A bizarre place, possibly the free dinners we got with our accommodation (in a smelly loud club) put us off at first and the fact that I had kind of forgotten that Cairns is backpacker party town central. However such good timing you’d think we’d planned it, we arrived in Cairns in time for the yearly city festival which meant we got free stuff including jazz, massage and manicure, art gallery entry amongst other things. DIVING DIVING DIVING had become the main focus for Cairns as we had decided to opt for the highly recommended and more expensive Pro Dive 5 day Padi Open Water course, 2 days in the pool and then 3 days and 2 nights aboard a boat. Definitely the right choice, I think one of the best things we have ever done.
We had two days doing theory and pool diving to learn some of the basic skills necessary before embarking on our 3 day trip on the barrier reef, it took the first couple of dives for us both to feel comfortable 18meters under the sea and get used to ‘equalizing’ (which wasn’t helped by recent colds) as you went deeper. Such an amazing sport; we saw sharks, turtles, sting rays, Nemo, trumpet fish, sea cucumbers and enormous bumphead parrotfish… oh and some coral. The night dive was spectacular if slightly eerie especially when your torch lights up the evil looking eyes of a 2 meter grey shark! The weirdest thing is being back on land and still swaying slightly after two days… land sickness!
We had two days doing theory and pool diving to learn some of the basic skills necessary before embarking on our 3 day trip on the barrier reef, it took the first couple of dives for us both to feel comfortable 18meters under the sea and get used to ‘equalizing’ (which wasn’t helped by recent colds) as you went deeper. Such an amazing sport; we saw sharks, turtles, sting rays, Nemo, trumpet fish, sea cucumbers and enormous bumphead parrotfish… oh and some coral. The night dive was spectacular if slightly eerie especially when your torch lights up the evil looking eyes of a 2 meter grey shark! The weirdest thing is being back on land and still swaying slightly after two days… land sickness!
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