Rainbow Beach

YOU GOTTA LOVE SLEEPY BEACH TOWNS.  I find myself in Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Australia.  Population is around 1000 people and around 18 surfboards.  I am stranded due to the disaster flooding to the north and south of me so I couldn't continue north with the Austrian girls Steph & Stef (sailing the Whitsunday Islands), can't go south to (Byron Bay), so I have become a part of Rainbow Beach.  I don't even know how long I have been here or what days I was on Fraser Island.  I don't know when I am leaving.  My days look like this:  wake up, go surfing, have lunch, go surfing, start drinking beer and write, dinner, more writing or live music (Nathan Kaye - more on him later), and then sleep.  Repeat for about a week.  The hostel is empty.  I am the only one in my 7 bed dorm room (which is great as I am still on a famile so no charge for accommodation).

I FEEL TERRIBLE FOR THE FLOOD VICTIMS IN QUEENSLAND AND MY HEART GOES OUT TO EVERYONE AFFECTED.  I glanced at the news the other night and saw Brisbane and just shook my head and walked away.  So not cool.  I feel blessed to be in a safe area.
 I can tell the peak of it is over as my feet don't get wet when I walk to my room in sandals anymore.  It is getting nicer and nicer here.  But then you think the worst has passed and then you get told by reception that a cyclone might be headed to towards Cairns (far from me).  I am looking for my window to get to Byron Bay and I can feel it will be any day now.  Two Greyhound buses ACTUALLY came into Rainbow Beach.  For awhile people were worried that alcohol and gasoline was going to run out in this town and the look on the face of the local that told me this was VERY CONCERNING.  Reminds me of the cyclone handbook I had to read for my job training at the Hilton in Cairns where #2 responsibility for me was to MAKE SURE THE BAR IS FULLY STOCKED.  Queenslanders love their piss.

I WAS TAUGHT HOW TO SURF BY A LEATHERY TAN MAN NAMED GAS.  Once I realized I could be in Rainbow Beach for a week, I called right away to the only surf shop in town and signed up for a morning lesson.  It was stormy that day but we went out anyway.  I was the only one in the surf lesson group.  We were the only ones in the ocean.  When I say sleepy beach town I mean sleepy beach town.  I put smiles on Gas's face because within an hour I was paddling my own waves.  He said I was the fastest learner he had ever instructed in 25 years.  I don't know about that but I am proud to say we started the lesson around 10am and at 10:42 Gas took a picture of my paddling and riding my first wave.  Mind you we are not on huge waves but enough to leave a mark (as I feel my left temple right now the small scratch bruise from the board hitting me in the head this morning).  By the way, Gas, a f'ing cool ass dude with over 30 years of surfing experience, has a tattoo on his back of two cobra snakes twisted up and fighting each other.  Gas.  Gas and I have become friends as he leaves a surf board out around back of the shop for me to use whenever I want and in turn I found him 6 girls to drive to Noosa (so they could catch the Greyhound to Brisbane) for $80 a head.  The hostel was charging $100 a head.  Keep in mind it is only like around an hour to get to Noosa.  $100!  People are dying in floods and you are charging backpackers $100 to go an hour down the beach?  But, it does take a lot of 4WD and time and gas, etc.  Good ol' Queensland always trying to make a buck and capitalize on unfortunate turn of events.

NATHAN KAYE IS AN INCREDIBLY TALENTED MUSICIAN from Byron Bay, Australia.  Very independent with a couple of albums and some t-shirts for sale, he is stuck in Rainbow beach like everyone else and I am about to see him for the 4th time in a week.  He is called a music festival in a human's body (or something like that).  Album can be bought here:  Lucky Man  He didge-boxes (beat boxing in a didgeridoo), plays the slide and normal guitar, sings, beatboxes, and also has foot pedals for bass and snare.  Last night I was allowed to play the bongos with him which felt great to play drums (been since April I think with my cousin and Justin in Echo Park, CA, drinking Charles Shaw all day on the front porch :)) again and with such an amazing musician.  He is the best beat boxer I have ever seen in my life (Bob Jones in Redmond is right their at second).  On the first night at the end of his show he had people yell out 3 random songs for him to make a beat box medley of.  They were Kings of Leon Hearts on Fire, Thriller, and Ice Ice Baby.  HE MURDERED IT.  Absolutely nailed it.  Singing and doing the beats and walking around the crowd.  It was unbelievably awesome.  Funny how getting stuck somewhere on this world will allow you to meet and find some of the most amazing people on the planet.  I told Nathan that when he goes to Los Angeles in February that I will find him a house to play a private show at (thinking Jen's in Hollywood or Greenman's in Long Beach).  He was so thankful.  He said "see that is one of the things I love about Americans, they tell you they will make it happen, and they will actually make it happen...an Aussie will tell you 'oh yeah mate will sortya out righto mate' and they end up getting pissed drunk and it never happens."

I WAS SO THANKFUL TO BE ABLE TO WATCH THE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at a reasonable hour (11:30am) with my own TV and sound.  The only hotel in town has a bar and had ESPN and after talking to the general manager the day before, I was allowed to have my little 'area' to drink beer and watch the Ducks go for gold.  A man came up to me in the first quarter who had one of those neck hole thingies that he has to cover so he can talk like a robot (smoker gone bad) and asked a question.  He asked me why there were more black players on the teams of the football game than white players?  Ryan's response:  "because THOSE players are fast as shit," it doesn't matter what color they are.  Whoever is the fastest, most agile, quick, etc plays I told him.  I then kind of briefly told him that the muscle twitch fibers in the African rooted Americans are tighter and denser than Anglo Saxon European rooted Americans (read something on this a long time ago) due to their geographical and genealogical evolution.  Similar to Asians being short due to their diets?  Anyway, interesting question at an interesting time on this globe.  Then, 3rd quarter, another Australian older man came up to me (breathed normally) and asked how they shoot the laser beam across the field to show the yellow line (for the first down).  "Is there a guy that has to stand/kneel down to shoot the laser beam across the grass?" he says to me.  LOL, oh you Baby Boomers need to get out more!  I explained to him that that it was first down marker and was done by ESPN with computers and superimposed onto the television screen.  He asks again "so that and then there is one guy still down there to tell them where to put the line?"  "No, that is the chain crew, the laser is just done by ESPN" I say to him.  The conversation was like throwing a ball against a brick wall.  I don't know if he ever understood my explanation.  Good ol' Rainbow Beach, Australia.

I BECAME A PART OF RAINBOW BEACH IN THE ?? AMOUNT OF DAYS I WAS THERE (over 2 weeks).  I became on a first name basis with everyone in town; the barmen at the Rainbow Beach Hotel Pub, the PeterPans travel agents (who allowed me to use the internet free whenever I wanted), the waitresses at Arco where I would bring my own beer and do my writing and photography, and the staff at Dingos, the backpacker resort I stayed at.  On the last weekend I did photography for Kate (4 years in Rainbow working at Peterpans Adventure Travel), for her going away party.  The thankfulness in her eyes was so sincere when I told her I would do it she put her hands to her heart and couldn't believe I offered.  It felt great to shoot an event and the pictures came out great of her and her friends.  Couple of days later at around noon (decided to get up early that day) I got a massive pounding dat da da dat dat knock on my door (room 8).  It was Gas.  He said "Ryan, I am going to get a beer and fill the esky (cooler), the surfboards are loaded in the 4x4, we are going to Double Island Point (in Endless Summer 2) mate, all you need is board shorts, your rashie (tight shirt you wear while surfing to prevent board rash), and your camera, 5 minutes be out front).  I was out front in 4.  Double Island Point was unbelievable.  Something out of a novel.  Took around 45 minutes on 4x4 only tracks to get to and you open up into this secluded bay with a lagoon and two huge heads jetting out on each side over the ocean.  This spot was surfed in Endless Summer 2.  We had some beers and made some veggie wraps and surfed some sets.  It was epic proportions.  On the way home we went to Freshwater lake and washed off.  No one their and the mirror of the lake rippled by our slow entrance as we dove down and took pictures and video with our waterproof cameras.  I was so thankful he came and got me.  I bought all the Inner Circle Rum and Cokes that night.  The final night in Rainbow I had a Kangaroo BBQ with Gas at the Surf Shack and drank more Inner Circle Rum and just TALKED; religion, spirituality, forgiving criminals who hurt you or your family, women, Queensland vs. New South Wales.  At the end of the night he gave me a book called "The Disappearance of the Universe."  He said he has been waiting to give it away ($40 dollar book) to someone but no one ever 'got it' and "after knowing you for two weeks and talking tonight, I know that this needs to go with you."  My gift to him is to teach him how to do a blog and google adsense program so that he can write off his expenses on his upcoming travels.  I know that I will see him again somewhere on this globe.  Can't tell you where or when, but I know I will.  Great human being Gas is.  Oh yeah, we fed his pet python 'Marylin' a guinea pig, a rat, and two mice on the last night two.  She was hungry apparently.  Getting stuck in Rainbow Beach was a blessing disguise.  Great adventure.  RCM

Fraser Island

2 AUSTRIAN WOMEN, 3 DUTCH MEN, 1 SWISS MAN, A SCOTTISH GIRL, AND ME are grouped together in a 4x4 Ute that fits 5 in the back on benches (like a military vehicle) and 3 in the front seats.  The briefing was long and detailed.  Merv was the man who gave us the 2pm briefing and countless times said "I am not here to tell you guys what to do BUT..."  There were so many dangers with this Fraser Island 3 day 2 night camping/safari beach tour that is laughable.  "True story" Merv would keep telling us about people being eaten by tiger sharks, cars rolling and crushing humans, girls being airlifted by helicopter, drownings, and a baby that was eaten by a dingo.  And we are going there and paid $ for this again why?  LOL.  Why, because it led to 3 of the funniest and most interesting/amazing days of my travels yet.

YOUR FOOD AND GAS IS PROVIDED BUT YOU BUY YOUR OWN ALCOHOL.  The cooler for the alcohol was like a mini coffin but more square.  It is the biggest cooler I have ever seen.  Over here they are called an 'ESKY' (which is the brand name and has to do with Eskimos or something I don't know).  Anyway, you pack all your gear in to the 4x4 and cargo net it down.  The driver can't see out of the rear view mirror.  The people in the back feel like sardines.  Morale is high and everyone is excited and we head out for the beach spot where the barges pick us up to transport to Fraser Island.  Emmy drove first because she was from Scotland and is used to driving normal roads on the left side of the road.  It is 10am.  I already want to drink beer but can't because the esky is the first thing packed and has a ton of gear on top of it.  Damn it.  The barge takes like 15 minutes to get you on the island.  The huge steel forward hull lowers and the cars that drove in and packed tight drive right out on to the water and sand of the beach.  Here we go.  For those of you that have driven on the beach before, especially with a mission in mind (3 day camping trip), know that there is something special about rallying down the sand with the ocean on your side and caravan with a team.  Little things like communicating between the cars for when to go to 4 wheel drive or 2 wheel drive (first car puts their arm out the window and flashes 4 fingers - which is then passed by car 2, to car 3, etc, etc).  2 fingers was for 2WD.  Flashing your lights means you are in trouble.  Blinkers tell the pack which side of things we are going to pass on as you are not the only thing that moves out there.  You have also study the map and tide chart you were given so that you drive during safe driving times.  You would not believe the pictures I saw on the "Rock Wall" in the Rainbow Beach Hotel that is put up by the Rainbow Beach towing company.  Trucks and utes, and SUVs so F'd over it is unbelievable.  Some of them were so engulfed and sunken into sand and water than you could see just the roof.  Some were against rocks and mangled and crushed it looked like they went through a spin cycle in a washing machine for motor vehicles.  You are concerned about this and just hope the weather will be good and it won't be stormy or wet as that ADDS a ton of water and force to the creeks, washouts, and streams you have to drive through when getting to your Fraser Island destinations.

IT RAINED AND SURGED WET FOR 2 OF THE 3 DAYS WE WERE ON THAT FORSAKEN ISLAND.  It was like camping at Beverly Beach in Oregon, USA in tents with bad weather times 10 (Mom, you would not have been a happy camper lol).  You can't just pack up and leave either.  Your team, or group (we were Group B and were obviously the most fun and dominant group! - love and miss you guys!), has to come together and survive.  My dad just said to me on Skype "it sounds like Survivor" haha, yes Dad, it was, but without the voting off (although I could tell some group members in other groups would love to have implemented a voting off rule haha).  At your campsite:  No showers.  No running water.  No electricity.  No toilet facilities. No structures for cover.  No pillows.  No sleeping pads.  No campfires.  No picnic benches.  No chairs.  Just a few handfuls of international travelers joining together to accomplish a first few initial tasks; putting up your tents on the sand behind the dune to keep wind out while keeping under the tarp rain cover (some people failed at this and slept in the front seats of the 4x4s), and making dinner.  It was so funny the instructions for the menu for our prepacked food for 3 days was written like it was to be read by a 10 year old learning to cook for the first time.  "Remove cheese from package and place on bread slice"..."Remove corned beef from package and put in between cheese and bread"..."put another slice of bread on the beef and cheese"..."put in mouth, chew" - just kidding on the last part but yes the instructions for making a sandwich could have been understood by a kindergartner at snack time.

EVERY MEAL YOU HAVE HAS SAND IN IT.  Every meal we cooked seemed to also have heaps and heaps of water raining on our very small tarped area for cover.  The type of rain that creates huge runoff puddles on the ground around where you are.  Oh what an experience lol Quang Do for cranking this one up because it did was set the laughter meter to a 9 for the entire trip.  The game was a tin cup filled 1 third of the way up with boxed wine, premixed rum and coke, or beer (or sometimes all 3 - thank you Quang Do) with a full deck of playing cards set on top of the cup.  It was passed around the circle and you get one breath to blow off a bit of the cards.  Whoever messes up (not blowing off at least one card or blowing off the whole thing or using two breaths), or is left with the last card drinks the contents in the cup.  I cried a couple of times I was laughing so hard as I we abused this young innocent Swedish girl who didn't get the game well at first and Quang Do kept setting her up for failure.  Oh man it was good times.  Great times.

THE NEXT DAY YOU ARE UP TO BEAT THE TIDES TO GET TO A SHIPWRECK, ELI CREEK, AND INDIAN HEAD.  We lucked out a bit as it seemed to pour rain when we were at camp, cooking and what not, but would not rain when we went out to explore the island.  Eli Creek was a fresh water creek that flooded into the ocean and was no more than knee deep most of the time.  It was neat as we left our bag at the mouth of it and hiked up it and then "crocodile style" swam or cruised in the current down it towards the ocean.  So cold, but so nice.  It was like a lazy river.  Lots of splashing and antics by Group B followed by some bump/set/spike volleyball at the end of the creek on the mouth by the beach.  The shipwreck was fascinating as it is just right there on the beach in the shallow end and you can walk right up to it to take pictures.  Remember the entire island is a World Heritage National Park so everything is protected and historic.  Indian Head was magnificent.  It was named by Cook around 1770 when he was exploring the coast.  A massive bluff jetting out over the shoreline I remember standing there looking left and seeing an endless beach and looking right and seeing another.  Took some good pictures on the tip with only the Pacific Ocean behind me stayed away from the edge as the cliff drop was pretty hefty and there are no ropes or guide rails to keep people from falling off.

THE SECOND NIGHT WAS FILLED WITH COMMUNAL SINGING AND LAUGHTER.  Joel, one of our 2 guides for all 5 vehicles, played guitar into the night with songs like Take Me Home Country Roads and Oasis's Wonderwall.  By this point I have become really good friends and close with a girl named Stephanie from Austria (in my group).  We have the same sense of humor and get along great and it was fun to hang with her and party through the night.  After dinner, drinking games (moved to Asshole the second night where I helped explain the game to everyone the game and also the difference of singles on singles and doubles on doubles, etc), and music, I walked out to the beach with Steph and we just laid there and watched the arsenal of stars and planets in the sky invade our eyes.  We may have kissed and rolled around on the sand under the blanket of the cosmos as well ;)  It wasn't raining at this point.  It was warm.  It was clear.  It was awesome.  The final day was Lake Mackenzie, one of the purest/clearest/freshest (freshest?) freshwater lakes in the world.  It is in the middle of Fraser Island and has a sandy beach surrounding it with tropical foliage surrounding the beach.  It is like something out of a novel.  Apparently you can clean jewelry with the sand it is so fine and yes, you can, drink the water in the lake as you swim.  I did.  The 4x4 track to get to this marvel was something you have to experience.  While it can be a difficult run for a 4x4 normally (we broke and spring and burned a hole in our radiator which we found out when we returned our vehicle), the weather in the past few days made it into some awesome off-roading.  Huge puddles and bogs...Joel, the guide, who has been doing these tours for years said it was the worst he had ever seen it.  You aren't in Kansas anymore when you find yourself in a 4x4 ute in the middle of a 50 mile long island in the Pacific Ocean knee to knee knocking with 4 European men who haven't showered in 3 days.  Not to mention the crazy Austrian girl (jk Steph LUV U! :)) who doesn't seem to care as your heads are hitting your knees and the roof of the vehicle as she MASHES it 15km through some extremely technical 4x4 roadway in what feels like a jungle.  It was an incredible experience/adventure to say the least.  RCM

Surfers Paradise

SO THE THREE MONTHS OF 50 TO 70 HOUR WORK WEEKS ENDS and you find yourself leaving normality to a city 1000 miles away for New Years Eve 2010.  This working holiday visa that I posses is now in full effect as I have 'worked' and now am going to 'holiday.'  I saved money to a point where I left Cairns with more money then when I landed in Brisbane 90 days ago.  You are scared financially though as things you buy here are twice as much as they would be at home.  I actually have forgotten what normal prices for things are.  I guess I am economically acclimating?  Is a bottle of water for $3.50 normal?  Is 2 fifths of Smirnoff vodka really on special for $60?  Is two games of bowling $28?  It doesn't matter though because you are doing things that most people read about in magazines.  You cope and find ways to save costs and shave excessive spending so you can survive and feel comfortable with your travels.

SURFERS PARADISE WAS THE DESTINATION FOR NEW YEARS EVE 2010.  The best way I can describe this city is Miami's South Beach combined with the touristy-niceness of Cancun Mexico type resorts/hotels in and on an area as large as and as expensive as Orange County's coast line in California.  It is a wannabe Las Vegas but more like a richer San Diego.  A pint of vodka was $24.  I only saw a couple of surfers with boards walking to the beach to hit the waves.  It wasn't as crowded as San Diego on a Memorial Day or Labor Day but was close.  Oh how the old nostalgic cities people talk and write about can become over commercialized through the years.  Still very fun though.  The group that Imke, my good German friend I had met when I first landed in Brisbane, met were awesome.  Omar, Aanus, Melissa, Lelit, Ruby and us had an exceptional time.  Tequila and Jaeger (thank you again Kiwis for the duty free purchase and serving us SHOTS! SHOTS! shot SHOTS SHOTS!) were a normal thing before going out dancing and everyone had smiles on their faces.  "For the Boys!" was common phrase that I can explain to you at another time.  We all got after it on New Years and rather than spending $50 to enter a club we just decided to make drinks in water bottles and pack backpacks and rally out of Surfers to a beach area to the north.  The fireworks were amazing and my New Years kiss was right on time :)  The next day went to a water park to hydrate and chill out.  I already miss out group and can't wait to see them in Auckland in August when my best friend and I head there to get bar work before the Rugby World Cup gets there in September.  Foora Boys!

YOU ARE BACK ON THE ROAD WITH NO DESTINATION when you leave your 'working life' on this visa.  Imke is headed to Sydney with a German girl she met, the Kiwis you just partied with are headed to Brisbane for a few nights; everyone is checking out of the city.  Where do you go?  You have a general idea of places you want to go but remember you are a traveler, not a tourist.  You don't have set dates on where and what you are going to do.  You don't use travel agents/bookers for booking your travels, you use them simply for information and benchmarking costs.  You simply find your way as it comes.  I found my next destination a day before I left Surfers on the internet and decided to call Dingos in Rainbow Beach to ask if I could do a famile trip (we have their brochure and book for them in Cairns).  They said when will you be here and I said "tomorrow??" and so there it was.  Bus station.  5 hour bus ticket north.  Hugs goodbye to your friends of 5 nights.  On to Fraser Island and a city called Rainbow Beach and you have know idea what to expect.  Right now as I type this, I am leaving in the morning for a 3 day 2 night beach camping safari with 7 other people in the 4x4 that I have never met out to the some of the most pristine and fresh water lakes and gorgeous scenery one can ever see on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.  The largest sandy island in the world.  Fraser Island.  While the island is amazing, it is also dangerous with numerous drownings, cars being towed out of quicksand/ocean, and helicopter airlifts every year.  This ought to be a good one.  Once again, GO TIME. RCM

Traveling Alone

SITTING IN AN OLD MOTEL HOTEL IN KURANDA, QLD, DRINKING A JUG OF BEER it has come to me that traveling by yourself is a fascinating thing.  You find yourself in the strangest and most captivating places, moments, and times of your life.  You THINK a lot.  You ponder life and who you are and where you are going.  Little things you pass by you take a lot more notice to.  Back in the states, while I was a huge advocate of going to the movies (usually double headers bought on a child ticket from the automated machines = yes they don't notice when they rip your ticket) alone, there were still things that you would probably not do alone.  Most people wouldn't go on excursions or fun events by themselves.  You probably wouldn't go to a theme park by yourself or go to a music festival by yourself.  When you travel solo, you would.  It isn't that you don't have friends or that you are a loner, you just open your mind and body to moving around the globe without the accompaniment of other people.  I didn't think twice, for example, on going by myself on an old train up through a historic railway in the World Heritage Rainforest to a small little shop town called Kuranda.  You aren't lonely.  You take pictures, you listen to music, and you ponder a lot.  You have brief encounters with people (like me helping a couple from Sydney today on the train with their Nikon D3000 = a little brother to my DSLR) that you will never see again but yet you shared a moment.  There is an under privileged man in Cairns (maybe homeless?) who sits on various storefront steps in the early evening.  His beard speaks volumes and the leathery skin on his caucasian face could write a novel.  Every time I pass him, I give him all the coins that are in my pocket (doesn't matter if it is 20 cents or a ton of 1 and 2 dollar coins).  Every time I pass him, I ask him if I can buy him a beer and every time he declines.  I hope one of these days he will say yes and I can sit down with him and just talk.  He doesn't have anyone to talk to.  It makes me frigid to think what his Christmas will be like this year.

I LISTEN TO A LOT OF FRANK SINATRA when I find myself in old places;  couped up at that back 2 person table at a low lit pub or hotel, jug of beer to the left, backpack to the right, headphones on.  I people watch a lot.  Sometimes listen.  There is something about music from the 30's 40's and 50's that adds a mental ambiance to your situation that puts one into a nostalgic trance.  I sometimes picture when settled down what my evenings would be and how the best to enjoy them.  I have told my friend Joe Armbruster this.  Old music, (i.e. Frank) big-ass red wine glass filled with a mid-priced cabernet, and a coffee table book about something that has history and culture (like the History of Palm Springs book at my friend Shelby's house in Indian Wells, CA) in it.  Perhaps light eats of small meats and cheeses to accompany the wine.  Perhaps a fire burning.  Perhaps in the mountains or on a beach.  Perhaps.

THE MENTAL REFLECTION OF YOUR LIFE AND BODY ON THIS EARTH that happens while doing adventures by yourself is something remarkable.  Cognitive analysis is a day to day thing...the time I try and not think about anything is when I meditate (new weekly class I am taking on Zen and Guided Meditation) and let me tell you that it is not easy to make your mind go blank in a foreign country with 10 open months of no real plans ahead of you.  While my daily life was routine before, it is so sporadic now.  You just take it as it comes.  Capricorns would freak out.  There are no plans or organization to your future.  You pick a city or area and you just GO.  You start thinking in months and years and not weeks or days.  You start pinning down GENERAL ideas of what you will do when you get there (work, play, sights, etc).  It is liberating.  Talk about a catalyst for human thought; 20 years of school, 7 years of corporate work...to, no plan.  I remember my good friends Ben and Mandel Maughan saying to me so "basically, McLeod, you are on the 'no plan' plan."  LOL.  Yes, you can only plan so much, especially in Australia, because there are so many ways you can go.  It is almost overwhelming.  But times like this when I just got off the Sky Rail from Kuranda (the rail that inspired the flyover scenes in Avatar) and am in a weird restaurant waiting for my bus back to Cairns drinking a beer and writing, feeling tight (as Hemingway would say), everything is worth it.

Cairns - Living and Working

LIVING AND WORKING IN CAIRNS is an incredible experience.  The tropical northern part of Queensland, Australia is a tranquil escape that I wish every traveler could experience.  One day you are partying with backpackers at a hostel's beer garden and the next day you are on a tiny island off the coast of the Great Barrier Reef diving or snorkeling with rare species and unnamed types of coral.  My days are mostly spent working.  It took me 4 days and about 9 resumes handed out to get 2 jobs.  While I want to to tell you it easy to get a job in Cairns, I must say that you will go up against some competition in numbers (thousands of backpackers from all around the world).  What will take you a long way when looking for a job is a positive attitude, the ability to speak English CLEARLY (a lot of times the people from England over here are the hardest to understand!), and the ability to learn quickly.  The main industries working holiday makers like myself find work in up here is hospitality, food and beverage, retail, bar work, and farm work.  I found my first job as a receptionist at Koala Beach Resort (hostel and tour booking company) simply by walking down the street and seeing a sign on the door for help wanted.  My second job was found the same way as I walked into Mondo's, a restaurant at the Hilton Cairns, and started asking around.  I am a proud member of the Hilton family now as I am much appreciated in the banquets department for my work on private dinners, weddings, corporate lunches, gala dinners, etc.

WORKING AT THE HILTON I AM SEEING A CULMINATION of 10 years of off-and-on food and beverage experience in the United States.  From starting as a busser at the Bluwater Bistro in Seattle in college, to working at the 5 star Mister A's in San Diego, to bartending with The French Gourmet (Corey and Gus thank you for teaching me the ways of a catering bartender wizard), to when I first learned how to serve tables at a Red Robin in high school (the only job I was ever fired from - eat shit Scott, I wrote the schedule down wrong!), my experience in this industry has culminated in a way that I am a huge asset to the Hilton.  Within weeks they were putting me on the important events; events that the people are tipping me on (remember their is no tipping in Australia as your wage of $18 to $30 an hour pays for your gratuity)  No tipping at bars, restaurants, nowhere.  It feels good to know a trade well and excel at it.  Mind you it is not a career choice of mine but it pleases me to know that my 12 years of work in various places, I can please my superiors with hard work and pleasurable charisma while on the clock.  I don't take the two 15 minute paid breaks they give us.  Also, there are only like 2 security cameras at the Hilton.  I feel that is a good example of how things are a bit more relaxed out here. I have looked all around and can't seem to find any cameras and the ones we have I don't think are even monitored as I have seen the security room and it looks like a shack. (Ben McLeod, a bit different than your Ritz/Marriott in Los Angeles yeah?).  The Hilton takes care of us well too...uniform is washed and pressed for you for when you get to work and they feed us mid shift with decent grub.  Showers, lockers, it is like almost like going to the gym, yet you are not lifting weights, but more lifting massive tables and chairs, and you aren't sweating from cardio but from anaerobic activity that seems to never end.  I would love to see how many miles I walk in a busy night where I am bouncing around from event to event.

THE WEATHER IN CAIRNS IS LIKE FLORIDA IN THE SPRING with more creatures (especially parrots and bats, yes bats).  When I walk to work in the day or morning, you can see and hear hundreds of bats in the trees and if you walk down a certain portion of the sidewalks you will walk through their droppings; only to hurry your steps worried that you are going to get bat shit on your face.  At dusk, the bats MOVE.  And man do they move.  Looking up at the sky it looks like 500 Batman logos flying around as if Gotham city was about to be attacked by nuclear missiles.  They squeak, flap, and screech their way to...well...I actually don't know where they go (maybe their cave?).  Besides the not-very-scary bats, Cairns is beautiful.  Green and red parrots casually frolic from tree to tree.  I remember one night at a bar on the outside deck just watching families of parrots doing whatever it is they do...probably about 5 feet away from me I could almost touch one.  I work right on the water and as much as the breakfast shift can suck (up at 6am), the walk in the morning along the public lagoon overlooking bikeriders, people doing Yoga, and the Pacific Ocean; it is breathtaking.  Add some good headphone music in, like Deadmau5's Faxing Berlin, and some sandals and backpack, and you are now picturing the first small chapter of the working holiday of Ryan McLeod.  I walk everywhere.  I haven't driven a car in 4 months and it hasn't occurred to me until right now.  I think I am going to buy a bike tomorrow as I want to explore the outer parts of the city center that is a bit too far for my tired and aching feet.  On a good day, I am on my feet only 5 hours of work...on a heavier day (Koala shift into a heavy Hilton shift), I can be on my feet for 17 hours.  I am not complaining, just stating that some good insoles can go along way when doing this type of labor.  Socks get reused, outfits get repeated, sandals are very WORN.  Some nights I will get home from the Hilton around 2am exhausted and set my alarm for 7:45am having to work a 10 hour double in the morning at Koala.  Some mornings I feel like a zombie walking down the one story of stairs down to reception.  Most mornings eye drops are a life saver.

WORKING AT KOALAS IS EXTREMELY DEMANDING AND DIFFICULT.  I sit at the front desk and read (right now The Thorn Birds - thank you Brian Hayden, great novel), write, work on my upcoming travel websites, play Hearts on the Windows, Pinball on Windows, and at some points I have fallen asleep on the couches in the lobby there.  Oh yeah, and I check people in and out of their rooms, book some tours here and there, and close the doors and gates at the end of the night.  Sometimes I have to take the garbage out and clean some coffee mugs in the back sink.  Let me just say I don't take this job for granted at all.  I also get free trips through Koala's which is awesome as you have seen some of the cool trips I have been doing (bungee, skydive, river rafting, etc).  Funny, looking back a year ago in Los Angeles when I was researching this holiday work visa, I never pictured getting my first job at such a cool place that can allow for so many adventures.  Ryan is very thankful for this position and will miss Koala's dearly I am sure as I head south after Christmas.

MY ROOM HAS LIZARDS IN IT.  Well, they come and go as they please.  Little geckos only about a finger length, they scurry all over.  Just last night I was going into my room at 1am after a long Hilton shift, and one of the lizards was on my door.  "In or out buddy, your call" I said to him.  He decided to stay out.  My heart doesn't jump anymore when things scamper around my feet.  As I know a lot of you are like me (like Lindsay in North Carolina with water bugs), people who do not care for large (or small for that matter) cockroaches.  Well, I can say that I squashed one the other day (progress) like Mr. Miagi talked about grapes to Daniel, and I thought for a moment that the fear of these harmless and pointless creatures was gone.  The next night walking home from work, one came shooting towards me, reversed direction, reversed again and came right at my vulnerable toes only to have me do a double jump out of the way with slight heart palpitations.  God I love those things.  Back to my room for those of you who care.  I live at Koala Beach Resort in room 112.  Old Cad members at Sigma Chi in college can appreciate the ROOM 112 (Mike B, T Smith, and D)  It is an ensuite (has private bathroom) 4 bed dorm room with a fridge and a sink.  I have it to myself which is nice as it is actually almost as big as my last studio in Los Angeles lol.  The AC works good and with the curtains closed, I sleep well.  Working 70 hours a week probably has something to do with sleeping well too :/

ACCLIMATING TO THIS ENVIRONMENT AND THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE is still happening after almost 60 days of being in Oz.  Around week 3 I got a bad whooping cough and when some foods (especially meat) would hit my stomach (thank you Gilligan's and your dogshit CURRY SAUSAGES SLOP AND RICE free dinner) in a way that I can only explain as a 'twisted knot of lead in the center of my gut.'  The cough went away but my good friend and counterpart at the Hilton, Michael, said that it has to do with the hot air and the air conditioning, etc.  I also noticed that the spin of the earth can affect my walking (some of you are probably laughing at this right now).  Yes, there were (and still sometimes) times when I would be walking down the street in Cairns (sober) and I would feel like the ground under me is shifting and I could fall over.  You think I am crazy but my best two friends, Jeff & Dave (Irish guys mentioned before), also felt the same thing one day at Palm Cove.  I am not crazy, just know that I FEEL different when doing day to day things over here (like walking).  There are times at the Hilton where I am running plates of food in and out of multiple rooms (no AC, then tons of AC) at a fast pace and the fluorescent lights are beaming down; I feel like I could faint.  Hydration is something I took lightly my first month here and now I drink almost two liters of water before lunch.  I didn't realize how bad I was dehydrated and when you add fun nights and days with alcohol, your body just prunes into oblivion.  One day I could FEEL myself not getting enough water and oxygen to itself (vomited and was confused at reception - I think it was a mild heat stroke - closed reception early and had my night shift covered - slept and drank water) and that was the day I said that a water bottle will always be with me and I will be constantly drinking the good fresh tap water of Cairns (it is quality actually as it comes from good mountain fresh water sources from the World Heritage Rainforest).   I can feel a large difference in my health; mentally and physically already.  Derek Zoolander was on to something in his 'Merman' commercial.  RCM

The Working Holiday Project 2010

Skydive from 14,000 feet over the GREAT BARRIER REEF

SKYDIVING IS SOMETHING NOT NORMAL TO HUMANS.  Thanks again to my short term career choice with Koala Beach Resort in Cairns, I was able to do a 'famile' skydive with Australia Skydive (one of the biggest in the world now due to two companies merging).  My jump cost me $35.  Jumps are usually around $300.  Happy days.  I wasn't as nervous as I was in Interlaken, Switzerland 7 years ago...funny how age can calm your nerves a bit and when you are younger you are more aware of scary shit that can kill you or give you a heart attack.  I guess as we get older we seem to get lazy in our paranoid thinking?  Anyhow, for all of you whom have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane know that SKYDIVING IS UNREAL.  One can watch movies and television and see skydivers doing there thing but let me tell you that when that door opens up in that little Cessna at 14,000 feet and you are higher than clouds and houses and cows are the same size, you question a lot of things about the short-term past, present, and future.  PAST = drank two beers.  PRESENT = 120 MPH free fall looking down on a tropical rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.  FUTURE = "where do I sign up to get certified?"

I HAVE COME TO REALIZE AFTER 30 YEARS OF LIVING on this planet that there are must do's.  Skydiving is a must do.  I don't care how scared you are of heights, or how much anxiety flying gives you, or how you can get motion sickness...if you want to really FEEL like a human in this 10+ billion year old universe, JUMP OUT OF AN AIRPLANE.  12 people fill this tiny, tiny plane and I would say it probably gets better gas mileage than a car it is so small.  You are packed in like sardines and no one knows to laugh or cry during the ascent.  Your jump master continues to show you his altimeter and you start realizing that this is getting close to the stage that jet airliners turn off the FASTEN SEAT BELT sign.  You go above clouds.  You can't make out things on the ground from houses to cars to animals to buildings.  The door opens and the cold air hits everyone resulting in SCREAMING and SMILES and FACES OF TERROR.  I put my dive glasses on and crossed my arms as I watch a girl in front of me (who was fairly nervous about the jump at the shop earlier) and her instructor head to the edge of the cabin to jump and she does not follow the rules and cross her arms but proceeds to grab the ceiling, door, wall, ground; basically everything to keep her from plummeting from the aircraft.  She exited the plane on the ground that day.  The kid next also grabbed the door when he is supposed to have his arms crossed.  Switzerland, 7 years ago, I grabbed the door like a child reaching for his mother.  This time, I just smiled and crossed my arms and let Jeremy, my instructor, scoot us up to the ledge.  It is frightening.  Sheer terror in a good way I guess.  Before you can realize what you are actually doing or where you are or what is about to happen, you have exited the plane.  One barrel roll and (thanks to my instructor advising me to keep my eyes open) you are looking back and waving to the aircraft.  It was a white plane I think.  Jeremy taps my arm signaling me to uncross my arms and let them FLY.  You are flying.  You are going 120 MPH.  I have told many of you throughout the years that the best way to picture what is like is to imagine a freeway.  You are standing 10 feet next to this freeway watching the cars ZOOM by.  So fast as they just WIZZ by. Probably doing 65 MPH (or if you live in California you are probably imagining cars going 80 MPH or 90 MPH), see the cars flying by as your head turns.  Now picture that same car moving at almost double that speed, or 120 MPH.  Now those cars are literally ROARING BY you and your head can't turn fast enough to eye them as they cruise by.  Now, picture you, yes, YOU, next to that car like Superman keeping pace with it as it flies down the asphalt.  Now picture yourself staying next to that car for a minute.  It is around a minute but it feels like a second thinking back.  A minute doing 120 MPH without a seat belt is almost life changing.  There really isn't anything else in the world that can give you the sensation that skydiving does.  We as kids stuck our heads out the window of the family van headed out on a camping trip and that was fun.  But double the speed and get rid of the cabin you are riding in and you will feel like Neo in the Matrix.

BEING A TRAVEL WRITER, I OBVIOUSLY ASKED A LOT OF QUESTIONS to Jeremy in the field (drop zone) we landed in.  Some of you already know that there are 2 parachutes on every jump.  If the first gets tangled you are trained to cut the first one and deploy the second.  What fascinates me the most is the computer generating emergency deployment.  A lot of people worry about dying when skydiving but it is safer than walking around a major city.  You see, if your body is still moving at 120 MPH at 700 feet (seems a bit low for me ay?), the computer inside parachute #2 will deploy automatically.  This is so rare and my instructor said that if you are having computer generated deployments that you shouldn't being skydiving.  My question, but never asked for obvious reasons, is "what happens if the computer fails?"  Thank you electrical engineers.

AFTER THE CANOPY IS OPENED AND YOU ARE JERKED AWAY from your superhero speed towards the earth, you look up and thankfully watch your parachute fill with air.  For a millisecond you see the cords untangling and think to yourself are we going to have a malfunction?  Jeremy has done around 3000 jumps and just recently had his first malfunction.  Funny how cords can knot up and tangle yeah?  I have enough trouble getting my shitty headphones for my mp3 player to straighten out.  (similar to losing your mask/regulator diving at the ocean floor), you simply follow your training and know exactly where to release your main shoot and deploy the second.  People don't die in the air, they die on landing.  With power lines, wind, trees, buildings, etc, most skydiving deaths are correlated to the landing going wrong.  Before the landing is almost my favorite part.  While the freefall is amazing and intense, the parachuting around at slower speeds is so tranquil and transcendentally calming that it is hard to explain.  Looking out and seeing the reef, the rainforest, Cairns, on a sunny day in the Southern Hemisphere is beyond breathtaking.  I was allowed to steer the parachute which was not offered in Switzerland.  By tugging on these large yellow ropes with handles, one is able to turn the parachute to the right and left.  One of the turns we did was so hard that our bodies were almost parallel with the ground of the globe we were jumping over.  It is just incredible people.  Highly recommended and definitely will do again, and again, and again.  Like scuba diving, things are just different to you when you are down there (or up there I should say in this case :) )  Good adventure, RCM

Cairns - Captain Matty's Barefoot Tour

CAPTAIN MATTY'S BAREFOOT TOUR WAS AN EXCEPTIONAL DAY.  Pickup at 7:30am on a Sunday morning came a bit early but knowing that the day was going to be great once I was up I got excited (like getting up for skiing).  The van holds 17 passengers who were mostly German girls, my two Irish friends, Dave and Jeff, my two new English friends, Jenna and Sarah, a French Couple, and a woman from Sweden.  The five questions Captain Matty asks everyone over the loudspeaker was age, where you are from, when you are leaving Cairns, your relationship status, and finally and most importantly, whether you scrunch or fold your toilet paper after going #2.  People were a bit more awake after this early morning bus passenger interview.  I am a folder.  Sam, my British work counterpart, and I were smart enough to buy a case of beer for the group the night before (we got the trip for free due to working at Koala Adventures) as it was the nice thing to do.  With beer on ice in the back being closely guarded and eyed by the Irish at 8am in the morning, we headed into the hills for the Atheton Tablelands.

First stop was to be the Cathedral Fig Tree (500 years old) but unfortunately closed for maintenance.  We blew by that exit and headed to Lake Eacham for breakfast and an early morning swim.  This lake was basically inside of a rainforest and before we reached it, Captain Matty described to us the dangerous snakes that may encounter as just last week someone reported running into a King Brown on the east bank of the lake on the pedestrian trail.  Captain Matty is certified in CPR, first aid, and snake bite first aid.  He proceeds to describe to us how it will go down if we are bitten by a venomous snake (the King Brown, or my favorite is the WILD and AGGRESSIVE Taipan snake).  Apparently the first thing to do after being bit is to remain calm.  Yeah, okay, I am sure.  Totally, I will just kick my feet up and pour some tea to drink and read the morning paper with two small holes in my shin dripping with juice that can kill me in an hour.  Anyway, remaining calm is so that your heart rate doesn't rise resulting in higher blood flow which results in the venom moving through your body faster and faster.  Once relaxation has been attained by the bite, he or she will then give his credit card to Captain Matty.  The credit card would then be placed directly onto the bite and the Captain would start wrapping the bite very tightly.  After wrapping that area he would then continue to wrap the entire limb (apparently 90% of bites happen on a human limb) from top to bottom.  So, why the credit card?  Firstly, some doctors in smaller medical centers (where it is best to take you as the large hospitals do not have the ability to help you quickly enough) won't help you until you have paid up front.  By having the credit card under the bandage, he has to unwrap it, resulting in major blood/venom flow, which in turn he would need to help you right then and there or watch you die.  Secondly, the credit card keeps the venom from hitting the bandages which would result in the venom being soaked up and much harder to take a sample of so that the doctor could identify which snake anti venom needs to be used to save your ass.  Thirdly, that credit card will make for a great bar story/souvenir.  That is, if you don't die before treatment becomes available, and if you make it through the 3 week sickness/hangover that the anti venom causes.

LAKE EACHAM WAS BRILLIANT; quiet, tranquil, and relaxing.  Only a couple of cars in the parking lot, our 17 travelers pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Picture a lake in the middle of a rainforest that has no shore waves, no ripples, and turtles and fish swimming in the shallows at a rate of .5 MPH.  The fish that saw us and we could see them basically were treading water and just chillin out not scared of a soul in the world.  Some lizards were on the bank too staring at us like we were welcome, but wanting to know who the hell we were and where we came from?  The core of our bus group (younger English and Irish and German people...oh yeah, and the one American like every trip; me) changed into our swimwear on the swimming dock and one by one took the plunge into the fresh, bath water temperature, water of the quiet Lake Eacham.  It is always funny how an early morning swim can wipe any past-night alcohol cobwebs right out of one's head.  After taking a group plunge shot, we dried off, and hiked back up to where Captain Matty was so kindly cooking bacon and eggs that he had bought for the group.  Some brown bread, ketchup, and bbq sauce later, we all were chomping down bacon and egg morning sandwiches.  Captain Matty is one of the best hosts I have been around in as.  From New Zealand, his long goatee and dreadlocked hair, combined with his tan, tattoos and beads, results in a seasoned and weathered 30 year old who knows two things; how to to make people feel comfortable, and everything about the Atheton Tablelands around Cairns.  Oh yeah, and he casually has guided people on white water rafts for over 7000 hours.  7000 hours.

THE WEATHER STARTED TO TURN FOR THE WORSE.  As we head to our 2nd stop, Dinner Falls and The Crater, the overcast and dry morning began to be a overly gray and wet morning.  Not a probably though as everyone was having a great time.  This stop had a very large sink hole (kind of like a cenote in Mexico) that was created by volcanic activity over 50,000 years ago.  We brought a large rock so that we could throw it off the viewing deck and into the The Crater.  We all remained quiet as this poor rock plummeted for a few long seconds and broke a big hole onto the green algae film covering the surface of the deep water.  By this time it was time for lunch and beer.  We zoomed into a town called Millaa Millaa (means water water) which has a population of 350.  At the only pub in town everyone ate steak sandwiches with chips, and cold Australian jugs of beer (two of which Captain Matty was so nice to buy for the group for his appreciation of having a full paying van that day).  I played a pull tab machine for a $1 and won $5.  Only gambling I have done this country and left a winner.

AFTER PUTTING SMILES ON THE LOCAL'S FACES AT THE MILLAA MILLAA PUB, it was time to move onto 6 more stops, Millaa Millaa Falls, Zillie Falls, Ellinjaa Falls, Crawford's Lookout, Josephine Falls, and Babinda Boulders.  Captain Matty doesn't wear a watch and is different from other tours as he doesn't say "okay you have 15 minutes to take pictures then be back at the bus"...we simply leave as a group when the concensus is it is time to leave.  Captain Matty doesn't wear footwear either (hence the BAREFOOT TOUR).  So back to the highlights.  The best was swimming under Millaa Millaa falls with my friends.  It was like something out of a novel.  Pouring down rain and a gorgeous waterfall in the middle of a tropical rainforest and I am swimming with people I have befriended in the past 3 weeks/days from all across the world.  One of the British girls and I kissed briefly under the falls just because it seemed like the thing to do.  Ellinjaa Falls was spectacular as well but no swimming, just pictures and a soft mist on the face.  Crawford's Lookout was cool to see that far into a gorge, happy we didn't attempt the 1.6KM many meter decent as we were mainly all in sandals and half drenched from the rain.  That hike would be a whole day.  Josephine Falls was near the end and was POWERFUL and INTIMIDATING.  Many young men have died here (27 since 1979 when the famous German people took the photographs that had faces in them...look it up on your own for the story).  People will swim in the top pool and be swept down the river and try to stand up and get their foot wedged into a rock gap and the raging water will break their knees/back and they will lunge forward and drown.  Captain Matty has taken two tourists out of the Tully river due to this very accident on a rafting trip that a brother raft company had lost (apparently a guide will not remove his dead as it will rattle him to much to continue his job).  So the guides help each other and dig out each other's dead.  Um, when is my rafting trip again, oh yeah, it is in a couple of weeks.
WE ENDED THE BUZZED, FUN, AND EPIC DAY with Captain Matty cooking up a sausage sizzle at the Babinda Boulders.  It was dawn and pouring rain so rather than hiking in to to see the boulders, our group stayed under cover and listened to Captain Matty's stories as we scarfed down sausage and grilled onion sandwiches, again, on just good ol' brown sandwich bread.  The stoves are cool at these places...all through these World Heritage locations, National Parks, etc, their are solar powered bbq grills that can be used by anyone.  You don't need charcoal briquettes or light fluid.  You simply hit a button and it runs on a timer and you can just leave it for the next person.  Such a novel idea I was a fan.  Captain Matty left us for a moment and went into the dark jungle and after 5-10 minutes, he came back with a Cane Toad.  The Cane Toad apparently is RUINING ecosystems as its back has a poison on it that kills anything that tries to eat it.  The Australian government has put a bounty out on this young toad's head and allows anyone to kill as many as they like.  Captain Matty does not demonstrate this killing on his tour in case it offends an animal activist so he more told us about in his backyard how he plays TOAD GOLF here and there with mates and a lot of times the toads are on fire before they are 9-ironed into the darkness of night and out of his backyard.  Overall great trip as it was great to get out of the city and away from work.  One more thing, for all of you who know how I can sleep...I took 5 naps on the bus that day (twice the amount of most of the rest of the group).  Trust me they were all very needed :)

Less Drinking, More Diving and BREATHING

LESS DRINKING and MORE DIVING has been the last week or so in Cairns which is a good thing if you have read how the first couple of weeks went.  I also got a job the other day which is great as I can now budget and have something steady.  The job is with Koala Guest Houses and its amenities are a bit above a hostel and just less than a resort/hotel.  I will be working the front desk, booking tours/trips, checking people in and out, opening/closing the front area etc.  I am stoked for this job as it was explained to me to be a 'cake' job and the pay is good and the hours are decent.  Plus, I get to call the companies we sell tours for (i.e. Skydiving) and let them know I am the new Koala Resorts trip booker and can I come on your excursion as a famile (free trip to familiarize myself with it so I can sell it).  Hopefully will lead to some cool events and journeys around Northern QLD.

DIVING IS INSANELY FUN and slightly dangerous.  Hard to explain what it is like when you are down there.  The world of the ocean is a world like none other.  Picture when you go underwater as a kid to dive in the pool for, say, loose change, or someones sunglasses; it is great down there and you wish you could stay down longer but unfortunately your little lungs need to surface for air and you rifle to the top.  Well diving is strange in that you do not have to rifle to the top and you can do whatever you want for a good amount of time.  It is so bizarre because your mind is saying this doesn't feel right but your lungs say "yeah, we're cool."  I can't tell you how much more respect you have for oxygen after going through a dive certification course (trust me as this is coming from a chest breather who has had slight anxiety in the past).  I have always been fascinated with being underwater but I hate holding my breath and cannot do it for very long.  I knew this course was going to take some mental focus and determination.  Let me put it this way, one person started drowning in the deep end on the first day and two instructors had to dive in to save him.  He was right next to me.  Wow.

THE COURSE I AM DOING is the 5 Day Open Water Diving PADI Certification which involves 2 full days of classroom and in the pool with a Dive Instructor and 3 days aboard a large vessel with other divers to complete your open water training dives and exercises.  A lot of the pool on the first day is in the shallow end on your knees and the class (around 12 people) are in a semi-circle facing the instructor.  We are all geared up with our regulators in, O2 flowing, etc.  The best way I can describe these classes under water is like a kindergarten class for deaf kids.  The instructor uses all sorts of hand signals to make us pay attention to him, demonstrate, number the exercises we are doing, join up with our buddy, etc.  So the first thing we learn is how to throw away our regulators (the big black thing that is always in your mouth allowing you to breath) and find them by reaching back behind us.  Sounds simple but let me tell you it is INTENSE.  3 or 4 in our group had to get up out of the water to breath because this idea of taking o2 away from their lungs made their brain say NOPE.  Crazy.

THE FIRST DAY after lunch everyone is told to get into the deep end (16 feet) and tread water for 10 minutes.  No more than 3 minutes went by when this beginner swimmer next to me started going under water as he paddled to try and stay above water.  Both instructors jumped in to rescue him.  Why someone would try and take a scuba diving certification course and can't swim or tread water is mind blowing.  Rest of the day was exercises to get comfortable with the BCD (buoyancy control device; inflates and deflates your jacket), the regulator (the black thing that goes in your mouth and provides air), the alternate air source, the tank, the primary and secondary air stages, etc.  This day for Ryan McLeod in Australia was the best yet as I was instantly addicted to diving and couldn't wait to get under water again, and when I got dropped off for my final job interview at Koala Guest Houses, I was already on the schedule and was told I would start Tuesday.  Had a couple of beers to celebrate and then went to bed early.

Day 2 INVOLVES THE POOL ALL MORNING until lunch at 1pm then classroom after that to take the final exam and do final lessons.  9am, everyone in the pool to do a 200m swim.  Everyone passed.  Now into the deep end to learn descending and ascending, how to get air from your buddy if your regulator goes out of if you are an idiot and run out of air, how to find a neutral buoyancy, how to let your mask fill up with water and then blow it out, how to take your mask completely off under water and put it back on (more on this in the ocean later).  Finished the written exam around 5:30pm, passed, headed home and took it easy again as we were to be picked up at 7:45am to head out on the liveaboard

THE OCEAN WAS SURGING that day.  Some rain, wind, people puking into bags, BIG sways and medium sized swells.  Guess who has 4 training dives to do in what looks to be a Wet N' Wild wave pool on crack?  Our team of 12 innocent travelers that just want to find Nemo on a coral reef.  The snorkels that come with the course suck and so you can picture 4 guys and 8 girls sucking down sea water and smashing into the side of the boat as our instructor is explaining our surface training exercises.  Some of them involved rescue swimming/carrying of our buddy (pushing and pulling).  Some of them require swimming a certain distance, some of them are buoyancy tests.  Picture trying to find neutral buoyancy in the conditions described above.  It was insane, at one point I just started laughing to myself;  is this really happening?  I am in the middle of the Pacific Ocean smashing against a large boat and large anchor chain/rope with 11 people I have never met and we are being judged on how well we can not drink seawater.  LOL.  It was awesome.  At this point, I felt as if I am on that new Discovery Channel show, Surviving The Cut.  After being battered around over like a bear on a bunny and accomplishing all of our surface exercises, we dive to 12 meters to start underwater exercises.

THERE ARE A LOT OF TRAINING EXERCISES to get your certification but I am going to focus on the one that is the scariest and everyone is afraid of.  If you don't know already the open water dive certification is to get to a level of diving where you can go WITHOUT A GUIDE OR INSTRUCTOR.  You can dive with a buddy anywhere in the world if you can show your license and log book (describes each dive in detail; depth, bottom time, surface intervals, etc).  So from the pool over 2 days to the 4 training dives in the ocean, you are required to gradually practice life threatening situations.  The main one is if you lose your mask underwater.  This may sound like no biggie in a pool or a lake but let me be the first to tell you that at 15 meters underwater in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, it is a little bit stressful.  So, at first the instructor points at you and runs his pointer finger horizontally up his dive mask half way.  This means grab the top of your mask and let water in half way up filling your nose and mouth.  To clear, you simply lean back a tad and hold the top of your mask and exhale hard through your nose and you have 'cleared your mask'.  Somewhat easy.  Then, next dive, he signals for you to fill up your mask to the brim with very salty water from the Pacific Ocean, which isn't exactly like chlorine water if you open your eyes.  Then, the final test, yes at 15 meters, or around 45 feet on the ocean floor, you are to COMPLETELY TAKE OF YOUR MASK to simulate it being knocked off while diving, and put it back on.  Not exactly something you are excited for, especially when you can't see 20 feet around you, there is sand coming up all around you, underwater currents are trying to move you on your knees to the left and right.  IT IS THE MOST FRIGHTENING THING A LOT OF US HAVE HAD TO DO IN OUR LIVES.  On training dive 3, I forgot to fill my mask from the top and filled it from the bottom...well...I drank a half a pint of seawater (breathed in through my nose on accident) and spit out my regulator (yes the item that gives you oxygen to stay alive at 18 meters).  Due to great training from the days before I remembered to continue to blow out of my mouth everything and Lewis, my instructor, who sees this type of thing all the time and is right there in front of you to make sure you don't drown, put my regulator in and blasted me a breath of air I will never forget for the rest of my life.  We have all had panic moments swimming/jumping bridges/etc as a child but this trumped anything I can remember in any deep end of any pool.  I couldn't not think about it all night, couldn't get to sleep that night, had dreams about it and woke up every 2 hours.  I talked to Lewis about it and he says to me "yeah mate, you don't want to spit your regulator out at those depths...very bad things can happen."  I thanked him for putting my regulator back in, and, basically saving my life, and he said "no worries mate, happens a lot on the mask fill test, that is why we are here."  Really?  Okay so you just keep people from drowning every week that is cool.  So, to conquer this new fear of being under, on training dive 4 (our last training dive), before the full mask take off test, I told him I want to do the partial mask fill, full mask fill, and THEN, yep, do the whole mask off.  A little bit of saltwater later and some zen like breathing I had practiced all night and morning to Florence And The Machine's Between Two Lungs, I dominated all three and overcame any fear I had the prior day.  Again, he was right in front of all of us with his hand on our arm and his other hand right in front of our regulators just casually waiting to make sure you stay alive on the ocean floor.  Unbelievable experience.  Another girl in our group who was doing well like I was through training also had a small slip up where when we were descending on the last training dive.  She went to fix her mask a bit and inhaled/drank about a pint of seawater, had to go back up to the boat and was RATTLED about going down again.  I talked to her about it a lot and one make up dive later with her buddy and our instructor, she conquered her fear as well and overcame.  This certification is probably the most scariest, fun, intense, and nerve racking thing I have ever done in my life (close second is canyoning in Interlaken, Switzerland).

AFTER TRAINING DIVE 4 IS COMPLETE, you are a certified PADI Open Water Scuba Diver.  From here is where the fun started.  We had 6 more dives over 2 days on the boat all for pleasure.  The night dive was interesting as when we plunged into the water their were small reef sharks circling the back of the boat (where we jump in).  Everyone has torches (large gun like flashlights) and it was the first time in my life I ever felt what it would be like to be a Navy Seal.  Visibility like 10 feet, flashlights of divers beaming all directions around huge coral walls and coming over a ridge with my team of 5 and merging into another group of 6 divers and now we have 11 lights spotlighting in all directions as we descend down a cavern.  Hard to explain diving at night.  If you have any claustrophobia or fear of confined spaces I do not recommend going on it.  You have no idea how far you are to the surface by looking, you don't know where you are going (except following the guide), and you have no idea what creatures are around any corner, including our good curious friend, the reef shark.

THE WEATHER CHANGED FOR THE BETTER.  By day 2 the surging was ending and the sun tried to come out throughout the day.  The first pleasure dive is crazy because you have been with your instructor all day (and some evenings) everyday for the last few days and he basically becomes the biggest badass and leader your will ever follow.  Well, your first pleasure dive is without him and no one else with any experience hire than 4 dives (like me and my buddy, Merriam).  So, just like anything else, you remember your training and everything that has been hammered into your head and you set off to go see Troppos (the reef location we were at that day) on your own with no one else.  Merriam did awesome, our dive got to a reasonable 15 meters and were down for about 20 minutes.  The dives just got better and better.  The weather got better and better.  My breathing got better and better (if you breath too much you waste air and can't stay down as long).  By the final dive, today (gorgeous weather on the reef; hot, sunny, blue waters...like you picture or see in magazines) we were down for nearly 40 minutes, covered the entire reef dive location and I came up way far away from the boat as we were cruising through so many up and overs, cold water blasts, warm water blasts, currents that launch you over reefs, so many fish, coral, turtles, and crustaceans that it would take an entire other blog entry to describe.  The diversity is unbelievable on the Great Barrier Reef.  It is something I can only wish everyone could see in their life.  Uplifting, emotional, and real it was one of the best experiences of my entire 29 years of living.  The best part about it is it runs north/south as long as the entire West Coast of the United States...so...lets just say I will probably be back to see another part of it sooner than later.

ON THE SMALLER BOAT NOW (picked us up off of Ocean Quest II, the liveaboard) headed back to Cairns.  Start work in the morning at 8am which is exciting.  Final Hilton interview Friday morning which is great.  Dave and Jeff should have some good new contacts and stories, it will be great to see them.  With a couple of band aids on my left foot, burps of Victoria Beer with some remnant salt water, music in my ears, a tan, a sore upper nose, and a physically/mentally exhausted, yet accomplished mind and body, I am excited to step foot and land and start looking for the next adventure.  RCM