Monday dawned, and we set out to visit yet another UNESCO world heritage site. We woke around 7:30am and made a filling breakfast. Jake was chomping at the bit to go outside, he even collected his shoes and started hovering around the door.
At 9am we drove up to the Port Douglas marina where we exchanged our travel voucher (bought at the Ramada reception the night before) for our tickets for the journey to the outer reef. The tour was with a company called Quicksilver, and they have established a permanent platform at the Agincourt Reef, which is about an hour and a half by high speed catamaran.
As we set off, the weather was promising, however as we neared the reef, the weather turned decidedly for the worst. Luckily for our intrepid tour group, it didn’t signal an increase in wind, only some light rain. This does not reduce visibility, so we were generally quite happy.
On the way out to the reef, I signed up for a “Helmet Walk” ($150) which involves walking down to a platform underneath the main platform at a depth of 5 meters, with a helmet attached which has air pumped into it, rather like those ages old diving helmets used at the turn of the 19th century (but suitably more advanced).
I also hired a digital camera in a waterproof enclosure ($68) so that I could shoot photos of the reef underwater. This proved to be way less expensive than buying a waterproof enclosure for my dSLR, which would have cost in the order of $1,000.
Once we arrived at the platform lunch was served. I decided to skip lunch initially, and instead obtained flippers, special goggles (on account of my vision) and also hired a lycra suit ($8) to prevent against possible attacks from stingers, known in this area at this time of the year.
Here are some photos from my three snorkelling expeditions around the reef:
After my second snorkelling session, I caught up with Jake and Toni as they had just come off the submersible which tours the reef. We jumped on all together and went for a second spin. My Olympus lens fogged up far too much for meaningful photos, but towards the end of the 25 minute trip, I did mange to get some photos of the inside and of the dock:
Which brings me to the “helmet walk”:
At 1:30pm I had my “Helmet Walk” which involved having 30kgs of weights strapped to my torso, and then a heavy helmet was lowered onto my shoulders. Myself and two other folks then descended a series of steps to a platform at least five meters below the main platform.
Here, a scuba-equipped employee guided us and took photos before introducing us to some marine life. This involved releasing fish food, evoking a storm of massive fish to come down on us. We were also introduced to coral, a sea cucumber and a large shell.
After we returned to the surface (about 20-25 minutes later), I jumped back into the water and went for my final snorkelling session on the Great Barrier Reef for the day.
Below you can see a photo of the permanent platform, this is roughly how far away from the platform I ventured – right to the outer beacon/buoy. At 2:45pm the ship’s horn sounded, and we all beat a hasty return, lest we are left behind! I returned the equipment and showered down before re-joining Jake and Toni on board.
As we tore away from the reef, I took a few parting shots at the catamaran’s wake. The storm was well and truly onshore by the time we returned back to Port Douglas.
The only criticism I’d have of the entire tour is that the catamaran’s cabin area was far too chilled compared to the outside ambient temperature which played absolute havoc on my camera lens. It also made for rather uncomfortable transitions from the outside to inside (and vice-versa).
Tomorrow is a rest day – Wednesday we will venture north through the Daintree (hopefully) to Cape Tribulation.
Test comment