Day 5 - The Great Barrier Reef

Today was absolutely magical. I don’t think words pictures or even video can do justice to the incredible beauty we experienced visiting the Great Barrier Reef.

Before we get to that portion of the day I will start back at the beginning. We woke up not quite as early this morning. We got in later last night and we were fairly tired. We did do one of our favorite 25-minute speed workouts to start the day off on the right foot. We headed down to breakfast at ~6:30am. We are staying at the DoubleTree in Cairns (love those warm cookies and the ocean-view room). They have a free breakfast for us and it is fairly good. The best part is the huge selection of fruit. We finished up breakfast and drove to the pier. We normally would have just walked, but Debbie’s knee is injured (we believe she may have torn her meniscus) so there is no point making her walk any more than required.

At the dock, we boarded the vessel and we each signed in for our respective activities - Alison and I were signed up for 3 open water dives, Blake was signed up for a couple of intro dives and Debbie was signed up to snorkel. After filling out paperwork and getting our assigned gear we settled in. Alison and I were glad the check-in went mostly smoothly. We had some trouble getting physical copies of our dive and we only had electronic copies. For a few minutes there it was unclear if they would download. We got them downloaded so it worked out.

The dive boat

The dive boat pushed off. It took us around an hour to reach the location for our first dive. While we sped across the ocean Alison and I attended a safety briefing where they assigned us to a dive group, demonstrated the equipment we would be using, discussed dive site conditions, and reviewed some safety instructions. The conditions were ideal for diving. The sea was calm and clear. Normally this would be the start of the rainy season, but they haven’t had any rain so visibility was above 20 meters. You could not hope for better conditions.

About 10 minutes before we reached the first dive site they called for all certified divers to begin gearing up. In Australia, they like to joke that many critters want to kill you. This is true both on land and in the water. In the water, one of the dangers is an abundance of jellyfish. Because jellyfish are so prevalent (particularly at this time of year) everyone going out into the water wore a stinger suit (basically a thin full body wetsuit) for protection. We got in our stinger suits and put on our air tanks. When it was our group's turn to go we stepped off the boat and into the water. I must admit I was feeling nervous. Alison and I did our certification (test and skills) in January and we did an open-water dive in February in Mexico. We really did not have much experience under our belts. It had also been some time since our last diving experience. This was our first real diving experience where there was not an instructor keeping really close tabs on us. We had a guide but they had a lot on their plate. Really I had nothing to worry about. The diving went so well and we had a phenomenal experience.

The Great Barrier Reef is unbelievable. The colorful coral and abundant sea life surrounded by clear aqua-blue water are breathtaking. Pictures and videos do not capture the majesty and vivid colors. Each of our dives was scheduled to last for 45 minutes until we were running low on air. We dive down to a depth of -12 meters. This depth got us right to the sea floor/reef. At this depth, fish were swimming around us and we could go right up to the coral. We were on the lookout for unique sea life. During this first dive, we saw many colorful fish, parrot fish, cuttlefish, a green sea turtle, and a Māori wrasse. I had a GoPro in my wrist and I was able to video many of these encounters. The Māori wrassei was huge. I caught it on camera right before our dive guide sent me to the surface because of low oxygen levels. Soon after I was sent to the surface the Māori wrasse started following Alison around. It is huge, but very friendly with people because divers used to feed it. It kind of freaked Alison out a little bit, but was a really cool experience. Alison was sent up a few minutes after me. I made it about 30 minutes and Alison was a little longer than that. We both burned through oxygen a little fast as we were working to feel comfortable under the water.

The Māori wrasse

Back at the surface, we saw Blake and Debbie out snorkeling. The introductory diving didn’t work out for Blake so he joined Debbie out on top of the water. Blake was a great sport. The dive boat wasn’t that big and he battled some sea sickness. This was not his top choice of activity despite the seasickness he had a great attitude and we were glad he came with us.

We had a quick turnaround between the first and second dive ~15 minutes. We stayed in our stinger suits and hung up on the top deck of the boat drinking water and eating fruit. Before we knew it they told us to grab our gear and then we were heading back into the water. You get all geared up on the boat, except for your fins. They have an employee who will put those on you right before you jump into the water. We went back down this time we were a little deeper ~14 meters. We were a little more comfortable under the water, although I made it just a little longer than 30 minutes this time. We continued to see amazing underwater life and coral. On this dive, we saw something that I thought was so cool. There was a cuttlefish we got pretty close to and it was shooting little clouds of ink out from its body. Getting up close to the reef was an experience we will never forget. We really hope the reef will survive and that we will have the opportunity to dive here again someday.

After this dive, we had ~an hour before our next dive. We ate lunch while they took the dive boat to another reef area. While we ate they had a presentation where they talked about the reef. It went over the coral and sea life along with some of the dangers to the reef. The reef is such a fragile ecosystem and we could all do more to help protect it. Seeing a picture of a turtle eating a plastic bag because it thinks it is food is sad and makes you never want to use a plastic bag again.

Before we knew it we arrived at our final dive site. This site was known as the Magic Wall because of a sea wall at the edge of the reef. This dive they hooked me up with a bigger tank. I also felt so comfortable on this dive. My buoyancy was good and I was calm. One of the tricks to conserving air while diving is to “be lazy”. You want to minimize movement and work because those things burn oxygen. I was able to stay out longer this time around. The funny thing about diving is that I feel like you lose sense of time and distance under the water. You can be under there for 30-40 minutes and it feels like 5 minutes. It also felt like our last dive was our deepest dive. In fact, by the sea wall, I was having a hard time getting deeper and our dive guide had to add some extra weight to my belt. Later we would learn our maximum depth on the dive was ~10 meters. While it felt deep it actually had the least depth out of our three dives. This dive was cool. I really enjoyed seeing the sea wall and the schools of fish swimming along the edge of the reef. We also saw beautiful coral and anemones with clownfish living in them. We saw other interesting species including a unicorn fish. Alison once again stayed under a few minutes longer than me and saw another green sea turtle before she came up.

Diving the Great Barrier Reef was so much fun. It was an experience that Alison and I never would have dreamed we would have, until this year. Getting scuba certified takes some work and was nerve-racking, but it was 100% worth it. This was one of our favorite travel experiences ever.

After we wrapped up diving we returned our gear and dried off. Then Alison, Debbie, and I went and sat at the front of the boat, where it was sunny and warm. We had a ~90-minute boat ride back to Cairns. We made friends with a couple from Missouri. They quit their jobs and were traveling the world for a year. They had recently wrapped up 3 months in Southeast Asia before arriving in Australia. After Cairns, they were going on a road trip down the coast of Australia toward Melbourne. We enjoyed getting to know them.

Alison and I also debriefed from our dives. The debrief is a meeting where they tell you all of the details of your dives so you can log them for your records. You get information about depth, water temp, length of dive, etc. It was fun to debrief and talk about what happened and the sea life we observed.

I cannot say enough good things about the dive company we used - Tusa Dive. They were highly recommended by Trip Advisor and are considered one of the two best dive companies in Cairns. They exceeded our high expectations. The crew was top notch and they went out of our way to ensure we had an exceptional experience. We would 100% recommend them and go diving with them again. We plan to leave a well-deserved glowing review on Trip Advisor.

When we arrived back at the dock we headed back to our hotel. Blake and Debbie drove while Alison and I opted to walk. The hotel is ~0.5 miles from our hotel. The walk is along a boardwalk that is right next to the ocean. Cairns is more of a bay and doesn’t really have accessible beaches. Instead, they made their own. There is an area called the Lagoon which is a giant swimming pool and man-made sandy beach right next to the ocean. We really liked Cairns.

After we cleaned up we met up with Blake and Debbie for dinner. We headed back over to the pier area because there seemed to be a lot of restaurants in that area. We originally considered going to a place called Prawn Star. It is a restaurant on three boats. However, the seating was not great and a brief look at the menu convinced us we would have a hard time finding something everyone in our group would enjoy. Instead, we ended up at a place called Tha Fish. This was a great turn of events. First off, our waiter was incredibly entertaining. He was snarky and opinionated and excelled at witty banter. He immediately steered us toward the restaurant's specialty - a special fish menu where we could choose from 5 different types of fish and 5 different preparation styles. The only style he did not recommend was the fancy fish and chips style. He and Debbie butted heads quite a bit (in a friendly joking manner) because this is ultimately what she would order. Three of the five fish on the menu were caught fresh that day - coral trout, snapper, and red emperor. Alison, Blake, and I would each order one of these types of fish. It was a phenomenal meal. We sat here in an open-air restaurant overlooking the ocean eating some of the most delicious fish I have ever tasted. I would go back to that place in a heartbeat. In fact, as I think about it that may be one of my top ten favorite meals ever. It was that good.

All good things must come to an end and this very, very good day was over. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and fell right asleep.