Cairns - Part II

A couple days ago, the lady known as A2^ sent me a comment. She said that she was going to put climbing the Sydney harbor bridge on her list of things to do before she died. I replied that another thing she would want to put on that list was scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef. Why? First, it one of the largest living organisms in the world. It is so big that astronauts in space can see it. Second, it has one of the largest collection of creatures on this earth. The number has to run into the thousands. Third, it is a place where man can enter a totally alien world without having to go into space or beyond. The underwater world is totally different from our own. Even with all our technological advances, it remains one of the most inhospitable to man. You have to be very careful in this world otherwise it can kill you in any number of ways. So, if you are searching for adventure, diving the Great Barrier Reef should fit the bill. The picture here is of me in my diving gear, doing a safety stop under the pontoon platforms the Quicksilver Company had at the Great Barrier Reef.

The Quicksilver Company collects its passengers two ways. You travel to Port Douglas by either by boat or bus. In our case, a bus pulled into the hotel parking lot Wednesday morning. We summarily boarded and got to enjoy a very scenic half hour drive to Port Douglas. Port Douglas at one time competed with Cairns for the principle port in this region. Eventually it lost out and for a while, it became a ghost town. When I visited here in 2004, it had a population of over 5,000 which sometimes swelled to as many at 15,000 due to tourists. Its primary business now is tourism.

The boat we travelled out to the Great Barrier Reef in was a big catamaran. The boat must have held at least 250 people plus diving equipment and enough food to provide everyone who went out, a fantastic buffet lunch. While enroute, people got to decide what they wanted to do. You could lay on the platform and get a nice tan. You could snorkel or you could scuba dive. If you were going to scuba dive, you had to either show your certification card or fill out a form stating where you got your certification and with whom. You also had to listen to a short refresher course on diving and take a quiz afterwards. Once you arrived at the pontoon platform, you had to promptly suit up if you were going to dive. The diving equipment was well organized and you went from bin to bin collecting your equipment.

Once you were ready, you entered the water with a bunch of other people and checked out your equipment. One thing I've seen time and again are people who claim to be better divers then they actually are. This time would be no different. We had a guy who claimed to be a great diver and he ended up holding the group for over 5 minutes because he couldn't get his bouyancy right and sink. At last, the instructors helped him make it to the bottom and we began our dive. The sea life was dazzling. The instructors pointed out things of note like particulary impressive fish or having us touch an anemone. They really do sting. They also made a video of us that you could purchase later though I decided to pass on it. I think it only had about 3 minutes of us actually diving in it.

We finished the first dive without incident, did our safety stop, and then changed our tanks out. I signed up to do a second dive and got paired up with a guy that had only dived 9 times. I wasn't thrilled with that. I prefer to dive with experienced divers since they know what they're doing. I have over 80 dives to my credit but before the reef dives, I hadn't dived in over 2 years. I still knew what I was doing but, I wasn't super confident. I'd never dived the Great Barrier Reef before and it is a good thing to dive a new area with someone who is experienced in that area for at least a couple times. I wouldn't have that luxury here. Fortunately, the second dive was equally uneventful as far as diving problems go. I did get to take my first underwater photos which are what you are looking at on this post. The company sold cheap underwater cameras and I decided to try it out. To my delight, the photos came out reasonably well.

Overall, I ended up having an absolutely awesome time. It made me wish to do more diving when I got back to Maryland. Unfortunately, where I live is at least 3 hours driving from the coast and the water is very cold here. The only time you can dive with a wet suit is during the summer months. I did get my dry suit qualification but, I haven't cared to spend the money on one yet. I don't know how much I would use it. Hopefully, I'll get to do more diving in the future.

Those who do two dives out on the reef never get a chance to try the excellent buffet lunch the Quicksilver company provides. Fortunately, the company takes this into account and the diver can arrange for them to put aside 3 plates! of food for them when the reboard the boat. I got to eat the food on the way back to port and it was delicious. The drive back to Cairns was also very pleasant. We drove along the coast and got to see lots of seashore and water. When I arrived at the hotel, to my delight, our tour guide Jann Elphinstone invited me to join her for dinner in Cairns. She also invited Harvey and that is when I got to know him somewhat better. The three of us had a dinner at a food court in town and had a nice chat. I ended up having some lacklustre Thai food and a rather poor smoothie. Jann also recommended I try Bundaberg Rum (the local rum which was supposed to be very good) and XXXX beer. I found the rum was all right though I confess, I'm not real keen on hard liquor. The beer was also good. The one nice thing about trying the two was I slept like a rock that night though I might've been a little worn out from the diving too.

The next day would be our last day in Cairns. We would get to ride the Kuranda train, see the town of Kuranda, ride the Skyrail back to Cairns, and visit an aborigine cultural center. It would be another very full day. Stay tuned for Cairns - Part III.