I'd Like to Be, Under the Sea...
Trip Start
Oct 15, 2007
1
81
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Trip End
Aug 24, 2008
Cairns,
Queensland,
Australia
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The main reason for our trip to Cairns was that we wanted to go and dive on the Great Barrier Reef, so the first stop was a tourist infomation centre in the town centre. Unfortunately, it turned out, the dive boats had mostly already left, so we would have to wait until the following day.
We thought we'd find ourselves somewhere to stay and then shop around a bit for someone to go diving with. We checked ouselves in to Cairns City Backpackers, dumped our bags and walked into town for a look around.
We spoke to a few dive companies but decided on Cairns Dive Centre, who seemed a professional and friendly bunch and, importantly, were happy enough to accept the letter of confirmation that BSAC had emailed Jacob to prove that he was qualified, as he didn't have any proof of his qualifications with him.
We found a cafe in town and had salads for lunch, then went to see the Qantas office to organise changing our flights. Charlotte was going to be on holiday from work in a few days so we had aranged that the three of us would take a trip to Adelaide. However, the timing meant that we would need to extend our stay in Australia. $40 each later, we had done just that. We hadn't expected there to be quite such a charge (certainly not per person) for date changes, as when we did exactly the same thing in Peru, it was free. "Oh no sir, it's not a charge for the service, it's an admin fee." What, precisely, does that mean? What's happening with this fee then? It's being 'charged' isn't it? If it's just for 'admin' costs, then why is it levied per head? Damn you all the way to hell, why won't you have the decency to admit that it's a charge?! "No sir," (smile sweetly) "It's just an admin fee."
We browsed the shops of Cairns for birthday cards for Jacob's sister Hannah and rued the fact that Cairns has only the one tourist attraction, which is underwater. It's not exactly a pleasant town and other that the reef, there's not a lot to see or do. Chores achieved, we returned to our hostel for showers, chilling out and internetty stuff.
We spent the evening in a bar close to the hostel, which was doing cheap Mexican food and had a pool table. Tacos, pool and beer: three ingredients for a good night out.
The following morning, we were up early and down to the pier to catch our boat out to the reef. Jacob was to be diving in the group of qualified divers and Kirsty was in the smaller group of unqualified novices: a young couple from Surrey called Lottie and Oliver and a Swiss girl called Florie, who, it turned out, had never even been snorkelling before. We were briefed by our separate insrtuctors: a Japanese guy called Taka for Jacob and an Aussie called Zak for Kirsty. Jacob was buddied up with a guy called Byron, who hailed from Vancouver. Byron was more recently qualified than Jacob but to a lower level. However, he was able to refresh Jacob on some aspects and Jacob was able to give him some instruction other points. After about an hour and a half on the boat, we arrived at the first dive site, kitted up and jumped in.
To be honest, the dive wasn't great. The visibility was poor and the reef and fish weren't outstanding. We had been warned that diving the reef was more about being able to say that you had done it than actually experiencing a good dive, but it was still a bit disappointing.
After food, Jacob was diving again. The rest of the qualified divers had decided not to bother paying the extra fee for a guide, so Jacob had Taka all to himself and had a much better dive. The visibility was better and, as there were just the two of them, Taka was able to take him through some much more interesting bits of reef. Meanwhile, Kirsty did some snorkeling and also had a nice time looking at the pretty fish.
Back on the boat, it was time for us to go back to shore. The sea was a little rough and a few people, Jacob included, weren't feeling great. Still, the little that he had managed to eat stayed in, which is more than can be said for some of the others.
Once we got back to Cairns, it was time to hit the road again. We had considered staying around, but there wasn't really a lot more for us to see or do - as we mentioned, Cairns itself is not that interesting a place - so it made sense to start the journey back to Sydney.
So we did.
