Water Sports "Down Under"

Be Aware Of Posted Warnings!

If you haven't read it somewhere already, swimming in North QLD beaches is done at a risk and coordinated with local advice and a calender. Cairns was the only vacation I've ever taken where a fatal shark attack and warnings about killer jellyfish were normal to find on tourism web pages. Check first before swimming at any beach if it's box jellyfish season because we just got back and were told while there not to swim anywhere but a pool or at the reef. The reef is safe because the jelly's (stingers they call them) don't end up that far out and the only common sharks found at the reef are non-aggressive smaller reef sharks. Luckily the resort has two great lagoon style pools and the city of Cairns has "The Lagoon" near downtown which, I hear, is a man made lagoon alternative since the beaches are shut down or restricted relatively often. You can see the park area around it as you drive through and I heard it's nice but the reef snorkeling and the resort pool served well enough for me.

Please note that jelly's/stingers can also be found out on the reef. During our stay at Cairns, we spent a night on board a ship out at the reef so that I could do some diving. While surfacing from one dive, my dive partner got stung, raising a large welt across his chin. Fortunately, it wasn't one of the deadlier jelly's and they quickly put something on it that negated most of the worst effects. Because we were wearing full dive gear (wetsuit, gloves, hood) I managed to escape untouched and Marcos only got stung in that one unprotected area.Despite that, I'd go back in a heartbeat! The resort pools were nice looking, but the water was quite cold when we were there (May - beginning of their winter down-under)

Please use every precaution when diving in areas that are frequented by jellyfish and/or sharks. These are not ocean inhabitants that one should ever take lightly!