Saturday – Daintree to Port Douglas

This morning we checked out of our rainforest hideaway and started the journey south, retracing our steps along the Captain Cook Highway.  First stop was at Alexandra Range Lookout, which offered amazing views across the Daintree River mouth, and the Barrier Reef.

We caught the Daintree Ferry back into the land where modern forms of communication work (we have not had mobile phone signal or internet the whole time we have been in the rainforest…so apologies for not being in touch!!).  And, then travelled to Mossman Gorge, a stunning gorge with huge boulders in a clear freshwater river.

We then drove the short distance to Port Douglas, and visited the lookout at the top of town, which had amazing views of the coast looking towards Cairns and 4 mile beach.

We then checked in at out hostel Port O’Call Lodge and spent the afternoon chilling out in our air conditioned room.

Friday – Croc Cruising, and the Daintree

This morning we had booked ourselves on a Croc Cruise along Cooper Creek with Cape Tribulation Wilderness Cruises, it is the only boat trip permitted in the Cape Tribulation section of the Daintree National Park.  As we set off along the creek we didn’t have to wait long to see our first estuarine crocodile, which was sunning herself across from the boat mooring.

We travelled along the creek, which was bordered on both sides by thick mangroves.

In total we saw 3 females, averaging between 2-3 metres in length, and a huge male, who was resting on a bank near the nesting area.  Both of us loved the fact that we finally got to see these majestic creatures in their natural environment…and thanked God that the boat didn’t capsize!

After having lunch at the hostel we headed out on the 2km walk through the rainforest at the back of the hostel complex.  It was a lovely walk, and gave you a sense of how remote our very unique YHA was.  We especially loved the ramshackle bridges we had to cross.

 

Afterwards we drove to another Daintree Ice creamery and treated ourselves to a pot of homemade ice cream each; Ben had ginger chocolate and Nicola had chocolate and rum raisin. 

Back at our cabin/tent we sat and read on our balcony before cooking dinner at the camp kitchen.  You can see from the above shot how close we were to the rainforest…no curtains in this tent!

Thursday – Daintree and Cape Tribulation

Our first night in the jungle ‘tent’ was great, we fell asleep to the sounds of the rainforest at night and woke to see the sun shining through the canopy.  We felt we deserved a lay in this morning, so did not surface until 10am, after which we had a leisurely breakfast.  You can see in the photo below one of the ‘walls’ of our tent like structure.

We drove north today, until we ran out of road!  After Cape Tribulation Village the tarmac road stopped and all that was left was a dirt track going up to Cooktown.  We parked the car up and went to Kulki lookout to admire the rugged coastline and reef, which had damaged Captain Cook’s boat The Endeavour all those years ago.

We were also mindful that we were now in the heart of the rainforest, and nature ruled…the warning signs were everywhere!

Next stop was the Bat House, where we both got the chance to feed a small male specktacled fruit bat, and went on a rainforest regeneration walk.

We then drove south to Dubuji boardwalk, where we had lunch and did the 1.2km walk through 3 rainforest inhabitants; rare rainforest surviving on sand, fresh water swamps and mangroves.

We then headed back to the hostel calling in at the Daintree Ice Cream Company to sample their pick of the day; coconut, yellow sapote, raspberry and wattleseed.

 

Back at the hostel we have chilled out for the evening…ready for our croc cruise tomorrow!

Wednesday – Going North!

Waking up with the room swaying we couldn’t work out if we were hung-over or just still rocking from the after effects of the boat.  We checked out of the hostel and waited the short time for midday to arrive, and our next adventure to begin!

We were picked up by Cairns Older Car Hire company and taken to their office, and after filling in the paperwork we were given our flash wheels for the next 5 days…which we soon nicknamed ‘The Cripple’ as it had several ailments.

We set off on the Captain Cook Highway heading north along one of the most scenic drives in Australia.  The road hugged the coast for most of our journey and we were treated to stunning views out across the ocean.

We crossed the Daintree River on the ferry, and entered the rainforest via a narrow road that wiggled its way up and down the hill sides.  With croc warnings on every river or stream we really felt like we had entered another world, far from the hustle and bustle of the city we had just left.

As we pulled into our home for the next 3 nights – Crocodylus Village, and went to our rainforest cabin (a huge permanent tent structure) we were really going to have to be at one with nature….as it was literally surrounding us.

An early night tonight, to try and recoup some energy after a hectic couple of days!

Tuesday – Dive, Dive, Dive!!

Wake up call 06:15am…in the water 06:58am…still half asleep but eager to start spotting our next lot of marine life.  Today we had a newly qualified diver with us, so designated navigator was Nicola, and designated photographer Ben.  As we descended to 16.3 metres we were not disappointed with our first spot…a giant guitar fish (shark) or better known as a shovel nose ray, asleep on the sea bed.

As we swam around the reef we were in awe of the marine life, which had come alive at this early hour of the morning.  We were also conscious of the fact that the giant guitar fish (shark) had woken up and had come out for breakfast, and was also swimming around the reef with us.  Did we mention it was huge?!

You can also see how close Ben got when he swam with a green turtle today.

The opposite end of the fish ‘size’ scale were the tiny finger nail sized fish that hid in the coral, the shot below captures their world.

Dive 2 of the day was at a new dive site Thetford Reef Cathedrals, after our briefing we jumped in and explored the numerous swim throughs (narrow channels that tunnel in between the reef bommies).  Ben got another great shot of a different type of anemone fish.

 

We also got very close to the coral, which allowed us to get the below shot of an angelfish.

Back on the boat we disassembled our equipment and got ready for the 3 hour journey back to the mainland.  As we all stood up on deck as we neared the coast at 3pm it was slightly sad to think our 3 day diving adventure had come to an end.  We had had 10 amazing and memorable dives, gained another qualification, met some lovely people and instructors, and seen some of the most beautiful marine life!

Back on dry land we were dropped off at the hostel, had dinner and chilled out before meeting back up with the crew and divers for some farewell drinks at a local pub. 

Monday – Eat, Sleep, Drink, Dive

Our wake up call this morning was at 07:30am, and by 08:10am we were in the water and starting our 3rd instructed dive – Deep Dive.  We were going to descend to 30 metres, and do a number of different tests on the sea bed to know how to spot nitrogen narcosis, and also the learn the effect depth has on colour.  It was very peaceful on the bottom, and the first colour to disappear at depth was red…a tomato our dive master took down looked green. 

As we started our ascent we saw a ornate spiny lobster hiding in the corals, and the name of this site (Coral Gardens) did what it said on the tin…the coral was stunning, and the fish abundant.  We both passed the deep dive, and were signed off back on the boat once we had finished our hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon.

Dive number 2 of the day was for our 4th component of the course (unguided); Nicola did Underwater Naturalist and Ben did Underwater Photography.  Basically Nicola had to spot 4 vertebrates, 4 invertebrates and one symbiotic relationship.  Ben had to take photographs underwater following the things we had learnt from the text book course work we had done.

So, with Nicola as the spotter and Ben as the underwater paparazzi, we descended to 17.4 metres.  One of Ben’s favourite shots was of the pink anemone fish (above), or ‘Nemo’ as some of you may like to call him!  Nicola liked the purple sea squirt (below).

The symbiotic relationship was the whitespotted puffer fish with the cleaner wrasse (below).  We also saw 5 giant clams (below right).

And, our favourite coral, the mushroom leather coral was beautiful!  And, our friend the maori wrasse had returned to pose for a photo.  Needless to say we both passed at our respective course choices.

 

Dive 3 of the day was the 5th and final part of our course, and Ben had decided to do Underwater Naturalist, and Nicola Underwater Photography.  So, at 15:12 we jumped in and as we had perfected our breathing technique made our air last for 53 minutes!  The new dive site (Flynn’s Reef Gordan’s Mooring) was another great site for spotting and photographing.

 

Our highlight of the dive however was getting the chance to swim with a huge green turtle, it was truly a magical moment for both of us.  We also found out after the dive that we had passed the final component…so we are now both qualified advanced open water deep sea divers!

The final dive of the day was after dinner at 19:00, our first unguided night dive AND before we jumped in we spotted 3 grey reef sharks off the back of the boat…this was going to be a test of nerves!  It was slightly more nerve wracking going down on our own, but Nicola as designated navigator took us round the coral formations and back to the boat within the 30 minute dive limit.  Ben was designated photographer, and did a cracking job of catching the expression on Nicola’s face as she realised a large grey reef shark was swimming past her left arm!

The picture of the shark is slightly blurred (they move VERY quick).  As we hung on to the 5 metre bar under the boat waiting for our decompression limit to be reached we felt in awe of these huge and graceful creatures that were circling us.  It was definitely 5 minutes neither of us will forget in a hurry…swimming with the sharks was truly amazing.

We will try and put the video Ben took on the blog at some point…as it swam a couple of metres underneath us while he was filming.

Back on the boat we had pudding and then joined the crew and other divers for some ‘games’, finally getting to bed at 11pm…what a day!

Sunday – Cairns to…The Great Barrier Reef, 80kms.

After a late night swatting up on our diving course work we were up bright and early at 5am, for our departure from Cairns…destination The Great Barrier Reef!

We boarded our boat ‘Scubapro II’ and tucked into a continental breakfast, both of us stopped after 1 croissant though, as the 3 hour journey to the reef was set to be fairly bumpy.

We sat up on the top deck and watched the mainland disappear to a blur, and starred ahead to the open water, where we were going to call home for the next 3 days and 2 nights.  As we neared the reef our Dive Master ‘Arek’ called all of the qualified divers together for a briefing of the first dive site.  We were both pretty nervous as this would be our first unguided fun dive (our Advanced Open Water dives would not start until the 3rd dive of the day).

  

Above is the plan for Flynn’s Reef, Tennis Courts site, with the compass headings, depth in metres and reef walls…you can just make out in blue pen the drawing of the position of the boat.  So, with the briefing over we made our way downstairs and got kitted up…both of us trying to remember all of the procedures and equipment checks we had to do before getting in the water.  After being logged that we were entering the water at 10:38am we both jumped in from the back of the boat, and started our descent.

As we made our way down to 18 metres (you have to do our deepest dive first to allow more time for the nitrogen to leave your body), the marine life was overwhelming.  The visibility was 20 metres, and the coral reefs and fish were stunning!

Ben had the camera for this dive, so he got some funny shots of Nicola!  As we were both out of practise with our breathing we got down to our air pressure limit after 30 minutes so we made our way to the surface and climbed back on the boat.

After lunch it was time for our 2nd dive of the day, staying at Flynn’s Reef, Tennis Courts we took a different course this time and stayed slightly shallower at 14.9 metres depth and improved our dive time to 34 minutes.

As Nicola had the camera this dive, the challenge was to get a picture of Ben with the huge Maori Wrasse…can you spot it in the background of this shot?!  The coral gardens were spectacular!

As we climbed back on board the boat at 15:08, we had time to enjoy the chefs delicious cake, before jumping back in the water at 16:35, at our 2nd dive site Flynn’s Reef Tracey’s Bommie…no rest for the wicked!  This dive however, was the first of our 5 instructed dives for our Advanced Open Water qualification.  Underwater Navigation basically involved being trained and tested on using a compass underwater, knowing your kick strokes and length of time taken to travel a certain distance…we both found it quite easy.

Back on board we were signed off, and after dinner came our 2nd instructed dive – NIGHT DIVING…argh!!  Oh, and did we mention the grey reef sharks come out at night to feed on the small fish that hang around the back of the boat?  All the dive components were the same as diving in daylight, except you have a glow stick attached to your tank, and a torch strapped to your right wrist…and that is the only protection you have against the sharks!  As we jumped in and descended to 11.9 metres the vastness of the ocean had never felt so apparent.  We were tested on a number of different things including navigating in the dark, and signalling to our dive buddy with the torch.  Lucky for us there were no sharks out tonight!

Back on board at 19:50, we ate our pudding and had an early night…retiring to our tiny below decks cabin, with bunk beds and no window.  We were gently rocked to sleep by the current.