Diving the Great Barrier Reef
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2005
1
17
24
Trip End
Aug 02, 2005
Ribbon Reefs outside Cairns, Australia,
Australia
Friday, May 20, 2005
Total dives: 12
Number of sharks seen: 5-10
Distance between Amy's foot and a shark at Challenger Bay: 2 feet
May 15
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After spending another night at the very cool backpacker's hostel named Annie's Place in Alice Springs, we did some laundry and headed back to the airport. We flew up to sunny Cairns, home of the Great Barrier Reef with some British newlyweds (David and Sara) that we met on our trip to Uluru. We found a hostel on the Esplanade called Hostel 89, that was clean, basic, and actually had a coin-up air conditioner
Amy down under
. After grabbing some dinner with David and Sara, we slept our last night on land before our 3-day diving adventure.May 16
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We met up with the crew of Mike Ball's Supersport at the Cairns Colonial Club in order to catch our bus to the airport. From there, we headed to the airport for our puddle jumper flight 750 feet above the reef. We sat right behind the pilot and had some great views of the reef on the way to Lizard Island, where our dive boat awaited.
There were quite a few different dive boats that offered 3- or 4-day trips out of Cairns. We paid more for Mike Ball's Supersport, but I think it was the right choice for us and was well worth the extra money. The dive crew was friendly, the operation was professional, and the boat was just fine. One big lesson that we have learned on this whole trip is that you get what you pay for. We wanted to splurge a little to make sure that we got a top rate operation. We ended up really happy with Mike Ball. Anyways, back to the story...
Our first day consisted of three dives at a site called Cod Hole, named for the gigantic potato cod that lurk around this area of the reef
Amy waiting for Alex...again...
. When we dove in, the cod came right up to us and practically acted like lap dogs, except they were a few hundred pounds each. Beautiful plate corals jutted out from the rocks that looked like bird baths for the teaming damselfish and chromis. On the second dive, we took the zodiac boats away from the Supersport for a deeper dive. A few sharks and big bumphead parrotfish (the ones that chew on coral to create sand) ruled the area.
On the night dive, we stepped into the water under the floodlights of the boat -- otherwise, it was pitch black. We had underwater flashlights that were the only things that lit up the coral and fish. When we shined them on the corals, we could see the little red beady eyes of crabs and shrimp staring back at us. We looked for the green eyes of the harmless white tipped reef shark and found just one. Big potato cod followed us around and used our lights to hunt by. One big potato cod swam within a foot of Amy. We kept track of our dive buddies by the color of the glow stick attached to their tank. Not really that exciting of a dive, but a good confidence builder for dives to come.
The food on board was plentiful and delicious
Another couple of clowns
. We quickly fell into the rhythm of dive - eat - sleep - dive.May 17
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Five dives today! The morning dive at Vertical Gardens was much more exciting than Cod Hole. We had a day of confidence-building dives under our belt (though we have Advanced Certfication we still considered ourselves novices) and the diversity of fish was amazing. Some fishy favorites were the trumpet fish, several types of clownfish hosting in anemones, a few lionfish, nudibranch, and a giant clam. Schools of fish, large and small, were unfazed as we joined their schools. They just moved around us. We dove down to 96 feet because when you do multiple dives in a day, you cannot go any deeper than your first dive. For this reason, we always were conscious to go deep on the early morning dives.
The second dive was the first time that we dove without an accompanying dive master, which was a big milestone, as this was only our 20th dive ever. Magnificent fish and both soft and hard coral made for a "wow" at every turn of the head.
We then cruised to our next site, Pixie Pinnacle, a large pillar of coral that rose out of the reef's floor from about 200 feet down
Another damselfish
. We dove in a clockwise direction around this pillar, checking out all of the nooks and crannies for life. In one nook, there was a flame file shell, which was a bright red scallop-type animal, with long red tentacles that protruded from the end of its shell. It also had a phosphorescent strand on the front of its shell that lit up like a current of electricity or a small underwater lightening bolt. We were again surrounded by orange and purple anthias that were happy to let us join their schools.After a massive lunch and a weak "Reef Ecology" course on the boat, we hit the water again for our first dive to last over one hour. We stayed around 43 feet, which greatly extended our air-time. While the visibility was a bit worse than our past few dives, we could still see the shoal of chevron barracuda that followed around the reef shark.
Our night dive at Challenger Bay was much more exciting than the previous night's. As soon as we went down, we were surrounded by speeding 2-4 foot jacks (or trevellies) that were hunting in small groups around the reef. They swam towards our lights to search out smaller fish. A white tipped reef shark passed right under Amy's flippers (though she thankfully did not see it until a few seconds later). We felt like we were spectators of the nightly hunt
Beach at Cape Tribulation
.After spending nearly 4 hours underwater that day, we were exhausted!
May 18
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Four dives today. Our first two dives were at Steve's Bommie, which was our favorite site of the trip. Visibility was outstanding and the water was remarkably calm. Amazing coral that was the home to schools of anthias. We saw a den of two lionfish that hung around and waited for smaller fish to enter their turf.
Alex decided to rent an underwater camera for the day, so check out the pics above. The picture of the clowns in the anemone (above) was the first one he took. He soon realized that this was beginners luck and that underwater photography was not easy. For each shot that came out well, there were twelve shots that did not. It just seemed like luck which ones came out at all. It was a true test of buoyancy control (arguably the hardest skill in diving) to get still enough to take a picture. The other challenge is that you have to get ridiculously close to your subject in order get a shot at all. If the fish moved, the camera produced a blur
Boxfish -- our entry to the ship photo competition
. All this concentration made Alex suck up his air very fast on the first dive -- it only lasted thirty-four minutes. The second dive with the camera at Steve'e Bommies was better. Alex concentrated on enjoying the dive and not on the camera and ended up getting better shots. A photogenic colony of clownfish (like Nemo for you Disney fans) occupied the top of the bommie, which is a large cluster of coral. We saw a rare leaf scorpion fish camoflauged in the coral. Beautiful vivid colors were everywhere.
Our third and fourth dives were at Flare Point. We stayed right around 30 feet in order to get enough light to take photos and to get the most out of our air tanks. Alex got a nice shot of a boxfish (like a puffer) that he entered in the boat's photo contest. While Amy and Alex tried to build grassroot support for the photo among the crew and passengers, the professional photographer with five thousand dollars worth of equipment and a Japanese girl won.
That evening we played some party games with the crew and had a feast of BBQ shrimp. We fed the shrimp shells to the hungry jacks that were using the light on our boat for hunting
Cassowary
. May 19
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After 12 dives, we shed our gills and returned to Cairns. We decided to rent a car and drive up to Cape Tribulation, which was home to a combination mangrove / rainforest and a deserted beach. Alex got a chance to refine his driving skills on the "wrong" side of the road that he picked up while living in the UK. It was a peaceful drive and the beach was beautiful.
During the drive we came upon a huge, wierd-looking bird which was the rare cassowary. Apparently, these birds are endangered and fairly dangerous. We didn't know any better, so Alex pulled over the car and Amy snapped some cassowary action shots.
We returned to Cairns, had an Italian dinner and bottle of good Aussie wine and fell asleep.
May 20
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After spending the morning unsuccessfully uploading pictures to the Travelpod, we caught our three hour flight to Sydney to meet up with our friend Eloise, a former colleague from our favorite defunct stock exchange. She is doing wonderfully and we will have many more stories to tell about Alex's new favorite city: Sydney. Stay tuned...
