close looking at me? I reached for my camera in my pocket, but dropped it when I pulled it out. I bent down to pick it up and the two jumpers were gone. I spent a few minutes looking for them, but there was no trace of them. How can they just disappear?
I made it back to the start of the hike and looked at the time, I had used 1 hour and 28 minutes. I was kind of disappointed that it was so short, and even more that I now had to sit and wait 2 hours for the bus to arrive.
15 minutes later another girl returned as well, she had started out with her parents, but had parted from them when they started walking slow. Now she was back too and since her parents had the car keys, there was nothing else to do than wait. Melanie was from Manchester, but studying in Melbourne. I got her number as well on the phone and she told me call her when stopping by Melbourne later, she could show me around the city if I had time. Cool, it would be cool with some locals showing around. After waiting for 1.5 hours she decided to go back looking for her parents just in case they were waiting for her in there somewhere. Meanwhile our bus driver had arrived and we were all back and ready to leave. On the way back in the bus I found out that my phone was frozen, and when I removed the battery and rebooted it, the phone book had a Melanie entry, but there was no phone number. Argh, I guess the phone had gotten a heatstroke, better it than me.
Back the resort I took a little nap, and prepared for the afternoon hike. I looked at the paper work, this one was only rated as moderate and 1 hour duration. I had paid expensive money for that, so that was a little disappointing.
A bus picked us up at 15:30 and we headed out to the Olga's again. It was probably 45 minutes driving and the entire bus was full of couples. The bus driver, Leroy, shouted: "Poulsen, you are by yourself, come up on the front seat and entertain me." Leroy turned out to be a standup comedian, well at least he could have been. He was joking non stop for almost 45 minutes people thought they were going to sleep, but they were all laughing.
When he dropped us off, he said he would be back in an hour. It was pretty warm and there were already a lot of people going both ways, and I too headed up the Gorge. After only 15 minutes I was at the end of the trail, I was so disappointed. That hike cost me around $60 to do for 30 minutes, that must be the shortest Australian outback hike.
Leroy came and picked us up and he was still joking all the way back. Got to talk to him about a little more serious matters like the white people and how bad they had treated the Aboriginals back in the 1930s. Now however things were turning and it seemed like the Australians were more ready than ever to partake in it's already long history instead of trying to create a new white man's history. I found that very interesting and thought about the Americans and the Native Indians, but that is probably never going to happen there.
There were a lot of Japanese tourists coming to Australia and there were also a lot of young Japanese girls primarily working in Australia's outback as tour organizers. They work in the Outback for 4 years, where there is a demand, and are then granted a Australian citizenship, which is what most people are there for. I was just thinking about the Visa and Green in the US, a little more complicated. The salary was not good out there opposite of what I thought, but at the same time there is not really anyway to spend the money earned, so long term it is a good financially deal.

Again there was a sunset viewing of the rock, which was the first time for some of the people aboard the bus. I figured I would do myself a favor and just take pictures of the sunset instead
When we were dropped off at the resort, Leroy asked me what I was doing tomorrow. I told him I was on a tour to a place called Kings Canyon, he then told me to go to a chef making breakfast for us in the middle of nowhere and send regards and a happy new year from Abdul. Sounded strange, but I promised to do so.

It was time for dinner and I decided it was time for some BBQ. You buy meat and grill it yourself, and a salad buffet included with the meat. I bought a buffalo burger, which was actually not too bad, maybe because I cooked it myself? On the BBQ next to me a big insect had crash landed, and had gotten cooked beyond the well done definition. I had a few beers too listening to the local one-man-band playing all the new radio hits, some better than others. I hit the bed early, had a early morning ride.
Before bed another guest had arrived, a doctor in micro-biology from the Czech Republic. He was 55 and been traveling the world for many years, very interesting stories he had to share. He was also going to Sydney for a couple of days during New Years, in fact most people in the room was going on the same airplane back to Sydney, only one guy was staying.

Uluru and Ulara, a rock and a City in the Outback

The plane for Ulara was quite empty, not many people think going there at the warmest time of the year, and then even between Xmas and New Years is a good idea. I was sitting next to a woman who was only spending 1 night there and still hoping to see most of it, at least I had 3 nights planned, which should be enough according to the books.
We arrive at the Ulara airport around 11 in the morning, the moment we step out of the airplane a nice heat hits us in the face. Ok, these 3 days are going to be warm for sure. The airport is tiny, but at least two airlines are using it, Qantas and Virgin. There is a free shuttle bus waiting in front of the airport, soon after it is clearly why it is free. There are 5 resorts in Ulara, the difference is the price you pay.
There are from luxury hotels all the way down to camping, all of which are owned by the same company. Unless you are in an auto-camper you would be living in one of those places. I come to the reception in the Pioneer lodge, another name for poor peoples sleeping quarters, the hostel. I meet Kitty at the front desk, a Japanese girl working here talking perfectly English. I asked her how to make the most of my days there as my original plan was to do a 3 days 4WD tour, but didn't have enough time. I told her what I was interested in and 2 minutes later she had come up with a schedule for me for my stay in the Heart of Australia.

There were no rooms ready yet, as the check-in time was officially at 14, so I changed to some real shoes and got ready for an afternoon in the desert. My feet were quite damaged from the flippers on the diving boat, either really cheap model or my feet are just weird. At least I had blisters a few places from rubbing and other places there had already been 3 blisters on top of each other which had been sanded of by band-aid or by friction in the flipper and now there was a nice flesh wound. It was a little painful to step into the shoes, now I was really missing my hiking boots!
I had a light lunch, the weirdest Pad Thai I have ever had, and was picked up from the hostel and driving to Ayers Rock or Uluru as the Aboriginals call it.
It is the biggest monolith on Earth so far found, which means it is one big piece of stone. It is big! The walk around the stone is 9.7km and adding up that this is in almost 40 degrees heat walking in the sun, that does take quite an effort. There are time estimates of how long it would take to walk around and strict rules about how much water to bring.
The walk around was timed at 4 hours, but people could do it in 3 hours, so I left plenty of time and was going to meet the bus driver at a cultural center 2kms further away to see the sunset. According to people the rock changes color during the day, I had to see that.
The rock has a few sacred places to the Aboriginals and they had been living close to and using caves of the stone for thousands of years. They had a lot of moral stories related to the stone and one of the bus drivers said that the stone was like a bible to them, explaining different things that you should not do, almost like the 10 commandments. Some areas were sacred others not so much, but there were no rule in the Aboriginal world that you could not climb the stone as they would never be so foolish to do so themselves. For them living life in the desert was about survival every single day, not being adventurous and showing off. The rock had been a source of water for them for thousands of years and to the wildlife living out here.
In some of the caves there were carvings many thousands years old, lizards, snakes and other animals depicted on the rock. The rock was closed for climbing because of this time of the year it was more sacred to them than other times. That meant I didn't have to chicken out by having the possibility of climbing, but not doing it, haha
On the tour around I did not meet many people, in fact only 2 couples, neither of which looked pretty prepared for that walk. A one liter bottle of water for sharing, flip flops and no hats. It was warm, and probably close to the hottest time of the day, but not uncomfortable as long as I stayed hydrated. After 2.5 hours I was around and walked up to the cultural center and when entering I could see a fridge full of cold drinks. Ahh, just what I needed, but was really disappointed to find out that the center had closed early 16:30 due to the holidays, and it was 16:40 now. Oh well, I only had two hours to wait until the bus driver would come and pick me up. There was another couple of people also waiting for the same bus, also a little disappointed sitting there on the benches looking at the cold drinks.
The bus arrived and we went to the rock to pick up some other people. The sunset was not until 19:35 so there was enough time to go around the rock in the bus getting a few stories about the place from the bus driver. After that we went to the sunset viewing area, which was already full of people. As the sun was setting the rock did change a little in color, but it was more like the fact that it got dark. I wasn't too impressed about the sunset looking at the rock, the sun setting over the bush looked far more interesting, so I there was 300 people taking pictures of a rock, and one stupid Dane standing with the back to the stone taking pictures of the empty bush instead
Back at the resort it was time for a beer for job well done. I don't think Australians have much taste for beers, all of them were as light as water, but out here that was the selection so I had to go with it. More than once, haha. Dinner was a $20 burger, out here everything doesn't cost a little more, it costs a LOT more!

Great Barrier Reef, 3-days diving trip

I have had very high expectations about diving at the Great Barrier Reef, I mean, it is THE REEF. I have seen it so many times on the TV and read so much about it. Now I am going to jump in the water myself and finally go diving. I am excited.
I researched quite much for this dive trip, more than usual, I did not want to be disappointed. I found a company Deep Sea Divers Den which had very good reviews and decided to book with them. Everything went through smoothly online and seconds later I got a verification email, I was booked for the 3 day/2 night trip, yeah.
Out of the door I got picked up in a mini-van full of other people going on the same trip. There were a Dutch couple, an Australian couple, almost 2 Japanese couples and then me. The van drove to the dive shop where everyone had to show their diving credentials and pay some reef fee, apparently the fish are being paid too.
Then we were driven to the harbor where a ship was waiting for us, the SeaQuest. I had been to look at the ships in the harbor the day before and were quite impressed with the sizes of the vessels. When I stepped aboard Seaquest I was just amazed, it was huge and had so many tanks with dive gear ready to go, impressive.
After a minutes we were ready to depart and I went in to the main room to find it totally full, no seats available. Went upstairs to a sun deck, totally full too. Hmm, where to sit? Then I went to the captain and talked a little with him, he jumped off his seat and said, sit here mate, just continue on this course. So I got a seat on the boat afterall, and if I should be honest, I think this seat suited me very well, haha.
We were going to have two dives on the SeaQuest and then transfer to another boat out on the reef. We had a short briefing for the certified divers of which there were surprisingly few considering that the entire boat was full of people, only around 11 people. Everyone had a dive buddy, except me, so I was paired up with another couple who were also quite experienced.
10 minutes later we were gearing up and the dive instructor in charge came to me and told me to stay on the boat. Hmm, something wrong with my certificate maybe? When I was talking to the captain, she was on the phone with PADI, the dive organization, to verify peoples certification. I asked what was wrong and she said that one of the diving instructors wanted to go diving with me, if I was ok with that? Cool, then I wasn't going to be the 3rd wheel after all.

After a few minutes everybody is in the water, divers and snorkelers, around 50 people are making bubbles everywhere. I am just standing there looking at them together with all the other people who are just onlookers too, except I am in a wetsuit. Suddenly this little cute Japanese girl in a bikini comes up to me and says, "Do you want to go diving with me?" Sure, let's go I said laughing, thinking that she was making a joke about me standing there in a wet suit looking at the others. A minute later she is back in a wetsuit, "Are you ready, Danny?" Ahh, she is the diving instructor, she sure didn't look like one. Megumi was her name
The moment we jumped in I turned my new investment on, hoping it would stay dry, as the first dive is supposed to be done with an empty camera casing. I couldn't wait to get some pictures so I just hoped everything would be good. A few seconds after I turn the camera on, a huge Napoleon fish came towards us, it was probably bigger than she was. His name was Wally and he was the reef keeper, had to come and say hello to all guests on the reef. She petted him on the head and he left, we were ok to continue. Nice guy
One of the first bigger fish we met was the Titan Trigger fish, which can be very aggressive in protecting it's nest that one time a year, which of course was now. It can be big, around 80cm long and will bite. Not really remembering what it looks like, I take a picture and continue, thinking that it did look a little like the Titan Trigger fish, haha
The water is clear like water from the faucet, you can see very far on this dive, probably the furthest I have ever been able to see under water. The water is around 30 degrees warm, it is super nice.
At some point she signals me to kneel down on the bottom, she picks up a big sea cucumber, maybe 2 feet long and hands it to me. I have no idea if this thing has a mouth full of teeth or not, I am guessing not.

Not far from there I find a small clownfish family, living in their little anemone. The closer we come to the anemone the more aggressive the little clownfish becomes. I take my picture without any problem, but can see the little guy is agitated. She sticks her finger slowly towards the fish who takes a defense position and when her finger is close enough, the little fish snaps her. Haha, that little thing has no fear it seems, snapping at someone so big. The same can be seen when the big parrot fish is napping the corals, the smaller fish living in the corals will defend their home bravely.
It is amazing what you will find under the surface of the water. A totally new world, so many organisms living together in some kind of harmony. Of course there is the big fish eats small fish scenario, but apart from that, there seems to be some kind of order and peace. The fish gladly swim around in their small homes, be it soft or hard corals, and when another big fish swims by, not much happens. When a diver approaches though, the fish hide in their small shelter, kind of cute.
We did a second dive together an hour later, she was a nice funny girl. She had just become a dive master and under normal circumstances it would cost money to dive with the instructors. Special treatment, I like it!
After the second dive we changed boat. The SeaQuest is only the transport boat for people who are going to stay overnight on the ocean, on OceanQuest. Apparently not that many people thought that spending Christmas aboard a diving boat was the best planning, so I ended up getting a 4-person cabin for myself, called The White House, haha.
We had a couple of more dives that day, one in the afternoon and another night dive. There were just so many colors in the reef were were add, it is hard to explain. Taking pictures does not always justify what you see, because some colors slowly disappear the deeper we go down, that's why most pictures are bluish, no flash or the object is too far away.
Maybe the fish are the thing that attracts most divers in the beginning, but there are just as many stunning creatures and plants living on the rocks and corals that just look weird and not exactly like anything you've ever seen before. Some of it might be poisonous, who knows. Isn't that what they say that in nature, everything with strong colors is usually poisonous? It is a little hard to capture on a photo, but for those people who have been snorkeling or diving, what you see on the photos is very much alive.
On the boat I got paired up with another couple from Canada, Patrick and Claudine. They had been diving in Tahiti before and made sure that I got name and address of the place - I think they get commission for everyone who goes there, haha. We had a couple of good dives together, founds some nice narrow swim throughs, the coral structures had grown together on top and formed underwater tunnels.
One of them Claudine didn't want to go so when we were through, she was missing, so we had to go back and search for her. Turned out she had taken the outside path, but as we didn't see her at the end, we got a little worried and went back where we couldn't find her either. You don't want these kind of situation under water, so next time it will be everyone or nobody. Just so easy getting excited and heading ahead thinking everyone thinks the same.
Down there you are dependent on your buddies, you don't want to swim alone ever even though the equipment works and you have plenty of experience. The plenty of experience is what should tell you that in fact!
During the day the dives become more and more shallow, so we have the deepest dive in the morning, maybe down to 30 meters, and maybe not more than 10-12 meters on the night dive. On the second last dive of the day, we spot a shark sleeping at the bottom of the reef. I just wanted to see if I could get a picture of the shark.
Normally when you dive, it is easy to feel the change in depth in your ears, but maybe I had been down for long enough that it wasn't difficult to equalize the pressure. So when I finally reached the bottom and took my picture, I looked at my gauge, it said 26 meters, my previous dive had been 18 meters. They kept warning us that they could stop of our diving for the day even for the entire trip if we did anything like this. I was pretty nervous when I came up, but just got a warning, phew.
Another dive we did, we came a little too far away from the boat during the dive and caught some other currents which were quite strong. We had to signal the guys to be picked up by boat, so they came and threw in a few ropes we could hold on to and dragged us back to the dive boat. Pretty difficult to hold on and take pictures at the same time. Then of course the other divers are standing there laughing because we needed help, but at least we had a nice dive, haha
We also went on night dives, the underwater world really changes after the sun has set, a whole new set of fish and life is out there then. Unfortunately my camera doesn't catch anything at night, whereas I was diving with another guy Franklin from the Philippines, who had a monster of a camera with spotlights and everything. In fact so much light that he scared a lot of the things I found away with his big lights.
At dinner I saw around 30 persons who all thought going diving was a brilliant way to spent the Christmas evening. Everyone smiling, sharing dive stories from here and other places.

Next morning the sharks were still at the end of the boat catching the last smaller fish attracted by the lights on the boat. We went in for out morning dive and the first we see is a big shark under the boat, good morning fellows. There are still the hunting fish going for the smaller ones who are also out looking for a little more food. It is quite interesting being able to witness this cycle of life underwater.

I don't know the name of 1/100th of the fish we see at the bottom, but then you come up to the surface and talk a little with the other divers and suddenly there is someone who knows everything about anything in the water... Hmm, thanks man.

A little later his wife passes by and asks what I think about the book I am reading, I answer that I think the author has a lot of humor. She told me to look in the back of the book, there is a picture of the author, Bob Halstead, and so I do. Then she asks if he looks anything like the man standing next to her, he lifts his sunglasses. Yeah, I see the resemblance, is it your brother, I ask. No, it was actually the guy himself. Like any other diver on the boat, he is talking about his last dive sharing any interesting findings he did. He has been diving longer than I am old and has some amazing stories and pictures to share. Very nice guy indeed.

The second day I do 4 dives during the day and one in the evening. I am supposed to feel a little tired, but actually I don't. I think I have found a pace that suits me well under the water, it has become a lot more relaxing than it was earlier. Got to swim with a turtle, really gentle creature that seems to be living life in slow-motion, very effective swimmer though.
I do a couple of dives with James and his wife, they are from Denver, Colorado. They are also avid hikers and have been many places in the US and the world and gladly shares those experiences. It looks like the entire boat is full of adventurous people doing one or another thing. Their style while diving is probably something to learn from, not a lot of swimming, more looking for the smaller stuff and taking plenty of time.
Reducing the swimming also increases the bottom time a lot, I could have gone more one hour with those guys, normally I am around 45 minutes before I have to return to the boat. Swimming around like crazy doesn't always produce anything anyway, it is not like you are going to catch up with a shark or any fish for that sake.
The night dive on the second day I managed to get one of the good flash lights. I went with 2 guys who had just come aboard that day, a Brazilian and a Dutch guy. I had one night dive of experience at the reefs already and 2 dives at that particular reef, so kind of went ahead. Down under the boat some huge fish were waiting, Trevallies. They would use our flash lights to hunt smaller fish, but they were also not the brightest fish in the pond. If you moved the light away just as there were about to catch the fish they would continue directly into the reef, bang. At some point we had maybe 10-15 of these hunters around us, swimming closely to us waiting for the light to catch a fish.
On the third day I went to dive with Robin, a Canadian from Calgary and Mary from Australia who had just gotten her certificate. They both wanted someone a little more experienced to dive with and I took them along. The reef was better than the other morning very maybe because the water was calm like a lake almost.
The second dive of the day was my number 50. I wanted it to be good, but something happened and we probably were swimming around a mushroom of coral and then ended up with another heading than before. We ended up swimming the wrong way away from the reef on the East side, which is where all the bigger waves hit and damage the corals on the reef. At least we found only dead corals with very few fish out there, and it was strange because this was the 2nd dive on that reef and it didn't look anything like the first dive, haha
The last dive of the trip, I wanted to get the most of it this time. We went to the shallower area with lots of crests, ravines, canyons and underwater swim-throughs. It was probably the best dive of them all. I was sucking it all in, enjoying everything close up and from a distance, knowing this was my last dive on the Great Barrier Reef, maybe forever. If I had not had a air-ticket booked for next morning already, I would definitely have stayed another day... But who knows when I would have left the boat? Haha
We saw a lot of stuff, got good pictures, basically a perfect dive. We surfaced next to the boat, just to discover that it was the wrong dive boat, SeaQuest, hahaha. Luckily Tom from OceanQuest was over there picking up some eggs for lunch, and we hitchhiked a ride with him back, hehe
The trip is mainly a dive trip, but the entire experience depends just as much as the people you meet, dive, dine, well actually live with for the next few days. I have a theory that only nice people dive, I have yet to meet someone obnoxious.
The crew was great too, I don't remember all their names, but they too were helping making this a great experience. I am another satisfied costumer, that will have life long memories from this diving trip. Thanks guys