Three Very Different Days

Today was a bit of a free-for-all.  One of our little group wanted another R&R day, one wanted to hit the reef for some more diving, and the last wanted to explore the other sights that Port Douglas had to offer.

Ken's Day:
R&R is supposed to be just that, right? So, I kept it simple. I slept in until about 9am, walked next door to get some coffee and by early afternoon I was at the pool. It was so incredibly hot and humid out that the cool water was exactly where I wanted to be. It was also a bonus that no one else was at the pool, so it felt like my own private sun spa patio retreat.

After a few hours I was hungry and decided to check out the local Sushi Bar, which was tasty and only about a 12 minute walk from the Coconut Grove. On the way home I stopped for a cold treat before heading right back into the pool! Ahhh..what a great day of relaxing!

Brad's Day:

Brad started off his day by grabbing his camera and heading down to the beach.  The beach is about a block away from Coconut Grove.  In the hot, humid weather of Port Douglas, a block is about all it takes before you start breaking into a sweat.  Since the danger of box jellyfish threatens swimmers at the beach, it isn't the ideal place to cool off, and therefore, it's the perfect place to take some secluded beach photos!

After spending the morning enjoying his very own, private beach, Brad went down to the Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat, where he got to see cassowaries, crocodiles, wallabies, many different types of birds, and other various animals, and plant life.  

The award-winning Wildlife Habitat is Australia’s leading environmental Wildlife experience, providing visitors with a chance to observe up close a huge range of flora and fauna.  The Wildlife Habitat is a Wildlife immersion exhibit - an open and interactive environment for guests and animals to mingle in a spacious and natural setting. Visitors wander along elevated boardwalks, observing up close a huge range of flora and fauna as birds fly and roam freely.

Following his day at the wildlife habitat, he returned to Coconut Grove and worked on putting together a FANTASTIC video montage of our diving adventure from the previous day.  You can check out the video Brad put together by clicking here:  Brad's Dive Video


Eric's Day:

Immediately after the previous day of diving, I walked right into the Calypso office and booked for the very next day.  Picked up, bright and early, outside of Coconut Grove, I started off on another full day of dives.  This time, since Brad and Ken weren't going along, I booked three certified-diver dives.  The main differences between the introductory dives and the certified dives are that the certified dives aren't limited to 10-meters, don't have to go through skills testing, and have a lot more free range while under.  All things you would expect.  While I would have loved to have that freedom yesterday, the introductory dives were a great refresher course and helped me ease back into diving.

I couldn't have asked for better weather!  Smooth water, very few clouds in the sky, low wind and excellent visibility underwater.  The first stop was the same as the previous day; Blue Buoy.   Brad was kind enough to lend me his Lumix, which was rated to go as deep as 10m (approx 33 ft).  Since this was the deepest dive of the day, I left it on the boat, which turned out to be a good idea.  We dove down to 18.6m (approx 61ft), which would have likely caused some problems for the camera.  I wish I had taken a camera along though.  We saw a 5 ft black tip reef shark, and had our hands cleaned by little cleaner shrimp.  Our dive master was fantastic.  At one point during the dive, she swam over to a jellyfish that was as large as two basketballs, grabbed it by the bell, and swam it over for us to observe and touch (only the bell, not the tentacles)!

Our second dive was the same as the previous day again; Sno.  We dove to 14.4 m, and I took the camera along this time.  Fortunately, it held up under the extra pressure!  The light was perfect, the fish were out, and it was incredibly beautiful.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

My third dive was at a new reef.  I half expected to end up back at Wedge (which wouldn't have been a bad thing), but they brought us to a reef called One Fin.  It is named One Fin because it is a singular tall pillar of coral reef and resembles a flipper  (or fin) that divers wear to propel through the water.  While the pillar goes quite a ways down, we only went to 14.7 m on this dive.  Unfortunately, the visibility in the water dropped significantly, and due to the shape of the reef, the light had a harder time reaching a lot of the coral.  

Here you can see the top of One Fin, just below the surface

After One Fin, we headed back off into Port Douglas.  Sadly, that was the last of the diving for this trip.  I'm tempted to skip the trip back to Sydney, and stay up north to continue diving...but, I'll just have to resolve to return soon!

Three Paths Meet:
We all met up back at Coconut Grove at the end of the day, and decided that the perfect way to close it out would be wine, cheese, fruit, and a dip in our pools on the upper floor of our apartment.  So, we gathered everything together, enjoyed some delicious treats, lounged in the pool, and watched the sky darken as the sun slipped out of the sky.