They had this amazing very large crystal clear salt water swimming pool which they call a lagoon. I loved it. They also had free grills to use throughout the waterfront, free showers, etc. And there must have been an icecream or gelato shop every couple of stores. We checked in at that dive shop and confirmed everything for the next morning. Thankfully, Dave had the foresight to book a dive trip months before we arrived. The dive companies there were booked solid for the next several weeks.
ProDive picked us up early the next morning and once our group was all together we were transported to the dive boat where we would live the next three days. I read in Fodors about taking ginger pills for motion sickness which I’d never heard of, but we tried it and I loved it. Worked great and no fatigue!
We didn’t bring an underwater camera so I don’t have photos to share of the actual dives, but we did see millions of fishies. We also saw several sea turtles and a few reef sharks. We also experienced night diving for the first time for both of us. That was very cool! The first night we went guided with the dive master and the second night we were on our own so to speak, but we did go in small groups. The second night we saw two huge sea turtles sleeping under rocks.
We met some great folks from all over including New Zealand, England, Ireland, and the good ol’ US of A. The food was absolutely wonderful. Basically the schedule was hour dive, eat, nap or chill and repeat three of four times each day. There were 11 scheduled dives, but Dave and I chose to skip one and to snorkel two others because it can be hard on your ears. We were both glad we chose to snorkel the last two because it was a pretty shallow area and most of the fish were closer to the surface so we saw more than we would have diving. The first day was tight, but the next two were more relaxed.
The dive shop folks even invite you out to get together for an informal dinner in town after the trip which was awesome because we had more time to be chatty. We even ended up meeting up with some of the folks the next day to do a hike north of Cairns. I loved the whole experience. And because of the trip we ended up booking a flight to Thailand to check out the diving there since it was strongly recommended. ProDive staff were very professional, patient and funny. I would definitely go with them again. Great experience! Also, even though it is the rainy season in Queensland, the weather was perfect throughout or dive trip. God’s creation is amazing to see!
