Sorry for the delay in posting about diving the Great Barrier Reef at Heron
Island. A couple from the newsgroup wrote asking so here goes . .

In essence, Heron Island may NOT be worth the price. The island is beautiful
with lots of nature type activities, star watching, scuba, snorkel, bird
watching, reef walks, etc. But the dive groups are LARGE.

Taking the Cat to Heron is the cheap way to travel. But it is pretty rough and
seems to take forever. There is also a time change between the island and the
mainland. On the Cat, lots of people were sick. The crew is terrific at
taking care of all. The helicopter is more expensive, has a strict weight
limit, with the remaining part of your gear taken by the next Cat. The Cat
leaves Gladstone daily at around 11 AM. You can helicopter over and Cat back
(the trip back is smoother since you USUALLY are traveling with the current).

Once you arrive, you are given a brief orientation, like summer camp. You are
then taken by groups to your rooms with No locks and no TV. You then go and
eat lunch (if you can) and when you get back to your room, there is your
luggage having been delivered direct from the boat.

Then you check in at the dive shop, get any gear you'll need, show your C-card,
etc. The gear is assigned to you for the duration of you stay. You'll clean
and store your gear after each trip. As far as I can tell, no one has had
stuff stolen, but I doubt they'd tell us if it did happen. (A man was found
drowned on the reef and we didn't hear about it until someone read an article
in the newspaper brought in from the mainland two days later. This was same
day the American senior citizen disappeared while she snorkeled on a trip from
Cairns so there are no sure things.)

The food is buffet style for breakfast and lunch. Most days it was pretty
good, just a bit boring with the same breakfast selections each day. We stayed
5 days. There is a lot to do when not diving and the sharks come into the reef
area for getting up close even when you snorkel. We were there during the
turtle's egg laying season, along with pretty loud bird nesting. Each month
has there own special season activities.

Here is the webb site for the Heron Island Calendar and a quote on the August
activities - - -.
http://www.heronisland.com/page5.html

August
A month warming up to spring, more general activity on the reef and the Island.

Towards the end of the month the Black Noddies begin returning.
Good Humpback Whale sightings.
Average rainfall 46.2mm
Average temperature min 14.6C max 26.0C
Average water temperature min 20.0C max 23.0C

As to the diving, there is ONE dive master to a single group of 15 to 20
people, poor instructions as to landmarks to follow and the group travels as a
whole at the least experience person's level. If you dove with them earlier in
the week, they will let you go off on your own. BUT, since each time we dove
it was at a different location, we didn't feel comfortable taking off on our
own. My husband had just been certified, I had a camera and we thought there
would be "safety in numbers". We just didn't expect the numbers to be 15-20.
Even when you buddy up, a group of that size is too much. The down side --
sticking with the herd, minimal interaction with special finds by the dive
master and going to sites that required little or no experience, no deep
diving, etc. The sites they took us too were the types of areas that novice
divers could do little damage to and were pretty similar. That's good for the
coral, bad if you want to see something unusual, have good control and could
handle yourself. We say some different types of coral, fish, some sharks and
turtles, but NOT what I'd consider any special dives.

Yes, we saw fish, sharks, turtles. We also has problems following the dive
path with poor descriptions of landmarks. This resulted in the dive master
having to chase down the ones in front to bring them "back to the fold." Once
I was given the sign to swim off in once direction, (seen by 3 other divers who
confirmed the master had told me to head off toward the coral) Then on the boat
was asked by the same divemaster "why" I'd gone off with the rest of the divers
following me. Simply too many divers and too few masters.

I loved being on the cay and able to snorkel the reef when not diving. It
wasn't too warm and when it rained, it wasn't for too long a time. It was
windy, so the snorkel and sail boats were canceled for about two days. It also
affected which site we could dive.

It was nice being so close to Heron that we could actually come back to the
dock between the two morning dives, grab something to drink, eat, use the
bathroom and be back on the boat for the next dive. They do two dives in the
morning and one in the afternoon. You are billed for the use of the equipment
per "trip." The two dives in the AM are one trip. If you split your dives to
one in the AM and one in PM, you are billed for the use of the equipment for
"two trips." They also have an environment tax per trip to cover the use of
gas, etc. That is in addition to the dive costs. I'd recommend the dive
package, you can pick 2-4-6 or 8 dives and break them up as you choose.

For diversity of fish, photography and feeling a dive master really wants to
make your trip special, I'd go with Ed Robinson's in Kauai and Grover at Capt.
Jack's in Kona on the Big Island. Grover used to work at Robinson's and was my
instructor in underwater photography some years back.

I had really planned for this trip, even to buying an underwater camera. The
masters in the shop were helpful in helping me with the new camera. The people
are friendly. The island is beautiful. But I'm not sure if the cost is worth
it. Would I go back to Herron? Maybe, but I'd go to other places first, and
NOT Cairns. Cairns has great publicity, but are NOT on the reef. It takes
quite a while to get out to the reef. If you do not want a live aboard, try
one of the other island like Hamilton.

The final decision is yours; If you are comfortable diving new locations with
just your buddy, Heron would be great. You might want to contact them to see
if your some extra money you can get your "own dive master." The sites are
nice and if I'd gone off with just my buddy, I'd have enjoyed it more. I
wasn't. I chose to stick with the herd and all it entails.

If you have more questions, let me know.

Bubblls