The skills we had developed in India and Indonesia were of no use here. Fraser tried to negotiate his boomerang purchase. “What’s your best price?” he asked. At first the merchant looked confused and then replied, “The price that’s mawked on the boomerang.” When trying to get transport in India or Indonesia, tuk-tuks, or taxis, literally follow you and lightly tap their horns to let you know they are available. We tried several times one night to hail various cabs from the street in Cairns only to have them all whiz by. I walked into a nearby hotel to ask how to get one of them to stop. “Oh, they don’t stop here. Ya half ta call.” The bellhop explained. “Even if they’re empty?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m nawt sure why.” New country, new rules.
But we were here in Australia for one thing. The Great Barrier Reef. Two thousand kilometers long, it’s the only living thing visible from space. Malcolm was going to try scuba diving for the first time. He had been reluctant throughout the trip to give it a try. “I don’t see the difference between diving and snorkelling. I can see the same stuff.” It’s like trying to explain to someone the difference between drinking Nescafe and having a cappuccino. You just have to try it. We boarded the dive boat Compass under cool cloudy skies from the Cairns jetty. Once we started chugging out to the reef I knew why this charter was cheaper than any of the scores of others that are advertised here. The Compass took twice as long to go the 25 miles to the outer reef, about two and half hours.
Once at Hastings Reef, we tied up to a mooring, and rocked in the three-foot swells. The water is cool this time of year so we all opted for wet suits. The kids and I went snorkelling while Malcolm took an introductory dive. I don’t know why it was so important to me for Malcolm to like it. I got certified when I was 16 and have been hooked ever since. But it’s one of those things that is tough to do alone. I guess I figured if he liked it, it could be something we could do together.
As soon as Malcolm bubbled below the surface, Wally, a giant wrasse that weighs in at about 65 pounds and measures four feet long, accosted him. Wally has been hanging around the reef for more than 15 years and is kept fed and happy by the Compass crew. He loves being stroked and if you don’t pet him, he will come up like a dog and nuzzle you. Malcolm swam over to a giant clam that looked like it had been borrowed from the set of “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.” Unlike in that movie, however, these six-foot clams do not clamp down on divers’ limbs. To prove it, at the instructor’s prodding, Malcolm gently slipped his hand in the clam’s “mouth.” Finally, the instructor placed a feeding mushroom coral on Malcolm’s head for a photo op. (I did not approve of them picking up the live coral.)
I waited anxiously on the surface until Malcolm bobbed to the surface. “Well, how was it?” I nervously asked.
It was great! There’s nothing to it. You don’t have to do anything except breathe. I’m never going snorkelling again." Yes. Success.
That afternoon I went with Malcolm on his second dive and we cruised silently through coral canyons in crystalline waters. Unlike snorkelling where you’re constantly intruding on the ocean environment to catch a glimpse of something, with scuba you can become part of it. By sitting still on the ocean floor, schools of fish surrounded us (attracted by the bits of bait fish that the instructor threw into the water). I focused on one patch of coral for five minutes, watching the little coral polyps filter plankton out of the water, searching for brightly colored nudibranchs and following the movements of a little reef crab over a mound of brain coral.
Once we got back on shore we headed to the Information Center to sign up for another full day trip on a different vessel, Noah’s Ark. Now Molly and Fraser were not content to explore the reefs from the ocean surface. So the dive master strapped SCUBA tanks on the kids and took them down for a 20-minute underwater tour at Michaelmas Cay, swimming amongst the soft corals. Molly was hooked and asked when she could get certified as a diver. Fraser acted like he had been diving for years and couldn’t understand why the instructor wouldn’t let him go off on his own while they were under water.
Malcolm’s head had swelled when after our morning dive the instructor asked him how long he had been diving. “Yesterday was my first dive.” he casually replied. “Really?! You look so comfortable in the water I thought you were certified.” So now Malcolm is strutting around thinking he’s Jacques Cousteau.
