Life on the Ocean Wave

 
December 9th-11th

From Uluru we fly to Cairns in Queensland. From the plane you can see more of the Red Centre, much of it apparently barren, with no trees visible, only the occasional straight road running as far as the eye can see. Not that the landscape is featureless, there are discernable hills, valleys, canyons and plains. After two hours, the dusty red panorama changes abruptly to the green rolling hills of the coastal rainforest. Coming into land at Cairns the ground is as lush and green as it was in Auckland – though the climate is very different. We are now in the tropical north east of Australia – famed both for the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. After the intense dry heat of Uluru, you can feel the moisture in the air.

Cairns is a place people visit to go somewhere else – it’s a convenient centre for the reef, rainforest and Atherton Tablelands, but other than hotels, bars, restaurants and tour shops there’s not much here. In our time-shifted state this doesn’t matter – we check into our hotel around 7.30pm, and find the nearest bar for a quick drink and supper as we have to be up at 5.30am for our next adventure – three days diving the Great Barrier Reef.

I’ve never done a liveaboard before – but not being a fanatical diver, I thought 3 days would be perfect. I’d imagined floating around on calm blue seas, lazing under a shady canopy and occasionally venturing underwater to be guided to beautiful coral formations and shown an amazing array of aquatic life. How little I knew. I’m not sure if the very professional crew at ProDive were trying to cram as much into three days as possible, but life on a dive boat is hectic! After three hours on rough seas during which time we were meant to set up our dive gear, we arrive at Milln Reef, our first dive site, feeling decidedly queasy.

There are 30 fellow divers on board who fall into four groups – those doing their first open water qualification, with no experience; those doing their advanced qualification; certified divers like me, and a small group of snorkellers. We are a mixed bag of nationalities, ages and experience, but it soon becomes clear that certified divers are expected to navigate their own way round the reefs with the aid of a compass. I know I should be able to do this, but I’m used to having charming Caribbean boys setting up my kit and finding morays and lobsters hidden in nooks and crannies, so this DIY Aussie approach comes as a bit of a shock. Fortunately our first dive doesn’t present too many problems as there are just two co-ordinates to remember and Robin navigates us perfectly round the reef and back to the boat. There’s just time for lunch, a half hour snooze and then it’s time to be briefed for dive number 2. This one is more complicated and Oscar’s dive map shows a veritable maze of coral bombies to get lost in – but that seems to be part of the plan. As Oscar says, “this is the Great Barrier Reef, there’s always something to see even if you go the wrong way.” But it helps if you remember the co-ordinates that you are meant to be following – or at least the key landmarks that indicate when you are meant to make a turn. This time I’m the one who remembers that we are meant to turn, but despite much signalling to this effect on my part, Robin is determined to continue on the first course and I’m normally so rubbish with a compass that I follow him. Eventually we run out of bombies to explore and are left with a wide expanse of sand and the deep blue ocean beyond. We are lost and have to put Plan B into action – surface and look for the boat. The boat is miles away, and we have to signal for the tow of shame back to the right spot to continue the dive.

Back on board there’s cake on offer for those who have found their sea legs, another quick snooze and the briefing for the third dive of the day. And it’s still only 4 o’clock. Each dive is better than the last. The complexity of the corals here are nothing like I’ve seen before, and each bombie offers a different landscape. We see families of clownfish (little Nemos) swimming amongst the anemones, clouds of tiny blue fish hovering over brain coral, a diamond formation of large blue and yellow striped angels and many, many more, including the barracuda who comes to visit while we are hanging around on our 5m safety stop.

After dinner, I’m exhausted, but at 7.30 there is a night dive on offer, and most people do this too. And while I’m quite happy on deck, I’m still feeling wobbly inside the boat. It’s not quite warm enough to sleep under the stars, so I take a sick bag to bed – just in case. Fortunately it’s not needed. But I decide on a slower pace for Day 2 of diving, this time on Flynn Reef. I’m also getting used to the discipline of setting up my kit for each dive, and can finally use a compass – hurrah!

Although the crew don’t dive with us, they are very hot on safety. Divers are not allowed into the water unless Dave the spotter is in place on the top deck. Everyone is checked into and out of the water, with times and maximum depths noted, and coming up with less than 50bar of air is a punishable offence. We are also issued with safety numbers, which Dave checks off every time the boat is moved – so no chance of leaving anyone behind.

The night dive on Day 2 is a shark fest, specially engineered by the crew as a celebration for the newly certified Open Water divers. As I’m taking it easy today, I watch the fun from the top deck, as Oscar throws handfuls of bread into the water to feed the fish. The fish are voracious, and scramble for any scraps of food when we give our plates a rinse under the salt water hose after meals. At night the main feeders are the GTs – or giant terrallies. These are large red fish which literally snap at any food that comes their way, and will jump out of the water to beat another fish to a tasty morsel. They’ve also been known to take a bite at a careless toe left for too long in the water on the back step of the boat. With the boat lit up like Christmas Tree added to the food being thrown in, the water is a boiling mass of GTs – and where there are GTs there are also grey reef sharks, which feed on the same fish. Now grey reef sharks are not interested in bread, nor are they interested in eating GTs, but because they think the GTs are eating fish that would make a tasty shark supper we soon have five big guys circling around and snapping after the GTs. And lots of nervous looking new divers, who are not being helped by the music coming over the PA – themes from Jaws and Psycho among them. By the time they all get in, the experienced divers are already surfacing from their dive. But everyone comes back alive.

There are three more dives to fit in on day 3, the first at 6.30am as we have to leave the reef at 12.30 for our return journey to Cairns. For me it’s the best dive of the trip – life underwater is quite different early in the morning. Within 5 minutes we come across a shark settled on the sand, posing for photographs, and shortly afterwards come across a second, who takes off as we approach. I am one of the few divers not taking photographs, as I prefer to spend my time looking directly at the fish rather than through the lens of a camera. Obviously I think my way is better, and in this instance while the photographers were left taking a picture of the shark’s tail, I swam over the coral and met him face to face, and gave a little wave as he swam on by.

Our five turtle spottings provide more special moments on the dive. I swim slowly towards the surface with the first leatherback, stopping when I realise he may want to surface and I’m not ready to. And we find two large hawksbills having a breakfast feast on the corals. I’m not sure what they are eating but think its the algae that grows on dead coral, rather than the coral itself.

We move to Thetford Reef for our final two dives – a reef that can only be dived when conditions are right, about once every three months. The corals here are perfect and we swim through deep gullies then up over the top of the reef, seeing how life changes at different depths. Our last dive is at 11am – so there are minimal breaks between - and we meet a strong current on the way back, so I’m exhausted by the end, and happy to sleep on deck all the way back to Cairns. I have also discovered Robin’s stash of seasickness pills and pop one for the journey – which is totally calm – but this seems to have benefits back on land. While everyone else struggles to find their landlegs, even after a few beers, I'm back in the swing of things with no problem at all.