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Fri 18th -Tue 22nd April 2008
Another glorious early morning start at half 7 ready to begin my PADI Open Water Dive Course. The first day consisted of lots of classroom theory and then fun in the pool. That evening I used the internet at the hostel, sat down at the only computer left, clicked the button to begin and........."system alert, system alert", a computerised voice alarm went off for what seemed like a life time, I thought there was gonna be a complete shut down with bars coming down and the works, all eyes on me, I didn't do anything I swear, then the guy next to me says, "sorry I forgot to say that computer's not working," charming!
The next day was a whole lot more theory and then an exam, hold the boat, that's all a bit too much on the old backpacker brain for my liking, I aint lost the touch mind, 49/50, I know I know once a boffin always a boffin! More pool training in the afternoon, I had to wear a wetsuit, yes I know, what a pansy!
The third day was our first day of diving out in the big,
wide ocean, crazy stuff hey! We did 2 dives today, we saw a sea turtle straight away, score, and then the beaut got close enough to touch so had a wee smooth of his shell, awesome. Also held a sea cucumber which was just like a big old slug, felt inside Giant Clams with the added fear that it might just clamp you shut in there, couldn't be too much of a risk mind what with the instructor sticking his head in the thing, imagine that hey, cameras at the ready. And of course, it wouldn't have been right if I hadn't found Nemo! Saw Bruce as well......well maybe not quite as big as Bruce (thank goodness), more like a distant cousin, a white tip reef shark, just cruising along the bottom of the reef. We got the chance to snorkel as well which is when I actually saw the shark, tis funny to look out from the boat and see so many people swimming about, all with these fluorescent tubes sticking out the water, reminded me of Titanic (not the fluorescent tube bit) but obviously without the tragic outcome.
Whilst I was swimming about I had a feeling
my mask didn't fit properly, kind of a giveaway when I got out the water, took my mask off and a cascade of water ran out of my nose, which just so happened as a crew member asked how the snorkelling was, how embarrassing, there was just no way of hiding it!
Once again it's so great to be in the right place at the right time, 4 of us got to go out for a free ride in the glass bottom boat, now I know why coral often gets damaged, could see the coral inches away from the boat and then crunch..."oh s*%t I'm on the reef", had to do some careful manoeuvring to get back off, so funny!
Had Elvis the singing aboriginal guitar playing crew member as entertainment on the way back accompanied with cheese and biscuits, felt just like christmas (the cheese and bikkies that is), he was a bit of a joker and sang reggae, which was fab, a bit of Bob Marley and sha la la la la long (you know the song).
Went out for grub that evening where I became a bush tucker muncher, got a certificate and everything, tried emu, kangeroo, crocodile and baramundi, deee-licious!
On the fourth day we did another 2 dives and then became qualified open water PADI divers....what!!! So in theory we can now go diving without an instructor....REALLY! That day we saw a mama and baby turtle and stingray, and alligator garfish while snorkelling, and yep you guessed it, they have a snapper for a snout, I was assured they're not dangerous though, I should hope not seeing as was swimming after the beauties. That day the crew were having a rescue training day so every so often someone would pretend to be drowning, was amusing to watch all the people in the water wondering what the devil was going on (yes alright I was one of them), that was more than rubber necking, that was full on stop and stare, they even did man overboard practice, flaming galla, someone actually jumped off whilst in motion, crazy!
On the Tuesday I decided I was having such a jolly good time diving I would do an extra day to become an Adventure Diver, which meant I got to do 3 more dives, a deep dive, naturalist dive and a navigator dive. The deep dive to 25m was ace, got the giggles which aint easy to do under water, and all because there were some sweetlip fish swimming around us having a good old stare into our masks, the instructor got out a tennis ball to show us the effects of pressure, threw it up and the fish grabbed it and swam off so the instructor had to chase after it, proper tickled me pink that did, wasn't until we got to the surface that he reminded us of nitrogen narcosis, which is why I got giggley, excellent, I was deep sea typsy. The instructor also made a sea cucumber squirt out long, white stringy stuff (any of you who've seen JackAss will know exactly what I'm talking about), he tricked us into touching it and so then spent the rest of the dive trying to peel it off, which was no easy task by far, actually looked like we were peeling our own skin off, gruesome dude, I really wasn't sure!
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