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Published: August 5th 2010
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In the Reef
20 feet below the surface in the middle of the ocean. The time has come to say farewell….
Today I sit in Sydney packing my well used backpack to head back to NYC. I’ve had the time of my life and I can’t believe that I have been gone for 4 months. So for my final blog I’ll try recap this amazing trip and fill you on my final weeks here in Australia.
Last week I did one of my bucket list items and that was to the dive The Great Barrier Reef. I was shocked to find out that the reef is located about 50 miles from the shores of Cairn, which would mean diving in the middle of the OCEAN.
I decided to take a Reef Teach course the night before to learn first hand what I could expect and EXACTLY what type of fish I would be encountering on the dives. I was happy to learn that the big scary fish aren’t in the reef. No Great Whites, and the Titan Trigger are no longer in mating season so if we came acorss them they most likely wouldn’t attack, yeah right.
So out we went on the very large Osprey cruiser. Wtihin 10 minutes we
Wally
I wish you could gather how large this fish really is...if you hold on to his hump he'll take you for a ride. spotted Humpback Whales in the distance and the capitan was gracious enough to steer the boat in their direction. I finally got to see a full breach it was AWESOME. This massive fish/mamuel flung himself out of the water for our amusment we stayed with the heard for about 15 minutes, just long enough to see one more breach and about a dozen spouts.
Once we reached the reef I took in the fact that land was no where in site and all I could think was the movie Open Water, where two diver were stranded in the middle of the ocean, I swore I would never do a non-land visable open water dive but here I am. We suited up and dove in. Within minutes one of the divers in our group lost her fin and I was instructed by the lead to go and help her…WHAT? I’m on my 11th dive ever and you want me to swim over to her in open water with a massive current pushing us further out in to the water….again….WHAT? Needless to say I did as instructed and in the process lost about 4 bars of air while on the surface,
The Mnata
So graceful ouch. It always takes me a minute on my first dive to desend, nerves, nerves, nerves. I was only able to stay down about 20 minutes instead of 45 because of that, but was still able to tons of fish and amazing coral.
Since my first dive was ridicously short I was so looking forward to getting back in the water. So we headed out to our second stop. We were told to be on the look out for the resident Humphead Maori Wrasse named “Wally” supposidely a massive fish that has the personality of a black lab. As soon as the boat cut it’s engine there he was. This fish was as they told us, MASSIVE. He actually jumped on the back of the boa,t laid on his side to be fed and pet and then slid back in to the water for his photo ops. He eased my nerves on what was below, so down we went. As soon as we arrive we saw a Minke whale and Manta Ray at that point I was in heaven. Later we ran into turtles, scorpion fish, sweet lips, a couple of white tips and of course Nemo. It’s nice
Giant Clam
slowest moving thing jumping into water where fish know they are safe and aren’t afraid of people and are fed quite well. This was a well stocked area with tons of amazing things to catch on camera.
The reef was amazing and I can’t believe that I concured my fear of the open water and dove in and saw things most people only get to see in books or in a zoo, I highly recommend seeing them in nature they are much more themselves and playful there.
To round out my stay in Queensland I headed into the rainforest to once again try and see some more indiginitous Australian animals. Uncle Brian’s adventure is what I signed up for. We headed West to the Atherton Tablelands which puts Wisconson, Montana and any other rolling hills in North American to shame. We then headed to Millaa Millaa and swam under a waterfall, there is nothing like getting a natural massage from 1,000 lbs of water pressure. We then headed to a volcanic crater lake in Lake Eacham. We all jumped in the crater at night with no torches and were in aw of the sky. Being in the southern hemphisere we were
Our Minka
The best thing about being in the water when you see something like this, when you piss yourself no one can tell. able to see the Southern Star and parts of the milkly way we never get to see North. After about 15 minutes we all started wondering….as we were walking to the lake our guide Uncle Brad was constanly looking for the night crawling Pyhtons that are all over the park….hmmmm we asked can they swim? Uncle Brad slowly said yes and was in the process of saying something else as the 15 of us quickly scurried up the ladders and grabbed all of the torches we could find. Needless to say we didn’t come across night crawlers which we were sad about but in the same breath OK with.
So I ended my stay in Cairns learning to play the local tribal instrament the Didgeridoo. I am by no means good but I’m bringing one home to practice.
So after a week up North it was time to head home. Just as I was about to figure the next part of my trip, Leigh sent me an mail on a possible job opportuntity back in NYC. So upon my arrival back in Sydney I instantly jumped on email and started getting the downlow. Well 24 hours later I
was offered the job. So I’ll land back in NYC better than when I left, I have a JOB! Thanks to Shack and Leigh for that hookup.
So after 4 months, 5 contries and 3 oceans I’m ready to head home.
This has been the most exciting and scary thing that I have embarked on and I can’t believe that I actually DID IT. I have seen so much and met some amazing people along the way. I could write a whole blog on the best parts of my trip but I’ll narrow it down to a a-la David Letterman Top 10!
10. Having dinner in Chaing Mi during the middle of a protest of Red Shirts and having Tim yell, “screw the bill we are out of here”
9. Meeting Tim and Jaime and spending 3 weeks together on their honeymoon
8. Learning to Dive in Ko Tao
7. Being attacked by Titan freaking Trigger fish (that has scarred me for life)
6. Spending 9 days in paradise in the Gili Islands and seeing the Amazing Race being filmed….
5. Channeling Elizabeth Gilbert for a day in Ubud while talking to her medicine man
4. Being
The Reef
Something you don't get to see everyday. able to feed and bathe Thai Elephants
3. Diving The Great Barrier Reef and learning that Great Whites are only in cold water..YEAH!
2. Being able to see and say that I am in Sydney, Australia
1. That my passport now has visas and stamps from the other side of the world!!! South America and Antartica here I come.
Thanks to everyone for following me on my journey and sending all those words of
encouragement. It has been the best experience and one that I will never forget. It
will take me months to compile all of my photos but I promise to get them all up on
facebook. I know I have missed so much but my head is spinning so we'll have to catch up in person.
I’ll be back in the city this weekend so put me on your calendar for some catch up time.
A final good-bye from Australia!
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Becky Leskovec
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Congrats!
Congratulations on completing the trip of a lifetime and also for getting the job!! I know Chicago is not as exciting as the rest of the world you just visited, but you have to come out here and visit sometime. -Beck