Me again,
just realised I’d missed out a week!
The diving course in Cairns was excellent. It was all going really well until we started our open water dives. I must have strained myself at some point before my first OW dive because once I got in the water and down to depths where the pressure is much greater than the diving school pool I began to feel a pain in the groin!! At first we established it as a new wet suit and an air pocket had developed. But then we transfered to the overnight boat and not-so-new wet suits. On the first dive the next day the pain intensified and got so sore I had to ascend and be towed back to the boat. But I pushed on and decided to go for the final dive, the one that would make me a certified Open Water diver.
However, once I began my descent I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish so had to go back to the boat. I was gutted! The poor Japanese diving master on the boat must think I have the worst vocabulary in the world because I was not pleased. I was just 30 minutes and 2 underwater skill tests short of my certification. I have a year to complete just one OW dive so you never know, I might do it somewhere else - probably not as warm as the Coral Sea was though!
That was the last dive of my course so we transfered back to the cat to take us back to dry land. The sea was real choppy, so much so that I brought my lunch back up! Once on dry land we waited and waited and waited some more for our DVD of the dives. Once I got my DVD I checked back in to the hostel only to be told that they had fuc**d up and only booked me in for one night when I’d paid for two and there were no more beds. Fantastic. They were keen to blame STA Travel for the screw up and so after getting my refund for that 2nd night, I went to examine some places to stay for the next night before the hostel phone them for me. While doing that I give STA a call back in Glasgow who trace the error down to the hostel itself - damn cheek of the place! They did manage to get me a room, 15 minutes from the city centre. I wasn’t happy but I had a room for that night. After that I went to see Pirates for the 2nd time with 2 guys from Merseyside and a German!
I got up the next day determined to get a room closer to the city centre so I got the girl at reception to try places closer and to some success as a hostel just round the corner had a spare bed. Silly me however took down the wrong address and made for their sister property 2 miles down the road! Only when I got that place’s free shuttle into the town that I realised I’d booked in to the wrong hostel!!! I did manage to get it swapped over though! After that nothing much happened as the heavens opened over Cairns.
On my last day I had wanted to go to Kuranda(?) but the tour left at 10am and by the time I had checked out of one hostel, gone to the other, done a washing to get some clean clothes, I didnt have the time nor the inclination to go up to the rainforest. Maybe next time!