Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
THIS IS A BIG ONE. Also included at the bottom are 2 G mares (my nightmares). The second one is the worst i have ever experienced in my life
So we arrived in Cairns about a week ago and are here now until Friday, when we jet off to Fiji, hopefully for some sunshine. Our car, Genie, had successfully made the 3000km journey from Sydney to Cairns, unlike some hired cars, which cant make half an hour up a sand track. We had absolutely no problems with Genie. So may not have looked pretty but she did the job.
So, our first mission in Carins, was to create posters of our car and think of a price. WE had been told that people often lose half the price when they sell their cars and had even heard stories of people just leaving them at the airport. This is why we gave ourselves about ten days in Cairns. We bought the car for 2100 dollars and decided to advertise at 2500 dollars. After taking a few pictures of the car, personalizing them slightly by having us included we set about creating our poster. We told the world that they must own Genie for the ultimate aussie adventure, and other crap like that. Then we walked around Cairns putting our posters in hostels, next to the dozens of others that were hanging up. Why we didnt drive, I honestly dont know, since it was a scorcher that day. I can honestly say that i was not optimistic at all. Having put up about 10 to 15 posters, we walked back to our hostel. I jokingly said to Tom, "Have a look at your phone to see if you have any messages yet". Unbelievably, he had a text enquiring about our car. Then, just as he was reading the text, the phone rang. Someone else was ringing about Genie. The first day we took three sets of people for a test drive in Genie. We were all pretty stunned since we thought it might take days just to get one enquiry.
So... quite chuffed about what had happened, combined with the fact we had made the journey to Cairns, we decided to get some champagne on the go. After having a bottle each and a few beers, we headed out to the legendary Wool Shed. A backpackers bar that is known by all. One of the games they were playing in there was the goldfish face. 8 goldfish competing from countries including Aussie, England, America, NZ etc. The prize was a 400 dollar trip somewhere, which i cant remember cause had too mjuch champagne at this point. Anyway, you have to bid for the goldfish. As you can imagine. Three English guys just arrived in Cairns, on the champagne, and the English Goldfish named "Lord Windor" comes on offer. Being the patriotic lads that we are, we outbid everyone else and Lord Windsor is ours. Well..... until it got beat in the first round anyway. Bloody Royals. Lazy gits they are. HAHA, I swear the Aussie do it on purpose, they just love to see us lose. Anyways, after the Gold fish event, we bump into a group of english girls, who had come to see Genie earlier on in the day. After having a few drinks with them, they come to us with an offer of 2000 dollars. Oooooo. Tempting. 100 dollar loss isnt too bad. But no. We come back with 2300 dollars. After a bit of squabbling over the price, they eventually rise to 2200 dollars. We are sticking to 2300 dollars. So, in the end we decide to toss a coin. The winners get their price but have to buy a round of drinks to compensate. Our luck hasnt been in recently and we lose, having to settle for 2200 dollars and a round of drinks for Genie. All in all, a profit of 100 dollars was made on Genie and we could start our diving course in 2 days time knowing that our car was sold. Absolutely fantastico. The next day they came with the dough and for the first time in a while our pockets feel full. I cant believe how easy the whole process of buying, selling and driving a car in Australia is. We bought and sold our car on the first day or trying, so we didnt waste any time faffing about. The route up the east coast was as easy as pie. Everything went to plan with Genie and she will be sorely missed. Anyone reading this should seriously consider travelling Aussie in this way. So much freedom, which you dont get from the bus operators, although i still loved the Oz experience when i did it three years ago. Im glad i have experienced both ways to travel.
Right, on to the diving. Me and Tom have completed a five day course, meaning we are now certified divers. The first two days we spent in the classroom, learning about diving, and also in the pool practising all the different skills, learning to set up our equipment, doing quizzes and tests. On one day we were picked up at 7.30am from our hostel and didnt finish till 8.30pm at night. Like being back at school, but a lot more fun. On the third day, at 6.15am, we were collected and taken to our dive boat, where we would spend three days on the Great Barrier Reef, continuing to dive. Leeroy, who cant dive because of his asthma, is now the master snorkler. His snorkling abilities have seriously gone through the roof. I swear i have seen him sleep with a snorkel in his mouth. The diving/snorkling turned out to be a fantastic experience, topping Fraser island and the whitsundays, in my opinion. The days were completely full. You were either diving, eating, filling out paperwork/logging dives or classroom type learning.
On the first day, after arriving on the boat, we spent the first 3 hours travelling to the outer reef. We then did two dives that day, including doing more our skills tests ie. emergency ascents, out of air scenarios and stuff like that. I also did a bit of snorkelling that day , where i saw my first reef shark, the white tip. Super stuff. In between we had to log our dives and work out our pressure groups. This is important since your body absorbs nitrogen when your diving and if you dive too much, without leaving long enough surface intervals, you can get decompression illness-"the bends". Not good.
The second day, wake up call was 6.15am. The first of our four dives commenced at 7.00am. Leeroy decided he didnt fancy an early morning snorkel. This dive turned out to be one of my favourites. We saw a load of sting rays, including the eagle ray, which is quite rare. Breakfast was served after. Bacon and eggs, yes. One of the best things about this course was that whenever you do a dive, there is always food waiting for you afterwards. Fantastic. The next dive was the last one before we became PADI certified open water divers. End of all the tests and no longer did we have to dismantle and reassemble our equipment after every dive. The third dive i was really looking forward to. We could now dive freely, without an instructor. All you needed was a diving buddy, which for me was Tom. So we set off on our first certified dive, compass in hands, ready to navigate the reef. As soon as we entered we saw a reef shark. What a great start. I got a little too excited and tried to get through this small gap in the reef and ended up cutting my leg on the coral. I'll learn. Then, using our compasses, super navigation skills, hand signals under water, Me and Tom managed to navigate ourselves about 200 metres away from where we were supposed to be, and surfaced on the wrong side of the boat, lol. It took a hard swim against the current to get back to the boat and ensure we werent in a remake of the open water film. The fourth and final dive of the day was the dreaded NIGHT DIVE, dum dum dum. Our briefing included what to do if you see a Tiger shark. Ie, Form into a big group with the instructor in the middle. Although it was a bit of a joke, i think there was an element of truth in it. When back on land i found out that one of the instructors had seen a Tiger shark in the area only two weeks ago. These sharks are the cause of the second most human casualties in the world, only second to the Great White. Anyways, we didnt bump into any tigers on our night dive. We did bump into the resident of the area, Brian the Turtle, who was having a snooze. He probably didnt appreciate too much the torch lights shining in his face. I just couldnt believe how big he was. His shell was about the size of an average dinner table. The night dive was definately one of my favourites. Everything looks so much more sinister at night. We also turned off all our lights for about 20 seconds, which was quite an experience.
The final day, wake up call was at 5.45am. First dive commenced at 6.30am. Got to see the sun rise on the Great Barrier reef. Me and Wills had also decided to upgrade our course and get our adventure qualification. this meant our first dive would be down to 30m. With open water qualification your only allowed to go down to 18m. With the adventure qualification your qualified to go down to as deep as 40m. Obviously this gives you greater opportunities, ie ship wreck diving, which i may be able to do back in England. There is also the added factor of Nitrogen Narcosis to take into account while doing the deep dive, which i will explain soon, but is great stuff. So, before our dive we had the deep dive briefing. Stuff like, check your oxygen more because it runs out quicker the deeper you go. Also, we did this test where you a had a grid with the numbers 1-20 randomly scattered. You had to count to 20 as fast as you can by touching your finger on no.1, then on your nose, then no.2, then on your nose etc. This test was to be repeated under water at 30m. Right, so we set about our deep dive, where we would all be subject to nitrogen narcosis. This is a reversible alteration in consciousness producing a state similar to alcohol intoxication in scuba divers at depth. Once you get over the fact that its a bit harder to breath at deeper depths, you suddenly start to feel relaxed and dazed out. You also start laughing about silly stuff, which makes your mask fill with water. At one point i saw this fairly big fish swimming by me. I got into a right fit of laughter because i thought he was trying to join the diving team and i started imagining that he had a scuba tank on his back and everything. Was brilliant. Apparently when you go to about 40m, it gets even worse. Originally they used to do the deep dive courses to this depth but had to reduce it to 30m because the instructors were doing silly things because of the nitrogen narcosis and couldnt control the group. Our instructor told us how one of his mates found this old sandal on the ocean floor and was convinced that it was cinderellas lost slipper. Then he got really annoyed that he was going to have to split the profits with his buddy. Crazy stuff. And im allowed to go to 40m now, haha, but they recommend to stay at 30m. hmmmm, what shall i do????
The last dive of the course was a photography dive. Was really pleased that i chose this one. It makes you go and look for more of the smaller sea life on the reef instead of hunting for turtles and sharks all the time. Also really improves your diving skills because you have to hover close to the reef to get the good shots. My favourite pics were those of the clown fish "NEMO" from the film. They live in an anemone. Once an anemone or coral has been adopted, the clownfish will defend it. So all you have to do is find an anemone and wait for them to pop their heads out. Really stunning fish. Will send you the pictures shortly, Managed to get some pics of us in the water as well, doing silly things.
So, our diving course was complete and i have to say that it was absolutely fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone. Do the adventure course if you can. Pro dive is a great company. Back on land and the whole diving team went on the beers, after a delicious steak meal at the rattle n hum. Then off to the wool shed thats open to 5am.
Since our diving course its been pretty quiet. The weather isnt great as its wet season and there is a cyclone on the way. Hoping to miss this as we are off to Fiji on Friday. There i am hoping to further my education and go diving with sharks. Not just any sharks but the BULL and TIGER Sharks, no cages. They are two of the four species responsible for human fatalities, yikes. Check this site out and the pics http://www.divetheworldfiji.com/viti-levu-scuba-diving-sites-shark-reef.htm. Looks brilliant. Hopefully all my bad luck went on the car fire.
Since our dive we have also met two girls who have been following my journal since i was in Malaysia. Their names are JEN AND VICKY. Unbelievable, i mean what are the chances. We met this lad in Sydney named Adam who knew them. Then we met them in the Woolshed only a few days ago. They claim they are not stalking us, but im not so sure. They are a right good laugh and love downing the good old Turbo shandys. I think they are following us to New Zealand so no doubt we shall be seeing them there.
G MARE section
I am going to describe to you two of the worst nightmares I have ever had. The first was on the dive boat and the second was the first night back on land afterwards. The second is without doubt the worst experience i have ever had. And by the way, i am awake when these nightmares happen
1. So I am on a boat doing a 3 day course of dives in the great barrier reef in Cairns. Its my first night on the boat and im asleep in the Cabin on the top bunk. Suddenly i wake up thinking im in a box that is sinking in the ocean. This is when i start hitting the roof of the cabin, screaming my head off. This wakes up Tom, who sleeps beneath me. I think i then jump off the bed and start hitting the door, trying to get out. Im also shouting how do you get out of here. Luckily Tom, who is now experienced with these situations tells me that i dont need to get out and then my nightmare is over. This was a horrible experience, but the next one is the worst ever. 2. We have arrived back from diving course and had a big night out in Cairns. I went to sleep about 6am, really stressed out because i thought i had lost loads of money from my bank. Luckily i hadnt lost any money. Anyway, i was once again in the top bunk and Tom was sleeping beneath me. I woke up with the feeling that the whole room was emersed in water. From sheer panic i launced myself off the bunk bed, hitting my knee on the floor. Then i started hitting the door and pulling the curtains trying to escape. The whole time i am holding my breath because i dont think i can breath. This wakes up Tom who asks me whats wrong. Usually this ends the nightmare, but not this time. I started frantically searching for an air tank behind his bed for the alternate air source, still holding my breath, convinced i am about to drown. You see, during our dive course we did lots of training on how to use someone elses alternate air source if some thing happens to your own. I was looking for his tank and his alternate air source. When i couldnt find it i looked at Tom and he says that he saw complete terror in my eyes. Basically what someone looks like when they are about to suffocate. I was also dribbling at the mouth from holding my breath for so long. I then gasped out, 'i need a snorke'l to him. What i meant at the time was his alternate air source, but couldnt think of the name. He was trying to get me to breath but i was convinced that i would just suck in water. After holding my breath for so long i had to breath. Even then i was still convinced that i was in the water but thought the water was oygenated or something. I climbed back up to bed and even then i was, according to Tom, thrashing around for ages. The next day i woke up with a very sore knee and loads of friction burns on my ankles, which must have been from dragging my self on the floor, trying to escape. I never want to experience that feeling again. So now im all uptodate on the journals. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.- comments