The Great Barrier Reef: Scuba diving 5th and 6th Sept

Cairns is the Great Barrier reef. I'm pretty sure no-one goes there and doesn't at least go on a day snorkelling trip, even those who can't swim. Before I left England in a state of wild disorganisation regarding any travel plans for Australia I had 2 vague ideas of what I wanted to do. One was to see the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (I think because I'd flicked the Rough guide open at that section). The other was to dive The Great Barrier Reef. You have to. You just have to. It's visible from space for goodness sake, which is probably more than be said for England! It's one of the wonders of the natural world.

Actually, given that it stretches over 2600km I could have visited from most of the coast I travelled along but as soon as the sea was calm in Cairns I was raring to go. I opted to do two day trips one from Port Douglas to the Agincourt reef where fewer boats go and next day from Cairns.

I love diving. I hate what preceeds it. A crowded diving deck, everyone getting kitted up simultaneously and pitching about with the boat at anchor in a sightly turbulent sea. Scuba gear is of course so cumbersome, wetsuits unwilling to go on or off again. 6 kg+ of weight belt, another 10 or so with the tank, some ugly-sister moment with the fins then persuading one's quadricepts that it is possible to stand up despite the extra weight, an awkward shuffle to the end of the boat and a relieved jump into the water. Once in the water things start to improve. Once under the water: freedom...

15 metres under the surface and you feel as though you'd been out for a walk in rather dull surroundings then coming around a corner suddenly stumbled upon the most extraordinary garden buzzing with life and filled with beautiful plants. You explore it not by walking about on 2 feet but by floating weightlessly on your front, now on your back. Wanting to see something further below by putting your head down and giving a lazy fin flick, gliding, soaring, turning. This is how I feel diving a reef- as though I've wandered into a foreign land and been given special powers to explore it. The corals are an intricate, varied and beautiful backdrop for the plethora of life beneath the waves. Swimming slowly on my back I marvel at shoals of fish swimming past, brilliant colours glittering in the sunlight, facing down watch damsel fish dart in and out of the corals and clownfish defend their anenome home. Tiny, detailed dramas being played out. Looking out into the deep blue a harmless white tipped reef shark swims in towards us and waiting cleaning wrasse munch away microbes from his skin in a symbiotic relationship. He swims off but a turtle paddles into view heading up to the surface for a breath. In short it's another world that we get to enter here, clumsy and spewing air bubbles whilst the fish show how swimming and breathing are effortless. All too soon the air supply gets low and it's back to the surface like the slow and reluctant awakening from a good dream but one at least you can find again.