Finding soulmates one story at a time

Shark in PNG

One thing not widely known, is that the Great Barrier Reef extends all the way from its more popular and famous locale on the coast of Eastern Australia, all the way north to Papua New Guinea.

I am sad to say that outside Cairns a lot of the Great Barrier Reef is… Well, let’s call it less than spectacular. That’s not to say there weren’t some pockets full of color and vibrancy, but most of what I saw underwater on my last trip was washed out and dead looking. I found scuba diving there to be a disappointment.

This was not the case in Papua New Guinea. All the diving I did there was on healthy, colorful reefs. Divers looking for a relatively unknown, beautiful place should keep Papua New Guinea in mind.

Excellent diving was a short boat trip away from the city of Port Moresby — which is where tourists fly into. Accommodation, from inexpensive rooms to luxury resorts was available, so there’s something for every budget.

I want to say visibility went on for as far as I could see, but that doesn’t really give a true idea of how clear the water was. I could have only seen six inches — I’ve been on dives like that.

Visibility went for hundreds of feet. The water was so warm, I used a thin stinger suit rather than a neoprene wetsuit.

Cuttlefish. Clownfish. Dolphins. Sea feathers. Barracuda. Sharks. Lion fish. Scorpion fish. Wrecks. Puffer fish. Colorful hard and soft corals everywhere.

I spent three days diving and wished I’d booked more time. On my dives, aside from the guide and random others who joined us from time to time, there wasn’t a single other person. There was so much to see in shallow water, our dive times lasted more than the usual “about an hour.”

On my last dive a few other divers joined us. It was another perfect dive, full of plenty of things to see. Some crazy clown fish tried to kill me. A school of barracudas circled around us. I saw a sea feather take off from its perch and change locations. Cuttlefish watched us.

At the end of our dive, we swam over an area full of wobbegong sharks. They don’t have the terrifying reputation of their larger cousins, the great whites and bull sharks, but have been known to bite people.

Wobbegong sharks are kind of funny looking. More flat rather than torpedo-shaped, they looked like little area rugs scattered over the sand. Hence, their other name — carpet sharks.

At only six feet long, it wasn’t like they could swallow me whole. I never saw one swimming — they seemed to prefer lazing on the seabed during the day, utilizing their camouflage talents.

This place was jam packed with them.

I took some pictures, happily floating out of reach of possibly grumpy Wobbegongs, until –

Something grabbed my fin and yanked me backward in the water.

If you’ve never been scuba diving, let me explain some things. Humans are not meant to spend long periods of time underwater. We don’t communicate well, usually relying on hand signs that can be ambiguous, or writing on slates.

In order to go where we’re not meant to be, we require a great deal of heavy and awkward equipment.

Fins. Wetsuits. Or drysuits. Masks. Weights. A vest to control buoyancy and hold things like a tank of air, assorted hoses, slates and lights. A computer to let us know how long we can remain underwater — and how slowly we have to get back to the surface without our lungs exploding.

With all that gear piled on, a diver becomes an ungainly creature on land or a boat. In the water, things improve, but it’s not easy to see what’s around. Scuba diving is a horizontal thing, if done correctly. Which means I could see what was below, or right in front of me if I lifted my head, but not much else.

Forget about peripheral vision. Nor was it possible to look over my shoulder easily, and even if I could, there was the matter of hoses and the tank on my back obstructing the view. I definitely couldn’t see my feet without some serious contorting.

So, when something grabbed my fin and pulled me backward, amidst a bunch of sharks, I might have screamed like a girl.

Okay, I’ll fess up. I did scream like a girl.

I mentioned humans need a tank of air to hang out underwater. Well, it was a good thing we were at the end of the dive, because I’m pretty sure if I’d been looking, I could have watched my air gauge swoop down the numbers as I sucked in huge breaths.

I didn’t feel anything chomping its way up my leg, and flailed around until I could see what had grabbed me. One of the other divers released my fin and pointed at a cuttlefish. He held up his hands in a square and moved one index finger like he was pushing a button.

Thanks, buddy.

I did not make the hand sign I felt like giving him at that moment.

FUN FACTS ABOUT PAPUA NEW GUINEA

  • PNG is home to the only poisonous bird – the hooded pitohui. It produces batrachotoxin in its feathers and skin.
  • Snow falls on the mountaintops.
  • PNG contains the third largest rainforest in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo.
  • There are 850 languages spoken.

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

  • The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from space.
  • Wally the Maori Wrasse loves hugs.
  • Corals are not plants. They are actually animals.
  • The Great Barrier Reef is about the size of Italy.