September 8 - spring break trip

Last night when I went to bed I was the only person in my 7-bed hostel dorm room. This morning when I woke up I was still the only person in the room! So pretty much I had my own room last night! I didn’t have to worry about anybody waking me up, or me waking anyone else up when I got up this morning at 6:00. I showered, packed my backpack, and otherwise got ready for my day out on the Great Barrier Reef. Around 7:00 I started walking down to the dock and at 7:30 I checked in just when I was supposed to, and boarded the boat.

The boat ride out to our destination reef was approximately 1.5 hours. It turns out that the reef we went to was actually directly east of Port Douglas on the map, so I wonder how close it was to where Steve Irwin died earlier in the week. As crazy as it sounds, I was actually hoping I might see a sting ray today. We had all be briefed on the boat about what safety, hand-signals, and the ins-and-outs of introductory scuba diving. The introductory scuba dive went in groups of four and I happened to be in the first group to go diving. When the time came for my group to dive, I put on my wetsuit, they strapped me up with a belt that had a few rock weights on them (to keep me from floating), and I put on a backpack-like device that contained my oxygen tank. Then I put on my goggles and flippers and got into the water.

After a brief underwater testing of how to empty water from our goggles and breathing apparatus, everyone hooked arms and started swimming. After a minute or two, when the instructor was sure we were all ready to handle the ocean on our own, he unlinked from us and let us swim by ourselves, with the request that we follow in his general direction for the remainder of the dive. It was a bit overwhelming when the diver first began because for one, it was really weird to breathe underwater and not be sucking in water, and two, the water pressure made you have to concentrate on your breathing in order to breathe in as deeply as you should, and three, the goggles restrict your vision to whatever’s in front of you while you’re suspended in the middle of a huge ocean (in this case the Pacific Ocean). Additionally as we descended in the water, I had to keep equalizing the pressure in my ears (by holding my nose and trying to “blow through my nostrils”). This method worked great for my left ear… but for some reason no air would go into my right ear, and I had a fairly intense pain in my ear for about 30 seconds. Finally the pain disappeared and the rest of my dive was much more enjoyable. I had a disposable, waterproof camera with me, so I took a few photos. There were some variously-colored corals (blue and whitish mostly) and I saw a fair number of sea cucumbers on the floor of the ocean, as well as a variety of colorful fishes swimming around in the water. After about 15-20 minutes of diving we all followed the instructor back to the surface where the assistants on the boat inflated the built-in vest in our backpacks so we floated on the surface. We then climbed up the ladder one by one and took off our oxygen tanks. The little gauge on my scuba backpack thing told me that I ended up going down 12 meters at the deepest point during my dive. J

After my dive I just sat on the boat and warmed up a little bit and ate some lunch (They had a buffet-style lunch with bread and various salads). Most of the people on the trip were foreigners (Almost everybody I met or passed on the street in Cairns were foreigners – Cairns is a huge tourist destination). I ended up chatting with a couple of Canadians and a couple from Taiwan, and I know there were some Germans and a few British as well as some more Asians and other people from unknown origins.

After about 2 hours or so of sitting at this spot on the reef the skipper started the boat and moved it over to the opposite end of that reef for another 2 hours. At this spot I could have gone scuba diving again (for another $30), but I decided to go snorkeling instead. When we first anchored there were a few bits of the reef just starting to poke out of the water and I decided to go snorkeling instead. I snorkeled for at least an hour as the tide continued to get lower. By the time I got back onto the boat much of the reef was sticking at least one foot out of the water. While I snorkeled, I of course looked for Nemo, but never actually found him. I did see one other kind of clownfish by an anemone, but anemones and clownfish seemed rather rare on this reef. There were numerous varieties of coral, some of them a pretty bright blue color, others pinkish or yellowish, and many off-whitish. Swimming around the reef were numerous fishes of many colorful varieties, including some that were yellow, some bright blue, many black-and-white zebra striped, some purple and green parrotfish, some black and orange ones, some yellow and black, and more. I don’t know my fishes very well, so I didn’t bother trying to ID them all. I just enjoyed swimming with them often literally within an arm’s reach away from me. I snapped lots of photos with my disposable camera of course, and just after I finished my last photograph I actually spotted a sea-turtle flapping through the waters beneath me. The turtle wasn’t too large (I would guesstimate approximately the size of my 15inch laptop), but he looked so calm and at home, slowly flapping his front flippers and gliding through the water.

The ride back to Cairns was another good 1.5 hours and many people on the boat tried to sleep for the return trip. The sea was much choppier this time, however, and quite often it felt like we were actually riding a roller coaster. A few times when people were standing up and walking around they had to brace themselves against support posts or tables in order to keep from falling. I actually quite enjoyed the ride, probably since I really like roller coasters. J

Back in Cairns I dropped my backpack off at the hostel and went down to Peterpan’s Travel to find out about a trip up to Cape Tribulation, about 3 hours north of Cairns. I ended up purchasing a package where I got to stay for one night at Cape Tribulation and two nights at Port Douglas that included transportation to and from my hostel, a crocodile tour of Daintree River, and a stop at Mossman Gorge park. And I got it all for $165 Australian. Not too bad.

Tonight instead of a meal at the woolshed the hostel actually had an all-you-can-eat bbq (that means there were sausages) for only $3. I paid $3 and ended up eating my fill from the 6 different types of pasta/potato/vegetable salads that were also available. Can’t beat that anywhere!