G'day.

well, here's the highlights of the last few days:

I arrived in Cairns after a pretty impressive flight over the vast area of nothingness that is central australia. Finally I was actually "backpacking" in australia! I got a bus to the hostel, which was easy.... too easy..... and was shocked by the hostels appearance. It was just so.... clean! The receptionist was very friendly, and gave me the key for my dorm, so I went to get settled in. My dorm was empty, but there were other backpacks lying around. It wasn't really a "dorm" in the sense that I understood, it was just a bedroom with 4 beds in it. I was expecting a huge room with 20 or so beds! I looked around to see if I could find any clues as to what the other guys sharing my room might be like. The first thing I spotted was a pink anorak on one of the coat hooks... not a good start. Then I saw that one guy had a small teddy bear keyring attatched to his bag... then I looked closer and saw that one guy had a bra poking out of the top of his bag!!! Then it suddenly dawned on me! I was in the wrong dorm! This must be a girls dorm, and any second a girl was going to open the door wrapped in a towel, see me there, scream and run to get the security guard! I was about to run back to the reception and tell her that shed given me the wrong kety, when I noticed under one of the beds was a pair of mens shoes.... mmmm, this was very odd... could it really be that they had MIXED dorms here?! In asia that would have been impossible, but I suppose here that wasn't so strange....

After discovering that they were in fact mixed dorms, I realised my next problem. I was used to every guest house having a restaurant and being able to afford everything on the menu ten times over, but when I walked out of my room, I realised that there was no restaurant, and everyone else was busy cooking food in the communal kitchen. I asked one guy if there was any restaurant near by, and he told me that there wasn't, but there was a supermarket 5 mins walk away. So, I set off for the supermarket. Walking into the supermarket, I suddenly realised what it must feel like for someone from india when they first arrive in the west... it was completely overwhelming. How could I possibly find something to eat in here?! It was just huge! There was more food in this one supermarket than i saw in the whole 3 months i spent travelling in india! It really felt quite obscene. I wandered around trying to figure out how to buy just enough for 1 meal for 1 person, and eventually setteled for:

1 small courgette
1 small onion
2 packets instant noodles
1 clove garlic

I went back to the hostel and cooked a rather disgcuting stir fried noodle dish which stuck to the pan, and spent the rest of the evening watching "who want's to be a millionaire" on tv. So far this wasn't really seeming that great.....

The next day I decided I needed to do something exciting to get myself into the trip, so I set off to book a diving trip. I ended up booking myself on a 4 day, 3 night "liveaboard" diving trip that left in 1 hour!! After hurridly packing a few things, i was on the boat and heading out to sea. At this point I discovered that "Holmes Reef" where we were headed was actually 150 miles out to sea and would take 17 hours to reach!!! That night I slept like a baby........ in a washing machine. It was mad. It felt like being on a fairground ride, with one minute the g-force really pushing your loose flesh into the matress, and the next minute you whole body being waitless as the bow of the boat crashed up and down....

The following morning we went diving. I won't tell you about all the diving, cos you had ro be there really, but I will tell you about the last one: The shark feed! First onr of the crew threw dead fish overboard to show us how many sharks were in the water. As soon as the fish had left his hand, the sharks and Giant trevelli were racing through the water towards the point of impact, and the second it hit the water it was engulfed by a mass of thrashing tails and gnashing jaws!!! There must have been 20 to 30 sharks plus many other massive mean looking fish in there! Bear in mind that this is not "underwater World" I'm talking about, this is the ocean, 150 miles from land, with the nearest medical help 17 hours away...

So then it was out turn to get in the water... We got kitted up, and were told not to inflate our bouyancy jackets as the longer you float on the surface the more likely you are to get eaten! I jumped in, and as soon as I was under the water I saw about 5 BIG sharks coming right for me! They swam up to me, and the turned just as they reached me, as if they had gotr a whiff of me a decided I wasn't really that appetising... I swam down where i was directed and took my place in a semi circle with the other guys, all spaced about 1.5 metres apart. Then came the fun part. The crew up on the boat lowered in a giant kebab of Red Snapper fish, secured to a chain. This hung in the water about 6 metres in front of us. The sharks and giant trevelli were highest in the pecking order, so they went first, ripping into it with their powerful jaws, thrashing their bodies as they tried to rip of the flesh. As soon as they'd got a bit they woulf turn and swim quickly away... straight towards us!! They literally swam right past my face, jaws still gnashing as they tried to swallow the meat. Let me just emphasise now, that some of these sharks were BIG. Most of them were white tip reef sharks, which aren't that big: maybe 1.5-2 metres, but there were also silver tips and greay whalers, which are big mean looking bastards! I guess the biggest must have been 3.5 metres or so...

Anyway, that was great fun, I recommend it to anyone!

Now I'm in Mission Beach, which is south of Cairns. It's a beautiful beach and I've met some cool people, so I'm happy. I'm staying up in the rainforest in a place called the treehouse, and I have to get the bus now to get back and cook my bangers and mash....

seeya next time! :)