paul@pilchuckDataio.UUCP (Paul Brownlow, Data I/O Redmond, WA) (01/27/86)
I am considering a diving vacation in Australia. Does anybody have information concerning good places to dive on the G. B. R. and where to stay? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. -- ------- Paul Brownlow Data I/O Corp. Redmond, WA ..uw-beaver!teltone!dataio!pilchuck!paul "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"
jerry@imagen.UUCP (Jerry Scharf) (01/30/86)
> I am considering a diving vacation in Australia. > Does anybody have information concerning good places > to dive on the G. B. R. and where to stay? Any > info would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks in advance. > > -- > ------- > Paul Brownlow > Data I/O Corp. Redmond, WA > ..uw-beaver!teltone!dataio!pilchuck!paul > > "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'do I feel lucky?' > Well, do ya punk?" I was in Australia in the beginning of December, and dove from Heron Island for two days (I know it sounds rediculous to fly for 16 hours and dive for 2 days, but we wanted to see many things.) I found Heron Island to be a very nice place to stay, with excellent diving conditions. We chose Heron partly because it is a less formal resort than many other places, and was at the southern end of the barrier reef, meaning fewer hours in planes. Talking to other people who we dove with, the coral can be even more beautiful farther north, but that seems hard for me to believe. Gear rental was significantly more expensive than in the San Francisco bay area, and was billed on a per dive basis. A friend of an instructor friend said she likes Magnetic Island, but I can't tell you anything about that. We now hope to do a diving vacation in a few years stopping in several different areas from Papau/New Guinea to Heron. At the current time Papau/New Guinea is out of the question due to political instability in the area. Another thing to consider is the time of year. Right now is the height of the rainy (monsoon) season, and also increased plankton bloom. The winter time brings the trade winds and cooler water, which would want you to go farther torwards Cairns. In summer, we found the weather on Heron Island warm but not hot and muggy. The water temperature was in the low to mid 70s, with it being about 80 farther north. This is enough warmer that the 51 degree water off Monterey last weekend to make this seem plenty warm. One last tip before I end this rambling message. In those beautiful warm waters there are maany things to sting you and scratch you. If you are diving without wetsuits, look into buying a lycra "stinger suit", which is thin and has almost no warmth value but keeps the jellyfish and stinging hydra away. Go and have a great time! -- ---- Jerry Scharf US Snail: Imagen Corp. 2650 San Tomas Expressway, P.O. Box 58101 Santa Clara, CA 95052-9400 UUCP: ...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!imagen!turner
supp@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Steve Upp) (02/01/86)
>I am considering a diving vacation in Australia. >Does anybody have information concerning good places >to dive on the G. B. R. and where to stay? Any >info would be greatly appreciated. I spent a few days on Magnetic Island and dove one day on the reef. I loved it. I stayed in a youth hostel for a total of about $10.00. You cook your own food and sleep in a sleeping bag etc..... But its nice and cheap... I took a nice boat ride out (about 4 hours) to the "closest" portion of the reef from the island. We dove there till late in the afternoon and then headed back. The water of course was beautiful, the best I've ever seen - thats not saying much, I'm strictly a quarry diver. Lot's of color and interesting fish someone even reported seeing a shark, but he couldn't identify what type it was. All I can say is that Magnetic Island was beautiful and the water was the same. I spent most of that summer in Papua New Guinea so I'm afraid I'm not able to help more than that. Steve Upp ...!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!supp