Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Great Barrier Reef, Australia



I have a possible three 'fun' dives left on my last day but I literally cannot get out of bed this morning.The dive instructor knocks on my door at 6am. 'Are you diving this morning?' he says chirpily. As I stand there bleary eyed in my pyjamas Bill Bryson's quote comes into my head and I feel like saying 'I'd rather have open bowel surgery in the woods with a stick'. But before I can speak he apologises for waking me up and leaves.

My first dive today is at 11am and as there are only seven of us on the boat and only two of us are certified, I have no choice as to who'll be my buddy. Bizarrely enough I met Christophe on my travels up to Alice Springs. He's an Advanced Diver too so I have no qualms about diving with him although he's very nonchalant about everything.'Yeah yeah don't worry' he says to everything. Although I didn't bargain on him being as bad at navigation as me. After exploring the reef canyons and figuring it's time to go back, neither of us has any idea where the boat is. Chris signals for us to surface. To my horror we're about half a kilometre from the boat and nearly out of air. We're forced to swim through choppy waves back to the boat.

After this experience I'm reluctant to go on a night dive with him. Who knows where we'll end up, and in the dark. The instructor tells me I'll be able to see the lights from underneath the boat for miles around. He's right.

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