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Published: September 5th 2012
Today was a free day, and to steal a line from Ice Cube, today was a good day. As I wrapped up yesterday’s blog I was up early for a flight to Cairns up in northern Queensland. My first day there I had nothing to do, I arrived at 9:25 and hopped on the shuttle that took me to Hotel Cairns, it is a nice place close to the Esplanade which meanders along the water and plays host to a ton of different things. There was a little village with what appeared to be circus tents like one might see at a county fair, there were little sculptures along the path, and a ton of interesting people. Cairns is a real tourist city and it was made clear very early in my experience by the variety of languages being spoken and the various ethnic restaurants and shops that were set up. The best part of the Esplanade, in my humble opinion, was the pool area, similar to the one in Brissy, but this one had this sculpture of five fish that appeared to be flying out of the water. They were my subject for several photos. I spent most of my
morning and afternoon walking around and people watching. I stopped into a café for lunch and again for an afternoon tea. For dinner I went to Ibiza, a little restaurant that had an ocean basket that was filled with delicious little ocean treats, freshness like we don’t see in Omaha. A couple of girls up from Melbourne kept me entertained, turns out that every girl here has the same pick up line, “We love you accent, where are you from?!” After I finished dinner I bought an ice cream and ate it while walking along the water back to my hotel, I didn’t get a nap today and had been up since 5:00 so I was more than ready for bed. It was pretty early when I got back to my room so I tried to stay up reading for as long as I could, I don’t know that I made it past 9:20.
I woke up around 5:00 am, that is what I get for going to bed so early. It was still very dark out so I decided to get a few things ready and prepare for my departure on the live aboard vessel that
I would be making that morning. After a while I grabbed my camera and headed out to watch the sunrise. On the walk there I noticed what sounded like a large collective of birds, that is until I saw what they were. They were huge bats, I am talking wing span of four-five feet bats. There were hundreds of them, my head was on a swivel, I was looking everywhere and watching out for my neck. I have seen way too many vampire movies… no, of course not Twilight, I’m not a douche. Anyway, I snapped a few photos, had a little breakie, and made it back to the hotel in time to shower and pack up.
The Deep Sea Divers Den picked me up around 7:45 and we were off to the dive shop to pay the reef and national park taxes; this took a total of 15 minutes and we were off to the marina to embark on our journey. The first boat was called the Sea Quest and the Sea Quest was the host of our first two dives. (At this point things aren’t too clear, so I’ll try to remember the dives as
best I can, I have done four now and am two beers deep.) The crew gave a very detailed description of how things worked on the ship and then separated us into our dive groups as we headed out to the outer Great Barrier Reef, Norman Reef. I was with the certified divers and we went through the procedures and buddied up into groups. The dive was clear and wonderful, but somewhat uneventful, the best thing I saw was a green sea turtle, the rest of it was just coral rising up out of the ocean floor everywhere. All different kinds and colors. My camera definitely does not do it justice. After lunch we were ready for dive two.
Dive two I buddied up with one other kid who is working to complete his advanced diving certification, we wandered off to see the sea turtle cleaning station and then looped up around the back side of the bay to drop over it near the center and the sandy portion where the boat was moored. This was one of my favorite dives as we saw a few different sea turtles and two large white tip reef sharks, again
there was a multitude of different corals and fish in the vicinity. This time when we finished we transferred to the Taka, the live aboard vessel that I will be staying the night on.
Dive three is in a place called the playground, and I went in with three other divers. I was preoccupied with seeing a lion fish, which I never saw, but I did take a cool video of a sting ray. The water had become a little cloudy with sand coming in, bringing the visibility down to about 20-30 feet, which is still very good for most any dive. I could tell that I was getting fatigued because I was cramping a little at the end of it and was certainly ready to get out of the water. Back on the boat I took a quick shower and went to the sun deck to dry off and had some great conversation with some of the other passengers. (I’ll never stop saying it, travelers are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them and they are so willing to share experiences and stories. The people
I meet on these trips is one of the biggest reason I am so thankful to be able to do this.) Once dried off we were called to dinner just as the sun was setting. The food was great in case you were wondering.
Dive four today was my first night dive. I was hesitant to do it because I was cramping in my quad and hamstrings, but I am not a pussy so I sucked it up and geared up. The dive was well worth it. I saw the lion fish that alluded me on my previous dive, saw tons of little shrimp, their eyes glowing against my torch, puffed up a puffer fish and held it out for a picture, and finally a grey reef shark that was brought in by the prey fish that had come out drawn to the light from the boat.
I was definitely ready for a hot shower after a long exhausting day, we just finished eating dessert, and now I am writing this while enjoying a VB, a proudly Australian beer. Our first dive is at 6:00 am tomorrow, I probably only have one dive tomorrow due to
the fact that I have a flight at 11:00 PM, They want you to wait at least 24 hours after multiple dives, so that the nitrogen leaves your system going into altitude can accelerate this process and I am not anxious to get a case of the bends.
It is after ten o’clock now and I am off to bed.
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Patti Gay
non-member comment
Writing a story about the reef
I am writing a story about the reef that I am also illustrating and found your blog helpful. I am researching so that I can get accurate information for the character in the story. This is for kids. I am hoping to do something that will keep them engaged and interested in the reef and all of the animals that live there.