We had to prove we could breathe ok underwater, clear our masks if they were full of water, clear our air tube if it got any water in and then practicing retrieving our air replicator if it fell out of our mouths. The equipment was soooo heavy, especially when you came back out of the water.
One of the things we have been waiting to do for I don't know how long. On the way out on the boat Paul was ill and ended up feeding the fish with carrot and sweet corn surprise. After instruction from the guides we were ready to jump in the water. As we got into our wet suits we were ready to perform a few tests to see if we were ok diving.
We had to prove we could breathe ok underwater, clear our masks if they were full of water, clear our air tube if it got any water in and then practicing retrieving our air replicator if it fell out of our mouths. The equipment was soooo heavy, especially when you came back out of the water.
Each of these tests were pretty difficult to do first time. The overwhelming panic you have just by being under water on the air is completely crazy, it feels like you are asthmatic. When we finally got used to the breathing we ventured further down into the unknown. The coral was beautiful, there were loads of odd looking fish down there. Paul even found Nemo!
At one point we seen this huge nasty looking fish with big teeth. It was hiding under a rock and it was staring at us. We could hear this really odd noise coming from it (this is under water where you can't hear a thing normally). We couldn't believe the noise was coming from this fish. Anyways needless to say we didn't get too much closer as it was already quite angry.
We seen another fish which was real big and a lot more friendly than the last one (was the kind a little like the one from the film 'Big Fish'). He swam right by us. We also seen a big stingray floating around. As we got deeper we had to equalise our ears so our heads didn't explode. On occasion I had a little breathing panic underwater but after relaxing for a while I managed to wind down (Paul).
Bobbi was taking loads of photographs with our underwater camera, apparently lots of good ones. However we will never know for sure us at one point she passed the camera to me (only I wasn't there) and it floated off. She claims that it felt like someone took it from her. I guess one of the fish must have taken it so he can take a bunch of photos of his fishy friends.
When we came back up we were pretty tired. We decided to spend a little time snorkelling (also a good opportunity to find our lost camera). Overall a fantastic experience which we would love to do again. We even got a certificate to show we had done our first dive.
There was a long strait leading up to the main memorial site. There were many sculptures on either side all the way up. They were all really impressive. As we walked up there were loads of
cockatoos flying around. They were really noisy.
Canberra for the capital city of Australia, was pretty dull, just the only sights to see were official government building.. Although the War Memorial wasnt bad, but there are only so many you can visit.
