A Dive for a Dive

After winning the war with the evil Graham in the Alice Springs airport, AJ and I made it safely to Cairns. Our hostel sent a shuttle to pick us up, and once we dropped our bags in our room, we immediately went downstairs to make a plan for our time in north Queensland. This was the one city where we had no plan...we had ideas, but no plan. So we sat down with Margot, our new friend at Calypso Backpackers, and together we sorted it all out.

And before we go into our plan, I should provide you with a little background on our conversations about Cairns. Mr. LaPan (AJ, not his father) was set on the idea of skydiving. Ever since October, when we booked our tickets, he kept referring to jumping out of an airplane once we got to Cairns. For those of you who know me well, you know that I have no interest in skydiving. I had the opportunity while in South Africa and kindly passed because it was on adventure that never appealed to me. I spend enough time in airplanes, so the last thing I want is to tempt fate by jumping out of one. But all I heard about was skydiving. (And now thanks to Elyse, either, who was quick to jump on the "Briana should fall from the sky" bandwagon!)

When I thought of Cairns, all I could think of was scuba diving. Being a lover of the water (after all, I am a pisces) and heading toward the Great Barrier Reef, how could I not want to plunge into the sea and checkout the world below. Well, scuba diving is not something that appealled much to AJ. He's fearful of all the things in the water that can kill you: sharks, stingrays, drowning, kangaroos. For him, just the idea of getting into the water was making him nervous, much less submersing ourselves in it. But I was determined.

Since we found ourselves as an impasse, we didn't do much discussing or planning. We figured it would all just work out when we got to Cairns. Along our travels, as we met other adventurers, all we heard was how you HAD to definitely go skydiving and how you HAD to definitely to scuba diving. Each time the conversation came up, we would look at each other and smirk since we were both getting affirmation for our side of the argument. So, somewhere in the middle of the Outback, under a clear sky with the Southern Cross looking down upon us, I looked up at AJ and said, "What about a dive for a dive?" It was a brilliant idea (or so it seemed at the time). I'd skydive with him if he'd scuba dive with me. And there, with the Milky Way Galaxy as our witness, we agreed (neither one of us completely sold on the other idea, but willing to make the compromise).

So, as we saddled up to the reception desk to talk it over with Margot, we told her of our agreement. We also told her that we wanted to spend a day in the rainforest and hold a koala. With those few pieces of information, she was quickly able to whip us up an itinerary. The schedule?

Saturday - Skydiving at 12:30
Sunday - Tour headed north to and through the rainforest, spending the night in the forest
Monday - Diving on the reef from Cape Tribulation
Tuesday - Whatever we want!

When we asked her for suggestions as to what to do on our last day in Cairns (Tuesday), she said, "You can hot air balloon ride, abseil, shark dive, parasail, white water raft..." I said, "Is there anything to do in Cairns that doesn't involve being extreme?" Apparently, the answer is not much. We decided we would spend that last day doing a bunch of nothing and recovering from our "dive for a dive" adventure.

After our itinerary was set, we headed down to the night markets of Cairns to check out the typical souvenir-type stuff that these markets usually sell. Since we are big walkers, we declined the free shuttle to the town center and instead hoofed it the 15 minutes. And after a few rounds of the market and a stop for some ice cream, we made our way back to Calypso to enjoy a night of rest before the first of our dives.