Just a short post to let everyone know that we are still alive after three days and nights scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. The night before we celebrated Tree's birthday in Cairns. Stayed in a swanky hotel and had a lovely meal with a bottle of champagne delivered courtesy of the girls in England. Then it was off out onto the reef for three nights. Although we both got our PADI diving qualification last year we forgot everything and didn't have a clue what we were doing. Some of the people diving with us had done over 300 dives so we were a little bit on the nervous side. Poor Tree couldn't equalize very easily and returned to the boat after each dive with blood pouring out her nose. She battled on but had to pull out of the advanced divers course. We both had some really good and really bad dives. As you'd expect the coral and sea life was amazing. Some of the highlights were feeding the giant Potato Cod, seeing lots of sea snakes (including one swimming through my legs), a night dive when you can't see anything without a torch and seeing loads of different fish in all colours, shapes and sizes. However, there were a few scary moments. On some of the dives the visibility wasn't great. Due to this and some bad communication we got split up from each other which is pretty worrying. It all turned out fine and Tree made sure for later dives that she could understand the difference between my signal for "I'm running out of air and about to die" and "Ooh...Look at the gills on that" Running low on air was a constant problem for me as I wasn't the most graceful figure through the water. That said I did pass the advanced diver course which included a 30m deep dive to highlight the problems of Nitrogen narcosis. This effects people in different ways. We did a test at 30 m to show how it takes you much longer to perform simple calculations. For some reason I did it quicker than on the surface which makes me think that if we all lived under water I might be a genius!
2 comments:
Was feeling a bit disturbed by scaring description of dives and Tree's nosebleeds then seeing piccie of Mark on the bog has sent me totally over the edge!! Going for a lie down.. this is too much excitement for a rainy Monday night in the Midlands.
Kathryn
Hey! This is your niece here who now is in High School and is also really happy to have a break from all the homework I have been given! Auntie Tree, I really love your new haircut! It really suits you! Luckily, I can access this site from my school computers so I will try to take a look whenever I can. There is only 1 1/2 weeks until christmas now so we (well especially the boys) are getting all exited! We will miss you guys on Christmas day though. It won't be the same without you. At least this year, dad won't have any competition for the best jacket! That was hilarius last year! The part that isn't fair though is that you will be in America for my birthday! Whilst I am stuck at school! The scubadiving looked really cool by the way. Anyway, I better go now...see you in April:(
Luv ur niece Emma oxoxox
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