Diving in the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Australia

Cairns
Our last stop in Australia was to Cairns, the gateway to the world-famous Great Barrier Reef (here on in referred to as GBR). Sitting in Canada months ago and planning this trip, we knew we had to get to GBR for some awesome diving. It was that ambition that got us this far and we were very excited.

Parrot fish


Similar to Brisbane, Cairns is a large town which is heavily reliant on the many tourists who come to visit the GBR each year. Spending the first day doing the usual FOT (feel of the town!) and investigating our tour options, we decided to splurge on the best dive trip we could do in a day and forget about the other day trips possible from Cairns (to the rain forests and mountains), although I am sure they would have been very worthwhile.

Can you spot Nemo?


Diving is an expensive hobby, but Australia and GBR in particular was for sure pricey. We booked with Quicksilver, a very well-known company with a great purpose-built vessel called SilverSwift. Travelling up to 30 knots (compared to just 10 knots on most other companies' ships), the SilverSwift travelled fast enough to get us out to the Outer GBR reefs, known to be more diverse and unspoilt. Less time travelling meant more time out on the reef, which in turn meant we would get 3 dives from our day out on the reefs. We were so very excited!

Colourful Coral




Diving in the Great Barrier Reef
On Thursday, we rose early to get down to the harbour in time for the 8.30am departure of the SilverSwift. During check-in, we were warned that the ocean conditions were rough and to expect choppy waters. Having experienced rough seas in Galapagos, Alkesh headed straight to the pharmacy to buy sea sickness pills! We soon boarded the ship and realised this was going to be a 'best-in-class' dive trip.



Never had we been on such a well-designed boat for diving. The main cabins were spacious and comfortable but the back decks had rows and rows of cushioned benches (great for gearing up!) with lots of tanks and air-filling abilities on board. The deck even had hot showers for washing off the salt water at the end of the day. And there was no need to tumble backwards off the side of the boat like we'd done in Mauritius and Galapagos - no, there was steps down right to the water level! What luxury!! For those of you who are non-divers, these little things may not sound like much, but trust us - they really do make for a much more enjoyable and easier trip.


Huge Wrasse


Giant Clam


Although the open water was choppy, down below things were perfect. 27 degrees celcius water temperature (even at depth), 15 metres visibility and hardly any current. Glorious conditions for diving! The water was so warm, that we didn't even need to wear wetsuits - just a thin lycra sting suit to avoid any jelly fish stings - not that we saw any. Our 3 dives were reasonably shallow (seeing as we're certified to dive up to 30m), starting at 18m and getting progressively shallower to 12m for the last one. Our first 2 dives were on Flynn Reef.

Fussilers and Unicorn fish


The first trip was a great introduction to the coral - we were amazed at the colours and formations. We'd never seen anything like it before! There was so much variety and life in the coral - from big schools of fusiliers to one-off sightings of the big Maori wrasse. On the second dive, we saw a great sighting of a white tipped reef shark, plus a few sting rays and again lots more fish.

White tipped shark


The highlight of the final dive was swimming through Coral Gardens on the Milln reef - narrow passages with coral on both sides and below you, it was a great close up look on the beautiful diverse coral reef. Here we spotted the amazing giant clams, over 1 metre long!

Nice bouyancy skills!


Seeing as we had gone all out on this dive trip (the best company, the best boat, 3 dives instead of the usual 2... etc.), we figured we may as well also hire a digital underwater camera. This allowed us to capture some great pics of all the wonderful things we saw underwater. After the dives, we sat with Scott (our instructor / dive leader) to have a recap on all the names of the fish we saw down below.

Maori Wrasse


We saw garden eels, the giant green beautiful Maori wrasse (my favourite), gold-banded fusiliers, Giant oceanic trout, unicorn fish, parrot fish. Oh and we got to see a few Nemo - the well-known orange and white clown fish too! We recognised some of the fish from our previous diving - like the zebra fish. On the 3rd dive, Scott picked up a big Pineapple sea cucumber (which is an animal, not a plant like you may think) with big suckers that clings on to whatever surface it finds.

Shoals



Almost more amazing than all the fish, was the amazing coral! It came in all shapes and sizes with lots of bright colours - reds, yellows, purples and greens. In the shallower waters (where depth colour perception was not so bad), we got great views - for example in the coral gardens on the 3rd dive. It was a beautiful sight and coupled with great dive conditions, our day out on the GBR was by far the best dive trip EVER for Alkesh and I! Well worth every cent, we had an amazing day! We are very fortunate to be able to travel the world and experience so many wonderful natural beauties like we have done.



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This rounds up our time 'down under' visiting the Western world of New Zealand and Australia. Although it's been rushed, we've enjoyed our time here but are now very much looking forward to the sights and sounds, culture and food of South East Asia. First up, is my childhood country of Indonesia which I cannot wait to show Alkesh...