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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
"Awkward" - But probably the one to buy, 30 Jul 2001
By A Customer
This series of guides has a well-established format - so it is difficult to understand why they have made this particular guide so hard to follow. The Great Barrier Reef is over 1,200 miles in length and, thankfully, the book does not claim to be a definitive guide. Refreshingly, therefore, it is exactly what is says it is - a "Guide to the Dive Sites of the Great Barrier Reef" and, generally speaking, it is a good one at that. The book is divided into the accepted geographical sections of the Great Barrier Reef and commences each of these chapters with an informative introduction followed by brief details of a fair and representative selection of the best known dive sites. So far so good, but then they go and "spoil the ship for a hapenth of tar!" With very few exceptions, the photographs are generally very good and include some that are quite outstanding. They lose a "Star," however, for blatantly "touching" and "standing on" corals. No photograph showing such bad practises should have been included - and this book features more than one. Furthermore, diving inside the Yongala shipwreck contravenes the "Laws" of Queensland and I was saddened to find a photograph of a human skull is used to introduce Townsville on page 95. In the English Language, we read from left to right whilst working our way from the top of the page to the bottom. It is, therefore, quite odd to find a book that sets out to do things in reverse order. This book commences in the south and works its way north. Altogether, over 150 dive sites are included - but each chapter commences with "Site No 1" whereas it would be far more useful had they been numbered consecutively from beginning to end. Most unusual of all, however, is the fact that every map shows these sites numbered from the bottom of the page up to the top. Eventually this really does become very awkward to follow. One might also be forgiven for thinking that it is all a very poor attempt to poke fun at Australia - you know, the country being upside down and all that... Maybe not, but another star lost! In Summary; a rather good book, but in dire need of some serious rearranging. Nevertheless, all the information is there and, when compared to other books on the Great Barrier Reef, this is a good option. NM
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