The Reef and the Rainforest
Tuesday was all about the Great Barrier Reef. We were picked up at 7:40am—this was going to be a full-day adventure. We got to the marina and checked-in: price of admission included 3-4 hours of snorkeling in two different Reef locations and we paid extra for scuba diving lessons and two subsequent dives. The day was gorgeous: all sun, no clouds, and more importantly, winds at 5 knots, meaning the water would be calm all the way out to Opal Reef.
While the boat was heading out to Opal Reef, we learned about the equipment we’d be using and what the dive would be like. Our instructor told us all about what we would experience, how to equalize the pressure in our sinuses and chest, and what hand signals we should use when communicating underwater. After a 20-minute session, we got all geared up and ready to go, but when it was my turn to dive-in, I put my head under water and couldn’t breathe well. The combination of the weight of the gear, the underwater pressure, and breathing the compressed air from the oxygen tank made it feel like I got hit by a truck. I felt too much pressure on my chest and was nervous it would just get worse as I went deeper.
The good news was that I could still snorkel. I waited for Andrew to return from the first 20-minute dive and then we explored the reef together snorkeling. We were one of five people who rented a digital underwater camera, which gave us up to 500 pictures, so we went all out snapping away. We saw beautiful coral and fish. During lunch, we moved to the other side of the Opal Reef and were ready for more. This time, Andrew went down for a 30-40 minute dive with the camera (cameras aren’t allowed on the first dive) and I explored the reef on my own. This side had more character: the colors were brighter and there was more variety of fish. As I swam, beautiful schools of fish swam all around me. At one point, I saw Andrew and his instructor below me and I followed them around for a bit. Unfortunately though, while the scenery was better on this side, the water was murkier, so the pictures we have didn’t come out too great.
On Wednesday, we drove to Daintree Rainforest. This part of Australia is the only place in the entire world where you have two World Heritage locations sitting side-by-side to one another. We drove to Daintree Village and then took the car ferry to the other side of the Daintree River, where the road takes you through parts of the rainforest and up to Cape Tribulation. The Cape Trib side of the river is not connected to an electrical grid, but there are small towns all along the 39-km road through the rainforest, which means that all of them are run by alternative modes of energy, which is pretty damn cool. We stopped at the Discovery Center and took a s
elf-guided walking tour along designated paths inside the rainforest. Later, as we reached Cape Trib, we parked and had lunch at the last lookout point before the unpaved road starts (only 4WD vehicles are allowed past that point). We were basically at the edge of one part of the rainforest which led to the Cape Trib beach. As we stood between the edge of the rainforest and the beach, you could feel both a hot and cool breeze: the cool breeze coming in from the shore and the hot breeze blowing out from the rainforest. This is one place where you can see the rainforest and the Reef meet and oddly enough, live in perfect harmony.
While the boat was heading out to Opal Reef, we learned about the equipment we’d be using and what the dive would be like. Our instructor told us all about what we would experience, how to equalize the pressure in our sinuses and chest, and what hand signals we should use when communicating underwater. After a 20-minute session, we got all geared up and ready to go, but when it was my turn to dive-in, I put my head under water and couldn’t breathe well. The combination of the weight of the gear, the underwater pressure, and breathing the compressed air from the oxygen tank made it feel like I got hit by a truck. I felt too much pressure on my chest and was nervous it would just get worse as I went deeper.
The good news was that I could still snorkel. I waited for Andrew to return from the first 20-minute dive and then we explored the reef together snorkeling. We were one of five people who rented a digital underwater camera, which gave us up to 500 pictures, so we went all out snapping away. We saw beautiful coral and fish. During lunch, we moved to the other side of the Opal Reef and were ready for more. This time, Andrew went down for a 30-40 minute dive with the camera (cameras aren’t allowed on the first dive) and I explored the reef on my own. This side had more character: the colors were brighter and there was more variety of fish. As I swam, beautiful schools of fish swam all around me. At one point, I saw Andrew and his instructor below me and I followed them around for a bit. Unfortunately though, while the scenery was better on this side, the water was murkier, so the pictures we have didn’t come out too great.
On Wednesday, we drove to Daintree Rainforest. This part of Australia is the only place in the entire world where you have two World Heritage locations sitting side-by-side to one another. We drove to Daintree Village and then took the car ferry to the other side of the Daintree River, where the road takes you through parts of the rainforest and up to Cape Tribulation. The Cape Trib side of the river is not connected to an electrical grid, but there are small towns all along the 39-km road through the rainforest, which means that all of them are run by alternative modes of energy, which is pretty damn cool. We stopped at the Discovery Center and took a s
elf-guided walking tour along designated paths inside the rainforest. Later, as we reached Cape Trib, we parked and had lunch at the last lookout point before the unpaved road starts (only 4WD vehicles are allowed past that point). We were basically at the edge of one part of the rainforest which led to the Cape Trib beach. As we stood between the edge of the rainforest and the beach, you could feel both a hot and cool breeze: the cool breeze coming in from the shore and the hot breeze blowing out from the rainforest. This is one place where you can see the rainforest and the Reef meet and oddly enough, live in perfect harmony.
posted by elanit | 12:40 AM
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