Sea Quest from Cairns

After having spent a delightful time in big city of Melbourne, Cairns does not seem big or spectacular at all. There is no beach that you could walk to directly from the town itself, which is not what you would expect from the coastal town (I am puzzled, I need to research this). It is however the destination for scuba diving for its closest proximity to the Great Barrier Reef.

Saxon Reef - relaxing by the coral

@ Cairns City Backpackers

It was raining so heavily when I arrived that I could not get a firm grasp of town's atmosphere. Low season was making its stamp - no tourists, lots of special offers everywhere, streets full of water and more water falling from the sky all the time. Welcome to the rainy season in tropics!

 After having spent a delightful time in big city of Melbourne, Cairns does not seem big or spectacular at all. There is no beach that you could walk to directly from the town itself, which is not what you would expect from the coastal town (I am puzzled, I need to research this). It is however the destination for scuba diving for its closest proximity to the Great Barrier Reef.

It was raining so heavily when I arrived that I could not get a firm grasp of town's atmosphere. Low season was making its stamp - no tourists, lots of special offers everywhere, streets full of water and more water falling from the sky all the time. Welcome to the rainy season in tropics!

The difficulty in travelling outside of the peak season is that you may not have all the high-season options available. This turned out to be the case for me. After arriving at Cairns City Backpackers, already soaking wet with water, I knew I had to try to organize my boat trip to realize my dream of Great Barrier Reef. It took me a reasonable amount of time but finally, after endless phone calls and Internet browsing, I found 1 spare bed with TAKA DEEP SEA DIVERS DEN and I happily booked myself on a 2 day cruise.

The next day a pickup car arrives at 7:00 am and I am off onto another adventure.

Imagine my shock when I arrive at the marina and boarded the boat together with ... 80 other people. What?!?!? If this is the lowest of the season I do not want to think how the high season looks like). There is also one other explanation. Due to low season and all the other boats being serviced only this one boat was operational during the time of my stay.

Once everyone was on board the first deck was so crowded that it was impossible to breath without taking air from somebody else. We were quickly introduced to a ‘boat regime’ and after the formalities we could spread on all the different decks to get some space. I call it a ‘boat-regime’ because it was like a military drill in the end. Everything in perfect sync - briefing - getting scuba gear on - getting into water - dive - getting out of water - getting undressed and shower on the deck - a short break, and again same cycle.. a break for a meal - and again..and again.. and again.

1st I get to dive with two stranger buddies. They get short of air very soon and I end up ascending with 100 bars still in. Damn!

 

2nd dive, I change buddies from two guys to two girls. This should be good, right?! We did descend and ascend without major issue and in similar time frame, no waste this time. At least this one was more successful in terms of time on the bottom, even if the navigation sucked.

3rd dive, same girls buddies. I decide to stick to what I know. We are spending 30 min trying to descend and equalize. (shit!&*&&). One of the girls cannot make it. We take her back to the boat and then we decode to continue our dive on just the two of us. Guess what. My girl-buddy cannot make it do the bottom either. We come back with no achievement really. This sucks! I am supposed to be having the time of my life, scuba diving in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef and I cannot even get a decent dive out of it!

Ok don’t panic. You still have one night and one day to go. I switch boats. Boarded onto the OCEAN QUEST >> you can read a review from other divers TripAdvisor - Liveaboard on the Ocean Quest << for a night dive (wooohooo my very first night dive!) I keep my spirits high against all odds.

Finally something to chew on – the night dive is a guided one, so I do not have to worry much about unfortunate buddy selection. The scenery is the following: it has been raining most of the time with only occasional clouds clearing, water visibility wasn't great due to the rain. It was an amazing experience anyway. And now I was to get to water after sunset with all the night creatures swimming in it. Crazy me?!

I enjoyed this dive tremendously. It felt amazing to be swimming in the dark waters. All the sharks were amazed too! The way things go is that the crew throws bait into water – basically food leftovers I think - and so in no time we are surrounded with tens of reef sharks. No worries they are quite friendly and quite beautiful.

"The whitetip reef shark is one of the most common sharks found in shallow tropical and warm temperate water around coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef. Look for them during the day as they lay to rest from the nights feeding on sandy patches in the reef. Usually found in 8 meters or deeper. When disturbed they will swim away very quickly. Reef sharks are scared of you much more then you are of them."



Whitetip reef shark - Great Barrier Reef - Australia



Our sharks are curious creatures and really come close to you. Are they tamed, one would think.. One looked me straight in the eyes, "hello, fancy meeting you here"...”the pleasure is all mine” I said back to him..

Here are some best places where to go diving with sharks worldwide: http://kathika.com/best-places-to-dive-with-sharks/.

Day second on the Ocean Quest boat and I get two new buddies. One is French - Mathieu and the other one is German - Tom, both professionals taking a break from business life. Both cure and more experience than myself. They offered to take me with them, so I said yes. Hell ye, after failures of day 1 and inexperienced buddies, I feel like jumping from happiness that finally I will get a decent dive in.

They took all the cool pictures under water and we had a great time together. 3 amazing dives, by the end of the day I was exhausted beyond comprehension. It has been really challenging days under water. Even the time spent on the boat was pretty filled with activities and exhausting. No time to take a break and relax by doing nothing. Eat, take instructions, dress up, dive, undress.. in cycles. The additional new element for me was introduction to unguided diving, all my 30 dives before I had always had a scuba instructor or a scuba guide with me. The feeling of security having an experienced buddy like that was very assuring. If you do not have your buddy travelling with you to do the scuba unguided dives with you, you may end up like me, trying to find the right match for your skills level and expectations. Big learning lesson for me.

Unfortunately being on a short schedule means that I and Mat must head back. Tom decides to stay and board for another day of diving. Good for him!

Well I have been all over the place in the last couple of weeks. It has been a truly amazing time and a great experience which I shall be exploring in more words soon enough. I kept my diary well and it is full of stories by now.. so stay tuned and I promise to keep you on your toes while reading it.

A dla wszystkich w ukochanym domu - mam tony historii tdo opowiadania, jak prawie zaginelam w dzungli, jak prawie zjadly mnie rekiny... i mnostwo innych. Szczesliwie wszystko przetrwalam i powoli zbieram sie myslami do powrotu do Europy.