On Tuesday, I spent the day walking around Cairns and looking through all the shops, and decided I couldn’t do this for another whole day while waiting for my dive course to begin. I spent more than an hour just browsing through the brochures in the hostel reception, trying to decide on a day trip to do for Wednesday. Because I was leaving early the next day, I went to bed early again that night.
On Wednesday, the day trip I decided on was up to a village called Karunda. In the morning I went to a wildlife park, petted kangaroos, wallabies and koalas, saw crocodiles, dingoes, and several different types of Australian lizards. After the park I went on an Aboriginal Dreamtime walk, where I learned about spear-throwing, learned how to play the didgeridoo, and learned how to throw a boomerang. After the walk I watched some of the Aboriginals perform some of their traditional dances. Once the dances were completed, I went on a tour through the rainforest on an amphibious vehicle. We drove through the rainforest and went down a river, and saw heaps of different types of flora, but not very much fauna. I had the best eyes in the group, however, spotting a water dragon lizard, a turtle, and a wild turkey. After this I took the shuttle into the actual village of Karunda, where I browsed through the various markets, and finally purchased a pair of wood earrings that I’ve wanted for a while. I took the shuttle back to Cairns and had an early night to prepare for my big day the next day. Overall the day trip to Karunda was good, but not really worth the $50 I paid.
On Thursday, I got up real early and was all ready to go, standing at the pickup spot about 15 minutes early. Can you say keener? I got picked up, and went, met all the cool people who were going to be in my group, and we got through the morning classroom session with no problems. At lunch time, we all had to visit the doctor to get our dive medical. Of course, typical keener behaviour, I’m first in line. And of course, just my luck in Cairns, I fail my dive medical because of a medication I’m on. You can imagine my disappointment as I’m told I won’t be able to dive, and won’t be able to continue on in the course with everyone. I waited until everyone was through, and was brought to another doctor for a second opinion. I failed this second exam as well. The fact that I proved my physical fitness and determination a month ago by climbing the largest free-standing mountain in the world meant nothing. So I was brought back to the dive centre, where everyone stood watching me balling my eyes out, because there was nothing they could do to make me feel better. I was issued my refund, and went back to the hostel. Back at the hostel I immediately went out and bought a bus ticket down to Sydney, and booked myself on the next bus out of Cairns. I needed a change of scenery so much. After the day, I was so exhausted, emotionally and physically, so I went to bed really early.
On Friday, I caught the bus out of Cairns at 7:30am. I travelled all day on the bus down to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. After 10 hours on the bus I arrived, and went and booked into a hostel. I booked a day tour for the following day to go snorkelling on the Reef, and went to bed early.
On Saturday, I got the shuttle to Shute Harbour, where the boat was leaving from, at 7:15am and the boat left at about 8. We dropped off and picked up a few passengers at Hamilton Island, and continued on our way. We got to the reef and into the water at about 11. After about 2 hours of snorkelling, I took a break for lunch and went right back in for another hour or so. Being on the outer reef, the majority of the coral was hard coral, so I didn’t see any anemones, and therefore no clownfish. A HUGE disappointment for me was not seeing any sharks, rays, or turtles. Another thing I didn’t realize was that
about 80% of coral is brown, and all the colourful pictures and videos that I’ve seen are from the inner reefs, so while it was really amazing to see the coral structures, I didn’t see any of the colours that I was imagining. A fish that I thought was really cool though, was the sandy damselfish. I would swim over a sandy patch that had some algae, and these fish would charge at me, occasionally knocking my goggles, and one actually bit me. I thought this was very brave for these fish, because they are about 10-15cm long, whereas I’m about 165cm long, so if I wanted to I could have damaged those fish. Of course I didn’t, I swam away once I got bit. The weather wasn’t very cooperative, it was very windy, and it rained off and on, so I was almost sea sick a couple times on the way out and back, but I ended up falling asleep instead. Overall, I’m glad I went out, but I will NEVER go out on the reef again unless I can dive. Snorkelling just wasn’t that great. That night, the hostel that I’m staying at had a ladies night going on. This included free pizza for everyone, free pitchers of beer for everyone, free champagne for ladies, and a free shot for every time you did a successful limbo in the competition. Naturally I entered this limbo competition, and I came second! The prize for 1st was $25 cash, and it came down to rock paper scissors. I got a free drink for coming second. Saturday night was a lot of fun.
Today, Sunday, I walked around Airlie Beach, and lay by the Lagoon and swam and sunbathed. We are allowed to swim in the ocean here, but it’s not recommended because of the stingers, and so the lagoon offered a stinger free solution for swimming. Overall it was a lazy, but nice day.