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The Great Barrier Reef. A childhood dream of mine, soon to become a reality! I had been working and travelling in Australia for almost two years now, and my visa was nearing its end. I had seen a lot of places, and experienced many things. Anything from working in the energy sector through 50 degree heat waves in the Australian outback. Learning to live with the humidity and amongst the multitudes of swarming flies that inhabit the area. Quite a shock for a Canadian boy accustomed to our much colder climate... I built champagne towers, painted boats and even guided a wine tour. My time down under had been a life changing experience, but it was not over yet. With my working visa drawing to an end, it was time for the last hurrah. The Great Barrier Reef: The worlds largest coral reef system and a vast 2300 kilometres of tropical beauty. The reef and it’s millions of inhabitants, possessed a piece of my heart since I was a child, and now it was finally time to meet. After many hours of online research, my girlfriend and I decided to sign up for a three day live-aboard dive trip. Departing from Cairns, QLD, we would be visiting several different locations on the reef. We would be diving 11 times, including two night dives. We were both ecstatic to say the least. We arrived in Cairns from Sydney, and promptly made our way to the dive shop. It was closing soon, and we wanted to get our gear and paper work looked after in advance. One less thing to stress about in the morning. We signed our lives away on the dotted line, and were all set for our early morning voyage. The bus picked us up at our accommodations bright and early and we squeezed our belongings into any available crevasse we could find in the already packed vehicle. Crammed together like sardines, we immediately became friends with our soon to be dive buddies. We boarded the vessel, checked into our bunks, and headed down to the galley for our first briefing as a group. The skipper was a friendly South African named Chris who gave us a quick run down on safety procedures, and our dive schedule. Breakfast was served, and we set off for the reef. In three hours we would be ready for our first dive. The diving was quite similar to the many documentaries I had seen on the discovery channel growing up. Schools of fish left and right with many different shapes, sizes and vibrant colours. After each dive, the boat was buzzing with excitement and chatter about what each of us had seen. Sharks, stingrays, turtles and more. The reef was alive with activity and life! The sun had set and our dives for the day had finished. It was time for our first night dive. A plunge into the unknown. We were given coordinates and reference points to different features of the dive site. The main attraction was a legendary giant green turtle who was said to be over 100 years old. As luck would have it, my partner and I were first into the water! We followed the mooring line to the cement block at the bottom, took a compass reading and swam off in the direction of a cave where the turtle often slept at night. It was tough navigating in the dark. We were never quite certain of our whereabouts, but sure enough we found the turtle. A magnificent creature. His shell was the size of a large dinner table, and his long thick tail poked out from within the cave. Other highlights of the night were the grey tipped reef sharks, giant leopard rays and the many bio alluminescent creatures that only come out at night. When the sun sets, everything changes down below. The rest of the dives went flawlessly and before we knew it, we were on our way back to shore. Sadly it was over, but for me it was just the beginning of a new favourite pastime. I will surely return again soon and am very grateful to have experienced that very special place!