Alassio On The Beach Palm Cove

two days of the diving course we spent aboard a boat in the great barrier reef near cairns.
for two days we dived and snorkeled and were sun-burned.
on one of the snorkel dives, while reaching a depth of 10 meters, i hurt my ear. so it rang for a day (lesson learned).
the reef has some of the wierdest animals. we saw the white-tipped reef shark and a blue-dotted sting ray. (no under-water pictures, though)

it was very hard getting up and just going it was hard

2min latter we are in the car going to portdogles for lunch

i had a chicken burger and wegers and we got in the car and drove to the Roydon and settle in and we had snacks and had dinner and wotchet Tv and went to bed

... there was one missing from the divers so turned around to see the 3 I was actually diving with hovering over the sea bed, arms folded with an amused expression watching my antics and waiting for that moment of realisation. There was much laughter when we reached the surface a while later. So much so I almost forgot to inflate my BCD in time. Good times! We played around with Wally on the way up and then there was a bit of snorkelling before our final dive of the day. I did a ...

... br>Another alternative was to be considered one of the "base people" such as a common farmer or rural worker, who were generally uneducated.

Or finally it was to be one of those who were sent from the cities to the rural areas to work on farms. Survival in this group was extremely precarious, you had to endure relentless hard labor, ruthlessly rough treatment, lack of adequate nourishment and most frightening of all, not be implicated by anybody who the Khmer Rouge considered ...

... they were all top blokes who made amazing food and we ate together each night. made some friends there and had to drag ourselves away, but not before having a day with the captain on the mainland where he took us to the most amazing little indian place where you eat everything off a massive banana leaf. eat as much as you can. ummmmmm.......

anyways, we bussed it all the way down the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula to Johor Bharu, and then on to ...

... and its not a swimming pool and where are the lifeguards and mummmmmm everyone can see your bum" what an exhilirating thing to do, swim in a rock pool knowing that all around you large fish and other such aquatic life were sharing the same space. ellie finally jumped in and with the sum relentless at 34 degrees i'm glad she did. we swam into the current like whirlpool and were swept along into the centre of water, slipping and sliding back to the shoreline. i felt like ...

... does not help bleaching. Whether this is caused by human beings is an entirely different debate that I will not address here. Additionally, the water quality has slowly been deteriorating over time, causing both damage to fish and coral life. Much of the pollution comes from farmer fertilizer being washed to the sea via flooded inland rivers and the deterioration of the natural filter that is provided by coastal wetlands. Another major blow to the coral is the crown-of-thorns ...

... bbq areas all the way along - but pity that the wind is blowing and churning up all the water so the instead of turquoise colour water it is brown and it is also overcast and windy. But you can understand why people come here, on a lovely day it would be sensational. We are camping at the Palm Cove Campground which again is run and owned by the council and is right on the north end of the ...

21.51 - Finally, a chance to lie in! Mind you, I was still up before 10.00. The only thing on my mind today was getting out on the beach to work on my tan. So I quickly ate my tiny variety pack of cereal, showered and before long I was soaking up the rays. And boy did it feel good. By midday, the temp must have been at least 30°C, too hot to be in the sun all the time so we spent a lot of time in the sea ...

... namely the Daintree National Park and The Great Barrier Reef. We were now in true wilderness country, where only four wheel drive vehicles are allowed to traverse the unsealed roads. They had obviously been upgraded recently though because it surprised me how smooth and well graded the gravel surfaces were. Not that our ride was smooth of course, Dale had us bouncing around in our seats like balls in a pinball machine.


It was early evening when we reached ...