More Diving!

Well, I already tried skydiving, so why not try the opposite?

I arrived in Cairns on Friday night, and immediately bumped into a girl from my Fraser Island trip. The hostel is by far the nicest I've stayed in so far and the cheapest. Odd. The building itself reminds me of a college dorm. Strange that I now consider that the lap of luxury! But we also have a beautiful pool, with the bar and tv area outside overlooking it.

Saturday I bumped into two more people from our Fraser Island trip. They were on their way to meet up with 4 others, so we all had a mini-reunion at the Cairns city lagoon. It's a beautiful pool-slash-beach, like the one in Airlie, but it was HOT. Close to 100 degrees. That night we all met up again after cooling off for a goodbye night on the town. Erik and Fia (the Swedish couple from Fraser Island) were heading off to Singapore the next day. I left fairly early as I had an introductory dive planned the next day.

Diving was fantastic. What a first place to do it! The Great Barrier Reef is amazing up here. Similar fish to the Whitsundays, but the coral is much more beautiful. The guide showed us clownfish hanging out in the anemones (as in this picture) and were able to give us the names of all the different fish with their underwater writing boards (basically a kid's toy, a magnetic pad you write on and then clear it with a swipe). We also got to hold a sea cucumber. I wish I had a photo of that - it was ODD looking. The weather was gorgeous out on the reef and pretty crummy back in Cairns, so I timed it well. The wet season is just starting here and they're not kidding! It's been raining off and on every few hours since last night. Tomorrow I head off to Cape Tribulation, a few hours north of here. We spend the day sightseeing along the way and then spend the night at a beach house hostel. Wednesday I'm going "jungle surfing", where I go from platform to platform on a zipline. Can't wait!