The Freaks Come Out at Night

Just wanted to add my own bit about the diving, especially my second night dive. As Stephanie already said, the diving was simply incredible! We were really lucky to have booked a trip to the northern areas of what's called the Ribbon Reefs. Very few boats are licensed to travel in this area, and the reefs are still in great condition. The reefs near Cairns were a bit depressing by comparison. It really makes you appreciate the effect we're having on these natural areas.

Four dives a day really takes a lot out of you, but when you're actually under the water it's very relaxing. The exception is the night dive. Going off the side of the boat into the darkness, carrying a glow stick and a flash light, is a bit daunting. The flash lights worked a little better than I expected, but you can't see anything unless the light is pointing near it. That includes all the surrounding reef walls. Stephanie and I were both pretty nervous on our first night dive, although I think we both handled it pretty well. Ultimately, Stephanie opted to skip the night dive on the second day, the only of the 10 dives either of us skipped (a pretty great feat on its own).

The second night dive was at a reef called Beer Garden, and there was a promise of sleeping turtles along the base of the reef if we went hunting for them. So I partnered up with Sophie, a boat volunteer from France, and went down for a look. The reef at Beer Garden had many nooks and pockets to search, and the reef wall could overhang in places, making it a bit tight and scary to navigate. Each cranny required a sweep with the flashlights to find out where the walls were, and whether we had enough room to operate before we went in for a look. We didn't see much for the first 30 minutes or so as we searched the bottom of the reef walls (about 12 meters deep). Then as we turned a corner in the reef, we spotted what looked like a huge boulder in the sand. We quickly realized that this was the enormous male turtle we'd been warned about. My jaw would have dropped to the sand if it wasn't holding the regulator in my mouth. This thing looked more like a walrus than a turtle, about the size of a love seat. And not 3 seconds after our flashlights lit him up, he rose from the sand and started swimming right for us. Both Sophie and I quickly started surveying the area behind us in an effort to get out of the way before we got run over by "turtle-saurus"! We just managed to clear enough room as he swam by within arms reach, out into the open ocean. We exchanged "okay" signals after catching our breath, and wrapped up our night dive. It was quite an experience!