Reef Madness

I finally made it out to the reef! This was the first time I’d been diving since I got my certification, and now I can see what all the fuss is about. It was a somewhat rough start, as I had to close at work the night before so I didn’t get to bed until past 3:30am. Add to that excitement about the impending dive and anxiety about not waking up in time for the 8:00 pickup, and what that equates to is the worst night’s sleep ever. (I had already pulled an all-nighter the previous night…it was beach bonfire night and me, my co-workers, and some members of a band that plays here stayed up singing and playing guitar all night until the sun came up over the sea). So, I was totally wiped out before I even started the day, and you can imagine my glee when the members of the crew informed us that because of the very windy conditions, we’d most likely get seasick. Um, yeah. Standing up to put on my wetsuit was a miserable undertaking… I was pretty much the color of the water by the time we made it through some of the rougher patches of the ocean.

But luckily, once I jumped out into the crystal blue water, all my discomfort faded away. I was in total awe. The undersea world here is totally surreal. Visibility was excellent, and we were extremely fortunate to see both a sea turtle and a reef shark on our dives. The first dive was amazing, but the second dive was jaw-droppingly beautiful. Because the dive was free for me, I splurged and rented an underwater camera. I probably spent more time taking pics than I should have, but that’s par for the course. These pictures in no way do justice to the real colors of the reef, but these give a pretty good idea of what it was like down there.











Gotta finish off with the dorky thumbs up pic.

So I’ve had a great last couple of weeks here. Last Friday, I had the night off work and I went out with a bunch of friends from my hostel. I was pleasantly tipsy when I heard my name being called on stage. The lead singer of the band that sometimes plays around here was inviting me up on stage to sing a song with his band!! He’s a good friend and had told me earlier in the day that he had a surprise for me, but I had no idea it would be anything like that. I put down my bag and got up there and sang Mr. Jones…and somehow managed not to totally screw it up. Amazing feeling. After that, we all stayed at the bar until well after close and then went back to my manager’s house to keep the party going. Somehow, dawn snuck up on us so we ran outside to check out the sunrise (the first I’d seen in Port Douglas). When we got to the beach and saw just how deeply pink and gold the sky was, I burst out in tears!! I couldn’t even help it, it was just so overwhelmingly beautiful, and after such a good night, it was almost too much. Now whenever my manager sees me, recalling the famous line from American Beauty, he says (as he sniffles), “Sometimes, I think there’s so much beauty in the world, I can’t take it.” Haha! I’m not gonna live that down. But he did tell me later that it made him realize how little he appreciates things, so if my tears served the greater purpose of making someone more aware of life’s simple pleasures, then my embarrassment was not for nothing.

I’m sad to say my time on Port Douglas is coming to an end. On one hand, I’m just starting to feel like I really live here, and it will be hard to give up the small measure of comfort I have established for myself. On the other, most of my friends have already left and the place just feels different without them. I’m leaving town on the 15th with a bunch of randoms who are driving across the outback to Darwin. I had put up some notices around town last week looking for people who were headed in that direction, and turns out a group of people is looking for a final person to join up with them on a camping adventure! I’m game. I think I’ve saved up enough money at this point to live for the next couple months without a problem, so in one week, I’m headed out in to the great beyond with a bunch of people I hardly know!! Woo hoo! Now that’s Australia.