Great Barrier Reef

Going on holiday is not usually as relaxing as you'd like it to be; there's the stress of getting to the airport, finding accommodation and of course, hemorraging money as you find a place to eat out for every single meal. I distinctly remember my dad saying on one of our epic Lingham family trips: "I need a vacation from this vacation." All this to say that I experienced none of this during my trip to Cairns and had a perfect little holiday, short and sweet. I traveled with three other students, Sara, Lisa and Joe, and we booked a hostel called Gilligan's Backpacker Resort (I think the name itself sold us...) Apparently this hostel is rather infamous in Cairns since the other half of it is transforms into a nightclub, called the G Spot, ahem, with music pounding into every room until 4am. Needless to say, I spent as little time as possible in our hostel. Our 6-bed room also smelled distinctly of feet and wet, ocean dog.

Wednesday night after arriving to a balmy, tropical Cairns and one hour behind Sydney (Queensland conveniently chooses not to observe Daylight Savings...too lazy I think) the others went out to explore the town, I met one of our new roommates, an Irishman named Fred and we went to the pub instead. Thursday was fantastic-- Fred, Joe and I spent the whole day on the beach, about a 20-minute drive outside of Cairns. The water was warm and salty, inviting until you remembered the small sign at the top of the beach that says, "Watch out for stingers and crocodiles". That's right, lurking just downstream in the local river were salt-water crocodiles. Stingers that lurk in these waters are some of the most deadly creatures on the earth. Somehow I managed to bathe for a solid 5 minutes, about 1 foot deep in the water, the scaredy-cat I am.

Friday, bright and early, was our trip out to the Great Barrier Reef with a tour company. I find that tour companies aren't really my thing-- I hate to pay someone oodles of money for something I could discover myself. But with the reef, I didn't want to mess around. We drove about 2 hrs out from Cairns to the coral reef, the water was the most brilliant blue I've ever seen. We did a little crash course on scuba diving, how to equalize your ears, what to do if your mouthpiece comes out and you have no air. Before we knew it, we were getting suited up in wetsuits, mask, flippers, and a heavy backpack-looking thing with the air tank attached. It looks a bit like a vest-backpack; when you're on the surface, you can fill up the vest with air to float on top. When you let the air out, you start your descent towards the bottom. They also put lead weights around your waist to sink you-- I had 4 around my waist and kept sinking towards the reef, which you're not meant to touch because the coral can be extremely sharp (even though it looks soft and fluffy!) Sara and Lisa had only 3 weights and kept floating up. It was hilarious!
Our instructor Paul did a few drills with us underwater, and then we started out slow descent downwards towards the reef. The feeling of being under that much water can be a bit claustrophobic, knowing that you're a long way away from the surface. But it was lovely to sit on the ocean floor, see underneath our massive boat, explore the coral reef, having playful fish coming right up to you to explore. Joe and I kept sticking out our hands to touch some of the friendly fish.
Let me say that the reef is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen-- the sunlight streaming in makes it look like another universe, there's all sorts of colorful coral swaying back and forth, with brightly colored fish pecking around, looking for food. We even saw a sea turtle, Crush!, float on by. It was spectacular. What a sight.

There's a big green fish, I forget the name, that is about 3 ft long and loves to be pet! The scuba instructors like to call him Wally. Here's a sample photo, with divers in the background to give you an idea its size:

The fish were absolutely beautiful, with an array of colors that you couldn't imagine you'd ever see in the wild. It looked as if a 5-yr old had taken his crayons and drawn a fish with wild stripes, spotted blue and purple and green--and bam, there is was on the reef. Joe turned out to be an extremely heavy breather; despite being given ample amounts of oxygen for a 30-min dive, Joe managed to go through his tank in less than 15 minutes! We putted around the reef, took a picture with Nemo and the anenome and explored our little corner of the reef. The whole experience was surreal, the reef is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I'd like to travel back there to explore more, spend more time diving and discovering the vast array of creatures and critters living on the reef. I'm also just very happy with myself that I managed to stay underwater for that long. I'm not sure where this deep-seated fear of open water came from, maybe haunting memories from Jaws, but I seemed ok with the reality that I was swimming in the vicinity of some the deadliest marine animals.We spent the second half of the afternoon at a place called Turtle Bay, snorkeling around and just feasting our eyes on the incredible scenery. There was so much to look at! I saw a massive clam tucked away under some coral. Here's a photo:

On Saturday, I crossed another big To-Do thing off my bucket list: skydiving. I've always told myself that I could never, would never go skydiving. The thought of jumping out of an airplane was too much to handle, it was something I could never see myself doing. But then again, I also told myself I couldn't run a marathon, and now that that's off the list, skydiving was the next big accomplishment. Joe and I signed up for the Jump the Beach skydiving trip, an all day event that brought us two hours south to Mission Beach, a picturesque tropical beach, complete with palm trees, white sand and quiet, lulling waves rolling in. To be honest, my stomach felt like it was shriveled up like a little raisin for most of the day leading up to the jump. I was trying to mentally prepare myself for jumping out of an airplane at 14,000 feet. Thankfully someone was strapped my back and edging me towards the door of the plane, or I would have stayed in there all day, terrified. 

My tandem jumper is a certified badass -- his name is Glen, and looks like an intense thrill-seeker with his sweet shades and shirt that says "Certified Legend". He was the first skydiver that Joe and I spotted that morning, and when he passed by, we both said "Hope I'm with that guy." I was!
I felt comfortable jumping with him-- he's literally done thousands of jumps. I asked him roughly how many, he reckons around 8,000 or 10,000 jumps. Wow. He was doing six alone that day! 

The ride to the airstrip felt long, I was still trying to mentally prepare myself, and the ride up in the airplane was agonizing as well, the anticipation growing like a balloon inside my stomach. We just climbed higher and higher; I was watching the altitude meter on Glenn's wristwatch. 4,000ft....9,000ft....10,000ft.... Meanwhile Glenn is triple-checking everything on my harness, undoes my seatbelt and makes sure that I'm safely attached to his harness and parachute. He's super calm, obviously, which helps me out. I thought I was appearing fairly calm and ready (while my insides are deciding whether or not I pee my pants) until I tried to ask Glenn a question. Goes like this: "Hee hooo are we?" Try #2 "Heee hiiiiiiii are we?" Try #3 (and this time I am really concentrating on my articulation): "Heeeeeeeeeeeeiuuuuuu hiiooooou are we?". Pathetic. I am literally so nervous that I forget how to speak English and the simple question of "How high are we now?" is just not coming out. The H's are too hard to pronounce in my state. Now I know how stutterers feel. I laugh about it later--talk about being at a loss for words.

Glenn announces that he feels like doing a bunch of flips out of the plane, couple spins and then freefall.

And then it came, a noise I will never forget...The rattling noise of the door going up and air being sucked through the plane. Since Glenn is the certified badass of the group, he sits next to the pilot, which meant that I would be the last one to jump from the plane. Great. I watch as one after another of my fellow skydivers are pushed towards the door, lean their heads back against their tandem jumpers and then just... fall. Out of the plane. I am literally scared to death as Glenn is pushing me closer and closer to the door, I would kill to see the look on my face at that point. I shout, "I feel like a lamb to the slaughter!!!"

 And then it's my turn. Stick my legs out and under the plane, lean my head back against Glenn's shoulder and just wait, for what felt like an eternity. And then all of sudden, the worst feeling in the world, where your stomach goes into your throat and the whole world spins around you. We did 3 or 4 somersaults in the air and then just fell, freefalling 1,000 ft every seconds. The freefall was incredible, it's strange but I never actually imagined falling so fast. The freefall lasts for a minute, as you fall from 14,000 to 4,000 feet in only 60 seconds, so of course it feels fast. All you can do is scream your freakin' head off, throw up your arms and legs and fly. Glenn pushes down on my hands which made us spin in circles, like you see in the movies. That is awesome, but nearly turns my insides out. He points to his wrist, which means we are at 4000 ft and POOOF the parachute sucks us up and we float on through the sky. The view is spectacular, with all these islands off the coastline, the Great Barrier Reef in the distance, beaches, and of course, the bluest water you've ever seen. We just float back and forth in the parachute, I get to hold the straps and decide the direction for a bit, we do a few tricks. I couldn't stop shouting, "Woooo Hooo!!!" just like Brad would do when something is really great. 

We make a smooth landing on the beach, but drop about 20 feet in 3 seconds, so I feel that horrible feeling in my belly that I avoid by avoiding rollercoasters.

Joe and I are both ecstatic, feeling super high on life and exhilirated. We spend the rest of the day on Mission Beach enjoying the sun and the waves. 

Sunday, I didn't have a flight until later in the evening, so I spent it reluctantly at the pool at Gilligan's, where it was the biggest sausage fest I think I've ever seen. There were about 50 guys, all bros and frat boys from all over the world, and about 5 girls. I kept to myself in the corner, Joe and teh girls joined me a bit later. Cairns, as a city, I found to be a place I would never want to visit ever again. All the activities and adventures surrounding Cairns are fantastic: snorkeling, scuba diving, whitewater rafting, bungy jumping, croc spotting... but Cairns is essentially the Cancun of Australia. Party town, and not my scene. 

*Pour mes amis francais: Voila, j'ai fait de la plongée et la chute libre dans le nord tropique, à Cairns. Le Great Barrier Reef (La Grande Barriere de Corail) est énorme (environ 2600k de longeur), et une structure magnifique. Des poissons brilliants, des requins, du corail, des poulpes, des tortues de mer..) Je me suis éclatée dans l'eau claire! J'ai fait un cours d'introduction pour la plongée, j'ai vu du corail brilliant, des poissons blues/verts/violets/ rayé de blues, le barrière de corail est incroyable. J'ai vu meme un tortue marine! Le lendemain, j'ai fait de la chute libre d'un avion a 4300m en tandem (c'est-a-dire, je me suis pas lancée de l'avion toute seule! Il y avait quelqu'un derriere moi, comme dans la photo:) J'arrive pas à le décrire aussi bien en francais qu'en anglais, mais voila un p'tit idée de l'experience!