Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Ribbon Reefs: Pixie's Caves

Ribbon Reef 9½ aka Pixie's Reef features a number of dive sites bearing Pixie's name, this one being Pixie's Caves. You will start this Great Barrier Reef dive descending down a fixed line to its base of around 12 metres. From here you will likely continue your descent down the sloping reef to where a gentler slope begins between 25 and 30 metres.

You can make your way along the deeper sections with the reef on your right shoulder and look in the sand for some small but interesting sights such as shrimp-goby partnerships, nudibranchs such as the lined Nembrotha, and flat worms. There are a number of patches of coral dotted throughout the sand and you are likely to cruise over some tangled branches of healthy staghorns.

Keep an eye out for coral shrimp living on whip corals. Their perfect camouflage makes them difficult to spot unless they move but they are great fun to find. Take time to investigate the Dendronephthya soft corals and you might find the expertly camouflaged coral crabs, Holophyrus oatesii.

As you begin to make your way into shallow water, the wall steepens and soon its features begin to reveal themselves to you. All along the wall there are crevices and caves where the floor often dances in shafts of sunlight beaming down from above. Several of these are wide enough for divers to explore. Others offer a wide, inviting entrance only to force you into some reverse finning once you realise the walls are closing in.

Pixies Caves enjoys a fair amount of fish life, particularly a little away from the wall and from the caves. You can expect to see surgeonfish, rabbitfish and damsels all making their way around the reef. Also, schools of fusiliers dash around and larger reef fish such as grunts lurk in the deeper sections. However the abiding memory you will have of diving the Great Barrier Reef at this site is the labyrinth of illuminated caves and chimneys dancing in the sunlight.

Pixie's Caves Reef Basics: Wall dive, caverns
Depth: 5 - 30m
Visibility: 5 - 20m
Currents: Gentle
Surface conditions: Can be choppy
Water temperature: 26 - 28°C
Experience level: Beginner - advanced
Number of dive sites: 1
Diving season: All year round
Distance: 180 km north-east of Port Douglas
Access: Australia liveaboards

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