Diving in Cairns — Simply Awesome!
Remember Kingsley — the winner of our “Dive into Cairns!” seminar held in April? He walked away with the grand prize of a 4D/ 3N trip aboard Taka Dive to the world-famous Cod Hole + 3 nights at the Bohemia Resort Cairns + a brand new Canon camera with underwater housing. He’s taken his trip, and he’s now back to share his experiences! Read on for all the exciting details in Kingsley’s travel journal. And stay tuned to the FiNS Blog for more exciting trips and prizes!
Having decided that June provided the only window to leave my hectic work schedule behind, I began planning for my dive into Cairns in May, almost immediately after the Dive into Cairns seminar organised by FiNS Magazine. Although arranging and coordinating a worthwhile itinerary was time-consuming, Tourism Queensland was a great help — providing a host of ideas for me to consider.
Taka Dive was equally helpful with organising and accommodating my requests. Besides sorting out our dive tour dates, Pam Fischer of Taka Dive even kindly upgraded us to the 5D/ 4N Dive Adventure. I was exhilarated — the birthday wish I made to see sharks was coming true!I also took up Pam’s proposal for an additional tour with Adrenalin Dive further south in Townsville to dive the world-famous Yongala Wreck that features large pelagic fishes, a host of wonderful critters and beautiful corals.
I was also totally psyched to try out my new Canon camera, so all I needed to do was pick up my tickets courtesy of Qantas airlines, and I was raring to go!
Off to Cairns 
Day 1: 9 June
After arriving in Cairns, we were picked up in a shuttle by Taka Dive. Arriving at Trinity Wharf, I surveyed the beautiful Taka vessel — it looked even better than in the brochures. After a short briefing by the tour director Andy, we were promptly ushered to the boat to sort out the equipment that we needed to hire, and then off to our cabin.Setting up your own diving gear had been the norm on all my previous dive trips, so I assumed it would be the same on Taka Dive. To my surprise, I was told to just handle my own luggage while they took care of the gear. Impressive!Winter diving had a trade-off. We encountered rough seas. Our dive director did warn us about potential bad weather, but assured it would enhance the adventure.
Day 2: 10 June (Cod Hole, Pixie Pinnacle & Challenger Bay)
To our pleasant surprise, we woke up to sunshine the next day — almost perfect conditions for a good dive. The first destination on our itinerary — Cod Hole.
Clear vision, almost-zero current and the splendid view compensated for the less-than-smooth ride to the dive site. I soon caught sight of the resident potato cod (probably some 1.5 – 2.0 metres in length) hidden and resting beneath a huge hard coral formation. Unperturbed by our presence, it didn’t even cringe as we took snapshots.Besides the cods, an amazing assortment of fish such as trevallies and resident Maori wrasse also showed up.The cod feed lasted a good ten minutes or more, and by the time it finished, we had already used up half our air. We moved on to a part of the reef called Shark Alley that hosted several juvenile sharks. We spotted a school of yellow sweetlips along the way.
Next was Pixie Pinnacle — a distinctive coral formation of some 15 metres wide and 40 metres thick at the base — where a spectacular variety of soft and hard corals, as well as gorgonians and sponges, live.Besides the ever-popular clownfish, there were damsels, hawkfish and lionfish. I also spotted trevallies and barracuda, and even caught a rare glimpse of the cleverly obscured scorpionfish.Accompanied by dolphins, we undertook a short hop to Challenger Bay on the southern tip of GBR’s Ribbon Reef No. 10 for a night dive. Moray eels, starfish, barracuda and many large pelagic fish followed the light of our torches. We even spotted our first turtle of this tour!
Day 3: 11 June (North Horn & Round the Bend)
We reached North Horn, part of the northern tip of Osprey Reef, home to quite a number of shark family populations, namely the grey and whitetip sharks, as well as the silvertip shark.
It was the first time I dived at a site where steep dropoffs characterised the reef formation. As I peered behind the dropoff during our descent, I could see nothing but vast open water. I felt small in the environment I was diving in.
The speed of the sharks that suddenly turned up for our shark feed was amazing. As bait in the form of tuna heads were dropped down a line, sharks and other pelagic predators instantaneously attacked. In slightly under five minutes, nothing was left in the frenzy.
Witnessing a shark feed for the first time has made me appreciate the magnificence of these creatures even more, resulting in a stronger impetus to voice my disagreement to having shark’s fin at wedding dinners.
After lunch, we reached “Round the Bend”, a cleaning station frequented by manta rays as well as minke whales. When the exciting news from advance diving parties to the crew revealed that a group of mantas had been spotted, we geared up and jumped into the cold waters immediately.
Four mantas were gliding gracefully in the currents. No words can ever come close to describing what I felt — I had been dreaming about seeing mantas like this since I first took up diving.
After we surfaced and packed up, we bid adieu to the Coral Sea. Along the way, we encountered four-metre swells — one of the worst storms the skipper had ever encountered during his nine years of experience in Cairns.
Day 4 & 5: 12 & 13 June (Clam Gardens, Steve’s Bommie, Split Bommie)
Clam Gardens is an area renowned in the GBR for the giant clams said to be 150 – 200 years old. A fairly shallow dive of 14 – 18 metres, what greeted us was large staghorn corals, blue tangs, schools of parrotfish, gobies, and of course, the giant clams.These massive Tridacna clams can grow up to two metres long, and are fun to play with as you gently fan a current over them.
Next, we went to a nearby spot known as Steve’s Bommie, named in remembrance of a diver that went missing there. It’s one of the more popular macro dive sites. We saw large schools of yellow-tailed goatfish and blue-lined snapper at the base of the pinnacle at 30 metres. As we circled the bommie, I had the privilege of swimming through schooling fairy basslets, wide-eyed trevallis and the regal angelfish.The highlight was definitely the red-flame file shell, a name given because of its ability to make meals out of unsuspecting fish by drawing them into its sticky bright orange-red tentacles, much like a Venus flytrap.Despite the cloudy waters, we managed to spot the rare leafy scorpionfish near the surface, as well as many varieties of nudibranchs.
Toward the end of this exciting dive adventure, we visited two more sites — Temple of Doom and Split Bommie. While we had to abandon Temple of Doom soon after we descended due to unexpected strong currents, the shallow dive at Split Bommie nicely rounded off what had been a truly remarkable diving experience for me.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the kind sponsors once again — FiNS Magazine, Taka Dive (Especially Pam Fischer for her hospitality and kindness…You guys are the best!), Tourism Queensland, Dive Queensland, Bohemia Resort Cairns, Qantas and Canon (for the camera/ housing I used to take all my photos) for making this Cairns experience my most memorable, unforgettable and the best trip I’ve had in my life!