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Hi guys...you haven't heard from the male half for a while so I thought I'd better pipe up..Yes Sarah did moan about our hostel..Dreamtime is OK and it is mostly clean and I think some poor sod had eaten something that didn't agree and he made a real mess, which is why sarah was less than impressed...other than that the staff were informative and the fellow backpackers were chatty and nice..anyway, the day after the tour to Daintree, which I was sandfly food we left around 7.30 for our Reef experience..the boat was called the Ocean Feedom and it was captained by a scot called Gordon..which worried me straight away!!! the crew were great and made you feel welcome and at ease..we were with maybe another 30 people ad the vessel was modern and well kitted out...we had a bit of brekkie..which was Ok and inc. in the price and they supplied all diving and snorkelling gear (which was good qual)...I was in a bit of a quandry as I have always wanted to Scuba Dive but have not had either the cash or bottle or both before and I was handed a form which if I filled in and had a numpty lesson on safety, I could have an assisted dive...I looked at Sarah and she gave me the 'if you want to' eyes and I gave them a maybe later...more on that to come..we were then given a glass bottom boat tour (Crap guide, amazing underwater life and coral) which lasted around 20 mins and then back to the boat..
It was then that I realised that I would be diving in 5 mins should I want to...I did... and I was whisked away to the rear of the boat and I quickly had all the gear on...It is bloody heavy out of the water and a little restrictive in the diaphram..next thing I know I and 3 others are taking a giant leap into the water with full gear on..obv...my mask fell off and I had a total freak out and nearly jacked it in and spat my dummy out but Hayley the instructor chilled me out, got me a new mask and all was well...panic over..once I was under the water with Hayley and Philip (some chilled out German dude) it was so peaceful and apart from the odd panic and some equalizing that I had to do, I felt really calm...the colours of the reef were so vivid and they changed intensity with differing depths and strength of sunlight...I saw clown fish, turtles, rays loads of reef fish and massive bat fish...ended up having another dive at a second dive point and I am defo converted...PADI in a swimming pool in Morley does not have the same ring to it but I will be booking it. Over to Sarah as she did more snorkelling than me and saw loads more..
Yeah i'm a wuss and stuck with the snorklling (due to contacts and all that. plus forgot his wallet and i had to pay for his dives!!) The first site we stopped on onthe reef was amazing, loads and loads of all different fish in amazing technicolour and so complacent you could almost touch them (didnt obv.as didnt know which were poisonous or not) They were feeding fish with shrimp off the back of the boat before we got in, they were huge i mean big!, so was a bit apprehensive about jumping in amongst them but i'm pleased to say i was the 1st in the water by miles (if the truth be told i was too hot on deck and have come out in a nasty heat rash so was glad to be in the see) Whats the first thing i see when i get going a shark!! sitting on the bottom of the sand between me and the reef, well you've never seen me move so fast, it was only a baby @4ft but i wasnt taking any chances, think everyone else behind me scared it off. Also saw a turtle he was cool and an eel (not sure on type it was blue). Want impressed at 2nd site as reef was all bitty and broken up into clumps and my mask kept leaking so got pee'd off and called it a day and went an hid in the cool bar area on the boat. Have now picked the car up and now started our trip down the coast heading to Brisbane, scenery is amazin beats the M62 any day!- comments