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Kasey Rae's Adventure Down Under 2006
Today I went diving the Julian Rocks of Byron Bay. No I didn't see a great white as the picture shows, but I did see leapord sharks, huge stingrays the size of me, a lionfish (deadly, very cool), grouper, parrotfish, tons of schooling fish, and a whole lot more that I'm going to ID when I get back to my suffolk park house. No one from my house could go with me, so I had to go myself. They all forgot their Cert cards at home. Who goes to Australia and forgets their Dive cards? interesting...but anyway, they all went partying at the pub last night. Finally I had the house to myself (I couldn't drink before diving anyway, but really I wanted Kasey time).
Sundive Center was an experience. Very different from diving in the states. I have to say that while the water and the reef was much more beautiful than the states, I prefer the dive style at home with a big dive boat, a dive master, animal crackers, water, and at least two dives and two tanks.
I went by myself so I got paired with this girl from Chicago named Gail. She's 29. She's alright, but not that great of a buddy. Although she thankfully knew how to read the digital gauge in meters and BARS instead of feet and PSi. That was hard for me.
It was definitely a strange experience. They jam packed this small rubber duckie boat with about fifteen people and equipment. It was one dive. One tank, nothing else. We were lead by an "experienced guide". As we were taking off I heard her say she'd been diving for 15 months. Eek! I've been diving longer. She's a dive master intern, but she was very nice, Kirsty was her name. She'd dove the rocks about 200 times. She wasn't the greatest guide though. She went too fast and didn't really check in with you. I had to poke her to let her know twice that I was low on air. Don't freak though mom, I know how to handle myself in the water.
We saw two sea turtles, one lionfish, two stingrays (the size of me!), lots of schools (i felt like I was in a city, Finding Nemo style), groupers, parrotfish, and a ton more. The current was ripping and i sucked a lot of air. Bottom time was about 30 minutes. Depth about 60ft. Oh I saw leapord sharks, but no manta rays. That's what I was hoping to see. They'd seen them all week which is why I rushed and went by myself in the first place. At least now I know how diving in Oz works and I'll be prepared for the next time. It cost me about $A80 and I bought a reusable underwater camera for $A45 (which I forgot to take under the water. I left it on the boat...oops...probably better though since there was so many other things to concentrate on this time). There was a guy on the trip that was so pale that underwater he looked like a swimming corpse. Freaky!
I can't wait to go again. On the other side of the rocks there's a trench and a cave. I want to see it. We went to "Needles" today. Now that I know what to expect and how it works here I'll do much better next time.
Yesterday we went to Brokenhead Nature Preserve and had a guided walk with this bushman named Gary. Absolutely beautiful! It's a mix of rocky intertidel, littoral rainforest (meaning by the sea), cliffs, rocks, beach, and great surf!
Gary can go for hours on the weirdest tangents. For instance, we saw a huge spide spinning her web and he started to talk about her. We then saw the male that was 1/3 of her size. He somehow got on the subject of human relationships and pheromones and kissing and marriage for like thirty minutes. I wanted to kill him. We were standing in a gorgeous rainforest and he's focusing on sociology of humans. Emily was wondering if maybe he was talking about his personal life and I said, "maybe this is therapy for him." But it was a fun time anyway. We saw two rocks called "the sisters". The aborigines tell a story to their children about these sisters to warn the children where to swim. Basically one sister swam out and got caught in the rip current and the other tried to save her. Both got swept away and turned to stone. They tell their kids that if they do the same thing they'll also turn to stone. Those kids must have major nightmares!
Dad, in 1942 a military plane with ten men crashed and sunk about 50 meters down around there. They had a plaque about it.
Alright, well I'm going to go back to the house and read for class. I have like five books to read before our trip next week to Brisbane, Lamington National Park, and Mt. Warning.
I miss you all.
Kasey
Ps. Mom, I tried to type better this time. When I'm in rush so I can get the most for my money at the internet places I don't do so well. LOL Love you. Oh, and tell dad to email me back. How rude! : )
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