Blogs from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 9

Tuesday and Wednesday of last week I had introductory divers. On Tuesday I only dove the first site and in the second site (Two Tone) I had time to snorkel and to go looking for sharks, but without luck. I didn't do much in the evening. Wednesday was a bit busier and I had 5 intro divers, one of them for the 3 sites. They were all pretty good, so I didn't have to struggle much with them. In the evening, I had a few drinks with Melina, Anthony, Jessie, Bruce and Giselle. Melina invited them over, because she was really happy about 3 job oportunities that opened up for her (in a boat and 2 restaurants), after having had quit her job recently and she wanted to celebrate (a few days later she took two ... read more

We woke op early to get ready to for the trip to the Great Barrier Reef. At 08:00 we arrived at the marina and boarded the Poseidon catamaran. We met a Dutchman, Herald, who lives and works as a dive master in Port Douglas and we had a nice chat with him. The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. On the way out to the reef we stopped a couple of times to watch humpback whales. It was a beautiful sight to see the whales bask in the sun and splash with their fins. On the reef we stopped at three different sites to watch the varied marine life. We saw hard and soft corral, anemones, and fish of all kind from small guppy like fish to a shark and a moray ... read more

From Saturday 21st of July until the next Monday I worked on the boat "Calypso" doing "Discover Scuba Diving" (DSD) for people who haven't dived before. Not much to tell there, as it's my everyday job and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Monday night, Jessie (my housemate) and I were invited to Bruce and Giselle's house to have a few drinks. They also invited Kane and Alex, a couple who just started working in Calypso (He's from NZ and she's Aussie). The next day Kane and Alex moved in with Bruce and Giselle for a while until they find a place to stay. Tuesday, I worked as host/snorkeler (which involves mainly working in the galley serving the food, doing dishes, serving coffee, etc., plus helping people who have never snorkeled before, doing snorkel tours, etc.). ... read more

Alarm went at 3:15, there was no traffic as we drove to the airport and only 6 degrees outside. The check in went well and we managed to score a nice cappuccino before we took off. On the plane we all fell asleep again and arrived in Cairns at 9:15 am. On our way to our resort we made a stop at a Crocodile farm/zoo. It was very impressive to see how big they get and to learn about the different types of crocks. The most fearsome is the Salty, which is not really a correct name for it since they, like all crocodiles, mainly live in fresh water. The oldest and largest at the farm was a male of about 5.7 meters. He is the third largest in the world and has no teeth ... read more

As far as work this week went, I worked on Calypso from Monday to Thursday and luckily enough, I got to take to certified divers those 4 days. The weather conditions weren't very good and we had about 30 knots of wind all those days, which meant a lot of sea sick people puking their guts out (and we had a full boat all 4 days; about 85 people). In all, work wasn't that bad, but it was very tiring doing 3 dives everyday in those conditions. Of all the dives I did, I especially enjoyed diving in the site called "Two Tone", because of the varied scenery and because it has some very strong currents in some places which gives it an extra challenge. In one of the dives there, I saw the resident grey ... read more