Musings of the Museless

Or, rather, certified. Open Water Diver, that is. Did my four OW cert dives Saturday and Sunday on our Live-a-board tour of the Great Barrier Reef. It was very very fun, thanks to the group I got to do it with. Saw plenty of fish, turtles and coral to remember for a lifetime (swam with a turtle – he got between me and my dive buddy). Touched a nudibranch – go look that one up!

Going out to the Reef was less fun – the weather was a little windy, the waves were a little choppy, the boat was a little rocky, and Brian was a little sea sicky – for about one and a half days. Not the funnest thing in the world for him, to be sure. But an experience for him none the less. He was not able to dive… Australia is racist against asthmatics and thus he wasn’t allowed to don a tank and BCD. He did get to snorkel, as did I (my ears got a little wonky because of my cold the second day, so I opted to snorkel and was surprised and what you actually get to see!).

Besides diving, the other things to do on the boat were eating and sleeping. Food was good, IMO, thanks to the cook. And the rest of the divers were a fun bunch, from the UK and Switzerland and Denmark and the US mostly. We chatted and what-not, shared diving and non-diving stories. In fact, we’re off to have supper with the lot right now… tomorrow we get to Kuranda via the Skyrail over the rainforest, gonna see some wildlife (that means pics!), and back to Sydney on Wednesday super-early.

Cheers!

We are now in Cairns. Got here this morning, on a quite comfy flight that was continuing to Tokyo (nope, not on my itinerary). I say the flight was quite comfy because I slept through most of it, in spite of this nagging little cough/cold I’ve developed.

After arriving at the hostel (I’ll give a better review of the hostel later, but I’ll say it’s not up the same as the other two we’ve stayed in thus far), we went on a mission – a short mission. We dropped into the dive shop we’re taking our dive trip with, got fitted for wet suits (OMG! It’s sooooo much easier to move in a 4mm wetsuit, even putting it on is easier, and we have full boot fins!! So different from the frigid North Atlantic).

Later in the evening we went to Reef Teach, a two hour performance/presentation on the fish and coral you can see, along with tips for leaving things as you found them. Dude (who’s name escapes me… I’ll update the post with his name) was awesome!! I wish he taught ECE courses in the same manner… class attendance would skyrocket!

I’ll digress to yesterday’s wine tour another time. It was good… but I gotta run. I’ll let you know how diving went when we get back!

Took in the Maritime Museum and Aquarium yesterday… 25 km of walking in days is too much for my poor little feet (and Brian’s pontoons as well). After much studying I passed my dive medical, yay!

Enjoy the pic. Cheers!!