Cairns and Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Arrived in Cairns on the 8th August to find the town buzzing with Saturday night revellers, a definite party town, as the YHA was situated in the centre of town, needless to say sleep was somewhat difficult!
The course started on the Monday, lasting 5 days, the first 2 in the classroom and Pro-Dives' pool, followed by 3 days on the Great Barrier Reef on their boat. Our instructor, Dave, was very good in his role and were it not for his superb efforts many of us would not have got through the course. The first 2 days proved to be a steep learning curve but I was considerably relieved to pass both the medical and the water tests, the first hurdle. After an exam at the end of the second day, all 16 of us were ready to go to the reef and continue the course in open water, and what a truly amazing experience it proved to be. The weather conditions were perfect, and over the 3 day period we had 7 dives, including a night dive (quite daunting). After dive 4, having passed the Open Water Course allowing us to dive to 18 metre depths, we had the option of completing the Adventure Dive Course. This enabled you to dive to 30 metre depths, particularly useful if wanting to dive to wrecks, so for relatively little cost , only 3 further dives plus study, decided to take this extra challenge and 24 hours later became a certified PADI Adventure Diver. Returning to Cairns in the afternoon of the 3rd day at sea was quite sad as we had all worked well together, particularly my dive buddy, Jonathon (also from England). We all met that evening and had a night out on the town, though I was pretty exhausted and left fairly early, especially after the long day that started at 5.45am with the first dive at 6.30am!
To recover from the intensive work of the past week I booked a 4 day visit to Cape Tribulation starting Sunday 16th August, though managed to squeeze in a chinese massage before leaving for the cape. (unfortunately am unable to upload all my photo's onto the blog until returning to Yandina)
Photo 1. The green turtle we were able to photograph on our last dive.
Photo 2. Again the final dive showing the variety of coral, and fish on the reef.
Photo 3. My last dive though it would have been better to have taken the photo on an 'in' breath!
Photo 4. Jon and I before stating the last dive on the dive deck, all booted and suited ready to go.

The beginning of the Australia experience: Brisbane

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I arrived in Brisbane, Australia on the 20th July to be met at the airport by Lesley, an ex-nursing colleague from London. It was a tremendous relief to see a familiar face and catch up with her news. She had kindly agreed to letting me use her home as a base in Australia, travelling out from her and , her husband Jez's home, to distant parts of the country, usually by plane as the distances are so very great. Their home is situated 100km north of Brisbane, and about 15km inland from the 'Sunshine Coast' and on my arrival, despite being winter in Australia, the daytime temperatures were in the low to mid-twenties, though the night temperatures dipped often into single figures. Travelling to Brisbane for a few days and staying with Lesleys' cousin, I attended bellringing practice nights at the 2 churches in the city with ringable bells, the cathedral, St Johns and St Andrews, south of the main city. The days in Brisbane were spent visiting the very fine botanical gardens, some retail therapy and finally a visit to the south bank centre which boasted an artificial sandy beach , with pools, as well as an arts complex not unlike the Southbank Centre in London. Sadly the beach and pools were closed for maintenance, but most of the restaurants were open and I had a couple of reasonable meals in the area.
Most of the first two and a half weeks were spent at Yandina, Lesley and Jezs' home village/ town, relaxing and planning the Australian journeys. My birthday was well celebrated by dinner at a Turkish restaurant followed by a visit to see the new Harry Potter film. The next day a surf lesson at Caloundra beach, generously given by Lesley for my 61st. Inbetween times I visited the local Astronomical observatory named after nearby Wappa Falls, run by an eccentric 'Patrick Moore' character and entirely privately owned. It had a surprisingly good series of telescopes, and was also very informative, particularly as it was my first opportunity to see the southern sky.
Hiking each day, exploring the local places of interest, for example, Mount Nindary, gave a focus to the days , and also insured I was fit enough for the diving course and more tramping in Tasmania. Yandina is renowned for its ginger farming and has a factory processing the ginger, much of which is exported to the UK. I duly paid my $10 (senior citizen rate!) and joined a group touring the 'Ginger Factory' which included the opportunity to sample some of their products including, of course, their excellent ginger beer. Other sightseeing included a visit to the macadamia nut factory, another homegrown industry in the area. Part of each day was spent arranging the visits to other parts of the country and arranging to meet up with people I'd tramped with in New Zealand, especially people in Tasmania. Having met a couple of groups of travellers in Fiji who'd recently been in Australia I decided to visit some of the places they'd been to, including bush walking in the Northern Territories, near Alice Springs, this latter journey was planned after the Tasmania visit.
The PADI diving course , starting from Cairns was booked for the 10th August, and assuming I passed the medical and the water tests, was optimistic about completing the course. The actual diving would be over the Great Barrier Reef, and for me this was probably one of the best places in the world to learn to dive, and would fulfil one of my ambitions for this journey!

Photos 1 and 2. The local observatory, surprisingly well equipped despite its ramshackle appearance!
Photos 3 and 4. Lesley and Jez's lovely home, set in a semi rural area and part surrounded by forest.
Photo 5. Post-surf posing with the surf instructor....
Photo 6. Post surf photo.
Photo 7. An Ibis at the botanical gardens in Brisbane, also seen in the fields near Yandina.
Photo 8. A view of the recently completed bell tower at St Johns' Cathedral, Brisbane. One of the few stone built churches seen in this hemisphere, a very fine building that has taken 150 years to complete, and this is being celbrated in November this year.
Photo 9. The view from the rocks on at the top of Mount Nindary. The coastline is visible, about 12km away.