I boarded the boat Taka on Friday, not really knowing much about the itinerary except we had 14 dives to do over the next 4 days and I would be eating well. I was informed of the latter by some of the guests who had just come off the boat. From the time we left the harbor until we moored at 8am the next day, we were heading north. Because we were sheltered by the Great Barrier Reef, henceforth abbreviated to GBR, most of us, including me, slept pretty well. We got 2 dives in, then we kept heading north more, and got 2 more dives in. And then we got the news that I would have known had I done some, or any, research on the trip. We would continue north, outside of the GBR on our way to Osprey Reef, which is in the open Pacific, and it would be a bumpy night without the shelter of the GBR. Time to take the dramamine!


I'm beginning to think I've grown out of motion sickness because I didn't get more than a low level queasiness at any point over the trip, and there were lots of times when we were pitched and rolled. Not to mention I was sleeping on a bunk that was perpendicular to the boat's trajectory. Whatever has relieved me of that burden, even if it's my advanced age, I rejoice! Not all of my fellow passengers were so lucky, such as the woman who is now 2 and half months pregnant, but wasn't when she and her husband booked the trip. You don't dive preggers, so she could only snorkel, but most of our sites weren't suitable for snorkeling. She spent the trip alternateding between beiing violently seasick and violently morning sick. Poor thing!

The first day, one of the dives was a feed dive. I didn't know these would be on the itinerary, and I'd never done one before. I wasn't thrilled from the get-go. Let's all get in a circle and watch an instructor feeds bits of frozen fish to a 40 year old female potato cod! The event didn't change my mind. So on the second day, when the shark feed at Osprey Reef came up, I bowed out. Apparently, the animals are fed what they would typically eat and are given no more than 20% of their daily intake. But I can't help but feel that it's intrusive in their lifestyle, and for what? Entertainment? It's certainly not the pursuit of science. I like to dive so very much, but part of the appeal is that you visit a different world, one where you don't belong, and whatever you get to see is a gift. I don't want to lure animals to me, I don't want to make them "do" things, I just want to mosy along and see what I see. But that's just me. Most of the group seemed pretty jazzed about it. Don't worry, I still saw plenty of sharks. They made appearances on pretty much every dive. Most of them were white tipped reef sharks, which are not considered dangerous. Unusually for sharks, they don't have to keep swimming to breathe, so you catch them just hanging out in the sand a lot.

The feedings were disappointing, and a lot of people seemed to be touchers, by which I mean, getting up in a sea creature's business, which I also don't approve of. If a sea cucumber feels threatened, it will discharge its intestines. Does that mean you should pick one up and squeeze it to get that reaction? I say no. If kittens did that when they were scared, would it be cool to scare them? Every time I saw someone do that, I wanted that sea cucumber to be poisonous and get revenge.

Speaking of poisonous, it's still stinger season here in Australia. The dreaded and deadly jellyfish ply their trade close to shore, so much so that there are designated swimming areas at the beach called stinger nets. You also see loads of white PVC containers along the beaches that hold white vinegar in case of stings. While diving, I saw some jellyfish, though not the deadly box jellyfish. After coming up from one dive after seeing some of these, I pulled off my mask and felt a distinct burning on the side of my face. Something was causing the stinging and burning, and my face really burned, was hot to the touch, and quite red. But I hadn't touched a thing, and I knew I hadn't missed a jellyfish on my face, so I was really confused. I did have a moment while examining my face in the mirror where I thought, "is this how death by venomous sea creature starts?" But the burning died down after about 45 minutes (my panic was much shorter lived), and then one of the guests mused that I might have got something on my hands from the rope. Genius! When the sea was quite rough, we'd ascend holding onto one of the mooring ropes rather than get swept away by the current. The ropes that are moored to the dive site do have a lot of crud on them, and I picked up some stinging crud that time. Don't worry. I made it. And I did spray some vinegar on my face too.

Aside from the feeding and touching, the diving was incredible. I still can't wrap my head around how enormous the GBR is, nor how much life it supports. Big, small, medium, miniscule, quick, slow, stationary, it's all there, in all the colors you can imagine. All the sites were pretty incredible, but the incomparable ones turned me into a real snob. At some point, perhaps when I'm not living out of a backpack, I'd like to get an underwater camera and go crazy with pics. The picture here was taken by one of my fellow divers, Sebastian, who kindly allowed me to share it with you. It's a giant clam, and my friends, these things get GIANT. They can live well over a hundred years and be as big as my arm span. Impressive stuff.

After returning, I spent one night in Cairns, then headed down to Mission Beach, just south of Cairns. Mission Beach and the little towns north and south of it are right on the beach, but the land was originally rain forest. So you have this pristine beach with rain forest bits wherever they haven't built things. I planned on taking a short little hike in my flip flops through the bit close to my hostel, find a hospitable spot on the beach, and park it for a few hours and read. But along the way, I met a nice Italian who was taking a picture of a spider and its web. This is one of my pet photographic subjects as well. We ended up talking and walking, and he convinced me to walk 3 times as long as I'd intended, all the way to a national park where you hike up a switchback trail to get to a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the unlovely named Clump Bay and half a dozen islands offshore. In flip flops.

Yesterday, I left Mission Bay and took the Greyhound (yes, the Greyhound, but it's nice down under) down to Airlie Beach. It was only 9 hours, which is nothing by Australian standards. Airlie Beach is the jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands, which are 74 or so idyllic tropical islands. I'll throw down the damn credit card again and take some sort of sailboat cruise here. But today is a relaxing day. I'm taking advantage of the only widely available free wifi in Australia at that icon of American capitalism, McDonald's. After this, I head to the lagoon, which has a stinger net and a man-made beach. Perhaps I'll sail tomorrow....