Cairns in March

[nyc_diver]

My girlfriend and I are planning to dive the reef at the end of March, 2004. We heard that this was still the "wet" season, but being the optimist I pointed out this was the end of the wet season. We also heard that the Daintree was inaccessible during this time.

Please let me know whether we should continue to plan diving at the end of March? We only have 4 days available and would hate to spend those days onshore.

Also, is it possible to hike in the Daintree near Port Douglas on the non-diving days? If we can not dive or hike then the 4 days in Cairns would be a bust, and I would lose my "man of the year" award.

 

[HamsterHuey]

My girlfriend and I are planning to dive the reef at the end of March, 2004. We heard that this was still the "wet" season, but being the optimist I pointed out this was the end of the wet season. We also heard that the Daintree was inaccessible during this time.

Please let me know whether we should continue to plan diving at the end of March? We only have 4 days available and would hate to spend those days onshore.

Also, is it possible to hike in the Daintree near Port Douglas on the non-diving days? If we can not dive or hike then the 4 days in Cairns would be a bust, and I would lose my "man of the year" award.

If you only have four days, I would HIGHLY suggest using them to dive on a live-aboard. Trying to split your time between the Daintree and diving will give you about half the experience of both. If you're hiring someone to get you to the forest, then they will take you to a passable area no matter what time of year it is. If you try and do less than three days on a boat diving, you're going to get a really sucky daytrip or short trip package. We did both (Daintree and reef diving) while we were there. We came to a few conclusions. One of them was, lots of rainforests in the world, one GBR. I wish we had spent more time diving and less mucking about in the forest. And for the day trips we took...not a complete waste of money, but pretty close. Same could be said for the overnight boat trip we took. Whatever time you have, you should maximize on the reef.

IMHO.