Cairns

4/4/07 - 7/4/07

We left the dream world of the Whitsunday's, and headed for Cairns, which is the access hub to the Great Barrier Reef, along with a bunch of extreme activities.

That night we went to a really cool restaurant (I can’t remember the name though!). This restaurant was really unique. The male washroom had a two-way mirror looking out into the main dining room. Not only was there a mirror, but the mirror was also the back wall for the trough (trough = urinal). So one sat there relieving himself, while looking out onto the dining room. Our tour guide didn’t tell us about it, so the first time everyone walked in, they got completely shook, and didn’t know what to do. From the outside (the dining room), you couldn’t see into the washroom.

(Waving to the people in the bathroom. You couldn't actually see in from the dinning room, but we waved to scare them anyways)

That night we headed to P.J. O’Brien’s, and a wild night of Jagarbombs, bar dancing, and all around chaos ensued.

(a bunch of the guys from the tour, getting ready for a bombing run)

The next day, I took it easy and used the day to catch up on laundry and sleep. That night a few of us headed for Dundee’s, where one can enjoy a platter of Crocodile, Kangaroo, Buffalo, Emu. It should be noted that Australia is the only country in the world to eat both of their national animals. Everyone hit the sack early, as we were headed for some scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef.

GREAT BARRIER REEF
It was an early start to the day, as headed out to sea to visit the Great Barrier Reef. The ride out there was worth the price of admission, as we experienced the ocean at its worst. Lets just stay all the staff was walking around with barf bags, and people were throwing up out the back for the whole ride. Somehow your's truly, despite having really bad motion sickness when I was young, was completely fine.

(The boat on a crazy angle with huge waves coming over the front. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but a lot of people were horizontal from this ride)

We received a quick speech was the basics of scuba, and before we knew it, we were in the water. We did a quick 5-minute practice of all the safety procedures, and then we headed down.

(Tom and I, getting ready to head down)

At you descend, the pressure increases. This usually causes one’s ears to hurt. Well, I have never felt that type of pressure before, and my ears were ringing like crazy. I sucked it up, and eventually they got better.

(Tom and Nick heading down. You follow the white rope)

(Me getting ready to head down)

There’s not really much to say about scuba diving around the Great Barrier Reef. I think its just one of the things I hope everyone gets an opportunity to do at some point. It was an amazing experience. We were even lucky to see a really rare fish, which most people take hundreds of dives, if ever, to see.

(The Group Swimming around)

(Nemo)

After our scuba, we went for some snorkels. The last reef we stopped at, is the reef where 'Finding Nemo' was based on. It was the nicest of the 3 reefs we visted.

(The crew getting ready to head in for a snorkel)

(The Great Barrier Reef from the top. You can see how the waves crash as they hit the reef. Hence why there's no surfing in the north-eastern coast of Australia).