James & Tracey World Tour

April 28
Up early as I had to go to a First aid course in order to be able to do the Rescue Diver course (starting tomorrow). I had a great morning learning CPR (again as only did it at work before I left!) and how to bandage arms and stuff. I then met James just after 2, who had been in the Internet cafe since around 11am! We left the internet cafe and got some lunch around 4.30pm - yes it take that long to do these things.
We chilled out back at the hostel for a bit before walking to the local Mexican for BOGOF meal - as we had a voucher.

April 29
The Pro-Dive bus picked us up just before 8am. We headed totheir training centre. We spent the morning watching training videos and being taught rescue stuff in a classroom. The afternnon was much more fun. We were in their 4m deep pool in scuba gear acting out various rescue scenarios. It was much easier for James to drag me out of the pool than it was for me - as my back would tell you. He had it easy!
We got back both feeling exhausted, but had to read the Rescue book that was given to us that day and we had to know the stuff by the next day. We both gave it a fair go but fell asleep with the books in our hands.

April 30
We woke up excited of the prospect of our next adventure - which was lucky as we got picked up at 6am.
At the dive shop James picked up a new Mask as his last one kept misting up and he didn't want to viwe the Great Barrier Reef through mist. We got onto the boat with another 20 or so divers, but we were the only 2 on the Rescue Diver course. We headed 3 hours out of Cairns for our first dive site. Our first dive was a fun dive, but the reef we found to be quite average - think its a bit too close to Cairns.
Dive 2 we practiced some skills on the surface - towing each other and panicked diver - we finished off with a fun dive in which we saw a blue spotted ray.
Dive 3 was spent practising bringing an unconscious diver to the surface, played inturn by James and I. Finished the rest of our air by going for a fun dive in which we saw a 1 1/2 metre long white tip reef shark. We returned to the boat, both of us needing the loo and tired. However, just as we got up onto the back of the boat there was a shout from person on lookout for "rescue divers". Both of us knew that this call could come at any time and we were to act as though a real emergency was taking place and we were getting marked on it. We got back in to the water to find 2 of the instructors acting
distressed. As I was out first and had heard about Anne-Lyse being an absolute nightmare to save I chose the other one, and left Anne-Lyse to James. During this rescue both of us got cramp in our calf, masks and regulator knocked off and pushed under the water several times. We finally managed to get them onto the boat and give them oxygen and appropriate first aid. We were absolutely knackered! They really didn't want saving.
For the evening we summoned up all of our energy and joined in the night dive. This was the first time we had to navigate ourselves in the dark - quite scary. While we were swimming a Large red bass quickly shot across our faces - making us pap ourselves!
After we got back around 8.30pm we had cake and went straight to our cabin and fell into a very deep sleep.

May 1
First dive was at 7am which was a nice relaxing dive around Flynn Reef.

Big Old Turtle

Again once we got back onto the boat there was a shout of those now feared words "rescue divers". Of course Anne-Lyse was lying face down drifting in the sea. Foolishly we did our duty and saved her, with a touch of CPR. We were starting to question why we were bothering to do this course and not just enjoy some fun dives as we were still shattered and on edge all of the time.
We got ready for the next dive and went down to the platform from which we jump, only to hear the words "rescue diver". It had appeared a diver was missing (well a red weight belt) last seen swimming on a 300degree bearing. Using an opposite U shaped pattern we set off in search for the diver. We had 15 minutes to complete the exercise, but managed it in 3mins, much to everyones surprise.
As we still had plenty of air left our instructor took us for a fun dive and got us to hold a feather sea star and pinapple sea cucumber.
The boat moved to a new dive site. Everyone went for a fun dive, except us who threw stuff into the sea as practising rescuing techniques - rubbish! After a snorkel in which we saw a large Ray. We got back to the boat only to find Anne-Lyse was in trouble (again). She had a head injury in the water, so again towed her back to the boat, during which she fell unconsciuos (again) so we gave her CPR (again).
To finish the day off we went for a night dive and saw 2 massive sleeping turtles.
When we got back, very tired after a days diving and training they chose then to give us our written exam. These guys are serious. They were amazed when Trace got 59/60 (swot) but even more amazed that James managed to get 57/60.
After that they gave us a can of beer and let us go to bed.

May 2
Due to the amopunt we wanted to fit in, the first dive was at 6.30am. This was as the sun was rising. All of the nocturnal fish were going back to be and all the daytime fish were waking up and having breakfast. It was very busy on the reef. James got a cool video of a turtle eating the coral.
For our second dive we heard those fateful words "rescue diver" (think I may be hearing this in my nightmares). A diver had gone missing (again). However it was our dive intructor, Jason. We set of in a North-Westerly direction using the same search pattern as before. Trace found him playing with a Nemo fish when he realised he was supposed to be unconsious. We got him to the surface where he woke up and started shouting out his leg was impailed with some coral (a stick - goodness knows where he got it from we were in the middle of the sea!). We did the usual of First aid etc... Then we Passed our Rescue Diver - Hoorah! Went for a bit of a fun dive with the rest of our air. Where we found another shark, sleeping and swimming around the bottom.
Our last dive was completely fun. We hardly used any air as we were completely relaxed and not on edge waiting for a rescue to be required.

Trace Cruising

I hope we never hear the words "rescue diver" shouted at us again!
We headed back to shore and got dropped back at the hostel where we both had a siesta before getting ready to meet up with the guys from diving for a night on the tiles. Happy days.

James & Tracey World Tour

a travel blog by James & Tracey

Warm weather and Diving

Cairns, Australia

Short Stop Over by the Whitsundays

Airlie Beach, Austria

Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

Torquay, Australia

Last few days in Oz and back with the rellies

Tahmoor, Australia

Road to Nowhere

Christchurch, New Zealand

What a surprise view

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

Mount Cook

Glentanner, New Zealand

Rik Stein's choice of Restaurant

Moeraki, New Zealand

Very Windy day

Dunedin, New Zealand

Glowworms and Milford Sound

Te Anau, New Zealand