Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Going through Northern Australia without diving the Great Barrier Reef would be heresy, especially since both of us are licensed scuba divers. The only problem with that, of course, is the Aussie price for such things. The cheapest one-dive excursion was about $150, with three dives running over $200. Those were to the "inner reefs" which are supposedly ruined. The only available two-day excursion was around $500 and also to the inner reefs. There was a three day trip to the supposedly spectacular reefs way to the north (the first day was mainly sailing), but that was over $1000. So we compromised on the one-day, three-dive excursion to the "outer reef" which cost a hearty $250 each.

We took a boat called the SilverSwift, and were there bright and early for boarding. The trip came with "tea" (a light breakfast) and lunch, so we were well fed. All the dives were guided, and we were in a group of five with another couple and a Dutch kid, and we had a japanese guide who didn't speak much English.

All three dives were pretty shallow (between 10-15 meters) which is where most of the good stuff is. We saw a large abundance of fish (especially when the guide released food...) and a ton of coral, though it wasn't very different than what we were used to from Eilat. On one of the dives, we saw a small shark, which was very cool. Altogether, the dives were nice and enjoyable, but not anywhere near as spectacular as we expected.

To summarize it, you don't need to come all the way across the world to see some nice coral, when we've got some right near home (and it's alot cheaper too!).