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Take your first dive on the Great Barrier Reef

June water off Port Douglas runs about 24 degrees, clear enough to see thirty metres in each direction, which you don't appreciate until a second dive in wet-season swell turns everything the colour of weak tea. On the first descent nobody is thinking about visibility, though - you're thinking about the giant clam directly beneath you, blue-lipped and the size of a car tyre, and the fact that your own regulator sounds louder than seems reasonable. The reef stretches over 2,300 kilometres of Queensland coastline and you manage maybe forty metres of it, which turns out to be more than enough for one afternoon.

Practical

Cost
$400–900 for course plus reef trips
Best time
June to November for calmest seas and best visibility
Difficulty
Moderate
Time it takes
3-4 days certification, plus a day on the reef
What people get wrong
People schedule the reef trip for the day after a long-haul flight and spend it jet-lagged or seasick; others skip or rush the compulsory confined-water pool sessions, which take longer than the brochure suggests.
With
A group

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