Day 267-273: Cairns
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2004
1
45
57
Trip End
Jan 05, 2006
Cairns,
Australia
Monday, June 13, 2005
Someone stuck the air con on during the night and it was bloody freezing so woke up a couple of times, the room seems to be either minus 10 billion or sauna like, no happy medium. Asked reception to get someone to take a look, doubt they will. Went to the CDC shop at 9 for the start of the dive course....bit of paperwork and stuff and then we were all on the bus to go a few blocks to the classroom and training pool. 14 of us altogether I think, no clue who they all are yet. In the morning it was a couple of training vids and some questions from the manual. Also had the compulsory dive medical which cost $48 and took about 5 minutes, that's not a bad hourly rate!
After lunch we got into the pool. Started off with some snorkelling which freaked me out a bit as I'd never done it before in my life and they were like "Right off you go, snorkel and then do a duck dive down to the bottom"....couldn't really get my head round the breathing through the mouth only thing, and found it difficult to equalize ear pressure. Kinda got me off to a wobbly start really and I started to wonder whether I'd be able to dive if I couldn't really cope with snorkelling, and they were kinda rushing through stuff too - with a large group there's not really much time for one on one. Went through the dive kit and then got kitted out in the wetsuits, not very flattering at all, mine seemed to be designed for someone several inches higher, leaving a bulge around the crotch which you'd think would be a good thing but it wasn't. Got in the pool with the kit and after a slightly wobbly moment where my brain insisted on trying to breath through my nose I got used to it and found it much easier than the snorkelling - tho we never got more than a couple of feet below the surface.
Covered things like clearing your mask when you get water in it, finding the regulator (the thing you breath through) if it gets lost, how to get back to the surface, etc. Pretty much the basics and we were in the pool for about 2 hours. Luckily it wasn't raining today and the sun even came out for a little while, tho looking at forecasts for the week it ain't gonna get much better. We were all finished by 4pm but tomorrow is an earlier start, 7.30am, and there's more pool work. Only one guy dropped out after freaking out with the breathing underwater thing, I can totally understand that, think he's gonna stay on the course tho and go snorkelling on the reef anyway. Done some homework when I got back to the hostel and had some dinner. Just wandered around town the rest of the night, Alex and Lawrence had their own post-diving party with CDC this evening, some new guy in the room but didn't bump into him before I went to sleep.
Tuesday 07/06/05:
Early start, had to be back at the CDC shop for pick up at 7.15. Got woken up last night firstly when the boys came in late and a little drunk, then the new guy who I hadn't even met yet brought a fuck home at god knows what hour, they didn't hand around long tho thankfully so last nights sleep was pretty shite. A couple more vids and tests early on and then we went back into the pool for more practice. Done stuff like emergency air exchange, removing kit whilst underwater, how to descend/ascend...etc. Felt pretty comfortable in the pool and things went well. After lunch there was more tests and videos. We had a briefing about what was due to happen tomorrow when we go out to the boat, and there was also a load of sales schpiel to get us to buy our own masks, snorkels and fins. The argument was that you'll use all those things again and that the stuff on the boat won't be as good and you may have problems....I took a look at a couple of masks and will think about it overnight as it's gonna cost about $150.
The boys had checked out today and they'd been replaced by what looked like a couple as there was a bloke and bird in there, plus another different person who wasn't in the room but there were new sheets on so it wasn't fuck-bloke from last night. Didn't really speak much to those in the room, didn't seem as friendly as Al & Lawrence. Didn't do much in the evening, was pretty knackered, went to the Night Market to get some food, bargain late chinese. Room empty when I got back so chilled and read in the room and had an early night to make up for last night, plus another early one tomorrow - put my ear plugs in just to make sure. Despite that I was woken by the couple coming in at 11pm, switching on the light, leaving it on and having a chat, didn't seem to make any attempt to be quiet at all. By midnight I asked them if they needed the light on anymore and they took the hint. The woman had a delightful hacking cough which I fell asleep to.
Wednesday 08/06/05:
Met at the shop and the first thing we did was the written exam, multiple choice and pretty simple, ended up with 49 out of 50...damn! Wanted to ace it. Caved into the sales schpiel too and got myself a mask and snorkel, plus a bag to put it all, should have been $205 retail but got it for $160 so pretty good discount. We were then bussed to the marina to catch the boat out. Weather started off quite good, sun was shining when I got up but there was loads of cloud around. By the time we headed out to sea it was getting darking and didn't look too lovely where we were heading. The boat was pretty packed coz as well as our group there were day divers, snorkelers, advanced divers, etc. Took a travel sick pill with brekkie which was a good job really. I made sure I was in a seat which looked back at where we'd been so that I could see the horizon, that way I don't tend to get ill. Started raining and the sea got choppier, an hour into the journey there were about 8 people at the back of the boat clutching sick bags, some people had it real bad. As we approached the reef it calmed a little and the sun broke through the clouds.
Jumped onto the liveaboard boat - Kangaroo Explorer. Loads of people already on board, it's basically a constant rotation of divers and snorkelers. Had our briefing, were allocated our rooms and were in the water for our first dive at 11.30. OH MY GOD!! It was so so so different from being in the pool, I didn't feel prepared at all, the change was too big. I also had problems with my mask leaking so had to constantly clear it as well as remember to do everything else. The pool is only about 4m deep, for our first dive we went down to 12m and the visibility in the sea is of course lower than the pool. If you can think of a problem then I pretty much had it; mask, breathing, bouyancy, direction.....it was not a good first dive and really knocked my confidence. Lunch and briefing afterwards.
Next dive was 4pm. The instructors had taken a look at my mask and said it was fitted fine and should be ok. I hadn't shaved for a few days and they said that the stubble could be stopping the mask from forming a proper seal, so I trimmed it down - though didn't have a full shave. Got in the water and the last dive was still in the back of my head. Could not descend, took ages, had to get one of the instructors to help me down, mask was still being a problem and the pressure on the mask as you descend is really scary, obviously you can breath out through your nose to sort it out, but there's so much to remember to do and all the time you've got to remember to breath just through the mouth and keep it normal and gently. It was trying to combine everything that was freaking me out. Once I got to the bottom it was slightly better. We did a couple of exercises down the bottom but I couldn't wait to get back up. This dive didn't seem any better than the last which totally knocked me for 6. Was seriously considering not doing anymore, luckily it was the last dive of the day so had some time to chill and think about it.
Told the instructor, Josh, that I wasn't sure about going down again, he obviously did his best to say that I should stick with it and that I'd done well and it wasn't as bad as I thought - I begged to differ. Had some dinner, chicken on the bone unfortunately and there was more bone than chicken so basically had potato wedges and salad, and fruit salad with whipped cream for dessert. Played a few games of cards in the evening but a stupid o'clock start tomorrow morning - we're gonna be in the water at 6am!!!! - so had an early night.
Thursday 09/06/05:
Woke up with a sense of trepidation. Decided that I would go in the water, but if I continued to have mask problems I wouldn't descend and would get back on the boat. Told the instructors this so they knew what I was planning to do. Had a shave last night too so I could eliminate stubble as a problem. We were up at half five and when we were getting ready the it had only started getting light, this didn't help put me at ease either as we were jumping into the sea when it was still slightly dark. Mask seemed a little better and because I mentioned the prob to the instructor she kept and eye on me and kept re-assuring me which put me a little more at ease. Slowly I seemed to feel more confident and managed to get everything under control, this dive felt much better and I don't really know what the change was. More exercises while we were down there; half fill the mask with water and remove it, maintain bouyancy, share air, etc. We saw a couple of cool things while we were there as well as all the little fishes and coral reefs there was a White Tip Reef Shark and a manta ray. It was actually the second time I'd seen a shark, saw one on a dive yesterday but was so busy trying to concentrate on everything I didn't pay much attention.
So back on the boat I felt much much better, was glad I went in, still had the occasional scary moment but managed to control it and get myself together. Generally we were only staying down for about 30 mins, though it feels much much longer, we only really have enough air to be in the water for an hour or so, and that has to include descent and ascent which take time too. Had a lovely cooked brekkie afterwards and felt much better, came out of my shell a bit too coz the whole trepidation had left me being pretty quiet. By the time we'd eaten, checked out of the cabin and squared up on bar bills it was time for the 8am dive, this is the fourth dive and the final dive as a trainee....complete this dive and I become a Certified Open Water Diver. This dive was gonna be a little different though coz there would be a guy with an underwater camera following us, and we had a couple of things we had to do for the camera. When I heard all this last night I totally thought there was no way I would be able to do those things....but with the good first dive I felt much more confident.
Each of us had been given a slate on which to write something on, we would then be filmed underwater holding the slate. We also had to do a full mask removal exercise, so you're 12m underwater and you take your mask off, but this time for the camera you could but sunglasses on instead....last night I wouldn't have done that in a million years, but done it this morning with no probs. For my slate skit I wrote "Bloody Paparazzi" on it...as he filmed me I waved him away and shielded my face from prying eyes, they thought I was joking but obviously being a victim of these photographers I've just had enough! The last thing was to dance on the sea floor, just a little dance to camera and then swim off....all of these things would end up in a video of the groups diving experience, which of course costs extra. The dive in total went pretty well, other than taking a little bit of water in through my knows during the sunglass thing and bringing up a tiny bit of breakfast with a burp it was fine.
Josh was chuffed I did it, and so was I. I have no idea why today was so much better than yesterday but I'm glad it was. Weather was better too, by now it was sunny, warm and just a few fluffy clouds in the sky. More briefings and stuff and then it was time for the last dive at 11am. This dive would be just me and a buddy, no instructors, we were on our own....this freaked me out a little. My original buddy, Aart from Holland, is on the 5 day course so he would be doing his dive later, I got paired with a guy called Lindsey. He was a little like me, didn't want to be too adventurous on the first dive, other people were gonna go off in search of caves and stuff, I just wanted to cruise around and not do anything too complicated. Josh showed us a map and told us all what to do and how to find our way back to the boat. The descent freaked me again coz I couldn't seem to see the bottom, I knew it wasn't that deep but when you can't see it it's a bit disturbing. My buddy was pretty good tho and we worked together well, swimming along the reef wall we saw a few things but again I was too concerned with making sure I didn't do anyting stupid to look at much, just saw the usual fishies and things. Did take a disposable underwater camera with me but only managed 5 pics and they're probably just gonna be pics of the sea.
Kept an eye on each other's air, followed the reef back where we came from and amazingly managed to make it back to near the boat. Had a couple of scares, felt a little lost a one point so we just stopped and decided to ascend from there. Then when we were coming up the sun was overhead so it made visibility really bad...but anyway we done it, we survived, I passed the course and I can now dive anyway....bloody amazing!! However I'd want a lot more practice in some shallow calm water first. After lunch we watched the video that had been put together of the group, it was really really good, my paparazzi bit looked very funny if I say so myself, there's a couple of shots in it of me looking like I'm shitting myself...and I probably was. And the dancing had been sped up and looked excellent too.....of course there was a price, $75 for the DVD inc postage....but it's the kinda thing that you'll only ever do once probably, not gonna learn to dive on the Great Barrier Reef again am I...so got the card out and ordered a copy which will be winging it was to Ma and Pa in the UK soon. Boat picked up the 4 dayers at half 2 and we headed back into Cairns. Tomorrow night there's a post course party at the Woolshed...eurgh!...but it's free pizza and beer...eurgh! so I'll go for the pizza.
Now you may vaguely remember that I got chatting to a German policeman called Sven up the Sydney tower on my last night in Sydney. Well we've been keeping in touch since then, he came up the east coast while I went the other way. Turns out he's now in Cairns too so we met up for a drink in the evening. He's been travelling by car with a German girl who's been sharing the costs since Byron Bay but they're now going seperate ways. We ended up going to the Woolshed...boooo! Tho as I had some good company it was a good night. As usual, being a straight boy, Sven was going on about all the women, pointing them out to me, asking who I liked, etc, etc....why does it always have to revolve around that. As usual I kinda avoided the questions....every time i meet straight boys it's like this - where are all the homo travellers so I can sit around with them talking about blokes! Bored with the Woolshed by midnight so went to bed.
Friday 10/06/05:
Nice lay in til about half 9, then as my vomit covered trainers are now dry I could go for a jog, first one in about 10 days so bloody hard work, plus the sun was out so it was pretty warm. Just jogged along the Esplanade and back for 30 mins, finishing at the Lagoon where I had a lovely relaxing swim....great way to start the day. Was potentially gonna meet Sven in the afternoon but he ended up doing his laundry and going for a swim - good to see doing laundry is a better prospect than meeting me!!! lol....Afternoon I went to the Cairns Regional Gallery which wasn't very exciting but killed some time. Then went to the Centre Of Contemporary Art, only had one gallery open, some cool stuff but only 10 mins of stuff to see. Then went to the library to read the Uk papers for free and killed a bit of time there, chilled by the lagoon too.
Evening was post-dive party at 7.30 at, you guessed it, the Woolshed. Everyone was there except the two gay guys that were on the course - can you believe there were homos going diving??? - plus there were people from other groups who'd just got back too....millions of Germans for some reason. The beer flowed for a little while, I managed to persuade them to buy me one whole vodka and diet coke - so generous - so the evening was a little more expensive for me. The pizza appeared and being loads of backpackers each pizza probably lasted on the platter for about 20 seconds. Sven was also there with some German friends tho they hung out themselves, Sven joining me later for a dance with us. Mentioned I might go clubbing tomorrow night, he said he'd like to go, said I'd explain where I was going tomorrow...maybe! So the alcohol flowed, there were black sambuca shots being doing, tho they weren't free, and a lot of dancing....and it the end a good night was had by all. I bowed out at 12.30 coz the whole straightness of it all was driving me mad so went to the homo club....which was a little quiet, and as usual they had a completely pointless and not entertaining show at some point....let's hope saturday night is a bit busier.
Saturday 11/06/05:
So I get to bed at about 3 last night, and at 4am the bloody fire alarm goes off and we have to evacuate the building. Standing around outside for half an hour and in the end they couldn't find the cause or any fire...joy! Probably some pissed up twat setting them off. Got back to bed and within 5 mins it went off again, couldn't be arsed to get up this time, would rather burn....luckily it switched off after a minute or so. Obviously under the circumstances I stayed in bed till half 10 this morning. Weather is improving slightly with the sun coming out a bit more often. The morning was pretty much a right off by the time I'd had brekkie and gotten myself sorted. Put a poster up to sell my Da Vinci Code for $9 which is what I paid for it.....had sold it within a couple of hours....joy.
Met Sven in the afternoon and we hired a couple of bikes and went for a ride up the coast to a place called Yorkey's Knob - queue childish giggles, they were even having a 'Festival of the Knob' which sounded marvellous but turned out to just be some village fete type thing unfortunately, I was bitterly disappointed tho I did have my picture taken with the hilarious festival sign. The cycle was about 15km there, basically Yorkey's Knob is a beach, weather was great by the afternoon, good for topping up the tan. Beach was gorgeous and there were loads of kite surfers around which looked really cool, took plenty of pics and just chilled on the beach for half an hour, Sven running around with his fancy camera trying to get some good shots. Also stopped off at the one and only little cafe near the beach for some ice-cream, Sven having a cheese burger which actually looked like a big sandwich, just a piece of meat with cheese and sauce inbetween two massive slices of bread.
Started heading back just before 5pm. The journey there had been really easy and going back we realised why, the wind was now in front of us and there was a slight incline all the way back to Cairns.....and the seat was starting to kill my ass! Sven is about 6ft with massive legs so didn't find it quite as difficult as me with my short arse legs, even tho of course they are extremely muscly and powerful. Sven headed to his hostel and I jumped in the lagoon for a post cycle swim to wash of the massive amount of insects which had stuck to my suntan lotion covered skin on the way back. Was gonna cook myself for dinner but the pork I bought was now 2 days out of date so thought i'd better give that a miss, then Woolies was shut so had to go buy food from the night market, pasta thingy. New boy in the room, Luca - italian, tanned and quite good looking, chatty too. Said the shirt he had on to go out tonight was a bit faggy....really wanted to say "And what's wrong with that?"...the amount of homophobic shit you hear in hostels is sad, one day I'm gonna stick my neck out and challenge it...see what happens. Feel a bit shit for not doing it already but when you're sharing a room with someone you kinda wonder what they might do if they come out with that sorta stuff....anyway, enough deep shit...
Evening was spent in the room listening to tunes on the Megapod, didn't want to go out too early so drank in the room like some sad lonely alcoholic, but at least I saved some money. Went out at 11 and had one in the Fox and Firkin - A N Other english backpacker pub - before heading to Nu-Trix again. Absolutely bloody dead, don't think I've ever seen a nightclub so quiet on a sat night. Managed to stretch the evening out somehow hitting the sack at half 2.
Sunday 12/06/05:
Lovely lay in till 11, only got woken once during the morning which is amazing in a dorm. Bought my Greyhound pass to get me down the east coast - $225...spent soooo much money in this bloody city, gonna have to pull the purse strings in or maybe do a little work somewhere...Brissy maybe, and booked the ticket to get me down to Mission Beach tomorrow. Used the cycle for a little bit to go round town taking some pics as it's the last day. Went to the lagoon in the afternoon, best weather since i've been here, real hot and generally blue skies. Hung out with Sven and some of his German friends, they spoke German a little too often for my liking...how rude! Good to have some company tho, last day I'll probably see Sven before we both end up in Sydney again in a couple of months. Plenty of totty to spot at the lagoon, tho of course we were looking at very different things.
Cloud rolled over later in the afternoon so dumped the bike back at the shop. Met up with a guy I'd spoken with online - Matt, a nurse from Brisbane up here working and spent a couple of hours with him. Had to do some packing in the evening ready for the off tomorrow. Probably gonna meet Sven at the Bullshit/Woolshed later this evening for a au revoir drink or two and that's about it for Cairns....done, dusted!
