Rainforests and reef

The landscape around Cairns is truly beautiful. While the city focuses on partying and thrills and spills of rafting, bungy jumps, skydives and diving the barrier reef, there are more peaceful ways to spend the days.

And so, last week, I hopped aboard a Jungle Tours bus to Cape Tribulation. There were just five of us and our guide Shane, a true Aussie bloke - mad on his beer, the outdoors, going crazy.

We stopped off at Mossman Gorge and walked a short way through the rainforest on a warm but wet day, looking at strangler fig trees and the weird and wonderful canopy before jumping up and down across an unsteady rope bridge and taking a dip in the freezing, fast-flowing river - much to the surprise and amusement of the tourists walking past.

After passing sugarcane fields being cut and the mountains covered in forests, we stopped at the Daintree river for a croc-spotting cruise. We floated past exotic birds in the rainforest, salties sunning themselves on the banks and spotted a small tree snake before meeting our driver by the river ferry.

Then it was onwards towards Cape Trib with a quick stop for lunch at Cape Kimberley. I stayed at Cape Tribulation Beach House - dozens of huts nestled into the rainforest - about as far as you can stay into the wilderness.

The beach was right next to the accommodation - a long stretch of sand fringed by the rainforest and with mountains plunging into the trees in the background. Cape Trib - the tree-covered outcrop was to the right, behind mangroves and a short walk away.




Jedd, Yanika and I explored the beach and walked through the forest to another beach. The skies were stormy but it was still warm.

There was very little to do at Cape Trib but relax. The following day, the three of us set out on a walk to a swimming hole but ended up hitching a lift in the back of a ute up to the creek - it was a hilly 5km walk otherwise and even my games couldn't encourage Yanika and Jedd to enjoy the walk.

We were pretty much alone at the swimming hole - which was in a secluded part of the creek a few minutes walk through the forests.

Downstream from the road were plenty of crocs, but upstream, the cold, clear waters were safe to swim in with the sun glinting through the trees. We clambered upstream for a bit, me getting freaked out by a weird dead spider that I needed about 15m space to get around.

We hitched a lift back in a camper driven by a couple from Adelaide - just in time as the heavens opened and it poured down.

Jedd and Yanika left and I spent an evening reading, relaxing and eating followed by a similar thread the next day - sunbathing when the sun shone on the beach, and running to the virtually open-air restaurant when it poured down.


The cassowary bird

In my last few minutes at Cape Trib I saw the famed but endangered cassowary bird - an ancient emu-like bird which is my height, quite fierce and which can rip you guts out if it feels threatened. It was just sauntering along the path through the huts at the beach house.

Returning back to Cairns saw a celebratory return to civilisation with a big night out...

On Sunday (Sept 2), I woke up feeling shocking - a bad throat and sore ears - not a good day to start hostie-ing on a dive boat. I rocked up to Deep Sea Divers Den nonetheless and kept my fingers crossed they would let me join the trip and dive.

The next few days were tough - I was ill, tired constantly and not myself but I still managed to have a ball on the boat. The crew were just awesome and I discovered that diving actually helped my tonsilitis - must have been the salt water.

We stuck mainly to Norman Reef as the winds were too high to move to Saxon or Hastings reef. Ocean Quest is their large liveaboard boat which stays out at the reef while Reef Quest ferries passengers from Cairns to the outer reef.



The first dive was pretty awful - I was shattered - the winds were high and we had to swim on the surface quite far to the mooring line. My fins were loose, my mask leaked and I wasn't weighted properly. My buddy was panicking and the vis was bad.

But I righted the situation with a guided night dive - a calming swim through the blackness which ended perfectly - looking up the mooring lines and seeing white tip sharks circling under the boat's spotlight and, as we ascended, watching them swim past just a metre or two away.

Other dives were just as awesome with some spectacular corals and wonderful fish. Not all were great visibility but those that were, were stunning dives. We saw huge potato cod, huge pufferfish, dozens of triggerfish, clown fish, sharks, lionfish, rays etc. There wasn't the diversity of Phi Phi in Thailand, but the corals were often so so beautiful.

The last dive, I went in early with the chef Lurch and he guided me around the twin Peaks site at Saxon reef - a wonderful wonderful dive where we saw so much becuause no one else had disturbed the site and we were able to see sharks lying on the sandy ocean floor - quite unbothered by us.

Sadly, after 12 great dives, it was over and back to land. I had done some great diving, eaten delicious food and slept in the crew cabin under the water for three nights in return for a bit of washing up, making beds and cleaning a few bathrooms.

It took me about two days to stop feeling like I was constantly on the boat and to get back to normal and feel better.

But now it's time for the next adventure - on down the East Coat - to Ayr for a a dive at the SS Yongala wreck...