Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

18/02
Landing at Cairns airport, we pick up our bags and head out to grab a taxi, making our way to Cairns City Backpacker, our base in Cairns.
The hostel is set within a complex of 2 Queenslanders houses surrounded by trees. It has a swimming pool (more like a big tub, really!) and outside sitting area. The first thing that strikes us is the humidity and its smell. We experienced this in NZ too. That sort of smell, which is a mix of rotten leaves and humidity that does not go away...sweet and hard at the same time, stays everywhere in the bags, the clothes, us and so on.
The hostel and its buildings are definitely not recent. It's dated and probably in need of refurbishment, but hey, it's cheap and we won't stay there much (and prepares us for the wet!!). We unpack and decide to go do some breakfast shopping in the nearby supermarket. And then it's already the end of the day! We head off to our free hostel meal at the Woolshed, a bar/restaurant hosting evening events everyday, every week. There is a free shuttle service from the backpacker to the restaurant.Cool! On the way we speak to a young canadian girl and Richard, a young Aussie from Perth who's just come back from Vietnam. We get some very good information from him: where to go, what to see etc.
We arrive at the bar, it is ramed with backpackers (mostly in their early 20's) spending their cash on booze and meal upgrades. The free meal consists of Chili con carne, spaghetti bolognese or vegetarian pasta. We both opt for the chilli.
Once again we feel a bit weird there, we are not this age anymore. We've spent the past few years hosting or going to dinner parties, enjoying (too?) deep conversations around few bottles of wine. But here it's different, welcome to Party Land!!! Drinking, flirting, drinking more, and flirting even more...Sexual young energy in the air! We are both puzzled to feel that bit older! It is funny though and we're having fun watching them. We then come back to our hostel and have an early-ish night because tomorrow is a big day. We'll start the Open Water Diver course, that will teach us how to become closer to marine mamals!

19/02
The pick up time for the course is at 8.30am, we drive to the Pro Dive centre. We run through the course introduction, fill up all the paperwork, and start with the theory all morning. It feels like going back to school (and it is!). The morning goes very quickly (funny, in my (Fab) school time, I felt minutes were hours and days were very long!!!!) and we take our food order for the lunch break. Meanwhile we have the diving medical exam.
At the beginning of the afternoon, the swimming pool exercise starts: getting our equipment ready and how to look after it, how to breathe underwater, which turns out difficult for Val. Some other exercises involve removing the mask underwater, filling it up with water and flushing it with air. The mask is extremely hard to remove underwater, and Val experiences a big stress, she panics a bit and this stress is enhanced by some problems with her contact lenses. She ends up losing one. The first drills are painful for her and she'll now be very tensed everytime we'll have to do do some masks and regulators exercises.
Susan (Sue), our German instructor tries her best to reassure her and goes through some tips to get Val back on a more relaxed attitude. But the course is quite intense and the schedule is busy. We need to get on with the tuition. Val feels a bit rushed and wishes we had more time to get used to the new environment.
Out of the water again, we learn a bit more about the equipment we are going to use. And it's the end of day one. We get a drop off to our hostel. We rest for a bit, a debrief. Val becomes anxious as the night draws close, she want to give up, as she feel she can't overcome her irrational fears. The moment is intense. I (Fab) feel OK and try my best to calm her down. The night will be difficult...

20/02
Around our morning breakfast, Val is quiet but agitated. The night has not helped her too much and she's very anxious, as we start the morning in the pool, trying out different type of equipments, masks, snorkel, finns etc. before doing the second part of our pool exercises. Val is stressed with the mask exercise again, still not succeeding to keep calm. Eveytime she gets to do the mask thing she feels like she suffocates, that she's going to drawn, her nose filling up with water. It's extremely stressful for her, even in the shallow end of the pool. More difficulties arise as we are now in the deep end of the pool. We need to practice the emergency ascent. Val hates it. But she bravely persists and with a lot of Sue's persuasion, she succeeds (uncomfortably but brilliantly) in all the exercises.
We break for lunch, heading out to the centre of town before going to the Pro Dive shop to see if we want to buy the equipment we tried earlier on and register for the boat trip. After the bad mask/contact lenses experience and hours of chatting together, Val decides to buy a prescription mask to feel safer and have less to worry about as tomorrow is a different story: we'll be in the Big Blue!!!
Our wallets lighter of few dollars, we go back to the classroom for more theory and the final exam, we pass the test, Fab being mister 100 percent!
It's been a long day and we have to wake up really early to get to the boat and sail to the reef. We're not lucky as few youngsters party hard all night in the hostel. Some Irish guys get really drunk and we have to ask them to be quiet, twice, but it doesn't work. We'll end up with only two hours sleep...not a great night before the big trip!!!

21/02
The pick up is at 5.50!!! It's hard core with barely no sleep. We need to stow the bags, to check in. We wait at the shop, then we're all ready to go, 32 passengers and 7 staff! We arrive on the boat, Scubadiver 2. We get a briefing for what is going to happen in the next three days, get the security briefing and procedures.
We are 2 groups of beginners and some advanced divers as well, first briefing: we learn about the boat, we get to know the staff, the schedule. The boat leaves Cairns harbour.
We take some time to rest (at last but only a little bit) until we moore in the great barrier reef around 10.30am.
Everything goes quickly, we're here to dive and if it is too slow, we can't do all the training dives we need to be able to do the free dives after the certification. We get ready for the first training dive. It is funny to see 36 people getting ready in such a short time, on the same deck, dressing up in black protective lycra suites, BCD (Buoyancy Control Device, that's the inflatable jacket in layman's term), the (heavy for Val!) weight belt, mask, snorkel etc. A total of 15Kg on the back. We feel a little bit like donkeys really! It also feels a bit like an army operation...or a James Bond movie!
And there we are, ready to go, looking high, hand holding the mask, one big step ahead and we fall in the big blue, heart beating hard, all our senses completely alert. A big 'splash' later, that noise everybody heard sometimes on TV or else, that very noise of breathing underwater, well, we're producing it... amazing and up we go up, the BCD makes us float like a big buoy! It's crazy, dear old Archimed! But the fun's quickly over, we need to 'sink' to dive, down there, and meet some of the GBR locals... We deflate our BCD, looking at the bubbles going to the surface and disappearing...We feel the increasing pressure on our eardrums, we need to 'equalise' the pressure between the inside of our bodies and the outside. But we go down fairly quickly without much problems (a bit for me, Fab, actually, well you know, ears...work stuff!!!!)
Val is stressed in the ocean, she's apprehensive for the mask exercises but we do not have to do anything for the first dive. We just need to follow our instructor, 12m below, looking at what we've been all dreaming of for the past few days. And here they are, little Nemos (clown fish), anemones, all sorts of corals and beautiful angelfishes, surgeonfishes, parrotfishes, butterflyfishes...and few minutes later, round the corner of a rock, a green turtle! She's swimming 'like a bird in the sky', munching a jellyfish away (good on her we're all thinking!). It's beautiful, so serene, so relaxing...Val is relaxed, sucking fast her air away like I also do (we both are 'air pigs', great huh!!), I've also managed to calm down. It's funny, I keep having that sensation of 'falling' when I dive!
And between two animal discoveries we also practice our new skills, and the buddy system. It's a great dive, a good start! We then stop for the lunch break, Val is seasick, many people are, lots of (small) waves, but the boat rocks side to side.
She is also tensed as she worries she won't manage to do the mask exercise again...It's now time for the second training dive. We do lots of exercises, and the mask stuff comes. Val nearly suffocates under the water and has to be held by the instructor, she starts to worry she won't pass, with that weird feeling of suffocation (which does not happen) and anxiety...I am fine, but feel worried for Val, she's not quite enjoying her time here. We break, come back on the boat to chill out. We debrief, like after each dive, we chat to people. The group is very mixed, different ages, nationalities. There is a nice atmosphere on the boat. We have our meal and off to bed. Tomorrow is going to be challenging, we have the practical test. The boat is still rocking. And Val is getting extremely nervous.

22/02
After a very tensed night we have our first dive at 7am. It's hard to wake up and go straight in the water without a breakie!! We see a green turtle, but Val is getting low on air quickly. She's is very tense because of the exercises again. We learn about compass navigation. The masks stuff comes back again. And another panic for Val with the mask. But the group is small. It's quite nice for her to feel surrounded, supported and encouraged by all.
We break and we go for our last training dive. We all have to succeed or we won't pass the certification. After much worry, the mask exercise is finally cleared by Val without too much problem but it still feels difficult and stressful. We surface. It's now 11.30am and during the debrief, it's a success for both of us. We are now certified divers (yipee, no more mask stuff, ever!!!) and we can dive alone with a buddy up (or down!) to 18 metres. Lunch break, then it's time for our first dive ALONE, as a team, with no supervision. It is 3pm, we see sharks, stingrays, many fishes: triggerfishes (beautiful but stear clear, they are the pittbulls of the ocean!), clown fish, little Nemos etc. It feels great and peaceful, we're both comfortable in the water but Val's still breathing too quickly. It will be a big challenge to learn to regulate her breathing and feel more relaxed under water.
We then chill out, sleep a bit to recover, and then we get ready for the next dive. The night dive. Big anxiety for me. I feel scared of diving in the darkness. In fact I feel anxious again to experience what I would now qualify as the 'Milford' syndrom! Sue, our instructor, tries to make everyone laugh with a funny but brilliantly scary briefing with big great white sharks stories...We actually do see some sharks (not the big great white!) very close to the boat and many people are uneasy. Weirdly enough Val feels good about it, she really wants to do that dive and feels excited about it. I am anxious but make it to the water, we all slowly dive in the dark, with torches, feeling peaceful, following the little lights of the diver in front of us. We all (7 of us) stay very close to each other...Some people panick and go back to the surface, like little balloons flying up to high skies. We both feel relaxed, I even manage to overcome my fear of dark. We dive under a small overhang (yes me, too!) and see a gigantic sleeping green turtle tucked under a rock! It's magical, I lay down flat on the sandy bottom and stare at the beauty! We see fishes asleep, like the parrotfish in his snort bubble and then slowly start to ascent and we see some sharks around, quite impressive! Back on the boat around 9ish for some cake. We both feel really good, and empowered! We spend some time chatting with a French couple met on the boat and then off to bed. Good achievement, it feels great!

23/02
It's a very long and intense day today as we have to fit in 3 dives before 12!! We wake up and do the first dive a 6.30am. It's so hard to get in the water so early, we feel unmotivated...but are rewarded with a great dive, seeing two turtles eating corals and jellyfish. We managed to get very close to them. They're beautiful creatures swimming so graciously! We get to see more sharks, even a black tip, pretty rare apparently. We feel good to be alone in the water and relaxed. It's one of our best dives, with many fishes. We break for breakfast and then another dive at 9.30am. It is pretty exhausting! We are a team of three this time with Ryan our divemaster as he has no buddy. It's not that interesting. It is now raining and the water is a bit murky. Well, not that much in fact as it is the Great Barrier Reef and the visibility is still great but not as perfect! We are lucky to learn to dive in near perfect conditions and water! We chill out then the third dive comes, Val feels lazy and I find another buddy to go with, Sam. Val stays on the boat, chats with Sue our instructor who is the vigil-look out for this dive. A moment later I come back. The dive was very enjoyable. I swam under an arch, saw enormous maori wrasses (they're as big as my dive buddy!!!) and more little clown fishes!
Last lunch as a team on the boat, we have a debrief then agree to all meet for a goodbye dinner tonight. We make it back to the shop to pick up our bags then we're off to the hostel, we are staying again in the grotty backpacker but want a different room as the first one was too close to the action!! We take a hot shower, the proper first one in 3 days, so nice! We chill out a bit then off to town for our dinner. Nice evening, dinner then drinks with the group, we all end up in a club-bar, full of youngsters. We do feel very old at the moment, everyone in their twenties!!! Val feels like an old granny, I do not quite feel adequate... but we have fun, we dance, we have few drinks. We leave and go back to the hostel under the tropical rain at 2 am!! We both feel dizzy, wobbly because of the boat, we got used to having the floor moving and it keeps doing that now.... And it is not the alcohol!! It was nice to socialise, be with a group of people and share some common interests. Lights off.

24/02
We are lazy today and spend the morning sleeping. We spend a part of the day planning the trip. We are leaving tomorrow for Brisbane, we have to book a flight, find a car and some cheap place to stay for few days before Bali. It is hot and we feel tired. The boat trip was great but intense and full on. We are a bit exhausted, but in a nice way.
We finally leave the hostel around 2ish, go for a light lunch and a walk, but it is really humid and hot. We chill out in the pool at the Esplanade. Cairns does not really have a proper beach in town. So they've built a splendid pool overlooking the sea. We then go to the internet cafe, book our trip, then back to our canteen for our free meal (part of our hostel deal, we still get a free meal each day...chili con carne or spaghetti...a bit boring after three nights but it is free!!!). Back to the hotel as we have to pack and get ready, the flight is early again tomorrow. A lazy planning day then!