Cairns continued
Wir start on Saturday was brawlly fine due to the pancake breakfast we got! Unfortunately it was only one pancake each and they wirna very good, but wir thankful fur peerie luxuries lik dat. The rest of the day was really pretty lazy. We were sleepy fae wir late night and couldna really find much to do around aboot weeoot booking more trips so we went back to the lagoon and worked on wir tans for most of the day. A trip to Woolworths provided wis we some random tea making materials: eggs, soy sauce and bean sprouts. So for tea we cooked up some egg fried rice we bean sprouts. It wisna bad, but high levels o salt meant we were gulping water the rest o the night. Then it was an early night so that we could be bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6am the next morning.
Managed to drag wirsels oot o bed and have breakfast in time to leave the hostel by 7. We'd made the very sensible move o working oot exactly where the terminal we had to meet at wis, on the day we booked it. Made it to the Reef Fleet Terminal without any major issues but the check in desk wis another story... We wirna on the list of passengers. We showed them wir tickets and explained that we definitely had booked it. Turns oot the wife at Wicked Travel had booked the wrong day. We were on the passenger list for yesterday. Fantastic. Thankfully the guy on the desk was really fine aboot it all and just stuck wis on the list as walk on passengers, but it was a peerie bit of a panic for a start. Getting on the boat we realised one thing: everybody was old. There were very few passengers under aboot 30. We found one, and sat doon next to him, a very fine Danish boy called Mathias. We wir then all instructed to move up to make room for a (disappointingly old and fat) rugby team. It was an over 35s team but they were all aboot 60 and throughout the day drank the boats weight in alcohol and kept wis very entertained. Sailing oot to the reef was nice. We sat out in the front of the boat in the sun, until we had to get wir intro dive course. It didna really involve much: giving wis a basic idea of how the equipment worked and telling wis not to go aboot poking and annoying all the fish and coral an things. I wis kinda glad I'd at least tried it afore. No long after, we arrived at the dive sight. We got wet suited up and they got all the diving gear on wis and working. The crew wir all really nice: friendly and obviously very experienced. Wir dive group consisted of me and Karis and an Asian couple. We got sorted in the water, making sure we could clear wir masks, and mouthpieces, and then started to go doon. Really annoyingly for Karis, her problem lugs widna equalise and she couldna go doon mare as a few metres. The Asian man had a bit o a panic and ended up having to go back up too, so there ended up just two o wis and the instructor. He took wis doon and showed wis the coral, and pointed oot various things like clown fish and gave wis a sea cucumber to hold on to, and stuff lik dat. It was absolutely amazing. You could hardly believe you were seeing it all for yoursel, all the things you see so often on David Attenborough documentaries. If its something you've no done, pit it on the bucket list! Coming back up to the surface we were met we an absolutely amazing buffet o food. Steaks, sausages, fish, prawns and hunders o different salads. It was amazing. Ate far too much, as we've started to do when it's free. The next reef site, we decided just to snorkel, which was enough. The reefs were all shallow enough you could see most of it right fae the surface. Much the same kinds o things. We were hooping to see a shark but never did. As very last minute thinking, bought a disposable underwater camera so took lots of pictures, probably no actually capturing much. You forget how easy digital cameras make life! The journey back into Cairns was even really good. We got served fresh fruit, cheese, biscuits and wine! It was only peerie bits o cheddar on cheap crackers but it was appreciated anywy. Then the boats entertainer got oot his guitar and played couple o bits and pieces including The Gambler. The rugby team got very into this and sang along as loodly and oot o time as possible adding their own rugby songs whenever they got the chance. The highlight though wis during Bad Moon Rising when a retired (an totally slestered) old wife started stripping for the rugby team. Yes stripping. She got all the way doon ta her fancy black swimming suit afore the song finished. One of the rugby "lads" joined in halfway through too and they stripped together. Didna keen whether ta laugh or greet! All in all a brilliant day though! Then back to the hostel for scrambled eggs for tea, and an early night.