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SCUBA
trips out to the Great Barrier Reef often start in Cairns; a delightful
little town well worth a few days visit in its own right.
Several companies offer day trips and live-aboard boat trips to the
reef; I used an outfit called DiveTheReef.com toset it all up. (You can read an article I wrote about the trip
on their web site). As it’s about 30 mi/ 50
km off shore, a boat trip out is a minimum of 1.5 hours, so a
live-aboard makes a lot of sense if you want to get several dives in
without spending too much time sitting on a boat. The ride
out to
the reef can be bumpy, so take sea
sickness medications at least 2 hrs before setting out if you might
need them.
At the sites, it’s fine; the reef acts as
protection.
The diving, as expected, is great and the reef seemed
healthy with lots of life, from sharks, turtles and some locals like
the giant Maori Wrasses. The best time to visit is October/
November; water
temperature varies from 75 - 86 F/ 24 - 30C and the visibility is at
least 50 ft/ 15m. The 3 videos of Milln, Flynn and Tracy
reefs should show you what “going under down under”
is like. For all these dives, our depths were from 15 - 60 ft
(3 - 18 m).
 Australia
Great Barrier Reef Milln
Reef Video (10 MB)
Australia
Great Barrier Reef Flynn
Reef Video (8 MB)
On our 3 day live-aboard, we spent most of the last day at Tracy
reef. Due to my flight times, I ended up snorkeling while the
others dove. Though it may sound like sacrilege,
I’m glad I did: snorkeling gives you a totally different
perspective on the reef with hundreds of fish swimming all around me,
including a few of the big ones - it actually felt like I was a part of
an aquarium. A great way to end a fun few days before the 3
hour ride back to Cairns!
Australia
Great Barrier Reef Tracy
Reef (6 MB)
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