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Hi Everyone
I thought i would fill in a bit of detail about the diving as we have more time now and then daves gonna say what we have been upto since then. We got in to hervey bay this morning and have pretty much done everything that we would like to here already as its just a launch pad for boats to fraser island (where we go tomorrow) so we have some time to update our blog.
We set off from cairns last wednesday on Scubapro, a massive diving boat that can fit about 35ppl and had a 3hr journey out to our first stop on the great barrier reef! I thought our first dive at sea would feel a lot less restrictive due to there being a bit more space than the swimming pool but with all the gear on it still felt a bit weird. I kept thinking i had lost dave (you have to stay close to your buddy as they have your spare air!) but he would just be over my sholder. We both got used to diving in the sea and were instantly distracted by the beautiful fish and massive corals. We had to practice some skills in our first 2 dives of day one but mainly we just swam about and instructor dave pointed out some sea cucumbers, christmas tree worms, aNEMOne fish, our first shark (a white tipped reef shark) and a blue spotted lagoon ray. The snorkelling on the shallow reef was my favorite bit of day one; there were fish everywhere and we saw a turtle!
Day 2 we did two more dives, after which we were certified open water divers. We had to try and descend to exactly 16m to test our buoyancy and control, i managed it but dave was just shy on 15.9. If you went over like sunnit a friend in our team you had to eat a vegemite suprise! After we were certified we did our first pleasure dive where you go without instructors where you like! they set a course for us but we soon got lost and were distracted by a turtle. It came swimming past and i turned to follow it. I managed to swim an arms length away (i touched its shell though your not really supposed to) for about 30s with it looking at me the whole time, best bit of all the dives for me. We did a night dive which was pretty scary to begin with. they did a big long scary breifing and told us if a shark bumps into you and starts agressive behaviour to huddle in a cricle. If it grabs a mate push them away from you and inflate their bcd so the expensive equipment is easier to recover later! they played jaws music and m.jackson thriller as we descended but it wasn't too bad in the end. We saw a turtle that was about the size of a family dining table and dave asked the instructor if he could touch a flat fish that landed in front of him and he said yes!
Day 3 we did our deep dive of 30m to see if anyone suffers from nitrogen narcosis (goes a bit mad/like being drunk at high pressure) but we were all ok. We had to count to 30 to see if we were effected, dave did the best and also guessed the real colour of the torch he showed us ( you lose some colour at depth so it appeared yellow but was green). our last dive was another free dive but with a camera this time so you can see the pics of us doing summersaults, putting sea cucumbers on our heads and of a few fish. Wow sory thats so long. All in all the best bit of the trip for me so far!
Right dave taking over now, after our eventful Pro-Dive trip for 3 days at sea we had our group meal/drinking session. I noticed that as soon as i was off the boat that i had "sea legs" where if you close your eyes you start getting dizzy, leo didn't have the same problem though which was weird.
We all met at a bar called the Rattle and Hum and grabbed some food and beers. It was nice to see people in normal clothes rather than wetsuits. After the instructors arrived we quickly moved onto a pretty seedy club called the Woolshed where it is almost customery to dance on the tables!!
I also popped into another club called the Heritage but can't remember too much after that!!
Unfortunately for us we had to be up at 6.30 for another trip out to the reef for snorkeling/buffet and entertainment. The reef we were taken to wasn't as good as where we had been with ProDive but we did see A small (1.5metre) white-tipped reef shark and we could almost touch it it was so close. So that was a highlight!
Our entertainment came from an Australian called Elvis who was singing Mung Jerry to us with a guitar which to some degree was entertaining!
Another early start the following day where we went to Cape Tribulation which is basically where the rainforest meets the sea. It was a pretty cool day as we went to a zoo where kangaroos ran free and we got to see koala bears as well.
We were then taken to this spa where we had all you can eat bbq and it was by an amazing beach that was pretty much uninhabited. We were soon off tto the rainforest and then we went on a boat ride down the river in search of crocodiles! We managed to see about 5 the biggest of which was 3 metres long and was called "Scarface" and you could see why!!
After getting back to Cairns we got on our first Greyhound (bus) to Airlie beach, only 11 hours (our shortest of all our trips!!) overnight, wasn't too bad to be honest plus it saves on a nights accommodation!
Airlie beach is a pretty chilled place and we went to the Whitsundays in a Camira (cool boat, look it up!) we went to the Whithaven beach which was amazing, the sand is literally white and our boat were the only guys on it. We played a bit of cricket (warm-up for the ashes) and then headed to a bit of coral for some snorkelling. Unfortunately this wasn't great as compared to what we have experienced already the coral wasn't great and the visibility was 4 metres at best (up to 30metres with prodive!).
That night we caught another Greyhound to Hervey Bay (13 hours) where i am writing this now. There is not alot going on here, apart from this wierd time-warped shark museum that is stuck in the 80's. You can definately tell it is getting colder the further south you go.
Off to Fraser island for some 4WD fun for a couple of days so hopefully update you on that when we get back!
Dave and Leo
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