Reviews of my Australian trip -
Queensland probably was the best part of the trip. We took a livaboard dive boat out to the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea for five days and four nights, diving five times the first two days, then four, then two dives on the morning of our return to Cooktown, from which we caught a low-flying plane back to Cairns, where the dive trip originated.
Many of the dives were done around "Bommies" - pinnacles that jut up from the ocean floor from forty to eighty feet or more, but don't break the surface, ending roughly five to ten feet below the breaking waves.
On the dives, you circle the bommie, the direction depending on which way the current is going.
Since the boat cannot anchor over the bommie, they either tell you to follow the buoy rope to the bommie by dragging yourself against the current about twenty meters to its location, or they drag you there behind a tender through the surf, at which point you let go and hope they put you within underwater sight of the bommie. I tried this method twice unsuccessfully (and several times when it worked). When it does not work, it means you are dropped into the blue of the Coral Sea and from about twenty feet under the water, where you are completely lost as to where the bommie lies, because visability is no more then forty feet. This is NOT a comfortable feeling. This happens when the current is strong enough to push your compass reading a bit off course, meaning you are unable to reestablish your location in reference to the bommie. Your only choice at that point is to surface and signal the dive boat that you are not over the bommie and for them to come get you and try again.
Dive sights themselves. The reefs and bommies have quite a few reef sharks. These are commonly white tips and black tips. The white tips can get large - over 12 feet - but most fell into the four to seven foot range. The smaller ones don't bother you much; out of curiousity they may make a circle and then just ignore you. The one time my wife and I were in about 80 feet and a bit away from everyone else, the 12 footer swam by. This was a bit less comforting, in that the bigger sharks tend to follow you, and more closely. We reestablished contact with the group and hoped larger numbers would make him go elsewhere, which is what he eventually did.
Some other interesting critters were the sea snakes - highly venomous (like in deadly with no chance of survival if biten), but also very curious and oddly friendly. They swim around you and between the divers, your legs, and even get kicked once in a while. But they do not see divers as food, so do not care. Even if one bit you, then often do not inject venom (it is their perogative to do so). Lime green in color and up to ten feet long.
The reef Stonefish - If you can even find one, let alone see one, you are very persceptive. They are practically invisible because they look just like part of the reef, they blend in so well. But this perfect disguise apparently was not enough for evolution. The stonefish is the most deadly fish in the world. It has thirteen stout spines in the dorsal fin which can inject a highly toxic venom. The venom causes intense pain and is believed to have killed many Pacific and Indian Ocean islanders. An antivenom now exists, but the sting causes intense pain and treatment is necessary. We managed to see two on one bommie, but only because its mouth moved. This fish is a good reminder why it is not a good idea to tough anything you don't know on dives.
Common lionfish - This species has extremely venomous dorsal fin spines. When disturbed by a diver it often makes little effort to swim away. Instead it points its dorsal fin spines towards the intruder. The Common Lionfish has very long pectoral and dorsal fins. The body is covered with red to black bands on a pale background. Adults often have white spots along the lateral line. In other words, when you see one for the first time, you tend to go "Yikes!!". About 8 to 12 inches long, it looks like the head of a lion, only much more colorful and feathery. There are over one hundred types around Australia, but the only other one that we saw was the leaf scorpionfish (looks like a floating leaf at first) and the stonefish (see above). All are venomous to various degrees.
Triggerfish - these are large reef fish that can grow up to a foot long. It is dark green, brown or greyish with diagonal orange to yellow lines on the body. They build nests on the reef and what makes them interesting (and by far the most annoying critters we ran into) is that they aggressively defend these nests from all comers, including divers. If you swim over a nest, the triggerfish comes after you with very sharp teeth attached to very powerful jaws, though thankfully a smallish mouth. I had to defend myself from one on the very first dive we took. I managed to make it go away, only for it to bite the fin of another diver hard enough to pull her leg down. Fortunately, no one actually got bitten, but we heard stories of divers who had. They can take a whole chunk out of your arm or leg.
Some other fish we regularly saw: Giant Trevally, foxface, porcupine fish, pufferfish, pipefish (sort of looks like a seahorse), nudibranch, pineapple fish, potatoe cod (these can grow up to 6 and a half feet long and we saw several in the five foot range), unicorn fish, moorish idol.
There also was one that I have forgotten the name of, but was extremely interesting. It fitted itself inside a deep crevice of the bommie, so only its mouth faced out. Its mouth had (and I am not kidding) electrical currents running vertically inside the lips, so it appeared like it was emitting lightening strikes every few seconds. The rest of the interior of the mouth was a translucent red that looked as alien as you could imagine. Have to remember the name of it. Think it was something like fire fish, but that is incorrect.
My worse encounters diving - ran into some fire coral going through an opening in a reef. My right forarm took the brunt and it flared up like poison ivy for three weeks. It has since faded. Stingers, what we call jellyfish. Tis the season for them downunder when we were there and many beaches had to be netted off to protect the bathers. Not so bad out on the reef, but I got stung enough to force me to wear my skin, which I prefer not to bother with when diving. The boat itself was most dangerous, especially getting back on board. The surf tends to bang you into the side of the boat, or the stairs you climb to get out of the water. Waiting your turn as someone ahead of you pauses on the ladder to unbuckle something is the worse because you just get the hell dinged out of you then.
This is running too long, so if anyone is really interested on our land adventures, and we had considerably more of those then the five diving days, let me know specifics about what you would like to know.
