Holiday by the Great Barrier Reef

Finally time for holiday again!!! I was soo ready for it after work load has ramped up recently. The last month has been so busy that we had almost forgotten that we in April booked a flight to Cairns for a weeks' holiday.


The main reason to go to Cairns was to DIVING on the GREAT BARRIER REEF! We have all heard about the reef, seen David Attenborough going on about them, researchers alarming us that they are disappearing as a result of environmental pollution....now it was time to explore the place ourself, under water.


We headed out on the reef almost directly when we arrived to Cairns' soil. From a few hours' of strolling in the city, we thought that we had seen most of it anyway. The city is full of tourist operators and shops selling souvenir crap so my first impression was that the centre is not the most attractive place.

We crammed into a tiny aeroplane which took us to Lizard Island, located in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef. During the 50 min flight, we had fantastic views across the reef. I never realised how large and widespread it is. I just couldn't wait to get into the crystal clear water and explore the area in greater detail.

Cool reflection of the plane
This is one of the 2,900 individual reefs that the GBR is made up of. It was really exciting to see the reefs from above first and then spend three days exploring them more carefully.
Lizard Island in sight.

We were picked up from the island by a shouting Japanese guy, who I had problems understanding. He turned out to be our Dive Master and I initially was slightly worried that I wouldn't get what he said, but Demi turned out to be lovely. Since his English was not Queen's standard exactly, he used very clear gestures, which made him very comical. His favourite call out was "Dive Time" with a strong Japanese accent, every time he wanted us to assemble for the next dive briefing.


We were a total of 9 divers staying on board of Nimrod Explorer with a crew of six. The ship can cater for up to 18 guest, so it was spacious and relaxed with only nine of us. As all have specified to have the cheapest option of accommodation (in a quad share) and Charlie and I were the only couple on the boat, we got upgraded for free to the master bedroom.


Nora working on her suntan before heading back to Switzerland.
Happy happy joy joy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Cod Hole was one of our first dives, where Demi fed the giant potato cod just in front of our eyes. The big bugger stole his glove and swallowed it!!
Carl has found a friend for life
Happy mammals: Charlie and me
We had a stunning sunset the first night.

Big fish everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!
Rob (Canadian guy)captured these guys in a great photo!
Where is Nemo??
Uni corn fish
We saw more wild life than fish: a bottle nose dolphin came and played in the swell of the boat.

We had the opportunity to snorkel with the dwarf minkie whales!!!! It was truly amazing to see them in their element. We were not allowed to approach them and had to wait for the whales to take the first steps. There were a couple of whales circulating us for about half an hour and came as close as approximately 5 meters away from us. They were so gracious in the water.

The best dives were around bommies (coral gardens) which attract masses of different species of fish.
A sea turtle checking us out
A poisonous Lion fish

Flute fish...he was a bit shy
James enjoying the Pavina Clavas, potato looking corals.
We were fed about 6 meals to be able to cope with 4-5 dives per day. We were very spolit!
Wazza, the South African guide didn't appear to be too stressed at work...

In summary, we had a very memorable trip out on the reef and I can't wait to go back there again and stay out for a whole week!!!!