Scuba Diving

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We decided to stay in Cairns for just long enough to complete a Scuba diving course (PADI Open Water). This was with Down Under Dive and started with two days of pool and classroom lessons.

We were in a group of 15 with two instructors (Mike from Holland and Saori from Japan) and we were among the oldies of the students - there were several gap-year travelers from England who seemed very young!

The classroom work was done via DVD for speed and we did some quick reviews after each film. The exam at the end was stupidly easy (50/50 and 49/50 for Trav and Kathy respectively). The pool sessions included swimming and floating tests which Trav found difficult and then some diving in the 4m part - Kathy found equalizing her ears to the pressure change a bit tricky. We also did some skills such as removing various bits of equipment and putting them back on again.

The 3rd and 4th days were the exciting part when we went out to the Great Barrier Reef - 70km off-shore - via the Catamaran "Osprey V". We were initially nervous diving into the Open Ocean but the sea bed was only about seven meters down to start with and the reef was to one side. There were loads of fish on the top of the reef but they decreased with depth. On the first few dives we were more concerned with not crashing into things and equalizing than looking around but we slowly got more accustomed to it. Kathy didn't have much fun on the first 3 dives but finally enjoyed the last one - we both qualified anyway!

We also had the opportunity to do snorkeling over the reef and were able to see loads of fish without having to concentrate on other things. We had also been to a "Reef Teach" lecture on how to identify fish and corals so could spot lots of Sergeant Majors, Parrot fish, clams and the odd Nemo or clown fish. We also saw angelfish, needle fish, stingrays, butterfly fish, surgeon fish, lion fish, turtles, rabbit fish, damsel fish, sea cucumbers and lots more. There were plate coral, branch coral, stag horn coral, shelf coral, mushroom coral, slipper coral, boulder coral, golf ball coral etc etc.

We also went for a fifth day out to the reef and Trav did an adventure diving course. This included a deep dive to 24m (previously we'd only been to 15m), a digital photography dive and a fish identification dive. The last two just involved looking at cool fish and taking photos of them. Kathy did some more snorkeling and really enjoyed herself.

We also did two dives at Port Douglas where Kathy's old school friend Tami managed to get us a cheap trip to the reef. Kathy came along on these dives and really enjoyed seeing all the fish and we even managed to see a shark. It was only a meter and a half long and a few meters away but it was still really cool. We also got to see the "real" Nemo which has three white stripes - there are lots of other similar looking fish with less stripes and more black that are more common. We acquired an underwater still camera to use but still haven't got around to getting the photos developed yet...

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Photos

A Goldfish
Can't remember the proper name for him

Sergeant Major
Or zebra fish as I like to call them

Stinger suits
Complete with hood, mittens and eighties style stirrups! The chances of being stung by a deadly jellyfish are slim at this time of year, and more unlikely so far away from the coast. Very attractive.

Trav
Trav on the surface, on the way to the deep dive!