Port Douglas and Intro to Diving!

On Saturday, I got to participate in an Introduction to Diving Package with Poseidon Outer Reef Cruises. Jocelyn had (of course) done some great research on the different operators out in Port Douglas and what she found was that they 1) didn't take too many people out, usually max 80 and more importantly, 2) they were supposedly very very good with the intro divers. Her research was right - this company was fantastic and their instructors were the best - patient, funny, always mindful of us. We always had 1:4 instruction and when the other girl and I were getting caught in the currents on our first dive, our instructor (Ross) held us by our hands and helped us navigate the beautiful reef and showed us lots of stuff.

Port Douglas Marina


The Great Barrier Reef from above




I decided to concentrate on diving and not photos, so no wonderful underwater photos of what I saw, but the highlights included petting of the gigantic fish under his - chin? You can see a photo of him here on page 4, look at the upper left, lots of fishes including Nemo, seeing huge giant clams that were maybe 4-5x bigger than this one:



I don't think I will ever be able to settle with snorkelling after this! This definitely goes on my list of some of the best things I have ever done (some other things: walking up Huayna Picchi to see Machu Picchu, kayaking Doubtful Sound, walking the Great Wall of China). I think I may need to 1) get certified and 2) come back to the Great Barrier Reef at some point!

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New addition to post:

Just so you have an idea of how far away Cairns (closest airport to Port Douglas) is from Sydney