Swimming with reef sharks

The final leg of my Australian trip began as I landed in Cairns at 7:30pm after a 12 hour trip from Surfer’s Paradise. I was here for one thing and one thing only; the Great Barrier Reef and to get some diving done.

Cairns City Centre

Having checked in at my hostel and slept off the journey, I awoke to explore Cairns, which is pretty much the Queenstown of Australia. You can do anything here; Bungee Jump with AJ Hackett (the purveyors of my Auckland Bridge Jump), skydive the beach, head in to the rainforest, white water raft or head out to the reef. All this means that Cairns itself is pretty devoid of anything to keep you entertained during the day, save the fantastic outdoor pool by the seafront. Cairns lacks a proper beach to speak of, so this is your substitute.

My own BCD for the trip

However this was no matter as I was able to fill my time by reading, sunbathing, watching Junior Dos Santos KO Cain Velasquez and generally bumming around until my 6am pick up on Monday to head out to the reef. Booked through Pro Dive Cairns we departed for 2 nights and 11 dives at 3 different reefs around the whole of the Great Barrier. Sufficed to say that diving that many times in such a short period comes with a lot of accompanied exhaustion. All you do on a Pro Dive trip is eat, sleep and dive. But this is what I came to do and it seemed pointless having my freshly minted PADI qualification and coming all the way to North East Australia if I didn’t get as much diving in as I could. After an initial nervous first couple of dives (still coming to terms with the idea of actually being under 18m of water) I hit my stride and was soon neck deep in sharks, stingrays (not this kind) and sea turtles.

There's sharks in there somewhere

One of the many highlights of the trip was taking my first two night dives. The second night dive involved the crew of the ScubaPro II throwing a load of fish food in to excite the fish around the boat. This had the effect of attracting half a dozen fairly large (1.5 – 2m) reef sharks and the dive, as much as it was, consisted of hanging 5m under the boat and watching as they circled around you, eyeing the fish up for a snack. The best times to see the reef it seems is very early in the morning, when there’s a lot of cleaning going on and schools of fish are everywhere, and late at night when the waters are dark and some creepy critters come out. At one of the dive sites we picked up an interested Green Humphead Parrotfish, which hung around the underside of the boat occasionally giving divers a shock whenever it appeared over their shoulder. I couldn’t help but notice the similarity to the Aquahibian Terror Fish (5 minutes Googling well spent).

After 3 days of intensive diving we returned to land for our final dive – into beer. Our final swansong as a dive group was as chaotic and disgraceful as you’d expect from a group who have spent the last 3 days on a boat or at depths. Sufficed to say my last clear memory is of dancing on a table in the Woolshed.

So onward I travel tomorrow; with a 10am flight to Singapore and the next leg of my journey into the unknown world (to me) of South East Asia. 

Fiji - or 'how a week without the internet is actually awesome'

 To try to sum up the last week I’ve had in Fiji strikes me as almost impossible. I’ve seen very little of the country itself (Fiji is made up of dozens of islands and my journey here has been limited to two) yet I feel like I’ve seen a great deal about Fijians. The hospitality and the sense of family I’ve felt this week is not one I expected to find anywhere on my trip; yet I suppose that if it were to come from anywhere then Fiji would’ve been the leading candidate.

I landed in Nadi, the third largest town and jumping-off point for all island hopping, in the middle of a downpour and the rain continued throughout my first weekend here. I was pretty sure at this stage that my luck with the weather had followed me from New Zealand, and England being knocked out of the rugby hardly helped. During this weekend I was also introduced to the Fijian ritual of drinking Kava, a powdered root that is mixed with water and used for “special” ceremonies. What happens in mainland Fiji, or at least to me, is that the owner of the restaurant you dine at offers to show you ‘the real Fiji’, leads you to his mate’s shop where you drink Kava as a welcome ceremony and you’re then compelled to buy some local handicraft in return for their generosity. Cue an old-style Fijian club being packaged and sent home and me leaving slightly lighter of cash for the privilege.

I was here. Actually here!

All this changed on Monday, when I set sail for Mana Lagoon Backpackers on Mana Island. Upon arrival I was greeted with the Bula song (Bula being a Fijian all purpose greeting/”cheers” word) from the staff, who all took time to introduce themselves to me. The weather started to slightly improve, though not much, and I was ushered to a room that would make prison accommodation look like a 5* hotel. A mixed bag, for sure. My first night on Mana I discovered I shared my room with three mice, who I had to ask repeatedly to keep it down as their fun and games were disturbing my sleep.

Fire Dancing

Then the next day the sun came out and suddenly I saw why everyone falls in love with Fiji. Mana Island was transformed into a paradise and I realised that you spend so little time in your room that the reason their basic is because anything more would be a waste. During the days I would sit on the beach reading and at night the staff would arrange entertainment (Island Dancing, involving fire and knife dances was easily my favourite). Then we would sit up until the small hours drinking Kava together whilst Ronnie, one of the staff, would play guitar. It was, to all intents and purposes, a little like a hippy commune, only without the bad smell.

I was talked into a SCUBA course that occupied me for most of the days with a lot of reading and testing before making my first four dives on Wednesday and Thursday. To be honest, it’s hard to find a better way of studying than just lying on a beach reading about the potential for your lungs to explode inside of your body if you don’t breathe out when surfacing. My first two dives (to 6m) passed with little incident, though my inability to properly equalise on my first dive gave me a migraine that lasted all night). My second two dives, to 18m and 9m, had a little more incident. My fourth dive in particular consisted of my swallowing a mouthful of seawater (which should be almost impossible) and then some frantic swimming a little while later when a giant ray decided it was going to take an unhealthy interest in us; tail raised and all. At the time I didn’t realise how much trouble we were potentially in until the instructor Tuks told me on the boat afterwards “man, that f*cking ray…I’ve never been so scared underwater than when it moved towards us”. Tuks dives roughly 3 times a day and has been diving for 15+ years. Guess I nearly became the English Steve Irwin.

Sunset

When it was eventually time to leave Mana, after 5 days of sunburn and good times, I have to say I felt a pang of sadness. I can’t describe just how relaxing it was to not have the internet or my phone to distract me. It meant that you actually formed bonds with the people around you as you all pretty much became friends by default. But back to reality I came, and tonight I’m faced with a late night flight to Melbourne…