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Published: November 25th 2006
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Australia and Scuba Rules
Under water and holding the Australian Flag. This would make a great Christmas card! Hi Everyone!!! So my scuba is done! I am now a certified diver!!! YIPPPPPPEEEE! I love it so much! Dave even gave me a hug, I was the only one to get one too hahaha! Friday we did a fun dive (Great Barrier Reef), we could go by ourselves or hire a guide. The first dive my friends Annaka and Jan-Martin (from Holland) and myself went (oh we rented an underwater camera too). We weren't down very long at all. JM's air ran out very fast so we had to come up. I think it was only 15 minutes or something. We didn't see very much as visibility wasn't so good. When we came up we had to log how far we went down and for how long. This stuff affects the other dives that you do that day. You have to wait a certain amount of time at the surface because of nitrogen levels in the body. And you can't come up to fast either because it can cause "the bends" which is air bubbles in your blood, very bad and painful. Anyway, my gauges said I dipped down to 20 meters! Oooops, that was a no no as I
Lion Fish
This was taken on my second dive on Friday. The life underwater is truly amazing. am only allowed to go as low as 18 meters. Oh well, your not having fun unless you are breakin some rules! The second dive I hired a guide to go with. I figure this would be better because he would go slowly and be able to point out things that I would probably miss otherwise. And besides if you go with a guide and someone runs low on air, they have to go up to the surface and everyone else gets to stay down. I am so glad I went with a guide, we got to see really cool things, like a lion fish and a sea cucumber and such. Also I was able to stay down for 50 minutes! After we got back to Cairns our dive group went out, just the students. Unfortunately Dave and Sven couldn't make it. I have to say so far, this has been the best experience. I am so glad I did it, now I can dive anywhere in the world!
This morning I was late for my next adventure. Drinking the night before and putting your alarm clock (my watch) under my pillow so I can't hear it, is not
Scuba Students
This is most of the class. a good thing! I woke up 25 minutes before I was going to get picked up. YIKES! I caught a skyrail (gondola) up to a small rainforest town called Kuranda. It was pretty cool, the tropical rainforest here is HUGE! I saw some crickets on a tree that you wouldn't even know were there but a guide pointed it out. The totally blended right in. You could see there long antennas and that was it. On the same tree there was a Praying Mantis, which I did get a picture of. I also went to the Butterfly Gardens too. It is the largest flight aviary in Australia and have more then 1500 tropical butterflies. The butterflies just fly around, skimming your head and landing on you. It was really cool. I also checked out a Venom Zoo. Where I saw some of the World's and Australia's most venomous snakes and spiders. And I never knew that centipedes were so venomous either. I also learned that all scorpions, no matter what breed, are all uv light reactive. They glow green, like glow in the dark green when you put them under a black light. It was pretty cool. Then on the
way home I took the Scenic Train. It was about an hour and a half train ride with commentary on building the track up there and facts about Kuranda. We past some waterfalls and there are 14 different tunnels you go through on the way.
Cairns is really beautiful and I love it here. If I wasn't on such a time frame I would probably stay awhile. There are lots of jobs here too. Who knows, maybe I will come back here after exploring the south. They have a lagoon here where everyone goes swimming; it is basically a big swimming pool on the edge of downtown looking out over the ocean. There is no swimming in the ocean here because it is all mud and I do believe because of the crocodiles. They have free BBQ's in the parks too. You just bring your things to BBQ and light it up and giver. It's really cool. There are always people BBQing and having a picnic. It's so weird though even though it is summer here it is dark by 7:00 pm. They never have late summer nights that we get back home. Hmmm forgive me if I am
Cairns
A view from the end of the Lagoon, along the ocean repeating myself from other blog entries. I can never remember what I have wrote and what I haven't. So many thoughts always going through my head.
People here are super laid back too. And everyone thinks I am Irish for some reason. I have had more people ask me if I am Irish then American. I am not sure if I should be offended or not? I can't figure it out? Maybe I am developing some weird accent or maybe it is just the curly hair?
Anyway, I should get going. I have to pack my bag as I am off to Cape Tribulation tomorrow. It should be really relaxing. Tomorrow afternoon I am doing Jungle Surfing. They attach me to a zip line through the rain forest and I just swing or rather surf along. Then Monday morning I am going Sea Kayaking. Lots of great stuff planned for the next few days. I will be back in Cairns on Monday night.
Everyone back home must be getting ready for Christmas. I month away from today! I am just starting to see some Christmas decorations go up here. I don't think Christmas is that big of
a deal here in Australia.
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Kelly Girl
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YOU SUCK
Have I mentioned today how much you suck LOL I am so jealous of all your adventures, and so proud at the same time, confusing really LOL I am so happy to hear you are having great adventures, I will be calling you this weekend so be ready for it LOL miss you lots and love you tons KG