Are tiger sharks really that hard?

After all the fun of the rainforest, we got an early bus back to Townsville where we'd got a 3 night diving trip booked for the outer part of the Great Barrier Reef.

We had an afternoon in Townsville shopping (I had to buy a new hoodie as I'd lost my pink one somewhere :-( ) and going to the cinema.

The next day I went on a refresher course just to practice my diving skills before we set out on the boat, that all went well and I was feeling pretty confident. We boarded the boat about 8pm but it didn't set off till about 11, by this time everyone was in bed, but nobody slept!!! It was very windy and choppy and the boat ride was awful. It took 8 hours to get to our first dive spot and it was a long 8 hours, we were being chucked all over the place, and if that wasn't bad enough our room was right under the engine and so it was really noisy! Quite a few people were sick too so it wasn't a pleasant night!!

When we arrived at our dive site, everyone was very bleary eyed and not very enthusiastic, but we all went and dived anyway, it was still pretty choppy and cold out there, but the water was nice and warm. I only did 1 dive that day, I tried to do 2 but on the second dive I couldn't equalize so I gave up for the day! Rich did 3 dives I think. It was all very pretty down there.

Day 2 was at a different spot but the skipper didn't drive through the night this time, he just left really early! Rich did 3 dives including a night dive which he really enjoyed. I was still having loads of trouble with my ears and it was starting to get really stressful and I wasn't enjoying it. So I gave up!! I was enjoying being on the boat and it was a good group of people on there.

Day 3 was supposed to be diving at a wreck called the Yongala but it was too rough for the boat to get to, Rich was disappointed but it couldn't be helped. He did a reef dive in the morning. Then there was an 8 hour journey back to Townsville, which was really rough still, but nobody was sick this time and we weren't trying to sleep so it was OK. Had a few beers back in Townsville with fellow divers, then we made our way to the airport to meet up with Brett and Kerrie and go to Ayr and stay with Raline and Brian.