Lynn CA
Registered
We just got back from the Nimrod Explorer far northern reef 8 day trip and it was fantastic. The boat wasn't as new and upscale as the Peter Hughes Belize trip we did a few months ago, but the diving was the best I've ever done, and the crew (especially the dive deck crew and the captain) were so friendly and helpful & fun to be with, that it completely made up for the older boat. The food was delicious, and plentiful and varied. The crew paid strict attention to safety procedures, but you were free to be in charge of your own diving. Great, detailed dive briefings. I want to go back and do it again next year.
I'm not sure quite how far north we went, but I know we dived Tijou reef, and small southern detached reef which are several days travel north of Lizard island and cod hole (the farthest north of most trips). The boat left from Cooktown (we were flown up there), and then traveled north from there, landing at a beach in the jungle about 2 hours north (by 4 wheel drive transport which met us at the beach landing) from the Lockhart river airstrip from which we flew back to Cairns. When we got back to Cairns and were reporting on the diving, others said we saw things they never see around there.
We saw numerous lionfish, silvertip, white tip, black tip and nurse reef sharks. One hammerhead, one ray shark, and one leopard shark One giant Queensland grouper - got him on video (dive master said he must weigh about 400 Kilos) he was wider than I am tall, and much longer, and was lazily swimming around in about 40 feet of water on top of Tijou reef. We saw him several times on each of the 2 dives we did there. We also saw giant schools of large sweetlips, large schools of chevron barracuda, including a long line of them waiting their turn at a cleaning station. Many large turtles, many different kinds of large groupers, including a brilliant black and yellow one (don't know the name). Many large schools of batfish. Lots of untouched pristine hard and soft corals of all kinds. Enormous angles, (much, much bigger than in Hawaii or the Caribbean) parrotfish and endless varieties of damsels in schools so large you couldn't see through them, they filled the water around you. Some bump head parrots over 3 feet long (boy are they weird looking). Giant clams on most dives - they really are giant. One of the things that made the reef so beautiful was the density and variety of filter feeders, I have been studying my pics, and even now I am seeing new things in them, there was just too much to see to take it all in (dozens of different things every square foot of reef).
We dove some places that the captain said was the first time they had ever been dived, and some for only the 2nd (discovered on last years trip). Lots of great drift dives along incredible walls. For 7 days we were the only boat visible on the water, and land was beyond the horizon, just waves crashing on the reef. It felt remote, and like genuine exploration (which was the point of the trip). The captain was great, he would find a good looking wall and send down a dive master to check it out. If it looked good, we would try diving it (usually as a drift or "live boat" dive (one direction with the current, picked up by the dinghy). If the diving was good, we would do it some more the next dive starting at our stopping place along the wall.
I'm not sure quite how far north we went, but I know we dived Tijou reef, and small southern detached reef which are several days travel north of Lizard island and cod hole (the farthest north of most trips). The boat left from Cooktown (we were flown up there), and then traveled north from there, landing at a beach in the jungle about 2 hours north (by 4 wheel drive transport which met us at the beach landing) from the Lockhart river airstrip from which we flew back to Cairns. When we got back to Cairns and were reporting on the diving, others said we saw things they never see around there.
We saw numerous lionfish, silvertip, white tip, black tip and nurse reef sharks. One hammerhead, one ray shark, and one leopard shark One giant Queensland grouper - got him on video (dive master said he must weigh about 400 Kilos) he was wider than I am tall, and much longer, and was lazily swimming around in about 40 feet of water on top of Tijou reef. We saw him several times on each of the 2 dives we did there. We also saw giant schools of large sweetlips, large schools of chevron barracuda, including a long line of them waiting their turn at a cleaning station. Many large turtles, many different kinds of large groupers, including a brilliant black and yellow one (don't know the name). Many large schools of batfish. Lots of untouched pristine hard and soft corals of all kinds. Enormous angles, (much, much bigger than in Hawaii or the Caribbean) parrotfish and endless varieties of damsels in schools so large you couldn't see through them, they filled the water around you. Some bump head parrots over 3 feet long (boy are they weird looking). Giant clams on most dives - they really are giant. One of the things that made the reef so beautiful was the density and variety of filter feeders, I have been studying my pics, and even now I am seeing new things in them, there was just too much to see to take it all in (dozens of different things every square foot of reef).
We dove some places that the captain said was the first time they had ever been dived, and some for only the 2nd (discovered on last years trip). Lots of great drift dives along incredible walls. For 7 days we were the only boat visible on the water, and land was beyond the horizon, just waves crashing on the reef. It felt remote, and like genuine exploration (which was the point of the trip). The captain was great, he would find a good looking wall and send down a dive master to check it out. If it looked good, we would try diving it (usually as a drift or "live boat" dive (one direction with the current, picked up by the dinghy). If the diving was good, we would do it some more the next dive starting at our stopping place along the wall.
