Rays and turtles and sharks .. Oh My!!

The Diving Crew.. Mik, Ange, Me, Hiromi, and Justin
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So I finally get into Cairns and get to my hostel, Travelers Oasis on Scott Street.  Gabriel really hooked me up and had all the dive brochures waiting for me in my room so that I could make my decision and be able to be downstairs in the morning by 7am and on the boat by 8am.

I was trying to head out on an 11 person 60' sailboat for my diving but that was full so I ended up on a much larger mass scale operation.  The dives were great but out of 6 dives we did 4 on the same dive site on the same reef.  That was "fishbowl" reef.  That being said, the fish and wildlife was VERY diverse and very prolific.  Sharks, rays, turtles, sea cucumbers, etc.  Did two afternoon dives the first day and one night dive.  The night dive I have to admit was VERY dissapointing.  We had WAY too large a crowd of unexperienced divers bumbling around on the reef stiring things up and scaring away everything around.  In the morning we did a 6am dive and then two more dives at 8am and then 11:30.

Highlights of the dive experience were the afternoon dives on "fishbowl", the diving friends I mad, Mik from Belfast, Ange from Tampa, Hiromi from Yokahma, and Justin from Dallas, and finally the boat ride to and from in 8-10 ft seas sitting on the top deck and letting yourself get sprayed like crazy with water.  Oh.. yeah.. THE HUMPBACK WHALES!!! Yes, they came right by our boat at the last dive site.  Very very cool.

Anyway, I'm heading out to dinner with my dive friends now .. tomorrow the big G-man meets up with me in Bangkok.  I'm really looking forward to his arrival and think that the 2nd half of the trip will probably be even better than the first if thats possible.  Travel safe WOP and I'll try and give you a call before you get on the plane.

Bill