ALL TROPICAL DIVING DESTINATIONS HAVE CORAL REEFS, BOATS THAT CARRY DIVERS ON SITE AND A LITTLE COMPETITION BETWEEN DIVE OPERATORS. IN SOME PARTS OF THE WORLD THESE ELEMENTS ARE BROUGHT TO THEIR LIMITS. IT'S A SMALL WORLD. LIFE IS SHORT. BARRIER REEF IS GREAT!  LET'S GO TO AUSTRALIA!

Diving-Mecca
	When I studied my world atlas, I found the Great Barrier Reef squirming along, as a light-blue ribbon beside the east coast of the continent. According to simple common sense, the best place to go would be the town closest to the Reef.  My finger stopped on a little black dot marked "Cairns". Less than 100.000 inhabitants, tropical climate, 30 miles to the reef and almost a direct flight. From here on, everything went like reaching the surface on a free ascent; quickly and surely.
	I thought I had been exceptionally clever, choosing a little town up north that no-one had heard about, but this was not the case. Last year there was almost 1.2 million people as clever as myself, choosing Cairns for their holiday. Hotels, motels, hostels and guesthouses filled the neat street sides and tens of bright-eyed representatives were pushing their leaflets to me at the arrival lounge of the airport. As limo-, or taxi drivers approached business people, backpackers have their own caretakers. A dozen of like-minded bed & breakfast providers quickly attached themselves to my sleeve. All information is reliable and you can easily make an accommodation package for a week or two right after coming through customs. As I had the "adventurers package" (only paid for my flight) I took a free ride to town and ended up in a hostel called "Coconut Palms".
	 For a budget traveler, Cairns (and the whole Australia) offers some amazing deals. A bed in a dormitory costs about  £5.00 and for less than £15.00 you'll get your private room with air condition and a fridge! Rooms in this price range are small and basic but the atmosphere is always relaxed and facilities include a swimming pool, TV-room, laundry and a kitchen for your own cooking. 


Crash course in marine biology
	After a cooling shower it was time to evaluate the situation. I was in the hot north-east Australia, equipped with a bag of dive-gear, a guitar and a backpack full of precious junk, that is walkman, 60 tapes and six T-shirts. 
	Although the beach front opened to a muddy mangrove area crowded only by pelicans, I knew that only a 30 minute boat ride from here, turquoise waves would be braking on corals of the Great Barrier Reef. The amount of brochures and leaflets in every hostel, hotel, shop and booking office didn't leave me with any doubt; I had arrived to one of the diving-capitals of the world. The town itself was merely the foyer to the funhouse.  It was time to leave the bag in the locker and dive into the action! 
	The cheapest trips to the reef were priced  $60.00 and I decided to start cautiously with a day-trip. Unlike local nightclubs, these day boats didn't bother to pick me up from my accommodation, so I was to walk through the town to the pier at the end of the beach front-esplanade. 
	From around twenty boats leaving the wharf every morning, I had chosen an old pearl lugger called "Falla". For the cost of an evening in a London pub, I got a crazy crew to entertain me, morning coffee or tea, a buffet lunch, tales from the old pearling days, full snorkeling gear, topped off by a couple of glasses of wine by a beautiful sunset on the way home.
	Day trips attract a lot of "land lubbers" and the diving is set suitable for beginners. During the day we stopped in two different moorings, where seasick passengers sought relief from the calm, clear ocean. A PADI intro dive was offered for $45.00 (a good opportunity to refresh rusty diving skills) and certified divers could have a dive for $30.00. Price included full dive gear and a guide if requested. 
	Because of the "intro-dives", the dive sites were easy; a flat sandy bottom with some small coral pinnacles was found only 6 meters under the keel. The visibility was "only" around 10m, but coral- and fish life was bountiful and full of colour. 
	The best part of this trip was the guided two-hour snorkeling-tour where we became students in a common language marine biology course. The wet lecture about the formation of reefs, coral cays and behaviour of fish, opened a totally new dimension in observing the underwater community's life in the "classroom".


To the floating hotel
	Well satisfied and tired, I finally returned to town with twelve new friends with me. I had a reason to take a good rest and recharge my energy, as the next dive trip would be more strenuous. 
	There was about ten different dive operators offering a range of "real" dive trips in their floating hotels. I chose the one that had the most promising name: "Deep Sea Diver's Den". 
	The damage for their three-day trip was a bit over a $200, so my expectations were pretty high. And truly, in the next few days the word "boat dive" got an all-new meaning. Life's three basics became: eat, sleep and....dive!
	A herd of 20 tourists was pampered by a crew of five.  Price included everything but swimwear. Being a sleepy head, I was particularly delighted to find a bottomless coffee pot in the lounge room, right next to the bottomless biscuit jar. Our hotel was now pushed along towards the reefs with 300 hundred horsepower purring in the twin hull.
	The destination was the outer Barrier Reef where the edge of the continental shelf offers greater depths and more visibility. The average viz. in here is about 18 meters and it proved to be quite sensitive to weather. Depending on wind direction, the waves sometimes stir up the sandy bottom and having 10 meters visibility is not unusual. In optimal conditions divers will look at 30 meters of clear water teeming with small and harmless reef sharks, rays and turtles, along with 30-meter drop-offs, coral tunnels and small caverns.
	The service on the boat was fantastic. Never before had diving been this easy! After a hearty breakfast I walked to the stern, sat down in front of my full tank, slipped my arms through the BCD, put on my fins and weights, bit my regulator and stood up. The turquoise water was rippling in front of me and to get in, all I had to do is take a step.
	The marine biology crash course that I took on my day trip was truly valuable when I found myself in the midst of immeasurable amount of tropical life. Because these dive sites were constantly crowded by divers, fish were quite tame, some of them even a bit ill mannered. I had all sorts of species swimming onto my mask defending their territory while some others kept nibbling my fingers on a search for a piece of bread. The students doing their first open water dives also guaranteed a fair amount of mask clearing exercises, as there was more than enough fins kicking my face during the dives. 
	The daily program was tight. Every full day contained four dives. After each dive the tables in the lounge area were covered with some sort of replenishment; Breakfast, dive, snack, dive, lunch, dive, snack, dive and dinner. Both the crew and the compressor were having long working hours. 
	PADI dive tables were consulted carefully as one would expect. Those diving with their own computer were given a bit extra freedom as long as staying well away from the computer limits. I arrived to Australia with a shiny new Suunto Solution thinking that without a computer I would be laughed out of the country. For my surprise, I was one of the few to enjoy the longer bottom times provided by high technology. 
	Once we made it back to the hard land, I didn't have the option of going for a rest, although after 11 dives and two restless nights, I felt like having earned a good night sleep. The crew of our dive boat invited me (and my 15 new friends) for a few pints to the local Aussie-pub. This was not an unusual act of politeness, just a standard Cairns dive trip continuation, where passengers have the opportunity to reunite and re-live the highlights, while the crew is enjoying free drinks and meals for bringing another load of solvent tourists in. The party included wet T-shirt competitions, beer drinking from a snorkel and a taxi trip to the local nightclub...
	Next morning I woke up sweaty and oozing with nitrogen. I had seen the Great Barrier Reef but I wasn't yet fully satisfied. I recalled the stories that my friends had told me about Red Sea and Maldives. "Shit!" -I thought, "I can't come back to Europe from this far away and tell about only 30 meter visibility! But what can I do? "

The Coral Sea
		Australia for divers is equal to Great Barrier Reef and Barrier Reef is equal to Australia. Could there still be more....? Beyond Barrier Reef there's nothing but Open Ocean, called Coral Sea. If you take a close look at your world atlas, you can find small dots in dark blue and some magical depth figures; 1000...1500...feet of meters ? Who cares! 
	I was running low on ideas, but when I told the all-knowing receptionist about my desire to find out what diving in Australia is in its best, he could only repeat two words; Rum Runner, Rum Runner. "The best trip in Australia (and in the whole world)"? - He said. 
	Rum Runner is a ten-year-old schooner, built for the purpose, taking max.16 passengers. In their brochures they don't mention anything about sea sickness or three meter waves, they just casually tell you that if the visibility is less than 30 meters, they will be happy to refund the whole £300.00 they charged you for the 3 day-3 night trip!! 
	I frowned and surveyed the wear and tear of my visa card. Then I heard myself saying: "I'll have one of them, please". Reading further the pamphlet, it seemed that the main attraction on this trip was shark feeding, but somehow I didn't' pay too much attention to it. I was old enough to know that there's nothing a salesman wouldn't say to bring the dollars in. 
	I got a day to recover from my last trip. I was picked up in the heat of the next afternoon by a van with a picture of a huge shark painted on it. When arriving to the wharf, there were 15 other divers ready to embark the boat. No students this time. Only qualified divers, although a PADI advanced diver -course was offered for an extra £15. 
	Before the sunset we were on our way towards the mysterious Holmes reef, 130 nautical miles (240 km) from Cairns. Two sails were quickly pulled up to fill the requirement of the advertisement ("sail to Coral Sea"), and a 120 hp diesel was covering the noise of the flapping sails as we were beating in to the wind. 
	The crew seemed enthusiastic. A few hours later some of the passengers started to ask about the estimated time of arrival. The cook that served the night shift was polite and gave time for passengers to throw up, before telling that there was hardly 16 hours to go! 
	I was thrilled! Real life at sea! In the darkness of the night we were watching the lights of other dive boats, continuing non-stop over the Barrier Reef to the deep waters. 

Holmes sweet Holmes
	The prevailing southeast winds provided us a bumpy ride and chaotic dreams in a daze. It wasn't until 18 hours after departure that we could rest our eyes on bright green corals in front of a sheltered mooring buoy. 
	"No other boat operates this far" -we were told proudly by the crew. Their enthusiasm was a bit more forced after a two-hour night shift each and having the galley floor as a bed. 
	After a wonderful breakfast we all got our dive gear, including a compulsory Uwatec dive-computer. The dive schedule was made dishonouring the "old" dive tables. For example the dives of the second day (dives nr.5 to 8) were 40m, 26m, 20m and 16 m. There was no time limits, as long as you returned with 30 bar in the tank and a non-blinking computer! Divers with an instructor-level training had a chance to make a dive beyond Padi depth limits, although unofficially.
	We changed our mooring after every dive and the variety of sites was unbelievable. The remoteness of the reef was seen as an untouched marine life and that seemed to be a matter of honour to Rum Runner. 
	"We don't want to spoil the paradise below us, and therefore we don't even throw the food waste from the galley into the sea until we are totally clear from all the reefs. That keeps the fish from changing their feeding habits and become dependant on divers" -said the 28-year-old female skipper Kerry Roach. 
	I estimated the visibility to be around 50 meters and I couldn't even imagine what it would be like in optimal conditions, when Rum Runner promises a viz. of up to 100 meters / 330 feet !!
	We circled around a 35 meter high coral pinnacle, spent a beautiful 70 minutes in shallow caves and experienced breath taking moments while drifting along a vertical 1500 meter drop-off. Deep diving, drift diving, cavern diving, wall diving, night diving...all in superb conditions and with a five-star crew. Almost on every dive there was sharks coming from their deep blue kingdom to see us. This time we had "real" sharks; Silvertips and Whalers in addition to the usual White tip reef sharks. This was surely the ultimate dive experience! 
	What else could I ask? Oh yes, the shark feed. Rum Runner'bs shark feed was no circus of reckless divers, defying the swimming death with half a Marcel in their mouth. Our skipper Kerry gave us a briefing. 
	"There's more than 300 species of sharks in the world. Most of them are harmless to man. It's also notable, that most dive accidents are actually provoked by divers or result in situations with blood and half dead fish in the water, from spearfishing etc. Rum Runner wants to give divers an opportunity to observe sharks in their normal behaviour, without interacting too much. That's why we keep divers in cage. In fact, if divers would swim freely in this area, most sharks would stay away." -told Kerry, while the crew was setting up the cage (made from 6mm nailon string !) It seemed that the cage was there to protect the sharks from divers, not the opposite, as I thought. 
	During Kerry's lecture, the blood thirsty passenger's disappointment was turned into serious interest about sharks behaviour. Only small amount of fish was used to attract the sharks. Sharks would only get a little snack, not a feed, being forced to find their food the same way they have done for millions of years.
	"You have Hollywood in your head" -said the divemaster when passengers dramatically descended down the ladder saying goodbye to each other.
	After the 6 by 6 meter "net" was filled with 16 divers, the fight for life and death could begun. Not outside the cage though but inside it, each diver fighting for the best spot. The food thrown in the water quickly attracted more than twenty sharks and it was truly a wonderful experience. Sharks didn't have any interest on us but were still cruising only inches away, circling the dead pray. Their movements were pure ballet, no question about it.
	Later on the deck, when discussing the size of the sharks, everybody equally forgot the magnifying effect of water. Cured from our prejudice towards "the jaws", we rested our eyes on a beautiful sunset at Coral Sea and started another 18 hour journey back to the continent of Australia. This time we made a brief stop at Barrier reef, enough to have two morning dives and see the difference. We were spoiled, and although Barrier reef was wonderful, I couldn't help saying: "Holmes sweet Holmes". My 19 new friends all agreed with me. Back in Cairns my Suunto was still showing no-fly times of 18 hours and the last repetitive dive was nr. 22 !
	It was time to try a bit less exiting sports, like Bungy jumping, white water rafting, parachuting, hangliding, rainforest trekking, hot-air ballooning, aerobatics, horseback riding, water skiing or maybe just go and have glass of champagne on a deserted coral cay, by a helicopter !
	Yes, the 1500 spieces of fish, 350 spieces of corals and over 2900 separate reefs (not even mentioning Coral Sea) weren't the only reasons for me to sit 24 hours in an aeroplane.