I'd like to introduce Talia. Please enjoy her wonderfully witty and poignant story of her adventure with her sister in Australia!
My mother passed on to all her children a sense of adventure. One way this manifested is that we all got our open water SCUBA licenses. For my sister's recent birthday I decided to treat her to a dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
I choose a three-day, two night live aboard trip with ProDive out of Cairns. I'd done the same trip 15 years ago and loved it. They visit parts of the outer reef and instead of the usual big group led by a divemaster, a detailed briefing is given before each dive and everyone dives in pairs. This gives it a more adventurous feeling, and the fish are less likely to be scared off. As I am the more experienced diver my sister was happy for me to take the lead, which was satisfying for the bossy big sister in me.
I got us lost only once. I didn't feel too bad about it as we went along a beautiful coral wall; saw a turtle and my sister claimed it was her favorite dive. There was even another pair lost so we didn’t have to ride back in the dingy of shame alone.
I was worried about the state the reef would be in, since Australia is shamefully lax in protecting it. It is still beautiful; I thought the corals looked just as amazing. There is less life.
I noticed less sharks. The sharks on the reef are white and black tip reef sharks. They are completely harmless; terrified of humans they swim away whenever anyone approaches. Even if one turned aggressive, the white tips have such small mouths that they are incapable of biting anyone. A black tip could bite, but it would be equivalent to a dog bite. I love sharks and hate how scared the media has made everyone of even these poor gentle reef sharks. I worry sharks will go extinct due to our irrational fears. More people die from being hit in the head every year with coconuts than from shark bites. Yet Australia has sanctioned shooting great white sharks, while no one cuts down coconut trees.
The biggest surprise on the reef was how few clown fish there were. The divemasters told us it was due to the popularity of the movie Finding Nemo. As Nemo is a clown fish people steal them off the reef to keep as pets or sell to stores. Fifteen years ago they were everywhere. This time the divemasters had to give incredibly detailed instructions just so we could see the two clown fish on one dive!
There is still a huge, diverse amount of sea life. We saw several turtles, a few reef sharks, and more fish than I could count.
As you may have guessed our family also shares a love of animals. After the reef we headed up to Cape Tribulation, stopping at a few animal habitats to interact with Australian wildlife. We saw koalas, kangaroos and cassowaries, but the clear favorite was the cat-sized nail-tailed wallaby. My sister wanted to know if it was possible to keep one as a pet if she lived in Australia.
After that it was back to Bondi, before home to Beijing for my sister. The day in Bondi wasn't the perfect weather I had hoped for, but my sister reminded me how lucky we are just to be breathing clean air, something that isn't a given in overcrowded China. I hope Australia does a better job at preserving the amazing natural beauty we enjoyed on our trip.
Please check out her Instagram: Travelingtalia for more beautiful photos from all of her traveling!
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