Woke up a about 7am ut went back to sleep for another hour then had to get up as breakfast finished at 8.30am. It was continental breakfast so just had some cereal, toast, juice and coffee then set off to the sea front to try and get something booked.
We found a tourist information centre very close to where we parked the car. Unfortunately, we have Mrs 20 questions in front of us and she wanted to know everything there was to see and do in the world it seemed like. After about 15 minutes it was our turn after we’d listened to the American in front who liked the sound of her own voice so much she even said a few times “yeeeeaah like I said before…..” and then repeated whatever she had said before. WELL IF YOU’VE SAID IT BEFORE WHY THE HELL DO YOU NEED TO SAY IT AGAIN WOMAN, YOU’VE GOT YOUR INFO NOW PISS OFF!!!
Anyway, we eventually got to speak to Dan who was very helpful but sadly as it was 9.45am and a lot of the tours had already left for the day so our options were quite limited. We tried to get over to Green Island by helicopter, which included a scuba dive and then a boat back but they only had one place left. The only thing we could get on was a boat over to Moore Reef, but we weren’t bothered where it was as long as we got to scuba around the Great Barrier Reef. The trip was about £100 each and included boat there and back, lunch, snorkelling, glass bottom boat ride, submersible ride, and Scuba diving. We had minutes to get it booked and run down to where the boat was tied up as it left at 10am.
We got on board and grabbed a cup of tea and I took 2 seasickness tablets, as I didn’t want to take any chances as it aint nice. The boat ha 3 decks and was pretty full with lots of Chinese people all giggling and run around taking photos (this was soon to be short lived). Within minutes of setting sail onto the choppy waters many faces turned green and all the giggly faces were shoved into sick bags making Karate noises lol. No sooner had they been given a new one and it needed changing again. Lucky I took them sea legs, it was up-chuck city, and everyone was paying it a visit. A young lad who I think was with his family from Australia threw up all over the deck as he didn’t get his head in a sick bag quick enough.
When we eventually arrived at the pontoon where we would be most of the day those that would be scuba diving were given a short briefing on the various tasks we would need to complete before we could go down to the reef. There were just simple things with the mask etc to ensure we knew how to clear the mask, find the oxygen line if we dropped it etc. Everyone was given a time slot so that you were only in small groups, ours was 2.30pm. We had a quick snorkel around the boat and platoon area but the water wasn’t really too clear as it had been raining quite a bit the past few days (great bad weather just what we need !).
After snorkelling it was time to grab some lunch so it would have time to settle before we went for our dive. Funny all those Chinese folks aren’t so ill now, they’ve got food piled up to the rafters. Fresh fruit piled on top of rice, piled on top of fresh prawns, on top of god knows Catherine Tate Reference One woman on the next table to me was about 2 stone wet through and I swear she ate her way through a small island. Let’s hope she doesn’t have to bring all that back up on the way home or she’ll have her head in a paper bag for a week!
After lunch we did the glass bottom boat and sub thingy but the water was that cloudy I might as well of been sailing over Phil’s dirty bath water in a glass bottom boat for all I could see.
Next up, the main event. Time to scuba dive. There were four of us in our group (plus instructor Tina, A man with a replacement arm (somebody else’s not a robot one as you could see where the skin colour changed), who I think was the dad of spew on the deck kid me n Phil and a goby American guy (let’s call him CHUCK) who we’d heard all day on deck telling his mates how AWESOME the floor walk was he did yesterday. The floor walk is a kind of dive for sissy’s who don’t want to get their hair wet as you have this big round space helmet on and so you are dry inside and there is no breathing or mask to worry about. Judging by the amount of gel he had on his curly locks I figured that’s why he went for that option.
Anyway we all got suited up and were taken down onto a kind of shelf at the end of the boat that had a rail on it so we could hold on and go under water without leaving the boat as such. On the way down the stairs I could hear chuck saying to Tina (but he could have been talking to anyone as everyone could hear him… “is there 4 in our group I thought it was two?”. Phil and me were late arrivals so hadn’t been on the original sheet (but they knew about us). Clearly nobody had told Chuck that his group size had increased (why would they he wasn’t the instructor).
Before we could go down we had to practice the various things we’d been shown. We had no sooner got our heads under the water when chuck pipes up “you know what? I don’t think I can do this” (in an annoying American drawl). I thought, “What get your hair wet or scuba dive?”. Next he says “I’m really scared right now, is there any way I could do a single dive with an instructor?” Oh now we get it he wants his own personal instructor so he has all the attention. Anyway after a bit of discussion and hair scraping back, chuck was given his own instructor and off he went. No doubt he will end up drowning, as I don’t think he is going to be able to keep his gob shut for more than two minutes. Chatty Americans and breathing under water are probably not the best combination, we shall see.
We completed all the practise exercises and then in front of the bar we’d been holding were 6 ropes that led downwards. We were all given one to hold onto and then slowly had to go down to the next level and equalise our ears at each stage. I was a bit worried about this bit as it can really hurt if your ears won’t equalise. I won’t bore you with the full info but basically as you go down the pressure of water is greater than the air space in your ears so it compresses it. To combat this you pinch yer nose and blow and it expands the air inside your ears (sounds more complicated than it is). Anyway I didn’t have any problem and neither did anyone else.
The visibility was much better as we went further down and you could see all the coral and bright coloured fish. Some of the fish were the size of my arm from finger to elbow. Tina had a plastic bottle of some kind of food with her and every now and then would let some out and the fish came all around us. They seemed to follow us once they knew she had food. When they came around for food they would let you touch them and everything. You could feel down the side of the body, some of them were tough and scaly like you expect fish to be and some were really soft. When we reached the bottom there was another bar to hold onto that was weighted down at either end with block of concrete. Tina showed us a huge clam type thing that was open and she could get her arm inside. It started to close up slowly around her but there was lots of soft tissue inside and it obviously wasn’t going to try and eat her or anything lol. We got to feel the inside and it felt like velvet when it gets when (not that I wear velvet but I can imagine lol).
She also showed us this other creature looked like a brown velvet sock (velvet again lol) filled with something so it was solid (maybe it was lol). It felt soft to the touch and we all passed it along and had hold . She explained (in charades style of course) that it ate from one end and shat out the other, and not to eat it or you’d be ill (note to self don’t eat velvet socks you find in the sea).
We linked arms and swam for a while along the reef and then down again until we reach 7 metres. There was another bar to hold onto and it was then photo time. We all got handed a big shell to pose with and then they used the bottle of food to get fish to swim around us and took some more. Then we had some with a stuffed Nemo toy thing (that looked quite real under the water). After another swim it was time to head back up (no need to equalise on the way up as it does it itself apparently).
By the time we got back on the pontoon and in the boat it was time to head back to Cairns. The water was a lot calmer on the way back so most of the mountain of food they ate stayed put and not as many paper bags were needed. I could hear Chuck from any place on the boat I went to saying how “Awesome” his dive was and how he just HAD to do it again soon. I thought “you weren’t saying that when you were crying earlier cos you had to get yer Vidal Sassoon wet Mr !”. LOL.
It was an hour or so back to Cairns and when we got there is was absolutely bouncing down with rain. I’m not sure if we are going to get to do our hot air balloon ride tomorrow if it carried on like this.
Once we arrived back at Cairns we jumped in the car and went to the nearest supermarket to get some stuff for dinner. After dinner we tried to use the hotel Internet to update blogs etc but it was just SOOOO slow so we may have to wait until we get to Sydney or find a cyber café.
Early night, as pick up tomorrow, is at 4.15am (if its not cancelled).
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