Hi, The Virgin Blue flight up from Sydney was excellent and I got upgraded which meant I had masses of leg room and a whole row to myself - excellent!! When I arrived at the airport I got met by the Calypso Hostel bus which then whisked me to my accomodation at the Calypso Hostel!! - the Calypso was an odd hostel (incidentally next to the Cairns Red X branch - which can never be a good thing as British Red X branchs have a habit of being put in the dankest part of town!). The room was very nice and clean but I was completely knackered when I arrived (as I was each day when I cam back from my training dives) so wasn't best amused when I was kept up to the early hours each night thanks to Kareoke, Blind Date and Bin Bag Idol (don't even ask!) each night - luckily I had only pre booked half of my stay so I was able to find somewhere else for the second half! - In the Calypso's defense it did have good foof - eveing meal was all you could eat for AU$8 - about 350p (sorry no pound sign) On Wednesday I met Dan my dive instructor and at first was a little bit worried about diving (the training vidoes all focused on wot can happen to you..decompression illness etc) but I was OKed by the Dr as fit to dive so started my training. After 2 days in the pool I was ready to be let lose of the Great Barrier Reef!! - and I couldn't wait!! On the night before we left we had a Reef Teach where we learnt about the different animals we were likely to see and what to look out for - general rule was most things sting so dont touch, most sharks are ok except Hammerheads which can be nasty so if I was to see one I had to try and protect my back by backing up against a coral (that could sting!!) as Hammerheads like to attack from behind. I had to wake up at 0445 to get my pick up at 0515 and we were taken to one of Pro Dive's huuuge dive boats (Scubapro III) where we got on and made the 3hr trip to the reef - which was bumpy to say the least, but I did manage to keep my croissants down!! On arriving at the reef I had my first dive and it was FANTASTIC I saw loads of fish and on the second day I was lucky enough to swim with turtles and a shark. It was a white tipped reef shark only about 1m long so it was more afraid of me that I was of it!! At the end of day 2 I have complete my Open Water Certificate so was a qualified diver but I loved so much enrolled on the additional course which meant I had to do a night dive (best experience EVER), a deep dive (the O/W level only allowes you down to 18m - the Adventure Diver allows you down to 30m) and finally a small boat dive - you basically get a small rib out to the reef you do a 007 style entry into the water and then navigate back to the big boat!! - that was great fun as there were loads of giants clams and I finally saw Nemo!!! Day 3 was the last Dive and we had to make the journey home - so I didn;t feel as bad as last time of overdosed on pills and slept the whole journey that was easily twice as rough as the outward!! I'm now back in Cairns about to go out for drinks with my dive group as a fare-well party at a bar a next door to my new hostel (on the main street - excellent location!!) - I have booked excursions to Kuranda and Cape Trib so I look forward to them next week!! Ollie