So I was able to get up early on Wednesday morning after arriving late the night before...not really having locked down a diving trip, it was easy. There were a few people waiting for their tour, so when their opperator / guide came up.. i was able to fold in with them and catch a ride out to the boat/ dock and go on the tour with them. Carmack from Northern Ireland, Anna from London area, and Pedro from Chile were my friends of the morning and helped me get on the tour by alerting me of the guide and making him aware I was looking to book.
We started our hour and half journey out to the Hastings Reef, later one could figure out that this was named for the battle of hastings since they had some sites named the saxons etc. If you have google ocean, you can see some spectacular footage of this site. Otherwise, I will load some video onto youtube later....it will take some time as the HD vid file will require some bandwidth to load.
I was so excited as the boat took out I could hardly imagine that I was heading into something I had thought about and somewhat dreamed about since I was a little kid. I really didn't know what to expect.
I sat and chated w/ my new friends and found out there was another kid....chip who had stayed in the same place as us as well. He was from Holland and has been traveling OZ for the past 8 months. He's a surfer so we talked extensively about some of the spots he has enjoyed. He was on the last leg of his tour as he has yet to do the east coast down to Sydney.... so maybe I will run into him at Byron Bay or something.
Most everyone I have met that is traveling for extented amounts of time... including Carmac and Anna have quit their jobs...or like others are inbetween jobs and going back to grad school. So I feel lucky to be on paid holiday. Thank you Tax Payers!
We start to go over the basics of Scuba and what to expect. I am in a later group. So with the first stop at Hastings Reef... I go snorkeling for 30- 45 minutes while the others do their instructional dive.
I wish I would have brought the cam out for the dive as there some cool stuff to see in the shallows of the reef. We are aprox 30 to 40 miles offshore... so the currents are strong and alot to work to keep in one spot. Luckily the drift pushes you back to the edge of the boat.
I go in a bit before my group is set to dive so I can get some water and relax....the others coming in have huge smiles on their face so... I assume its all good.
My dive is with Joe our instructor... laid back Aussie who has made this his job after getting hooked some years back.
The first dive was amazing and I was able to stay calm, thus staying out a bit longer since I didn't use all of my air up in 15 minutes like some heavy breathers out there!!! It was ridiculously cool and altogether better than I thought it would be. I find myself floating and looking up a lot as the bubbles float toward the sky and sun...it is almost like being in some sort of wierd dream. I guess its only what I could imagine space flight / walking would be like.... the motion and floating around is cool. Once you get used to kicking along diving and adjusting to deeper depths... its easy to see how people get hooked.
We came in and had a rather spectacular lunch... I was definitely hungary. The second dive was going to be at the same location since weather conditions had gotten rougher and would take us longer if we decided to take off to a different location. So staying in the same spot allowed us to dive for a longer amount of time.
It was definitely worth it...and I got some great video as I took the gopro in the water with me. Right off the bat...there were more schools of fish.... don't know if the storm or the pressure change from it had brought more fish in...but we also went to a different location of the reef...deeper caverns and interesting views abound. I even saw a TURTLE... so I was pumped about that. I fairly large Hawks Bill was chomping on some coral and didn't mind me getting up close and with in touching distance of filming. Speaking of which...among both dives is a friendly Puffer fish....apparently called Larry... since he's always around and likes swimming with the divers whenever they come out here. Amazing! got some great shots swiming along with him.... about the length of your arm he was very curious. ALthough I think he did tire of my camera...as he went after it and tried biting the lens!! So I gave him a break and turned my attention to all the wonderfully different colored fish. The coral and the fish change colors when the sun comes out so inbetween showers things change... amazing stuff.... again like some sort of dream. I can't wait to see the video in HD!!!
There was a spectacular clam... with purple innerds... and the two distinctive valves which it uses to fliter and feed.
Apparently, while doing so much filming I got a little seperated from the group...and they spotted a sting ray hovering in the sand. Off in the distance there was also a small reef shark. Both swam away by the time the joe got me to catch up to the group. Oh well... it was sensory overload as it was....can only imagine what it would have been like to see those two.
As we wrapped things up and headed back to the boat... I didn't want it to end. My face hurt from the pressure of the mask.. and I could feel my head starting to ache...so probably best. When we got back on the boat the group was estatic at what we saw and cleary we saw much more diverse stuff than the other groups so I was glad I went out when I did.
The ride back was increadibly rough as 1-3 foot seas gave way to 6-7 foot seas! the winds even got up in the upper 30 knot range! Anyway, I made it through and enjoyed talking to the skipper of the new boat as we headed back in. Truely an amazing day.... about 6 hours on the water. Needless to say I was exhausted. Held it together and showered up for the drink up afterwards that the tour guides put on... which was cool. We ate, drank and watched rugby games of the day... but my mind was far from that...as Carmac downloaded the vid from the day on his computer... crazy to think about really. I remember being young and watching Jock Custeau and his travels and love for the ocean. The vido he shot was always cool... and I think what always made me think of this place as being a sight of a lifetime. It was just that... and now I can't imagine with the technology of the day... that I can enjoy it for years to come... really crazy.
Cairns is a cool town and full of young travelers partying it up... I stayed down by the water on the Esplande... I will have a couple more days to play with before heading to Sydney.
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