Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

Arrival in Cairns

After a short night in the plane where I tried to sleep but didn't get much of it, I landed in Cairns, I landed in Cairns at 4:30 AM. Going through security went mostly well, but my bag was apparently sniffed out by the dog so they had to inspect it. A security guard built like a movie star asked me about my holiday plans while another one was going through my underwear.

Getting out of the airport was a bit of a struggle: there is no convenient metro or tram from the airport, just a shuttle that apparently wasn't active yet, so I had to take a taxi. I asked it to drop me in the center of Cairns, since the hostel I'm staying in opens it reception at 9 so I have some time to just walk around and discover the city.

Cairns is like a small midwestern American town: a grid pattern, no well defined city center, roads made for cars... That is because the town was mostly built by Americans: it was a small village surviving on exploiting indigenous people on sugar cane plantations (an activity that is still very active in the region) until World War 2, where it became a strategic position for the US army against Japan. The American militaries flocked into the city, built large roads and a bunch of buildings, and after the war was over, they left but the infrastructure stayed in place.

Because of that, it has few interesting things to visit by foot, and mostly requires a car to go around.

It is 6 in the morning, everything is closed, so I do the only thing I can: walk down the Esplanade, a pedestrian walkway next to the shore, that is mostly being used by runners at this time of the day. It stretches across a few kilometers, going from what is the closest thing to a city centre to a beach on the north side of the city.

I get to enjoy some views of the sunrise on the way, although it is a little bit cloudy.

On the way back, I stop by Muddy's Cafe, and get an egg benedict with salmon for my brekky.

At 9, I go to the hostel to drop my bag. My plan is to rent a car for the day, and go to the Daintree rainforest up north. A room is already available, so instead of leaving it at the reception, I start unpacking in the room, preparing a day bag and decide to take a small nap... Yup, like in Tokyo, I end up sleeping for 4 hours. So much for my plans... Instead, I just decide to continue exploring Cairns.

Around the start of the Esplanade, there is the Lagoon, an outdoor pool that is completely free and has a lifeguard during the day. That's an interesting concept, definitely something that works well in a warm country but wouldn't work in Denmark.

The rest of the city isn't very interesting, there is an area with a lot of restaurants and bars and clubs, but it doesn't have a proper walkable city center with historic buildings.

One of the interesting things about Cairns is the trees and birds, that are very different from any american city I've visited.

The food itself is also not very interesting, especially coming from Tokyo where Japanese cuisine is very rich and varied. Here, most of the restaurants are foreign, and I end up having more burgers in Cairns than the last few months.

Diving lessons

The reason I'm staying so long in Cairns is because I wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef, and what better way is there than going diving? I have booked a 4 day diving certification with Divers Den, which goes over 2 days of diving lessons and pool practice, then 2 days on a boat, going to the reefs.

The diving lessons themselves go over all the necessary things to know, but they are based on video content that is kinda boring, with that and jet lag I feel like I'm about to fall asleep a few times. Thankfully, our instructors, Desa and Mariah, also give us some quizzes and recaps.

The group I'm with is quite international, but only guys: Kai and Javier from the US, Oliver from England and Hauke from Germany.

The pool practice goes over all the practical things: taking care of the equipment, how to jump in, doing the signals and a bunch of exercises that I hopefully won't ever have to do again, like emergency ascent and recovering from water getting into the mask (this one is the most annoying, it makes the mask less useable and I am not able to keep my eyes open under water, even in a pool, so it hurts).

Those two days feel pretty long, and pool practice is more tiring than expected, so in the afternoon I just have enough energy to walk to the restaurant area of Cairns for dinner, and not much more.

Diving at the Great Barrier Reef

The following two days are spent on a boat: we head towards Norman's Reef on board of the Sea Quest, which is about an hour away from the coast line. The ride is quite shaky, I normally don't get sea sick so I didn't take any medication for it, but when we arrive and have to put on our gear, I am not feeling too well.

We are not alone on the boat, there is a group of people going on an introduction course, as well as other divers that already have a certification and can dive unsupervised.

For the first day (3 dives), we are limited to 12m, and to be safe we were told that we shouldn't go below 10m. The dive doesn't count toward the certification if it is not respected, and I didn't book any extra days so this cannot be messed up. When we get back to the boat, a staff member verifies our dive computers to see the time spent under water, the maximum depth and the remaining air pressure.

The first dive is at the Clipper site. After jumping from the side of the ship, we go under water with the help of the mooring line. A friendly maori wrasse is hanging out with us as we go down, so we have an extra buddy for this part.

We practice some of the exercises: hovering close to the ocean floor, regulator recovery... and of course the dreaded flooded mask. With sea water, it is even worse, as it really stings in the eyes, and this is just the partial version of it...

Each dive we do is around 30 minutes, determined by the remaining air in the tank for everyone. We see a lot of different fishes, no sharks though.

We then move to the Turtle Bay site and go for another dive, in which we see a cuttlefish, giant clams and stingrays. We also practice more exercises, always following Desa's lead.

After lunch, we head towards the Ocean Quest, the boat where we'll spend the night. We get dessert (a chocolate mousse) after boarding, then put our stuff in the rooms (I share mine with Oliver) and head directly to our briefing for the next dive.

The third dive at the Playground site is the last of the day, where we are now limited to 18m, and we saw a trigger fish, another sting ray, a spaghetti worm and christmas tree worms, among others.

We then have a lot of time to socialize with other people on the boat. Some are only here for snorkeling, some are more accomplished divers that tell us about the best places on Earth they have been to for diving.

After dinner, it is time for the fishe's dinner: the Ocean Quest is authorised to feed 1kg of food per day to the fish, and they know it. The lights are turned on at the back of the ship, and a lot of fish are waiting there. Mostly red bass, but also some friendly reef sharks. Those sharks mostly feed on the smaller fish, so they aren't dangerous to the red bass or humans, they are just chilling together.

Some divers also enjoy the night dive experience, where they go equipped with lights to dive among the sharks and other night life. I wish I could do it, as everyone said that it was great, but they require people to have a certification for it, so I'd need to have booked an extra day.

The next morning, I wake up fairly early but still miss the sunrise. We have 2 dives planned in the morning.

The first dive of the day is our last dive required to be certified. On this one, we aren't following the instructors' lead anymore, and one of us takes the lead and they see if we correctly take care of each others, verify our air level and depth. Hauke takes the lead, and we end up going pretty quickly, without taking a lot of breaks, then turning around when we reach 120 bars (as agreed) and starting to go up when we are at 90 bars. That is still quite a lot, so Desa stops us while we are doing our safety stop, and shows us a bit more of the reef, including clownfishes. We found Nemo!

After the debrief where we are given our certification, we have more time to socialize before the next dive, that will be at the same site. Someone spotted an octopus, so that would be a good objective for our next dive!

The group splits up in 2 buddy groups: Kai and Javier are buddying up, and I'm with Oliver and Hauke.

We start the dive with uneven air distribution: Oliver and me have 230 bars, but Hauke only has 210... Looks like we'll be following his tech to decide when we should go back.

Based on the reef's map, we wanted to start our dive on one side then head towards where the octopus is located, on the other side of the boat. That was not counting on the current though: we had to swim against the current to head towards the octopus, and since we didn't go down in that direction, that gave us more distance to cover than expected. When Hauke hits 130 bars, we still see no sign of it, and decide to stay in the shallower parts, that are full of life. Unfortunately, at some point we lose sight of the boat, and nobody is sure exactly which direction it is. I knew we needed a compass... We continue following the reef, and finally come across a line that looks like the mooring line. Upon further inspection, it is actually going to a buoy, not the boat. When we are low(ish) on oxygen, we go back to the surface, and find out that the boat is further than expected: we drifted with the current, and have to head back about 50m.

I was able to take the GoPro on this dive, it was attached to my wrist which is a pretty bad idea in retrospect, as it gets very shaky when signing. I'll probably process the video when my trip is done, and update this page (if I think about it).

We also saw a turtle from the boat

And took a picture of the group, just before the last dive together

After lunch, it is time to prepare for the transfer with the Sea Quest, that will take me back to Cairns. The rest of the group is staying on the boat, as most of them have taken the 3 days package (and Hauke, that is here on a work holiday visa with hopes to work picking up sea urchins, is continuing with the advanced certification that will allow him to dive to 30m).