Cairns – Snorkel, Dive & Cruise the Great Barrier (Australia)

Categories: Travel reports, Oceania, Australia

Today was the start of our three-day diving cruise to the Great Barrier Reef with Pro Dive Cairns.

Cairns

The Days
145 - 0
of our Trip around the World

Check In at Pro Dives Cairns

In the early morning we were picked up at just after 6 o’clock in front of our hotel and driven to the shop of Pro Dive Cairns. In the shop we had to do a few formalities, choose our equipment and then we went to the harbour, where we made our way to the Great Barrier Reef at around 7 o’clock in the morning.

Description & Price of the Diving Cruise

Our 3-day program is described as follows:

This 3 day liveaboard dive and snorkelling adventure is unmatched for experience and value and will show you the very best the Outer Great Barrier Reef has to offer. There is no doubt that the best way to really experience the Great Barrier Reef is to stay out there for a few days. You get much more time to relax and really enjoy yourself and ultimately more time for diving and snorkelling. It is also much better value than day trips or other liveaboard options. You’ll get to participate in up to 11 dives, 9 day and 2 night, or as a snorkeller you’ll get to experience a large variety of fantastic outer reef locations. We have 16 exclusive dive sites on 4 different outer reef locations and we visit a selection of these sites on every trip. These sites have been selected for their variety and quality of both coral and marine life as well as great visibility. We rarely dive the same site more than twice. Our 3 premium, purpose built, multi million dollar dive vessels provide the ideal way to stay out and experience what the reef has to offer. These vessels are 25 metres (80 feet) in length and feature 14 twin share and 2 double cabins with shared amenities for every 2 cabins (8 shared bathrooms total). The vessels are centrally air-conditioned, light and airy. There are 2 large decks, one for gear and one strictly for sun tanning and relaxing. These vessels are the only purpose built outer reef liveaboards operating in the area.

The dive cruise we had already booked at home via FTI, because the offer was really great: 3 days/2 nights on board a ship including meals and 11 dives for 425 euros per person. A total of 32 passengers and 8 crew members were on board. A good 75 of the passengers have taken a diving course on board – a normal “open water” diving course or an advanced course. We both just wanted to go diving without taking another course – so we could relax in between while the others sat in front of their textbooks.

The dive ship “Scubapro III”

The boat was built in 2004, is 24 meters long, 7 meters wide and can accommodate 32 passengers. On our boat “Scubapro III” the passengers were accommodated in cabins of two, which were spread over three decks. On the middle deck there was a large lounge where cooking, eating and learning was done.

The dives on the Great Barrier Reef

A total of 11 dives were ahead of us, including two exciting night dives. Half an hour before each dive we were briefed in detail with the help of a table sketch of the respective dive site. That is, where we will dive, how we navigate there and what we can see where best.

And then it started: wetsuit on, check and put on equipment, turn up bottle and into the water. What was special for us: we didn’t have a guide with us for the first time while diving. The first dive was still done, but from then on we were on our own. But we did very well, didn’t lose our orientation and saw great things underwater every time: reef sharks, turtles, stingrays, moray eels and lots of reef fish. The corals were very beautiful and had great different shapes.

The highlights were certainly a large group of “Green Bumphead Parrotfish”, who started slowly at 7 o’clock in the morning and the giant tortoise “Bryan”, which we saw sleeping in the cave during our night dive…

At noon on Saturday we made our way back to Cairns and were back at the harbour around 4pm. It was a really nice diving cruise and a great experience, because we hadn’t done anything like this before.

Group, Diving Cruise, Great Barrier Reef, Pro Dive Cairns, Australia, State of Queensland, Travel Report

The group of our diving cruise

Videos of our dives on the Great Barrier Reef

We made videos of diving with our GoPro every 3 days.

That was almost 4 weeks in Australia for us now. From tomorrow, a completely new chapter of our world tour begins – we will continue to Japan 🙂

All travelogues from Australia (2015)

With the entry to Australia the 2nd half of our 6-month world trip started for us. During our stay in "Down Under" we experienced a lot on the east coast, in the south and in the interior of the country: We visited the big cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Cairns, explored one of the country's most famous landmarks - Ayers Rock, held a sugar-sweet koala in our arms, experienced kangaroos in the wild, drove along the Great Ocean Road, went on a diving cruise on the Great Barrier Reef and experienced a breathtaking scenic flight over Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach. We enjoyed our trip through Australia very much and the country has enchanted us from the beginning.
Route Australien 2015 » New South Wales: Sydney - Tourist Attractions, Things to Do & Photo spots
» Northern Territory: Ayers Rock (Uluru) & the Kata Tjuta (Olgas)
» South Australia: Adelaide - Holding a Koala at Gorge Wildlife Park
» South Australia: Adelaide – Tourist Attractions, Things to Do & Photo spots
» Victoria: The town of Hahndorf & Kangaroos at Cape Bridgewater
» Victoria: The Great Ocean Road – 12 Apostles, Parrots & Koalas
» Victoria: Melbourne – Tourist Attractions & Dendy Street Beach
» Queensland: Brisbane – Tourist Attractions, Things to Do & Photo spots
» Queensland: Airlie Beach – Gateway to the Whitsundays & Great Barrier Reef
» Queensland: Airlie Beach – A sightseeing flight over the Great Barrier Reef
» Queensland: Airlie Beach – Whitsunday Islands & Whitehaven Beach
» Queensland: Cairns – Scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef
» Queensland: Cairns – Snorkel, Dive & Cruise the Great Barrier