After our fantastic dive trip to Heron Island we drove up
North to Cairns to start our 4-night liveaboard on the ‘Taka’. As we had a few days time, we drove through Atherton Tablelands, a
plateau close to Cairns, with lush rainforests, waterfalls and very pretty
scenery.
 |
| Drive through Atherton Tablelands |
 |
| Paronella Park built by a Spanish Immigrant in the 1950s |
 |
| Waterfalls at Paronella Park |
 |
| Milla Milla Falls |
 |
| Giant Curtain Fig Tree |
We boarded the ‘Taka’ Thursday at 4pm and after getting
familiar with the boat, our cabins and the dive gear ‘set sail’ towards Ribbon
Reef#5. Fortunate for us we were only 9 divers on the boat (usually about
20-15), so the trip was about to get pretty relaxed. And with a Thai chef to
take care of us nothing could go wrong anyway :)
 |
| Waking up to this view - aaaah! |
And it truly was one of the best things we’ve done so far!
Wake up at 6:45am, breakfast at 7am, first dive of the day at 8am, and another
4 dives during the rest of the day, in between more eating and relaxing on the
sundeck – what a live! While we slept the boat always drove a little bit further
North taking us up to Ribbon Reef #10 (in case somebody wants to look it up);
our dive sites included Steve’s Bommie, Two & Two Thirds, Christmas Tree
Bommie, Andy’s Postcard, Clam Gardens, Lighthouse Bommie etc. One better than
the other!!
 |
| Beautiful Corals |
 |
| Nemo :) |
 |
| White Tipped Reef Shark |
 |
| Lionfish |
 |
| Stefan with a Seasnake (and another one creeping up on him in the background) |
 |
| It was AMAZING!! |
 |
| Descent - Stefan top left, Marlene fixing her mask just underneath :) |
We also visited one of Australia’s most famous dive sites,
the so called Cod Hole, known for a group of huge Potato Cods (German: Riesenzackenbarsch)
who love to mingle with the divers. Amazing experience!
Every evening after dinner we also had a night dive where
Taka is offering something really special, called Fluoro Diving. This means you
won’t use a normal torch but a bluelight torch and an orange filter over your
dive mask with which you can see everything that’s fluorescent. This just opens
up a whole new world! Lots of corals are fluorescent but also some fish and
crabs are and it’s just amazing how the underwater world looks that way.
 |
| Scorpion Fish while Fluoro Diving |
 |
| Dolphins close to our boat |
All in all we did 15 dives, and also completed a Nitrox
course which means we can now use Enriched Air (contains more oxygen than a
normal tank fill) while diving allowing us more bottom time at deeper dives.
After being back on land we made our way to Port Douglas, the
Daintree Rainforest National Park and Cape Tribulation. Here the rainforest
really meets the reef, it’s like you’d imagine paradise. Unfortunately no
swimming due to stingers and crocodile, so maybe not quite paradise :)
 |
| Rainforst Cableway to Kuranda |
 |
| Boulder Gorge |
 |
| Daintree Rainforest |
 |
| Paradise! |
On our way down to Townsville, we did our last dive in
Queensland, the wreck of the SS Yongala, a steamboat which sunk in a cyclone in
1911. It wasn’t found until about 40 years later and ever since has become a
top dive spot as it’s completely covered by corals and anemones and home to a
vast array of marine life. Being pretty spoilt with calm water and visibility
of 30m+ on the liveaboard, my (Marlene) first impression of the wreck was actually
a bit disappointing as the visibility was really bad, maybe 7meters. But once
you get used to it and concentrate on the wreck itself it’s actually pretty
amazing what you can see down there. And only after a few minutes we were
rewarded with huge marble rays swimming next to us, eagle rays, sting rays,
turtles, lots and lots of fish and also a bullshark!
We now left Queensland behind and made our way across the
Overlander Track to Alice Springs (about 2500km). We finally got the OK from Austria for our
double citizenship and have spent the first afternoon in Alice Springs’ library
to sort out our Australian application. Fingers crossed everything will go well!
