First posted on May 11, 2013
For my first day in Cairns it was snorkelling. It was an early start and not too promising.
Walking to the pier, one foot went from under me on the very slippery decking and I fell backwards. It had been raining, of course! No one rushed to help me (Ha!) but a council worker nearby asked if I was OK. Wounded pride, lightly bruised foot and knee, big toe toenail ripped down the middle. I was saved from worse (banging my head) by my backpack breaking the fall – it was nice and soft with towel, dry clothes to change into, and a paperback that wasn’t needed!
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| Gloomy morning at Cairns marina |
I’ve never felt seasick and didn’t expect to, but with everyone talking about it …. It’s like those roadside signs when you’re driving on country roads: you feel quite alert until you see a sign that says “Wake up. Drowsy drivers die.” – and at once you start yawning! So I took a seasick pill. I felt fine in spite of the pretty bumpy journey to the reef and back. A couple of people weren’t so lucky.
I did the trip with Seastar and would recommend them without hesitation. The boat took a maximum of 35 passengers but there were only 15 of us. They usually have five crew but there were an additional three trainees so there was plenty of personal attention.
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SeaStar – for the outward
journey I got wet sitting (by my choice) by the open ‘window’
upstairs
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First stop was Michaelmas Cay, a sandy protrusion from the sea, home to thousands of birds.
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| Michaelmas Cay - a narrow line on the horizon |
We transferred from the boat to the beach for snorkelling lessons.
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Hard day at the office –
two of the crew in the transfer dinghy
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It was a glamorous outing: we’d all changed into stinger suits, floatation vests and masks with snorkel attached. Looking SOOOOO beautiful!!!
… You have to be able to laugh at yourself!
Photos by SeaStar crew
were uploaded to FaceBook and available, free, from there. No
souvenir photos to buy – a pleasant change.
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| Whale hits water :-( |
I looked and felt like a whale, in part because my vest was too big. That was remedied for the second plunge which was at Hastings Reef (all water, no land in sight) after lunch. It was very cold, waiting to get into the water with the rain pelting down. But once in the water – warm and wonderful. I could have stayed in for much longer on both swims.
There were loads of fish, from brightly coloured, to black, to almost transparent – and one brown turtle! Some saw a shark but I didn’t. But then, not everyone saw the turtle
There were some blue fish (wrasse, I think) that I particularly liked and I followed them around a bit. There was a group of sea snail type of things, many hued, which were tiny and pretty. But my most special fish was a snake-like thing, silvery/transparent called a flutemouth something or other. Note all those correct biological names! There were lots of others of all shapes, sizes and colours. Angel fish were lovely. I had to have the Nemo references explained to me though. I didn’t see that film!
There were some blue fish (wrasse, I think) that I particularly liked and I followed them around a bit. There was a group of sea snail type of things, many hued, which were tiny and pretty. But my most special fish was a snake-like thing, silvery/transparent called a flutemouth something or other. Note all those correct biological names! There were lots of others of all shapes, sizes and colours. Angel fish were lovely. I had to have the Nemo references explained to me though. I didn’t see that film!
The thing that surprised me was the lack of colour in the coral. As kids we were given some coral – back in the days when it was broken off and mounted for tourists. I knew it was painted but I thought it was true to colour – not so! There were certainly some vivid colours in the coral (or in the organisms that made up different bits of the coral) but mostly it was shades of brow to olivey green.
I managed the breathing quite well. I had to tip water out of the snorkel every so often and a couple of times I almost choked on a mouthful of seawater. But it was pretty good. I’d bought a disposable waterproof camera but had trouble using it. I don’t know if it was me or a faulty camera – you had to wind on the film and it took forever to budge to the next frame. I pretty quickly gave that up as too great a distraction. I’ll have to make do with google images for reminders of what I saw.
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| Driving boat 1 |
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| Driving boat 2 - playing all those video games pays off! |
I felt terrific at the end of the day but desperately in need of a hot shower. After that, when I headed out to dinner, I realised just how hard I’d worked my legs! Kicking up and down to move slowly, using more of a bicycle motion when I wanted to move more quickly. The flippers seemed to be doing all the work – at the time!!