Magnetized

After witnessing no cassowaries in the Daintree, we had one last chance to scope the prehistoric looking birds by camping at Mission Beach. Of course, we didn’t just camp there to find a bird, but also because we heard it was lovely. Indeed it was, but the ominous presence of croco-dillys ensured that there were no swimmers. On the beaches up North, if the crocs don’t get you, the Box Jellyfish will; so they put up these floating nets on some beaches that allow for safe swimming. I think it just loses its appeal and exoticness somehow when you have to swim in a small rectangle with everyone else.

That night we camped in Bingil Bay, a small inlet near Mission Beach. It was a good little spot, and we had our dinner and relaxed under the stars. People next to us actually made a small campfire on the beach and then busted out their guitars. It turned out that they were pretty talented and had great taste in music! We got a free show, since we were meters away in the darkness, listening and singing along softly under our breath at times. We called it a night (early, as usual) and woke up later to sounds of mini-Woodstock getting rained out under a strong shower that is characteristic of the wet season here.

The next morning, fisherman Steve rose at the crack of dawn, and drove Tim and I’s sleeping zombie bodies to the jetty. He went out solo to cast a line. When I woke up hours later, I walked to the tip to see if he had had any luck, but nothing. What was strange, was that the others on the pier were reeling up pretty decent sized fish all around him! I casted in a few times, which only resulted in smallies stripping my bait to the bone, so when I reeled it up, it looked like a fish carcass in a cartoon. It started to get mind-boggling! Finally we threw in the towel. With no fish, and no cassowaries (save for the gigantic road signage warning drivers about them) we moved South. We had bigger fish to fry!

Once back in Townsville, we bought our ferry tickets to Magnetic Island. While in Cairns, the three of us decided that we wanted to get certified as scuba divers with PADI. After utilizing the hotel’s internet, we researched businesses that held the course. The first hit that Google presented advertised Pleasure Divers.  I showed the guys and we all had a chuckle and skipped over the link to look at others. Everything was coming up way out of our price range. Finally, we decided to check Pleasure Divers out – and found it was a great deal! Plus, the course was held on Magnetic Island, which we had heard was beautiful and a must-see. We promptly called and signed ourselves up.

We locked up the Great White in the ferry’s parking and packed some small bags to carry across. Once we disembarked on the other side, we did a small grocery shop at the IGA and then waited for the bus. Only the bus wasn’t going to come for another hour. After enquiring about directions, we shouldered our bags and groceries and tottered around the island and showed up on the doorstep of Pleasure Divers dripping with sweat. The place was brightly coloured and set in the palm trees, but looked like it had seen its best days in the 80’s. We met the voice on the phone, Rob, a slightly David Suzuki looking character, very laid back in his Pleasure Diver’s t-shirt. The slogan underneath the symbol read: You always come up smiling! (We thought of many more euphuisms over the next few days, I’m sure you can imagine!) He told us where our accommodation was, and bid us farewell until the next morning.

Forest Haven, what can I say! Our first impression was sheer disappointment. The place was all dilapidated particle board, infested with ants and spiders, and had no lock or key to be found. When I asked the 70 year old caretaker about security, she laughed and said there wasn’t much crime on the island, “Where would they go!?”  We plunked our bags down and let the sweat dry, laughing to ourselves thinking, you get what you pay for!

Our roommate, Gerry, was in the same mindset as us. A city boy from Glasgow, Scotland, he had moved to the island leaving his friends in Sydney behind. Afraid of every living thing, he would sit out on the porch and chain smoke and talk on his phone. As his job as a bartender wasn’t starting for a few more days, he was counting down the minutes until he could sleep or leave the island. We all commiserated about our situation and then went to bed early since we had some big days coming up.

My new friend Bozo

The first day of our course, we walked into Pleasure Divers and were greeted with Bozo, the cutest puppy, and Berlin (the much older paternal-type dog). Tim instantly riled up Boz, and I mistakenly started to play with him afterwards, so that when Rob started talking to us about how to fill our paperwork out, he had to call off the dog from love-biting me to death. Our first day consisted of watching the cheesy PADI videos, having some relaxed lecture-chats with Rob about the material, and trying out our gear in the pool in the afternoon, working through some skills. When we hopped out of the pool and saw that the time was 5:30, we were shocked! What a long day.

We returned to Forest Haven and told Gerry about our day. Things were actually looking up. Rob was kind of like our Mr. Miyagi – very relaxed with a sarcastic sense of humour, yet a very good teacher and passionate about his course. The Haven wasn’t looking too bad either. We came to see the beauty of the surrounding tropical nature and its rustic has-been charm. Of course, the modern air conditioning unit in the bedroom was a life saver!

Steve blowing bubbles

The third morning on the island, we woke up excited and raring to go. We cruised through a morning of in-pool training and a few more video lessons, becoming pretty comfortable with our gear and our buoyancy control. In the afternoon, Rob took us over to Alma Bay for our first 2 dives. A cyclone had passed through some years ago and destroyed a bunch of the coral in this bay, thus making it a good starting point for noobs. Although the visibility wasn’t great, we got really comfortable in the water, and still saw some really neat stuff; fish mucous sachets, tiny nudibrachs, some massive crayfish, and coral that changed from maroon to lavender purple upon lightly stroking it. 

After another long yet successful day, we treated ourselves to $10 steak night at the pub, and stayed to watch the cane toad races. The invasive-species races had visitors ‘buying’ a toad in auction to support the local Life Saving club. The man running the bidding and races turned out to be somewhat of a comedian and we got a stand-up show as well as the excitement of the races. We didn’t bid on any toads, since their prices quickly exceeded our budget, but we laughed until we cried before conking out in our bunks that night.

Day four was our final day of the PADI course. Anticipation was instantaneous from the moment we opened our eyes and fueled up on eggs and toast for our dives.  This time, Rob took us to Geoffrey Bay, where there was slightly deeper water and a small wreck; a ship called the Moltke. We did 2 dives that morning, feeling more and more confident as divers, even navigating independently through the murky waters. We saw: schools of fish hiding amongst the rusty metal of the ship, lots of coral and beautiful ‘fields’ of sea grass, more crayfish and a few big tropical fish. We completed our last ascent into the sunshine and Rob exclaimed, “Ahh, another shitty day in paradise!”

Our mentor, Miyagi

In the afternoon, we simply ran through our exam review and then wrote the final test. We passed! And Rob sorted out all of our official paperwork. After all of the technicalities, we treated him to a Coca-Cola, and ourselves to a few pitchers in celebration! We were actually sad to part ways with Rob, as he had been a great instructor and an interesting person to get to know over the last few days. Nonetheless, we had partying to do, so we hugged-and-hand-shook it out, and headed back to the Haven.

Gerry couldn’t partake in the festivities as he had finally been called into work, but we met our next door neighbor, Carly, an American girl who had just started the same course we had just completed. The four of us got on the piss, and then went in search of our Scottish friend. After cruising by his hotel without seeing him, we discovered the immaculate pool and the other 3 couldn’t help but jump in! After a quick swim, we continued to the bar, and shared some jugs at the Base X hostel, which was more than a mission away.

 By the end of the night, we caught a bus back to Arcadia, much to the annoyance of the bus driver who didn’t appreciate us throwing up our hands and howling like we were on a rollercoaster at every wide turn. We got dropped off near Gerry’s swanky hotel, so we all indulged in another moonlit swim (as if we weren’t waterlogged enough after the continuous days of diving!) Pruney and soggy, we walked back to our accommodation and found Gerry had returned from work. After accusing him of not actually working since we didn’t see him there, we all had a good laugh cracking jokes, doing ‘magic tricks’ and mostly  trying to understand and teasing him about his thick accent before passing out.

Our last day on the island, we stayed in bed and in the A/C for as long as we could. Eventually, we couldn’t deny that our time was up, so we packed our belongings, said our goodbyes to Gerry, and donkey-ed our stuff back to the ferry terminal. We had other adventures to embark on, namely hooking a barramundi…