Goodbye Australia

Location: Cairns Australia

Date: 11 June 2011

I cannot believe how quickly the months have gone! The time has come for us to leave Ozzieland. We had a great time and did some AWESOME diving. This leads me to the next step we are taking...... We are off to Bali for a divemaster internship and who knows what will come out of that. Maybe working as an instructor somewhere in the world? I don't know. Taking it day by day.

This does mean we are skipping Japan simply because I am afraid to go ( i know strange huh!). But after 1,5 year of running away from my emotions they have actually found me. Yey me..... ;) Japan was always the country my parents talked about. The holiday that they remembered. One of the main reasons of us planning it in our trip. My gut feeling says now is not the time to go for me.

Currently we are in Padangbai Bali, a teeeniy tiny harbour town with the most terrific dive sites. The infamous Gili islands are around the corner as well as Ubud the hippy town of Bali.

Leaving Australia is strange. We "lived" there for 2,5 months being familiar with Harvey Norman, Coles and hungry Jacks ( burger king for teh rest of teh world). We know that almost every Ozzie likes to fish, here are more free BBQ facilities than toilets........ and so much more. All in all it is a terrific country to travel through!

So bye Australia.. for now... never say never!

Ayo,

Marrem

diving the great barrier reef

Location: Port douglas

Today is our first glimpse of the Great Barrier reef and on top of that we might even see the minke whales ( very unlikely though). The boat left the harbour at 8.30 touring to the Agincourt reefs ( very north great barrier reef).  “The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres”. So fair to say that it is BIG!. You will recognise the reefs as big brown very shallow spots in the water. Finally the weather was actually working with us and we had perfect tidal changed so it all looked like perfect conditions.

And boy it was! We had a small group ( only 5 divers) and a guide that definitely knew his way around the reef.  On the three dives we did that day we saw a shark, swam through many tunnels and caves, loads of Nemo’s, a serious amount of clams ( one was 70 year old), big ass cucumbers ( which you can do all sorts of things with). The pictures will show more!

After the second dive we came out of the water and had soe good news, the minke’s were here! Oh yeah! So no need to think twice we stripped of our gear and jumped back into the water ad snorkelled with the whales. One word: WOW. Amazing experience.

Port Douglas reminds me very much of Curacao, same vibe ad atmosphere and nice cafe’s and restaurants. We ended up drinking a few bears with the crew and ended up booking another day on teh boat to do 3 more dives. Because it was just Remco myself and Nick our guide, we were able to dive a bit longer and do drift dives which was very cool. Again I was amazed by the underwater world. Love it. Dive instructors have the best office of the world. Yes I AM JEALOUS!

Pics will show all!

AU - Diving Port Douglas

Ayo,

Marrem

diving the Yongala

Location: Whitsunday Islands - Carins

Date: 22th May ......

Today we drove to Ayr to pick up our school books. Yup we are to be tested on our nitrox diving skills tomorrow so that means we have to do some studying! In the evening we find a nice camping nearby and immediately hit the books.

Te next day it is an early start for us because next to fulfilling our Nitrox course ( a different of blend of oxygen you use when diving) we are also diving to the Yongala. Only the most beautiful wreck in Australia (so we have been told).

"The S.S. YONGALA sank in a cyclone on the 23rd March 1911 and remained undiscovered for almost 50 years, not being positively identified until 1958. The wreck now lies on its starboard side in 14-28 metres of water and at 109m long is the largest and most intact, historic shipwreck in Australian waters.

She sank just 12 nautical miles off the coast of Cape Bowling Green in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park with the loss of all 122 passengers.  Exactly what happened we will never know – although research indicates the vessel was steaming, the fact no life rafts were found indicate the loss of the Yongala was sudden and tragic. "

It is a no touch wreck which means you can’t go in it but there is enough to see from the outside. One of the main reasons of the “no touch” rule is because this ship went down so fast taht it took all its passengers on board with her. 122 bodies were recovered and their final resting place will always remain the ship. At the moment there is a spot ( i believe the bow) where they have bagged the remains and given them a final resting place. Another good reason is to preserve the wild life ofcourse. The area around the yongala is a green zone ( and this zone is pretty big) this means no fishing and no mooring with anchors ( there are special spots for the diveboats). The sea life is absolutely B-U-TI-FUL! . 

Due to Cyclone Yasi earlier this year more of the ship has become visible as well ( before that it was completely overgrown with corals) which is really nice you can actually see it is a wreck.

Well what did we see: 

A seriously big groper ( think 3 times my size), king fish ( very similar looks to sharks), 

HUGE marble ray, millions of fish, colourful corals, great travelli’s ( ugly big fish), a wreck ;), sea snakes ( they paid a visit to us regularly and are 10 times more venomous than a sea snake!) and a big ass turtle and another curious turtle (it swam right up to us!). 

These video’s will show a bit of our experience:

Sea snake & Remco

Turtle & Remco

The sea was very choppy coming out and in so for the unfortunate seasick people, some did see their breakfast on return ( yuk). Thankfully Remco and myself were all good! :)

This was definitely a dive i will NEVER EVER forget.. oh and we are also officially Nitrox certified!.... Whoop Whoop!

More pics here: 

AU - Diving the Yongala

Current Location : Port Douglas

Ayo Marrem

eye eye popeye!

Location: Whitsunday Islands

Date: 17^th May – 21^st May

 In the evening we set sail on Anaconda III. Anaconda III is a big sail ship that can hold up to 32 passengers and its crew. This is the only ship that actually goes out to the great barrier reef outside of the Whitsundays. As you might have noticed in recent blogs, Australia is suffering of.. let’s say strange weather. Winter time in Australia is usually ( another word we have learned to hate)the dry period... well this year... not so much. When we left the Airlie beach harbour we were warned that the ocean could get a little bit rough/choppy. Ah well all for the sailing experience right! The plan was to find a secluded cove near the main island and set sail again early in the morning. In the evening everybody got to know each other a little bit better but we all went to bed early.. anxious to experience how it is to sleep on a very rocky boat. 

In the morning we got woken up by the sound of the engine running which meant we were on our way to White Haven beach. Only teh most popular beach next to Bondi beach i think. Its sand is so white that they actually tell you to wear sunglasses at all times cuz it will hurt your eyes. Today is also Remco’s b-day but he doesn’t want everyone to know so we keep it quiet. We did a little b-day jump on the beach tough ;) 

HAPPY 23rd B-day dushi ;) lol..... 

At 12 we set sail t o Maureen’s cove where we will attempt to do some diving. However this is where problem 1 arose..... engine is not working! Now i can hear you all thinking but it is a sail boat doesn't need engines ( we were thinking the same and weren’t bothered by it at first). However you need the engine for power..... Powers gives us a working kitchen, anchor going in or out, “parking” the boat, and many more but most important it lets them fill up the DIVE TANKS!!!! Ever so slightly important on a dive trip don't you think? Ah well we did try to do a night dive in the evening but as soon as we hit the water... problem number 2 arose.... Because of the heavy winds ( sigh sigh sigh bloody Australian weather) a lot of sand ( and I mean about 8 cm) was covering the corals which means no nice corals to see but also very murky water!. The night dive was like swimming in milk, i could hardly see my own meters let alone the other divers. After losing each other twice we resurfaced and cut the dive short.  In the evening we refreshed our dance moves. We had some super cool Israeli guys onboard that seemed to know a lot of dance routines ( think Macarena but then on Israeli music). It kept us busy ;) it was a challange though to dance on a rocking boat.... no major accidents happened though.

The next day the engine was still “kaput” and we just chilled on the deck. At some point we all decided that we wanted to do some bushwalking on the island to have something to do ( our tanks couldn't be filled due to lack of ...electricity so diving was out of the question). At this point, hope of going to the great barrier reef was long gone. We had been at the same spot for nearly 24 hours now and still no sign of a working engine. After the walk we had a quick lunch and hoeray! The engine was fixed ( well kind off) and we set sail to Hayman island. The guys who were working on getting certified and 3 certified divers jumped in the water to get some under water time. Again i think the “vis” was about 5 meters so not great. We did manage to see a cool wobbegong shark ( i like those wobbies), a big groper and  a lot of sandy corals. We decided to not do a night dive here... wonder why ;)

In the evening they switched on the light at the side of the boat lighting up the water. Cuz what attrackts light? Fish... what likes fish? DOLPHINS! We all chilled out on deck waiting for the dolphin to come... first came the big travelli’s and then came the dolphins! So cute! In teh end we had 2 adults and 1 baby.... ahhhhhhhhh

That evening we practiced some more dance moves and admired the black clear starry sky. I saw the southern cross ( only to be seen in the southern hemisphere), learned about the milky way ( my star knowledge is very rusty).

The next morning we did some snorkelling in the same bay. We took some bread and wheatabix whith us and had some serious fun. Saw a beautiful eagle ray ( gray ray with blue spots), a seriously big grouper, a lobster and a lot of fish that were all very eager to eat our wheatabix.

The promise that we would stay a bit longer (to make up for lost time) was however not kept and we had to set sail back to the harbour. On our way we sailed right through a serious ran fall..... so why not test our raincoats and do a little dancing to stay warm!

All in all the trip was fun, but that is just because we tried not to let the bad stuff get into us. The fact that the food was not good, the engine was broken which meant that we didn’t move much and couldn't dive was a disappointment but I am not thinking 2 much about that! You only live once and we all know that can be cut short without a warning!

Ayo,

Marrem