Advertisement
Hello and welcome to the first instalment of "Jonny in Australia"! It has been a while since I left a blog, mainly because Ive been so busy living the ozzy lifestyle! For starters it felt good getting out of Asia- I'd had enough of noodles and rice and constant attempts at trying to scab 20pence from a taxi driver. But now Ive arrived in Oz, I ask the question why did I bother trying to scimp and save, cus here is bloody expensive! My finances have been hit harder than a melons liver on a night out (yes I heard about Saturday nights escapades)- but it has been worth it....!!
We arrived into Cairns at about 4.30am, absolutely knackered having had no sleep on the flight over from Singapore. Feeling confident though we taxied into Cairns town centre only to find all hostels either full or closed. We ineviitably waited on the seafront for about 3 hours for everything to open up. In the meantime we did manage to fit in a swim in the public lagoon- a kind of massive swimming pool by the sea front. Its absolutely beautiful and clean and why dont they have this is Hinckley
Lagoon in Cairns
Took ages to get this shot cus it was darl- very arty i think! town centre? Cus of all the drunken chavs and losers I expect!! We eventually found the "cheapest" hostel- bloody expensive compared to Asia- and slept the whole day. Thus my first opinions of Oz were kept to a long daytime stupor. Bootiful!!
At night we generally spent our time in the Woolshed- the best pub in Cairns as we received a free meal with our hostel. Its class as every night they have themes and everyone just boogies on the tables. It made a nice change from Asia, where you have to get your Wheres Wally eye to find another European in a pub!!
The third day was spent White Water rafting down the Tully river. This was absolutely mental as it was the most craziest rapids ive ever been down (only ones in Wales to compare to but nonetheless!). Loved every minute. Bully and Will fell out of our boat a few times, but me, at the front, was a legend and never looked close to departing the boat!! Out guide, Nori, a Japanese fella, was also crazy, leading us backwards into rapids and generally trying to get us capsized. At one point he told us all
Topless Car on Manetic Island
Showing off my big white chest/boobs! (we didnt actually hire one of these cars out but should have- they looked ace!) to look for a Koala in the tree- I was the most guillible rafter, realising there was not any koalas as we headed backwards into a steep rapid. Oh these Japanese jokers-haha!!
A days rest and it was onto the start of my 5day Diving course. Ive wanted to do one all trip, but only gont round to it, finally, on the Great Barrier Reef- not a bad place to learn tho I thought! to put it politely, I was shitting it before we went into the pool. Ive never been a water baby so to put me underwater with a massive air cylinder on my back and told me to swim just isnt me! Or so I thought! It was amazing and easily the best thing I have done all trip. The first 2 days were teaching in the classroom all the theory involved in Scuba diving and doing all the skills in the pool. We had a Swiss instructor who didnt take kindly to my lack of swimming ability- im so used to swinning frogs legs style that actually kicking your legs with flippers on is like riding a bike blind- "kick your f-ing legs Jonny" I
A licle Wallabie
Is that young Joey popping its head out! heard once or twice. I persisted and eventually got used to all the skills- most notbaly the breathing. Its weird taking your air thingy out and breathing out underwater- the main rule of diving is not to hold your breathe under water- the other instructor from New Zealand officially bollocked me for doing this on my FIRST GO- saying I could be coughing up blood if I did that again. Were they calling my bluff? I didnt want to try them!! Anyway, after the first 2 days training we headed out on a boat to the reef where we were to spend the next 3 days at sea. The first day we did 2 training dives. Although I didnt suffer sea sickness, I think I did suffer "shitting it sickness", as my nerves got the better of me as soon as I hit the salt water. I spewed so much as soon as my belly had a drop of salty water in it- giving those fishies a slap up meal! I dont think the others were impressed but I did feel better. This was followed by getting bit by a fish as soon as we hit the sea floor. I
managed to pass the Open Water course though easily enough- like driving its just experience under water- practising your skills and breathing techniques. When I got the hang of it I felt so much more confident and the nerves went away. We did 5 fun dives after that including 1 night dive- where we were expecting sharks but instead got a fish called Jack Shit- a bit disapoointing but fun nevertheless. Its weird just experiencing being under water in darkness- we did have a torch but it it different!
My knowledge of the underwater world is a bit hazy so i dont know what we saw- but I did see Stingrays and Nemo at least. I finished the course asbolutely shattered. The day of food-diving-rest-diving-rest etc is so tiring and it took me 2 days to recover from the physicality of it. And a had a cold from it which Im yet to get rid of (ie 10days later). Loved it though.
Our penultimate dive was had with the Flange and Chris- our uni friend Marty and his travelling buddy Chris, joined us for a night of cheap drinks and fun. Was great to see him and he's been in Oz for almost 6months- so he had lots of stories to tell us. Im sure we will see him again down the coast.
We left Cairns on Thursday and we spent 2 days in a place called Townsville- an absolute ghost town. It is the epitomy of an Ozzie town where nobody is about. We went to the musuem to find out about all the local shipwrecks, and then spent a bit of time chilling in the sea-front lagoon. We headed to Magnetic Island for a few days chilling. Although feeling shoddy we have managed to fit in a round of golf (which I must say- Ive not played properly for ages and I was mint!) and cycled to the army barracks on top of a great big mother hill. We actually went looking for Koala bears but i think the fact that I was bearing my beautiful white chest meant the Koalas were all scared off!!
We are heading to the Whitsunday Islands tomorrow for a bit of Rod Stewart's "We are Sailing". Although my cold and the weather, Im feeling pretty good and life is good. I forgot to say, the weather in Cairns was horrendous as we had constant rain for a week. This was becuase a massive hurricane hit the area north of Cairns. But I was doing my diving course so didnt really affect me!! Australia is sweet and I hope the weather improves so I can get my tan!!
P.s. if anyone wants to lend or even better donate money to the "Shit-wheres-all-Jonnys-money-gone-now-ive-hit-this-bloody-expensive-country" fund, Im sure it would be put to a good cause!!!!
Ciao for now
Jonny x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 14; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0488s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb