After a looonnngggg day of travel (over 30 hours with a 14.5 hour plane ride in there), we made it to Australia!!
Right now we are in tropical north Queensland in a city called Cairns. So far we are loving this city, in particular the laid back vibe and being close to the water. We've spent half of our six days on land and half at sea on a Great Barrier Reef liveaboard.
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| This cute tour guide was showing me around Cairns ;) |
The liveaboard was awesome, we loved diving non-stop for 3 days (we dove 11 times). We did the 3 day/2 night tour with Pro Dive Cairns and thought everything was very organized and well run. It was nice setting up your gear one time and having it ready to go when it was time to dive. Before each dive one of the crew would give an in depth dive briefing that included an impressive dive site map drawn on the white board. This info was especially helpful since every dive was self-lead, which we really enjoyed to keep to our own pace and not be surrounded by tons of divers underwater.
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| Our liveaboard! |
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| Paradise... dive gear + sunsets! |
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| Awesome dive site maps hand drawn by one of the crew members |
The boat itself was a little tight for the 35ish of us, but we had a private cabin and shared bathrooms with everyone. There was a saloon to hang out and eat meals in, and a sundeck for relaxation time between dives.
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| Where Justin could be found in between dives (ok to be fair me too :-P) |
The Great Barrier Reef itself was simply breath-taking. We had never seen coral formations and bommies so massive, the Caribbean ones are impressive but not as large (at least where we have dove). Some of the coral walls were over 100 ft tall, and 2-3x that in length and width in places. It's hard to explain but swimming along those walls and exploring the many crevices was truly an amazing experience. I don't think you could ever get used to all the variations of coral, colors, and abundant fish activity.
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| This is called the "mushroom", pretty wild looking! |
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| The "Ice Cream Cone", a coral bommie that flipped upside down in a storm |
We saw tons of tropical fish, some new ones like humphead wrasses were fun to spot, and I saw my favorite fish... the trumpetfish! We spotted nemo (clown fish anemone) several times, lizardfish, parrotfish, triggerfish, cuttlefish, etc. We even saw about three reef sharks and a sting ray!
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| My favorite, the trumpetfish... only saw one though! |
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| We found Nemo! |
The sea turtles were probably our favorite to spot throughout the trip. On one dive
we saw a turtle surfacing for air, another we were able to follow it
while it swam and poked around a coral bommie. During one of the
night dives we saw a huge ancient sea turtle (estimated hundreds of
years old??) named Brian who was sleeping on the sand. Our dive leader
told us in the briefing where Brian sleeps and said we should be able to
see him but to not shine our lights directly on him or we would wake
him up. At night it was cool to see other fish sleeping as well, while
some are more active.
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| School of giant humphead fish |
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| In case you were wondering what they look like from the front LOL |
Another cool part of the Great Barrier Reef is all of the swim-throughs we were able to check out on the dives. Swim-throughs are pathways through the coral you can easily, well, swim through :) These are like tunnels through the coral because the coral is so massive.
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| Inside a swim-through |
Funny story, on one dive we were told there was a swim through right at the start, and to then turn right to continue up the coral canyon. Well, Justin and I somehow took a turn too early but we thought we were in the right spot since we could see a tunnel in the coral that was wide enough for the scuba gear. We had agreed this time I would go first since he went first the last time and we wanted to get similar pics of both of us swimming through.
So, I look back at him to make sure this is where we should go and after a nod of agreement, I begin to swim towards the tunnel opening. Everything seems fine and I'm checking out the coral when all of a sudden I see a fish... then I realize it's a HUGE fish... and it doesn't seem too happy. I think it was a humphead wrasse but I mean it was probably 5 feet long and over 100lbs. I immediately stop and start turning around, using a good amount of my air in the process lol. Justin is wondering what is going on then sees the fish, and starts to giggle underwater. Looking back on it, it was pretty funny, but in that moment I was really nervous! Not that a fish like that would really do anything but man was it staking it's territory! Lesson of the dive is to check the tunnel before you head in and to continue the dive even if you get flustered, which we did and it was awesome! :)
Overall we would definitely do another liveaboard. It was a great way to really see the reefs and immerse ourselves in diving for a few days. The food and company were also great! There were a lot of Americans on the boat which I wasn't expecting.
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| Aftermath of every dive! |
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| The ever flattering scuba portrait |
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| Enjoying the end of another great dive trip with the best dive buddy!! |
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| Our awesome dive group! |
Outside of diving it's been such a rough life here in Cairns walking to the beach, laying by the lagoon, biking along the esplanade, and drinking some german beers with our dive friends :) We've found a routine of sorts for working while still exploring. Basically we've been working in the morning and in the evening while still getting out for a while during the day to explore. Some days we will do full day tours, but we really love just the every day life here. So far that's meant going to the Cairns lagoon every day because we love it... we've walked, ran, and biked there on different days. We also love our Airbnb and our host, and the host's dog Calli who is a Portuguese Water Dog. Our host has given us some great suggestions and we love the local experience you get staying in an Airbnb.
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| I mean really rough life... |
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| It's spring here! |
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| Our favorite hang out spot, the Cairns Lagoon |
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| Calli, our Airbnb host's dog :) |
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We are definitely glad we chose Cairns and that we decided to stay here for two weeks. Justin loves it so much he wants to move here...! Next we are excited to visit the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation beach in a tour we are doing this Sunday from Cairns. We hope to see Trinity beach and maybe explore south of Cairns next week (supposed to be some beautiful waterfalls there).
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| View from our street, mountains and rainforest in the distance |
Hope everyone at home is doing well!! Thanks for reading!
Sarah
"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever" ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau
p.s: We did not care for vegemite... super salty although I heard the way to eat it is a very very small amount on bread. Maybe I used too much...
We saw tons of tropical fish, some new ones like humphead wrasses were fun to spot, and I saw my favorite fish... the trumpetfish! We spotted nemo (clown fish anemone) several times, lizardfish, parrotfish, triggerfish, cuttlefish, etc. We even saw about three reef sharks and a sting ray! 
Overall we would definitely do another liveaboard. It was a great way to really see the reefs and immerse ourselves in diving for a few days. The food and company were also great! There were a lot of Americans on the boat which I wasn't expecting.
