Just Add Water

So I survived the night in the mall, the cyclone ended up heading a bit south and no one got stabbed.  All in all it could have been much worse.  Come morning I volunteered with the Red Cross to organize and serve breakfast to all the refuges.  In honesty I really got to take a shopping cart and loot a grocery store for cereal and fruit (been a while since I had all the fresh fruit I could eat, one up for the cyclone) then helped serve breakfast.  Most people were thankful and polite but of course there were the required arsehats who complained that we didn’t have their favorite cereal or a bigger spoon. 

Soon after breakfast I was sitting with my friends waiting to be evacuated from the evac site when some news reports came in.  The reporter asked a few questions but was disappointed that I had nothing exciting to report on (wasn’t going to mention the stabby threat, the media would take that story too far)  and walked away muttering something about finding someone more interesting (my friends say it was more the lack of showering than being uninteresting) but shortly after they left the mall without an exciting cyclone story.

After that we went back to the hostel and were slightly disappointed at the shear lack of damage.  Here we spent 30 hours locked up in the mall with 3000 grumpy, annoying (quasi-stabby) people, plenty who didn’t know the benefits of deodorant, because of this massive storm that was suppose to wipe Cairns off the map and here we only lost a few branches.  The power didn’t even go out!

Farther down the coast though there was plenty of devastation, newspapers showed yachts 600 meters inland and harbors wrecked with boats and docks piled on top of each other. Cyclone winds had taken roofs, knocked over trees and flattened plantations.  It was the first time that inland Queensland had actually had to issue a cyclone warning, 200km from the ocean!

Later that day the rains started coming down in earnest and a couple of us went out wandering to see what damage was done.  It was cool to see the beach moved inland about 50 meters and the streets running into the sea.  It almost made up for missing the cyclone.  While wading the streets I ran into one of the instructors on Mike Ball who confirmed that the Spoilsport would indeed take off the next day. 

I returned to the hostel much happier and finished packing for my week on the boat and enjoyed a good curry meal with my friends from the evac center.  The next morning I swung in the MB office to confirm that the trip was on then scrambled the rest of the day taking care of last minute details.   I went to the office to fill out the paperwork and met Mike Ball himself, a tall Englishman who is incredibly nice and we exchanged some stories.  He walked across the UK with his brothers a few different times and enjoys cycling as well.  Finishing the paperwork I went and grabbed a bit to eat then headed to the boat.  As a Expo (short for expendable) my duties was to help out on the dive deck and in the kitchen as needed.  The dive deck was amazing, instructors Nick and Bec are amazing people and I learned heaps from them.  The kitchen was even more impressive.  Cook Kari, from South Africa, became a great friend and fed me anytime I looked hungry (easily gained 10 kilos in one week, 4 meals a day plus snacks.)   Helping out in the kitchen was the most surprising part of the work though.  When meals were done the whole crew, first mate and Trip Director included, scrambled to clear the dishes from the table.  In a matter of minutes dishes from 30 people were washed, dried, and put away in a massive scramble on everyone’s part.  It truly was cool to see how everyone pitched in, no who they were. 

On the dive deck I learned the most and had the most fun.  Bec is a very bubbly person, often called Dory from “Finding Nemo” or Tigger because literally she bounces everywhere.  Nick was a bit more laid back (poor guy would honestly be frightened by Bec’s and I combined cheerfulness at 6 in the morn)  Great guy though, very patient with my questions and went out of his way to teach me anything I wanted to learn.  The diving was of course amazing.  I would get two or three dives in a day (literally my only free time between 6am and 9pm) and would act as buddy for one of the guests or take Catalina the other expo out on dives.  My oxygen usage improved drastically as I only had one dive under 50 minutess and one over an hour!  As a large man, who spent hours cycling and building up my lung capacity to climb the mountains on my ride it was difficult to train myself to use as little oxygen (and energy) as possible.  Having a camera helped heaps as I would have to slow down and wait for the right shot.  It was an epic trip as I improved my skills immensely while learning and seeing so many new things.  I finally saw a lionfish, a couple nudibranch, two cuttlefish and swarms of new fish.  Of course there was the obligatory shark sightings too :D  It was so awesome that eventually I even gave up taking pictures of sharks because I had so many!  

Working the dive boat I also got to dive some new sites I didn’t see with Erin when we went out in Dec.  Our old favorites like Cod Hole were hit pretty hard by the cyclone with damage in the coral canyons where the waves would tear through devastating the beautiful coral.  Luckly most of it was undamaged by the natural catastrophy and as the reef has survived generations of cyclones it will rebuild and be beautiful once again.  The outer reef, Osprey Reef, was completely undamaged and the visibility was absolutely amazing despite the cyclone and rainy season.  A couple weeks before they even experienced 70 meters of visibility under the water, a truly epic experience! 

Working on the Spoilsport with such an amazing crew was an epic week, from legendary dives, learning heaps about the sea and its creatures from Bec and the workings of the boat from Nick, to being fed at every turn by Kari to the smiles and jokes from the rest of the crew I can honestly say it was one of the best weeks of my life.  One week without land, entrapments of civilization, an occasional cold beer and to be rocked to sleep by the waves of the Coral Sea is a memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life.  Leaving the boat was a sad day, it has been a while since I worked that hard but the rewards were beyond anything I could have expected.

Leaving the harbor I stopped in the brewery just to find that the manager I told I was taking a week off had left on vacation and the other managers scheduled me the whole time I was gone, and when I didn’t return any phone calls or messages they thought I had died.  Resurrecting my employee status I started work at 4 that day and worked every day for the next 9.  It was nice to have money and good to be around some old friends but life on land didn’t compare to the boat.  My new room had a couple old friends in it and also another expo from Mike Ball. Joep from Holland is a 18yr old dive instructor trying to find work.  Two nights we went out drinking with some other Mike Ball employees, had a blast then we all went cliff jumping the next day.  We went to the crystal cascades and jumped from about 20 meters, hope to get some pics back as one shot had a beautiful waterfall brilliantly lit by the sunlight blazing through a rainstorm.

Tomorrow is my last shift at the bar, and wed I catch a plane back down to Melbs where I continue on my adventure.  It will be nice to catch up with some old friends down there before I wander on.  It truly is amazing to see how many great friends I have scattered across the country in such a short time.

Cheers

Return to Oz

Landed back in Cairns to many friendly hello’s from friends that were still in the hostel.  I swung into the brewery to say that I have in fact returned and would love some hours to pay off all the fun I have had in the month since I worked last.  After a good nights sleep I set off to find a job on a dive boat applying for anything from a Dive Master’s internship to a galley slave.  I hoped to hear back from Mike Ball, by far the best dive boat in Australia, on a couple weeks worth of volunteering on the dive deck. But just in case that fell through I bought a 3 day trip on CDC Dive, a decent company specializing in day trips for backpackers, so not your classiest of companies.  The trip was amazing, I ended up getting my advanced certification for an extra $50 and saw and learned some cool things.  A couple turtles, a Woebegone Shark, several lobsters and some reef sharks made it a great trip along with learning more about dive computers, underwater navigation and especially photography.  I dove with Jesse from Vancouver, a great guy who skipped out a bit on a Hong Kong family vacation to do a quick tour of New Zealand and Australia.  We had heaps of fun diving and our last dive of the trip was epic as we saw turtles and got to chase a shark around for a bit!  We had Simone, a Swiss girl who just got certified with CDC with us on that dive and she played great shark bait to get the little reef shark to circle a few times :D (just kidding, she hid behind us as we chased the poor thing with our cameras)  Jesse used half a tank of 02 in about 15 min.   Overall visibility wasn’t near as good as what I experienced in December, but not bad considering the influx of fresh water from the floods.  The day prior my dive instructor actually saw a whole tree, leaves and all, come floating by the coral reef 20 meters down and 50 miles out to sea!

Because I spent 3 days on the boat I could volunteer to work on the boat for 7 more days come February as a backup in case Mike Ball Dive fell through.

Returning to shore I again experienced Land Sickness where the whole earth moves to the motions of the ocean.  It took a couple days to fade but always made me smile when it tried to trouble me.  I worked a few shifts at the bar then took off up north with almost a dozen friends to Cape Tribulation.  We all piled in two little clown cars and headed north.  At the first scenic overlook I ran into the Hassler family who I dived CDC with.  We played leapfrog at all the touristy spots heading north and ran into each other a dozen times over the next two days.  At one point they left a hello and their email written in the sand at the beach in Cape Trib.  On the way we hit Mossman’s Gorge, a normally raging river coming down out of the Tablelands to the coast but with all the rains it had swelled beyond recognition.  The current was incredibly strong as only the best of swimmers could directly swim into it without being swept away and the water was so refreshingly cold that it was the perfect stop on a hot tropical day.  A bit up rapids there was a spot where local boys were jumping into the whitewater and was swept downstream 50 meters over a small waterfall in a matter of seconds.  Without a second guess a bunch of us scrambled across and over rocks to get to the point where we could enter the whitewater and not be swept into other boulders.  Quite the rush really, amazing to feel the power of the water against the smooth rocks and how hard it is to reach the surface in the highly oxygenated frothy whitewater.  (the water gets so much O2 that your body cannot gain buoyancy).  Next we headed north to the Daintree River where we crossed without any croc sighting then headed north north east along the last road into Cape Trib.  Along the way we passed a fruit/tea orchard and saw a Cassowary eating fruit from the trees.  Cassowaries are quasi-prehistoric birds, larger than emu’s or ostrich with thicker legs, (think axe handles) and a wickedly evil looking dinosaur face.  They are actually the most dangerous bird in the world (Australia tops that list yet again) as they tend to disembowel ignorant tourists with their sharp talons.  There are only 200 left in the wild (more signs warning stupid tourists about them than there are actually birds) but that is due to climate and environmental changes and the fact that they try to play chicken with automobiles (remember, they are from an age where they are the biggest nastiest thing out there and never encountered a POME* behind the wheel)  We continued to head north to Cape Trip where the road turned to gravel and we went for a nice beach walk with the potential of deadly stingers on our right in the ocean and hungry saltwater crocs hiding in the mangroves on our left.  Beautiful spot for a family vacation, just keep dogs and small (wanted) children on a short leash.  Truly a great trip, and at that point one car headed back to Cairns and 4 of us who had an extra day took off to find a campsite.  We found one and pitched our tents (poor mike had to sleep in the car) then started cooking supper.  Since Malou Balou (real name, Parents must not of wanted her and not had any handy croc beaches available)  the significant other of Corey was a vegetarian (Vtarded as my good friend Jeff would say) I cooked a delicious curry with various healthy bits that I actually made taste good and we settled down to a couple voracious card games and a delicious bottle of $5 wine.  Sleeping that night was difficult in the heat and humidity but finally it calmed off and the giant bats quit fornicating in the tree above me (sounds about as you would think) and I got some sleep and the next morn we headed back south.  We were lucky enough to spot another Cassowary (198 to go!) on our way and we enjoyed a couple more beautiful beaches (all croc free :( ) and a cool nature walk where we saw a green dragon lizard (wicked cool for being 1ft long)  we decided a swim was inline and headed to Palm Cove where I ran into the Hassler’s yet again .  We enjoyed a swim in the stinger free zone then headed back to town.  As Corey and Malou got a little too touchy feely in the back seat (Corey was leaving in a couple days and Malou wanted to show how much she would miss him) Mike and I serenaded them with the best of the 80s romance music such as “Sexual Healing” and “Lets get it on”.  Poor girl didn’t have much of a sense of humor but luckily my mate Corey thought it was entertaining.

Back to reality it was trying to get as many shifts as possible and solidify when I was heading out to work on some dive boats.  Wasn’t all work and no play though, I bought a two week pass to Green Island where I can just jump a ferry then spend the day snorkeling and laying on the beach.  Cool area, poor visibility in the water but heaps of life.  I saw everything from a Titan Triggerfish to a gigantic Potato Cod to heaps of turtles, stingrays, clown fish and reef sharks.   Not a bad way to spend the morning before heading to work J

After a full weekend of working I got ready to head out on the Spoilsport with Mike Ball Diving, only worrying about the cyclone due to hit Cairns.  Cyclone Yasi (translates to God’s Will, horrible Christian pickup line)  started out a CAT3 but eventually built up to a CAT5 with winds possibly reaching 300Kmph and covering an area just slightly smaller than Texas.  I planned on sitting it out at the brewery  (always go to the pub in an cyclone, tornado, or zombie apocalypse)  but a bunch of friends from the hostel decided to play it safe and be evacuated to a mall inland a few miles (Never ever give into peer pressure!!!) so as a result I am writing this while surrounded by 3000 other temporary refuges that had no better place to go.  It is interesting to see how humans react in such a circumstances.  I am amazed to see that 95% of the people in this mall are handling it very well and even helping out their neighbors.  I had one aboriginal couple give me an orange (apparently I look hungry) and we had a nice chat.  Sadly the other 5% tends to be so decrepit and so nasty that they barely deserve to be classified as the same people.  I have seen one and heard of two circumstances where aboriginal women have threatened (usually white tourists) with getting all stabby stabby over something as simple as a couple feet of floor space.   How someone could be so inhuman when surrounded by so much goodwill is amazing in the most deplorable way, but as of yet myself or any of my friends have been stabbed or are in immediate danger of being in a stabby situation and we are simply trying to get some sleep. 

Human factor aside the cyclone is FREAKING AMAZING!  The wind is blowing so hard that the glass and walls are vibrating in so many different notes producing anything from an F sharp to a D flat (musician stranded here too) and everybody flinches and retreats with every musical outburst.  My friend Anita has been interviewed by a Danish new station (a pic of us is going to be in there paper, first time for me getting in the paper in Europe) and we pretty much spend our time playing cards or watching movies (when the power is on) and hoping that any new neighbors know the benefits of antiperspirant. Could be worse, but then again if it wasn’t for peer pressure I would be at the brewery J

Still its worth missing out on massive amounts of free beer just to see how people react in this refuge style of environment.  Kudos to the local government though, on short notice they managed to provide food (C rations mostly. Severely children managed to steal cases from them when the initial rush for food started) to 3000 people and bedding and mattresses to the disabled and many without.  All in all it could be a lot worse, I have my tent (not set up because it made Mrs Stabby Abo all sorts of jealous) and a weeks worth of food and literature and some good friends around me. 

Tomorrow this will be a great story, windows may break (wonder what note the glass will hit before it shatters?) but I have everything I need to keep myself and my friends in good humor and health.  Friday I should board the boat heading out to the reef and life goes one.  Just a bit of wind and rain when you really think of it.

Cheers.

*POME (Pomey)  stands for Prisoner of Mother England, what the aussies call people from England.  Usually in the context of “Bloody POME Bastard”