Days 49 & 50: Cairns – Learning to Scuba
When planning this trip, we decided that the only way to see the Great Barrier Reef properly was to learn to scuba dive. We looked into getting certified in the USA or doing the course material prior, but honestly if was far more affordable to book a 5-Day Learn to Scuba course in Cairns, which included 2 days classroom & pool training, and 3 days living aboard a boat in the Reef (USD$700pp), rather than pay half in the USA and still have to shell out for rentals / excursion fees in Australia.
So our first two days in Cairns were spent at the Pro Dive learning facility (they picked us up from our hotel each morning, and gave us the option to buy or bring lunch), in a class of 11 students for the coursework, and 7 students for the pool session. We went over the exercises at a comfortable pace, and were feeling pretty confident about jumping into the ocean.
2 days of pool exercises & classroom quizzes – we are ready for the reef!
The first night of the course, we followed the recommendation to attend a presentation by Reef Teach, were Gareth, a real marine biologist, took us through a very entertaining slide show on how to identify coral & fish, and where to look in increase our chance of seeing turtles and sharks. We are really d we did it – not only was Gareth very funny, his advice for how to identify fish (forget color! Describe shape, size & behavior to narrow it down) helped us get a lot more out of our diving experience. Basically, it’s all about sex – coral and fish have lots of sex, and if they are not eating they are trying to have sex. If there are no members of the opposite gender around? No problem – many will give themselves a sex change (*cough*clownfishfromFindingNemo*cough*). Others, like the flatworm, will sword-fight with their willies, and the looser has to be the girl. #penisfencing
We were too engrossed in the presentation to take pictures! But we highly recommend the evening talk at Reef Teach before a scuba/snorkel to the Great Barrier Reef
The night before our trip to the reef, we had to take it easy, as we had a 5AM wake-up call in the morning. But we did get a chance to wander around downtown, enjoy the sunset on the boardwalk & the hordes of flying foxes that live in the area – land & sea, this place is bursting with animals!
Sunset in Cairns after a long day of learning! Heading to the esplanade for a wee walk before finding some dinner
Cairns Esplanade
A colony of Flying Foxes live in the trees outside the Cairns Library, and at sunset you can see hundreds flying through the sky! Like a scene from a horror movie!
Sounds like a fun Scuba Diving class. Your description about the coral and fish having sex was hilarious.