"I've got one!.....what?... Oh alright I'll put it back"
A day off today. We organised a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef today. Had breakfast at the Restaurant this morning, Dad was kicked out for not having shoes, so went and put his riding boots on. We walked down to the reef fleet pier and joined our tour boat a large Catamaran that took us out to the Great Barrier Reef to their pontoon platform that we would spend the day on. This was an excellent value trip with travel, day on the pontoon, glass bottom boat tours, snorkelling, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, fish feeding, plus other stuff that I have forgotten about. Despite the excellent package these guys were experts at up selling, and as soon as we pushed off from the Warf they were cruising around asking if we wanted to sign up for various experiences, guided snorkelling, scuba diving, Helicopter rides etc. I decided I would be keen to do a Dive. As I was filling out the forms I realised just how long it has been since I last dived, which as far as I can recall was in the exotic location of Zanzibar about 12 years ago. Still its not that hard, like riding a bike really, breath in, breath out, go up, go down, don’t panic, stuff like that. It was quite rough going out to the reef due to a 20knot wind and the boat was bucking and jumping and the guests were getting progressively more and more pale. I was OK until I had been asked if I was OK for about the 10th time by the excellent and caring staff, which got me thinking “Am I OK? Maybe I’m not OK?” then the dive instructor that was going to take me and another ex-Diver, Rachel, for a dive started describing the dive that we would do and while concentrating on her description with the boat bucking and banging its way East, I started to feel a bit queasy. I then felt all cool and sweaty in the way that someone (i.e. Me) feels who is about to loose the “hold on to your breakfast” competition. I beat a retreat to the back of the boat and focused on the horizon and used all of my Self Hypnosis skills to convince myself that I am an old Sea Dog that loves nothing more than when it cuts up rough. This mostly worked and I made it there without laying any burly but it definitely upset my equilibrium, and I spent the rest of the day not quite right. Once we got out there we had a look around the pontoon and went down to the underwater observatory, which gave an excellent view of the wildlife at the back of the Pontoon. To try to help with my queasiness I donned a Lycra stinger suit, which if you are into Lycra must be absolute Nirvana, as there is no part of you not covered. I grabbed a set of snorkelling gear and into the briney I went. The water was a very tolerable 28 degrees and there was an absolute abundance of tropical fish, saw one small shark cruising around, Gorgeous animal, but “Jaws” ruined me and I always look at them with a chill going down my spine. I cruised around for an hour or so and this did help with my ill feelings. I came in with time to scuba gear up prior to my dive. Dad had been off in the Semisubmersible glass bottomed boat and had had a good time looking around, and was saying he was not keen to get into the water, maybe he saw a shark too. After a bit of a recap on the scuba gear and a few practice procedures of clearing the flooded mask and retrieving the regulator, we were into it. It was like riding a bike (that I have never been that good at riding) and I enjoyed trying to get my buoyancy right while marvelling at how easy the instructor maintained her bouncy. Rachel had a bit of difficulty getting going and was lead by the hand by the instructor, but my manhood would not stand for that level of assistance so off I went in search of adventure with no one holding my hand. There was a fair bit of inflating and deflated the Bouncy Compensation Device and swimming up and down, until I settled down and gained control. We cruised around with the instructor pointing out all sorts of fish that she had previously described referring to “Finding Nemo” as a reference point. We saw Nimo, Dory, and most of the crew from the fish tank. The instructor who’s name I have forgotten (so much was my level of concentration at the time she introduced herself in the bucking boat) has pointed out that “Finding Nemo” was biologically incorrect as the clown fish changes sex readily and if Nemos mother had been eaten and Nemo and his Dad were left to survive then Nemos Dad would have changed to a female, and Nemo would have become a male and they would have mated. We all agreed that this might be difficult for the children to understand so probably best to let Hollywood alter the fact on this one. The Dive lasted about 40 minutes and was excellent, a bit more up selling with a photographer in the water. Had lunch then onto the Semisubmersible boat for a look around, with a marine biologist giving commentary this was excellent also. Dad was having a great time chatting to an ex-pat Kiwi so I jumped back into the brining to spend the last available hour and a half looking at the fish life. Great corals, clams, a Stingray, very colourful fish. I could spend hours (and did) in this environment, Penelope would love it, as would all the other kids (must do a dive holiday with the kids). Time to head back and the Seasickness did not flair up this time (probably as no one was asking me if I was alright). Walked back through town looking for shoe shops for Dad, as his feet were a bit hot and sweaty after a day in his boots in the tropics. Back for another few beers and another fine meal at the Hotel. Chatted to the barmaid and another Lady from Mt Isa who say “it is only about 12 hours drive to Mt Isa” I pointed out that that is a very Australian comment, “only 12 hours drive” as in New Zealand this amount of driving would end with you being very wet, because after about 5 hours drive in any direction you end up in the sea. Put all of our clothes through the wash so a fresh start tomorrow smelling sweetly.
A nice relaxing day but somehow I am just as tired as I have been after a full days riding, I guess it is all the nervous energy of trying not to vomit that used up all of my resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment