Everytime i come on here i forget what ive already told you...so today i have re-read my old blog so i know what to tell you! :-)
As mentioned in my last blog, we went to watch an aboriginal show on the last night of our tour-was actually a lot better than i expected and there was an all you can eat feast afterwards-i ate prawns and everything! Katie you should be proud of me..oooohh and also Katie, i have read 2 (yes 2!) books since ive been out here...hardcore.
Anmyway, the aboriginal dance thing was pretty good, quite funny as well as we had to stand around a campfire banging sticks together and chanting, it was interesting to say the least! I also had my arm painted with some cool paints and tried to play the didgeridoo. It sounded like an elephant having stomach trouble!
The day after (our official last day of the tour) we went up to Kuranda on the skyrail-some really nice views over some of the rainforest and it stopped a few times so we could go and take pics and go along the boardwalks.
Once the tour ended there were quite a few people flying out the next day so we had a few drinks to say bye to everyone-was quite sad really after you've been living in eachothers pockets for 2 weeks and then they are gone. Will all keep in touch though im sure-there is already talks of reunions and things next year!
The day after the tour ended i started my PADI open water course, which involved 2 days in the classroom learning about physiocs basically....we had to learn about how much nitrogen would be in our bodies depending on how deep we were in the sea, and how much pressure our bodies couold take underwater etc...i eventually got the hang of it but i wasnt expecting it to be so full on! We watched a few DVDs and did a couple of tests, then on the 3-5 days we were out on a boat in the Barrier Reef! The boat was really nice and so was the food. The staff were great as well, quite fun but knew what they were doing. We had to do 1.5 days of training dives in the sea with the instructor, then we were officially certified and could go out on our own! (well in pairs). That was actually wuite scary-especially when there is a strong current under the sea and you end up miles away from the boat! We saw some awesome stuff though. We saw a couple of sea turtles and a reef shark (they all came quite close!). We also saw Nemos ad Dorys, but starngest of all we saw somethign called Parrotfish-which are the ugliest things ive ever seen! They were in a group of about 20 and they were massive with big ugly heads and big teeth. When i saw them my face must have been a picture!
We also went for a night dive with one of the instructors-basically you go divig at about 7.30pm (after dinner! i was nearly sick) and you have torches and glow sticks with you so we can all see eachother and see the fish. One lady got quite upset because the instructors were joking about what to do if a shark comes-she nearly didnt go in bless her.
So now i am officially certified to scuba dive to 18 metres-a couple of the guys have already arranged where they want to go diving nbext-apparently there are some cool wrecks to go and see, the only trouble is the water will be freezing compared to the reef..we will have to wear dry suits!
The course finished yesterday and we got our little temporary ID cards. The pic on mine is awful becuase he didnt tell us he was taking pics for the cards, he just randomly stuck the camera in my face! We went out for a few drinks last night-i will put all pics up on here in a min by the way-so check them out!
Today i woke up very late (all those early mornings and 5 dives a day really take it out of you!). I then did some washing, had something to eat and now im in the internet cafe! I still feel like im swaying a bit sometimes-i dont usually get that from a boat but apparentyl it happens more after diving as your ears do funny things!
Anyway-not sur what the plan is for tongiht, but tomorrow i go up into the rainforest for 2 days, getting picked up at 7.30 which is actually quite late for a lot of things!
I will update you on that next time! xx