Georgina in Cairns!

Pool Training-
After spending the morning doing theory, we finally left the classroom and jumped in the pool to begin practising our skills. Our first challenge was to swim 16 lengths of the pool and then tread water for 12 minutes (quite tiring!). We learnt how to put all our gear together and check it was all working as it should be and were then buddied up. I was pleased to find that I was buddied with one of the instructors..definitely the best deal as you can never trust the Germans...;)
The second day we had an earlier start and were thrown straight into the pool. It began to get more serious as we ventured from the shallow end to the deep end, which was 4 metres deep! We were also given lots of top-notch equipment to try out, which we later found out was simply a ploy to get us to buy our own gear from their shop later on! I soon discovered that a mask would set me back $100 and settled for the free rental equipment, in true backpacker style :). In the afternoon, we went back to school and had our final exam, which consisted of our instructor (Scuba Steve) reading out the answers and us trying to remember them..a style of exam I have decided I could definitely get used to and one which I think we should definitely introduce in England!

Liveaboard-
A 6 o'clock pick-up something which nearly gave Silvio (Italian) a heart-attack! We headed to out to the boat. There were 31 passengers on board- our open water group plus some advanced divers, certified divers and 2 snorkellers. I was relieved to hear that the predicted cyclone had not materialised! We set off on our big adventure...and soon the boat began to rock and the seasickness set in. There were a few of us suffering but most of others seemed to soon find their sea legs..however I ended up spending the day outside, trying my best to focus on the horizon! The most frustrating thing was the wonderful food that they kept laying out which I could not bring myself to eat. We did the first 2 of our 4 open water dives during which we had to do unpleasant things under water, such as removing our masks! I went to bed early hoping that during the night, I would find my sea legs!
However I woke up in the morning for our first dive and was sick again..oh dear. But..miraculously after this, things seemed to improve and by the afternoon I was even able to sit inside :). We had a very busy day with 4 dives! The first 2 were to complete our open water certification and then we were officially certified divers, which was exciting but rather frightening! We were let loose on our own and even had to navigate with a compass, something that is even more difficult under water! Our inability to use compasses was evident when we surfaced 200 metres from where we were supposed to..oops! The last dive of the day was a night dive which to our relief was guided!! This was awesome and we probably saw the most interesting fish on this dive, including a lionfish and a lobster crayfish.
On the third day, we were on an even tighter schedule, with 3 dives to fit in before 12 o'clock. We were up at 5 30 and in the water at 6! As everyone was using their air at different rates, we swapped buddies at this point. My buddy was an "air-pig" so I dumped him as I was having to surface with 130 bar of air left! Today we finally saw a shark which was very cool!! After lunch, we said good-bye to the Great Barrier Reef and headed back to Cairns, exhausted but proud of our achievements!
My elation at finally being back on dry-land was short-lived as I discovered land-sickness! It was the stangest feeling- your body thought it was still at sea and I was swaying all evening!