Make a Scuba! (Part 2 of 2. Read part 1, below, first)

Read the post below this first, which leads into the rest of the scuba trip.... you can save this post for a later time too since I keep taking so long between posts and writing too much.

The time for the night dive came and I was exhausted. Derek had decided not to go and I decided not to go also. There was two other people who wanted to go so Nico said he would take them first, then if I wanted to go I could go when he got back, but I had to be ready in 25 mins. I decided to just chill and not go... so obviously I went. I got my suit and everything on and waited for him to return. I really wasn't worried at all, they give you a flashlight and junk and it didn't seem like a big deal. Then I got in the water... and it was dark. Like really dark. Like when you are laying in bed with the lights off and your face in the pillow with your eyes open. Pretty dark I'd say.

So we started off into the blackness with probably about 15-20 feet of visibility from our two flashlights. So we swam... and swam... and swam, and then Nico kept looking back every minute or two and I didn't know why. Either something was stalking us or we were off course, I didn't hope for either. Turned out we were off course. So we swam in blackness for about a 10 minute period that seemed like a 30 minutes period... then finally we came to the reef! I was pretty relieved to say the least. We swam along and it was pretty cool at night. I hadn't seen anything really cool earlier in the day, but this changed when we came to the den of a turtle. Trust me, much more exciting than it sounds. I thought turtles were synonymous with smallness... until I saw this turtle. I was HUGE! By HUGE I mean it was almost the size of my mother (in length, and obviously much much wider). I was astounded. Unfortunately our lights had awoken it, so Nico decided we should vacate quite rapidly.

We continued on, seeing a couple more turtles and cool things. After a bit he let go of me and let me go on my own, which was a little uncomfortable, but fine. I saw my first shark, not anything spectacular, but a little eerie even though reef sharks are known to be scared of people and never attack them. We returned and I shed my gear and headed up to hang out with the group for the rest of the night... a crazy, crazy night.

After a while most people went to bed except for the boat crew, me, one guy from our group, and a couple people from the other group that had been there a few days. We played king's cup (a drinking game) and to say the least people got a little silly and it got a little wild. Slowly people left the game for bed or other reasons until only the crew and about 3 others of us were still up. Some of the crew decided it scuba time so they strapped up and jumped in the water. Little did I know, it was really shark viewing time. And not only shark viewing time, but shark feeding time.

They tied the remains of a big fish they had caught earlier on a rope and dropped it in the water, scubaing near by with flashlights to watch the sharks go after it. Flipping Crazy!!!! I watched from safety on the boat. They slowly came up onto the boat sad because their flashlights were keeping the sharks from coming up to the bloody fish (this completely dropped my fear of the reef sharks). Not a minute after the last person lept onto the boat, the sharks came after the fish, which a guy was holding by a rope. That was a site to see. I was sure the guy was going overboard, but I guess that is one of the skills you pick up living on the boat. I don't think I could or ever want to pick up that skill.

I finally got to bed at 2:30AM and then awoke again at 5:30AM for our last day of diving. We had 3 dives, including one on our own without the instructor. It was good, very interesting and truly an amazing experience. The scuba diving has without a doubt been one of the peak moments of this trip and of my life thus far. It's a little expensive so I don't know how often I will be continuing it, but I now have a license how to continue it as I wish. It was really just fantastic.

We returned to the mainland and ordered a couple pizzas for an early night. The next day we took a 45 minute skyrail (gondola) through the nearby rainforest area to a city called Kuranda, which was a nice relaxing day with a few hikes. The trip back is by train, which was a very pleasant time. It wasn't the most exhilarating thing, and is definitely not a necessity when you go to Cairns, but it was a good way to pass the 24 hours period you have to wait to fly post-scuba diving. All in all, very successful.

Dad is here for another week, then we head south for a frantic romp around New Zealand for a few weeks, and then back home. Don't worry mom, we're being safe! Toodles.