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Published: February 20th 2007
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Well, Cairns was a cute little place - with a certain Buzziness to it! Although it also had a certain Wetness to it, with frequent torrential downpours and high humidity! But hey No Worries Mate! Whats a bit of water!
Well the water was fine, it was the wind that caused the problems! After a day meandering around Cairns and finding our feet and also rejoicing in the fact that the bus journeys were over we were all prepped for a trip out to the reef! Our reef trip was to be a 2 day, 1 night affair - incorporating 6 dives - 5 day time and 1 night dive! The morning dawned overcast and blustery and the yomp down to the marina proved a little wet! But before we knew it we were off! A little incredulous and alot confused given that we were on a tiddly little boat which we though we were supposed to be spending the night on! UH OH! Fortunately though this was just our taxi out to the Reef Encounter - a 'luxury yacht' adapted for diving! The 2 1/2 hour trip out to the reef was interesting to say the least (and somewhat
vomit inducing - with people throwin up all around us!) Jen and I took to lying down and inspecting the insides of our eyelids to avoid the sea sickeness which worked quite well for us!
After 2 hours shuddering and banging over the waves we found ourselves moored up alongside the reef and next to our boat - the transfer boat came to get us and the skies opened!!!! The people on our taxi out had paid to snorkel the reef and had (unfortunately for them) just gone out onto the reef when the squall kicked in, waves crashed over their heads and the rain poured - all quite amusing for those of us still on the boat not so nice for them! That passed though, and soon we were off - onto our new accommodation - and all set up for a rather impressive lunch! The outside of the boat did leave alot to the imagination - and I feared something similar to that of the Yangtze River - entering the lounge though I was pleasantly surprised! It was indeed quite luxurious, with plush sofas and an impressive dining room as well as rather nice rooms with comfortable
beds! Lunch was a scrumptious affair - some of the best grub we had seen in a while (appreciation mostly came from the fact that it was a mixed grill with more meat than we had seen for months!!!)
Lunch over it was time to dive - a rather brief briefing and we were off! Into the water, hoping to goodness that some of our PADI dive course came back! Thankfully it did and the first dive was a success - well we survived it anyway! I didn't actually notice any of the underwater scenery as I was concentrating so hard on breathing and following the rest of the group - but resurfacing I felt that this was going to be fun!
Dive 2 was to be further North up the Reef and so we were off - rolling about on the waves! Once agian the wind had picked up - this boat was an improvement though - it was a catamaran so the rolling wasn't quite so pronounced! The situation was further improved by a hot tub up on the bow where the motion of the ocean was unfortunately emphasised! Before we knew it we had arrived
and it was time for the second dive - this time we encountered moray eels, parrot fish, beautiful coral, sea cucumbers, and a huge variety of fish whose names I don't remember - it was stunning!!! Return to the boat saw yet more food being layed out - dinner this time, before we embarked on the night dive!
Unfortunately it wasn't for me! I gave it my best shot and launched myself out into the dark of the ocean - in doing so I managed to fill my face mask with water and knock my regulator out of my mouth - I recovered from this relatively quickly but in the time it took a squall had washed in and the waves were rapidly increasing! This terrified me somewhat and I suddenly found I had little control over my breathing! Not a great situation to be in when about to sink to the bottom of the ocean! trying desperately to calm myself I went to descend and found I was struggling to equalise (the idea of the sharks and trevali had nothing to do with this - honest!!!) After 3 attempts at descending, by which time all my supposed dive
buddies had disappeared from sight and I was washing up against the hull of the boat - I decided that maybe it wasn't for me that time! I will endeavour to do it again though - I found it quite frustrating not being able to get a grip over myself - but still atleast I came out of it alive - hyperventilating at the bottom of the ocean I may not have been able to say the same! From there it was up to the top deck to do a spot of star gazing at the ironically clear skies until bed time - a little earlier than usual given that we were to be woken up for an early morning dive at 6am!
As much as I would love to say that morning dawned bright and clear - i can't! It was once again grey and overcast!!! However, out we went into the water to spot what we could - seeing a turtle, a triggerfish and once again more fish I don't know the names of! But again it was amazing - absolutley stunning! The rest of the morning was taken up by another 2 dives! (seriously cramming them
in!!!) before lunch and our departure on our now-seemingly tiny taxi back to dry land! This wasn't before a final snorkel on the Reef - where I spotted my first (and hopefully last) shark - a white tip - apparently harmless but I wasn't hanging around to find out!!!
The Reef Encounter was fantastic - the freedom they gave you somewhat scary - but also a bit liberating and quite confidence building - obviously overlooking the night dive for me though!
From there it was another day in Cairns which we dedicated to shopping - going for clothes replacements and souvenirs as we come to the end of our OZ experience!!!!
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