Wednesday morning saw us catch the bus from Airlie Beach to Townsville. I slept for the whole 3 hour journey because I hardly got any sleep the previous night due to the drunk Irish boys I was sharing my hostel room with.

Anyway, we arrived at the ferry crossing which would be taking us over to Magnetic Island. We had an hour or so to wait so we went for a wander and bought a sandwich from Subway for our dinner.

We boarded the ferry around 1pm which took us over to Magnetic Island. We stocked up on food supplies as soon as we arrived for the five days we'd be staying there. We then caught the bus to the hostel we were staying and where we'd also be doing the dive course.

The hostel was lovely.. situated right on the beach and luckily we were given a room looking out to the sea. We threw our bags into the room and caught the last few rays of sunshine for the afternoon before making our tea.

We had a few drinks with our roommates at the hostel bar in the evening.. two of the girls were from Preston so it was nice to be around familiar voices again. It wasn't a late one as we'd be starting the dive course at 9am the following morning.

I had a good nights sleep and was feeling good about starting the dive course. After breakfast we met our diving tutor.. a young lad called Kane who looked like he had just left school! He briefed us on what we'd be doing over the next four days and then sat us down to watch some dvds about the diving equipment, their purpose and some basic skills. It was pretty boring but necessary for what we'd be doing. We studied for 3 hours or so and left with a manual to each read for our HOMEWORK!!!!! Jeeeez.. it's been a while. At least I could take it down to the beach for the afternoon under the nice hot sun whilst topping my tan up.

We made our tea in the hostel kitchen again once the sun had gone down, then had a few drinks at the bar and settled in the room for another early night.

The course started at 9am again on Friday morning. We went over our homework, watched a few more dvds, then took a multiple choice exam after dinner. The exam was pretty simple and I passed with 49 correct answers out of 50.

It was time to get familiar with setting up the equipment next followed by practicing some basic skills in the hostel pool.. which was absolutely freezing!!! We basically covered everything I had learnt from my first dive at the Whitsundays so I found it very easy.

It was about 2.30pm when we finished for the day. Now we had to check out of the hostel as it was fully booked for the Full Moon Party which was being held there at night. We would also be attending the party but we booked our reservation too late to get a room for the Friday night. Not ideal since we'd be coming straight back to check in again the following day.

We had a room booked for the night at another hostel just 5 minutes drive away. Thankfully two of the girls we'd been rooming with had rented out one of the popular topless cars you can cruise around in on the island and they gave us a lift with all our bags.

With the party being on the course tutors said we didn't have to come in till 12 noon on Saturday meaning we could have a good time without worrying about starting early.

We checked in at the hostel and grabbed a bite to eat for our tea then bought some drinks from the bottle shop to have in our room before we went out. Quite a few people came round to our room so we ended up playing drinking games which was a good laugh.

It was about 10.30pm when we decided to make a move to the Full Moon Party. All feeling very tipsy we jumped on the packed bus over to Base hostel. I'd heard alot of good things about these parties so I was looking forward to seeing what it was like.

With a full moon over head we partied away and had a good night but it was nowhere near as good I was expecting.. nothing beats a proper club night out back home in England.
We left the party around 2.30am and headed back to the other hostel to try and get a decent sleep before the third day of the dive course.

We had to check out before 10am on the Saturday so we woke up feeling a little rough around the edges after a half decent sleep. We caught the bus back over to the hostel where we were initially staying and checked in once again.

It was day three of the dive course and an experienced tutor called Nick (who has made over 7000 dives) took over from Kane to take us out into the sea where we'd feed bread to the fish and practice some more skills.

I was feeling confident with everything we had learnt in class and in the pool but I knew the sea would prove to be a tougher task. I was hoping the sea would be warmer than the pool but it was just as cold. I was more comfortable under the water than I was on the surface so i was happy when we descended.

Sea life doesn't really interest me.. sounds weird I know from someone taking a scuba diving course but I'm mainly doing it to fight my fear of the sea and to prove to myself that I can do it. Feeding the fish was pretty cool though.. saw a stingray too.

The majority of the sea life along the shores of Magnetic Island were ruined a few months ago when it was hit by a cyclone so there wasn't alot to see but the route we took is mainly just used for training purposes.

Once we had fed the fish we moved onto the underwater skills.. I was dreading one in particular - total mask removal, placing it back on, then draining it.

Somehow I managed to do it whilst maintaining my breathing so I was chuffed but I never want to have to do it again. We did a few other skills before swimming back to shore much to my delight because I was freezing.. physically shivering under the water as I swam. That was it for the day so we used the rest of the afternoon to warm up and soak up some more rays.

Tired from the dive and the previous night we made our tea and had an early night. The fourth and final day of the dive course was starting at 11am on the Sunday so it enabled us to catch up on our sleep again and have a lie in.

It was the last day of the dive course and our last day on Magnetic Island. I'd had a good sleep but I wasn't in the mood to do another dive in the sea and get cold again but I wanted to complete the course so I had to grin and bare it.

We practiced some rescue techniques in the freezing pool first and I found those difficult to grasp.. mainly because my 'dive buddy' Leighton, twice messed up a particular technique where you share the same air source causing me to swallow water instead of breathing in oxygen!! Thank God we were only in the pool!! This knocked my confidence so I wasn't looking forward to demonstrating it in the sea.

We finished in the pool and headed down to the sea. I just wanted to get it over and done with.. and the water was freezing again! We fed the fish again then moved onto the skills.. thankfully Leighton got it right this time and I demonstrated the 'out of air' skill perfectly. We completed a few other skills then made our way back to the shore.. and the warmth!

I had done it!! I was delighted.. mainly because I proved to myself I could do it!! I have passed the course and I am now a 'qualified diver' which means I can dive anywhere in the world up to 30 metres in depth.. I have a little card to prove it aswell :)

Nick gave us a log book and showed us how to fill them in and then we were done. I could go for a 'fun dive' at 9am the following morning if I wanted but I didn't fancy getting in the cold water again.. that's enough diving for the time being.

We relaxed in the sun for the rest of the afternoon then made our tea. Had a walk to the shop after our food to stretch my legs and treat myself to some chocolate whilst we chilled for the night.

We will check out in the morning and make our way up to Mission Beach on the bus. We have white water rafting booked on the Tuesday and wait for it......... a 14,000ft SKYDIVE on the Wednesday!!! Soooo excited!!! :)

xx