How to meet like minded divers whilst travelling solo in Australia?
- Thread starter MLangridge
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MLangridge
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All really helpful advice so far so thanks a bunch. at the moment I'm thinking I'll spend a couple of weeks diving the Barrier Reef from the Cairns area, seems like a lively dive community there. Not sure yet whether to do a liveaboard trip for a few nights or whether to complete my rescue diver course whilst there. The only other thing I was wondering is whether anyone has experience of diving the wreck of the SS. Yongala? From videos etc. it looks breathtaking so very keen to complete a couple of dives there. If anybody knows if its commonplace for dive schools in Cairns to offer day trips to that area that'd be great. Also it's rated for intermediate divers and I'm not entirely sure whether my advanced license and ~15ish open water dives would leave me sufficiently prepared for this, do you think it would be better to book this in at the end of my diving as a result?
Once again, thanks a bunch, such useful information on here!
Once again, thanks a bunch, such useful information on here!
I live near the Yongala and dive it somewhat regularly.
It is not a day trip from Cairns. You're looking at either a 4 hour drive south on the highway from Cairns to Townsville, and then a 3 hour boat trip out to the wreck with Adrenalin Dive; or a 6 hour drive from Cairns to Alva Beach and then a 45 minute boat trip out to the wreck with Yongala Dive. Whichever option you choose, you will have to get yourself to either Townsville or Alva Beach in order to get on a boat to dive the Yongala. If you don't have your own car, there is a coach service that runs from Cairns to Townsville a few times a day, which continues south through Ayr (about 20-30 minutes inland from Alva Beach). The dive shop at Alva Beach (Yongala Dive) will arrange to pick up people from the coach stop in Ayr. Or, like me, you can fly from Cairns to Townsville on Qantas - depends on your budget
You can dive the Yongala with little experience, but as the wreck is at 27-28 meters depth, you will either need to have an Advanced Open Water certification (or equivalent), or they will make you pay to do the "deep" adventure dive course while you're out on the wreck. Your post indicates you probably have your Advanced Open Water, so you should be fine. They will make you go with a guide though as you don't have a lot of dives logged yet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing on an unfamiliar dive site anyway. It can sometimes get a bit of current running through, but it's usually not too bad - you rarely have to drift dive on it.
Fun dive site, but like I said, it's not something you can really do from Cairns - too far away
It is not a day trip from Cairns. You're looking at either a 4 hour drive south on the highway from Cairns to Townsville, and then a 3 hour boat trip out to the wreck with Adrenalin Dive; or a 6 hour drive from Cairns to Alva Beach and then a 45 minute boat trip out to the wreck with Yongala Dive. Whichever option you choose, you will have to get yourself to either Townsville or Alva Beach in order to get on a boat to dive the Yongala. If you don't have your own car, there is a coach service that runs from Cairns to Townsville a few times a day, which continues south through Ayr (about 20-30 minutes inland from Alva Beach). The dive shop at Alva Beach (Yongala Dive) will arrange to pick up people from the coach stop in Ayr. Or, like me, you can fly from Cairns to Townsville on Qantas - depends on your budget
You can dive the Yongala with little experience, but as the wreck is at 27-28 meters depth, you will either need to have an Advanced Open Water certification (or equivalent), or they will make you pay to do the "deep" adventure dive course while you're out on the wreck. Your post indicates you probably have your Advanced Open Water, so you should be fine. They will make you go with a guide though as you don't have a lot of dives logged yet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing on an unfamiliar dive site anyway. It can sometimes get a bit of current running through, but it's usually not too bad - you rarely have to drift dive on it.
Fun dive site, but like I said, it's not something you can really do from Cairns - too far away
Thanks for the info on the Yongala. I've heard all sorts of things about it. Nice to hear a balanced view from someone who has dived it multiple times. It is on my bucket list.. gotta get busy and organize a way to do it. 
In lieu of advice on meeting like minded solo travellers, I'm just going to say this: Hi! I've been in Oz since the end of July, backpacking up the east coast, and am currently job hunting in Cairns.
If you dive with ops that also offer accommodation, you're bound to meet like minded people, although they may not all be solo travellers. The shop that WetPup mentioned in Alva Beach is one of those places... As for diving the Yongala, I had a couple of really nice dives there. It's definitely worth doing, but I'd try to get some more dives in first. When I was there, conditions were great, calm on the surface, no current, and decent viz, but if conditions aren't ideal, I can definitely see this as an intermediate dive, especially if you have little experience beyond 18m.
If you dive with ops that also offer accommodation, you're bound to meet like minded people, although they may not all be solo travellers. The shop that WetPup mentioned in Alva Beach is one of those places... As for diving the Yongala, I had a couple of really nice dives there. It's definitely worth doing, but I'd try to get some more dives in first. When I was there, conditions were great, calm on the surface, no current, and decent viz, but if conditions aren't ideal, I can definitely see this as an intermediate dive, especially if you have little experience beyond 18m.
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