Finding Nemo

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » open water
June 3rd 2008

Published: June 4th 2008

To find words to describe my diving experience over the past two days may be difficult. Exceptional, outstanding, awesome just seem inadequate. Everyone must go diving or snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, it should be compulsory! Far and away the best thing I have ever ever done. Please forgive the typos, the screen is swaying around a bit, feels like I'm still at sea.

After a smooth hotel pickup at 07:45, I climbed aboard the ferry-like vessel at Cairns marina, pier B. Quite a luxurious affair, much nicer than the ferries used in Auckland harbour. I was surprised at how far away the reef was from Cairns - the journey on the boat took about 1 1/2 hours to reach the dive site. On board there were a mixture of day trippers who were either snorkelling, performing the intro diver training and an elite group (yours truly included) of certified divers. We were given a briefing on the dive site's topography and what types of animals we were likely to see. Then we geared up, buddied up with fellow divers (I went with a chatty pair of girls from Ireland) and then entered the water/heaven off the back of the boat. We immediately spotted a white sting ray and everyone had the same thing on their minds - how not to go the way of Steve Irwin. Fortunately it was more intent on finding its next meal and disappeared into the sandy distance. We swam over to the reef, exploring fingers of coral sticking out into the bay and saw thousands and thousands of fish. Before long the first dive was over and we had to return to the boat for air.

Gear off and the crew served us a super lunch of cold meats, soft rolls and salads. After lunch we chugged around to the next cove and the same exercise was repeated. We saw a large shoal of Maori Wrasse swim past (odd looking fish about 50 cm long), anemone fish (aka Nemo), parrot fish, trigger fish. fairies, dainties plus lots more that I won't go into. All in all a better dive than the first. Back on the boat and the day was over for the day trippers but not for me, I was headed to the even larger and more luxurious boat around the corner called Sea Quest which would be my home for the night. After a friendly greeting from the staff and safety briefing we were on for the next dive! The certainly keep you occupied on these trips, all this diving, eating, diving some more ... really tough, hehe.

My new dive buddies (a guy from France living in Singapore and a Swiss chap) and I didn't navigate the new reef too well and we didn't find all the sites they indicated during the dive briefing, but still an enjoyable dive made more tricky by the neap low tide which had exposed a surprising amount of coral and lots of shallow bits.

After we returned we were whisked off to supper - a delicious meal of steamed veg, roast potatoes and pork stew. The cookon this boat was top notch. As one of the english girls at my table commented, "It tastes like home food". She was right, very homely, very tasty - one of them even went back for seconds!

Now the best dive so far was approaching and I was a little apprehensive. We were going to dive at night! The skipper had turned on the flood lights at the bow and stern which had attracted tiny fish, the sea was boiling with them. These in turn had attracted larger snapper and giant trevally, which in turn had attracted SHARKS!!!!!

In Queensland it is law that on your first night dive, you must be accompanied by a dive master as your guide, and let's just say I was relieved to hear it. Equipped with powerful torches we dropped into the sea to view the feeding action up close. Very exciting ... we saw loads of large fish and quite a few Grey sharks (about 2m long) lurking in the shadows just out of reach of the torch beams and circle of light created by the boat lamps. We decended to the sandy sea floor where the dive instructor indicated that we should dim our torches (achieved by pressing the front of torch against your belly). Suddenly in the darkness flashes of tiny blue lights appeared when ever we moved - bioluminescence. Very cool. Using our torches again we headed over to the reef which was transformed from the day time dives. Lots more feeding going on with coral polyps sticking out their arms and most of the day time parrot fish and angel fish asleep. Saw quite a few lion fish prowling around the reef.

Diving was over for the day I changed clothes, filled in my dive log and then collapsed into a dreamless sleep, exhausted. We had the option to do a dawn dive at 06:00 the next morning so I had written my name on the list to ensure that they came round to my cabin for the wakeup call. However, I didn't need it as I was so excited I woke up at 03:00 instead and couldn't get back to sleep. After another dive briefing we entered the water again at around 06:15, the sun just starting to appear on the horizon. This dive was completely different from the others. It was like the changing of shifts or something with lionfish going to bed, a number of white-tip reef sharks snoozing on the sand (swimming away lazily as we approached) and these little cleaner shrimp at certain locations on the reef waiting for morning traffic to pick parasites from passing fish. Apparently, given the chance, they even brush your teeth and finger nails. We rose to the surface to the sunshine poking through the clouds, what a start to the day!

After breakfast we motored around to a new reef, however the current was much stronger than they anticipated. Not a problem, they simply loaded us into a small rubber duck and dumped us into the ocean about 400 m in front of the ship and we drifted on the current back towards the ship. This dive I saw my first turtle! Very cute critters, for some reason it was swimming towards us into the current but not making much progress. Eventually the turtle turned and disappeared but not before I had the chance to greet it with a friendly morning wave. Drift diving is very relaxing as you don't need to swim much and you save your air cause you don't exert your muscles as much. This turned out to be one of my longest dives ~ 40 mins.

Our final dive was on the same reef but we drifted off the back of the boat and when we surfaced they came around with the dingy and picked us up - very civilised. Another great dive (drifting once again through a coral garden). Had bit of a moment when my dive buddie's mask failed. We were at around 17 m when the strap pulled out of its clip. He handed it to me (I have smaller fingers) and luckily after a bit of a struggle I managed to re-feed the strap and we were able to continue. I was worried we would have to terminate the dive but it all worked out. All that PADI training in New Market swimming pool payed off. While we were waiting on the surface to be picked up and chatting about the dive, I popped my head underwater and a large turtle was swimming right past my flippers! It was the first turtle my dive buddy had seen for the whole trip so he was very pleased.

And so, it all ended much too soon. After lunch we were transfered back to the day trip boat and were whisked back to Cairns. I had a great time though, just wish I could have stayed longer. We saw thousands and thousands of fish, beautiful coral formations and I just really felt the sense that we were witnessing something very ancient, something very special. These communities of fish and coral have been living together for thousands of years and we were truly priviliged to witness it.

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