“It’s too hot and humid to do anything physical”

“I wouldn’t think of going anywhere north of Brisbane over summer”

Well let me tell you something ladies and gentleman, I’ve been in Tropical North Queensland for the past two days and had one of the best, most enjoyable and trips since arriving in this fair state back in 2009.

____________________________________________________________________

This visit is all about a taste of adventure. Being the Adventurous by Nature capital of Australia, Cairns and the region hold a few events around the calendar to appeal to those people who love the great outdoors, keeping fit and enjoying life to the full. I think I fit into all three of those brackets.

First stop was Port Douglas, the gloriously beautiful town 75kms north of Cairns where I met up with Pat Kinsella (who also fits into all three categories), an adventure writer for a number of publications based out of Melbourne. He’s here to cover a few of the key events taking part in 2012 and it’ my job to escort him and have some fun.

Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) – something I’d tried once on the Brisbane River a few weeks ago with Riverlife….which was good. But take the boards and head out to Low Isles, a stunning coral cay, 30 minutes boat ride from Port Douglas marina and you’re talking about a different experience all together.

Brett from Wind Swell runs courses in SUP and kite surfing and is a wealth of knowledge on life on the water and the reef. Once we’d got our balance and found our sea legs he took us on a tour of the island, the mangroves and then together we all made the crossing to Woody Island in the distance.

I won’t lie to you here, the rain started….and intensified and came down in bucket loads but we were all having such a good time no one even cared. We were all armed with snorkels and masks and it’s something I never, ever get tired of – jumping in the water and snorkelling to my hearts content.

The corals around Low Isles are renowned for their colour and beauty and were fantastic. After spending an hour underwater clicking away with my camera I’d seen stingrays, turtles, sharks and so many fish it was like rush-hour on the reef!

All too soon we headed back to the shore smiling and laughing about how good the day had been and how little the rain had effected us. Pah it’s only a bit of water!

____________________________________________________________________

When the Solar Eclipse takes place on November 14th this year, a thin strip of land in the north of Queensland is plunged from day into night for around three minutes, a rather exciting event will be kicking off in Port Douglas, the Solar Eclipse Marathon (SEM).

Having participated in the 2011 Great Barrier Reef half marathon, I can vouch that it will be huge. The location rocks, the course is challenging and undulating and the climate at that time of year will be as close to perfect as you can get.

It was our job to head off and try some of the course out. At the 15km mark of this year’s full marathon the route arrives at the base of a 300 metre climb up through the rainforest….and definitely the hardest part of it is the Bump Track. It was originally an Aboriginal trail between the coastal and mountain regions, but became a crucial link between Port Douglas and the hinterland for settlers and miners.

After 40 minutes of slogging our way up the incline, we arrived at the clearing with views of the Coral Sea to one side and dramatic waterfalls to the other. It’s a hard grind but so rewarding when you hit the top! Just remember that during the event you have to then run all the way back down AND another 21kms to the finish line!

____________________________________________________________________

There is definitely no rest for the wicked on this adventure, so Pat and I jumped into the car and drove two hours south to the cane fields of Babinda. On the banks of the creek, Garry and his wife Linda run a very unique company called Babinda Kayak Hire offering kayak trips along the river. The local press from Channel 7 were there to meet us and filmed our departure as we floated off downstream enjoying the very tropical weather – again!

The creek winds through cane fields, past bamboo plantations, under bridges and eventually to the sandy beach of Babinda. Can I tell you this was fantastic! Four guys, a river to take on, some torrential rain and smiles all the way I guarantee. Sometimes the simplest things in life bring the greatest pleasure and this is one of them for sure.

So tomorrow….I really need to get some sleep now so that’s all I have time for today. Be sure to visit again in a couple of days time when we’ll have run Dunk Island, raced the Magnetic Island ferry and mountain biked some very exciting trails.

Needing sleep, but having a total blast in Tropical North Queensland – Adventurous by Nature!

Ben

With over 2,900 individual coral reefs covering more than 2,000kms you’d think organising an event of this scale would have logistical problems….but nature’s got it right every single time for the past 20,000 years.

This year was no different. On the nights of November 16/17th the spawning of the coral that makes up the Great Barrier Reef hit a crescendo with a blizzard of activity occurring beneath the waves all the way from Lady Elliot island in the south to Port Douglas in the north.

Synchronised spawning happens with almost all the types of coral species spawning on the same night. It happens so the male and female gametes can effectively meet. Imagine trying to match up eggs and sperm in an ocean of moving salt water!

The corals rely on environmental cues to determine the exact time to release their gametes into the water. The cues involve lunar changes, sunset time, day length, water temperature, and/or rate of temperature change. The short-term cue is most often the lunar cycle, with sunset cuing the mass release.

In some places, the spawn can be visually dramatic, clouding the usually clear water with gametes, typically at night.

Coral polyps (the name for each piece of coral) are clever little things. The coral found in the Coral Exhibit at REEF HQ in Townsville (in the middle of the town) spawns on exactly the same night as that found out in the middle of the ocean.

The ocean becomes one of the most fertile soups too with worms, fish and crustaceans all taking advantage of the protein-charged water. Chantelle from here at Tourism Queensland was out on the dive boat Wings III in Whitsundays during the event and managed to photograph some of the worms feasting on the mist of life

With all the diving I’ve done on the GBR I’ve not yet been in the right place at the right time to wittnes this activity. Being sat in the TQ office here in Brisbane doesn’t make it any easier!

But dive operations around the reef acknowledge it’s one of the most incredible events on the calendar with scientists, divers and photographers around the world flocking to Queensland to witness the event for themselves. Next year I intend to head out onto the reef with dive kit, cameras and lights ready to capture the action, but for now here’s some footage of the event:

The Best Expedition in the World was a roaring success.

Not just from a personal point of view as I completed the 1600km challenge without breaking or busting anything on my body (all toes, fingers, arms and legs are still connected).

My Hobie Adventure Island has been donated to the very worthwhile charity, Sailability who encourage and facilitate sailing and boating throughout Australia for people with disabilities. The perfect place for my yellow machine!

Yacht Sunshine was returned to its berth back with Sunsail back on Hamilton Island after covering 2000 nautical miles on the stunning Coral Sea.

Mum & Dad managed to drive around 15,000kms in their Apollo Motorhome without so much as even a scratch to them or the vehicle, blogging about and photographing their adventure as they went. Read more here.

And the media coverage the adventure gained throughout the journey was excellent with regular stories featuring on Channel 7, 9 and 10 here in Australia, ABC Radio and the newspapers across the country picking it up very well. We wrote regular features in the Courier Mail, filmed for Channel Ten’s Totally Wild Show and blogged for The Ecologist online.

I entertained journalists from around the world, giving them all the chance to come and have their own Queensland adventure out on the Great Barrier Reef; bloggers from Korea, a group from Hong Kong, travel agents from around Europe and journalists from throughout Australia.

A big thank you has to go out to Jessica Watson who came and camped with me for a night on Whitehaven Beach (tough hey!) and then raced back Hamilton Island on-board my Hobie kayak, taking on serious lung-fulls of water along the way! Best of luck to her and the team for their latest adventure, Another Challenge, the very awesome Sydney to Hobart Race which departs on Boxing Day.

I’ll be back very soon with another movie from the incredible dives we had with Pro Dive when we visited Cairns back in August.

So here for your viewing pleasure is a short movie that hopefully summarises the expedition and the adventures we had. It’s been recorded and uploaded in full HD, so maximise your screens, sit back and enjoy

It’s where the very edge of the largest living organism in the world meets the open ocean, where the swells roll in after building for 14,000kms and where the depth drops away from a tame 40m to a vertigo-inducing 2000m!

In the last week of the Best Expedition in the World the crew and I have decided to head out to this part of the reef to see exactly what it’s like out there. To dive some of the cleanest and clearest waters in the world where impeccable conditions allow marine life from the calm Coral Seas and the rolling Open Ocean to live side-by-side.

Fringing reef and inner islands

Having been up and down the Great Barrier Reef over the last couple of years exploring the inside of the GBR I’ve become familiar with the fringing reefs that surround the 300 islands. They’re home to huge number of hard and soft corals, provide ideal nursery conditions for schooling fish and are perfect for a first-ever snorkel or dive.

The Inner Reef

The next step out takes you to the inner reef with sections up to 10kms long, twisting in shape; some long and spindly, some expansively wide. Having protection from the open ocean and far enough from the land to not be affected by sediment and run-off from the rivers and creeks. They are beautiful swathes of coral thousands of years old interspersed with every single shade of turquoise you can imagine. If god was as artist he would have used up all his blue paint pot right here.

The large coral bommies that make up the lee-side of these reefs are dotted around like freckles on a face, each creating it’s own micro-environment reaching from sandy sea-bed to the rolling surf above thriving with life, both permanent and transient. As we cruise past them they show only their brown tops, hiding the menagerie of life below. It’s only when we don our snorkels and masks and dive into the clear blue beyond that we can see it up close in its true form. Beauty and majesty fail to describe the scene.

The Outer Reef

It’s rare that people get to where we’ve been today. Operators, day boats and live-aboards stick to the more sheltered waters of the inner reef choosing protection as the most important thing for their customers, and quite rightly so.

So when the option arises to sail beyond these limitations Skipper Paul, Sophee, Kayleen and I grab it. As we left Port Douglas the weather wasn’t exactly playing the game. To moor or anchor 40kms from the coast requires calm and light conditions for a comfy and stress-free night’s sleep for skipper and crew alike…we didn’t get that for the first three I can tell you!

Leaving Low Isles behind we tracked north to the relative shelter of Mackay Cay, a sand island on the north-west corner of Mackay Reef some 50kms from Port Douglas – still the inner reef though.

Finally on the morning of the 6th September the wind has dropped off enough for us to head out to our destination – Agincourt Reef. A few months ago I read a report in one of the international newspapers stating it to be “The best coral reef system in the world” and I simply had to see for myself if that was true.

Agincourt is made up from four separate reefs all face out into the pounding waves of the South Pacific Ocean. The Outer Reefs are distinctive for their sheer scale of their walls, dropping from less than a metre deep at the top to over 1200m with a few hundred metres. This really is the edge of the abyss and reputedly where the big stuff lives – whales, sharks and huge schools of pelagic fish.

We’ve visited three separate dive sites since arriving here and the range of geography and geology is remarkable. There are vast gullies on the outer wall lined with heavy-duty corals, rubble and sand. There’s also protected bays harbouring bright, colourful and fragile coral bommies offering protection to all manner of marine life. The clarity of the water and visibility are superb too, the ocean currents doing their part in washing and cleaning out the reefs making dive conditions just about perfect.

Agincourt reef really is one of the most enthrawling locations I’ve visited so far on the expedition and really lived up to all I was expecting – if you ever get a chance hook up with one of the operators who come as close as they can to here. Find out more here

Today I hit the water again in my kayak with a fairly long 52km leg to go from here at Agincourt 4 Reef through to Bloomfield Lodge – a luxurious stop-off for one night to recharge both mine and the laptop’s batteries.

Only a few days left now on the Best Expedition…

Yours ‘Expeditionally’

Ben

We headed across to Green Island for a couple of days to host two competition winners from STA Travel in the UK. Kelly and Will won out of 40,000 people, a trip to Australia for two weeks and we got to show them their first Great Barrier Reef action with a snorkel and tour.

The next day it was a chance to say thank you to some of the Best Expeditions sponsors who flew up to Cairns and then caught Great Adventures fast cat across to Green Island. With glorious weather it was a chance to loose the office shirt and put on the rash vests with a couple of hours soaking up the island lifestyle.

The big event of the week though is the start of the Cairns Festival. It runs for the next four weeks with a huge range of activities going on for all ages and interests.

We headed to the Underwater Film Festival to see some of the work that’s been done both locally and internationally in the last year by cameramen and producers alike. There is some awesome work that’s come out of the Cairns and Port Douglas area but some of the content from the World Festival of Underwater Films announced in Marseille earlier this year really showed the sort of quality you need to aim for. A totally different class!!

Here is one of my favourites, Guillaume Nery base jumping at Dean’s Blue Hole…and yes he did indeed do this on one breath!

Another great event we attended was the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair held at the Cruise Ship Terminal. At the start of the expedition we wondered how to get involved and after a bit of brainstorming decided to have one of our sponsor’s wetsuits (Aquanaut) painted by an indigenous artist.

It was such a great idea that others wanted to have a go too and in the end four very talented individuals attacked the suit in their own special way.

Billy Missi, Glen Mackie, Brooke Foster and Justin Majig all took their turn and added their own unique style to different parts of the wetsuit. Justin even created my own personal cod-piece…although it might have been too small!!

We opened the fair in the presence of Rachel Nolan, Arts Minister for Queensland and the press loved the finished product. I modelled the wetsuit in temperatures of around 28c and boy did I feel the heat! Here’s some of the images from the day.

We head out to the Great Barrier Reef again tomorrow with one of the Cairns operators, Pro Dive Cairns, for a three day live aboard experience and I cannot wait.

Richard and Christophe from Underwater Earth are here to again help out with capturing some incredible photos and vision that I’ll have up on this site just as soon as I can.

Yours Expeditionally

Ben

Orpheus Island research station has absolutely loads of these huge beauties lying around. At low tide, the shells of around 300 Giant Clams become exposed and so commences one of the most awesome natural displays I’ve ever seen – the visual symphony of the squirting clams!

The abundance of clams around Orpheus Island can be attributed to an experiment. In the 1970s, a scientist used this site to investigate the viability of farming Giant Clams to repopulate Asian waters, as the majority had been harvested to the verge of extinction.

In order to clean and expel sand and grit washing over their muscles, the clams squirt seawater high into the air. If there were only a few, you’d probably miss them. Here there are so many means you can sit, and watch, and laugh away at the spectacle!

According to traditional Chinese belief, the Giant Clam’s adductor muscle (which opens and closes its shell) is thought to be an aphrodisiac. Too many of the world’s endangered species are hunted and harvested to supply ingredients for alternative medicines and such.  Thank goodness, Giant Clams are currently protected by the CITES agreement – they can no longer be exported without a permit.

Today, Giant Clams are seen as precious, friendly giants. Due to their immense size, they were once feared and misunderstood. Often labelled the ‘killer clam’ or  ‘man-eating clam’, tales of divers getting caught in their steely grip and drowning circulated far and wide (we know, today, they were mostly fable). Even the U.S. Navy Diving Manual had instructions on how to escape the creature’s clutches.

The clam can close its shell, some of the larger ones cannot even close it tightly, however it has to go through the slow process of emptying its water chamber; and so the legendary tales of divers being drowned when getting stuck in a clam are mostly fable.

Nowadays, Giant Clams aren’t considered aggressive. However, they continue to be the largest species of bivalve mollusc on record. In 1817 on the coast of Sumatra a specimen of T.gigas was discovered that measured 137cm, the weight of just the shells was 230kg suggesting that the live animal would have weighed about 250kg.  Another rather large giant clam was found in 1956 off the Japanese island of Ishigaki. When it was finally examined in 1984 the shell was measured at 115cm long and the total weight was estimated at 340kg.

In between the two shells you can see the soft mantle of the clam, which varies greatly in colour from golden brown to yellow or green/blue. There are bright coloured circles on the flesh called iridophores, they have lenses that direct light into the mantle; the clam senses light and then figures out if there is a potential predator nearby and it needs to close its shell. There are only two holes in the mantle, the inhalant siphon contains the gills and water is drawn in to extract oxygen and to filter it for plankton; and the exhalant siphon which is tube-like can expel large amounts of water during spawning or when the clam needs to close its shell.

Giant Clams also have a long lifespan, surviving 100 years or more in the wild. All of them commence life as males, eventually switching to hermaphrodite status. At spawning time, chemical signals trigger clams to release either sperm or eggs, the largest releasing up to 500 million eggs at one time. Once fertilised, the eggs enter a swimming stage and then a planktonic stage before they settle down into the reef for the rest of their lives.

Giant Clams can be found in shallow, warm tropical waters on reef flats and shallow lagoons in the Pacific Ocean. However their range has reduced since the 1970s, due to over-harvesting for their meat and shells. These exotic-looking creatures are also popular in the aquarium trade.

These clams are now classified as vulnerable, and are protected by the CITES agreement so they cannot be exported without a permit. Attempts at farming them have also helped to reduce pressure on wild populations; and may be used to help restock wild populations where necessary. With a bit of thought and care these beasts of the mollusc world can return to their old haunts in the Indo-Pacific waters.

Watching the Orpheus Island Giant Clams community create their water-spitting symphony was an unforgettable experience. I hope these gloriously quirky creatures receive the protection they need so they can continue to thrive on the Great Barrier Reef.

Teaching future generations about life under the water gives them something to relate to and something to respect and treasure. The work that organisations such at GBRMPA conduct at school level means that every year new Reef Guardians graduate and take their knowledge away with them.

Daydream Island in the Whitsundays held a Eco-Conference for Kids whilst we were there highlighting themes such as coral bleaching and marine debris. We joined in, I gave a presentation about the reef itself, fed the stingrays and helped coordinate the lessons about waste and recycling.

Libby Edge from Eco-Barge Services highlighted one of the main causes of concern being storm-water drain run-off.

Imagine a thunderstorm dumps 100mm of rain on a town. The waters race into the storm-water drain systems carrying with them all the bottles, lids and accumulated rubbish that sits in the gutters, washing them directly out into the ocean.

Over 60% of the waste found in the ocean comes from this source. I don’t have a simple solution but reducing this will have dramatically positive effects on the beaches and oceans of the world….marine life will be the biggest beneficiary of course!

We spent a morning with the team from Reef HQ here in Townsville, GBRMPA’s public side and the largest coral sea aquarium in the world. Their Turtle Hospital was set up two years ago to rescue and rehabilitate injured sea turtles from the Queensland coastline.

They currently have 17 patients and the majority suffer from ingested plastic bags; the single most damaging marine debris source. Turtles feed on sea grasses and jellyfish. To a turtle plastic bags can appear to be jellyfish. They eat them, can’t digest them and their intestines block up resulting in one very ill turtle.

Nick and the team at the hospital have had four patients here since the early part of 2011 and their time for release back into the wild has finally come, perfectly coinciding with our arrival. Polly and her friends are heading back to the ocean!!

These normally placid creatures seem to sense their impending good fortune, splashing around in the tops of their tanks waiting for the off. We carefully lift them out, place them into large plastic crates and cover their heads with a damp towel…just to make the journey to the beach a little less traumatic.

They’ve created quite a stir in the media. We’re met by television crews from Channels 7, 9 and 10! Polly, Bertie, Beagle and Stumpy (had a flipper bitten by a croc apparently)

One by one we take them to the water’s edge, remove the towels and lower them gently onto the sand….AND THEY’RE OFF!!

It is simpy one of the most incredible things I have ever been involved with. Watching these gentle, beautiful reptiles go back to their own world is awesome. With a few uncomfortable waddles down the sand they’re once more into a world where they become graceful, efficient and at one.

Without a thankful look back to their doctor Nick they leave, surfacing only to take a short breath a hundred metres from the shore.

Four turtles are back where they belong. It will take a conserted effort by individuals, councils and governments around the world to stop plastic bags entering the waters of the world’s oceans.

It can be done, but will require the effort of many, many people. Experiencing the release today reinforced my desire to help make this happen.

The simplest first step? Don’t take carrier bags from shops….buy green bags and reuse them over and over again!

We had a mission…to dive the SS Yongala on the 100th anniversary of it’s sinking.

Here’s the clip they put together that went to air last week nationwide here in Australia:

I challenged Jessica Watson, youngest person to sail around the world, to a race from Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island to Pebble Beach on Hamilton Island.

Unfortunately it didn’t all go according to plan….have a look at this movie we shot to find out what happened: