Townsville & Scuba |
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Townsville is just South of Cairns and is the jumping off point for the Mike Ball Coral Sea scuba diving trip that originally brought us to Australia. While there's not a whole lot to Townsville itself, |
there is a nice aquarium where Albert became the big one that got away. The scuba trip itself was pretty good. Mike Ball's Spoilsport is a nice ship for diving, but its catamaran design proved to be VERY tippy. Relatively small waves (1m) after our first day of diving made half of the 28 guests seasick enough to pass on dinner. Our first day of diving was at the wreck of the Yongala (a passengerliner that went down with 122 people). Here we saw large Queensland Gropers and many Sea Snakes (VERY poisonous, but not really a threat). After the Yongala, we cruised through the Great Barrier Reef to the Flinders Reef Complex (in the Coral Sea). Overall, the diving and visibility were pretty good, but the large fish life was wanting. The health of the Coral Reef was excellent (with minimal diver damage since this boat is the only boat diving the reef complex). And the shark feed dive was pretty exhilarating (we have a video). Our last dive was the only dive actually on the Great Barrier Reef. Nothing too special due to the current and poor visibility. |