Australia travel,(Osprey,Shark, RibbonsGBR)

[caymaniac]

h3o once bubbled...
I AM SO JEALOUS YOU GOT TO SEE THE MINKE WHALES!

Steve's Bommie was awesome huh?

The Minkes were really something, after we left Lizard Island area, the Coral Sea turned into a mirror. We were using binoculars to spot dolphins and whales all around us and I mean you could see them 360 degrees, we had dolphins come and play in our bow wave a couple of times, maybe a dozen at a time. The captain then stopped the boat at one point and threw out lines and the Minkes would swim 20 feet underneath us then make a big circle and come back to look at us again. What was really interesting was to see them turn their eye up and look at you, WOW
Steve's Bommie was pretty cool, my wife really liked it, as you kept circling, there were Jacks (Trevally) circling us, then on the pinacle all the different things to see, I saw one anenome with three types of Clown Fish. To top it off, I was getting cold after an hour so I went solo back to the boat, because I was out of film anyway and a Minke swims under me just before I got on board. That sure made for great memories!
Where did you stay while in Cairns?
We were at the Tradewinds on the Esplanade, a very nice place to stay.
Did you make it out to Osprey or Lizard Island area?

Caymaniac

 

[h3o]

We were on a pretty tight budget, so we stayed at hostels the whole time, but it was a great experience in itself. First we stayed at YHA on the Esplanade, then Global Palace backpackers(which was more like a hotel than a hostel) in the center of town (near the stage thing), then we moved to Caravella 77 on the Esplanade.

That must have been quite an experience to make eye contact with a whale! I'm going to dive with S.O.F. again next time, this time, the coral sea trip. Hopefully I'll see Minkes this time. We didn't see any dolphins either...
however.. one day, i was leaning over the bow for about a half hour, looking into the water as we were going top speed, and I saw a big white thing (about the size of a dolphin) breach quickly directly in front of the boat, I have no idea what it was, it reminded me of a beluga or something... it was for just a split second... come to think of it... I've seen a lot of wierd things like that the same way... This one time in guam, I was staring into the water while the boat was in full motion, and I saw this fish with a huge eyeball near the surface, it kind of turned over on it's side, as if to face the eyeball toward me... you never know what to find in these waters!

Do you have any photos of the trip posted online? Give me your email address and I'll send you an ofoto.com album link... there are two albums, one of GBR and one of land photos.

 

[caymaniac]

Check your PMs.

Caymaniac