The morning began fairly badly as I was awoken by an alarm at 6:00am and then again at 6:10 and again at 6:20! Once I had finally suggested that they either get up or turn their alarm off, the ringing stopped.
My mood might not have been altered if the same girls hadn't woken me up at 3am by coming in drunk, turning on the lights and shouting excitedly at one another! I shouted too- but less excitedly and more in anger.
Trying to put my grumpiness behind me, I headed with Steph to the scuba boat. Having spent a lot of time with our friend Chelsea the scuba instructor, we were both excited and nervous for our dive.
Being in the last group, we got to snorkel for a bit first. The fish and corals were beautiful and looked a little more vibrant than those in the Whitsundays.
Our turn to dive. We geared up and our breath became heavy as we nervously climbed into the water. The tank on my back dragged me down until the instructor inflated my vest. We had to perform three tests before being allowed to dive. Had there been an official invigilator at the lesson, I'm pretty sure I would have failed each one! To begin with, we had our heads thrust under the water and we had to hold on to the boat. In my mind I was reminding myself to keep breathing through the mouth, and I gratefully took in the oxygen. Not so bad so far! The instructor then showed us that we had to remove our mouthpieces - the only thing keeping us alive and then put it back in without dying/inhaling gallons of salt water! Um...no! Are you insane?
Out it came, I immediately panicked as I blew bubbles out my mouth until returning it to my mouth. We did this a further three times and each time I was convinced I was drowning and would surely die!
It wasn't long until my claustrophobia kicked in full strength. Forgetting how to empty my mask of water, I began to hold my breath and panic that I couldn't breathe or escape. Only one meter down the pain in my ears was almost unbearable and I couldn't cope with it any longer. Up up! I pointed! They signalled are you ok?
No! No! My head shaking and my fingers desperately pointing to the sky where I knew oxygen lived!
Finally, I was pulled from my panic to the water's surface. I explained about my claustrophobia and panic at not being able to breathe or escape and that my ears were in agony. Aware that I sounded like a whiny bitch, I felt embarrassed that I couldn't even finish basic training. After a pep talk, the instructor promised it would be fine and that he would hold my hand. I literally held him to it! If he moved, he was holding my hand. Partly because I had no control over my limbs and was hopeless at going in the direction I was supposed to go in. Each time we went down, more pain split in my ears.
Finally we reached the bottom, possibly no more than five meters deep. We were pushed onto the sand where the photographer was waiting to capture the look of sheer terror in my eyes while fish swam around my face. As awful as it was, I did enjoy having the fish close and he took the best photo which was just my body with an entire fish as my head and face! Just the top of my hair peeking over the top!
We were then lead to photo opportunity number two where we held onto some rocks and looked at Nemo in his house! It was cute and all, but I really wanted to be done with diving. One more photo shoot. We each took it in turns to perform a somersault in the sea. It was surprisingly easy to spin around and you could breathe easily through the mouthpiece too!
I was relived we returned to the boat but the humiliation wasn't over yet. "You might want to sort your top out!" Pointed out the instructor. Luckily I wasn't flashing anyone, but I readjusted my bikini top. There! Humiliation over... "And you have snot all over your face!"