Greetings from Australia 2

Written on 15th July 2006

Hi my friends,

I am again back to you from Australia. Last weekend we went for a three-days trip to Chillagoe which used to be a mining town about 200km west from Cairns. Now it is just a small village with about 20 people living there. It is also a last stop where you can take petrol since we found a sign, that the next petrol station is about 560km far away. We went to see caves (quite nice, nicer than in Ireland – my personal opinion) and went also to an old smelter. I took a piece of marble from a close mining site. In the evenings we slept next to creeks in tents, made a fire and talked about the sky 🙂 . We have not met any crocodile, so all of us are still in a good health. But I was quite scared when I had to go to the loo in the middle of night and was checking bush as well as water 🙂 . But in the morning we went swimming to those creeks and it was really nice (still warmer that the Irish Sea 🙂 ).

We also went to wetlands near Mareeba for a walk and have seen lots of termite mounds. We tried a mango wine, which is quite sweet but good, and tried also coffee from the "local factory".

I started my four-days diving course on Monday and it was really great. I missed a half of the first day but I studied in the evening instead. We trained for first two days in a pool and next two days in the ocean. First two days we had a theory as well. In the pool we practiced various skills mainly emergency skills like how to ascent in an emergency situation, how to change a mask, BCD or a weigh belt. Also how to hover in the water, swim with a snorchel or a regulator and also how to equalise the pressure in your head (in your ears).

On Wednesday we went first time to the Great Barrier Reef, the reef located about 50km from the coast. The weather was bad since Monday and the ocean was very rough. I got sick 10 minutes before the boat stopped and we should have gone diving. I was told that it is better to be underwater than on the boat and we went down, where we practiced the same things like in the pool. We had two dives on Wednesday. My buddy was a girl from Germany because I was moved to a German group. The instructor spoke German and English because of me. In the pool we were in a big group of nine people, so this was better for me as the other group was smaller.

Others from the diving course paid for overnight staying on the boat, so on Wednesday I lost all my buddies including instructors. On Thursday I got a new buddy and we made a group of two people. It was excellent as we finished all trainings in 5 minutes and then our new instructor led us along corals and showed us fishes and everything. I did not get sick on Thursday even though the ocean was rougher than the day before. We had two dives with the instructor and a fun dive, just by ourselves. For the fun dive I bought an underwater camera and took many pictures. Unfortunatelly it is a standard camera so I am going to see those pictures after a few months.

Yesterday we went to a party in a night club. My friends had a leaving party from the school so I met lots of people from Korea, Japan as well as Australia (teachers 🙂 ). We got a bit drunk and were dancing on tables. My friends got a bit sad because they have to leave and they are not gonna see these people probably again.

Today we are going to see an interstate rodeo in Mareeba in the afternoon and tomorrow we are flying to Darwin (to the Norhern Territory). We have hired a 4WD car and going to travel around national parks for 10 days. We need to buy a lot of food because there is almost nothing on the way. It will be the wildest part of our trip. Looking forward to it. It will be also a bit dangerous because there is a lot of crocodiles and snakes on the north. We are going to be careful.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who I forgot to send it to.

Pavel (Inža)