Cennnnnnnnnnnes

Well contrary to our beliefs and to the two new towels we had bought in Sydney, the weather in Cairns was not Scorchio! Ah butts galore. What is the story Rory with the rain everywhere.

Nonetheless we checked into our ‘cell’ in Nomads Serpent Hostel and decided to take it easy for the evening. The hostel was pretty cool actually apart from the rooms (bloody bunkbeds & no where to put stuff makes for an uncomfy week). There was a big bar area, a pool, a beachy area for playing volleyball and lots of places to sunbathe as well as a big tv area, laundry room and kitchen.
The most impressive (and most used by us) being the bar area with eh.. the cheapo bar and tvs to watch the world cup on.
As most of the days were pretty overcast, we decided we wouldn’t go to hell if we stayed up late to watch football and slept late in the day – which we did. We did the usual exploration of the town to isolate the nearest food court, and generally bummed around watching football, eating wedges & drinking beer late at night and taking time to bump up our bellies.

After we realised that the weather was not going to get much better, we decided to do some adventure activities. I had a cold the first part of the week and I wasn’t too pushed on doing the PADI 4 day diving course, so we decided to book an Intro dive instead. We booked the introdive and some whitewater rafting. Woohoo

The rafting was fun but pretty tame. We bunked into a busload of other backpackers and made our way to the river. Me and Jim had an alright group, we were led by a kiwi, and had about 4 other birds in the rafting tub with us. There was about 3 other tub loads of Japanese girls who started out with us. It was gas watching them ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ and squealing with delight and fear at every opportunity. There were two girls in our tub who were a laugh, and another two (irish) who didn’t say a word. We had a good laugh, but it was kinda like white water paddling instead of rafting. It was fun but I think next time we will have to do EXTREME RAFTING in order to up the ante. )

The only one who fell out of the boat was the guide as we went over a pretty exciting bump in the river. All in all, fun was had and after getting pushed off the tub into the river, I paddled downstream – still with my oar in my hand. All in all – twas a nice day.

The next day however was INTRODIVE DAY. Now as some of you may or may not know (depends if you’ve read the Galapagos blog), I am (now was) terrified of the sea, of being in the sea without any beach nearby, and of stuff in the sea – i.e. sharks. So the thought of doing a four day diving course was filling me with dread. So thanks to the short amount of time we had in Cairns and the cold I had, we put it off and decided to do an Intro Dive instead. An intro dive basically consists of a nice day trip out on a boat to the coral reef, where we can all go snorkelling and see some of the coral. Then lunch is served and then those who have booked an intro dive can do their stuff. An intro dive is exactly what it says on the tin – an introductory dive. They dispense with all the knowledge that you learn about buoyancy and other nautical nonsense and the dive captain takes you down BELOW.
Not before you get a quick briefing of what to do if you’re air yokey pops out and what exactly to do after you go down.
Well it all sounds very nice now doesn’t it…

Yeah right. First of all, the minute the boat got out on open water – the auld Galapagos Fever hit me like a prat out of hell. (ps – side note – I think we are flying over the Mekong River in Vietnam as I type – we’re on the way to meet John & Karen in Thailand. :p )
as soon as the swaying began, I started to feel ill. Then I started to feel nervous about doing the diving. After a swift trip to the bogs (any longer down there and I wouldn’t have been able to get back out of there), I decided the only way to stop the ill feeling was to go snorkelling. I have never EVER been so delighted to get into the sea! I had a short wet suit (as we were going diving later) on and it actually made me a little braver. I launched myself in and awaited Jimbob, who had to return to put Vaseline on his moustache. Lol. (Jim adds – ‘they had no Vaseline left so I had to use Industrial Strength Lube). Lol almighty.
Anywho whilst waiting I snorkelled off on my own for a bit and I LOVED it. It was so cool. The reef (er) lol.(not) was amazing and very beautiful. There were so many colourful fish all a couple of feet below my belly. The current was very very strong and I couldn’t go too far. It kept pushing me to the edge of the reef, beyond which was a deep deep empty pool of dark blue. Upon seeing the vastness of nothing, I got a little scared and returned to the boat to wait for Jim. Then we tagteamed around the reef, making sure to keep one another in view. We saw sandsharks, GIANT wobbly looking fish with big lips, some nemos, plenty of angel fish, a gorgeous shiny white fish and I saw a small reef shark. And I wasn’t scared! Whooo.ooooo..ooo.. etc. etc. unfortunately for us, the current was so strong, that we kept going around in circles seeing the same bits of reef over and over again. But it was hella cool. I kept thinking how great I was at snorkelling now. Pffft – I know – lamo. But I was hella proud.

Not long did the pride last.. We suited up for our intro dive and some guy put some heavy things around our waists. There were four of us, dangling in the water, hanging on to the back of the boat, underwater. We were all aired up and sent below. Whereby I could not get the breathing right. (I was doing it wrong – but it wasn’t my fault, the guy earlier had told us to let all the bubbles out of our mouths.. or had he.. I dunno I was too seasick).. anyway, I kept doing it wrong, taking in a wad load of water and shooting back up, popping out of the water just in time to see some long haired dude have a right auld chuckle at me and send me back down again. It took me three goes to get it right. I was afraid the others would run out of air. In actual fact, I only got it right by a fluke, I was praying to god that my air yokey wouldn’t pop out underwater or else I’d be rightly fewked. :/
So eventually we all went down underwater, linking arms with each other and our dive master. Now our dive master was in a bad mood already. He said we were group 8 and he was pissed off with everyone disobeying his orders throughout the day.
Welllheelllehllll. Fandabbydozey.

So with strict instructions from grumpyhole to stay linked and stay together, we all go swimming off in a straight line.. Now I am freaked and don’t’ want to let go of yer man, plus my mask is all fogged up and I can’t see a fecking thing. So when the dive master guy makes the ‘walky’ motion with his fingers, I don’t see anything wrong with Jimbob going off for a stroll by himself. Only that the ‘walky’ motion actually means ‘kick yer flippers you lazy bastards’ and not ‘take some leisure time to explore the ocean for yourselves’. Lol. To cut a long story short – cos I’m on a plane and not arsed with putting everything in the right order with all the details, we made a balls of our dive and only got about 5 minutes underwater.

What a gip. Twas only on the walk home with Jim, that I found out what I had been doing wrong with the breathing..

Me: “OHHHHH I thought yer man said we had to blow out the bubbles, no wonder I had no breath left and kept taking in all the water… ooohh I see, well maybe if we do it again I’ll get it right. Yeah I’ll have to try that again.. that dive master was a grumpy bollix wasn’t he? I can’t believe I was doing it that wrong. They didn’t explain that properly. I think I’ll send them an email and tell them they should be more clear…
Jim: (to himself) De de de de de de dededede De de de de de dedededed

So after all that, I’d definitely like to go diving again, only next time I will definitely do the 4 day course yokey. In fact, I may do it here, in Thailand.

Cairns itself is a bit menemeneh, but the reef is cool and I would definitely like to go back some day and see it again. (Adds in Laugh after trying diving in Thailand – aHAHAHAHAHAHAHA shambolica)