Cairns- feeling wet,wet,wet!

Following a longer flight than anticipated (no-one told us they are an hour ahead in Queensland!) we landed at Cairns airport at 11pm to be greeted by a wave of moist warm air, we had arrived in the tropics!

Cairns is in Northern Queensland, at the top of the East Coast of Oz. Its a fairly small frontier type town, which mainly exists to serve as a the start or end of most backpackers east coast adventures. We arrived at our hostel to find it empty and desolate. It took 2 phone calls to an"emergancy" number to get hold of someone to give us our room key. We were staying at a backpacker resort, which basically gives resort facilities at backpacker prices. The pool (yes, a pool in a hostel!) was gorgeous, but the room was a little basic.

Bright and early the following morning (its a little hard to sleep with birds and bugs chirping outside your window!) we attempted to walk into town. Big mistake! It was already about 30 degrees and about 90% humidity, by the time we got to the city centre we were both dripping, hot and pretty annoyed we had'nt taken the bus. Nevermind, things quickly improved when Mark booked himself onto a dive course including 3 days living on the reef. They even let me sit in for free to refresh my skills.

From here the weather took a really downward turn, in that it did'nt stop raining. When I say rain, I don't mean English drizzle, I mean torrential monsoonal rain. Yet another oversight in our planning, we had managed to hit the tropics at the peak of the rainy season! You may notice that rain becomes a regular feature in my blog from now on!

Anyways, we spent most of our free day in Cairns mooching around the hostel, generally preparing for the crazy week we had ahead of us. Bright and early the next morning, we were ready on the pavement for our first day of dive school. We spent the morning going over the theory before spending in the afternoon in the pool (in the rain!) going over some skills. It was Mark's first time ever breathing underwater and I'll never forget his face, he looked compeltely bemused! The next day was more of the same, with some spare time to lark around with the equipment before going to the shop to get kitted out for the trip. That evening we went to a seminar (yes, have managed to squeeze in some education between the drinking and partying!) called Reef Teach. It gave us some invaluable information about reef, mainly regarding what not to touch in case it killed you!

After an early night and mad packing attempt, we were ready to start our Great Barrier Reef adventure. 6am found us standing on the docks waiting to board our home for the 3 days. It was a purpose built dive boat, so the majority of space was given over to storing the dive gear. There were 30 of us aboard including the crew, which made meal times a little hectic. Mark and I had a tiny cabin right in the bow of the boat next to the engine, not that it mattered as we did'nt have much time to sleep. As we boarded, a beautiful breakfast of warm crossisants, muffins and crumpets was laid out. We all tucked in, completely unaware that we were about to head out into pretty "lumpy" seas!

The 3 hours out to the reef were pretty tough going to say the least. Within the first hours half the boat (including poor Mark!) had revisted thier breakfast and as rocked and rolled our way through the beating rain and howling wind,I did wonder what I had let myself in for. Whilst Mark was being ill and getting soaked on the lower deck, I found the only place I did'nt feel ill was on the top deck in a tiny sheltered corner resolutely staring at the horizon.

Finally we arrived at the reef, where the waters were a little calmer but the rain was still pouring and so we all decided the best place to be was under the water. After donning our scuba gear, not easy on the back of a rocking boat, I jumped off into oblivion...

Ok, maybe I'm being a little over dramatic but I was certainly nervous. It was the first time I had ever been diving without someone to guide me and my buddy, Tim, had'nt dived for 6 years. But all my worries floated away the second I descended below the water and out of the rain. As soon as we reached the bottom, I saw 2 white tipped reef sharks less than 2m away from and I knew that this was going to be an experience to remember. I don't want to bore you with all the details of every dive but suffice to say, the Great Barrier Reef lived upto and way beyond all my expectations. Every time I dived I was surronded by hundreds of fish, rays, corals, sea cucumbers, lobsters... I could go on forever!

Highlights of the trip definatly including watching a beautiful leatherback turtle muching on corel for about ten minutes. He was'nt bothered by us in the slightest, despite mark hovering over the top of him in a starfish position. I also did two night dives, diving in the pitch black with just the light of my torch to guide me. The other divers in the group wore glow sticks on the back of their tanks, it was quite erie following the little sticks of yellow and pink in the dark water. My heart was pounding the first time I jumped off the back of the boat in the darkness but it was worth it. You see a completely different side of the reef at night, all the shellfish and interesting fish come out. Plus you get to see fish asleep,yes they really go to sleep! The second night dive was even more nerve wracking, mainly because our intructor/guide was baiting white tipped reef sharks. He threw out a lit snorkel and pulled it back toward the boat really quickly and 3 sharks were snapping at it. He then turned to us and declared "right guys,time to jump in!"

Also whilst on the boat Mark and I both did our adventure diver, so we can now both dive to 30m. As part of this we had to do our first deep dive with an instructor. 30m sounds really deep but its actually not that different to 18m, except there are less fish. We could also choose one speciality, we both did under water photography. I've got some great shots of coral, well, it does'nt move so its much easier to get a good shot. I also saw my first nemo on this dive (clown fish in real life). He was a real poser, dashing in and out of the anemone so we could take his photo!

All in all, it was definalty one of the best experiences of my life and I have definatly fulfilled a life long ambition. The crew and group were great fun, the food fantastic and spending 3 days simply diving was just awesome. By the end of it I had raw knuckles from pulling on and off my wetsuit and had logged 11 dives (thats more than double what I started the trip with!) My diving confidence and come on leaps and bounds now and both Mark and I are definatly hooked.

On our return to Cairns, Mark and I were delighted to find a comfortable bed and hot shower (no hot water on the boat and 3mins showers, smelly!) waiting for us at the travellers oasis. No sooner had we had a nap then it was time to go and meet the group for a post-dive party! A great night out in Cairns followed, almost everyone from the dive group came and I actually got to know some people more in those few hours than during the whole dive trip!  A few Jager-bombs and a kebab later we decided to make our way back home. Unfortunatly there was'nt a cab in sight and so we were forced to walk home, in the torrential rain. It got to the stage where I was so wet I gave up and was splashing in the calf deep puddles like a 5 year old!

We spent two more days mooching around Cairns, recovering from the diving and planning the next section of our trip. Cairns has a beautiful manmade lagoon which was great to lounge around, between the rain storms! On our last night we went out for dinner with an American couple, Tim and Brittney, who we met on our dive trip and paid a visit to the infamous Cairns night markets. This is basically an undercover market selling every peice of tourist tat imaginable along with stuff you could never think of....kangeroo scrotom bottle opener anyone!We also went to the Casino and I managed to lose a whopping $1 on the pokies (slot machines)! Don't think gambling is for me!

Next day we were up bright and early, packed and ready to catch our 1st greyhound bus. We ordered a taxi and when it arrived it took all my self control not to burst out laughing, we had the oldest taxi driver in the world. He had no teeth, could barely see over the steering wheel and insisted on running every red light on the way into town! Anyways we survived the journey and as we waved goodbye to Cairns, we could only hope we were leaving the rain behind.