Rain(forests) and Diving

 

Heather took us for a short walk through the local rainforest. Not many people know about this particular place so we only saw two other people whilst we were walking. The trees here grow very tall due to the sunshine, rainfall and humidity. We saw some very tall strangler figs which have overtaken their original host trees. Some of them had massive buttresses taller than we were. There are also some trees where the fruit grows directly on the trunks rather than the branches. Also lots of vines twining their way around other trees. Quite appropriately it started raining when we were about three quarters of the way round so we did the last bit whilst under umbrellas.

Umbrellas seem essential items here. For all it is known as sunny Queensland it has an awful lot of rain. Heather has been measuring the rain for the last few years and has asked us to continue doing it whilst she is away. If they have a storm it can exceed the capacity of the rain gauge which is 100cm. They had around 95cm during the recent cyclone. We’ve typically been getting 1-3cm over the last few days. It’s warm rain and soon dries out. The wet season has officially finished here but the rain is still coming down. The first week was hot, sunny and dry but the last few days have been very showery. It’s still warm – around 26 degrees – so it is very humid at times. Luckily we have aircon if necessary.

We have bought stinger suits so we can go snorkelling on our own.  Hopefully tomorrow up near Cape Gloucester depending upon the weather and the road as it has lots of floodways which may no longer be dry given recent rain.

Finally some proper diving as the ones we did previously were not very good. A 3 hour bumpy cruise to the Great Barrier Reef and Knuckle Reef. The shipping channel had 3 metre swells which are quite big when you are in a large catamaran and the waves are coming at you on the diagonal.

We had an excellent hour long dive off Knuckle Reef. Cruise Whitsundays have a pontoon moored there and the boat attaches to it and stays there all day so you can go between them. You go diving through a moonpool – down some steps under the pontoon and straight into the water. There’s an undersea viewing platform next to it so you can also see the fish without getting wet.  The fish are waiting for you as you descend. It’s a bit like James Bond…

A very relaxing amble alongside the reef whilst taking photographs. Lots of beautiful corals – there are over 150 types here both hard and soft. Plus loads of clams of brilliant turquoise, blue and other colours. The fish seemed a bonus on top of it. Lots of colourful little reef fish and a few larger ones. We both came out very happy and so did the dive guide as he had an easy dive with us.

Another 3 hour journey back and again through the bumpy shipping channel for about 45 minutes. Getting dark by the time we docked at 6pm so home for supper and an early night before 9pm as were both knackered both from diving and sea sickness tablets. I’ve uploaded some photos to Flickr but will put some more on later.