G'day mates,

My next update from Australia!!! I'm going to start writing it in english...if anyone has problems with that let me know :D I'm back from my 3 day diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef...what an experience.

31-08-2010

First of all I'll tell you something about my hostel! It's a great hostel that has absolutely everthing, with amazing staff and great rooms. Í've met some great people here!! Ben from the UK is one of them I met on my first day and we got talking about diving, after which we straight away booked the 3 day trip. Anna at the hostel counter advised us to go with reef encounters, and she wasn't wrong!!

01-09-2010

That meant waking up at 6:00, and that meant not sleeping long or well!! Jetlag does get to you but who cares when your going to dive :D Put our backpacks in the storage at the hostel and the hostel drove us to the boat. When we got on board we had to fill out some forms and get some well deserved breakfast! After 1 1/2 hour trip with quite a few seasick people we arrived at the boat we were going to stay on for the next three days!! Once we were on board we were introduced to the crew. First we went out for a snorkel which gave us an impression of what we could expect....allot!!!! We had a great lunch and after we got our dive briefing and got ready to go out for our first dive at 13:30! Thuy-Lan from France joined us on the dive and the three of us dived nearly all dives together which was great fun. The only thing which amazed us was the limit of 40 min diving so of course we didn't abide by the rules :D The first few dives were 44min, and the longest was 47min. In the end they didn't really appreciate that and as punishment we had to finish a sachet of Vegimite, which is the most digusting thing I've ever tasted!!!!! But getting back to the diving...it really is awesome diving. On the first dive at Saxon reef, twin peaks we already saw 3 turtles, 4 white tipped reef sharks, 4 sting rays and 3 big barracudas. This was an amazing start of the 3 days. The second dive was at 15:30 and the nightdive was at 18:30. The next few days we moved from spot to spot and saw such amazing things. We also met a french couple who didn't dive but went snorkeling and with many of the dives they joined us for a bit, following us from above.

02-09-2010

The second day was like this: 6 o'clock wake up. Bikini on, eat a bannana, get on my dive gear, 6:30 in the water for the first dive of the day. 11:30 the second dive, lunch, relax a bit on the sun deck, 16:30 the third dive, dinner and 18:30 the night dive. We did this night dive with Mikey the skipper and he showed us some great stuff like a puffer fish, a clam which closed around your hand and little critters....really great. After we got out we had dessert and after that I had drinks with the skipper, the purser and the chef on the top deck. We had a great time :D

03-09-2010

The last day was fully packed too, 6:30 first dive, 8:30 second dive and 10:30 third dive...no time to rest! Then lunch and then it was time for goodbyes, but not for long as I'm going back to work there:D The accomodation was great and the food was wonderfull. I had an amazing time getting to know the crew and having fun with them. The weather changed allot...cloudy, windy, sunny! So that meant you were cold, then you were laying in the sun on the top deck or you were trying to warm yourself after a night dive in the hot tub looking at the stars. We got back onto the transfer boat and had some great cheese and wine and enjoyed our trip back. When we got of the boat we said our goodbuys to the rest and went back to the hostel with our free transfer. (oops...we should have paid for transfer...but they took us anyway) After we got back we relaxed a bit and went back into town to get something to eat. Well atleast Ben did, I only got a mint chocolate chip ice cream, mmmmmmm...then off to bed!!

04-09-2010

Today I finally, first time, had a good night's sleep...8 hours finally :D Got dressed, had breakfast and did some laundry. Went into town to get a hard drive and memory card for Ben. His previous one had a virus on it which we discoveren when he wanted to upload his foto's onto my computer and my computer wasn't to happy with it! Then we went to the post office but as it is saturday it wasn't open. So we decided to go to the dive center to organise our hostieship, which is working on the dive boat I was on for about 15 hours a day but you get free accomodation, free great food and 3 free dives a day!!! So now I'm leaving tomorrow for three days to do that. After that we went to pick up my free vodafone simcard! I'll post my number on facebook :D We went to the fruit and veg market to get some food for the next days, especially fruit which is much cheaper at the market than in the supermarket. Then the LONG walk back to the hostel began and as it was really humid it was very sweaty. When I got back I got the simcard working but I couldn't charge any money on it and so I had to rush to the Vodafone shop, actually I had to run to get that done in time. After I got back I finally sat down to write this amazingly long update:D I'm gonna make some dinner now so write to you soon. After the three days on board i'm off to cape tribulation, the tablelands, and maybe surfing. The next update will be long again cause I won't be back till friday.

XXX Risje