Short Cairns (& Sydney) Trip Report

[tajkd]

Just back from a 3 week stay in Australia. I did make one dive in Sydney as well as almost a week of diving in Cairns. Below the details:

Cairns is really a very nice town but not a resort as I'm used to. There is little beach (compared to islands). Even if you drive, the beaches are quite close to the road - still beautiful, but small. Cairns has tons of shops and travel agents. The agencies support about 100 boats that go out to the reef for various trips. I had done some searches online and pre-booked my trips. The town is walkable and there are some great restaurants. There is not really much to do there though unless you book a trip so we ended up driving to the rain forest on off days. That is nice for a dive break but a long drive. I stayed in the Hilton right near the first dock so very close to the big boats. I'd recommend a Hilton stay if you can afford it. There are many hotels of all different classes including a lot of hostels.

I had two day trips with a non-diving spouse. For this, I booked Tusa 6. I would recommend Tusa as a dive boat. The dive area was large, there was plenty of room on board. Food was OK.

I also booked a 3 day stay with Reef Encounter who go to the outer reef system north (across from Port Douglas). I really liked their system. They would send a fast boat out to the reef, then passengers would board a larger vessel with cabins for their overnights. This happened every day in a different location. Still, it means you get to choose how long you stay on board. There was never a problem getting on and off. The dive system was extremely organized. They really knew who you were, got you on board and off. The dives could be unguided but since I was solo, I hooked up with a DM for my dives. There are a lot of inexperienced divers there. In fact, I had more dives than all the passengers and dive guides combined. The guides are young and they can only work there for two years by law. The cabins are the best I've ever stayed in (over 20 live-aboard trips). The food was exceptional & buffet style. You pay for liquor at the end of the week. I brought my regs and computer but rented everything else at a very good price.

The diving imo was just OK where we were. I compare everything to Galapagos so perhaps its unfair to say. On almost every dive, we saw at least one little shark. There were turtles on many dives. The fish life was great as long as you stayed above 20 feet or so. The coral was exceptional; varied and healthy. There seem to be many dive sites with chimneys and tunnels which are my personal favorites so I was in heaven. I went to dive sites like Breaking Patches, Caves, Twin Peaks, Fingers. In true Aussie fashion, they are simply named. Max depths averaged around 50 feet so very shallow. The boat let you do 4 dives a day when you stayed on board so it was perfect for me. Overall, I was impressed with the boats and the coral but not overly impressed with the fish life. Still it was nice comfortable diving.

Water temps were 80's which is comfortable for most but I needed a skin and full wetsuit. We weren't attacked by stinger at all so this time of year seems good at least for that. There was little current where I was.

I had also done the aquarium dive in Manly. I would not recommend this dive to anyone. I've done a fair number of aquariums across the US and some are great. In this tank, you do have the opportunity to see some huge sharks but the space is so small, you can't actually swim. That's right - they don't even give you fins. You need to walk about 10 feet and stand while the cramped sharks swim past you. It was uncomfortable and I felt badly for the fish. Pass on this one.

 

[WetPup]

Thanks for the trip report, but I feel like I need to clarify a few things:

1. Off Port Douglas is not the "outer reef". The outer reef is Ribbon Reefs, which are an overnight boat trip away from Cairns. You went to inner GBR reefs of Port Douglas.
2. "The guides are young and they can only work there for two years by law". No. Tourists in Australia on a working holiday visa may only work there for 1-2 years by law. Australians can work there as long as they like. The thing is, the more experienced Australian DM's are working for the more upmarket dive operators, not the budget market. You get what you pay for...
3. If you'd gone on a liveaboard to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea, that's more comparable to the Galapagos. Much more (and bigger) pelagic life out there.

 

[tajkd]

Hey WetPup,

Thanks for the information.

The dive sites I went to are referred by the tour operators as the "outer reef" so I get this description from them. In fact, when I look on google maps for the sites I visited, there is not much reef more easterly than those. Perhaps they just mean "outer" from Cairns.

Every DM was a foreigner so they told me they could only work 2 years. I guess I omitted the foreign part because I'm accustomed, in most places, to foreign (mostly European) dive staff. I never heard of an upmarket dive operator there and probably wouldn't have booked the trip if it had been more expensive. I was not disappointed with the service or performance of any of the crew. In fact, I can't think of what a local DM would have done in addition to what I received. They were great.

I guess I was expecting the big pelagics in the GBR all over. I've been to many places where there is more life and more pelagics than I saw on these dives. I wrote it perhaps so that people will know not to expect much of that, at least when diving from Cairns at this time of year. Perhaps you know if there is a better period or better dive site for the big guys?

Cheers

Thanks for the trip report, but I feel like I need to clarify a few things:

1. Off Port Douglas is not the "outer reef". The outer reef is Ribbon Reefs, which are an overnight boat trip away from Cairns. You went to inner GBR reefs of Port Douglas.
2. "The guides are young and they can only work there for two years by law". No. Tourists in Australia on a working holiday visa may only work there for 1-2 years by law. Australians can work there as long as they like. The thing is, the more experienced Australian DM's are working for the more upmarket dive operators, not the budget market. You get what you pay for...
3. If you'd gone on a liveaboard to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea, that's more comparable to the Galapagos. Much more (and bigger) pelagic life out there.

 

[WetPup]

Hey WetPup,

Thanks for the information.

The dive sites I went to are referred by the tour operators as the "outer reef" so I get this description from them. In fact, when I look on google maps for the sites I visited, there is not much reef more easterly than those. Perhaps they just mean "outer" from Cairns.

Every DM was a foreigner so they told me they could only work 2 years. I guess I omitted the foreign part because I'm accustomed, in most places, to foreign (mostly European) dive staff. I never heard of an upmarket dive operator there and probably wouldn't have booked the trip if it had been more expensive. I was not disappointed with the service or performance of any of the crew. In fact, I can't think of what a local DM would have done in addition to what I received. They were great.

I guess I was expecting the big pelagics in the GBR all over. I've been to many places where there is more life and more pelagics than I saw on these dives. I wrote it perhaps so that people will know not to expect much of that, at least when diving from Cairns at this time of year. Perhaps you know if there is a better period or better dive site for the big guys?

Cheers

Like I said, you need to get on the 4-7 night liveaboard trips that go out to Osprey Reef (which is in the Coral Sea, and technically out beyond the GBR itself) if you really want to see the bigger stuff. Those overnight liveaboards only go to the inner reefs (their marketing is extremely misleading if they say they go to the outer reefs). There are greater number of, more diverse, and bigger sharks out at Osprey, mantas, and just bigger rays in general...This is why many of us always recommend that people do the Spirit of Freedom or Mike Ball liveaboards which are the only ones that go to Osprey. Yes, they are more expensive, but IMO they are worth every cent. I see so many people (my own friends included) complain about the cost of those SoF and Mike Ball liveaboard trips, and then say how "disappointing" or "crap" the reef is off Cairns because they won't pay for the longer trips that go further out to the better dive sites. I get that it's not cheap, but it really is a case of "you get what you pay for".

The Australian winter does however bring the minke whales to the Ribbon reefs, and occasionally the inner reefs. It's mid-May now, which is kind of borderline for minkes - if you went back in about 2-3 weeks I'd be surprised if you didn't see any.

 

[Peter69_56]

Like I said, you need to get on the 4-7 night liveaboard trips that go out to Osprey Reef (which is in the Coral Sea, and technically out beyond the GBR itself) if you really want to see the bigger stuff. Those overnight liveaboards only go to the inner reefs (their marketing is extremely misleading if they say they go to the outer reefs). There are greater number of, more diverse, and bigger sharks out at Osprey, mantas, and just bigger rays in general...This is why many of us always recommend that people do the Spirit of Freedom or Mike Ball liveaboards which are the only ones that go to Osprey. Yes, they are more expensive, but IMO they are worth every cent. I see so many people (my own friends included) complain about the cost of those SoF and Mike Ball liveaboard trips, and then say how "disappointing" or "crap" the reef is off Cairns because they won't pay for the longer trips that go further out to the better dive sites. I get that it's not cheap, but it really is a case of "you get what you pay for".

The Australian winter does however bring the minke whales to the Ribbon reefs, and occasionally the inner reefs. It's mid-May now, which is kind of borderline for minkes - if you went back in about 2-3 weeks I'd be surprised if you didn't see any.

Yes you are right, many booking agents are so misleading. We were told we would go to the outer reef. Clearly when we got there it was the inner reef and not much coral or fish life either. We were very disappointed and only recommend the TRUE outer reef trips to everyone. SoF and Mike Ball liveaboard trips are the only way to go if you are expecting quality diving in that area.

As they say, you get what you pay for. Pay peanuts and get monkeys.

 

[AaronRiot]

Myself and my fiance went for a 3-day on another one of the Cairns operations - ProDive. Myself being a diver and her a snorkeler made the option a good one for us and we enjoyed it very much barring a few Op-based gripes. Beautiful corals, lots of small fish, turtles, small sharks (many on one of the night dives).

With a little research it's pretty easy to figure out the ribbons are where its at, so I went out knowing what to expect (and what not to). If the ribbon boats just won't work out I say a 3-day quickie out of Cairns is way better than being beached.

Side note: we were told the box jellies stick to the shore and it would be near unheard of to find them out on the reef near divers. Stinger suits were still mandatory..

 

[WetPup]

Myself and my fiance went for a 3-day on another one of the Cairns operations - ProDive. Myself being a diver and her a snorkeler made the option a good one for us and we enjoyed it very much barring a few Op-based gripes. Beautiful corals, lots of small fish, turtles, small sharks (many on one of the night dives).

With a little research it's pretty easy to figure out the ribbons are where its at, so I went out knowing what to expect (and what not to). If the ribbon boats just won't work out I say a 3-day quickie out of Cairns is way better than being beached.

Side note: we were told the box jellies stick to the shore and it would be near unheard of to find them out on the reef near divers. Stinger suits were still mandatory..

The stinger suits aren't just for the box jellies. There's little fingernail sized irukandji jellies out there too, and they do float around the reefs. Not that long ago we'd hear stories every summer about people getting stung on the reef by irukandji and ending up in hospital. Nasty little buggers. People still dive the actual outer reefs in summer in shorts and t-shirts, but I wouldn't do it on the inner reefs or near shore.

Honestly, any diving is better than no diving - and I have done the Cairns day trips and overnight liveaboards before when I've not had the time to do the longer trips or I've had non-diving family come to visit. But I do think people are sometimes prone to unrealistic expectations about the GBR trips that don't go to Ribbon reefs or to Osprey. I suspect it can in part just be put down to misleading marketing, but like you say, it pays to do your research.

 

[AaronRiot]

It does - I expected shallow diving, sandy bottoms, decent coral, and lots of little fish.

For me the highlights were the corals. And the diving wasn't guided which was such a breath of fresh air. I got to sit quietly and watch. A few complained about the guidless dives. A few got lost. Like the OP said there were a lot of new divers and students. About 1/2 were open water students on their first dives. Some of our crew were quite experienced, like Sam.. My fiancé was allowed to hop in with the sharks on the one night for a snorkel around the boat which was pretty neat. A big step for her and no doubt a memorable experience.



Quite surprised that we were not warned about these other jellies specifically. Not happy about that. Most of the boat didn't cover their hands (myself included) nor did many wear their hoods.

 

[WetPup]

Ah, yes. You'll find that the GBR has a strict "no gloves" policy. They don't want you grabbing stuff. So you wouldn't be covering your hands anyway.

 

[AaronRiot]

-the stinger suits on the boat had mitts and hood attached