The main reason I came to Cairns was so that I could scuba dive at The Great Barrier Reef, and it was totally worth it! If I didn't have a budget for myself I would dive every chance I get. In fact I'm already planning on coming back so I can do overnight trips. I dove with Tusa 6 and the crew was terrific. I dove 3 days in a row and by the end most of the crew knew me by name and would sit and chat with me if they had some spare time. They had a photographer on board that would take pictures of you throughout the day for free and of course you could purchase them at the end of the day if you wished.
Now for the exciting part, what I saw out there! The coral itself was beautiful, maybe not as colorful as it was in Bocas, but it was quite a bit grander and there was more variety. There were so many nooks and crannies to explore and every little bit of exposed rock had something living and growing on it. As spectacular and colorful as the coral was, it was quite sad to see areas full of dead coral. It was hard to tell whether or not it was from human impact or the fish that love to eat the coral, but it has made me more aware as to why it is so important to have as little impact on the environment as possible.
The marine life I saw was phenomenal! Fish every direction you looked and they ranged in size from the size of my finger nail to 4 feet long! I won't list every fish I saw, that would take forever, but I'll tell you about the highlights! White-tip reef sharks has to be at the top of my list. Over the 3 days I saw about 8 of them! They mostly just hung out on the bottom but still so cool! We also came across a huge Eagle Ray stirring up the sand looking for things to eat. I also found a Morray Eel, and some huge Pufferfish! On my last day of diving a school of about 10 Bumphead Parrotfish swam by the boat and it was quite a spectacular site. Seeing the sun come down through the water and these huge fish swim along was absolutely beautiful. And yes, I did see a vast majority of the cast from Finding Nemo! I've glossed over a lot that I saw but ask to look at my dive log some time!
Before heading off to my next destination I took a quick day trip to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. It was a tour so there was a lot of get off the bus - get on the bus so I'm not sure I'll do many more of those while I'm here, but I was very glad I did it. Our tour guide, Terry, was very entertaining and had lots of great information about the region. My favourite part of the day was taking a quick trip down the Daintree River looking for Saltwater Crocodiles. I thought we'd maybe see 1 or 2, but we saw 5 plus a couple green snakes! As some of you know, I loved watching Steve Irwin growing up, so being able to see all the animals in real life is a bit of a dream come true. I'm very excited for the Australia Zoo but I have a couple more stops before I can check that one off my bucket list!
They call him Scarface!
Cairns
Where the reef meets the rainforest
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