Finding Nemo

Today was probably the second most amazing experience I have had on my trip. I don’t think I have to tell you what the most amazing one was. You can probably figure it out on your own. Today I got to find nemo (actually attempt to find nemo. I don’t think I did find him but I did find crush but more on that later).

We were up bright and early today to head down to the jetty to go out to the great barrier reef. The group of us decided that the best way to see the barrier reef was not by just snorkeling around it but actually diving. There are a bunch of companies here that do introductory dives where they teach you just what you need to know and then you get to dive with an instructor. I figured that if im going to learn to dive that the best place to start would be here so why not.

Lets just talk for a minute about some things. Im normally not a chicken about much but ive got this little bitty fear of dying by the worst way possible – suffocating pretty much. And well, I guess if you are going to die when you are diving then you will probably going to die by suffocating. I mean, I wasn’t very afraid of getting eaten by jaws or anything because all you have to do is punch a shark in the nose and he will leave you alone. At least that’s what james bond did and look at him. He’s still making crappy movies (sorry to any james bond fans out there). So getting eaten by a shark no. drowning where no one can even hear me scream – just a little.

On the way out to the outer reef we got our lesson and I have to tell you it didn’t give me much confidence that I got assigned to dive with the instructor who was Vietnamese (ok, asian of some sort…) and had some seriously bad broken English. Big frickin confidence boost right there being able to understand about every third word from the person who was going to be responsible for my life for a short bit of time. Lets be honest. I was a flippin basket case on the inside. Apparently that translates externally to looking like im sea sick because I did understand him asking me if I was felling alright (while he rubbed his stomach and repeated himself 3 times).

So as we neared the reef we got to put on our totally hot looking wet suits. You have to wear them when you dive but the swiftsilver company also recommends that you wear them when you are out snorkeling because apparently the pesky stingers might show up on the reef as well (not likely but they are doing a nice little CYA). So we got suited up and then got flippers masks and then they really made me feel good by strapping about 44 lbs of metal lugnut looking things around my waist. And then they strapped and air tank and all those gauges and thingies on my back and I nearly tipped over and fell down the steps into the ocean. Sweet.

Once we were weighed down and unable to move we got three skills lessons. First we learned how to get the water out of our masks. Then we learned how to breathe through the mouth pieces and then we got the fun skill. We got to learn how to switch back and forth between respirators in the unlikely event that we somehow ran out of air. Way to make me nearly cry people. Way to go. Oh yeah they also taught us the hand signs for I have a problem and things like that too.

Well, guess who was the first person off the boat and in the water? Yeah. Me. you got it. We were swimming in groups of 4 with an instructor and I had a go with mike and chris my germans) and then johnny’s friend greg who writes for a national magazine and had joined us for a few days to write some stories about the things we were doing. (in case you care he was doing three stories – one on rafting on the tully river, one on diving, and one on road tripping in general and Johnny said he would email them to us when they are finished). So my bum gets tossed off the boat first and the way you have to do it is slowly lower yourself down the mooring rope while equalizing the pressure in your ears and allowing your body to adjust to the pressure differences.

So I am hanging on to this rope (yeah slimey seaweedy rope) just chillin underwater and Houston we have a problem. Ive got water coming into my mask. So I empty it out and it just keeps leaking. Meanwhile the guys are getting in and coming down and we keep going down and down and down until im standing on the bottom of the ocean about 33 meters down (sorry my brain is too retarded right now to do the conversion) and I STILL have water leaking in. so then I start panicking. It gets even better because we had to practice out skills under water as well and when my instructor comes over to do the switching respirators thing I take my breaths in and then take it out and he didn’t have the other one ready. Start the full scale panic attack. I seriously started panicking and let go of the rope, started sinking and did possibly the smartest thing ever. I opened my mouth to try to breath. Then I got a huge stomach full of salt water. So Chinese boy grabs me and puts me back on the rope and stuffs the thing in my mouth and Im nearly hyperventilating by this point. My life didn’t exactly flash before me but I was panicking big time. So im drowning and I have water in my mask making my eyes and nose burn. Im doing good on my first dive ever.

Thankfully there happened to be one of the other swiftsilver people who came to my rescue fixing my mask for me and calming me down. Once we got that bit out of the way I actually did pretty good. It was a super neat experience to realize that I was standing on the bottom of the ocean just hanging out. Good stuff.

I understand that they cant let a group of novices go swimming off around the ocean or anything but it wasn’t necessary to make us hold hands the entire time either. It was like preschool for scuba divers. We had to swim in a line holding hands. Which worked really well because I kept sinking (until he put some air in my vest anyway). Honestly we didn’t see a whole lot when we were holding hands and floating around in the water. Apparently not many of the fish hang out down that far and the color is pretty dull since it is so far from the sunlight. It was still cool though and as I did mention, we saw crush while we were down there (for those of you who don’t know what im talking about crush is the surfer dude turtle from finding nemo…. “jelly man – offspring. Offspring – jelly man…”) and that was pretty cool to see a sea turtle hanging out. I really enjoyed it and I wish it would have lasted longer. Maybe ill have to get certified that way I can go diving and not have to hold somone’s hand the entire time next time.
Shortly after we got back from our dive we went to the second dive site and got to have a lunch buffet. I really wanted to eat some of the shrimp but they still had the eyes and legs or whatever on them and I really prefer that my food doesn’t look back at me when im trying to eat it. Chris offered to peel them for me but I didn’t really want to encourage the crush at this point since it was starting to not be cute anymore.

I went for a snorkel after lunch and saw some pretty awesome fish. I also saw a yellow tip reef shark swimming around too. He was actually kinda cute and only about 4-5 feet long. I coulda taken him. Not that I had to worry since they say that reef sharks are too afraid of people to bother them. Good I didn’t want to have to punch him in the nose. I didn’t spend much time in the water that time because the current was really strong and pulling away from the boat. It was really tiring trying to fight it so I didn’t bother.

The third site was the best I think. There were more turtles and there was a huge giant clam that could have probably fit me inside of himself being as it was that big. We also found a sea cucumber that was a bit yucky too. I wimped out and didn’t want to touch him.

After the third site we had to head on back. I caught a nice nap on the deck of the boat and then jumped right in the shower when we got back. I don’t know if the concentration is higher or what but I definitely could rub my skin and salt grains were coming off of it.

6 pm we had a quick meeting to fill out evaluations and get out group photos. The reality of the separation was starting to kick in when we got the photos and email lists. Some of the people are going on north to the rainforest and most of us are ending here. Its been a wild ride.

We met at 730 to go to dinner together in town one last time and then party up after that. We went to this place called the wool shed (everyone had variations like the “sheep shack” etc cuz no one could remember the correct name of it). Apparently the place has in print advertising that states that “if you cant pick up at the wool shed you cant pick up anywhere.” What a reputation. On the way there Johnny and Scottie got all mushy on us playing our morning song and then playing “time of your life” which really just made it all bitter sweet for everyone.

The sheep shack was basically a back packers pub/restaurant/club. The food was decent and inexpensive and there were drink specials so we were all happy. Johnny and Scottie bought quite a few pitchers of beer and wine for us to celebrate and the partying began. Lots of pictures and joking and laughing and then on to the dancing. Im pretty sure that EVERYONE was pretty “pissed” to use the aussie terminology for drunk. I mean, 2 for 1 drinks will do that to you. Lucky me only had to buy 2 drinks the entire time and the rest were gifts from others. It was pretty much one of those “it’s a night ill never remember with friends ill never forget” kind of moment and the best part was when they played our morning song in the club for us and everyone was just going nuts. Good times good times.

Live for the nights I cant remember with the Friends I’ll never forget. Ever.