06.13.10

Cairns is a small town. A very small town. Thats what half the charm is though. The city center itself is just a few blocks by a few blocks. It seems as though it was built for no other reason then to be a place for young adults and backpackers to gather and party. Backpacking hostels are at every other corner as well as tourist info centers. I keep trying to think of a city in the States that I can reference it too, but Ive got nothing. In the way it attracts young people, it is like Myrtle Beach or Miami. The strangest thing about this wonderful busy city is that it has no real beach. Its actually made up of mud plains. In the morning, the tide is up and it looks like a normal ocean, but during the day when it goes out, it is nothing but a giant mud puddle. It goes for quite a ways out too. I told John it remind me of Pirates 3 when Jack is stuck in the desert with those crabs. Imagine that, just muddy and wet, and yes, FULL of crabs! There were tons of different species of mud crabs, some I believe were fiddler crabs, but they could just be a close relative. We also saw lots of mud skippers and these giant cone shells called wharfs! We got good pictures and some video.
When we arrived yesterday, we walked around, changed into summer clothes, and then checked into a hotel. Well, a hostel to be exact. Because Cairns is such a popular backpackers destination, finding a place to couch surf was impossible. Everyone was full of surfers already! There really is no close camping, so we will be staying at our first hostel. So far, not so bad. Its kind of neat actually. Due to some law and regulation that Australia has on their hostels (probably for hygiene and so forth) its one bed per person. So though the rates are cheap, John and I have to buy two beds, which then makes it expensive. In all, there are three beds in our room. For now we are by ourselves which is nice. There is a kitchen full of amenities, a small pool, and a lounge room with a TV. Its a few blocks away from the city center but they have a shuttle service to and from the city every hour.
Before we headed back to our hostel, we stopped into an info center. We found a decent deal on diving for the day. I guess still expensive for our tight budget, but well worth it. How could we possibly be right next to the Great Barrier Reef and not go diving? Well the awesome guy who owns the place also gave us free meal vouchers, free wet suit rentals for the dive and two free post cards! You have no idea how much we appreciated him doing that. I guess it made spending all that money a little bit easier for us!
We rented a digital camera that had a underwater case around it so we could take pictures, we grabbed our free meal and then went back to the hostel.
We woke up bright and early to make it to the marina before take off. We got onto our large boat called Ocean Spirit. We joined everyone inside and had some coffee before we took off. The staff did a friendly briefing on our ride to and from the reef and what to do incase someone fell over or got seasick. Unfortunately, the water was choppy that day and it was really windy. Regardless, we sat up on the upper deck and enjoyed the hour and a half cruise out to sea!
We had our dive briefing on the way there as well. They taught us about how our bodies change underwater and under the pressure. They told us about the different pieces and parts of the scuba equipment and what SCUBA stands for, Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Not going to lie, I NEVER knew scuba was an acronym! They went through all the safety information and what we will do when we get into the water to equalize and so forth. Now we were getting really excited!
On the plane ride into Cairns, you flew over parts of the reef. Just to clarify, the reef is huge. Its one long stretch of island like clusters that go up the northern coast all the way to the very tippy-top of Australia. When I say island-like, I mean that it IS NOT one long stretch of coral and reef. Its in patches. Anyways, you could see the reef patches from the plane. The most incredible shades of green, turquoise and blues. You cant find colors like these anywhere else in nature! Then they are speckled with brown/amber like dots, which would be the coral, and surrounded by tan sand. Just gorgeous.
We knew when we were close to the reef because we could see all these colors out in the ocean. Brilliant shades even more so then in the plane.
Yeah!!! We are here!
The reef we swam at was called Oyster reef. We were supposed to go dive at Opolu Reef as well, but as the day went on it got to choppy which means greater chance of running into coral, so we spent the entire day at Oyster.
They did the diving in groups of 3 or 4, per instructor. Because we arent licensed, the instructor has to hold onto us through the entire dive. This was only an introductory dive as well, not anything that would go towards a license or anything. (PADI certification is WAY too expensive out here. We will wait till we are in Indonesia when it is ¼ of the price!).
John and I were in the second dive group. We threw on our wet suits and went to the loading base at the stern of the boat. They gave us our scuba jacket and tank and in we went! I stuck my head into the water right away. I wanted to make sure my underwater breathing apparatus worked properly. It did just fine. At first, John felt like he couldnt breath right, so he compensated by breathing too quickly. He eventually adapted once we spent more time underwater.
The first thing we did was go to the side of the boat where they had a bar to hold onto, with a second bar a few meters hanging down into the water. The instructor checked to make sure we understood all the underwater communication signals and then one by one we dropped down.
The first and most important rule to diving is to always breath, dont hold your breath. The most serious and important aspect of diving is your ability to equalize. Equalization is how your body adjusts to change of pressure. If you have flown before, you will have noticed your ears popping as you go up and then come back down. This is your body equalizing. If you cant equalize properly, they say to chew gum or pop your ears by yawning. Its the same thing when you go under water, except the technique is different. Your supposed to hold your nose and then blow, except keep your mouth shut. There are several different ways to equalize, but this is the way they taught us.
Im quickly going to go off tangent for a second to when I was in Mexico. For those that dont know, John and I had gone swimming with the sharks in a half zoo/half natural reservation pool. It was 25 feet deep, and the bottom was where one particular shark was, digging under some rocks for some fish that got away. Mind you, we were only snorkeling, but some of the instructors in the pool with us asked me if I wanted to go down to the bottom to touch him. Not knowing anything about swimming large depths, I said sure! I wasnt even close to the shark and my ears felt like they were going to burst. I came to the top and was in the worst pain ever. I thought my ears were bleeding. I told the man how bad they hurt and he said, 'oh yeah, your supposed to equalize every few meters'. Well geeze, thanks for telling me that now! He shouldnt have taken me to the bottom especially without telling me how to properly equalize. Your ear drum is covered by a very thin layer of skin, and without proper equalization, this piece of skin can rupture, causing severe damage. Needless to say, my ears hurt for a while after that experience, and I will never forget how it felt. (now, back to Australia.)
Well, we start going down, it had to only be a few feet, and I start feeling that same pain I did in Mexico. I try to equalize, but the pain doesnt go away. Scared by the pain, and fearing I may have permanently damaged my ears, I slightly panic. (You will see in the one video John took, where right at the end I shake my head. This is the exact moment I am talking about. He got my first decent recorded but shut it off when I started having problems.)
The instructor was very patient with me though, and insisted I stay until I could equalize properly. It took me a while longer, but I eventually did. John and I played around on the bottom bar, staring at the fish under the boat while the other 2 people finished their descent.
Oh, the things I can say about the ocean. What a vast, incredible, unknown earth that is down there. I stare out at sea, knowing that somewhere on the other end, there is America. You cant help but think of all the unknown, unseen creatures and places that must lurk in these waters, in their varying depths. It is just absolutely impossible to ever explore all of it. What makes it more mysterious is the fact that it is constantly changing. The water, and everything in it, never stays in one place.
You are completely helpless when you are in the ocean as a diver. When I was under, I looked out, and its just the eeriest thing ever, but at the same time, really neat. Its a lot like when Nemo looks out into the ocean from the reef, and how its just this big empty blue space. It goes on and on and on. The scariest part is how you wouldnt even know what was coming at you until it was already too late. Even in crystal blue waters, our eyes perceive things completely differently. We cant see into the distance like the fish can. Everything seems a lot closer then it really is.
I was slightly nerved by my creepy blue surroundings, but my mind was quickly averted as we started to swim towards the reef.
When you dive, you have to descend slowly. You have to come up even more slowly because of your body equalizing. Go down too fast, and you can blow your ears, your head or even your lungs. Come up too fast and your blood (pressure) fills with bubbles, goes all wacky and you get the Benz. Very painful, debilitating consequence that I dont ever want to experience.
We slowly made our way deeper and deeper. At first I was having trouble equalizing. My ears were hurting badly, and I just couldnt get them to pop right. I kept trying though and managed to make it happen by just wiggling my jaw around. As we got deeper, it got easier and I got more use to it. John was fine the entire time, and at one point had to be yanked back up because he started going down too fast and was no longer connected to our instructor.
The reef was breathtaking! I need a new word for it, breathtaking isnt enough. It was the supercalifragalisticexpealidoscious of the ocean! AMAZING! Unfortunately, because of the high winds and choppy water, it was a bit clouded and stirred up. We were so close though that it didnt matter.
We saw fishes of every kind and every color. There were massive coral forests that were branchy and tall, deep shades of red with blue, neon tips. The massive coral clusters were covered in so many different living organisms, it just blows your mind! When you think of how long it takes for one of these creatures to get to the size it was, you cant even begin to think of the many things they have seen in its billion year lifetime. Some were hard and didnt move, others were super vibrant in color, some were soft and wave like, and then you had some that even opened and closed, or hid when you started to swim towards it! They know you are there just by the change of water pressure and current. Incredible.
The thing I loved seeing the most was the giant clams. They were literally part of giant rocks, and the only way you knew it was there was by its 's' like, waving mouth. We saw tons of them, and a few of them that were just massive in size. At one point, we kneeled at the bottom of the ocean and got right up close to one. It was the biggest one we saw. His shell was covered in some beautiful coral, and its mouth was speckled by these blue/green florescent glitter pieces. It looked JUST like tiny sequins. The best part was that we got to touch the inside of its mouth! The first touch, and he closed up. It scared me! The last thing I want to do is get eaten by a clam!! He eventually closed all the way up but his insides were still exposed. It was the softest, squishiest, texture ever. It would be nice to cuddle up with. : ) We got some excellent video of it though, so check it out!
The next best part was seeing the clown fish in the sea anemones. I made sure John got a good picture so I could send it to my mom. She just loves Finding Nemo (as do I) and would love to see that.
We saw tons of neat, creepy, beautiful, and strange creatures, so be sure to check out the gallery for pictures and videos. We got LOTS of videos!
The dive lasted for about 30 minutes. I was pooped by the time we got back to the boat. I was also really cold and hungry so I wasnt mad that I had to get out of the water.
The good news is that our scuba vest, with the air tank and all, weights about the same as our backpack, so that was no problem. The bad news is that all of the buffet lunch had been devoured by the time we got back on the boat. We were left with scraps of fruit and veggies, which most had to be scrapped from the table (the stuff that got pushed off the serving plates). I was pissed! Sorry for my language, but I was! They had the divers after us make plates and set them aside before they went out, but we had our dive before the food was even put out. Half the perk of paying the price we did was to eat the buffet lunch, and we completely missed out. I tried to subdue my anger and instead, we found a sunny spot on the boat, out of the wind, and took a small cat nap.
The ride back was really choppy. A good portion of the boat was sea sick, and that didnt help anyone else who was just on the verge. John and I sat on the top deck again, full winds and all, before realizing there was a small nook at the lower deck that was not nearly as windy.
We enjoyed our glass of bubbly they gave us, and were soon home. We turned in the rented camera, and quickly fell asleep.
I loved that we spent the money to do this. The only problem is that we know how bad we love it, and are sure we are addicted for life.