SomewhereSouth.net

Townsville to Rockhampton - and how some boat trips can be a bit dissapointing.

They rang about our car that day, the repair costs competely would be $1100,- But to keep her running $500,- should be sufficient. We went for the last one off course. They started and would ring if they would be done. They never rang so we went down to check it out ourselfs. They had to order some parts so it would take another day. Which brought us in one problem; the van is our tent. And I didn't feel like screwing our bed out and take it on my back to the tent ground. So they made at least sure that she could move and we would bring her back the next day. They were so kind that, because we were leaving the next evening for our dive trip, we could leave our car the full 3 days with them. So they would have time to fix it. And we had a free place to stall it.

That for the car story. We also ordered a couple of diveknives at Prodive Townsville for our trip. They insured us that they would be on the boat. This trip should give us the uppertunity to dive 'The Yongala' Which is a shipwreck with a long story. But the excentrick thing about it is that it sank on a sandbank. And that there is bassicly after +-80 years a compleet reef housed on the wreck. It should have a huge variety of fish and coral. Next to that I wanted to improve my photoskills underwater. So I wanted to rent a camera on the boat. Which wasn't possible. So I bought a cheap ass underwater camera in the shop. ($45,-) If you are carefull with this one you should be able to replace the film a couple of times and it still should be waterproof. But nothing guaranteed. The next day after dumping our vannievan and our bags at Prodive we went nicely to the boat. We met already a couple of fellow people before that and had a bit of a chat. On the boat (which resembled nothing more than a iron tub) the first surprise was that I shared the boat with 13 guys... Should be a nice trip isn't it?

Starting off that we left by night. It would take us ~7 hours to get to the reef. Which was in the night. Nobody bassicly slept that night because the boat moved and moved and moved and moved etc. Luckely everybody took their medication already before the night so nobody got seasick. (even I needed this trip medication) The next day we did 4 dives. There was a strong current. Waves were pretty high. So getting on the boat was very hard. Especialy because they only threw out an anchor and the boat made 180 degree turns. No way you could navigate to under the boat. So it was a lot of hard swims. We saw a lot of new stuff though. Group of barracudas, giant clams and big whale shark. One of the dives was Murf and My navigation dive. Which we needed to become finally advanced divers. Thank god that was over. We had to do one exercise along a rope. Which was funny because our divemaster let the line walk over a coneshell. And you learn one thing while diving; always stay far away of coneshells. Because they shoot neadles with defence poison. And that paralises you. That already learned something about our divemaster. Murf went on with a navigation speciality. I went with him but did that dive a lot of photografie. Shot one film in one dive. Later on turned out to be a very good film. With white tip reef shark and stingray on it. This dive turned out to be our longest dive so far as well; 46 min. The night dive that night went shitty. People kept flashing lights in my eyes (blinds for at least 5 min & divemaster who warned us for it kept shining in my eyes as well) and kicking out my regulator. Next to that Murf went wrong with his exercises because he was tiered and nervious. That night we slept better than ever.

The next morning they changed reef. We got woken up by an anchor getting thrown out. The first dive we noticed that this boat (in comparison to Pro dive Cairns) threw their anchor out straight in the reef. And damaged a lot of coral with that as well. That morning we saw an animal Murf had wanted to see already for a long time; Crown of Thorns. This animal is basicly a seastar. With lots of legs and spines. It pukes over coral to eat it then back up with the pieces of coral. (Ieuw) We got swept away by the current quite far and had a huge surface swim. Shot the rest of the dives a second roll. But we were to deep. So is to dark. We didn't do the night swim because of the increasing bad weather. They already prepaired us that we wouldn't be able to do the Yongala because the waves would be to high. (we would be out of the protection of the reef) But we would move reef.

The last 2 dives ended up to be in the same, not to exciting reef. With a bad vision as well. Big bummer. Going back to shore costed us 8 hours of a lot of wobbling. We made at least 45 degrees with the horizon. Off course I got seasick. That night we would all go for a beer. But this trip was so shitty we didn't even went. We picked up our car ($600,- auts!) and some food and went fast asleep in the caravan park.

The next morning we would do some last stuff and finally leave. We went for my photos and next to that to pick up our knives. Because they weren't on the boat so we should pick them up. Coming in to the shop we actually wanted some refund from the shitty trip. That wasn't possible but we could get a discount on the daytrip? We were leaving and next to that it still would have costed us another $190 per person. And we had to stay in Townsville for another 3 days. So no way. That pissed us off already reasonable. Next to that our dive knives were send to the boat so we would have them straight if we came of. With one misunderstandment. They weren't given to us. So they ended up on the next trip. So they were nicely out on the reef. And would be back on monday. We agreed on sending them to my Sydney adres. But it pissed us off quite well and we left straight of Townsville.

Since then we are moving quite slow downwards. Although still faster than I thought. We stayed around Mackay for a little while. To do some internet and see a movie. Went to a national park in the neighbourhood. (2 hour drive) And coming in we saw a real live PLATYPUS. Really a little tiny small one. He was sooo cute. (just as cute as all the other ozzy wildlife which is new to us but still) After that we ended down in Rockhampton. Which we pressumably stay for a couple of days. To see the (free!) zoo. And go to the beach. Etc etc.

Lots of love
NIcky
Ps I know we write to much and that a lot of people just can keep up anymore. But I just like to share my stories!

nicky | 27 Apr 2005 (Wed), 05:56 @ story