Days 7 -10

---

We are now officially certified open water divers! Woo Hoo! Not really that much to tell about the last few days as it has all been about the course. It was run by a New Zealander named Mark and was sat in by an English guy named Dave who was getting his dive master title so had to sit in on a course himself in order to complete his own. Both of them were really friendly and great teachers so it was all good. We spent the first two mornings in the classroom watching videos and doing tests and then we spent the afternoons in the pool doing various tasks like filling our masks with water and clearing it and learning how to put the scuba gear together and all that sort of stuff. It was all done in the town pool and, despite being in wetsuits - which are highly attractive(!), it was still pretty cold. On the third day we went out on the company’s boat with about 10 other certified divers who had their own leader and our little class of six. The sea was really really rough and we were supposed to dive at this particular spot called the Murion Islands but we couldn’t get there so we went to “The Lighthouse” instead. Everyone felt sea sick, Andy and this other girl (Mareen) actually threw up (I was very proud that I managed not to!), it made everything SOOOOOO difficult because you couldn’t concentrate on getting your gear together or setting up the equipment because you were constantly focusing on not vomiting - it was pretty awful. Once we got in the water through our tummies settled and we were all up for the dive. The first dive was awesome! We were in the water about 30 seconds and a leopard shark swam by! Both our instructors admitted after we gt out that they had never seen one before! We also saw white tip sharks, loads of turtles, batfish, corals, clown fish - all sorts. The first dive was strictly exploring so we could get used to being under the sea so we didn’t have to do any tasks - they came with the second dive. The second dive was also great, we go back on the boat and moved to another location called “Blizzard’s Ridge” Her we saw sea snakes (Andrew held one), lion fish, star fish, more sharks and more turtles and Andrew managed to spot a wobbegong (sp?) shark. Those things are crazy - I have no idea how he saw it, they pretty much always stay close to the bottom and they are the colour of sand and their skin is textured like a rock covered in coral - I was looking at it for ages before I registered what I was actually looking at! The next day we dived twice again at different spots and again had various tasks to do, we saw a stingray along the way too. We were then fully qualified and for an extra $20 we were offered a 5th dive that would just be for fun so Andrew did that but I didn’t because my ear was not quite right from the last dive. They were on the hunt for manta rays but unfortunately they didn’t see any. That evening we were totally exhausted so it was an early dinner and early to bed. We have been doing alright on the old food front. Things aren’t as cheap as we expected them to be though and as we don’t have a fridge, just an Esky, we head to the supermarket everyday and try and pick up what offers on meat that we can. Andy BBQs it and I make a salad and boil up so new potatoes to go with it. We are quite enjoying our little camping adventure and by this stage we have a little routine going on so it’s all good. All the camp sites to this point have been fine too, they all have a BBQ for us to use and laundry rooms and kitchens and clean wash and toilet facilities. We are learning little tricks as we go too - like not getting a powered site and just going to the camp kitchen and charging our phones and laptop and stuff from there. We remembered today too that Mac Donalds offers free WiFi so we will have to start taking advantage of that too. They have McCafe over here where it looks nothing like Mac Donalds and you can buy a nice coffee and a slice of cake, its just like coffee republic, so we will have to look out for them in the next town to get free internet. We have decided to stay in Exmouth for a couple of days extra as we are right next to a National Park that apparently has some great snorkelling spots and the day after tomorrow is Andy’s birthday so he doesn’t really want to be driving so we have extended our stay until Thursday and then we set off for Darwin!

---

Comments

[Ingrid]

Congratulations on your qualification
Congratulations!!! You do realise now you have caught the diving bug life will never been the same again and you will always be broke!!!!