Cairns AU was our hop off point for the Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is a really cool town/port in NE Australia. I heard someone state that it is the only “western” city in a fully tropical environment. Yes it’s hot here.
At this point the reef is about 40-45 miles from shore. I took a boat called the Quicksilver. 90 ft Catamaran that goes like 30 MPH. We had rough seas and rain and they put this boat into the wind and gassed it. Let’s just say that there were about 10 people contributing fish food to the ocean. I was saved by a gadget called a Relief Band.
A very organized scuba outfit had about 25 divers in the water with gear in 15 minutes. My first dive on the metric system. Meters deep vs feet and Bar vs PSI. Easy peasy.
On our second dive we came upon a 8 ft reef shark. Docile beast. It just sat there in the sand (maybe sleeping) while the 6 of us in our group were less than 5-8 feet from it. We saw the usual suspects but everything on the GBR seems bigger. Coral that is usually about the size of an exercise ball is bigger than a VW Beetle. Lots of the coral was coated with the very cool blue reflective color. We bumped into this turtle. Woke him up (he was hiding in some rocks) and he immediately went to the surface, grabbed some air and came right back to the group and started chomping on some coral. As usual I met some great people. AU is kind of special because the people are truly a different culture but they speak English!
Other fun facts regarding the GBR.
- GBR 1553 miles long
- Largest living structure on earth
- 135 square miles in area, over 3000 individual reefs
On a different point, I did not understand that there exists a waterway off shore and short of the reef that is deep water navigable. We have been traveling with land (reef on one side and AU on the other) on both sides of us for a full 1.5 days. Our ship vantage point is roughly 50-70 feet off the water so you can generally see both sides full time. Yet another fun surprise.
Hung out in “the sun” yesterday. What this means in this tropical rain haven is that it is hot all the time. The sun comes out and scorches. I have great, forgiving, tanning skin due to some heritage. I need LOTS of sunscreen. The sun is harsher here than in the mountains skiing. Then every 20 minutes or so, it rains on you for the welcome cool down. Relax and enjoy it. New methods…
Meanwhile…back at the ship. This is Janet’s portion of day two. My intention was to walk around town and discover Cairns. I went down to the gangway three time to leave the ship. The first time, when I got there it was pouring rain and I decided to wait until a bit later. Ditto for my second attempt. These summer rain showers (as they are called) were more like standing under a shower. With my two attempts unsuccessful, I opted to take advantage of the gym to complete my walk and was tempted into a massage at the spa. The spa offers port day specials and we were given a $50 gift card so that decision was easy. The massage was heavenly. After I ate a quick lunch I packed up my gear for the walk. When I arrived at the gangway the crew said that a squall was coming through with heavy lightening and carrying an umbrella was not recommended. Cairns was not to be. While I was disappointed, my day was very relaxing and enjoyable and I eagerly awaited hearing about Joe’s excellent adventure.