Lower levels:
Aquarius 3
SS Yongala
"Fishes"

Navigation:

OK, so done the Big City thing in Sydney, done the Outback and Ayres Rock...

Its time to complete the 'Golden Triangle' that is Australia's big three tourist destinations: City, Rock, Reef.

Now I said before that this place is big - and the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) seems to underline this.  Its the only living organism visible from space.  However, that said, its actually quite a few million organisms in thousands of reefs all closely knitted so as to form a seemingly impervious barrier to shipping.  The GBR stretches over 2,000 kilometres from the tip of Cape York down to Fraser Island and provides Queensland with its fantastic sheltered sand beaches (it seems worth a visit at least).

So, equipped with an underwater camera housing from rogue trader Ash 'Ali G' of Rodneys Radio, Uxbridge, and a NAUI dive certification earned after months of cold water torture by my good friend and dive consultant VIc 'Unki Wic' Baldorino of Pro Splash, Reigate, the GBR is no longer safe - it will be snapped.

And snapped it is - its absolutely fantastic and I bore even myself with the mind numbing mound of pictures taken on this leg of the trip.  Seems every time you think you've taken the perfect shot of a passing herd of 'fishes' (Australian for a school of fish), another herd of even more interesting fishes rock up and peer into the lens.  Everything looks weird and wonderful underwater, myself clearly excluded.

So, if you want to be bored with pictures of fishes, well some of them are here.  If you want shaggy dog stories, look no further than the tour on Aquarius 3 - dive boat extraordinaire.  We made a lot of friends on this trip - and followed up a weeks liveaboard with another boozy night, and a mad day at the Cairns amateur horse races.

How wrong can you be? Taking an 'Arenalin' day tour out of Townsville, some 200km south of Cairns, we visited the Yongala, a close-to-shore wreck dive where you can see as much in a day as you can in a week on the Reef itself.

So, as I was saying, done Sydney, done Ayres Rock, done GBR, what else is there??

It would appear plenty... 

...and it would be rude not to partake.

Navigation: