Splash (x2)

Wow. Another cool animal to add to the menagerie that I’ve already seen this trip. We went out sea kayaking on Fitzroy Island yesterday – a constructed paradise about an hour’s boat ride from Cairns. All good clean fun, although my random partner had no arm strength so my right arm is a bit knackered today (even after my quality kayaking skills lessons from my years teaching the kiddies at PGL). Anyways – on the way round the island we came across three humpbacked whales swimming through the straits – parents and a calf. Amazing sight as they just sat on the surface getting their air and then flapping their flippers at us about 100m off. Then they got a bit spooked by a large boat coming to see them so they started swimming off with plenty of tail fluke smashing. But then, the highlight, one of the whales jumped straight out of the water – followed shortly after by another. Wow. Such an amazing sight. We all just clapped and cheered and then paddled after them a bit and they did it again. Such good luck.

So after that the rest of the day seemed quite dull really – you know how it is when you’re on a deserted tropical island in the sun, snorkling round giant clams and looking at two metre long monitor lizards basking in the sun. Same old, same old. Actually there was another highlight – the crew provided a lunch which included Fry’s Turkish Delight bars. Haven’t had those in aaaaaages. Mmmm.

In other exciting entertainment news I’ve now learnt the French rules for draughts (or ‘dammes’ en francais). This is a completely different, and possibly more fun, game played on the same board setup. Patric has taught me well, but now the student is the master – coff. Basic rules are that normal pieces can take backwards as well as forwards, you can ‘blow’ a piece of the board if it didn’t take the most opposition pieces it could of taken and queens can move more than one space at a time along a diagonal. Plus etrange je pense…

Fruity

Just back from the tropical paradise that is Cape Tribulation – named because of Captain Cook’s run onto reef just off shore (cheery chap old Cook). Highlight of the trip was the short but beautiful boardwalk and the exotic fruit tasting. Tried jak fruit, bread fruit, three kinds of custard apple (not related to apples at all but named due to English explorers’ un-imaginative ways), three types of zapote (Spanish for ‘fruit’ and named due to Spanish explorers un-imaginative ways) and some other stuff. All amazingly weird and different and so sweet due to the heat up north. Definately worth checking out if you’re up there. I also learnt how I should have been eating the pommelo that I bought in Hong Kong – you aren’t supposed to eat the pith… ah.

The beauty myth – naomi wolf. Excellent essay on the pressures surrounding modern women as relates to looks. A must read to help understand modern society.

Post by Matt Hobbs

Jailbird – kurt vonnegut. ‘Autobiographical’ story of the least famous Watergate conspirator which ends up being some kind of morality tale for people not really involved in their own lives to any active degree. The intro section is very strange but after that it turns into a sensible story which is highly readable.

Post by Matt Hobbs

Here came the sun

The sun has finally decided to pay visit to Cairns so it’s been a hectic few days of sun bathing here. All hands on deck (well, on the nicely grassed seafront anyways). In an hour though I head off with Taka Dive for a trip up north to Cod Hole and (hopefully) out to Osprey Reef to see a shark feed amongst other things. A fun five days at/under the sea – yay!

Oh, and for those of you who got my pictures of me drinking the can of SARS the other day you’ll be heartened to know I now have a slight cough. Damn hubris!

Come on lucky 27…

Damn casinos. Managed to break quite a few of my rules for frequenting casinos last night and consequently paid the cost. Oopsy. Managed to add a new guideline for playing blackjack though – never sit as first person next to the shoe, always sit furthest away so you see as many cards as possible before it gets to you. Hope that’s helpful to someone ‘cos I certainly ain’t goin’ near a table anytime soon.

One feature of casinos around the world are the floaters. These guys, and they are always guys, just seem to hang back watching everything and nothing. Then suddenly they will go up to a table, put a few hundred on a number, seemingly always win then walk off to hover again. Very strange. One joined in for a single hand on the blackjack last night and got dealt a blackjack then walked off. Cushty.

Meanwhile back in reality the Cairns weather is still less than sunny so my tan is failing to darken at any appreciable rate. All the scuba trips seem to be fully booked up anyway which is a shame as quite fancied going out to watch a shark feed – maybe next week. What would be really cool is if I got to see the albino whale that’s swimming about at the moment. Beautiful animal.

Swim wid da fishes

Just got back from another trip with those lovely ProDive folks – so now I’m a fully qualified Advanced Open Water diver. This gives me new gnarly powers like being able to leap tall coral in a single breath, find small teaspoons lost in sand and wrestle naked with turtles. Oh no wait. That was naturalist. Oops, sorry Mr Turtle.

Weather was a smidge different from last week’s perfect conditions – that is to say wind at 30+ knots, swells up to 4 metres and visibility less than 10m in general due to disturbed sediment. The swells down the thin coral corridors were something to experience and don’t make me feel like rapidly going in for cave diving. Oh, and it was bloody cold! So no sitting around roasting on the back deck or sitting outside at night watching the stars. On the other hand met some loverly new people again and got loads more experience in different dive conditions. I can now happily snort sea water to clear my congested nose and other such ‘pro’ diver tricks. Also saw loads of turtles and got even closer to a shark, plus watched all the sleepy little fishes wake up at dawn and embark on a feeding frenzy of coral, floating plants and each other. Again, all very awesome and hopefully I’ll have some piccies up tomorrow for you to enjoy.

Plus I’m now only one dive away from my 20th. Sweet.

Smiley, happy people

Had a great day out in the tropical rainforests with Uncle Brian yesterday, and his new helper Cousin Merissa. Heartily recommend this day of madcap singing, laughing, hiding from passers by and occaisional tropical rainforest visits. Oh, and saw a platypus in the wild! This came hot on the heels of my first day out horse riding at Springmount farm where I proved I’m not very good at horse riding but there was a cool semi-tame kangaroo. Photos up for both of these in the usual place.

Tomorrow off to do some more scuba diving, although the weather is not going to be anywhere near the perfect conditions of last week. Get to do my first deep dive down to 30m though which will be cool.

I’m stepping out of the pod

Wow. Just come back from learning to scuba dive on the Barrier Reef. Wow. It’s the most amazing thing ever. Just floating above everything almost completely weightless – controlling your height by your breath. It’s incredibly wonderful and surreal at the same time, combined with an immediate sense of reality because if you forget to breath you might well die in a painful manner. Wow.

It’s very hard to find the words to express how it feels. The simplicity of everything once you get past the initial apprehension. The colours of the sea – a blue stretching off in all directions, the fish flashing silver, or any colour of the rainbow, or the slate grey of sharks and rays. Turtles flying above you as they flap their flippers. The way sound changes – your breathing intense and visible as well as bubbling around you, the munch of parrot fish as they scour the reef, the low murmur of boat motors and a complete lack of ability to call out to your dive buddy if something happens. Schools of fish looking like a giant organism as they seem to move together, shimmering and glittering in the early morning sun. Fish everywhere, ignoring you completely. Hovering metres above the seabed, with metres of water above you – the sun shimmering through its rays visible in the particles suspended in the water.

Then there was the night dive.

I suspect that the surreal nature of looking behind me and seeing six divers suspended and lit only my small torches shining down is something that has to be seen to be believed. So astonishing and beautiful. Black silhouettes seemingly suspended on lights flittering below and across the reef. The glitter of bubbles returning to the surface, and nothing visible around you outside of the light’s beam. Then to come up, dry off and sit on the top deck and see the cloudless sky covered in stars from horizon to horizon like a light cloud, with pure black only showing up in the middle of the milky way. So beautiful and something you rarely see with the ambient light spilling out from cities.

Wow.

Here I need to give a few thanks. To Arek for his fine teaching. Ryan for support teaching and amazing light stick twirling skills post-night dive. To Jeremy for being a fine and steadfast first ever dive buddy. To everyone else in the class who were so much fun in the restful, happy moments between dives. To Lemon Jelly for providing my mental soundtrack – and of course to nature for just being so amazing.