International terminal for a domestic flight, or all the aggravation with none of the fun: Somehow, when I booked my flight to Cairns, I managed to get a seat on a flight that was continuing on to Tokyo. I realized this when I looked up my flight number and I saw that it was between 1 and 399, which are international flights on Qantas. This unfortunate purchase meant I had to go through the international terminal to get to my plane. In some ways, I appreciate having a dry run for when I really leave the country in two weeks. I caught the 400 bus from near Penny and Scott’s to the International Terminal. I’m sure that the bus driver knew I wasn’t local since I didn’t know where to get off the bus. When I did drag my suitcase down the stairs at the international stop, he said something like, “Come back again,” as in “Come back to Australia.” I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t leaving the country yet, but I figured that he didn’t really care to know.
The international terminal is simply enormous. I think there must be 1000 desks for check-in, if not more. I really don’t think I’m exaggerating, since my flight was checking in at D13-D24, and the letters went up to at least K. I had no trouble checking in, but then I was confused when I got to customs. I wasn’t sure how to fill out the forms to tell them what country I was flying to. Turns out I didn’t need to since I was staying in the country.
Duty-free galore: I should have just waited on all my souvenir shopping until I was leaving the country and then bought it all duty-free. The duty-free shopping area is the size of a large mall, chock full of heaps of souvenirs and luxury items. If I end up at the airport early two weeks from now (I can’t believe I’ll be leaving so soon L), at least I’ll have something to do.
The Republic of Texas: It’s times like these when I’m reminded of why I’m glad that I’m not from Texas. (Sorry to those of you who now claim it as home—Andre, Becky, Kevin, Lauren. J) I was waiting at my gate where about 20 senior citizens Texans were waiting to get on the same flight. How did I know they were from Texas? Read on. From what I could gather, they had just flown into Sydney that morning and were straight off to Cairns. The gate agent made an announcement about people having disembarked from a 747 needing to check bags, due to the smaller amount of space on a 767, and then walked over to the group. They were very polite about having to check their bags, which made me very happy. (I hate it when Americans live up to the rude, bossy attitude that other countries think we have.) They were definitely a tour group, since there was one man in charge of herding them around. At some point (unfortunately, I didn’t hear what led up to it), the agent said something about Australia not recognizing the sovereignty of the republic of Texas, which is when I was sure they were Texan. Up until then, the accents had only tipped me off to the South or Texas. During the boarding process, the gate agent welcomed the people from “the Republic of Texas”, for which they cheered. However, the most amusing bit of the whole experience was earlier on, when an elderly Asian woman was taking digital pictures of the Texan group, most of whom had on some sort of blaze orange clothing for identification purposes—jacket, hat, etc. The Americans were being loud and the Asians were taking pictures of it. If we had a drunken Irishman and a snooty Frenchman, we’d cover almost all the stereotypes. (No offense meant to my Irish relatives. J I’m not apologizing for the French bit, since nobody likes the French, anyways.)
A free afternoon: I never know what to do with myself when I have hours of free time in a strange place. I spent some time walking around Cairns and seeing the waterfront area. I went and checked out my boat, which looked pretty stable and reasonably large sitting at the dock. Lunch was at the mall and dinner was at Fasta Pasta, a place that LJ and I discovered on our trip to Cairns back in March. I thought about seafood for dinner since I was at the ocean, but I decided that I should have something very boring to help prevent seasickness. At the mall, I spent some time looking at the cute kitties and puppies in a pet store. I was really tempted to ask them if I could hold a cat (I miss Athena) but I figured that they wouldn’t let me, since I wouldn’t be planning on buying him/her. After dinner, I came across a performance of Cook Islands music and dancing being held in the main square in town and spent an enjoyable half-hour watching and listening. The best part was the cute little 6-year-old boy who was doing some of the traditional dances.
Disclaimer: I would just like to point out right now that I’m pretty sure I’m going to do a terrible job of expressing how completely amazing my trip was. It’s up there with Tasmania at some of the highlights of my time here. I loved being able to do so much diving in so few days. As I described in my last Cairns post back in March, I find scuba diving to be a very relaxing yet exciting experience. Every time I dive, I’m amazed and stunned by the wide variety of life under the surface of the ocean. Even pictures do very little justice to the experience. I don’t want you to stop reading now (if you did, all my typing would be in vain), but I did want to point out that scuba diving is orders of magnitude more wonderful than my words can describe.
The first night: Around 7:30 pm, I headed over to the Reef Fleet terminal, where someone from the boat was scheduled to meet us at 7:45 pm. At 7:55, a very tall woman (she must be significantly over 6 feet tall—Dave, I thought of you, as I often do when meeting a tall woman) named Emma came to get us. Turns out that Emma is the trip director—essentially the general manager of the whole crew. On the walk along the dock to the boat, I learned that one couple, Eric and Polly, are from Brighton, Colorado, and that a woman named Jeannette is a junior doctor in Newcastle and went through school with Katie King from the ultimate team. Small world, huh? (Great, now I got that song stuck in my head again. Happens EVERY time I make a comment about it being a small world.J) At the boat, we were greeted by all the staff, but I won’t bore you with a list of names now—I’ll just let them come up in the storytelling. We had all our intro stuff, where we told everyone who we are and where we’re from and where Emma told us what to do in case of various emergencies, like someone falling off the back of the boat. Our captain, Noel, is a big, gruff-looking man who reminds me of some actor, but I can’t figure out who. Noel seems like the kind of guy that you’d like to have on your side in a bar fight, which somehow is a comforting trait in a captain.
Luxury quarters: The room is nice, but tiny, which is what I expected. Since the boat isn’t full—there are only 12 passengers on a boat that has room for 26—I lucked out and got my own room. I have an Economy room with twin bunk beds on the main deck. The mattresses are just foam like hostel mattresses, only a bit nicer. Every room has a window, which is really nice for seasickness prevention. (Being able to see the horizon gives you something to focus on.) I can’t imagine sharing this room with anyone else, especially not someone I didn’t know before the trip. I barely have enough room for all my junk in here, let alone someone else’s.
On the first night, we had to steam most of the night through to the northern part of the reef. Unfortunately, all the motion made for a rather fitful night of sleep. I had gotten only 6 hours of sleep the night before and kept myself from taking a nap in the afternoon so that I would sleep well that night. I should have just broken down and taken a sleeping pill when I went to bed. My on-and-off sleep with a solid 2-hour stretch of sleep in the early morning may have been the most sleep anyone got the first night. I felt a bit queasy all night, but not too bad.
Luxury dining: Mike Ball Dive Expeditions are known for their food, and the Supersport is no exception. Every meal is a gourmet feast for all the senses. Pauline, the chef, works her magic in a galley kitchen that is only about 6’ x 10’. I was in no mood to have the feast that first morning, though, since I wasn’t feeling all that well.
The briefing: Before every dive, we had a dive briefing, in which Emma or Brad (a dive master) would draw a picture on the board of the site and tell us about it. They would discuss things like current, visibility and the depths of the various features at the dive site. The maps they drew were remarkably accurate in terms of the relative placement of various coral pinnacles and other features.
Day 1: Friday, 07 May 2004
A rough morning, starting with Dive #1: The seas were still a bit rough when we got up, which, combined with my poor sleep, pretty much removed most of my normal appetite. I ate a bit of food, but I didn’t really enjoy it. We went on our first dive immediately after breakfast. The water was still a little choppy at the surface so I was looking forward to getting off the boat. Brad led four of us on a guided dive of Joanie’s Joy at Ribbon Reef # 2 1/3, in which we did some skills reviews of emergency techniques, such as an out-of-air scenario. Starting from this dive, I buddied with David, a lawyer from England, for many of the dives. I felt okay but not great during this dive.
I’m really torqued off at the dive shop in Boulder where I got my gear serviced. I paid a good sum of money to have it serviced, but when I got in the water for this first dive, my regulator was free-flowing. For the non-divers out there, free-flowing is when the regulator (the bit that you blow through) is just spewing out air and won’t stop. Laurence grabbed another octopus (the regulator and hoses and attachment to the tank) that Brad switched out with my busted one while I floated on the surface holding onto the boat. I am really going to give that shop a piece of my mind when I get back to Boulder. I’m really pissed off that I dragged my gear 8000 miles only to not be able to use it.
My seasickness hit rock bottom after I returned to the boat. Laurence, the ship’s marine biologist and photographer/videographer—he’s a man of many hats—was holding a part 1 of a Reef Ecology course that morning. I really wanted to learn more about the reef, but I knew that putting myself in an enclosed room at that time would be a bad idea so I skipped the class. Instead, I hung out on the back deck and waited for the seemingly inevitable puking to start. Danny, the first mate, came over to see how I was doing. He said that perhaps I would be better off if I didn’t get sick, since sometimes that starts a vicious cycle in which you can’t keep anything down. I knew he was right, but I also knew that sometimes in the past I’ve felt better after getting sick, and told him that. I sat back there for a long time. At one point, I could almost feel the retching begin, so I ran to the side of the boat. I hung out there for a few minutes, but I did not puke. I think that I got over the hump then and reached the point where I wouldn’t actually vomit. Instead of doing the second dive, I went up to the second deck, laid on the floor underneath the canopy and took a nap. An hour or so later I woke up feeling better than I had since I had gotten on the boat. I think I just really needed a nap. Lunch rolled around and I was able to eat a full meal without feeling nauseous. My nausea was banished, never to return for the rest of the trip. Yay!
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG to bring you an emergency siren! I was typing in my blog on Sunday morning (between the first and second dive of the day, so around 9:30 am) when the alarm went off on board and the captain cut all power to the engines. The crew ushered us to the muster station up on the second level, where I saw Danny pointing to a life preserver out in the ocean. Pauline told us that it was only a man overboard drill. “Had this been a real emergency, the sound that you heard would be followed by the passengers screaming, panicking and getting off the vessel any way they could.” Amara, the social director for the trip, swam out to the preserver and towed it back in. Once on the deck, she became the rescued victim and the crew proceeded to go through a CPR drill. I was a little concerned when the siren first went off, although I really thought it was a mechanical failure with how quickly the engines were cut. I feel pretty comfortable being on board a vessel where they take safety seriously enough to run through a drill on every trip.
Dive #2, Steve’s Bommie: After lunch, we steamed up to Steve’s Bommie on Ribbon Reef #3. (A bommie is an isolated coral patch.) David and I joined a group dive again, on which we saw all kinds of stuff, including unicorn fish and a sea turtle! I was very excited by seeing the sea turtle. I’ve never seen one on a dive before. The unicorn fish are pretty cool, too.
Dive #3, Clam Beds: We moved again, up to the Clam Beds at Ribbon Reef #4. David decided to sit this one out, so Brad was my dive buddy. I rather enjoy buddying with the experienced crew members, since then I don’t have to worry about navigation underwater, which is not my strong suit. (LJ, you know how much my navigation skills on land annoy you? Well, they don’t get any better when I’m under the sea.) As would be expected from the name, we saw some giant clams at this dive site. I don’t remember if there was anything else particularly cool. Of course, everything under the sea is cool (right, LJ?), but some things are cooler than others.
What would have been Dive #4: Around 6:30, we went out back for the dive briefing and geared up for the night dive. From the start of the briefing, I was feeling very uncomfortable about the dive. I’ve always been a bit wary about night diving, mainly because you can’t really see what might be swimming up behind you. Horror movies, involving sharks and other large predators, tend to play in my mind right before a night dive, and this time was no exception. I got as far as starting to pull on my wetsuit when I decided (rather intelligently, I think) that I should not go diving in my current panicky state of mind, so I bailed on the dive. Afterwards, David told me that he was a bit disappointed with the night dive, so I’m okay with having missed it.
That night we had a wonderful dinner, or at least I think we did. I was almost asleep in my room when Amara came through the vessel ringing the dinner bell. (They had a small bell that she rang at mealtimes.) I was barely conscious for dinner. I stayed up for dessert, which was a yummy berry medley with vanilla ice cream and a flaky pastry, and then went to my cabin. The lack of sleep and excitement/exertion of diving combined to knock me into a solid sleep by 9 pm. I think that the boat steamed north for a couple hours, but I sure didn’t feel it.
Early start: On Saturday and Sunday, we had a cold breakfast followed by a dive and then hot breakfast. This morning we were woken up at 7 am. I stumbled out of my room feeling rather refreshed, having slept like the dead for 10 hours. ASIDE: I think that the best sleep in the world is the kind I get after a long, physically exhausting day. I fall into bed and pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow.
Dive #4, Pixie’s Wall: Much of today’s diving is in the Pixie series, in that “Pixie” is in the name of the sites. The early morning dive was at Pixie’s Wall, just north of Ribbon Reef #9. I decided to rent one of the digital cameras to try to take photos underwater. Laurence said that they had just gotten the digital cameras in last week, so they were still trying to figure out how to use them. They were Olympus point-and-shoot variety cameras. I could have rented a nicer film camera for less money, but I’ve become so used to the instant gratification of digital. (Yes, I know that there was a time a couple years ago when I was a film purist. That attitude all changed when I realized how much faster I’m learning to take better pictures using digital, since I can immediately see what’s right and wrong about the pix.) David and I were led by Emma on this dive. We went pretty deep on this dive, down to 27 meters. I ran low on air, since I tend to suck down quite a bit, so Emma had me breathe off the Nitrox tank at the safety stop.
A little bit of terminology and physics: Don’t worry, I’ll try not to go too geek on you here. Nitrox is a mixture of 32% oxygen and 68% nitrogen, as opposed to the 24%/76% of regular tanks and the atmosphere. When diving on Nitrox, you can do more dives with less worry of “getting bent”. “The bends”: As you go deeper under water, the water pressure changes. I’m sure you’ve noticed this if you have ever dove to the bottom of a pool. Water pressure changes at a rate of 1 atm (atmosphere) for every 33’ of depth. As the outside water pressure changes, more nitrogen is forced into your tissues since the outside pressure is higher. When you ascend from a dive, you have to do it slowly or else you can get bent, where the nitrogen, instead of nicely dissolving back into your blood and being exhaled out, comes out in bubbles in the tissues of your body. Bubbles in the body are bad. Additionally, with each dive, more nitrogen gets forced into the tissues and it takes more time for that nitrogen to slowly dissolve out. When you dive on Nitrox, you have less nitrogen that can be forced into the tissues and, hence, less chance of getting bent. However, since there are special things to learn about it—like the fact that you can’t dive deeper than 100’ or you can get oxygen poisoning—you have to get a special certification to dive on Nitrox. As for the safety stop, you can help degas (let the nitrogen out) by staying at 15’ (or approximately 1.5 atm) for a few extra minutes at the end of a dive.
Dive #5, Pixie’s Garden: We were supposed to move straight on to Pixie’s Pinnacle for two dives, but since we weren’t scheduled there and there was another dive boat there that was, we dove at Pixie’s Garden for the next dive. I saw all kinds of cool little fish and neat coral formations. I’m constantly amazed by the explosion of colors found underwater. A rainbow of hues can be found in the fishes and other animal and plant life in the ocean. We saw some pretty cool things, like feather starfish (that black, feathery shape on the coral is an animal, not a plant). David (shown here taking pictures) and I did this dive on our own, without a guide. He’s never dove without a significantly more experienced diver, and, as far as I can remember, neither have I. (I’m lucky that John B. got into diving so much earlier than I did.) David and I were able to successfully navigate our way out and back by following the anchor line of the boat.
Reef ecology:
Since I was feeling much better this morning, I sat in on the reef
ecology course. Laurence also gave the
presentation for the class I missed from yesterday. I learned lots of cool stuff about the various fish and animals
on the reef.
Dive # 6, Pixie’s Pinnacle: Our dive after lunch was at Pixie’s Pinnacle, close by Pixie’s Garden. A coral pinnacle is just what it sounds like: a tall, relatively narrow coral formation that reaches almost to the surface of the water. I took heaps of pictures on this dive. Around the pinnacle, schools of fish numbering in the hundreds just hang out, with larger fishes occasionally swimming through. Sea anemones are pretty cool, too. I spent a great deal of time over the course of my dives trying to get a good picture of Nemo and his dad (a true clownfish, that is) but the lighting was never right. [ASIDE: In the reef ecology course, I learned that clownfish have an interesting family structure. The dominant female rules the family, with many males, one of whom is dominant. If the dominant female dies, then the dominant male changes sex and becomes the dominant female, while the next most dominant male moves up to the dominant male position. So, in terms of Nemo, that means that Nemo’s dad was really on his way to becoming Nemo’s mom. I’m guessing that Disney Pixar wasn’t so keen on the idea of a transsexual father for Nemo.]
Dive #7, Challenger Bay: Challenger Bay, up by Ribbon Reef # 9 ¾, is a very sheltered bay with little to no current, making it a really nice dive site. Tasha and I dove together here, since David was only doing three dives a day. I got some really cool pictures of a sea cucumber and a large cod (I think). Also, one of the divemasters got a picture of me jumping into the water (using a giant stride entry off the nice platform at the back of the boat). I tried to take heaps of pictures, but the sun was behind the clouds a bit, which lengthened the exposure time and subsequently caused a lot of camera shake in the images. I really need a camera with a sensitive sensor and an adjustable shutter speed. Eric was able to take lots of really good photos, since he had a pretty high end camera (a Cannon S50, probably one of the best non-SLR digital cameras out there, from what I can tell).
Dive #8, Challenger Bay, take two: This time around we saw Challenger Bay at night. I rather like diving the same site in day and night, since you see very different things in the same place. On this dive, Eric and I were dive buddies, since Polly and David were sitting it out. Danny led us, along with a couple other people, on the dive. I’m not ready to do an unguided night dive yet. We spent much of the dive finding little creatures in the sand beds, like hermit crabs and some other types of crabs. I didn’t take my camera because I didn’t want the added complication of dealing with a camera and a flashlight (torch, for any Aussies reading this journal). We saw a small eel, maybe a few centimeters long, and my first shark of the trip. The shark was swimming some distance away from us and was just barely visible in the edge of our lights. (Neil, in case you’re wondering, I think I am over my visceral fear of sharks. I’m not sure that I’m ready for a shark feed yet, but seeing them in the ocean with me is cool.) We also saw a feathery seas cucumber that was at least six feet long! Most sea cucumbers we saw are only about 2-3 feet long.
Towards the end of the dive, Danny scooped up something from the sand and held it out for Eric and me to see. In the palm of his hand was a gold ring, most likely a wedding band someone had lost. The first thought that went through my head was the quote, “One ring to rule them all and, in the darkness, bind them.” Unless you’ve been asleep for the last few years, you’d know that that quote refers to the ring of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Even those of you who haven’t seen the movies probably knew that.) When we got back on the boat, I found out that on the last trip, a passenger had lost his wedding band at that dive site, so there was a high likelihood that Danny had found it. Wouldn’t that be cool for that poor guy? I’m sure he got into all kinds of trouble with his wife for losing it.
Gourmet dinner, yum!: For this night’s dinner, we had been asked earlier in the day whether we wanted salmon or chicken. I chose the brie-stuffed chicken, which was exquisite. I was actually awake for dinner tonight. I think the only way I managed not to gain ten pounds on the trip is that I was eating smaller portions than normal to make sure I didn’t overeat and get sick. We had a wonderful chocolate mud pie for dessert. Yummy.
A birthday: Keith, one of the other passengers, has had a busy couple weeks. First, he and Katie got married about a week ago in Sydney. Then, today was his 60th birthday. (They had to get married before it b/c Katie refused to marry an old man. J) I hope that I’m still doing fun stuff like dive trips when I’m 60.
Dive #9, Lighthouse Bommie: During the early morning dive briefing (at 7 am again), Emma told us that at the Lighthouse Bommie (at Ribbon Reef #10), there were heaps of things to see. She was right. David and I went on our own again, following the anchor line down to the mound next to the bommie. At this relatively deep depth (25 meters), life still abounds. I saw all kinds of neat things, from a two-foot-diameter deep blue starfish to huge schools of tuna. The deep depths and somewhat dim lighting precluded much picture taking, although I tried to take a bunch. There was so much to see that I almost ran out of air! I was down to 20 bar at the end of our safety stop. The bommie’s name comes from its pillar-like shape and the hole that runs through the top of it, a few meters below the surface of the ocean.
Dive #10, Dynamite Pass: This dive, also at Ribbon Reef #10, was a drift dive. As far as I can tell from my dive logbook, it’s the first one of those I’ve ever done. In a drift dive, there’s a noticeable current going one way, so the boat drops you off in one place, you drift/swim with the current, and then get picked up downstream. David and I were buddies again, in a group led by Brad. The pass had a wall along our left-hand side that we followed with the current. I saw many schools of fish (and even managed to get pictures of them), plenty of colorful coral and little fish, and a shark down at the sea floor. I ran pretty low on air again with this one, but at least I was able to drift along closer to the surface to get in my safety stop.
Dive #11, the world famous Cod Hole: After lunch we steamed along to the Cod Hole at the top of Ribbon Reef #10. On this dive, we witnessed a cod feed. All the divers got into the water at the same time and swam to a sandy spot where the divemasters always do the feed. Yuki (a divemaster) had a bucket of recently thawed fish. To feed the cod, he reached in the bucket with his chain-mail-covered hand, grabbed out a fish, and fed it to the nearest cod. One really large potato cod (probably four feet long) kept getting most of the food. I was a bit disappointed in the cod feed. I had thought that the cod would be larger and more plentiful.
After the feed, David and I explored the reef some more. He went looking for a couple white-tip reef sharks that hang out at that site, and we found them! I accidentally scared one of them away when I was trying to back away from them to give them some space. We could have dove again, but since I think we saw all the cool stuff we could find there, I wasn’t motivated to put a cold wetsuit back on and go back in the water. The sun was behind some clouds, so I wouldn’t have been able to get any good pictures, either. Rather than overexert myself, I decided to call it a day.
Barbie night: We steamed long to Lizard Island, getting to see a really nice sunset along the way. That night was the barbeque, starting with prawns on the barbie (barbequed shrimp) and champagne just after sunset in the bay at Lizard Island. Dinner was all kinds of BBQ’ed meat, like sausage, chicken, and lamb, along with corn and various veggies and salads, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert, yum. After dinner, Laurence showed us the video that he had put together from our trip. I liked the underwater shots, and I thought that the choice of “Land Down Under” for the first song was appropriate. However, I didn’t think it was worth the $100 they were charging for a copy of it. I don’t think I would have watched it often enough to make that money worth it. With the video and dessert done, it was time to pack up my cabin and put my bag outside the door.
And so it ends: We got up really early in the morning (6:45 am), had breakfast, and were transferred over to Lizard Island on one of the small skiffs they also used for watching us while diving. We hung out on the beach for a little while that morning and then took a 15-minute walk to get to the “airport”. The airport consisted of a small, outdoor hut, while the baggage trolley was a cart dragged behind a ute (utility truck). Three 10-passenger planes showed up with the next trip’s passengers. From what I could tell, there were at least 20 people on that trip, so I’m really glad I went when I did. Jeannette (the Newcastle doctoer), Theo, Richard (two other passengers), Ambrose (the ship’s engineer) and I rode with David. I sat at the back so that I could take pictures out the window of the reef. Richard asked David if he could sit in the co-pilot seat and David said yes. I wish I had thought to ask. The flight was very uneventful and I still didn’t get motion sick! Yay! I’d say it was a rather pleasant ending to a fun trip. Weather was perfect for the entire trip—no rain, lots of warm weather. Since I’ve been in Oz, I’ve almost doubled the number of dives I’ve done in my life, from 15 to 28.
A few more hours in Cairns: In order to be extra safe about not getting bent, which can be caused by flying too soon after diving (due to the lower air pressures in the plane cabin), I booked a flight for 6:50 pm that night, which meant I had a few hours free to spend in Cairns again. I stumbled across a show at the same bandstand where the Cook Island stuff was happening before my trip, but this time the show was school kids doing chorus and band. Wow. (That’s not a good wow.) An elementary school chorus was first. I’m not sure that there are many things much more amusing/painful than hearing a bunch of Aussie eight-year-olds trying to sing pop songs, like “Closer to Free” (by the BoDenes), “California Dreamin”, and “Big Yellow Taxi” (the Joni Mitchell or Counting Crows version, take your pick—it’s not like it sounded much like either one).
The real fun started next, with the Woree “primary school concert band”, four words in the English language that should never be used together, unless the phrase “disbanded” is also used. (No pun intended.) I’m convinced that all elementary school music teachers are angels or completely deaf or both, because otherwise I don’t know how they can stand to hear the horrifying sounds that are produced by musical instruments wielded by inexperienced children. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for teaching kids music, but I just think that they’re better off learning to play classical music, since very few people will recognize how badly it’s being played. They should NOT, under any circumstances, play a popular song like Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”. Had the music teacher not announced beforehand what the children were playing, I’m not sure that I would have recognized it. They followed up that, um, masterpiece, with the slowest rendition of “Tequila” that I have ever heard in my life.
Things improved a bit when the high school concert band came on, although “Stairway to Heaven” was not a good choice. However, I was blown away by the elite band—I’m not sure what it was really called, but it consisted of the 10-15 best players from the whole band. A girl got up there and sang “Respect” with a powerful voice that brought the house down. She was amazing. I really hope that she puts that voice to some good use, because her singing was magical. After that, I wandered off to find some food. I had some barramundi, an Australian fish, and chips for lunch and some ice cream for an afternoon snack. I spent some peaceful time browsing in a used bookstore (I love books) and then headed back to the Mike Ball office to catch a cab to the airport. Some more waiting in the airport, then an uneventful flight back to Sydney. I caught the train to Central and was unlucky enough to miss a train to Newcastle by 5 minutes, which meant I had to wait almost an hour at Central before starting the last leg of my journey home. I arrived back in Newcastle just after 2 am. I’m glad I set my watch alarm for that time, since I fell asleep on the train. It had been a long day.
Just a final thought/recommendation: I highly recommend Mike Ball Dive Expeditions to any certified divers out there reading this. They’re definitely more expensive than the other operations, but this is one case where you definitely get what you pay for. I can’t wait to go on another MBDE trip.