Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

On Boxing Day we flew to Cairns, which is about 16 degrees south of the equator.  Cairns is home to the important Daintree rainforest as well as a relatively close-to-shore section of the great barrier reef, making for easy dive trips to the outer reef.

Cairns was HU-MID!  Maybe not SE Asia humid, but up there.  And while it's on the ocean, you can't swim in Cairns because 1) it's all unpleasant mud flat along the waterfront, 2) it was stinger season (i.e. deadly, sometimes-invisible jellyfish in the water) and 3) Cairns is on a river estuary so there is a significant risk of being eaten by big saltwater crocodile (signs along the waterfront warn of this).

Welcome to the Australian hinterland!

Cairns does have an incredibly nice waterfront esplanade, however.  Beautiful boardwalk, bike paths, benches and tables, shade trees, huge elaborate playgrounds and waterparks for the kids, climbing boulders, a skate park, free exercise classes, cafes just across the street...

Even a free public pool beside the ocean.  Incredible.

Lovely marina at the mouth of the estuary, where dive and snorkel trips depart from.

Fortunately our room at the hostel had air conditioning, and even a respectable pool.

A week before arriving in Cairns, Sarah and I obtained the last beds available on any dive trip remotely close to our price range - a 2 day/1 night liveaboard trip to the outer reef.  Sarah would give snorkeling a shot while I plunged back into scuba diving after a 6+ year hiatus.

My only diving had been in the British Columbia, which is a lot of fun and very high quality, but also more of a challenge in the chilly waters, strong currents and low visibility.  I figured warm tropical waters, better visibility and minimal weight and equipment would be a great way to get back into diving.

I was more worried about all the poisonous and potentially dangerous creatures near the reef!  Actually, it's not that bad - you're probably not going to encounter any sort of threatening shark, and as long as you don't touch anything your probably won't die of poisoning.  The biggest issue are the stingers = jellyfish.  It was the middle of stinger season, when there are myriad tiny jellyfish in the water which are almost entirely invisible in daylight, and which possess a stinging neurotoxin that can make diving unpleasant.  This is mostly solved by wearing stinger suits - a lightweight lycra suit which mostly eliminates any stings from smaller jellyfish, and reduces the effects of the more dangerous ones.  I never experienced more than a light, itchy irritation while wearing the suit, though a couple of divers got a slightly more painful nip, but nothing serious.

The bigger reason you wear the suits is because you might encounter box jellyfish and irukandji jellyfish, which are life threatening.  These mostly show up near to shore, carried in on ocean currents, and aren't as much of a problem on the reef.  (Swimming is generally banned on the shore during this time of year - you can swim, but you're crazy to do so unless it's inside a netted swimming area.)  Box jellyfish are big and obvious, while the irukandji is rare and small and a bit more deadly.  Their stings are incredibly painful - and just when you think you might live through it all, 20-30 minutes after the sting, their nerve toxin has an unfortunate tendency to cause cardiac arrest.  So if you get stung, you'd better get to a doctor or a defibrillator as soon as you can.

I didn't see or get stung by a box or irukandji jellyfish.  And I didn't see any cone shells or blue-ringed octopus.  Also no great white or tiger sharks (or any sharks).  The riskiest things I saw were a lionfish and an incredibly territorial trigger fish protecting his nest from several other divers in the group - by rushing them and biting their fins (a bit scary - they're quick and aggressive).  So no big worries.

Anyhoo, back to our dive trip.  We got to the dock bright and early to board the "shuttle" catamaran that would take us out to the liveaboard boat on the reef - about 2 hours away even going fairly fast.

Leaving Cairns, which is nicely ringed with mountains.  The whole coast is pretty mountainous in this region.

We stopped at Fitzroy Island on the way out to drop off some day trip snorkelers - there's a small strip of beach there and a wee hotel.  The schooling fish at the tiny wharf were impressive - and we weren't even at the reef yet.

Leaving Fitzroy Island.

Finally we pulled up to our liveaboard!  It can house a couple of dozen people at once, and required quite a feat of organization to keep track of all the comings and goings.

Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of photos since most of our time was spent in the water snorkeling and diving.  In 24 hours I did 6 dives and one snorkel session!  That was plenty at one go for me, and didn't leave a ton of time between dives.  Just enough to eat or snack, then get back in the water.

Sarah Frost, Bond girl

Feeling pretty good after a couple of dives

Because people have been forgotten and left behind on the reef by dive boats in the past, everyone has to sign in and sign out of the water.  No jumping over the side for an impromptu swim - you only dive or swim during designated times.

Sunset

The liveaboard was less stable than the shuttle boat, so Sarah felt a bit queasy the whole time from the rocking and the sun exposure.  I did pretty well, especially considering my lack of recent diving experience and my aching back.

Unfortunately, Sarah's comfort wasn't aided by the fact that the primary generator blew out after we arrived, meaning that we were operating on emergency power and that there was no air conditioning because it was all the generator could do to power the kitchen and the air compressor for the scuba tanks.  Before you call us soft, keep in mind this is at 16 degrees south latitude and at least 80% humidity, in the middle of summer, so air conditioning is very welcome. But it was bearable in our low, shady room.  (We felt badly for the next night's group of divers, who weren't told about the generator situation before arriving at the liveaboard the next day - and who were then informed that boat had to travel all the way back to Cairns that night, get the generator repaired overnight (with them sleeping on board), then travel all the way back to the reef the next morning.  I don't know about the "liveaboard" experience if it means sleeping in a marina during repairs...)

Rocking the stinger suit and warm water scuba gear

Donning my mask while my dive buddy Michelle looks on

Alright, let's do this!

Sun deck

After snorkeling

The diving was great - partway into my first dive, the confidence was already coming back.  The coral was of course fantastic and huge - we usually anchored the boat in front of towers and walls of coral, where the tops of the reef were only a few feet down, making for good snorkeling.  Fish and bottom life was great as well: I saw a lionfish, several clownfish in an anemone at least one metre across, many giant clams almost a metre across, etc.  No really mind-blowing fish, though - no sharks, no turtles, no manta rays.

Weirdly, the visibility was a lot worse than I expected - it was generally good down deeper, but there was a lot of suspended organic matter that limited visibility to 40+ fee for half the dives.  And while the staff on board were generally good, everyone except the long-term veteran instructors weren't going to win any awards for their dive leadership.  (I saw more interesting things diving alone with a buddy than on the guided dives, generally.)

So generally fantastic stuff to see, as expected - but these dives also made me feel a lot better about BC diving.  We have a ton of interesting life in BC waters, just not of the tropical massive-schools-of-fish and huge-coral types.  However, we were also diving in well-travelled portions of the Great Barrier Reef; I'll bet there are some very impressive things to see further out in harder-to-access areas.

Other dive boats near the horizon

The lighter portions are the tops of coral towers ("bommies"), only about 4-5 feet under the surface.  You can see waves breaking on the outer edge of the reef at the top

One of my favourite "dives" was the snorkel I did just before we returned to shore.  No equipment, you just float, and the top of the reef is maybe 4-5 feet below you, so you can see lots of interesting stuff and go for as long as you want.  There is plenty of sunlight in these shallows, so all of the colours of the coral and the fish are vibrant and spectacular (unlike when you are 60 feet down).  Really, unless you want a chance of seeing the bigger and more impressive fish, you're not missing much by snorkeling instead of diving on the reefs we saw.

My dive buddy for most of my dives was Michelle from San Francisco.  She was on vacation with her very well-traveled parents, and we all had a good time hanging out and chatting between dives.  Here we are, tired but happy after the dive trip.

Bucket list: dive the Great Barrier Reef, check!