WA and Dive Central

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Well hello again.

We are now in Cairns and have just got back from a couple of days on the reef. But more of that later.

Last time we wrote, we were in WA. We had a great time over there, although the weather wasn't the greatest. The first couple of days on our trip were great though and we got to Albany, on the south coast and had a couple of days in the sun, driving around seeing the sites. There are a couple of fab beaches down there, including Little Beach, which is really picturesque.

After we had spent a couple of days there, we headed round the coast to Margaret River. On the way we stopped in the Southern Forests so that we could head to Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. This is a metal structure set amongst the Giant Tingle Trees and takes you 40m up into the treetops. The views from up the top of the trees is amazing. There is also a ground level walk where you can walk through the trunks of the trees! We had a great time walking round there, before starting back on the road and on to Margaret River.

We had a couple of days in Margs, which were spent driving around (in the rain) and visiting places of interest, which were generally food related!! There was a chocolate factory, a sweet factory, wineries galore, cheese makers and a mead shop. So we dutifully went to each in turn and tasted everything on offer! In the evening we were staying at a caravan park, which had hundreds of resident parrots. Helen decided that she would be brave and try to feed them, and literally had them eating out of her hands!!

From Margs we headed up the coast and stayed in Bunbury for one night. The weather when we got there wasn't great but the next morning the sun was shining and we went for a walk down to the beach and sat for a little while watching a couple of dolphins out in the bay.

It was back to Perth after that for a few days and I am glad to say that the sun came out!! It is a much nicer city when the sun is out and we spent a few great days to see all that it has to offer, including a day spent in Fremantle and Cottisloe. Freo is a lovely little city which we both loved and Cottisloe is a beach town, but the beach is so nice.

The last day defore we flew out of Perth we went to King's Park, the botanical gardens, which offers spectacular views of Perth and also a nice area to sit and have a picnic and watch the world go by, which we duly did.

We arrived in Cairns at 10am the following morning after a night of flying and little sleep. The sun was shining and it was already hotter than it had been for the last few months, so it was very welcome! We spent the next couple of days sitting by the lagoon, walking round Cairns and getting ready for our dive course, which was due to begin a couple of days after we arrived.

The diving was so much fun. The first couple of days was in the classroom and pool, learning the basics and the safety aspects that we needed. We had to take an exam on the second afternoon which we had to pass if we wanted to go out on the boat (Helen got top marks in the class!!) At 7 the next morning we were picked up to go out to the live aboard boat and our first dive was at 1 in the afternoon. We did one more dive in the afternoon and that was it for the first day, other than to have a couple of quiet beers, plently if food and fill out our dive logs.

We were woken at 5.30am the next morning so that we could see the reef wake up, so we were in the water by 6.15 for probably the best dive of the trip. We went down to 18m, the maximum we were allowed to go and saw loads of bit and pieces. There were tons of fish, all coming to life and having a few early morning disagreements, which was quite amusing.

The second dive of the day, at 8am, was our final dive for the certification, so they took an underwater videocamara with us to film the group doing the last of our skills, which was the one everyone hates...taking your mask off and replacing it! But to make it even more interesting, they took some shades down with us, so we could wear the shades and look cool, while our masks were off! We were all certified underwater too with Ricki the instructor handing out our cards while we were down there surrounded by fish!

We both loved the dive course and are looking forward to getting some more diving under our belts as we travel down the coast!

We pick up a camper van tomorrow, which we will be calling home for the next 6 weeks as we work our way down to Sydney. We will keep you all up to date with how we are getting on, but for now, I think I have probably bored you all enough!

We hope that everyone is well and will be in touch soon!

Rich & Helen

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