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Published: February 3rd 2009
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From Cape Tribulation we drove back down the coast to Port Douglas to get our dive on...The day we got there we headed to the beach to do some tanning...Upon becoming extremely hot because of course it's Queensland...we headed into the water to refresh...Big surprise when we jumped in...The water is about as hot as the air and provided little to no relief from the heat...After braving the heat for a few hours we retired to our nicely airconditioned hostel for dinner...The next day I got up nice and early to catch the bus to my dive boat...It was called the Poseidon and they took us out for a day of diving on the Great Barrier Reef...All three dives were amazing and we saw turtles, sharks and a chambered nautilus among other beautiful bright fish and coral...The dive boat took excellent care in preparing a great lunch to enjoy post dive as well...The next day we returned to Cairns and spent the day laying out...The next day we caught the Greyhound bus for our journey south to Townsville...Noreen a good friend from high school who is living in Melbourne at the moment was going to join us for this leg of
the journey...We met up at the ferry terminal in Townsville to catch the boat over to Magnetic Island...The Aussies refer to it as "Maggie"...The hostel was really cool but unfortunately not airconditioned...You learn appreciate the finer things in life when stuck in the most humid places...It had an outside patio area right on the water, a pool and bar...I decided to go for another dive the next day so I woke up early and got on another boat out to the reef...The boat was called Adrenaline and by the end of our second day of diving with the company, Noreen, Elizabeth and I were quite the celebrities...The boat ride out was rather interesting and I would say a fair few of the people were a little sea sick...The dive site was the Yongola a luxury liner that sank during a massive storm in the early 1900s...It's considered one of the top ten wreck sites in the world and it was completely obvious why...We saw a huge Queensland Grouper, sea snakes and got the opportunity to explore all the different rooms of the ship...Elizabeth and Noreen took the day to explore Maggie Island...They visited a watering hole to escape the heat
and then hit up a local pool to refresh before heading back to the hostel...That night we made dinner and hung around the hostel having a few drinks at the bar...The next day all 3 of us hopped on the dive boat for a trip out Wheeler Reef...The dive site is in the middle of a marine park that has stict protection laws...We saw some of the most pristine and untouched parts of the Great Barrier Reef...Noreen and Elizabeth took up diving like champs and were swimming around like pros in no time...However, at lunch time the crew thought it would be funny if they threw the lunch scraps and Elizabeth and I into the water...Tons of fish were swarming around us and nipping our toes and fingers...Elizabeth was screaming and I was laughing hysterically...That night was our last in Magnetic and the next morning we got up bright and early to catch the ferry back to Townsville...
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