Diving! The SS Yongala and the Great Barrier Reef, (Opal Reef).

Hey hey there,

We made it up to the Yongala on Thursday, and had an absolutely amazing time. We didn't have to speak to the super cow who did the bookings for us (and was rude to Haz), and the rest of the staff and boat were lovely people.

The SS Yongala went down about 100 years ago, and wasn't found until after WW2 when divers were searching for mines. All 121 people died on the vessel when it hit a cyclone. Unfortunately, it was on its way to collect a radio in Cairns that would have notified it about the cyclone. The boat is intact, still has the skeletons in it and is now a protected area. You cannot penetrate the wreck diving, as the bubbles from the divers exhaling will encourage the rusting of the boat, but you can still peer in and see the loos, bathroom and anchor. It was a very rough ride out there and back again (and when we were moored up 11 miles out to sea), so had to lie down for most of it. H and J were very kind and accommodating for me, and helped me with my equipment so I wouldn't join the vomiting women!

The dive itself is rated by some as the best dive in the world. The amount and variety of fish you see is difficult to describe. We saw sea snakes, a turtle, clown fish (nemo), massive gropers, and lots and lots and lots of other weird and wonderful stuff. The day afterwards they saw some sharks. You could pretty much do the dive from the descent line as the fish always swim around you, but we decided to have a look around anyway. The people on the boat were great fun to talk to, so we ended up going to an area where we could park up for the night (and use lady bushes), and chatting until we were so exhausted we went to bed. The dive company also gave us a huge BBQ when we got back - luckily my stomach had settled by this point, and I was able to make a dent in the pile of meat. Delicious.

So we realised that we needed to get up to Port Douglas pretty quick on Friday (well needed to get there), so we hit the road and stopped briefly in Townsville (pretty city) and Mission Beach (nice beach, but cold, can't go in the water and lots of people). Eventually got up to near Port Douglas which was a relief... so we headed into the town on Saturday, and asked what the prices were like to dive. Because the weather wasn't great, and the markets are on on Sunday, so there are fewer people actually wanting to go out on the boats, only 1 boat was going to an outer reef, and not really the one we wanted to go on. We managed to get a discounted price from 330 to 245 dollars for the boat (full gear hire and 3 dives), but wanted to speak to an instructor before booking it up with Calypso, as the receptionist didn't really know anything about diving. To cut a long story short, Gary our instructor, put 2 of our dives towards our Advanced PADI certification, and took us on 3 dives on the gorgeous boat for only 215 dollars! Bargain...

We were parked up in the car park waiting to go diving on Sunday, when 3 guys came and started chatting to us, and laughing about us doing our diving 'homework' for the following day. They were interesting, but had a spare room in a 5 star hotel in Port Douglas. So... we took it. Absolutely beautiful! A TV, BATH! (with hot water), a huge double bed... they even stole us towels etc... a very random night, and we spent a couple of hours making use of the room before dropping off to sleep, in our $250/night accommodation... we loved those guys.

So headed out with Calypso company on 'Pure Dive', a beautiful, brand spanking new boat. She had a proper loo (amazing), hot showers, and only 29 people on board. She was a catamaran, and was wonderful to be on. (Luckily the sea sickness tablets worked). We went diving 3 times, so now we have 4 of our required 5 adventure dives to get Advanced certification. Only need to do 1 more and purchase the dive instructions book, and then we will be qualified! It means we can go down to 30m instead of merely 18m, and can dive in more places globally. Gary our instructor was awesome - a real laugh and a great teacher, and showed us a white tipped reef shark, a huge turtle, many many weird and wonderful sea cucumbers, and even took my fins off me when I was kicking up the sand a little too much for his liking.

Walking back to the van afterwards, a random guy stopped us and asked us where we were going, and then gave us 1kg of cooked fresh prawns, as his wife had bought them and he couldn't be bothered to carry them around! I worked out that the total money we had saved in the previous 24 hours was nearly $700... we loved Port Douglas, it was an expensive place, but the locals were so friendly, they kept on helping us out and showing where to go for cheap. So ended up having a drink with Gary and his friend last night, before heading down to Cairns this morning. Really recommend looking at the photographs on picasa as the diving ones are really good! (Not taken by me, but by Gary and an underwater photographer with $4000 worth of equipment... one day I'll do that!)

Dropping the van off this afternoon at Wicked, and then flying to Denpasar in Bali tomorrow... so will message when we get there.

Loads of love,
Alice xxx