So I am now an PADI advanced open water diver! The past 3 days on Scubapro II have been awesome & have enjoyed every second of it. I am now back in Cairns & waiting to fly home! I am going to hang out here for 3 or 4 more days, I'm sure I'll find something to do!

Monday 28th April Up early today to catch the bus to Cape Tribulation. The journey took about 3 or 4 hours but we stopped for a river cruise on the Daintree river to see some crocs!! When we arived in Cape Trib', the hostel we would have been staying in was closed for renovation & so we were upgraded to Coconuts 4 star beach resort!! YESS. The few days we spent in Cape Trib were awesome! We just chilled out & relaxed for 2 days at the resort! The only thing the ipod enhanced sunbathing was interrupted for was food & to chuck a rugby ball about in the pool! That night we went on a walk through the rainforest & found a place to get some food! A few beers later someone had the bright idea that we should walk through the worlds oldest rainforest for an hour to get back to the hotel!...so we did! We couldn't see a thing! the light of our phone & cameras meant that we could follow the road ahead! we heard some strange noises coming from the darkness that we did not like!! I am happy to say that we made it back alive, a little shook up, but alive!!!

Tuesday 29th April After a 4 star sleep & breakfast at our beach resort we cracked on with some more sunbathing & swimming!! That afternoon the bus picked us up & took us back to Cairns. We stoped at a creek just off the Daintree river for a swim. We were told to stay to the left of the rocks in order to avoid running into scarface (a big crock, not al pachino) As with a load of people, I didn't have any of my swimming stuff on hand. I decided to check out some stepping stones that lead across the river by the rocks...bad idea! These stones turned out to be huge boulders about 3-4 meters apart! Fully clothed I had a crack at crossing the river, launching myself at these rocks! I got quite far, however eventually fell into scarface territory fully clothed! oh dear!! As you can imagine I got out quite fast! Already soaked, I took the opportunity to jump of a huge rock into the safe part of the river! A lot of fun! When we got back we went for a huge steak & a few drinks! AWSOME!

Wednesday 30th April Another day of sorting stuff out, this time for my dive trim! Andy, Mike & Myself checked out Cains Central, we had a pretty chilled out morning & grabbed some food! I went off to sort out my washing, which killed off most of the afternoon! Met back up with the guys for another steak & a few drinks, wasn't a heavy night due to my scuba diving in the morning.

Thursday 1st May I was picked up early this morning & taken to pro-dive to board Scubapro II!! After a bumpy ride out to the barrier reef we went out on the first of 11 dives over the next 3 days! yess! The first 2 dives were fun dives for team advanced because we are all certified divers! We went off & explored the first dive site & got some AWSOME shots with my underwater camera! We saw Sting-Rays & I found Nemo! The next 2 dives were our navigation & night dives, compulsary dives for the advanced course. I aced the navigation tasks & really enjoyed the night dive! The time we spent between dives we used to complete tasks in our text books & eat!!

Friday 2nd May This morning we did another compulsory dive for tha advanced course - the deep dive. We went down to 27m & did some tests for nitrogen narcosis (the bends) It only slightly affected any of us & was not serious at all! Due to being so deep we had to do a safety stop on the way back up - which was a first for me! The next 2 dives were our choice dives to complete the advanced course! I chose to do a naturalist dive first, which involved finding & naming 5 vertebrates & 5 invertebrates! Aced it!! My other choice dive was a photography dive from which i got some awesome shots! During these 2 dives I got to swim with sharks & hang out with turtles! IT WAS AWESOME!!!

We were all now Advanced PADI Open water divers & the remaining dives were all fun dives. For the last dive of the day we did a night dive! we saw nudibranchs, Lobsters, White Tip Reef Sharks & cuttlefish! The captain of the boat was a guitarist, so we got on quite well & he was dives were fun dives & were all on the best reefs! we saw more turtles, more sharks & had a load of fun doing spins & backflips in the water! That night after the boat came back in to Cairns the crew (who were all awesome) booked us all in to a restaurant for a boat party! had a cool night & a few farewell drinks!

After a few more days in Cairns I am on the plane home! ...so I will see you all very soon!!! Love & Miss you All!!