Arriving in Cairns was such a shock to the system as it couldn't be more different to Ayers Rock - just like two completely different countried. The terrain is quite mountainous and very lush green rainforest vegetation on the hills. And it really feels like you're in a greenhouse very steamy at 90% humidity at the mo. There is some wierd weather going on as the winds were coming from the west (so following me from Ayers Rock!) rather than from the Southwest which means the temperature is up at 100 degrees. So forget sweaty top lip - sweaty everything! Drinking so much water!
Cairns is also pretty busy with loads to do so very good after the quiet few days in the desert. Loads of backpackers but a lot of older people too phew! The place I'm staying is really fab - a series of apartments some turned into dorms, all around a pool and common area that is up on stilts. There's free t'internet and breakfast too woo hoo!
The days of long lie-ins are over too as pick up time is 7:30 for diving. I had booked the PADI Open Water qualification which was 2 days theory and pool diving then 2 separate day's on the Barrier Reef. It was good studying again actually altho it was completely new to me and really focussing on the safety side of things. We were all paired up with a diving buddy - mine was 6' 2"..... and a lesbian from Florida - alright high fives all round :-) We learned how to check all the equipment, put it together and take it to bits again, and then had to do some fitness tests - swim 800m and tread water for 10 mins. We had about 4 hours in the pool each day learning lots of techniques like how to get your weight neutral so you could just float under water, through to taking your mask off underwater and putting it back on again while clearing the water; and having your air turned off and having to swap to breath through your buddies spare air.
I got through it all but felt really panicky doing the stuff down at 4m bottom and couldn't really relax and get into it. So I swapped to snorkel on the reef instead - in retrospect I should really not have booked the qualification course but just an intro dive which doesn't get you doing any of the exercises and just gets you down there not too deep. But I really enjoyed the snorkelling and saw some amazing things. There were jellyfish around and although the water was too hot for wetsuits it was too cold to stay out for a long time so we all wore full body royal blue lycra suits - we were a smurf cult for the day!! We stopped in two different locations on the Reef about 1 hour 45 mins out from Cairns - there were floats you could use so you could keep really still and the fish were all over you!! So glad I took the sea sickness tablets they recommended as it was a pretty rough trip bouncing off the waves and lots of chunder bags were used especially by the group of American blokes who had obviously been out til about 4am the night before!! Met some really nice people too on the day - my snorkelling buddy was a 21 year old Austrian girl who was really lovely. She'd only been there 3 weeks and already had her heart broken bless! Massive massive tick I've been to the Great Barrier Reef - only 4 days to go now - to the Rainforest!!