Cairns
Tuesday May, 7th woke up fairly early for my tour of the Great Barrier Reef. I chose to do a day tour with 1 scuba dive where you didn't have to get a license- almost like a trial dive- and with a company where the ratio of new diver to pro was 2:1 so the pro was literally holding my hang the whole time, which is what I wanted for my first dive.
On the way out to the reef, the instructors went over some breathing tips, equipment info, and sign language used underwater. I was in the first group to dive with a girl from England named Gemma. She had done a dive before, do she knew more of what she was doing. Once we had all the equipment on, we hopped into the water with our floaty vests that could be adjusted for depth of dive. After doing more safety checks in the water, we started diving! We went to a depth of 6 meters (not sure what that is in feet). Along the 25 minute dive, we saw 3 sea turtles, 2 Nemo (clown fish), lots if coral (obviously), more different types of fish than I've ever seen, and so many fantastic colors.
Once we were done with the dive, we swam back to the boat where we almost immediately jumped back in to do snorkeling! I saw more sea turtles, sting rays, more fish, coral and colors, but no sharks-the only thing that was missing. The weather that day started fine, but near the end of the day it started to get choppier and by the time we got off the boat it was raining. This made it difficult to snorkel because the waves kept getting water into the snorkel, but i got to see what i wanted, so I'm happy!
The next day, Gemma and i were on the same rainforest tour out of Cairns and into the surrounding rainforest. It was raining, but it was the rainforest, so you ant complain that much when the weather is in the name. The rainforest was so interesting- there are so many plants and animals that we never get to see! We saw a cathedral fig tree which was so big it would take 21 people to wrap their arms around the base. We also saw a python during a walk unto the forest and lots of huge gross spiders. Last in the day we saw a platypus swimming in a river, which was so cute and a lot smaller than i expected.
Afterwards, i went with Gemma to her hostel where her friend Katie (who was on the scuba boat the day before) had made us dinner. We drank in their room and went down to the hostel bar/club downstairs where i met a NBA players brother! It was an awesome night and i had so much fun!! I needed a night out like that!
Both the diving and snorkeling were such amazing experiences and i really want to go back to Cairns to another dive spot and another season where i can see more. Maybe for my birthday when the weather is better...
