Carpe Diem Walkabout here reporting for our last blog post ever!
It’s Monday and we are getting ready to leave tomorrow morning at 4 am to catch our first flight home- AH!
But before we get sentimental, let’s tell you about the past week:
Wednesday we flew from Brisbane to Cairns (apparently pronounced “Cannes” by the way) and had a free day to explore the city and the beautiful waterfront.
Thursday we started our SCUBA course!!! While Marisa, Damielle, and Greg spent the day walking around Cairns, the rest of us met our wonderful instructor, Tanya and had a classroom course in the morning and a pool introduction in the afternoon. We got to try putting on scuba gear and surviving in the pool. What a weird feeling to breathe in and out through a regulator and not die at the bottom of the pool.
Friday we finished up the classroom course and learned more in the pool. In order to be SSI (Scuba Schools International) certified, we needed to pass a written test… what a test! Whew, glad we all passed… Anyway, while we were busy getting certified, Danielle, Greg and Marisa went to the Outer Reef to get a head start on diving and snorkeling. As soon Danielle and Greg went on their first dive they encountered a shark, a sea turtle and they even found Nemo! They were also lucky enough to see dolphins too! While they were diving Marisa was snorkeling. She saw tons of brightly colored fish and tons of amazing coral. Marisa did not get to see any sharks or turtles but she did see a lionfish, which is venomous.
Saturday we took a boat to Fitzroy Island, an island with beautiful coral beaches and turquoise water. That morning the diving students got to do our first dive in the ocean!! We walked in from the shore and survived our first test dive. After lunch, we did two more dives and got to see so many fishes! We also held a sea cucumber and saw a beautiful blue sea star. That night, we took a glass bottom boat to check out the nightlife on the ocean floor. We saw fishes getting ready for bed, a sleepy sea turtle and when we sped up, the water beneath the boat lit up with the lights from plankton. It was like the night sky under water! What a beautiful way to spend the night. That night we had a fancy dinner and stayed at the resort on the island- so spoiled!
The next day we got to dive off of Sunkist, a boat! We took our first dive in the morning… On that dive, we saw a beautiful sea turtle that we chilled with for a few minutes. Amazing to be able to observe and swim with the different marine life at the reef. They gave us a good batch of baked ziti as well which was nice to have between dives. In the afternoon, after our fourth official dive, Liz, Courtney, Solly, Megan and Eytan got SCUBA certified and got our official cards to prove it. This means that we could dive by ourselves without an instructor on our final dive. What an absolute thrill this was! Needless to say we cannot wait to explore the ocean at any opportunity given. After a long stomach ache inducing boat ride back to the port, we said our tearful goodbyes to our lovely instructors.
Now our final days are upon us, and as we scramble to gather souvenirs for our loved ones, squeeze in more meaningful conversations with each other, and stuff our cheeks full of one last Tim Tam, we look at the past 3 months with immense gratitude and look to the coming months with ample anticipation. Thank you, especially, to our wonderful support networks back home. We can’t wait to see you!
And we’re off.