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Published: December 21st 2009
Can't believe we had to give Mitsy back!
(If you look carefully you can see she's crying!)With Mitsy went a certain level of our independence. We had handed her in a week before we left Australia because we would be staying put in Cairns to complete our Padi Open Water Diving Course. We had booked to stay in the Serpents Hostel and it was with some sadness that we installed ourselves in a private room in the midst of half naked teenagers running through the hallways.
We were picked up from the hostel at 7.30 the next morning by Ryan, our instructor for the course. There were a few more on the bus, and when we got to the classroom I counted eleven people in our class. First up though we had to pass a medical with the local doctor. Both Philippe and I were nervous that we wouldn't pass, or worse still that one of us would and the other would be confined to the hostel for the week. We needn't have worried through because although the Doc had to have a good look in my ear after my ear surgery six years ago, he was happy to let me proceed.
We returned to the class and began the first of two mornings of
learning the theory behind diving. No one said much on that first morning, because we were all curious as to whether we would pass the swimming test that afternoon. Although Philippe and I had been practising at every opportunity over the last few days, I was struggling to complete the 200m lengths looking anything other than like drowning cat. I was relieved when Ryan told us that he didn't care how we got to the end of the distance, and we could doggy-paddle the whole thing if we liked. As it turned out, the other instructor, Julian, was running the test, and he got us to do a 400m snorkel with flippers instead of a normal 200m swim. Having enjoyed snorkelling on the Whitsundays tour I was much more at ease with this, and passed the test easily.
From then on I relaxed into the class. We spent the afternoon learning how to put our gear together and then learning how to breath underwater. The golden rule of scuba-diving is that you must never hold your breath underwater. It is easy to say, but instinct kicks in and you have to reprogram your brain to accept that you are
still able to breath. In our buddy pairs we learned about finding our neutral buoyancy and how to clear our masks if they fill with water.
The next day we did another morning of learning about nitrogen levels and the necessary surface time you must have between dives. Just before lunch we had to complete a fifty question multiple choice test that had a 75% pass rate. It was very easy, and the whole class passed no problem.
Then we went back out to the pool to learn about controlled ascents and what to do if we suddenly notice that we are low on air or have run out. We also had to completely remove our mask underwater and swim 10metres before putting it back on and clearing the water out with air through our noses. We had to learn to 'share air' with our buddy and become familiar with all of the usual underwater communication hand signals. Once Ryan and Julian were happy that we were ready for the open water, they gave us a few minutes to practice anything we were uncomfortable with and then sent us home.
That evening we attended a class called
'Reef Teach', designed to make us familiar with the various fish and coral we would see over the next two days. It was extremely informative and served to make us excited about the task ahead and aware of all the poisonous or sharp or aggressive fish in the water.
On the third day Ryan collected us and brought us to the marina in Cairns where we boarded the 'Osprey V', a large boat specifically designed to cater for divers and snorkellers. There were up to 100 passengers onboard and after about half an hour, most of them were looking pretty green. Several in our group had to go to the back of the boat to 'feed the batfish' and the rest of us were lying down concentrating on anything except our dodgy stomachs. The sea was very choppy, but we were repeatedly assured that is would be better when we were out at the Saxon Reef.
It wasn't. As we suited up and did our final checks, the sea around the boat was as choppy as any sea I've ever seen. Still, we were going under water, so it didn't seem to matter to Ryan. Philippe and I
were the first to walk off the boat and fall into the water. We inflated our BCD's (Buoyancy Control Device) and swam around with our snorkels in, waiting for the whole group to take the plunge.
Our first dive was our simplest dive, as the goal was just to get us used to breathing at 12mts down and to give us a chance to find our neutral buoyancy. Ryan was basically just making sure that no one was going to panic and bolt to the surface, bursting their lungs in the process. No one did, and we all managed to keep our eardrums intact by equalising the pressure on them as we swam down along a guide rope and settled on our knees on the sea bed among the coral. It was a fabulous experience. Once I accepted that I could breath easily, I really relaxed and began to enjoy myself. Philippe and I pointed out colourful fish to each other and generally were in awe of our surroundings.
We didn't realise it, but we had been underwater for 24minutes before we rose to the surface again. The surface was as choppy as when we went down, but
Ryan and Julian still made us show them some of our skills from the pool. We had to take off and put back on our weights around our waste and also remove our BCD's and sit on them before putting them back on. When they were happy that we had all done this, we headed to the back of the boat to get out of the water. As I attempted to pull off my flippers to climb up the ladder into the boat, a huge wave smashed me against the boat, leaving me sore and bruised, but determined to continue. I wasn't the worst off in the group. One girl had a bloody nose in her mask when she ascended (apparently it is relatively normal) and another two people had to be sick after they surfaced. Thankfully though we all made it back on board and stepped out of our gear to go and eat lunch and rest for a while as the boat moved to the next reef.
The boat pulled up to Hastings Reef about 40 minutes later. When it was our turn in the water Ryan rounded us up and we pulled on our tanks, masks
and flippers again. On the way down Philippe was tested a little bit ahead of schedule when about half way down the strap of his mask came undone and he had to descend to the bottom holding his mask to his face and then give it to Ryan to fix. Thankfully this didn't spook him and when Ryan gave it back to him, he put it on and expertly cleared it.
The normal tasks for this dive were to show off our skills from the pool, but this time at 8mts (instead of 2mts in the pool). We had to half flood our masks and clear them. Then fully flood them and clear them. We had to prove we could hover in the water and finally we had to use our buddy's alternate air source to swim up to the surface. I was amazed by how quickly our bodies had gotten used to being under water and just carrying out tasks as normal. No one in the group panicked, although some had trouble with clearing their masks, but in general we all did really well. When we surfaced we had to swim backwards against the current to get back
to the boat. Once aboard we were quietly proud of ourselves as we held our stomachs while the boat returned to Cairns for the evening.
Before the fourth and final day of the course Philippe and I hired an underwater digital camera. While the experience is something I will always remember, it is nice to have some proof! The boat made the same journey as the previous day, thankfully in calmer water. Once we reached the Saxon Reef, I grabbed the camera and decided to go snorkelling. Philippe had the beginnings of a head cold and was wary of getting in the water, so I grabbed my flippers and spent 30minutes in the water, trying to snap the beautiful (but very quick) fish. I had to laugh at how far I had come. Just 4 weeks previous I was uneasy swimming in the deep end of a swimming pool, now I was heading off to snorkle in the middle of the sea, on my own.
Back on the boat we were called by Ryan to do the first of our final two dives. On this dive we had more time to swim around, but we also had to
flood our masks again, prove our buoyancy again and then carry out a Controlled Emergency Surface Ascent, where you basically pretend you have no air and make an 'Aaahh' noise as you make your way to the surface as slowly as possible. By breathing out you make sure that your lungs don't explode. It's a pretty good incentive to get it right!
Our final dive was at the other dive site, and we only had two skills left to prove. One was to control our buoyancy by orally inflating our BCD, the other was to completely remove our mask and put it back on again. Once we had completed this our instructor shook our hands under the water and we knew we had passed. It was like passing my driving test all over again! Then we went for a swim around the coral. At one point I was so distracted by the fish and coral that I began to follow a difference dive group, only to have Julian tug at my flipper and redirect me to our group. In my defence - everyone looks the same underwater!
As we made our way back around to the boat I
swam by a big stingray on the sea-bed. I didn't get a photo because Philippe had the camera, but it was really strange to be in the situation that Steve Irwin was in before he died, although thankfully in my case the stingray just swam on by me. We surfaced again once the person with the least air in our group signalled that they were running low on air. Back on the boat Philippe and I were on such a high that we had to get back in the water. We went snorkelling and Philippe got some fantastic photos of fish while I concentrated on photographing the various types of coral.
We hopped on Osprey V again, hopeful that we had got some good shots. As the boat returned to the marina we reflected that it, while wasn't an easy course, it was one that we were very happy to have done. We are now Qualified PADI Open Water Divers, and can safely dive down to 18metres. The next step is our 'Adventures' qualification which will get us down to 30metres, but we won't be doing that course until our budget allows it. Diving is a wonderful, but expensive
hobby!
Back at the hostel we took it easy for a day before availing of the free Cape Tribulation tour that came with the PADI course. The bus picked us up at 7am and drove us north to Port Douglas after which we took the ferry over the Daintree river towards Cape Tribulation. The change in landscape and scenery was remarkable as we found ourselves in the middle of lush rainforest. A short walk from our lunch spot took us onto the beach on the Cape. The beach was as white as the sand on Whitehaven beach, but this one sparkled with a silvery residue. It was a lovely spot to escape to for a few days, but alas we were herded back onto the bus for the return journey. Oh, how we missed having Mitsy! We stopped for a short walk through the rainforest and the mangroves where our driver gave us a running commentary on all that surrounded us. Then he brought us back to the Daintree river to take a boat trip to see some crocodiles.
Our eyes were keenly set on the water, particularly once we learned that a 5 year old boy had
been
eaten by a crocodile on this very section of water, just two months ago. Our guide spotted tiny birds, snakes and frogs in the brush that were so were camouflaged that our untrained eyes could barely register them. We only caught sight of one crocodile, as it was lounging by the water edge, but that was enough for me - I was happy to get back on the bus, away from all the lethal bugs and animals.
We are back in Cairns now, preparing for the next leg of our travels. We have thrown away a lot of the stuff we have accumulated over the last 6 weeks, and can now stuff all our belongings back into the two small backpacks. Next stop Asia, and we can look forward to seeing both sets of parents during our travels there.
Now I only hope they speak English over there.... (the locals, not our parents!)
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Eileen
non-member comment
I hope the scuba diving will be as pleasant in the Atlantic waters around Ireland. It sounds like a fantastic experience.