Sun, Sea, Sand, Scuba and Sharks!! Underwater Buddies!!
Date: 3rd July
VERY nervous day for me. Anna arribves from Bangkok, I haven;t got a room ata hostel, we don;t have a van yet and evrything has gone mad in the last 24 hours!! But, it all goes well, we pay for the Toby the campervan adn set out to Palm Cove (north of Cairns) for some much needed rest on the campsite. Lovely.
Date: 6th July
After sorting out the van, we head out to Daintree and Cape Tribulation. JUst the perfect spot for some Rainforest walks. It;s a good job Anna LOVES animals, spiders, snakes, cassowaries, lizards, crocs and mosquitoes, and doesn't have a phobia of ANYTHING non-human, or we'd be in trouble!!
Arrived in Cape Trib, but had nowhere to stay. Deciding that PK's jungle lodge was way too noisy for us, we opted to camping illegally on a fruit farm. Very relaxing and only 15 minutes walk to the famed beach.
After a couple of days we set off down to Cow Bay, where we intended to catch dinner, camp illegally for nothin' and then head out to Cairns the next day.
We packed up shortly after adn headed back to the campsite. Another plan foiled!!! Not to worry, we got a shower at least!
The next day, we wandered the forest looking for critters. AS the day went on and we saw nothing except colourful birds, Anna got braver and braver and now she really has become ONE with nature. Later that evening we even went on a guided nightwalk...
... and saw sleeping birds, a white lipped froggy having a shower and
a big huntsman spider. This winter walking is no fun at all!!
Date: 21st July
The Open Water Dive Course in Cairns.
After a two day slog which included classrooom work, an abundance of
time
spent on the bottom of a swimming pool, and an exam, Reef Dive (our wonderful Dive school)
eventually
consented to taking the ten people in our group out to the great barrier reef.
After a very choppy 2 hour boat ride we arrived at the catamaran which
would be our home for the next three nights. Once aboard, and bags had
been
dumped in cabins food was offered - very tasty food and sooo much of
it!
It was fantastic!!
Visibility was great, and the fishes were brightly
coloured and the coral beatiful. The first four dives we did were with
our
instructor (Sarah from Leeds... typical Ozzie dive instructor eh?!) since we had to demonstrate that we could do the skills we
had
learnt in the pool down in the sea. And so, by 11 am on our second day
we
had all completed our four compulsory dives and were fully certified open water
divers
able to go off by ourselves.
After that we dived, and dived, and
dived, and
dived, and then dived some more - all desperate to come back and brag
about
what we had just seen to the others. We did very early morning dives,
we did
mid-morning dives, we did after lunch dives, we did mid-afternoon
dives, and then
we did NIGHT dives!
I
couldn't
even begin to name half the different types of fish and coral we saw
down
there by day as there was soooooo much of it. All as beautiful as you
will
probably have seen in pictures. Turtles are huge too! And so graceful under the water. As long as you don;t touch them, you can follow them around for ages. It's cool!!!
However, it's got to be said (sorry guys from the boat!), Carl and I were the only two
people in our group lucky enough to see a WHITE TIPPED REEF SHARK!!! ...and
how we
bloody bragged!! [Carl: I even managed to chase one around the reef whilst it was hunting breakfast. Sounds silly, to chase a 1.5-2.0m long shark, with huge sharp teeth around underwater, but what the hell eh?!]
After our four days of diving though, and the fact
that
the sea was getting choppier, we were glad to return to shore. We have
been
on solid land for two days now but our sea legs are still making life a
little difficult!
Date: 24th July
Well, the van is ready, we've shopped our socks off, we've got 3 total strangers to agree to some with us to the Gulf and beyond and we're off tomorrow!!! SO, no more updates till Alice!
See you all then!!
Worldfamous Home Page... see earlier travels with the boys, or catch up with Gonzo and Astro.
Text by: Carl
Text by: Carl
Unfortunately, the fish weren't biting. Again. Except this little sniy critter, aggressive little mongrel, who tried to stab the life outta me with spiny fins. He went back.
Then the sun went down adn all the tourists and locals left. The car park was quiet... and VERY dark. The estuary with the crocs was only 100m away and after 10 minutes the serenity got to Anna.
Text by: Anna
But alas, as we were all about to tuck into big plates of scrumptious
salads
and meats, the instructor informed us that we needed to be ready to get
in
the sea in 20 minutes. (note: the more food you eat, the more likely you are to throw up in your regulator! Not a nice prospect at 18m underwater! Your belly also expands, menanig more weights on your belt to get you to the bottom of the sea. HOw strange that eating more makes you more buoyant...) The food was pushed aside (how Anna cried!!)and we geared up in
our
wetsuits, got our scuba tanks on our backs, did the traditional
buddy
check with diving buddies and we were off for our first dive in the
big
blue.
Night dives, whilst being loads of fun, just by
definition meant it was dark and hence not a lot could be seen. The tiny torch given to us illuminates a circle of about 1 foot across, and only the big gren light of the boat can manage to lead the divers back to safety after the 30mins were up. 
White Reef Shark!!
Text by: Carl
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