This year Leah and I took the kids to Australia for a wedding. My cousin Ellie got married to a fine chap named Eric, and they had an intimate wedding 2 hours south of Sydney in the bush (Australian forest areas). It was great to see so many Duggans after so many years.
Prior to the wedding, we decided as a family to go to Northern Queensland for diving, spearfishing, snorkeling, and sailing. I have previously been as far north as Noosa, but this time we were able to go into the heart of the GBR (Great Barrier Reef)!
Here are some pics and vids of the trip. Colin speared his first fish eva’, which was fantastic. And the corals in the outer reef of the GBR were awe-inspiring. Sure, there were some spots that had been devastated by either coral bleaching (warming waters) or by typhoon, but there were also many spots that were wall to wall corals as far as the eye could see.
Aidan and Colin diving
Diving near Lizard Island – this is where Captain Cook climbed the hill on Lizard Island to see the reef passage points so that he would avoid another wreckage on the reef during his return sail to Europe, after discovering and mapping the East coast of Australia (New Holland).
Spearfishing, one of my most favorite activities… we were diving 30-40 feet at a time and had to get the fish out of the water quickly due to the white tip and black tip reef sharks!
Diving in the outer reef (the corals are not bleached, they are browns and yellows that don’t appear well in the GoPro footage, all here is amazing and thriving)
Playing with this Potato Cod
Leah had her birthday on the trip. I owe her big time for humoring me for going on all these adventurous trips! She knows what makes me happy and I love her for it.
During a break in between dives, we threw the fishing lines into the water. I picked up this large dog tooth tuna and spent a few minutes fighting it, when the line went limp. Kept reeling and suddenly saw a large shark eating my tuna… by the time we pulled it into the boat, this was all that was left!
