🚀 go-pugleaf

> 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

>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