The One and Only....Great Barrier Reef!!..and some other stuff too!

Tropic Days Backpackers; our base for the week. With hammocks and a swimming pool, what more would you want from a hostel!?? Shame we never actually got the chance to use any of them ( well Haz used the hammocks )but we had better things to do like our adventure on the Great Barrier Reef! :-D

Day one and two saw Nick in the classroom all day whilst Haz enjoyed the sunshine! These 2 days were spent learning all the theory, doing exams and plenty of practice in the training pool to become a qualified P.A.D.I Open Water diver. It felt great to get the scuba gear back on my back, and prove to my instructor that little 'elves' make great divers! Sam (diving instructor) didn't call me an elf until he saw Haz as well and realised there were two shorties!

Day three and we got our first experience of the Great Barrier Reef!! :-D An early start and we're on Osprey V heading out 60km to our first destination: Saxon Reef (you'll see the connection to the Uk shortly!). There were only a small number of training and qualified divers on board the boat, the rest were made up of snorkelers - at  least 100 of them! So you can imagine the boat was pretty cramped at times! Before the crew had even thrown down the anchor, Haz was already in her scuba gear,  waiting for her first dive of the day; working towards her PADI Advanced Open water qualification.
First dive was at 25m (classed as a deep dive) out in the open section (so not next to a reef) but unfortunately the currents were incredibly strong so dive lasted for approx 19 mins before ascending. But that first glimpse of the reef was incredible and Haz was just itching to get back in the water!

As there was limited scuba equipment on board, Nick went snorkelling before her own first dive, wearing a very 'fashionable ' blue stinger suit!!  It's amazing what you can see just below the surface of the crystal blue waters (sorry we have no photos to prove this fact, but I'm sure you can google it if you're intrigued!). Shortly after getting out of the water, it was time for Nick to get her scuba gear on! Woo hoo! No more swimming pool dives!! Nick ditched the stinger suit after realising the stingers were only in the surface waters (and of course because of looking like a little blue alien - mittens and hood and all!). Nick is complaining about the tiny little stings we all got from the very tiny, very deadly (eye rolling) stingers as soon as we got in the water. Interesting fact: there are many species of jelly fish in the waters over here, of which include some very seriously deadly species such as the world renowned Box Jelly, but also a much smaller and possibly just as deadly Irukandji (both found mainly on the shores of the Northern beaches in Queensland).The jellies we encountered out on the reef were not dangerous to us at all, administering small stings which felt like pin pricks, but left no marks or long lasting pain! Nick obviously had a different species sting her to the ones Haz had sting her as they "hurt lots" poor nick.  Anyways we're getting sidetracked here due to a certain someone (ehem...) so let's get back to talking about our experience on the reef!

As part of Nicks course, the first ocean training dive meant completing a series of techniques such as full mask flood, full mask removal, out-of-air procedure and buoyancy control. Of course, all were completed spectacularly well! ;) at a depth of 12m over 28 minutes.

Before lunch, Haz was back in the water for her next training dive "Performance Buoyancy Control" which involved doing awesome press ups on the sea bed without using arms and re-enacting a seal performance of swimming through a hoop upside down! Passed! This was a 14m dive for 45mins. The seal act only took a few minutes so we were soon off exploring the reef! I think to save time we will tell you some of the more spectacular creatures we saw later on.

Lunch is up... What is down..? The reef! Ha ha. .....wow nick your jokes are really bad! Any who.... (eye rolling again) lunch was up and much better than we had anticipated! Coral fish, snags (sausages), steak, salads, coleslaw, buns and fresh fruit. Before we knew it, we were heading to our next destination- North Hastings Reef (seen the connection yet!!?...if not here's another clue- some other reefs are called Normans Reef and 1066 Reef!) for the last dives of the day.
Here Nick completed more training procedures before exploring the incredibly diverse reef ecosystem. Haz was also in the water completing her "Navigation Dive" so going back and forth in a line, and going in squares (not circles for a change! Haha) before again exploring the patch reef.

Day four and last day on the reef
Nick's training dives 3 & 4 and Haz's 4, 5 & fun dive 6
Having already completed all open water procedures, dives for Nick were spent just perfecting the procedures before exploration time! Similarly for Haz, all the harder dives were completed on day 1 on the reef, so a "Boat Dive" and "Fish Identification" we're hardly taxing!

Our reef explorations were exciting, amazing, tranquil and stunning. Here's a list of the most memorable creatures we saw:
Cuttlefish (Nick even got to play with one and witness it giving birth.... something that Marine Biologists would only dream of seeing... Haz hasn't ever had such a dream but is still jealous ;)), Wally the Napoleon Maori Humphead Wrasse (very tame! Look up online! :) )Bicolour Parrotfish, Bump head Parrotfish, Pink Anemone fish, Spine Cheek Anemone Fish, Trumpet Fish, Yellow-Margined Seapearch, Many-spotted Sweetlips, Coral Trout, Cleaner Wrasse, Titan Triggerfish, Oranged-lined Triggerfish, Clown Anemone Fish (NEMO!!), Nudibranchs, Reef Octopus (now Nicks jealous!), Blue Spotted Stingray, White margined Unicorn Fish, Threadfin Butterfly Fish, Dash-dot Goat Fish, Black-white Juvenile Snapper, Honeycomb Sweetlips, Spotfin Lion Fish, Map Puffer, Sea Cucumbers (including Pineapple Sea Cucumber!), Mushroom Coral, Whip Oral, Christmas Tree Worms, Giant Clams....and best of all a Hawksbill Turtle!
We saw much much more but thought this list was getting a bit long for u's hehe.

To celebrate our successful completion of courses, all us open water divers and Haz and her instructor, met at the Green Ant Catina for a fantastic true Mexican meal. One word...delicious....ok maybe two words...delicious and filling! A great night to end an awesome few days. We ended up at Gilligan's, the 'party scene' to celebrate our success in true Cairns style. 

No rest for the wicked, we were up early catching the Kuranda Skyrail for some spectacular views of the rainforest (snaps to follow). Upon reaching our destination (Kuranda) we got a lip-smackingly good mango smoothie!

After a nice afternoon wondering the streets of Kuranda checking out all the local markets, we boarded the Scenic Railway Train, travelling down the mountains and through the rainforest this time. What another exciting day! :)

On our final day we travelled up to Daintree National Park Cape Tribulation area, stopping off at Mossman Gorge for a quick dip, walk and morning coffee Alexandra Range Lookout, Jindalba Boardwalk, Cape Tribulation Main Beach for lunch (where the rainforest meets the reef), Daintree Ice-Cream Company, Daintree River Cruise spotting 5 awesome wild saltwater crocodiles (ranging from a 2 footer 9 month old male to a 4 metre 20 year old female), and finally afternoon tea and drive through Port Doulgas before heading back to TropicDays! 

All in all, a fantastic week, seen some wonderful things and met lots of great people! Sorry to leave Cairns but Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island are our next port of call! :D