1. the act of diverting or turning aside, as from a course or purpose.
2. an activity that diverts the mind from tedious or serious concerns; a recreation or pastime.
In addition to diving, going for walks and touring the area, I've been spending some of my time in Cairns on the golf course. It's a really nice course. The 11th hole was named one of the top 3 holes in Queensland. I'm told there aren't any crocs on the course, but I keep my eyes open just the same.
I won't be spending much time on the course this week because Lori has taken a weeks holidays and we are going to rent a car for a couple of days to tour around. We want to go on some hikes, spend time on a beach and maybe get in some snorkeling too.
Lori stayed in Port Moresby this weekend to catch up on some work, so I decided to spend the weekend diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Yes my life is tough, but don't resent me too quickly because it was not a fun trip. It was a completely different experience from our trip in March. The winds were howling between 30 and 40 knots and it poured rain for 3 days straight. The 3 hour ride out to the reef was so rough, that quite a few people were sick. I spent 12 years in the Navy and I never got sick once, but I was feeling pretty queasy by the time we got out there. Because it's a dive boat, it has a very shallow draft and it bobs like a cork in rough seas.
Anyway, once we got out to the reef everyone was anxious to get under the water. It doesn't matter how crazy and chaotic it is on the surface, it's very calm and peaceful on the bottom. I used this trip to advance my dive training by taking the Advanced Open Water course. I'm glad I did that, otherwise I would have been disappointed with the trip. I felt bad for people who flew from the other side of the world to dive on the reef for the first time in such terrible weather. The reef looks very different when there are dark clouds and heavy rain blocking the sunlight. Very little colour was visible this time. We still saw lots of really cool marine life though. Lots of stingrays, bumphead parrotfish and a grey reef shark. I also saw a massive green turtle. He is known as Brian and he is 145 years old. I know everything is magnified under water, but when he swam by, it looked like a Volkswagen Beetle driving through the water. I didn't have my camera with me on that dive, but I did get a shot of one of his many children or grandchildren.
I don't have as many under water pictures this time because I was taking the course, but I do have some shots of life on the boat. This is the main dining/lounge area.
This is our cook Nathalie, who is from Sweden.
My luxurious stateroom. I can't complain, I was the only person on board with his own cabin.
The dive deck was wet for the entire trip. I think if you look closely, you can see water dripping off the towels in the background.
My fellow shipmates were from all over the world. Germany, Belgium, Denmark, United Kingdom, United States, Japan, Israel and Australia.
Overall it was still a good trip and I'm glad I went. It was still more fun than being trapped in the apartment for 3 days.
When Lori flies in on a Friday evening and leaves early on Monday morning, we usually just have a quiet weekend around town. Lori is very busy at work these days and she looks forward to relaxing by the pool, going for walks and eating out. When she's able to take an extra day, that's when we like to get out of the city on a tour of some sort. This weekend we went on a tour of waterfalls in the area and it was spectacular. It was so much fun, even if we were chilly. We were in the mountains and the Atherton Tablelands so the air was much cooler up there, plus it was an overcast day and the water was cold. It was the first time in the 10 months we've spent in Papua New Guinea and North Queensland that we've been cold.
Our first stop was a natural water slide at Josephine Falls.
The hardest part was walking up the slope next to the slide, but we both went down.
Next was Millaa Millaa falls and this place is magnificent. It felt as if we were at Disney World and the falls were man-made.
These falls have been used in lots of commercials and advertisements. One of the most famous ads was for Herbal Essences shampoo when the model flicks her hair out of the water in a big arc. Some of the girls on our tour tried to recreate the shot.
The next stop was Dinner Falls. These were cool because there is a cave behind the water on the left-hand side.
The tour wasn't just about the waterfalls, we explored the rain forest as well. We stopped to see a massive Curtain Fig Tree.
Our guide told us that James Cameron visited the area and this tree was the inspiration for the trees in Avatar. Apparently he studied lots of plants and animals in this rain forest before he wrote the movie.
We made a couple of stops to see wildlife as well, but sadly the crocodiles, tree kangaroos and platypus did not cooperate. We did see some beautiful butterflies though.
I had my waterproof camera with me, so I shot some videos as well. I stitched them together into a short movie. While the camera is waterproof, it is not water droplet proof. The spray would land on the lens so it's hard to see at times, but you get the idea. It happens really fast, but watch Lori's face after she slides down Josephine Falls. She didn't plan on going down, but for some reason she followed me up and then had no choice but to slide down. Afterwards she was glad she went down, but at the time, I don't think she enjoyed it.
Lori was in town this weekend for a short visit, but it was a great weekend. We went for a long walk on Saturday morning and we stumbled onto a strange but cool little grocery store. It's a South African grocer that specializes in Nuts and Beef Jerky and it also has a huge collection of hot sauces. In my younger days I used to be adventurous when it came to spicy food, but now that I'm pushing 50, I stay away from anything that has the word "Ass" in the name, as in Ass-Kicking or Ass-Blasting. I went with an old favourite from back home.
They sell Clamato Juice as well. Of course it's ungodly expensive, because it has to imported, but it was nice to have a Caesar while sitting on the balcony.
We just recently booked our next trip back to Canada and it's going to be a much nicer experience than our last flight. Air Canada has just started direct service between Brisbane and Vancouver. Before, we had to go through either Sydney or Singapore or Hong Kong to get to Vancouver and no matter which route we took, we couldn't get to those destinations early enough in the day to avoid a layover. With a 3 hour direct flight between Brisbane and Port Moresby however, our travel time will be greatly reduced. Don't get me wrong, it is still a really long time to sit on a plane, just less time in airports and hotels.
I will arrive in Toronto on July 26 and I'll be in Southern Ontario for 2 weeks. For most of the time, I'll be at my brothers place in Cambridge until August 10 when I fly to St. John's. In late August I'm planning a road trip across Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and I hope to be in Halifax on Labour Day weekend. If anyone is going be in those areas of the country at those times and you want to grab a beer, send me a message. Lori arrives in St. John's on September 22 and we both fly back to Port Moresby on October 13.
Speaking of Canada, we have been following the wildfires in Northern Alberta. Lori hadn't seen any of the footage because of the limited internet access in PNG, so I showed her the unbelievable videos of the evacuation and the burned out neighbourhoods this weekend. I've never seen anything like it and to think it's happening in May when people are usually worried about flooding is unreal to me. Between finding some treats from back home, booking our travel and watching the coverage of the fires, I was feeling a little homesick this weekend. Well, maybe not homesick, but home just feels very far away. We've been gone for almost 3 1/2 years now. Hard to believe this all started in the fall of 2012 when Lori asked me if I wanted to go to Paris for 6 months.
