I woke on 30th March still not having totally decided what to do. There were 3 choices: head north to Cairns (I had heard good things about Cairns), or head for nearby Magnetic Island (also recommended), or I could try to complete a scuba diving course and dive on the Great Barrier Reef…

I went to a dive centre that I had heard a couple of people mention: Mike Ball. It looked like it was a purpose-built dive training centre. The staff were helpful, and explained that it would be feasible to start a 5 day “PADI Open Water” certification course starting in 2 days, on Monday 1st April. However I would need to have a diving medical first – they told me which local doctor would do this, and I called the doctor’s office to book an appointment for the next day – Sunday.

Then, being someone who always checks alternatives, I went to a local diving trip agent to ask what other dive training centres I should consider. But all roads seemed to point back to Mike Ball, so I went back and signed up. For 350 USD it was not cheap, but it sounded like something that would open major new horizons for me, in that once certified I can basically dive anywhere in the world just by showing my card. And the $350 included 2 full-day high-speed boat trips out to the Great Barrier Reef…

Back at the Transit Centre, I got talking to a farmer – I seem to be meeting lots of farmers on this trip! This one was from Wigan. I’m surprised there are farms in Wigan – I thought Wigan was all docks and chemical plants. Maybe that’s why he is away travelling – he couldn’t find a farm…

Later I went out for a drink with the Wigan farmer. We were joined by a British girl who said she was a doctor and had grown up in Kenya. She had just come through SE Asia overland, and I picked her brains for tips on places to go and places to avoid. She mentioned hearing a rumour that Cambodia is about to start issuing independent tourist visas for the first time since the Vietnam war – something which I made a mental note of…

Sunday 31st March was spent preparing for my diving course. I had to get a taxi to the doctor, who was way out of town. For 35 USD the doctor signed a form saying that I was fit to dive. His only reservation was that I hadn’t demonstrated during the ear exam that I could “pop” my right eardrum, so he noted this down. I told him I can equalise under water, and he said I should be fine if that is true. I’m currently in some considerable pain from sunburn that I got during the Whitsunday Island trip – the doctor recommended something to sooth it. Putting the aqualung on my bright red shoulders will not be much fun.

Then it was time to become a student for the second time this trip! I went to Mike Ball’s shop and picked up the diving manual that I need to study, then headed to the Transit Hostel to start reading it. The training is being done under the auspices of the internationally recognised Professional Association of Diving Instuctors, or “PADI”. The PADI manual actually seemed very self explanatory and I progressed fast. Studying halted suddenly with the arrival of 3 Londoners, with whom I went to Andy’s Bar for a drinking session…

On the morning of Monday 1st April I was back to studying, in preparation for the course starting at 1 pm. By midday I was already well into Chapter 3, when an affable French guy called Jean-Pierre appeared in the hostel common room, with an identical manual. He said he was starting the same course as me.

Jean-Pierre and I headed to Mike Ball’s and were soon introduced to our instructor, Mark Bliss from Gravesend just east of London. There were 8 of us on the course, and we kicked off with a lecture in the lecture room. Scuba (self contained underwater breathing apparatus) was, we were told, invented just 40 years ago, by 2 Frenchmen, one of whom (Jacques-Yves Cousteau) I was familiar with due to his popular underwater TV documentaries. Prior to scuba, divers had to be fed air from the surface. Scuba thus freed divers from this “tether”, and turned diving into a recreational activity.

Then we had our first pool training session. We learned how to put all the gear together – to assemble the air tank, regulator and buoyancy control device (BCD). And then we went to the bottom of the pool – I was relieved to find I could equalise both ears as we descended.

Back at the hostel I found that there was now a drunk Canadian in the my dormitory, and was able to successfully request moving to another room! That meant I could do my diving homework and get to the end of Chapter 4.

We have been given diving logbooks – it seems every open water (non pool) dive needs to be logged.

Tuesday morning saw us back at Mike Ball’s. We had a closer look at how the training centre has been designed. As shown on the front of the log book, it is quite clever. The main pool is 4 metres deep and the surface is at roof level. Under the shallow end is the lecture room. The best feature is that from the main pool a wide underwater pipe runs forward towards the front of the building and actually passes through the office / dive shop, to join a vertical “well”. This well goes down a full 10 metres and is useful for practicing equalisation. The transit tube has windows, so divers transiting it can wave at customers standing below them in the dive shop! And best of all, divers going down the well can wave through a “porthole” at unsuspecting passers by on the road outside!!

After a lecture, we had the one part of the course that I was a bit worried about. A requirement to get certified is to demonstrate that you can swim 200 metres with no equipment. I am a hopeless swimmer, but fortunately the requirement didn’t say “no doggy-paddle”, nor did it say how long it should take. I took forever to swim those wretched 200 metres, which was 20 lengths of the pool. By the time I finished, the rest of the class were dry, changed, and tucking into lunch under the sun awning… I staggered out of the pool, feeling like my arms were about to fall off.

But having passed that test I feel quite optimistic about getting certified, since the rest of what we are learning is really quite straightforward. Having the regulator in my mouth (and knowing how to locate it if it falls out) gives me great confidence, and I have more or less lost my life-long fear of having my face underwater. Thanks to Tuesday afternoon’s pool session I am feeling quite competent at controlling my buoyancy, and by bedtime back at the hostel, I’d finished chapter 5. One more day in the pool, and then we are off to the Great Barrier Reef.