• Dolphins can hold their breath for 30 minutes, turtles hold their breath for 60 minutes or more, whales can to stay submerged for up to 2 hours..fish just breath the oxygen that is in the water.
• Humpback Whales can eat 6 tons of Krill a day . They live to around 60 years of age and grow to 45 tons. They can propel this full weight out of the water with just 2 flicks of the tail.
• Green Turtles are the biggest local turtle and can grow up to half a ton..and reach two metres long
• Coral trout start their lives as females and change sex to become males later in life.
• Cuttlefish is the most unusual, it has green blood, three hearts and can change color in an instant.

Location: Hamilton Island

Weather: Very, very strange one here….a dust storm has hit the Queensland coast for the first time in decades masking the skyline in a dull red/orange. Feels like the apocalypse is coming! 28°c

I spent last night battling away trying to get the final parts of my PADI Advanced Dive Course completed before departing to the mainland as today I was departing on Whitsundays Sailing Adventure’s newest dive boat – the very impressive Emperors Wings. Suffice to say I completed it and the theory part of the course is now complete! YAY!

I’m on the road and the water for the next ten days with a visit to the Great Barrier Reef onboard an Islandive vessel then a few days on Long Island at Peppers Palm Bay and wrap it all up with a back-to-basics visit to my neighboring rock, Whitsunday Island and a camping trip – this will be pretty special.

Being away for this long means one thing however…hauling around virtually everything I own in four bags…I’m turning into a high maintenance chick here!

We’re departing from Abel Point Marina and as I arrive there’s already a few of my fellow passengers waiting for the off so we make our way down the pontoon to Emperors Wings – a luxury, purpose built sailing boat with accommodation for 30 people and equipped with everything onboard for diving and snorkelling – this is the way to explore the reef.

I’d met a couple of the crew the week before when diving the S.S. Yongala so it was good to see some familiar faces and as the rest of the passengers arrived onboard Sammy showed me to my bunk which was a big, comfortable double bed – no hammocks or bunks here.

Wings 2 Layout

With five crew and 24 passengers on board there’s loads of space for everyone with a relaxing lounge area and huge flat screen tv used for viewing the daily slide show. Being a purpose-built boat there’s some excellent features like the heated spa on the main deck, hydraulic lifting platform for the rubber ducky and the most organised setup for the dive kit I’ve seen; everything’s built around giving the passengers a thoroughly comfortable, interactive and educational experience whilst out on the ocean.

Stu our skipper for the trip (another Pom addicted to working in the sunshine has been with the company for five years) steered us carefully out of the marina and into the Whitsunday Passage heading east towards Whitsunday Island, our destination for the night. The open deck arrangement of the boat means there’s loads of space to lay back and enjoy the ride and a perfectly good time to find out a little more about the other passengers and what their individual stories are.

My fellow travellers are from all over the world; amongst others there’s a couple from Canada (Bre will be happy!), a group of New Zealanders now living in Australia, three Brazilian girls and a few individuals all on their own little mission around the world. There’s no set demographic to this sort of trip it’s pretty much a open book but everyone’s got one thing on their mind – to have some fun, get some sailing in and to discover more about life on the Great Barrier Reef.

Our first destination for the adventure is along the coast of Whitsunday Island, taking in the dramatic scenery it has to offer with Hoop Pine trees and dense bush all the way down to the waterline broken up by granite boulders and tiny sandy bays. One of my Canadian friends comments on how alike the terrain looks to that of their own home in British Columbia and I totally agree. The hills of Whitsunday Craig and Peak teasing me to climb them and at some point I will!
With the south-easterly blowing at a fair pace we make for the sheltered waters of Tongue Bay just around the headland from the famous Whitehaven Beach and drop anchor for the evening. I moored up here during my sailing course and spent most of my time in the water swimming around the boat then…today was no different and I launched myself off the stern of the boat into the warm ocean.

The smell of good cooking wafted through the boat as Cari had fired up the barbeques on the stern, Sammy had been working furiously all afternoon preparing our dinner and finally our rumbling bellies would be satisfied. It’s surprising quite how hungry one gets lazing about in the sunshine, very important to fill up tonight though as there’s a big day ahead tomorrow with diving all day.

Once dinner is out of the way everyone beds down for an early night, with the exception of Stu and Johnny who gently glide the boat around the headland and to the south of Whitehaven Beach where we finally moor up for the night. I’m restless as ever and end up sitting on deck with one of the passengers, Julian from France, watching the moon on the ocean and watching for shooting stars. I don’t want to be anywhere else on the planet right now….just here with my thoughts.

I awake from my slumber, having finally made it to bed, and poke my head out of the port hatch as the sun is breaking the horizon to the east. There’s only one way to wake a sleepy head and that’s to jump straight in the ocean, the shock of cool water on my face enough to jerk my brain into life and after a good swim I feel ready to take on the day.

Whitehaven is one of those places that just has to be visited if you’re in the Whitsundays, it’s an iconic symbol of what ‘perfect’ beaches are all about; crystal clear water, blue skies, lush green trees and of course the contrasting fine white silica sand. I’ve been a few times now to this gem of a location but can never tire of its majesty and happily visit once more as the rest of the boat disembarks for their first experience. I swim to the shore as part of my continued training for the Whitehaven Beach 2km Swim in November!

Turtles seem to be the order of the day as we spotted a few on our trip around the island last night so in the spirit of the trip I try and make one out of sand….what do you think?

I’ve come on this trip to progress my diving to another level and hope to leave with my Advanced certification which will allow me to explore yet more amazing places under the water and to do this I need to complete a number of tests on each dive with the first being navigation.

The beauty of a trip such as this one is there’s a chance for non-divers to try their hand at using a SCUBA setup. Certified divers only made 20% of the passengers…everyone else had the chance to try it out for the first time.

We made our way to the more sheltered waters of Hook Island and Mackerel Bay as it offered protection against the north-easterly wind which had swung around over night. At the stern of the boat lies the kitting-up area and here Steph, my wonderfully experienced Dive Master, was issuing our BCD’s, weights and my compass and dive computer, something I’d need for this part of the course.

After a quick tender ride I dropped into the ocean, descended to three metres and began to focus on what surrounded us….not a lot actually! The visibility was pretty poor at no more than five metres meaning spotting marine life wasn’t exactly easy…but I was here for another reason, my navigation test. The poor conditions actually made the test better for me as I had no idea where I was heading during the task which required me to swim 15 metres, turn through 90°, swim 15 more etc until I’d returned to my starting point having completed a full square.

I passed with flying colours! After a couple of easier reciprocal navigation tests we made our way back to the awaiting Emperors Wings, changed back into our dry kit and prepared for the next part…the night dive on the outer reef! Totally exciting and something I haven’t done for over a year. The nerves will be jangling for this I can tell you!

As we motored out to the reef the wind picked up giving a few of the passengers a pretty hard time with green faces above and below deck. The rolling of the ocean dropped off slightly as we came onto the mooring we’d spend the night on.

Then all of a sudden it was here – my chance to dive the Great Barrier Reef at night!

The blue underwater lights from the boat were already attracting Giant Trevally, bright silver flashes signalling their arrival as they twisted and turned attempting to catch the bait fish who’d become hypnotised in the iridescent glow. We were on…..

It’s a totally different experience to me, diving at night. Yes you still use the same equipment (plus a light and glow stick or two) and you still travel down to roughly the same depth but the feeling is somewhat different. Spatial awareness becomes more intense, the 3D effect of lights hovering around you seem almost otherworldly and with the restricted tunnel of light you look down it takes more concentration to realise where you’re placed in the water compared to your surroundings and other people.

We moored up along a row of famous coral bommies here on Bait Reef known as the Stepping Stones, they tower up from the ocean floor and are impressive during the day but at night they become almost cathedral-like. The first time I shone my torch all the way up the wall my regulator nearly dropped out of my mouth!

As with the majority of the world, at night the reef sleeps with the exception of some pretty hungry predators. The Giant Trevally swim all around me using my torch light to seek out unwary fish resting outside the protection of the coral beds, they’re like futuristic android ships patrolling swiftly and silently the depths of the ocean….and then there’s the sharks!

As I scan the horizon wide-spaced green eyes stare back at me slowly swimming along just far enough away to not appear a direct threat but close enough to remind me I’m now in their world. During the dive I spot around ten of them, White and Black Tip Reef Sharks all big enough to inflict a nasty bite should they feel that way, but thankfully they keep their distance. A Wobbegong sitting motionless on the rock is the closest I get to a shark.

It’s all over far too quickly, I check my depth and rise to the surface along with the other divers, eyes wide open racing with adrenaline from the experience. We board the boat and talk constantly about what we’d seen and the incredible underwater adventure we’d just had together. If you’re certified this is the way to do a night dive in perfectly clear water, surrounded by coral and predators onboard a fully catered catamaran. I struggle to get to sleep….
The next day dawns early for me as usual, I make my way to the foredeck and watch the sunrise out of the hazy, orange sky (it’s actually a dust storm which has engulfed the Queensland coast for the first time in decades, click here for more info and pics) an hour later Sammy announces that breakfast is ready and then we’re off again….three more dives today!

Once I’d got the practicals out of the way for my Advanced course the dives were probably some of the most relaxing and observational I’d ever had; schools of fish cruised off in the distance, anemone’s wobbled in the foreground and my favourite the cleaner wrasse worked furiously picking off any parasites from hospitable subjects at the cleaning stations. This is the reef working in perfect harmony and with the visibility back up to around 25 metres the big television show I’ve dropped into seems gigantic.

This type of trip encompasses so many different things you may be looking for as a traveller, backpacker or tourist – you’re being catered for on all levels and never feel hungry or left out, the snorkelling or diving are as much or as little as you desire and the experience of sailing hard across the wind hanging off the pulpit as the hull slices through the swell simply can’t be beaten.

By the end of an exhausting day I was three dives more experienced, had gained my next level of certification and was a very happy man…and that was before another cracking meal arrived on the table.

As we arrived back in the marina and prepared to leave it felt like the end of a true adventure. I’d made lots of friends, taken on some challenges, seen some unique sights and really felt a pang of sadness as I unloaded my kit back onto dry land. That’s one for the memory bank for sure.

End of trip location: Abel Point Marina, Airlie Beach

Distance covered: 3 days at sea…something like 120kms

Wow what an incredible day…where on earth do I start? Another early start for me, I’m desperately trying to get in some sort of shape ready for the Hamilton Island Triathlon at the end of November so fitness has become the order of the day, I donned my running kit and headed for a sunrise run along the beachfront to get the blood pumping around the brain.

After a hearty breakfast at the Sugatrain restaurant downstairs from the Grand Mercure Apartments where I’m staying, it was a ten minute walk to the Reef HQ Aquarium – the location for the first of the day’s incredible activities.

Reef HQ is the world’s largest living coral reef aquarium and is a must see attraction in Townsville. The tanks which contain over 150 types of fish, 120 types of coral and a staggering 2.5 million litres of water are the central focal point of the exhibition and provide a near-perfect artificial environment for a wonderous array of marine life living here.

The main tank supports two underwater environments; the deep water display and the coral reef display both thriving with all the life you’d actually find out on the Great Barrier Reef itself.

Sharks, rays, sawfish and turtles swim around the reconstruction of the deck of the SS Yongella, the passenger ship which sank off Cape Bowling Green on 23rd March 1911. An extremely famous dive-site named as ‘The Best Wreck Dive’ in Australia by Lonely Planet. I’m going to be lucky enough to dive the original wreck for real at the end of the week and can’t wait!

It’s in this tank I was to have my first experience of diving with an Aga Face Mask on. It replaces the conventional mask and regulator normally used when diving and has an internal microphone and ear speakers so communication is possible with people on the dry side of the aquarium…the general public and the assembled tv and film crews all wanting to cover my appearance with the sharks for some reason.

As I lowered the mask onto my head, pulled the five straps tight and took my first lungful of bottled air, the anticipation of a new experience came over me for the umpteenth time this month – this was going to be a good one, I was so excited. As I dumped the air from my BCD the waterline rose above the mask and a descended into a truly awe-inspiring world below, I tightened the straps to ensure no water was leaking in and focused on the mighty huge fish swimming around me – Trevelley, Maouri Wrasse, Remora, Sawfish, Potato Cod, Leopard Shark, Black Tip Reef Shark, Tawny Nurse Sharks, Shovelnose Rays.

It could be possible that I didn’t take a breath for those first few minutes….or maybe I took three times as many as normal – who knows, who cares, this was a magnificent experience getting up close and personal with such an array of underwater beasts all looking pretty huge when they’re only a few centimetres away.

Part of the job for the day was to provide audio commentary of the experience to the media crews out in the auditorium discussing the feelings and emotions I was going through….and there were plenty, or at least I thought there were. You wouldn’t have been able to tell by the first five minutes of the dive as a sat open mouthed on the bottom just watching the world go by.

Steve, my dive buddy and experienced Reef HQ employee, had me approach the Green Turtle in the tank giving me a chance to stroke and pet the beautiful shell before leading me across to the ‘big boy’ a large Tawny Nurse Shark resting calmly on the ocean floor. This thing was huge and as I gently mimicked Steve’s actions stroked my hand across its surprisingly smooth back feeling the corrugations in its body without even a reaction from the tiny, beady eyes. This was brilliant madness!

For my comfort and the relief of my mother no doubt too, the sharks here are all well fed in the morning and don’t pose any threat at all, the Black Tips have been living here for 20 years and have never even taken a finger from any human occupant in the tank. As I swam around the floor of the aquarium Steve collected up some teeth which the reef sharks constantly drop, their sets of teeth acting a like constant conveyors as they replace old worn out teeth with new ones from behind.

Then all too soon the signal was given to ascend back to the surface and my adventure in the watery world was over but what a memorable one it was, the feeling of having a Sawfish cruise right underneath me checking me out all the time with its beady eyes was a total highlight.

A new facility within Reef HQ is the addition of a turtle hospital where sick and injured marine mammals can be cared for and rehabilitated, it’s just completed Phase 1 of the project which gives the carers a means of rescuing, holding and treating turtles which are generally brought in by the public after they find them in some form of distress.

Wunjunga (named after the beach she was found on) is the latest patient, recovered from a rock pool covered in leeches and barnacles floating on her back with little chance of escape or recovery. She’s been brought here and after a freshwater flush to remove the parasites, a good feed to build her back up to strength and constant monitoring from the ever-attentive Nick and Shelley meaning that in a few weeks time she should be well enough to release back into the wild. I had the chance to help bring her onto the table then measure the shell and weigh her to check that the recovery is going as planned. This is one lucky turtle!

Another quirky little thing they do here is propagate their own coral, there’s so much coral growing in the near perfect conditions in the big aquarium that the staff have started experimenting with literally taking ‘cuttings’ from established coral and growing their own in tanks up on the roof. The signs are good too with new coral forming from the little stems, enveloping the mounts they’re placed on and meaning in the future Reef HQ can grow all of its own coral rather than taking any from the Great Barrier Reef. Eco-tourism here providing a potential answer for rebuilding some of the world’s damaged coral reefs?

Reef HQ exists to inspire everyone to care for the Great Barrier Reef. It is operated on a not-for-profit basis and relies heavily on sponsorship and donations for its commercial viability. It provides an interactive experience for children and education departments, with the help of the linkup the Arga mask allows schools around the world to actually experience live HD-video feeds from within the aquarium to their classroom on the other side of the world…I wish I’d had that sort of experience when I was at school, I might have paid a little more attention then!

End of day location: Townsville
Distance covered: Maybe 50m underwater with sharks swimming by! Love it.

• Garbo – A garbage removalist. Another example of the Aussie penchant for abbreviating words, the suffix ‘o’ being just about as popular as ‘ie’.
• Send her down Hughie – Please make it rain (Hughie was traditionally a bush-dwellers epithet for God).
• Muddie – A Queensland mud crab, also known as a mangrove crab and considered a culinary delicacy.

Location: Gladstone, Queensland

Weather: Scattered clouds, bits of blue – Simpson’s sky! Strong winds. 23°c

Time for another set of islands and I’m really excited about these ones, I’ve heard a heck of a lot of good things about both Heron and Wilson Islands – now it’s time for them to deliver!

Sunrise through the windows of the train was pretty special, a quick bite of breakfast before jumping off the train at Gladstone into the very welcoming arms of Trevor and Cindy, our contacts here for the next stage of the Island Reef Job adventure.

A quick tour of the town, to prove that Gladstone is more than just a jumping off point for the islands, a little introduction to some of the volunteers at the tourism centre and another quick bite of breakfast….that’s two already, not good for the ever increasing waistline.

Question – Pancakes for breakfast – Sweet or savoury? Australians do the sweet thing…Canadians do the savoury thing with bacon included. Interesting.

To get out to Heron Island, the first of our two destinations and part of the Capricorn group situated 75kms from the mainland, we’re onto another high speed catamaran, which isn’t a bad choice considering the swell out in the open water. Big rolling waves causing us to list from side to side resulting in a fair few green faces and even the odd passenger racing to the toilet. I am so pleased I don’t suffer from sea sickness!

The view on the GPS as we neared the islands

We pass the more placid waters round the sheltered reefs of Masthead and Erskine Islands and on the horizon the iconic image of a desert island appears – low lying land punctuated by short trees and in the foreground surf breaking on the outer reef. Here comes the good stuff.

Heron from afar

The final approach to Heron is spectacular, as you close in on the wreck which protects the deep water channel the colours of the reef become vivid and bright. Light blues over the sand, greens over the coral and browns where the dropping tide expose the head of the bommies (coral covered outcrops around which marine life thrives – Bombora is the Aussie description of a mountain underwater, follow the usual practice of shortening the word and adding ‘ie’!!)

We join the group of people arriving on the island for a quick familiarisation tour, the resort (although you can’t really relate it to a true resort as it’s too small and nothing like a touristy-filled monstrosity) subtly blending into the Pisonia Forest at the western end of the island.

There’s a few different accommodation types on the island, all nestled amongst the Pandanus trees, from the waterfront properties to the smaller apartment-style rooms each offering a retreat far from phone reception, noise and the hustle and bustle of daily life – if you want to get away from it all this is the place to do it.

Pandanas Tree

The promise of some of the best snorkelling and diving on the Great Barrier Reef here on Heron Island has been banded around by a few people and after the incredible experiences of Lizard and Hayman Islands there’s so much to play for…who’ll come out on top I wonder!? If the scene outside my bedroom’s anything to go by then Heron’s surely looking good.  A quick snorkel in sight of the room on the incoming tide confirms a mass of aquatic life here; a small turtle, several white and black tip reef sharks and parrotfish galore. Bring on our scuba session tomorrow….

Now I’m known for loving sunrise – but sunset comes a very close second. Living on a small island offers both….having a few clouds makes it better…..but stick a wreck into the picture and suddenly you have as iconic a photo as an African elephant by a watering hole!

Another immaculate sunset

One of the many ‘in-touch-with-nature’ activities on offer here is the Sunset Cruise so we head out on a motor launch across the rowdy ocean and find the perfect location to witness the great fiery ball dropping behind the horizon for another day. I only hope the pictures do it justice.

Part Two

Dinner seemed well overdue when we got there;  the long day was starting to catch up with me, so a simple choice of three items for starters and then again for mains eased the usually complicated process of deciding between, excessive eating and satisfying my desire to eat awesome Aussie red meat everywhere I go.

End of day location: Heron Island

Distance travelled: 75kms

Location: Heron Island

Weather: Grey clouds, strong winds, light rain. Not exactly the weather for a tropical island paradise!

Sunrise didn’t happen; not as I wanted it to anyway. Grey clouds all around aren’t the best omen for quality diving. Let’s get the blood pumping then – Bre and I left the comfy room and headed out onto the beach for a lap of the island. At 1.8kms round the outside, it’s a great way to settle the breakfast and immerse yourself in island life by taking in the flora and fauna, which thrives here. The White and Grey Egrets are my morning favourite and look to be such glum things – as though it’s been raining everyday of their lives. At the windward side of the island it becomes clear to see how these sand covered cays become islands over hundreds of years…here’s a summary:

• Coral forms an underwater bommie or reef
• Sand piles up on the obstruction gradually forming a small cay
• Sea birds rest and use it as a new island and toilet dropping seeds on the surface
• Seeds root and bind the surface together allowing more creepers and plants to establish
• Bushes and trees eventually grow providing habitat for all forms of life
• An island is made!!

When you walk around an island such as this you can see exactly why it all happens too, pumice stone from volcanic activity across the ocean washes up on the tide line along with a huge range of seeds in all shapes and sizes – if I was a seed I’d setup home here for sure. Mangroves being a particular favourite with their love for mud and sand and their ability to root in saltwater situations.

Dive time finally and a chance to test out my lovely new dive gear, which I’ve been dying to get wet for the last few weeks; the promise of manta rays, turtles and sharks running through my head as I climbed aboard our dive boat anxious to get in the water to see what was on offer.

Heron's dive boat

“Follow the anchor line down and I’ll meet you at the bottom” our divemaster said, a quick squeeze of the air release on my BCD (buoyancy control device) and down I sank, dropping 12m to the ocean floor scanning the horizon for any aquatic beauties. Didn’t take long either – a green turtle gently propelling itself out of sight behind a bommie, the first to be spotted. The first of six we’d see today but the elusive rays staying well out of sight even though the dives before and after ours spotted them….funny how that happens or is it just a sales pitch!?!

Forty minutes flew by, Bre had been huffing air like a whale and her dive computer showed limited supplies so we headed to the surface, got out of our gear and tried to warm up in the sunlight…the difference in water temperature here noticeable at 19°c compared to the 23°c of the Whitsundays.

Ready for an underwater adventure

Hopefully tomorrow the sun will come out for real as we have two dives in the morning, today was a little disappointing. Rolling ocean swell and grey skies reduced the visibility with the bottom being stirred up limiting our chances of seeing everything we’d come to witness – I only hope the wind and swell are in the right direction tomorrow to give us a chance to dive at Heron Bommie, described by Lonely Planet as “The Best Fish Dive on the Great Barrier Reef,” an area which has had almost every film, documentary and story about the reef shot here.

Total for today’s dive: 7.5/10 just above average.

Day Two’s diving was altogether different. The wind dropped off, the skies cleared and the sun shone through the ocean illuminating the reef below and its inhabitants – this is exactly what I wanted, a chance to see the multitude of fish and marine life up close so that filming it would be not just a rewarding process for me but also for you the viewer. It’s be easy to bang on for ages about quite how good the fishes were but instead I’ve put together a little video, which will allow you to see for yourselves, so please sit back and enjoy the Heron Island compilation of the two days we spent above and below the water:

Total for today’s dives: 9.5/10 almost perfect – just one Manta Ray would have been good that’s all!

Location: Heron Island

Distance travelled: 5kms by boat, 500m diving.