Clock up number 47, if I have my maths right. I’ve finally made it to Japan! I ended up having to get the bus to Cairns Airport as the weather was so bad. It’s not a long walk (around 1½ hours) but in torrential rain it just wasn’t happening. Thankfully this meant I got there [...]

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After meeting my first hostel-owner now driving tour buses across Kakadu, I was surprised to see a familiar face outside my hostel in Cairns when I arrived this morning. None other than Heath, the man who instructed me through my Open Water PADI course over two years ago! We got talking and he’s still with [...]

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I walked up to Apollo’s office early doors to collect the camper van. After filling in a gazillion bits of paperwork and watching a DVD on its operation, I was handed the keys and sent on my way. There were various provisos: I couldn’t take it off unsealed road except to get to campsites and [...]

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One big issue with Townsville – the public buses run fairly small routes and virtually none run at all on a Sunday. This means I had a hell of a walk out to the edge of town towards the highway and Cairns. An hour took me to a McDonald’s a few kilometres out where I [...]

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I am now sat in McDonald’s in Cairns as it has free wifi. They’ve had a lot of business out of me in Oz since they rolled this out across every branch. However, the reason I’m posting is that I’ve finished hitching all the way from Adelaide to Cairns (with brief uses of public transport [...]

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Ok, I did it. I just booked a flight from Darwin to Cairns and another from Cairns to Narita International Airport in Tokyo! After wanting to do so for more years than I care to remember, I am finally going to Japan! A actually have tingles and goosebumps at the thought of it! Part of [...]

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Well, my last day in Cairns was fairly uneventful. I woke up stupidly early, probably as my eyes were glued shut and my subconscious didn’t like that very much. I gave them a wash, and the pinkness was definitely reduced compared to the night before. Likely something I’d just picked up in the water. I’ll [...]

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More diving… As I mentioned, I booked myself a 1-day, 3-dive trip with another company called Deep Sea Diver’s Den on their Reef Quest vessel. At $160 (plus taxes) it was the cheapest I could find, but once the journey got underway I couldn’t figure out how they managed it. The staff were superb, the [...]

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Well today was pretty good but I have a lot of homework to do so I won’t rattle on too much! Another early rise to get to the boat for the trip out to the Reef. Today’s course was to be part one of my Advanced certification, part two being on Sunday. By itself, this [...]

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Today I passed my PADI Open Water certification which means I can dive anywhere in the world, up to 18m deep, without an instructor. I am sorely tempted to buy all the kit I need to make this a permanent hobby as it is much cheaper in Cairns than just about anywhere else, plus I [...]

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