Diving with the Odyssey H2O Voyagers

MY TRIP TO FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND
Follow Kate as she dives, climbs, eats and sunbakes her way through lush Far North Queensland.

When headlines like "American Tourist left behind in Diving tour" hit the media, does if actually deter anyone going on diving and snorkelling tours of the Great Barrier Reef? After seeing the aquatic universe, would it even be so bad to be "lost" for a few hours. Even if there's the fear of death, is this a bad way to exit? It's not like you are exiting stage left, you will be airlifted either way. When I saw the reef, I said some swear words out loud in mumbled underwater awe, because I had found the aquatic set of blade runner, but in super hyper technicolour!

The beginning!
The Odyssey Voyagers ship was the special diving tour offered by Voyagers resort, which was the only diving tour operator which were licensed for the Cape Tribulation area. Often Eco-Tourism loses the professionalism for the personal and intimate service; however Odyssey was both in equal parts. We were picked up at our hotel and took a trip down to the only real beach in Cape Tribulation, appropriately named Cape Tribulation Beach. Not a single person was on the beach at 9am when we departed! After taking our shoes off to board the tinny, we arrived on the slick Odyssey Voyagers ship. After realising that the waves were not for me, I took some travel sickness tablets for the 45 minute journey to the reef we were permitted to explore. This trip was a bit rough at times, so if you have a tendency (even the smallest tendency) to get sea sick or motion sick, take the pills. Sure they make you sleepy, but there's nothing like spending 6 hours on a boat, or in the water, when every wave makes you want to throw up. I'm not a doctor, but I have experienced the feeling of sea sickness and extreme nausea - it makes you think philosophically about pain and life. There is no escape for those who are sea sick.

When we were picked up, it was raining but since we were diving, it didn't matter so much, except that there might be sediment which would be irritated, making the water less clear. On the boat, there were already around 15 people who were picked up from the hotels and the total group was about 30, which was a good size for the staff of around 6.

Reef!, Here we come
On the way out to the reef, we were giving some drinks and the guides gave us an introduction about themselves, where they were from (there were a couple from overseas, who came to visit but never returned home), their role on the boat and the structure of the day. It was clear from their enthusiasm and energy that this was a great team of people, both educationally and from a safety point of view, they were conscious that there were a few small kids and some people who had never snorkelled before. They mentioned on their previous trip, there was a person who had never swum before, but they managed to assist that person to spend a few hours snorkelling. The team was fantastic from the beginning and took the time to speak to everyone individually, their level of confidence in the water and past experience snorkelling and diving. When we arrived at our destination, the sun had come out and the rain was feeding the spectacular Daintree Rainforest, in the background.

So we had about a 45 minute ride out to the reef, then 3 hours or so of snorkelling and diving, then lunch, then another hour of exploring, and then back to shore. We ended up spending around 4 hours on the water.

Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef
During the trip out to the reef, the team discussed the possibility of diving (either for first time divers or experienced). The first introductory dive is $90, where you dive in groups of 4 for 30 minutes with an instructor. Since this was my first dive, I was comfortable that the team was competent enough to teach me and more importantly save me in a situation where I was hyperventilating because I got to stick my hand into a giant clam. There have been some disaster stories where tour groups have people behind because they were forgotten on the island, but the team projected a sense of fun but with precautions. Most of the passengers decided to dive, despite the rather steep cost. Would I recommend people do this for the first time? Definitely! Try everyone once!

So after the trip out which almost nauseated and killed a few of the passengers, we were ready to go for it. After a few tips on how to snorkel, we ventured the side of the boat to collect our suits. Some of us wore the stinger suits which were just made of bather material and some of us wore wetsuits for extra buoyancy. After I sprayed some non-toxic chemicals into my snorkel mast to make everything clear and prevent fog, I jumped right in. The water was a lot warmer than I thought - but it wouldn't be warm enough to stay in the ocean for an hour without getting cold. The water was of course very salty but more so than I thought. It might be because I am used to swimming in chlorinated pools, or because it was extra salty out there - I don't know, but I do know I would come out of there looking like I hadn't slept for 4 days because my eyes would be red. I was a bit afraid at first, as I thought it was a lot deeper than I first thought. I also took one of those foam noodle type things, but it was pretty much a hindrance and I quickly returned it because I had the buoyancy from the wetsuit. Although I swim regularly and would be considered a strong swimmer, being out in the open water was different and I thought it would be much deeper. I think it was just an irrational fear of the deep, and the possibility of being dragged and eaten by a huge octopus or giant squid.

In total awe
It never really occurred to me that the dark bits in the water were where the coral lived and the white bits were just the sun bleached white sand. I just thought the dark bits were rocks. I never thought about it but after about 10 seconds in the water looking at white sand, I realised I had to head for the dark bits to see stuff. So as I swam towards the dark bit, trying to mimic a dolphin, I was getting excited. Once I saw it, I couldn't believe what it looked like. It was more amazing than those fluorescent lit shots tourism Queensland film for their advertisements. The tourism board do a pretty good job promoting the Barrier Reef, but what I saw far exceeded my expectations - I was in awe of what I saw. The small fish were like flecks of gold shimmering set atop florescent coral in the pristine turquoise waters of the Great Barrier Reef. In my mind, I couldn't stop swearing because I was in awe, thinking this was amazing and that the wildlife were not afraid of humans at all. Maybe the fish see humans as a clumsy odd shaped fish. This underwater multileveled world of buzzing fish, electric algae and flailing coral is amazing. My favourite was the Parrot Fish, unfortunately, if you take a under water camera, the pictures don't do justice to what you actually see because of the fluorescent light which is bent by the water to light up the reef and fish. This being the case, I don't have any pictures of what I saw, but it wouldn't do it justice - you have to see it for yourself.

Every time I saw a new fish, I'd say another swear word, it was nature and it is simply amazing. Everything was amazing about it, there were so many fish, and there were so many different types of coral of different sizes and colour and textures. Although we were asked to not touch anything, it wasn't like we could touch anything. It was just out of reach, even though your vision was distorted by the snorkel mask, I did try. I know I shouldn't have, but I did and I couldn't reach anything.

Food!
After all the awe-inspiring the boat was full of very hungry people. Luckily, I was not feeling sea sick and had a healthy appetite to consume the great food. Just thinking about the food now makes me salivate, as there were various foods available, but mostly healthy salads options like baked chicken and pasta salads. I didn't expect to see such a variety of food, which was surprisingly healthy and delicious - I especially enjoyed the pea pesto pasta salad.

After lunch, we were offered tea and coffee while one of the crew members who is a marine naturalist did a small presentation on barrier reef wildlife. This was both entertaining and educational, as we could all jump back into the water and identify what the fishes were and the types of coral we were looking at. This is how I could identify my favourite fish - the Parrot fish. The most beautiful technicolour fish on the reef (this is subjective of course).

Taking the dive
In the afternoon session, I went diving with one of the instructors. After a few signals were explained, I strapped the tank and the weights on and waddled to the end of the boat. I jumped in and sunk to a point under the boat where I could practise my breathing without being too far down to experience the differing water pressure. Once the rest of the group were under the boat - holding onto the guide rope, we were asked numerous times if we were ok and proceeded to slowly go to the bottom of the sea bed. The good thing about this intro guide was that the person taking it was super nice and checked if we were all ok every couple of minutes, and also he pushed all the buttons and adjusted the straps for you. I can imagine there are hundreds of things you need to remember when diving by yourself - all those gages need to be monitored. After a bit of manoeuvring, we found a sea cucumber and we all got to touch its slimy back while allowing it to crawl on our hands. We went a bit further and saw a turtle and touched the giant clam's cold flesh. They are just amazing, I didn't realise how big they were until I was shoving my hand into it. They are HUGE and they're bright purple - amazing creatures.

We also saw some sort of creature living in coral and when we clicked our fingers, it retracted back into the coral. After about half an hour, we slowly swam our way back to the boat. It was funny how we were only down there for 30 minutes, however if you asked me to return to the ship, I'd have absolutely no idea which way to go. I guess a compass would help, but do they work underwater (would the pressure affect it?). One thing I did figure out was that when you're diving, since you're totally submerged in water, you can kick very wide, unlike in swimming where you're half out of the water and consequently have a small kick. This helps as you can glide through the water quickly. One thing I found difficult was maintaining the right posture so that you would float at the right depth, it was difficult at the start, but by the end, I got the hang of things. Extremely fun and great experience, however I'm not sure I could handle this myself.

Shark! Swimming for dear life
After our dive, it was refreshing to remove all those weights and tanks off to venture back to the reef for more snorkelling. By this time, some of the other snorkellers were feeling sea sickness. As I returned to the boat for a toilet break, I saw there was a delicious sultana cake. Just what I needed, a sugar hit in the arvo! What perfect timing! When I returned to the water, I found my greatest discovery in the form of a turtle flying past. I followed it for a while then I spotted a SHARK. I went to the top and told a fellow snorkeller but he seemed unfussed by it all but the face of the shark was burned into my retina. I was scared and returned to the boat. Of course, the whole time we were out in the water, there was someone on the top of our boat watching out for us and we all knew the signals if we were in trouble so I felt relatively safe but I was scared. I'd seen Hollywood movies, and rationally I know I'm safe, but irrational fears took over and I was out of there in a flash! It was only half an hour before we were set to leave, so I dried off, ate some cake and relaxed on deck with the crew. It was great to talk to them and their experiences and how they had gotten their positions there and where they came from. It turned out one of them grew up in the suburb next to where I grew up.

When it was time to return home, it was also time my motion drugs were wearing off. It was a dangerous time as the kicker that I took during lunchtime was almost all worn off and diluted with the drinks and cake I had eaten in a hungry rush after my shark fear. I gripped onto the rail and braced myself, really braced myself in the airplane position. Not only does it protect your face from dropping luggage from the compartments, it also makes you feel better when you are sea sick.

I bid the crew farewell and set my feet firmly in the sand (but not for too long as this is close to the estuary and there are crocodiles here which threaten human life. Also, stingers were the constant theme on our holiday and taking a swim wasn't an option.

What to bring:

Since the tour was well catered for, there isn't much that you need to bring. It probably would have been more comfortable for us if we bought some more dry towels as we were returning home quite wet and it was getting a little cold with the wind.

Towel to dry off or to sit on. If you don't mind looking a bit odd, a robe would be a good idea.
Sun cream because the sun is searing
Bottle of water, but this can be bought on board.
Wear your bathers.
Underwater camera (but maybe you should just enjoy snorkelling and leave the picture taking to the professionals?)