Monday 29th July
We were up at 6am today so that we could get to the diving spot for about 7.45. The drive took around an hour and was a really nice one, it was all along the coast up to port Douglas. It was sunny and light from about 6.45am and the beaches along the road were lovely. It was a bit different as well because the scenery around was a lot more rainforest so it was all new for us. We were worrying about my ears still but I wasn't taking any more tablets or anything and was just going to accept what happened.
Once we arrived at the dock we met our diving instructor who was British as well and called Victoria. We went through all the paperwork then walked to our boat. It was different to our last diving because it was a slightly bigger boat and it had a lot of people on, probably around 60 other passengers. We had to leave our flip flops in boxes before boarding, then after putting our bags down we went to listen to the safety briefing.
For breakfast there wasn't much of a choice at all, just a massive platter of treacle muffins and trays of biscuits, which is a bit of an odd selection but we didn't complain! We had to take some sickness tablets because the sea was really rough on the way out to the reef but it was really good. We spotted a little whale in the distance and also went over a few diving things to refresh our memories of some stuff.
After about an hour we went below deck to sort out all the diving gear, then we were getting into the water. It was a colder than Thailand and the sea was rougher with bigger waves but it was all ok still. We went down slowly to give my ears time to adjust. They were equalising but the left one was making very odd noises, but there was no pain or anything so it was all fine to just go and look around. There's not too much I can really say other than it was a really good experience, we went as deep as about 16 meters and saw lots of different kinds of fish swimming around, some sting rays and different types of coral and anemones. We were both really cold after about 15 minutes though and I know I was shivering most of the way round! After 45 minutes or so we went back up to the boat for the oxygen to be re filled and to move to another dive site. We only just about had time for a hot drink to warm up before we were getting back into the gear but this time with an extra layer on.
In the water we went but this time I just couldn't get my ear to equalise, I only got as far down as about 4 meters and the pain wouldn't let me go any further. After about 6 or 7 minutes of slowly trying I realised it just wasn't going to happen this time so told the others to just go and I would get the gear off and just snorkel. The snorkelling was alright, you could see a really good amount of things but its just harder because you're on the surface and its harder to get to where you want to see with the currents. I spent about half an hour watching all the colourful fish, they all came quite close and I also watched Liam every now and again when I saw him come into view down the bottom of the reef. Once back on the boat again Liam seemed really happy with their dive, they had seen some different big fish and a shark and he had also been bitten by a feisty little fish on his leg.
After lunch and about 45 minutes rest it was back into the water, I was a bit nervous I wouldn't manage it and Liam was too but I managed to get down fairly easily. My ear was giving me a little bit of trouble and was a little bit painful but no where near as bad as before. Liam was happy I'd got down and we swam around holding hands for some of the dive which was nice.
We saw massive fish, some sharks swimming overhead and lots of corals and small fish. Then Liam was tapping me and I thought something was going wrong with my goggles again, because they had been letting water in the whole of the 3rd dive. Then he suddenly had this board in his hands that said " will you marry me?" with funny little tick boxes to say yes or no. I was kind of shocked but kind of not at the same time, I had no idea he was going to do it there and then and I couldn't quite believe what was happening. It was also a bit strange knowing there was somebody else watching right next to us and I just burst out laughing and tried to point to the yes box drawn on there. Eventually I managed it because there was quite a bit of current pushing us about where we were, which resulted in my leg getting an anemone sting! then we stopped for the camera. I was was just in a daze and had no idea how to react other than to obviously say yes and find it funny!!
We held hands where we could going back to the boat and shared a kiss once we broke the water, but after that it wasn't made a big deal of because of the amount of people on the boat. Once the diving was over and we were off the boat about 45 minutes later we sat on the harbour for a drink together in the sun before heading back to cairns. Liam stopped off at a beach on the way home and said he was going to finish off what he had started on the dive, which was kind of exciting and embarrassing knowing we were walking to a spot for him to get down on one knee! He got a bit chicken when we stopped walking and got very embarrassed, but managed to get himself into the proposal position and ask me again with a ring held out. We made a bit of a laugh and joke about the whole thing but it was lovely, very romantic and the ring he bought is absolutely beautiful. Even though I was mean and said that " it would do".
We celebrated the lazy way because we were just so so tired from the day, and bought take away fish and chips to go back to the room. The rest of the evening was spent trying to contact various people who weren't at work to tell them about the news. We managed to get hold of people, my dad had already known because Liam had asked permission beforehand. I felt a bit silly with Jennifer though as I skyped her to tell her and I got distracted by seeing Samson for the first time and her showing me round her new place for the first time, so we were talking for about 10 minutes before I even told her.
We will have a proper celebration together another time when the time is right and we are more awake!
