Romp'n In Townsville

Statues in Townsville, Australia 2019

I flew into Townsville during the later evening. Checked in to the unfamiliar house in an even more unfamiliar part of Australia. Figured out where to get a shower and headed straight away to bed. This Airbnb was located about a 30-minute walk to the nearest Coles, and would be home for the next week or so. I’ll get the essentials tomorrow, then and there... I needed sleep. Exhaustion doesn’t even begin to cover how spent and drained I felt. But onward with salvaging this trip. If I couldn't stay and restart my life, maybe I could do something fun and memorable.


In the A.M. I took a walk to get groceries. A straight unwinding strolling past all the things. Like... A Creepy, random to my eyes, tall Aboriginal statue, check. Middle school aged kids playing in a shopping trolly, check. And dodging heaps of tiny frogs on my walk back, check. Got back and started inspecting my scuba gear while watching Netflix, check! Will I stay long here? Defiantly not in my plans. There really isn’t anything to do here for me other.

Frogs on the footpath 2019

So why was I there? Simple, I scheduled another scuba dive– S.S. Yongala & the Great Barrier Reef Dive. Both happen to make the top 20 places to scuba dive. Take a boat charter out to the shipwreck boasting a lot of sea life. Folks, I am talking sea turtles, snakes, fish, the works! And with this dive as deep as 130ft it would have marked the deepest, I have ever gone. Later the plan would be the boat charter would take us divers to the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. At least that was the plan within the next few days. This dive would also tic off 1-2 bucket list dives on any diver's top ten list. So why not?! Going to Aus and as a diver and not diving the barrier (even if touristy and having a rep for not being what it once was) is almost sacrilegious. But diving and flying do not mix well.


If you have training as a scuba diver, you already know one needs to make sure they don’t fly within a certain time post a deep dive. For those that don’t know it is simple. We breath in compressed air when diving, we absorb more gases than 02 (mostly nitrogen), and if we ascend too fast lots of serious injuries could occur. In short, no flying within 24 after a deep dive for our own health and safety. In the physics world it is called Boyle's Law. So, my plan was to not stay any longer in Townsville than needed for this dive.

Outside my Airbnb 2019

Folks, about nothing on this trip has gone to plan. This was no different. The bloody damn dive got canceled day of the launch due to weather… I remeber checking the forcast... There wasn’t one piece of bad weather in that area. But The skipper has the final say and the dive shop made the call to cancel. You have to respect it and the shop did offer to go... The following week. With my flight out of Townsville already scheduled I could not make the rescheduled dive without serious additional cost to me. I guess a reason to come back to Aus and at this point… I had then and still have now, damn few reasons. So I spent my time studying my PADI Instructor level materials and watching Avicii's (DJ) documentary on Netflix.  While watching things become a bit more clear about living your dreams... Once you have gotten to a place where you are living one, it takes a lot of work to maintain that dream.  I think thats what I didn't know before Aus.  Maybe Avicii didn't ever know and his outcome was far more dark and permanent.

Promo from Google search

Whilst studying the PADI instructor level materials it finally dawned on me and I decided to write to the PADI Oceanic home in Sydney office an official complaint of what had taken place at the dive shop in Brisbane.  Standards were broken or just not followed.  Diving can be dangerous and rules/standards need to be followed. BDA was ignoring some really important ones regarding teaching and supervision.  It wasn't about any sort of revenge, it was about the students that technically did not get the proper training PADI advertises.  And that creates a recipie for diving accidents - which can result in death.  Not exactly fun to stuff to pursue and I did in many ways end up taking a hit too.

But at least there was a silver lining.  I got to meet my flat mate for my time at this Airbnb.  Hathaiwan, was and I believe still is a surgeon from Thailand.  She was there in Aus finishing up her program that required her to practice in an English speaking country for two years as I recall.  That's two years away from her husband.  Hindsight... My problems were minor in comparison.  

 

Dining/Common Room Airbnb 2019

While bitter about my diving experiences, especially after that charter got canceled, turned out to exactly what I needed on this adventure down under. Sure, sometimes with experiences under our proverbial life belts we do have mindfulness during monumental life moments. But more often, when we are charged up and emotions are running full-on, we don't realize epic nights until they have long since past with retrospection and dashes of nostalgia covering up any negativity about those brief beautiful moments. I got a night in Townsville... I got my “Bourdainian” moment around a janky dinner table and well used plates with new mates.  And I am equally humbled and richer in every way in life from having such a night.

Dustin Jay Casey © 2024