Copyright: Jurgen Brauer, Augusta, Georgia, USA

1. The Great Barrier Reef is among the world's premier scuba diving spots. But when I arrived in the port city of Cairns, in Queensland, the sky was ominously overcast. There had been much rain the prior week, with more to come, foretelling a stirred-up ocean and poor visibility.

2. A sign along the beach warns, in English and German, of salt-water crocodiles. Tourists abounded, especially students, primarily from Europe.

3. Many rent VW-camper buses and travel on route 1 all around the Australian continent. Cairns is considered a mandatory stop. Years ago, my wife and I traveled in a bus just like those below on our honeymoon across western and southern Europe.

4. Part of the Cairns marina is shown below. I actually booked two 3-days trips on a live-aboard boat, both with ProDive Cairns, a reputable dive outfit. I arrived Sunday, would be out on the ocean Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, return to port for a night, then go out again Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and fly off the next Sunday.

5. On the first trip, Philip Wood, a psychology student, was my room mate on board and one of my dive buddies.

6. Having been diving mostly in the Caribbean, I found myself strangely disoriented by not being able to recognize underwater wildlife here. But the Giant Clam, photographed from the top, I recognized at first sight.

7. Staghorn coral, of which there was PLENTY.

8. I have no idea what this brilliantly green patch of "grass" is.

9. Fish ...

10. ... and coral aplenty.

11. A giant purple seafan, relatively rare in these waters (below). The ProDive crew was safety-oriented and provided good hints as to where to look for what. One morning we jumped in the water at 6:30, first swimming north, then east,  to see if we could find a patch of sand where white-tipped reef shark might be found sleeping. And sure enough, I came across one sleepy fellow who, stirred up, slowly moved off to start another day. 

12. Another dive buddy, Dr. Cythnia King of CalState, Fullerton ...

13. ... and Dr. Daylesh Shah, a London dentist. It is odd that the dive boat was populated by advanced professionals - and by students!

14. Seacucumbers were plentiful; this one is a leopard seacucumber (because of its spots). The other abundant species was the pineapple seacucumber, so called because of its "spiky" appearance. 

15. On one dive, a flatworm undulated its way through the water and ran straight into me. I caught it on my finger (below) and admired it for awhile before setting it on its way once more.

16. A lizardfish, looking (to me) exactly as they look in the Caribbean.

17. This remora - persistent buggers - shadowed the big fish.

18. "Finding Nemo" was not a problem in these waters. Anemone fish could be found on practically every dive.

19. After the first three days at sea, it was time to return to Cairns for a night. I had booked a hotel with a view onto the mountains and the rainforest. Many people split their week, going to the rainforest first and then diving the rest of the week - but me, well, I suppose I am a "hard-core" diver.

20. Dieter ("Didi") Uhl from Germany was my dive buddy on trip #2. It's nice to dive with the same person over and over again. Also, since I had just been out at sea, I was familiar with all the dive sites and could focus better on precisely where I wanted to go and what to look for at each site. Moreover, on this second trip the wind had died down and the sun came out, and that made for much better underwater visibility. 

21. Didi's companion, Ute (left), a non-diver, availed herself of the opportunity to abandon snorkeling and do an escorted dive with the on-board dive leader (right). Perhaps she'll become a certified scuba diver before too long ...

22. What's to see? Here a cod or grouper ...

23. ... and the aptly named unicorn fish, ...

24. ... and plenty of turtles, this one happily munching on coral.

25. For me, one of the nicest underwater feelings occurs when I am enveloped by a school of fish like these (below). There you are, breathing deep and slow, hovering amongst the hundreds of them as if they had adopted you.

26. Because my camera's flash malfunctioned, making it impossible to get reasonable close-up, color photographs, I had to switch to black & white, wide-angle photography ...

27. ... and sometimes this was just what I needed as when Didi and I discovered this three-finned turtle, outlined by the bright sun. Perhaps a shark bit off the left hind-fin?

28. On one dive, as we were about to surface and hop back on the boat, Didi noticed some movement 30 feet or so down. We had just enough air left to decide to check things out and happened upon a Giant Cuttlefish, perhaps the size of a man's torso. What a sight to behold! The creature changed its color and physical form as we swam with it for awhile. I wish we had had time to observe it much longer. Eventually, Didi split off and swam to the rear to "push" the fish back my way. The strategy worked well enough and, although my camera jammed up again, I got at least one fair shot of this magnificent animal. 

29. This fish reminded me of the Caribbean's Spotted Drum but I have no idea what the fish's name is.

30. We discovered plenty of swim-throughs like this one (below). In fact, because we had our underwater navigation down pat, we engaged in quite a bit of exploring and discovering, and with the sun out so bright it was a lot of fun.

31. This coral head (below) is appropriately named the "golf ball," rising almost to the water's surface. It served as a handy underwater navigational aid, as the boat lay a few minutes swim due west.

32. ProDive maintains three boats, Scubapro I, II, and III, all essentially identical to each other. Here is a view of the kitchen and living room area which had room for about 30 divers, plus crew. Cabins were located on this floor as well as below and above the main deck. One of the nicest features was the on-board hot shower!

33. On the way back to town, afternoon sunshine lights up my beloved ocean.

34. The skyline of Cairns, fronted by a lone sea plane.

35. ProDive buses await the divers to drive them back to the dive store and on to their hotels. All-in-all, a worthwhile experience.

The end.