georoc01's blog: "Australia Trip"

The one downside to my trip was how short it was. Australia is a big country and the Great Barrier reef is the largest living organism on the planet. Two weeks just can't do either justice. What I did would have been the equivilent of coming to the US, spending two days in NYC, go to a broadway show, then fly to Vegas. Spend a week backpacking the Grand Canyon, going back to Vegas for a night and then fly home and say you have seen the USA. I'd recommend Australia to anyone who can afford it. Yeah, the flight sucks. And the 40 hour day on the way back with 30 in transit is pretty bizarre. Thank god for Ambien. But given a chance to go back I will. THere is too much else to explore and see both diving and on land not to.

In between stops on the boat we spent a couple of days in Cairns. Cairns is in the NE corner of Australia in the state of Queensland. It is in a tropical rain forest and has the weather to prove it. Being summer, it was hot and humid. While we were there, we did an awesome tour, the skyrail and aboriginal cultural park http://www.skyrail.com.au/ Lets start by saying that the views from this gondola are breathtaking. First coming down into Cairns, then of Barron Falls, and then up into Kuranda. In Kuranda, we went over and did pictures with the Koalas and fed the Kangaroos. I also bought and original piece of aboriginal art work of a dolphin. The Aboriginal park told the stories of the natives. Their stories have universal themes that you find in Judeo-Christian beliefs as well. Also found out how to make and play a diggerdoo. Cairns was a wonderful little town, full of backpackers on holiday. Not at all what I expected in Australia.

Australia - Great Barrier Reef - December 3rd-11th, 2007 SingleDivers.Com trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We all met up in Cairns the night before. They bussed us over to the Explorer Ventures office where we dropped our extra bags before heading out for a low level flight up to Cooktown. Each person's gear was weighed to make sure that the overall group averaged 44 lbs. After we met this requirement we took the 45 minute flight split into two planes. One a six seater, the other holding 18. It gave us a view of the reef as well as the tropical rainforest that makes up the Northeast Portion of the state of Queensland. The airport in Cooktown is the smallest I have ever flown into. Even smaller than the one in Dickinson, ND, where they use a Ford Ranger to transport the bags between the plane and the terminal building and a tractor with a pump for fuel just in case. Here we didn't even have a tractor. They used hand carts to pull the bags from the tarmac to the busses and back. The terminal building was about the size of a very small post office. They did have a single stall bathroom and a soda machine. Once the busses were loaded we took the ride to the boat. We were early so they dropped us off at the local pub and grocery store to purchase personal provisions such as carrots and macadamia nuts. Of course, one of the things we discovered in the EV office was that seafood wasn't served on the boat. Shawn Abbot offered to purchase prawns and lobster for the group if the cook agreed to cook it. Which she did and made for a side stop and added to the quality of the food on the voyage, which overall was quite good. It was definitely British styles, with sautéed mushrooms, soft boiled eggs, etc for breakfast. There was also unlimited beer and wine served on the boat for us Americans. And as such a special alcohol run was made even at sea to ensure we wouldn't run out. And this after the engineer had made significant additions to the stores prior to leaving Cooktown. We then took the walk down from the pub to the boat, passing some Wallabies on the way. Just another reminder that we were in Australia. We were then introduced to the crew. Trent was our captain, born and raised in Western Australia where Kangaroo is the meat of choice. Shawn was our engineer. An Australian raised in New Guinea, he had a braided beard that made him look like an extra out of Pirates of the Caribbean (and in a previous life, was a real pirate). Anna Marie was our German cook, who prepared all the meals including the above prawns. Dauphine was our cabin hostess from France, and graced us in the water like a mermaid. Last but not least, Dan and Ben were our Dive Instructors who managed the back deck of the Nimrod. They had the responsibility of trying to keep us all in line. They also served the vegemite punishments when we had too many demerits. The Nimrod Explorer we had maxed out with 18 passenger’s total. 10 women and 8 men. The boat was originally a marine biologist's research vessel who was the son of a wealthy Australian. However, the back deck was expanded to give us space to set up and break down our gear. We had six cabins, three quads and three double rooms. Then there was a main room that served as our dining area off the kitchen. Starting the following day, we began into a typical day which went as the following. 6:30am early breakfast (porridge, toast, fruit, and cereal) and dive briefing 7:00 Dive 1 8:30 hot breakfast (eggs, pancakes etc) 9:30 Dive 2 11:30 Lunch 1:00pm Dive 3 3:00pm snack 4:00 Dive 4 5:30 Dinner 7:00 Night Dive 8:30 Dessert So basically it was sleep, eat & dive. A total of 26 dives were offered. We did have a couple of divers make every one. (Susie and Eric were the iron men of this boat!) We did the night dives at the same location as Dive 4. This way we were at least somewhat familiar with the dive site prior to the dive. A typical dive was to a max of 100 feet and 70 minutes. The night dives were held to 60 feet and 50 minutes Day 1 - Ribbon Reefs 9 & 10 After motoring all night from Cooktown we arrived at Reefs 9 & 10 Dive 1 - Pixie's Pinnacle Dive 2 - The Lighthouse Dive 3 - Cod Hole Dives 4 & 5 - Coramount Reef - Leave for Osprey Reef Day 2 - Osprey Reef Day 1 Dive 1 & 2 Raging Horn - Two Drift Dives Dive 3 - Silver City Dive 4 & 5 Admiralty Cave Day 3 - Osprey Reef Day 2 Dive 1 - North Horn - North Wall Dive 2 - Shark Attack! Dive 3 - North Horn - West Wall Dive 4 & 5 - False Entrance Day 4 - Osprey Reef Day 3 Dive 1 - The Gap Dive 2 - The Castle Dive 3 & 4 Rapid Horn No Night Dive - Leave Osprey Reef Day 5 - Ribbon Reefs 4 & 5 Dive 1 - Cancelled due to strong currents Dive 2 - Andy's Postcard Dive 3 - Jayanem's Wall Dive 4 & 5 - Steve's Bommie Day 6 - Ribbon Reef 3 Dive 1 - Wishful Wall Drift Dives 2 & 3 Flare Point Leave for Cairns All of the dive sites were impressive for the diversity of the marine life in the Great Barrier Reef. A few dives really stand out to me. One was the Pinnacle dives (Pixie's Pinnacle, Lighthouse, Andy's Postcard, Steve's Bommie). These dives were basically cylinders or cones coming up from 100' to about 15 feet at the top. They contained a wide and large diversity of marine life, starting with sharks and snakes at the bottom to large amounts of small creatures like a little clownfish at the top of Steve's Bommie. Those dives in particular had large amounts of fish, including rockfish and beautiful lionfish. Another dive that stood out was Cod Hole. The potato cod and this dive site are very large creatures, running 5-6 feet long and weighing up to 400 lbs. They are also very friendly and would follow you around. They are a unique sight to see. And then there was shark attack. Basically there is an amphitheater around a bommie where the crew lowered down a milk crate full of chum and let the marine life go at it for about 30 minutes. First the silver tip sharks come take their shot, then the white tips, and finally the black tips. Mix in a large potato cod that felt like he was the king of the bommie and certainly got his fill when fish started coming out of the box. Then the smaller fish and when the box hit the surface of the bommie, the 5-6 foot moray eels took their fill. It was a surreal dive that Wildcard was nice enough to video for us. Hopefully we can get it up on a website for everyone to see soon. For me personally, the other thing was working on my breathing and buoyancy skills underwater. The first dives I was lasting about 30 minutes max. By the end, I could extend it out to 40-50 minutes, completing dives. Kamala was a big help with this, serving as my dive buddy for over 1/2 of the dives. Mark was nice enough to put up with me on the others. Other than a few dives in Cozumel, this was both the largest number, and longest dives I have ever done, especially when compared to the diving I had done training in Colorado and New Mexico. I thank you both.

Well, Last night we went to the Syndey Opera House to see the show called Tales from Vienna Woods. We started with dinner at a resturaunt calls Selah, located right behind our hotel. The menu is modern Australian, which is similar to California Cuisine. Basically these modern resturaunts take advantage of local fresh product to make these layered dishes that our both visually look great and taste good. Think Iron Chef. I had the lamb, my friend had the chicken. Both were excellent. Then it was off to the theater. The complex itself is gorgeous, sitting off at the end of the pier (see my Australia pics folder). We had four show options. ONe was a South African solo performer, one was the nutcracker, the third was Tales from Vienna Woods. The symphony was doing the music of John Williams. We chose the third. I used to work at a theater in upstate NY and have seen quite a few shows. Nothing was a tough as this one. The acting was fine, but the material was downright depressing. Not one character had any redeeming characteristics. Made you want to jump off the pier after the show. Made for a strange night afterwards. Not at all what I would have expected. I certainly would go back, but choose better material to see there. This was a bit out there.

Yesterday I embarked on a two week excursion to Australia. First we are in Sydney for a couple of days and then next week head up to Cairns to board a liveaboard and dive the Great Barrier Reef for 8 days. Then its back to the States. This is by far the longest flight I have ever taken. I left Denver at 6:45pm, flew to LAX, had a two hour layover then boarded a plane for Sydney. 13 hours later we deplaned at 7:45am Saturday morning. It was like an overnight sleepover with movies. We had four. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Invisible, Hairspray and Hot Rod. The challenge of sleeping on the plane allowed me to catch the first and last movies. ITs overcast in Sydney today as I am writing this from my hotel room. Headed to the Sydney Opera House tonight.