The Great Barrier Reef

D: We flew into Cairns, Australia from Phoenix ( A total of 19 hours of flying time; had to switch planes in LA, Nadi, Fiji, and Sydney and unfortunately nothing eventful like snakes or a hijack ). Utterly exhausted and jet lagged we crashed for a full 12 hours and then a bit more. We had some time the next morning to catch the sunrise and to do a little bit of yoga. You see, being flexible with your travel plans is always a good thing. We rented an underwater camera and then jumped on a diving  boat, the TAKA. I've always wanted to do a live-aboard. Rama got his PADI Open Water Certification with ProDive here at the Great Barrier Reef 10 years ago and lived on a boat then. We did 14 dives (around 3-4 everyday) and didn't really have to worry about anything but diving and having a good time.
     The TAKA was very comfy- we had our own little cabin with an attached toilet and shower.

At the dive deck, getting geared up.

After every dive, Ruben , the master chef,  pulled us aside and presented us with scrumptious meals he had made especially made for us because were one of the only vegetarians on the boat. We felt totally pampered with this kind of attention because we have become quite accustomed to making do with the sides at restaurants everywhere else. We didn't own any diving gear except for our masks and snorkels so we had to rent all of it- this adds to the expense a bit. I must say the Taka staff was extremely well organized, punctual, friendly, and hard working. We felt secure with them; everything just seemed to flow according to plan. I decided to do my Advanced Diver Certification which would certify me to dive at night, do deep dives (up to 30 meters), do a little bit of underwater photography, and be able to navigate.

    Challenger Bay: We set off from Cairns along the Great Barrier Reef and our first stop was Challenger Bay. The water was a comfortable 29 degrees Celsius and the visibility was at least 10-15 meters.We spent some time getting used to being under water after a few months ( the last time we had done any diving was November 2010). It's amazing what you can see underwater in this part of the world; an entire underwater city opens itself up waiting to be explored! We saw a bunch of yellow sweetlips- their bright colors help them blend in better with the coral.

Lighthouse Bommie: Bommie comes from the aboriginal term bombora or pinnacle. We really enjoyed all the bommie exploration on this trip because navigation is rather simple- you just have to go up or down the pinnacle. this leaves a lot of time to just enjoy the awesome life on it; all the different varieties of coral,coral groupers, butterfly fish, unicorn fish, feather stars.

The ubiquitous butterfly fish.

Cod Hole: Further north, we parked the boat for the evening at the Cod Hole. The potato cod is an endangered, native fish in these waters.  Completely harmless and rather dumb-looking, the cod can reach a length of 6.5 feet and can weigh up to 240 pounds! We watched as, Rowie, the trip supervisor, brought out a large tub full of pieces of frozen tuna and presented it to the dominant female. We all planted ourselves in a large circle on the sandy bottom and stared as she gobbled up her meal. She swam in circles around each and everyone of us and soon, a school of fusiliers and a few red bass decided to join the party. Ben, the amazing trip photographer, had a true talent for capturing these moments.After the feed, John, the Advanced course instructor, pulled us aside and we engaged in a few fun peak performance buoyancy exercises. We learned how to float with different weights, played around with hula hoops, and did some headstands.

The gluttonous Cod!

We did a second dive at the Cod Hole: my first night dive. It takes a lot more to adjust your buoyancy at night just because you can’t see much. We used the eerie green glow of the boat’s halogen lights to navigate. The cod has apparently learned to hunt using the light from flashlights. So some of the other divers played God and watched with glee as the ever opportunistic Cod snapped them up in flash.

North Horn/ Shark Feed:  That night we set out for open waters- the Osprey Reef.  Osprey Reef lies on the north-western Queensland Plateau which is a huge submerged platform that was once part of mainland Australia, then separated and subsided. Dotted over the Queensland Plateau are coral atolls. Osprey Reef is one such atoll and the steep walls of this oceanic reef drop more than 1 km into the Queensland Trough which divides the Australian mainland from the plateau.  We did our first deep dive here ( 30 meters). Colors are absorbed differently at this depth so bright red looks purple.  We brought down with us a tomato and some eggs too demonstrate some of these different properties.  Everything is compressed down there so egg yolks don't disintegrate but float around intact and we played catch with them! Soon we were surrounded by a school of red bass who took the opportunity to gobble up the yolks.

    Our second dive in this area  was action-packed- the shark feed! Our guides drilled holes into large chunks of frozen tuna and threaded large mental chain through them. They then lowered it slowly into the water onto the reef about forty feet below. We all took our seats in a coral amphitheater and watched as more than 40 sharks swarmed the tuna.  There were whitetip reef sharks and oceanic white tip sharks and grey nurse sharks..and they  were all strikingly close to us but completely disinterested in us.  All they cared about was grabbing their share of the tuna. They ravenously attacked their food for a good 15-20 minutes until all of it was gone… there were other fish that tried to participate in the feast but couldn’t get a share…until the very end; the last piece of the prize was snatched up by a potato cod when there was a lull in the frenzy.  A grey nurse shark did try to chase the cod down but it was too late and shark feed was over.  Ben, as crazy and fearless as he is, got right up in the sharks’ faces with the camera.  This was by far Rama’s favorite dive. 

A majestic reef shark!

Juan & Emelie with their cozy campervan.

Cypress Hill:  We then set out for Cypress Hill. We hooked up with another couple on the boat, Juan and Emelie. Juan is from Colombia and Emilie, from France. They met when Juan took part in a kite- flying competition in Emelie’s town in France (Juan was incidentally part of Colombia’ s national kite flying team!).   They had come to Australia four months ago to travel, work, and explore.. she worked as a nanny and he worked as a diving guide as he is quite an experienced diver with more than 300 dives. They often deliberately got lost underwater so that they could go and have a jolly good time by themselves ;)


All four of us had a lot of fun on this dive; we brought down with us an Australian flag and posed for silly pictures.  Rama and I amused ourselves with front and back flips and underwater yoga.

That's us diving down under! 

The Entrance: Huge towering coral walls made navigation a bit tricky here but it was a great experience overall. We saw a moray eel and a couple of sharks.  It’s a very humbling experience to look out into the blue waters and find all of a sudden, a shark swimming towards you.  You feel very vulnerable, clumsy and tiny. But guess what, there are better things for the shark to do than be worried about you.

Steve’s Bommie:  We motored back towards what turned out to be one of my favorite reef sites.  A diver named Steve passed away in a motorcycle accident ( yes , on land) and his friends and family contacted the Marine Park Service and the name of the site was then changed to Steve’s Bommie in his honor.  This underwater pinnacle is an absolute haven for a myriad of different creatures. Our second dive was my absolute favorite. Rama filmed me as I chased a large school of yellow fusiliers around. It was extremely comfortable, we did not need to get very deep to see all the amazing life all around us. We found a variety of different nemos!  Iif the real life cycle of the clown fish (nemo) was made into a movie it would involve sex change, incest, and abandonment- a blockbuster plot!  I finished my underwater photography portion of the course here at Steve’s bommie. 

 Nemo- a true clownfish that is simply a delight to watch as it coyly darts in and out of the anemone.

2 and2/3rds:  Next up,   the navigation portion of the course.  We paired up and tried a few exercises of trying to find the boat and trying to come back to the same spot  using our compasses.  Rama teamed up with Scott and Stephanie while I was busy with my drills.

Beer Garden:  Our last night dive on this trip was at Beer Garden.  Rama and I decided to go on our own for this one. We saw a beautiful puffer fish and tried to find the turtles.  I had to surface within 30 minutes though because I had a reverse block ( in my ear) and got a bit dizzy, but turned out just fine after a few minutes.

Norman Reef:  Our last day on the boat- it was all over so fast.  The last two dives on this reef were quite relaxing and we spent a lot of time exploring the coral at around 5-6 meters. This gave us plenty of time, probably because I was more relaxed. I tried going through a relatively small cave for the first time.

What a wonderful trip overall! We caught with the crew and other friends from the boat for dinner at the Green Ant Pub in Cairns that night.  Cairns is crazy expensive- 30 dollar sangrias and 27 dollar fajitas (not our cup of tea). We were tuckered after dinner, had a flight to catch to Bali the next morning and so dove into bed- that was our last dive in Cairns with colorful dreams of exquisite corals and dancing fish like the one below!

Gorgeous colors galore!

A mile down the Grand Canyon! Boy was it grand!

After a fantastic time at Eloy**, we repacked our backpacks to head down for a few days into the Grand Canyon. A 4 hour drive from Phoenix got us there. Unlike other national parks with great sights, the Grand Canyon is the only one that remains hidden, shy, and creeps up on you. It waits till you drive to the parking lot. It waits till you walk out of the trees and saunter to the edge. For some the anticipation builds while some are not even ready to get the anticipation started. We parked our car and tiptoed towards the edge of the South Rim. I led Deepa with her eyes closed and tried not to look myself till I got to the railing at the rim. It was my first time and Deepa’s second time (she had visited when she was about 13) at the canyon. We shuffled along like a blind couple with me reaching out my right hand for the railing. We then opened our eyes with childlike anticipation. To say that we experienced a visual orgasm would not be a lie. The view exploded in our faces. We were engulfed by such immense grandeur and beauty that it almost seemed that the earth was showing off to compensate for the rather pedestrian flat terrain on our drive to the canyon. Over the railing the earth simply gave away for nearly a mile bursting into an array of formations in brilliant shades of red, green, and blue.

Photos don't really do the canyon justice...

These formations resembled temples from Asia and several of them were in fact named after them. There was the Rama Shrine, The Shiva Temple, and the Krishna Shrine. The rocks at the valley floor were called the Vishnu basement. It was simply breathtaking in every direction and we couldn’t believe our eyes, lost our speech while not being too sure about olfactory capabilities either : serious sensory overloading! I can only imagine what Copper Canyon (bigger than the Grand Canyon) in Mexico would look like! Dazzled, we moseyed our way to the backcountry office to get overnight hiking permits. We lucked out and got permits for 3 nights on the Hermit trail (starting 2 days later )which was reputed to be an unmaintained and narrow trail fraught with rock falls and jaw dropping ledges. We just made it back to soak in the sunset views and dabble in the soft light with our camera. Photos hardly capture the depth and the sheer beauty of the canyon-a mile deep , 277 miles long and 10 miles wide.

A photo of the canyon, from the rim.

We were lucky to catch the full moon

Deepa settling down in our tent at Mather campground.

Red towering cliffs on one side and drops on the other.

We camped on the rim at the Mather campground. The temperature plummeted during the night to barely above freezing! We spent the next day driving around the rim ans soaking in different perspectives of the canyon. We also offered a lift to a retired French Canadian couple, Richard and Hugette,  who invited us in for drinks when we dropped them. We caught the IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon which gave us some great aerial perspectives. We went back to our tent with eager anticipation for our hike down to the Colorado the next day. We were up by 6, packed our backpacks, breakfasted on some terrible oats ( no more oats on hikes ever! Need dosas!) and were at the Hermit Rest trail head by 8am. The day was going to be a long knee busting descent of nearly 5000ft to Hermit Rapids on the banks of the Colorado, covering 9.7 miles! The recommended hikes for first timers at the Canyon are The South Kaibab Trail and the Bright Angel trail owing to the fact that it has frequent rest stops with potable water, more hikers, wide trail and pretty hard to to get lost on it. But for the same reasons, permits are hard to come by. So the more demanding Hermit trail it was. The upper parts of the hike was on landscape with the whiter Kaibab limestone before giving way to Hermit Shale that givens the Canyon its reddish appearance.

Gorgeous temple like formations rising from the valley floor.

As we descended into the canyon through a really narrow path, we caught occasional breathtaking glimpses of the valley below. Decorated with green desert shrubbery, the sheer expanses of cliffs dropped precipitously for nearly mile down from the rim and then ran out into giant red flanks all the way down to the river. All around us temple-like formations jutted out into the azure sky, each of which announced its imposing presence with stark clarity and almost mocked at us hikers from their dizzying heights, daring us to muster a climb  if we could. Our first rest stop came at about a 1000 ft below the rim after 1.6 miles at Santa Maria springs where we refilled our bottles, iodized them and set of briskly once again. Our trail leveled off for the next 3.3 miles as we traversed to the right below the the trail-head, delicately making our way through some enormous rockfall debris and boulders precariously perched on cliff ledges. We gradually descended into the middle level of the canyon stopping for short breaks at Lookout point ( yes one yells lookout! when you approach the ledge )and Breezy point with soaring walls to one side and sheer drops on the other. Lunch was a few cliff bars (yuck...and delicious water down our parched throats.) By 2pm we got to the top of what was called the Cathedral, a set of spires of red rock that we weaved around and then descend steeply for the next couple of thousand feet through relentless switchbacks punishing our feet and jolting muscles that we never knew existed.


A couple of hikers going the other way warned us about a rattler on the trail, but unfortunately we did not see any.
We got to Hermit Springs at about 3pm just 1.5 miles from our final camp at Hermit Springs. Everything now was towering around us, now that we were almost at the bottom of the canyon. We stumbled our way along the trail like village bumpkins walking around for the first time in Times Square just gawking in awe at the grandeur all around us. Although the canyon can easily accommodate 3 Empire State buildings stacked on top of the other without a problem!  It was close to 5pm by the time we got to Hermit Rapids on the Colorado river. The river was pretty fast flowing there creating some grade 4 rapids. It was a chai brown in color owing to the silt. Our legs were like jelly and we rested on huge slab just watching the river flow through the canyon before it disappeared around a bend. As we sat there nursing our aching feet, it was tough to wrap our minds around the concept that the erosive forces of this mighty river together with the continental drift over millions of years had carved our this beautiful canyon. We just felt like a fleeting moment in geological time and yet, being in the present, soaking in the scenery with the winds of the canyon on our faces, we felt incredibly alive, peaceful and joyous.

The Colorado river at night creeping through the canyon.

That evening, the weather was a cool 60C and perfect. It was time to pitch our  tents and cook dinner ( Trader Joe's Pav Bhaji with Lemon Basil Rice) and take some night shots of the full moon gliding across the sky over the raging rapids. We slept like babies soothed by the gurgling waters barely 30 feet away from our tents.
Day 2 was a day filled with exploring the ridges that rose from just behind the tent. We chose a pretty steep slope dotted with grassy patches amongst rock cliffs. The idea was to scramble our way to the ridge, walk along it and take some nice photos while

Head lamp smiley traced out in the air!

enjoying a good lunch break. The climbing required intense focus. We did not have ropes, so we chose a route that was probably a 5.2.(US rock climbing rating). Took us about an hour and a half to scramble up a thousand feet and all the time we were right at the banks of the Colorado, seeing more and more of the meandering river as we gained elevation. We gained a ridge by about noon, sat down to have lunch and shoot some photos. We saw some rafters coming down the river. Rafting the Colorado would be really cool. Definitely want to come back to do that. Down climbing a 5.2 requires intense focus, so we were all pumped up going down back to the tent. Had a blast! We got back down at about 3pm and had another hot lunch before packing our tent. We decided we would hike up to Hermit Springs just 1.5 miles from Hermit Rapids to get a head start to our hike out to the rim.

We spied on some rafters from a high ridge.

A waterfall close to Hermit springs.

So a relaxing hike to close out an exciting day of scrambling and exploring. We pitched our tents once again at about 6pm, cooked a dinner and read a bit of the book we had carried down, " Ranger Confidential". Not a bad read .. just some interesting anecdotes from a ranger about her experiences primarily in the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. We crashed at about 9pm as we needed to get in as much rest as possible for the hike up to the rim the next day.We were up at 5 am, got the stove going and had two packets of noodles for breakfast. We had had enough of that terrible oats and decided to have a big breakfast. We loaded up on bars and trail mix in our pockets for our hike up, hoisted the backpacks and were hiking out of camp by 630am! The weather was cool and perfect. Sunrise came in all its glory, casting golden shades on the giant walls around us. It was a perfect start. We had nearly 5000 ft to climb and quickly got into a rhythmic plod, stopping every 30 to 45 minutes to refuel, soak in the scenery and take photos. We were slowly chewing up the miles and more importantly the elevation. Because of our early start we took it slow and steady. Before long we passed our landmarks that we had encountered on the way down and settled down for a long lunch break. The final 2 miles to the top of the rim was a relentless climb which we felt the park authorities had stretched out unnecessarily. But by 3pm we got to the top! We did it, hiking to the Colorado and back in one piece ( well 2 actually, considering the both of us). The high it gave us actually helped us mosey our way out of the park, take a scenic drive through pretty Sedona and the Red Rocks that included a pit stop to gorge down a banana split. We then split from there to make it to Krishna Cafe in Chandler AZ by 9pm!! We had missed South Indian food for too long and the situation was desperate! We sent the waiters scurrying around to fetch a thali, with its several stainless steel cups polished to sparkling luster in no time by methods that we better not describe here, and a Special Mysore Masala Dosa that crackled and hissed in my fingers on its way to a bottomless pit. We promptly devoured everything in front of us and flopped back on the chairs with gustatory glee and supreme satisfaction. We got some oomph from the somph ( those delicious fennel seeds that I would like the federal government to make mandatory in all restaurants) and dragged ourselves back to Siddarth's haven by 10pm. We then imprinted our smiles on the pillows and dissolved into bed.

A satisfying day of hiking. Almost at the rim !

Arizona- March 2011

Phoenix, AZ: We left Boston on March 1, 2011. Up until then, we had been waiting restlessly for Deepa's Travel document to arrive.. we thought that we would be able to leave the country on February 15th. We were scheduled to arrive in NZ on Feb 17th and spend the following 5 weeks exploring both the North and South Islands and then carry onwards to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We scheduled our sublet to arrive on March 1, 2011.  Bus alas! Things seldom go as they are planned! We waited and waited and waited...and those of you who were with us through those awful days of waiting know how painful it was watching our dreams of catching the end of summer in NZ slip away. During the wait we did improve our winter mountaineering skills quite a bit though.. we climbed Mt Washington, Mt Lafayette, and Mt. Cardigan (photos coming soon).We decided that since we didn't have our apartment past March 1st anymore anyway, there was no use in hanging around in Boston. We made a quick decision to fly to Arizona...amongst other reasons to come out West** was the fact that the weather here is simply perfect this time of year, there's plenty of exploring to do from little day hikes to strenuous backpacking with an entire wealth of mountains as well as the Grand Canyon, and most importantly Deepa's cousin, Siddharth who lives in Phoenix.

     In the four years that Siddharth has been in the US, I have only been able to see him a few times and have never really been able to come out to visit him much because of our schedules and time constraints but this last month has been such a blast reconnecting. Siddharth is my first cousin, our mom's are sisters. I was 6 when he was born and still remember being intensely jealous of him because he took all the attention away from me. My parents were away in Nigeria at the time and had left me under the care of my aunt, Shanthi, and my grandparents. During those years, Shanthi was my main caretaker, my mother, and my best friend more than anything else. That's why I have never called her Aunty or Chitti- she was always my Shanthi and when she got married and became pregnant with Siddharth,  I still insisted that I be the center of her world. She and Giri Uncle happily obliged until of course, Siddharth was born. I remember not wanting to share Shanthi with him but at the same time loving him as a brother (complex emotions for a 6 year old). Soon I moved to Cote d'Ivoire to be with my parents and Shoba but we would visit India every summer for two months... we would look forward to spending time with Siddharth and the new addition to the family, Ashwin who was born a couple years later. The years flew by and Siddharth was off to engineering school and Ashwin to law school... soon I was herein the US doing my residency and Siddharth applied and got into Arizona State University to complete his Masters in Engineering. He has since then made his home in Phoenix and has invited me to come out multiple times.

 

CC, Siddharth, Arundhati, Rama and I
at Kabab Palace;after a hard day's work,
they needed to wind down with a
good birayani. Siddharth smelled his
hands for  hours after-hehe

   Rama and I jumped at the chance of being able to spend time with Siddharth here in Phoenix. We have really had a chance to see what a handsome young man he has grown into. He is such an easy going, fun loving, responsible, baby brother to both of us.** First of all he is an amazing cook...a quality that both of us foodies really appreciate. From cooking molagootal to dum aloo or enjoying a really good Hyderabadi birayani together, we had such a ball!! We also got to meet a lot of his friends including CC and Arundhati who are darlings and took care of us while we were there.** With Siddharth's help we were able to use his place as a base and travel all over Arizona.

Enjoying a toast with Siddarth and friends

We received my travel document finally last week but then that would have meant that we would have only 5 days in NZ and a couple of those days would probably be spent recovering from jet lag. Thus the plan to travel to NZ was dropped with much sadness...but someday it will happen! Routeburn track, Tongariro, Mt Cook, Abel Tasmen... will miss us but not for long!

     We decided to continue on with the trip as we originally planned it which was to leave to Cairns, Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef. We will spend a week on a boat there doing multiple dives.In the meantime, we had a few extra days in Arizona which we spent at the Grand Canyon.