Diving Down Under

This is getting hard to write as the 11th July feels so long ago and so much has happened since but here goes. I arrived in Townsville at 2pm thinking Penny would be just getting off the greyhound bus next to me but looking around there was no room for another bus. I asked the my Premier bus driver where the greyhound stopped and he replied 2km over near the ferry! I then spun round trying to remember the hostel name Penny had booked us into and God must of loved me that day as there in front of me on a wall was Globetrotter hostel just a little reminder of the name of our hostel. I walked over and checked- in, luckily Penny had realised too so she hadn't waited about too long at her bus terminal, she arrived about 15min after I did.

We decided to go and get coffee, as we were both hungover. What a strange place, in an odd sort of way I really loved it as it was different, but at the time I just wanted coffee and couldn't find any cafes, although it is the second largest city in Queensland everything has closed down, in every ten shops only one would be open and none seemed to sell coffee. We eventually found a posh looking place, which was the restaurant of the Ibis hotel, we had coffee and salad before setting off to look around town. Town was just the same everything had closed down. There were a lot of aboriginal people hanging around but not much else.

As we wandered we found an information booth advertising open water diver certificates on Magnetic Island for $299 that's half the price of doing it in Cairns, so I booked my dive medical for the next day.

The following day I got my medical which I passed, interesting I found out I have mild asthma but he assured me as long as I didn’t exert myself under water I would be fine. So I went off to book my tour, I had to pay to upgrade from a tent to a dorm as Fraser Island really put me off the tent thing but it was still as good deal. We then spent the rest of the day wandering around, we found a beach but as the weather wasn't great just walked along it then
walked around town.

Later we got a bus to Stocklands which is a shopping centre and spent far too much money on clothes I had to pay a whole $12 for two tops hehe, everything was so cheep.

Friday we got up and headed for Magnetic Island, we had chosen to stay at Xbase as it was on the beach so Penny could relax for her two days there whilst I was learning to scuba dive. After checking in we caught a bus to the Koala sanctuary, however we had missed the last tour and the only entry is with a tour so we walked along Horseshoe Bay.

Saturday my course started at 12 midday, we had a few hours theory then into the pool to learn skills like mask removal and 2nd stage removal, I was also given a thick book that I had to read and answer questions on by Tuesday. So that night I sat for four hours doing the first two chapters of a six-chapter book.

Sunday Penny left in the morning to head to Cairns and I went to my second day, it was much the same as the first, skills and theory, but I had to do an exam as well results tomorrow. That night I had dinner with Fiona and Sheila from my course, scuba diving makes you so tired that we all went to bed at nine.

Monday I was feeling nervous as we were going out to dive in the sea, but the day started well as I was class swot I got 47/50 on my exam. The dive in the sea was good but I spent most of the time looking for my buddy (Sheila) as I didn't want to lose her and then I swallowed loads of water when I had to take my mask off salty!! We had a free afternoon so Fiona, Maria and I soaked up the sun. I have never felt so tired by midday before I could have slept for a week. With diving you seem to have a high then a really bad come- down .The instructor said it's really common to get fatigue after a dive. That night again Sheila, Fiona and myself had dinner but Maria also joined us from our class as her boyfriend was out all day on a tour.

Tuesday, our final day, I was so excited today I couldn't wait to dive. We went straight out and did two dives in a row, the whole class passed and we were certified divers by 12 midday. In the afternoon we had an optional 2 dives, so Sheila, Fiona and myself did that the rest of the class were too tired to dive again. All four dives today were so much better than my previous dives as I relaxed and saw so much more, we were really lucky and saw blue spotted sting ray and a blow fish. Night time came so after Fiona had done her night time dive (I really didn't have the energy for another dive, glad I didn't as she couldn't see anything and it was $75) we met up had a big plate of potato wedges for dinner (very yummy) and a jug of beer, Sheila, Jonny and Leah form our course joined us later, so did James an odd boy who kept turning up in Fiona's tent.

Wednesday Fiona and myself left for Cairns, after a long day travelling we finally arrived at 7.15pm and I was reunited with Penny at the hostel. She's great. I missed her a lot.

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