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Published: June 29th 2006
Another day, another continent! After a brutal journey, consisting of 5 flights in the space of 30 hours, we finally arrive in Cairns (bleary eyed and unsure what day of the week it is) for phase two of the adventure. The first thing to strike us is how easy and familiar everything is in comparison to the culture shock of Thailand - but unfortunately this homely feeling comes at a price and we struggle to try and revert back to Western prices! Never the less we resist the urge to head back to Thailand and live comfortably for the rest of our days and arrange our first couple of nights accommodation. After a much needed nights sleep we head off round Cairns the following day in search of a nice hotel within our budget - unfortunately it’s almost into peak season here so the nicest, affordable place we can find is a bit out of town with shared shower and toilet - we’ve come a long way since the Sofitel in Bangkok!
Having sorted out our accommodation we spend the next few days wandering around the city. Although Cairns is a nice enough place it’s pretty much just a base
for accessing the Great Barrier Reef so much of our time was spent trawling through the countless dive shops and tour operators in search of the best deals for the best dive sites on the Great Barrier Reef. After much deliberation (and the softener of standby rates and a free upgrade to our own cabin) we opt for a 4 day/4 night trip to the Ribbon reefs, Cod Hole and the Coral Sea with Taka Dive (www.takadive.com.au) leaving on Friday 16th June. With this to look forward to we head off to the cinema to watch The Da Vinci Code having been previously foiled earlier in our trip by the erratic Thai scheduling!
With a day to spare before heading to sea we catch Johns Kuranda Bus (a bargain $2 each) which takes us from Cairns into the hills and on to the town of Kuranda. This nice little town is home to the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway (one of the worlds longest gondola cableways) which carries you in a little pod high over the jungle canopy for 90 minutes with 2 scenic lookouts on the way (this is not one for you Emma). Despite it being a bit of
a windy day (it is winter here - down to temps in the mid 20’s!) this was great fun and we got to see the rain forest from an unusual perspective. Also saw several groups of brightly coloured tropical birds flying below us in the tops of the trees and got great views of Barron Gorge and its impressive waterfall. Also should mention there was a great little pie shop in the town where I sampled the delights of a kangaroo pie - quite tasty but did leave me feeling a bit jumpy!
Having checked out of our hotel in the morning we finally board the Taka express(!) at 5pm for a 14 hour overnight sail to the farthest reaches of The Great Barrier Reef. We spend the evening meeting our fellow ship mates over a tasty dinner and a few drinkies before retiring to our cabin for a good nights sleep (we should be so lucky). This was not to be the case however as unusually high winds made the journey very choppy and we spent some of the wee small hours clinging to the back deck whilst trying to focus on the horizon and avoid losing our
tasty dinner! Despite this we spring out of bed at the sound of the 6.30am wake-up call and go for brekkie before attending the first dive brief of the trip. This signals the start of 3 ½ days of diving, eating and sleeping (and a bit of sunbathing) with a planned 14 dives to be done in this time (including 2 night dives when Sharks come out looking for food - Gulp!).
With the brief out of the way we head down and get kitted up in preparation of taking the plunge. Our first 2 sites were Challenger Bay and Pixies Pinnacle and we were not to be disappointed - there was fish and coral of all shapes, sizes and colours everywhere! After this taster in the morning we head to the Cod Hole after lunch to see the giant potato cod and a giant Maori wrasse being fed in front of us - this event also attracted a load of Giant Trevally (Vampire) fish to the site (given the name due to their pair of vampire fangs and their ability to turn from silver to blood red when excited!!) Scary stuff. As if this wasn’t
enough excitement for the first day we turf ourselves off the boat in the pitch black for a spot of night diving before dinner. This was another heart pumping experience as we were now aiding the afore mentioned Trevally in their hunting - spare a thought for the poor little fishes being lit up by our torches and having to twist and turn to avoid being munched! Also got our first brief glimpses of reef Sharks but only from a distance for a few seconds - that would have to wait for another day!
After dinner we get the news that our scheduled trip to Osprey reef (overnight sail outwith the Barrier Reef into the Coral Sea) for a 1000 metre drop off and shark feeding extravaganza was cancelled due to high winds. We were all a bit gutted about this but were most grateful for the resultant good nights sleep (the previous nights choppiness would have paled into insignificance had we attempted the crossing). The crew attempted to lift our spirits by sending us off to bed promising that as an alternative we would spend tomorrow attempting to track down some Minke whales that had been spotted in
the area the day before. The following morning we set sail for Lighthouse Bommie and things take a turn for the better when one of the crew spots whales after breakfast and we all take our positions on the sun deck for a spot of whale watching. As if this isn’t fun enough we then get suited up and head into the water with our snorkels (they don’t like scuba bubbles) and after 10 minutes bobbing around on a line the inquisitive whales come to check us out!
The feeling when the first one came into view in the distance was amazing and gradually, as they figured we were just a bunch of dumb humans hanging out in the middle of the ocean, they came closer and took all the family with them. We all stayed there for about an hour and at one point there were 5 or 6 whales in the water with us swimming past and below us at no more than 3 or 4 metres away - unbelievable! Possibly one of the best experiences we will ever be likely to have - looking a whale in the eye underwater (and it looking back) is truly
a sight to behold. The grace, power and size of them was breathtaking (not good when you’re snorkelling!) and after the whales had had their fun we head back to the boat to don our tanks and go for the first dive of the day.
We had a brilliant day at probably our favourite dive site of the trip - Lighthouse Bommie - not only did we swim with the whales but did 3 dives at this site seeing something new each time. Especially cool were the 2 resident turtles who allowed us the honour of swimming with them and petting them along the way - they are super-cool animals!!! Also had some seasnakes sniffing us out (a little scary) and such an abundance of coral and fishes it’s impossible to describe it, but our favourite sightings (after the whales and turtles!) were the lion fish, countless beautiful anemone fish, trigger fish (without an attack), puffers, stingrays and my (Heather) spotting of a big mantaray swimming away! As if this wasn’t enough for one day we did our last dive around dusk at Pixies wall, an underwater wall of coral with numerous inlets to explore. It was on our
way out of one of these inlets that we got our first close up sighting of a reef shark as it swam by totally undeterred by our presence - perfect end to an awesome day at sea.
As if whales, turtles and sharks weren’t enough for one dive trip we had the pleasure of school of dolphins the following day at our afternoon dive site - Steve’s Bommie. As we moored up at the site they came to check out the boat and gave us a fabulous display and quick as you like we were all in our dive gear and in the water to try catch a glimpse before hitting the Bommie. This turned out to be another excellent site (apparently one of the top dive sites), teaming with so much colourful and varied marine life - we really have been spoilt!! We finished the day off with our last night dive of the trip which was amazing - this time we had numerous shark sightings. It’s a heart stopping moment when your torch light hits them and their eyes lights up bright green in the beam - even more so when you realise they’re heading straight for
you (as happened a few times)!!! The most exhilarating sight was when one we had in our sights suddenly spotted something tasty. We’ve never seen anything move so fast in an instant it when from cruise mode to attack mode and at lightning speed turned 180° and shot off in pursuit of it’s prey - poor fishie but very cool for us to see!
Our last day was spent with 2 dives at Split Bommie - a site nearer to Cairns which wasn’t as spectacular as the other sites we visited. Nonetheless it was still good fun and these dives brought us up to 25 logged dives each - not bad for a month’s diving! We got back to Cairns about 3pm (glad to be back on solid ground) and after a few hours catching up with laundry(!) we met some of our fellow divers at ‘Reef Teach’ - a couple of hours of education from an eccentric, Irish marine biologist on the fish and coral life of the reef - manic but good fun. From there we hit ‘Rattle ‘n Hum’ for some après dive with some of the crew and our divemates - we had a great
night and especially fun were the Swedish guys who after a few too many found life was more fun as a musical so gave up speaking in favour of singing (Kath this would have been right up your street!).
Sorry for the delay in posting this blog but were now halfway through a 2 week stint in a ‘Wicked’ (just wait for the next blog for the photos) campervan so have limited IT facilities (in fact we have limited facilities in general, but hey no worries mate!)
PS All underwater photos copyright of Jacs from Melbourne - cheers
PPS We have a few good video clips of the whales, so if anyone’s interested let us know and we’ll email them to you.
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jemma
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taka dive
You may not believe this but TAKA DIVE is the very company that the bloke who told me about diving the Coral Sea dived with - he booked his trip with them after watching a video of their live-aboard online, he said it looked too impressive for words. I would never have remembered the name of the company but you two can now remember it for me for when I finally get round to going to Cairns for some diving!!! Sounds like the dives have been amazing. I hope you realise how spoiled you have been - dolphins, whales and sharks are things some divers only dream of swimming with. This is truly the motivation I needed to remind me how much I wanna return to Oz to dive. The photos underwater are superb - let me know what camera the guy was using cos gary and I are interested in getting an underwater one. Hope the campervanning is going well. We finally sold ours to some bloke in Aberdeen. Sucker!! Can't wait for the next update. I am back at work now (2 days a week) and this blog is one of my motivating factors for earning money right now. Stay safe xx