So. We made it! Here we are in Sydney!
Where did I leave you all? South West Rocks? I think so. Well, after leaving there, we headed south and ended up spending a night in Harrington. NOt much there really, but quite pretty. THe next day we headed to Myall Lake National Park, which was really beautiful. We were allowed to make a fire there, and after being frustrated on Fraser Island, we decided to make a little one just because we could =) A nice place to have lunch! Headed into the Hunter Valley and arrived in Cessnock late in the afternoon. Booked a tour and headed to bed.
The following day was wine tour day =) With over 200 vineyards there was a lot of choice. We went to 5, tasting up to 15 wines and liquers at each. We started drinking at about 9.30am (killer) and if I'm honest I was pretty tiddly by lunchtime! The temperature was well into the 30s which made it prtty hard going. B the end of the day we were both wrecked but had a fantastic time. There were only 4 of us on the tour, and the other 2 were an elderly couple so it was an interesting day!
After the Hunter Valley we drove into the Blue Mountains (via the suburbs of Sydney by mistake, oops), taking us approx. 8 hours to drive 150 miles. Not good. We spent 3 days in the mountains and did a couple of walks. Beautiful scenery.
Yesterday we handed Betty in. We've added 6,445km (or 4005 miles) to her clock in the 60 days we had her. We're now in a hostel in Coogee. Very basic but nice to have a real bed and showers and toilets available whenever we want!
Excuse this rubbish post but we had a late night last night at a foam party. Quite a change from Betty! If I don't write again before xmas, I hope all our faithful readers (!) have a wonderful time.
Katy x
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Diving at SW Rocks
HI all!
Just a quick one about diving!
We managed to get out yesterday - beautiful weather (the first sunshine for a week or so) and we were both very excited about this dive. Got kitted up and jumped into the water which was a bone chilling 19 degrees. Eek! That's cold! Descended down and headed around a rock face. The leader Larry signalled for us to let some air out of the BCD so that we stayed close to the bottom and we crawled over the top of a big rock, straight into a gulley called the aquarium.
Neither of us could believe our eyes, we were in the middle of over 30 grey nurse sharks, mostly over 2.5m long! Although they look pretty fierce they were very calm and were as interested in looking at us as we were in looking at them. What an experience! There were also turtles and rays in amongst the sharks. It was too much to take in! We spent about 46mins down there before we came up. One hour on the top (and a quick warm up!) and we were back in. This time we were to dive through an underwater cave approximately 100m long. The cave was pitch black in the middle and filled with large crayfish and black cod. The exit to the tunnel was the end of the shark gulley so again we sat and watched them. Wonderful. My exit from the water wasn't so good this time: problems with my mask meant that it kept flooding and so in the end I gave up and closed my eyes, holding onto James as we ascended. Really pretty scary and not a nice experience. Thankfully it only happened on the safety stop, it would have been horrific in the cave!
We both agreed that it was so good we had to do it again, so headed out this morning. Very different conditions - lots of swell and surge which made for difficult diving. Fish rock was again full of sharks, but we couldn't get into the cave because of the surge. The staff decided that it was getting worse so we headed to Green Island for our second dive. Dropped down to a nice sandy bottom at about 16m and swam around a bit. Saw big Bull rays, octopus and other things. Lots of wobbegongs again, very nice. Bit of a drama coming up when a guy came over to me and signalled out of air, so I gave him my spare regulator and we ascended together. Unfortunately he hadn't emptied his BCD so we fair rocketed up the last 6m or so. NOt the best way to do it but everyone was ok so no worries! I'm definitely getting a broad range of experiences at the moment!
So what now? We're going to get into Betty and see where we end up =)
Love to all!
Katy x
Just a quick one about diving!
We managed to get out yesterday - beautiful weather (the first sunshine for a week or so) and we were both very excited about this dive. Got kitted up and jumped into the water which was a bone chilling 19 degrees. Eek! That's cold! Descended down and headed around a rock face. The leader Larry signalled for us to let some air out of the BCD so that we stayed close to the bottom and we crawled over the top of a big rock, straight into a gulley called the aquarium.
Neither of us could believe our eyes, we were in the middle of over 30 grey nurse sharks, mostly over 2.5m long! Although they look pretty fierce they were very calm and were as interested in looking at us as we were in looking at them. What an experience! There were also turtles and rays in amongst the sharks. It was too much to take in! We spent about 46mins down there before we came up. One hour on the top (and a quick warm up!) and we were back in. This time we were to dive through an underwater cave approximately 100m long. The cave was pitch black in the middle and filled with large crayfish and black cod. The exit to the tunnel was the end of the shark gulley so again we sat and watched them. Wonderful. My exit from the water wasn't so good this time: problems with my mask meant that it kept flooding and so in the end I gave up and closed my eyes, holding onto James as we ascended. Really pretty scary and not a nice experience. Thankfully it only happened on the safety stop, it would have been horrific in the cave!
We both agreed that it was so good we had to do it again, so headed out this morning. Very different conditions - lots of swell and surge which made for difficult diving. Fish rock was again full of sharks, but we couldn't get into the cave because of the surge. The staff decided that it was getting worse so we headed to Green Island for our second dive. Dropped down to a nice sandy bottom at about 16m and swam around a bit. Saw big Bull rays, octopus and other things. Lots of wobbegongs again, very nice. Bit of a drama coming up when a guy came over to me and signalled out of air, so I gave him my spare regulator and we ascended together. Unfortunately he hadn't emptied his BCD so we fair rocketed up the last 6m or so. NOt the best way to do it but everyone was ok so no worries! I'm definitely getting a broad range of experiences at the moment!
So what now? We're going to get into Betty and see where we end up =)
Love to all!
Katy x
Friday, December 12, 2008
South West Rocks...
I believe I left you all in Byron Bay, so that's where I'll pick up.
We didn't get up to too much in Byron - it was nice to finally pause and just relax. The weather was also pretty rubbish for a lot of the time we were there - lots of thunderstorms so we had to hide away quite a bit. We managed to get out for a surfing lesson one day which was very cool. Nice to get a reminder of how to do it, and I was even made to surf a pretty big wave. I felt pretty high up - can't wait to do more!
WE also managed to get out for a platypus tour (which involved a 4.30am start!). We were really lucky to see 3 and at one point one was less than 3m away from us. What an experience! A definite highlight for me. On the way back to the park we also saw a carpet python and a koala.
We left Byron and headed to Nimbin - an old hippy town where we were offered copious amounts of drugs, and then headed south to South West Rocks. After about 7-8 hours in Betty we were more than sick of her when we pulled up here! Had a nice chinese meal and slept on the main street. Classy.
Yesterday we had a bit of an explore - went the wrong way when suddenly James shouted, "Dolphin!" NOt entirely sure what he was on about as we were next to a small creek I asked him what he was on about, but sure enough there were 2 bottlenose dolphin in the river! We followed them for a good 15-20 minutes and they came very very close to us. We were jumping about like little idiots and running along the riverbank, not looking where we were going. Suddenly James stopped and pushed me backwards; we had been about 50cm from stepping on a very large snake! The snake (which we've been reliably informed was a red-bellied black snake) came straight at us and we ran away pretty quickly. We suddenly felt less comfortable about running around so beat a quick retreat to Betty!
The rest of the day we spent driving around and seein the sights. This morning we were supposed to go out diving, but poor weather meant it was cancelled. It's looking better now so fingers crossed for the morning! Looks like it could be one of the best dives yet so I'm feeling excited!
Hope all is well at home.
Katy x
We didn't get up to too much in Byron - it was nice to finally pause and just relax. The weather was also pretty rubbish for a lot of the time we were there - lots of thunderstorms so we had to hide away quite a bit. We managed to get out for a surfing lesson one day which was very cool. Nice to get a reminder of how to do it, and I was even made to surf a pretty big wave. I felt pretty high up - can't wait to do more!
WE also managed to get out for a platypus tour (which involved a 4.30am start!). We were really lucky to see 3 and at one point one was less than 3m away from us. What an experience! A definite highlight for me. On the way back to the park we also saw a carpet python and a koala.
We left Byron and headed to Nimbin - an old hippy town where we were offered copious amounts of drugs, and then headed south to South West Rocks. After about 7-8 hours in Betty we were more than sick of her when we pulled up here! Had a nice chinese meal and slept on the main street. Classy.
Yesterday we had a bit of an explore - went the wrong way when suddenly James shouted, "Dolphin!" NOt entirely sure what he was on about as we were next to a small creek I asked him what he was on about, but sure enough there were 2 bottlenose dolphin in the river! We followed them for a good 15-20 minutes and they came very very close to us. We were jumping about like little idiots and running along the riverbank, not looking where we were going. Suddenly James stopped and pushed me backwards; we had been about 50cm from stepping on a very large snake! The snake (which we've been reliably informed was a red-bellied black snake) came straight at us and we ran away pretty quickly. We suddenly felt less comfortable about running around so beat a quick retreat to Betty!
The rest of the day we spent driving around and seein the sights. This morning we were supposed to go out diving, but poor weather meant it was cancelled. It's looking better now so fingers crossed for the morning! Looks like it could be one of the best dives yet so I'm feeling excited!
Hope all is well at home.
Katy x
Saturday, December 6, 2008
... continued
Morning/Evening!
Packed up and headed for the ferry, with James in the driving seat. We were in a Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 with space for 3 in the front and 8 in the back. Landed on the island and headed for Central Station for a look about. Not much there so straight onto Lake Birrabeen which was absolutely beautiful. The water was stunningly clean and refreshing, with immaculate white sands on the shores. We left there all too soon and headed to another lake, can't remember the name, but it wasn't as good! Drove across the island to the beach and pitched our tents for the night. After some food we ended up having a few drinks and generally being a bit silly. It was so tempting to get into the sea but we'd been warned a million times that we would be eaten by tiger sharks so we stayed well away! There were loads of dingos wandering around too. One girl who fell asleep on the beach awoke to one licking her face. Nice.
Anyway, the next morning the guys walked out to Lake Wabby (I missed this cos I didn't hear them go), came back, and then we all jumped into the truck and headed up north to Indian head. I was driving along the beach for the first 40mins or so. Definitely a bit tricky at high tide with no hard, wet sand to drive on but good fun. Took a couple of hours to get up there. Climbed up the rocks and looked out to sea for aforementioned sharks - no luck there but plenty of turtles to be seen. Around up to champagne pools, disappointing, and then back down past the Maheno shipwreck and a freshwater creek to the same campsite. Slightly less drunken evening =)
Last day on Fraser saw us head up to a viewpoint of Lake Wabby and then on to Lake MacKenzie. This is the lake that everyone raves about, but I honestly preferred Birrabeen as it was pretty similar but far less crowded. Spent a good couple of hours there and then back over to the mainland. Fraser was a stunning island but I reckon you need more than a couple of days to have a proper explore! The structure of our tour was too rigid to allow us to do this - most of the group were disappointed with that as we all purposely chose a self drive tour to allow us to see a bit more. Somewhere to return to in the future! Also, I had an eye infection all weekend which was less than fun when there was nowhere to wash and we were camping on the beach. Yum.
After Fraser we spent the night in Hervey Bay then drove down to Noosa, giving a lift to Mike from Holland who was part of our group. Turned out to be a pretty boring place, but had a look around the shops and bought some new shorts to replace some that were too beaten up from Fraser to bother rescuing and a rash vest. Tried to find some nightlife with Mike, but failed miserably so retired to Betty quite early.
We left for Mooloolaba the next morning to meet up with Bruce for a final time. Spent a chilled day wandering around and watching the surfers from the balcony of the surf club. Up early the next day to get to a dive shop. Yep, we finally managed to get the 3 of us together for a dive! This dive would the HMAS Brisbane, a battleship sunk 3 yrs ago after being made diver friendly. We were the only guests on the boat which was really cool - the day before they'd taken out 3 boats! A short 15min boat ride got us there and we all got kitted up. I was wearing a 7mm wetsuit because the water was a rather chilly 21 degrees. 7 minutes into the dive and at about 20m underwater, there was a loud BANG. Looked around and checked that everyone was ok. Then I heard a loud bubbling. Everyone still ok. Brain clicks on and I realise therefore that the air must be coming from me. What a genius! James came over to me, grabbed hold of me and handed me his spare regulator. Turns out the low pressure inflator hose on my BCD had burst! Luckily I was in the company of 3 instructors and Bruce, a very experienced divemaster so I couldn't have been in better hands. One of the dive guides came over and I switched to his regulator, but then he realised he didn't have a spare for himself (naughty!) and had to grab the spare from the other guide. After a lot of switching of regulators, dive guide Michelle took hold of me and dragged me up to the surface. A quick change of gear and a many exclamations of, "I've never seen anything like that before!" I was back in the water to finish the orientation of the wreck. No worries!
We regrouped on the boat and had an hour on the surface. Man it was cold. Hopped back in and this time we were able to penetrate the wreck.It was absolutely incredible. We went through tiny escape hatches and tunnels, into the captains quarters, boiler rooms... saw the KILL and SURVIVE buttons... very cool. Not much room to manoeuvre at all and pretty challenging. As it was only 3 years old there wasn't too much in the way of life there - lots of little fish and the startings of a reef. Saw some octopi and lionfish. In about 20 years it will be an amazing site - definitely one to revisit! I must say that after the second dive I had a bit of a delayed stress reaction but it was all ok. Few hugs and all was sorted!
Said goodbye to Bruce for the final time - he's off to sea for 4 months now, travelling to Antactica and the Galapagos and drove off to Moffat Beach. Spent a restless night in Betty due to a massive thunderstorm...
Next day we headed to Australia Zoo, home of the late Steve Irwin. Saw lots of animals, fed an elephant, stroked a koala... came away with the feeling that they were putting across a really good message to the Aussie people about protecting their native wildlife. Another thunderstrom cut our visit short. Drove up into the glass mountains national park with the hope of some good views in the morning, but the cloud didn't lift.
Bypassed Brisbane and headed straight for Surfer's Paradise. Turned out to be a characterless concrete jungle so we spent about 2 hours there before running away. I managed to buy a bikini to replace one that was stolen from Koala's in Hervey Bay so at least we accomplished something! Drove down to Byron Bay, and that's where we are now!
Bit of an epic there. Hopefully I'll keep on top of it a bit more in the future!
Packed up and headed for the ferry, with James in the driving seat. We were in a Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 with space for 3 in the front and 8 in the back. Landed on the island and headed for Central Station for a look about. Not much there so straight onto Lake Birrabeen which was absolutely beautiful. The water was stunningly clean and refreshing, with immaculate white sands on the shores. We left there all too soon and headed to another lake, can't remember the name, but it wasn't as good! Drove across the island to the beach and pitched our tents for the night. After some food we ended up having a few drinks and generally being a bit silly. It was so tempting to get into the sea but we'd been warned a million times that we would be eaten by tiger sharks so we stayed well away! There were loads of dingos wandering around too. One girl who fell asleep on the beach awoke to one licking her face. Nice.
Anyway, the next morning the guys walked out to Lake Wabby (I missed this cos I didn't hear them go), came back, and then we all jumped into the truck and headed up north to Indian head. I was driving along the beach for the first 40mins or so. Definitely a bit tricky at high tide with no hard, wet sand to drive on but good fun. Took a couple of hours to get up there. Climbed up the rocks and looked out to sea for aforementioned sharks - no luck there but plenty of turtles to be seen. Around up to champagne pools, disappointing, and then back down past the Maheno shipwreck and a freshwater creek to the same campsite. Slightly less drunken evening =)
Last day on Fraser saw us head up to a viewpoint of Lake Wabby and then on to Lake MacKenzie. This is the lake that everyone raves about, but I honestly preferred Birrabeen as it was pretty similar but far less crowded. Spent a good couple of hours there and then back over to the mainland. Fraser was a stunning island but I reckon you need more than a couple of days to have a proper explore! The structure of our tour was too rigid to allow us to do this - most of the group were disappointed with that as we all purposely chose a self drive tour to allow us to see a bit more. Somewhere to return to in the future! Also, I had an eye infection all weekend which was less than fun when there was nowhere to wash and we were camping on the beach. Yum.
After Fraser we spent the night in Hervey Bay then drove down to Noosa, giving a lift to Mike from Holland who was part of our group. Turned out to be a pretty boring place, but had a look around the shops and bought some new shorts to replace some that were too beaten up from Fraser to bother rescuing and a rash vest. Tried to find some nightlife with Mike, but failed miserably so retired to Betty quite early.
We left for Mooloolaba the next morning to meet up with Bruce for a final time. Spent a chilled day wandering around and watching the surfers from the balcony of the surf club. Up early the next day to get to a dive shop. Yep, we finally managed to get the 3 of us together for a dive! This dive would the HMAS Brisbane, a battleship sunk 3 yrs ago after being made diver friendly. We were the only guests on the boat which was really cool - the day before they'd taken out 3 boats! A short 15min boat ride got us there and we all got kitted up. I was wearing a 7mm wetsuit because the water was a rather chilly 21 degrees. 7 minutes into the dive and at about 20m underwater, there was a loud BANG. Looked around and checked that everyone was ok. Then I heard a loud bubbling. Everyone still ok. Brain clicks on and I realise therefore that the air must be coming from me. What a genius! James came over to me, grabbed hold of me and handed me his spare regulator. Turns out the low pressure inflator hose on my BCD had burst! Luckily I was in the company of 3 instructors and Bruce, a very experienced divemaster so I couldn't have been in better hands. One of the dive guides came over and I switched to his regulator, but then he realised he didn't have a spare for himself (naughty!) and had to grab the spare from the other guide. After a lot of switching of regulators, dive guide Michelle took hold of me and dragged me up to the surface. A quick change of gear and a many exclamations of, "I've never seen anything like that before!" I was back in the water to finish the orientation of the wreck. No worries!
We regrouped on the boat and had an hour on the surface. Man it was cold. Hopped back in and this time we were able to penetrate the wreck.It was absolutely incredible. We went through tiny escape hatches and tunnels, into the captains quarters, boiler rooms... saw the KILL and SURVIVE buttons... very cool. Not much room to manoeuvre at all and pretty challenging. As it was only 3 years old there wasn't too much in the way of life there - lots of little fish and the startings of a reef. Saw some octopi and lionfish. In about 20 years it will be an amazing site - definitely one to revisit! I must say that after the second dive I had a bit of a delayed stress reaction but it was all ok. Few hugs and all was sorted!
Said goodbye to Bruce for the final time - he's off to sea for 4 months now, travelling to Antactica and the Galapagos and drove off to Moffat Beach. Spent a restless night in Betty due to a massive thunderstorm...
Next day we headed to Australia Zoo, home of the late Steve Irwin. Saw lots of animals, fed an elephant, stroked a koala... came away with the feeling that they were putting across a really good message to the Aussie people about protecting their native wildlife. Another thunderstrom cut our visit short. Drove up into the glass mountains national park with the hope of some good views in the morning, but the cloud didn't lift.
Bypassed Brisbane and headed straight for Surfer's Paradise. Turned out to be a characterless concrete jungle so we spent about 2 hours there before running away. I managed to buy a bikini to replace one that was stolen from Koala's in Hervey Bay so at least we accomplished something! Drove down to Byron Bay, and that's where we are now!
Bit of an epic there. Hopefully I'll keep on top of it a bit more in the future!
Friday, December 5, 2008
So... where were we?
Hi all!
So.. it's been a while. From where I left off..
We went diving the next day in the Whitsunday islands. Nothing too spectacular but nice to have an easy dive with no current threatening to rip my limbs off. Went for a nice goodbye meal with Wayne and Jane in the evening. Packed up our flat and Betty in the morning and off we went!
6/7 hours down the road to Emu park. It was like Yungaburra - deserted and weird. We managed to get shouted at by the only charvas in all of Australia buzzing around in a red corsa so that made me feel like I was back in Halty! The next day we headed down to Bundaberg. I was feeling pretty ill so had a nap in Betty while James went for a tour of the rum factory. WEnt for a chinese and were hassled out of there by 8pm. We've noticed this in a few places - if you're eating after about 8.30 the staff start to clean up around you, turning off lights and generally employing all the tactics I used to use in the Angel to throw people out at closing time. It's very strange.
Anyway, we hopped into Betty to try and fing somewhere to sleep. After much meandering we came across the Mon Repos Turtle Rookery (I'd read about it in the guidebook, but there were no signs and we'd given up hope) at about 9pm. The tours had left at 7pm, but after sweet talking the ladies in the gift shop they radioed some of the staff who told us to come down as a turtle had just climbed up the beach. We wandered down to the beach to be met by the guy in charge of all the research and he took us over to 2 volunteers. The turtle was a large female Loggerhead and we were fortunate enough to watch her dig a hole, lay her eggs and then bury them over. Even better, we weren't part of the 40 strong group of tourists we passed on the way there. A fantastic experience.
THe next day we drove down to Hervey Bay to meet our group for the Fraser Island tour - the pair of us and 7 other guys! Definitely a bit too much testosterone in the air! Absolute farce with the organisers (Koala) and I definitely do not recommend them. However, I'll just start ranting if I go on about it and I don't have much time... Infact, it looks like I'll have to cut this short as I need to get back to Betty before the parking meter runs out but I'll finish it off tomorrow!
Katy x
Monday, November 24, 2008
Mike Ball..finally
Okey dokey!
Well i guess its time i (James) finally got round to writing about our week's expedition on the "Mike Ball Dive Expeditions" live-a-board which we did 6 weeks ago. I'm rubbish at this writing business :D
After settling into a sailors life the first night (champagne, cheese & wine, fruit, 3 course meal, light alcoholic beverages...erm, thats a sailors life right?), we were up and diving the next morning after a relaxed full english breakfast (the food was the best bit on this boat, forget the diving!).
That day we did 4 dives all with nearly full coral cover (particularly Acropora palmata for those interested), plenty of Giant Clams of all colours, puffer fish and large barracuda. Visability was good, the dive operation was a well oiled machine with an 'open deck' which allowed you to dive as much or as little as you wanted.
We didnt manage to get out to Osprey reef as, despite that October was supposed to the calmest month, we were looking at the prospect of +30knot winds at an exposed reef 90miles off the coast. So we stayed protected inside the GBR.
Katy successfully completed her Enriched Air (Nitrox) course so we could spend longer underwater 'cus we just couldnt get enough when we were down there. We both also completed our Underwater Naturalist courses with an awsome/mental/mildly schizophrenic/slightly unbalanced chap called Laurence we seemed to know more about the marine life than the whole of Blue Planet and more.
Essentially, we dived a whole load of other awsome sites, those particularly worth mentioning include Acropolis - the whole site was 100% covered with table coral of many different colours; Code Hole - which is home to the giant Potato Cods (~2m), a few easily viewed white tip reef sharks and considerable current amongst other things; Steve's Bommie - with all the different types of anemone fish in one place, lion and scropion leaf fish, stone fish and the sweetest little baby white tip i've ever seen, can't have been more than 2ft and looked rather weary of a 2m nemo shoving its ugly face next to it.
There were also many other dive sites and some cool night dives as well, with pleatny of cuttlefish (i love cuttlefish, incredible creatures!!), nudibranchs, pygmy sea horses, white tip & black tip and grey reef sharks, lobsters, giant puffer fish and some crazy little Flame File Shells which look like they are conducting electricity.
We also met some great people on board, passangers and crew alike, ate delicious food everyday and had a lot of fun.
Well i guess its time i (James) finally got round to writing about our week's expedition on the "Mike Ball Dive Expeditions" live-a-board which we did 6 weeks ago. I'm rubbish at this writing business :D
After settling into a sailors life the first night (champagne, cheese & wine, fruit, 3 course meal, light alcoholic beverages...erm, thats a sailors life right?), we were up and diving the next morning after a relaxed full english breakfast (the food was the best bit on this boat, forget the diving!).
That day we did 4 dives all with nearly full coral cover (particularly Acropora palmata for those interested), plenty of Giant Clams of all colours, puffer fish and large barracuda. Visability was good, the dive operation was a well oiled machine with an 'open deck' which allowed you to dive as much or as little as you wanted.
We didnt manage to get out to Osprey reef as, despite that October was supposed to the calmest month, we were looking at the prospect of +30knot winds at an exposed reef 90miles off the coast. So we stayed protected inside the GBR.
Katy successfully completed her Enriched Air (Nitrox) course so we could spend longer underwater 'cus we just couldnt get enough when we were down there. We both also completed our Underwater Naturalist courses with an awsome/mental/mildly schizophrenic/slightly unbalanced chap called Laurence we seemed to know more about the marine life than the whole of Blue Planet and more.
Essentially, we dived a whole load of other awsome sites, those particularly worth mentioning include Acropolis - the whole site was 100% covered with table coral of many different colours; Code Hole - which is home to the giant Potato Cods (~2m), a few easily viewed white tip reef sharks and considerable current amongst other things; Steve's Bommie - with all the different types of anemone fish in one place, lion and scropion leaf fish, stone fish and the sweetest little baby white tip i've ever seen, can't have been more than 2ft and looked rather weary of a 2m nemo shoving its ugly face next to it.
There were also many other dive sites and some cool night dives as well, with pleatny of cuttlefish (i love cuttlefish, incredible creatures!!), nudibranchs, pygmy sea horses, white tip & black tip and grey reef sharks, lobsters, giant puffer fish and some crazy little Flame File Shells which look like they are conducting electricity.
We also met some great people on board, passangers and crew alike, ate delicious food everyday and had a lot of fun.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
S.S Yongala
Hi!
I hope everyone at home is well. So many people have been complaining about the cold and snow via facebook. My head gets confused whenever I realise that it's November and I'm sitting in 33 degree heat. Hmmm.
Anyway, I'll stop annoying you all =) 2 days ago we drove back up to Ayr so that we could dive the S.S Yongala. I didn't like Ayr the first time, and this visit compounded my dislike of the place. We went to a pub and ordered some food, which was given to some Japanese people. When we asked where our food was they got really angry and grudgingly agreed to actually feed us, however they had run out of what we'd ordered. Grrr. Keeping the 2 of us away from food when we're hungry really isn't a good idea. Luckily they survived to tell the tale. While we were eating I was convinced this guy was staring at me, but I wasn't sure if it was paranoia. I went to the toilet and as I came out he was standing outside the door and told me that he wished he'd been in there with me. Charming. I mumbled something and we scarpered. Nice place. I think the gene pool is perhaps a little shallow there.
We went to see Quantum of Solace (James had been particularly excited about this) but were both a bit disappointed. Well.. at least we got to see some exciting flashy action. We parked Betty up in the middle of the road as we had last time. I went to the public loos to brush my teeth, and was followed in by some drunk aboriginal teenagers who were banging on the doors and shouting at me. Legged it back to Betty and spent a very hot and restless night. I don't think we'll be going there again!
We set off in the morning for Alva Beach to get to the dive shop. There was a really strong wind and we were worried that it would be called off, but they decided it would be ok and we got into the boat in the early afternoon. A very rough journey of 40ish minutes got us to the dive site. Immediately it was obvious it wasn't going to be easy, with a really strong current and 2-3m swells. As soon as we got in the water I realised these would be the most challenging dives I've done. We descended down the line (hanging on for grim death otherwise we'd end up in New Zealand) and made our was down to the wreck at about 25m. The life on the wreck was incredible, everything seemed to be much bigger than on the reefs I've dived and the sheer amount of fish was overwhelming. To begin with we swam into the current, which I found really difficult. At one point I realised that I was swimming as hard as I possibly could and was making no headway. I managed to grab James and flail around to signal that, so we split off and started to head back. The journey back to the stern of the wreck was rather easier as you can imagine and it was the fastest drift dive I've ever done! Just behind us as we reached the line was a 3m Bull shark. Eek! As we were doing our safety stops on the line an eagle ray came up just below us and hovered for a few minutes. We were both really excited to see it - I've never seen one before and it was beautiful! We both returned to the boat with 30Bar of air left and feeling pretty tired.
After a one hour surface interval we were back in the water. Again the dive was much the same in terms of current. This time we saw a huge Loggerhead turtle (and many smaller ones) and several olive sea snakes. This time when we were doing our safety stops, two absolutely enormous Marbled rays came gliding around. I would the larger of them to have been pushing 3m across, but it's hard to tell. Incredible. Another tiring haul along the rope brought us back up on the boat. I could hardly move when I got back on the boat.
The Yongala was a steamship that sunk in a cyclone in 1911. She was built in Newcastle (hurray!) and then taken to Australia. If you're interested in reading about the history of the wreck it's all on the website that I put in the last blog.
The journey home was definitely one to remember. The swells had grown in size and it was getting dark. We were travelling in a metal boat with a large fuel tank and several tanks of both compressed oxygen and air. Directly into a raging lightning storm. Fantastic! As you can tell we made it back to shore alive by about 8pm. We made our way back to Airlie in Betty and collapsed into bed.
Today James has headed to Whitehaven beach to check it our for himself while I'm recovering. My hands and shoulders are really sore from hauling myself on the rope and because of an old injury to my left elbow, that has swollen up a bit. However, there's no way I would've missed those dives so no complaints here! Tomorrow we're off for some diving here, and then on Tuesday we're finally saying goodbye to Airlie and heading on down the coast. We'll be doing a 4x4 jeep safari on Fraser island next weekend which we're both looking forward to.
Sorry for the length of this one! I hope that you all get a bit of warmth soon!
Katy x
I hope everyone at home is well. So many people have been complaining about the cold and snow via facebook. My head gets confused whenever I realise that it's November and I'm sitting in 33 degree heat. Hmmm.
Anyway, I'll stop annoying you all =) 2 days ago we drove back up to Ayr so that we could dive the S.S Yongala. I didn't like Ayr the first time, and this visit compounded my dislike of the place. We went to a pub and ordered some food, which was given to some Japanese people. When we asked where our food was they got really angry and grudgingly agreed to actually feed us, however they had run out of what we'd ordered. Grrr. Keeping the 2 of us away from food when we're hungry really isn't a good idea. Luckily they survived to tell the tale. While we were eating I was convinced this guy was staring at me, but I wasn't sure if it was paranoia. I went to the toilet and as I came out he was standing outside the door and told me that he wished he'd been in there with me. Charming. I mumbled something and we scarpered. Nice place. I think the gene pool is perhaps a little shallow there.
We went to see Quantum of Solace (James had been particularly excited about this) but were both a bit disappointed. Well.. at least we got to see some exciting flashy action. We parked Betty up in the middle of the road as we had last time. I went to the public loos to brush my teeth, and was followed in by some drunk aboriginal teenagers who were banging on the doors and shouting at me. Legged it back to Betty and spent a very hot and restless night. I don't think we'll be going there again!
We set off in the morning for Alva Beach to get to the dive shop. There was a really strong wind and we were worried that it would be called off, but they decided it would be ok and we got into the boat in the early afternoon. A very rough journey of 40ish minutes got us to the dive site. Immediately it was obvious it wasn't going to be easy, with a really strong current and 2-3m swells. As soon as we got in the water I realised these would be the most challenging dives I've done. We descended down the line (hanging on for grim death otherwise we'd end up in New Zealand) and made our was down to the wreck at about 25m. The life on the wreck was incredible, everything seemed to be much bigger than on the reefs I've dived and the sheer amount of fish was overwhelming. To begin with we swam into the current, which I found really difficult. At one point I realised that I was swimming as hard as I possibly could and was making no headway. I managed to grab James and flail around to signal that, so we split off and started to head back. The journey back to the stern of the wreck was rather easier as you can imagine and it was the fastest drift dive I've ever done! Just behind us as we reached the line was a 3m Bull shark. Eek! As we were doing our safety stops on the line an eagle ray came up just below us and hovered for a few minutes. We were both really excited to see it - I've never seen one before and it was beautiful! We both returned to the boat with 30Bar of air left and feeling pretty tired.
After a one hour surface interval we were back in the water. Again the dive was much the same in terms of current. This time we saw a huge Loggerhead turtle (and many smaller ones) and several olive sea snakes. This time when we were doing our safety stops, two absolutely enormous Marbled rays came gliding around. I would the larger of them to have been pushing 3m across, but it's hard to tell. Incredible. Another tiring haul along the rope brought us back up on the boat. I could hardly move when I got back on the boat.
The Yongala was a steamship that sunk in a cyclone in 1911. She was built in Newcastle (hurray!) and then taken to Australia. If you're interested in reading about the history of the wreck it's all on the website that I put in the last blog.
The journey home was definitely one to remember. The swells had grown in size and it was getting dark. We were travelling in a metal boat with a large fuel tank and several tanks of both compressed oxygen and air. Directly into a raging lightning storm. Fantastic! As you can tell we made it back to shore alive by about 8pm. We made our way back to Airlie in Betty and collapsed into bed.
Today James has headed to Whitehaven beach to check it our for himself while I'm recovering. My hands and shoulders are really sore from hauling myself on the rope and because of an old injury to my left elbow, that has swollen up a bit. However, there's no way I would've missed those dives so no complaints here! Tomorrow we're off for some diving here, and then on Tuesday we're finally saying goodbye to Airlie and heading on down the coast. We'll be doing a 4x4 jeep safari on Fraser island next weekend which we're both looking forward to.
Sorry for the length of this one! I hope that you all get a bit of warmth soon!
Katy x
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The end of an era?
So.. we're coming to end of our stay at Airlie! Some good news first... James is now a fully qualified PADI Instructor! After 2 weeks of hard work and 2 days of exams the boy has passed and I'm very proud of him =)
What's next? Hopefully we'll be heading up to Ayr to dive the Yongala (http://www.yongaladive.com.au/) which will be amazing, but is somewhat weather dependent as the wreck is completely unprotected. We're also hoping to possibly go out on a dive boat for a few days around here. After that we'll be heading south to Fraser Island for a few days.
I haven't been up to much since I last updated. Bruce came visiting on Sunday (driving 15 hours up from Brisbane!). We went on a bit of an adventure on Monday around the local area, and then on Tuesday we went over to Whitehaven beach to chill out for the day whil
e James was doing a first aid course. The beach itself has a high content of silica in the sand so squeaks when you walk on it (but not as loudly as the beaches in Salvador). It was absolutely perfect weather for it too. Lucky me!
Bruce left this morning to head up to Cairns for work. James finished his first aid course today and we're just getting our stuff together to get back on the road with Betty in the next few days.
Much love to all at home!
Katy x
What's next? Hopefully we'll be heading up to Ayr to dive the Yongala (http://www.yongaladive.com.au/) which will be amazing, but is somewhat weather dependent as the wreck is completely unprotected. We're also hoping to possibly go out on a dive boat for a few days around here. After that we'll be heading south to Fraser Island for a few days.
I haven't been up to much since I last updated. Bruce came visiting on Sunday (driving 15 hours up from Brisbane!). We went on a bit of an adventure on Monday around the local area, and then on Tuesday we went over to Whitehaven beach to chill out for the day whil
e James was doing a first aid course. The beach itself has a high content of silica in the sand so squeaks when you walk on it (but not as loudly as the beaches in Salvador). It was absolutely perfect weather for it too. Lucky me!Bruce left this morning to head up to Cairns for work. James finished his first aid course today and we're just getting our stuff together to get back on the road with Betty in the next few days.
Much love to all at home!
Katy x
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Airlie Beach
Hi all!
Just a quick update to confirm that we're alive. I haven't been up to much apart from reading and swimming in my private pool. It's a hard life really. Looks like we're going for a meal with our neighbours Wayne and Jane (!) this evening at the Hog's Breath Cafe. A relief at last from my cooking =)
Katy x
Just a quick update to confirm that we're alive. I haven't been up to much apart from reading and swimming in my private pool. It's a hard life really. Looks like we're going for a meal with our neighbours Wayne and Jane (!) this evening at the Hog's Breath Cafe. A relief at last from my cooking =)
Katy x
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Airlie Beach
Hi! So... here we are in Airlie Beach, our home for at least the next 2 weeks.
The story since we last spoke. We met up with Chiara (James' italian friend) in the afternoon and just hung around in Cairns. A really nice girl with some pretty funny expressions. They realised that they'd only ever met each other in the southern hemisphere, despite both living in Europe. We camped outside Mike Ball Dive Expeditions on Lake Street in Cairns, a very classy place to stay with public toilets a mere wander away.
We left in the morning and headed up to Kuranda. Most people go up there via a cablecar but we're cheap so we drove there. We wandered around for a little while and had lunch. Betty made a mess all over the carpark so we drove away quickly to avoid embarrassment. Headed down to Mareeba and on my suggestion made our way to the wetlands. The road there was unsealed, and was not all that good for poor old Betty, but we persevered and got there. Well worth it in the end. An absolutely stunning reserve and completely unexpected in the middle of the scrub surrounding it. Lots of birdlife and a crazy little frog.
After we were done there we headed down to Yungaburra. What an odd place. Imagine Haltwhistle in the middle of nowhere and then add some more inbreeding. We parked up at the Bruce Jones Market Place carpark and stayed there for the night. While I was on the phone to mum to find out about her broken collarbone (poor mum) I saw a tree kangaroo climbing about on a telegraph pole. Ace =) We went to the pub and were the only 2 people there. The barman was slowly getting drunk in the corner and at first seemed to resent us for entering. We had one drink and scarpered!
The next morning we headed to Millaa Millaa falls - stunning - and then drove the waterfall circuit around there. James hurt his ankle and it was a bit touch and go for a minute but thankfully it was ok, so no worries. Ruined his chance for a swim though which was a real shame.
We took the decision to head to Undara lava tubes which was a bit of a mission through the tablelands and into the outback. It wasn't helped by the fact that we took the wrong road for 42km.... meaning a backtrack of 42km. Whoops. This wouldn't normally have been a problem except it meant that we ended up driving at dusk. This is when the kangaroos, emus, cattle, wild pigs and other large creatures become active and hang out on the roads. Not something you want to hit, and we'd seen enough roadkill to know that there were a LOT of animals out here. Luckily we saw very little and made it there in one piece.
We were up early in the morning to see the lava tubes which were bigger than any I'd seen in other places. Pretty amazing structures. We had a long drive to Mission Beach (where James spent 5 weeks before I arrived) and camped out there next to the beach. I created a gourmet meal on bangers and mash, widening James' culinary experiences considerably, and we both promptly fell asleep. So much for the big night out!
Another trip to a waterfall followed - Wallaman falls, the highest in Australia. Again, another long drive to get there but it was beautiful. Unfortunately the marsh flies were too much for us and after many expressions of annoyance (such as 'gosh, these flies are annoying') we were forced away. Drove all the way to Ayr and spent a night parked up on the street. We went to the cinema (civilisation!) and watched a pretty stupid film called Step brothers.
Yesterday we made our way down the coast to Airlie, with a stop at a wonderful beach in Bowen on the way. We're living in a little flat next to the centre where James is doing his course. There's only one or two cockroaches =) It's nice to have some space to stretch out. I'm going to be spending a lot of time by the lagoon reading over the next 2 weeks....
Monday, October 27, 2008
Back in Cairns... again
Ok... now we're back in Caaaaaaairns and Betty is all fixed up with a new battery and charger. I'm glad that we were right and that there was something wrong with her. The hire company were massively reluctant to believe us on the phone and so we had to drive back here to show them that things were not as they should be. After about an hours work she was ready for us.
It has occured to me that I haven't written anything about the week on the liveaboard. I'd love to put some pics up on here but James is currently busy sorting his pics out and they're all on his camera.
We rocked up to the boat at about 6pm on a Thursday evening to be greeted by a champagne reception. We met all the other guests and the crew. We were the youngest on board for the first part of the week but it was no problem. After a very bumpy night we made our way to the first dive site and were in the water at very early o' clock. The boat operated an open deck policy, which meant that you could pretty much dive when you wanted, up to 5 dives a day. I had to have an orientation dive just to prove that I'm not completely useless in the water as it had been over a year since I'd dived. After that dive we were able to buddy up and do as we liked at each dive site. This was far preferable to following a dive leader and being in a big group crowded around a reef and scaring everything away.
I won't bore you with the details of every dive (I'm sure James has that stored up for the future) but some highlights for me were seeing my first sharks (whitetip reef sharks and a grey reef shark), lots of cuttlefish, the Potato Cod at Cod Hole (particularly during the night dive when they followed the light of my torch to hunt with) and many other things. While on board I did the Nitrox speciality course which allowed me to use a different blend of gas with a much higher oxygen content. This made multiple dives far less tiring than if I'd been using air. We both did the Naturalist speciality course with the illustrious Laurence Buckingham, a man not quite of this planet. We weren't going to bother with it but after chatting to him we felt we had to. The man is a real gold mine of information, and we both learned a lot from him.
The week was split into two parts, with some members of the group leaving halfway through to be replaced by newcomers. We met some fantastic people on the boat, both crew and guests. Anyway, I'll leave this topic for James to talk about as it really is his forte and it seems like I haven't shut up yet =)
We should be heading out to the Atherton tablelands and that area tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be meeting up with a girl that James met on one of his Operation Wallacea expeditions later today so that'll be cool. We have to be in Airlie beach by Nov 3rd so that James can prepare for his diving instructors course. We'll be there for about a month in total, and I'm thinking of ways to pass the time as he'll be pretty busy all that time.
Stay in touch!
Katy x
It has occured to me that I haven't written anything about the week on the liveaboard. I'd love to put some pics up on here but James is currently busy sorting his pics out and they're all on his camera.
We rocked up to the boat at about 6pm on a Thursday evening to be greeted by a champagne reception. We met all the other guests and the crew. We were the youngest on board for the first part of the week but it was no problem. After a very bumpy night we made our way to the first dive site and were in the water at very early o' clock. The boat operated an open deck policy, which meant that you could pretty much dive when you wanted, up to 5 dives a day. I had to have an orientation dive just to prove that I'm not completely useless in the water as it had been over a year since I'd dived. After that dive we were able to buddy up and do as we liked at each dive site. This was far preferable to following a dive leader and being in a big group crowded around a reef and scaring everything away.
I won't bore you with the details of every dive (I'm sure James has that stored up for the future) but some highlights for me were seeing my first sharks (whitetip reef sharks and a grey reef shark), lots of cuttlefish, the Potato Cod at Cod Hole (particularly during the night dive when they followed the light of my torch to hunt with) and many other things. While on board I did the Nitrox speciality course which allowed me to use a different blend of gas with a much higher oxygen content. This made multiple dives far less tiring than if I'd been using air. We both did the Naturalist speciality course with the illustrious Laurence Buckingham, a man not quite of this planet. We weren't going to bother with it but after chatting to him we felt we had to. The man is a real gold mine of information, and we both learned a lot from him.
The week was split into two parts, with some members of the group leaving halfway through to be replaced by newcomers. We met some fantastic people on the boat, both crew and guests. Anyway, I'll leave this topic for James to talk about as it really is his forte and it seems like I haven't shut up yet =)
We should be heading out to the Atherton tablelands and that area tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be meeting up with a girl that James met on one of his Operation Wallacea expeditions later today so that'll be cool. We have to be in Airlie beach by Nov 3rd so that James can prepare for his diving instructors course. We'll be there for about a month in total, and I'm thinking of ways to pass the time as he'll be pretty busy all that time.
Stay in touch!
Katy x
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Cape Tribulation
Hey all!
After leaving Cairns in our lovely camper Betty, we made our way up to Port Douglas and stocked up on supplies. Chilled out on the beach for a while and then headed to the Mossman gorge. We timed it perfectly and ended up having the place to ourselves. The water was pretty cold but really refreshing. We camped there for a night as I pretty much passed out at 7.30 pm and slept through until about 9.30 =) Headed up to Daintree, realised there was literally nothing there, turned around, came back and went into a zoo we passed on the way. I had a great time feeding the kangaroos and wallabys. James, however, caught the attention of one of the males who got a bit overexcited by his presence and wanted a fight, jumping up and headbutting his one day old camera lens. Whoops.
Lenses intact we escaped and made our way over the river crossing and up to Cape Tribulation. There's pretty much nothing here but it's beautiful. The scenery on the drive up was gorgeous, although Betty doesn't like being thrown around corners very much. Last night we went on a night walk in the rainforest and found a tarantula, 3 Boyd's Forest Dragons, a tree frog and some other stuff.
So far today we have been sea kayaking (is it a wise idea for me to be on the sea here with this surname?) which was fantastic. The wind was around 25 knots around the headland and we were the only pair in the group who could get round - tremendous fun, if a bit wet. Came back, had lunch, then went canopy surfing in the rainforest. Basically we were in harnesses and zipped about on wires. Good fun.
So that's where we are now. Looks like we might have to head back into Cairns tomorrow as we think Betty's battery is on the blink. Hmmm.
K x
After leaving Cairns in our lovely camper Betty, we made our way up to Port Douglas and stocked up on supplies. Chilled out on the beach for a while and then headed to the Mossman gorge. We timed it perfectly and ended up having the place to ourselves. The water was pretty cold but really refreshing. We camped there for a night as I pretty much passed out at 7.30 pm and slept through until about 9.30 =) Headed up to Daintree, realised there was literally nothing there, turned around, came back and went into a zoo we passed on the way. I had a great time feeding the kangaroos and wallabys. James, however, caught the attention of one of the males who got a bit overexcited by his presence and wanted a fight, jumping up and headbutting his one day old camera lens. Whoops.
Lenses intact we escaped and made our way over the river crossing and up to Cape Tribulation. There's pretty much nothing here but it's beautiful. The scenery on the drive up was gorgeous, although Betty doesn't like being thrown around corners very much. Last night we went on a night walk in the rainforest and found a tarantula, 3 Boyd's Forest Dragons, a tree frog and some other stuff.
So far today we have been sea kayaking (is it a wise idea for me to be on the sea here with this surname?) which was fantastic. The wind was around 25 knots around the headland and we were the only pair in the group who could get round - tremendous fun, if a bit wet. Came back, had lunch, then went canopy surfing in the rainforest. Basically we were in harnesses and zipped about on wires. Good fun.
So that's where we are now. Looks like we might have to head back into Cairns tomorrow as we think Betty's battery is on the blink. Hmmm.
K x
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Diving
Hey all...
Back from our very exciting week on a liveaboard with MIKE BALL dive expeditions. It was super awesome, except strong currents prevented us getting to Osprey Reef which was a bit of a kicker. We had some really brilliant dives and I saw my first sharks. I made friends with an Aussie called Bruce - we're thinking about keeping him as a pet.
Currently waiting for the camper to turn up so I have to go. I'll write a proper one later.
Katy x
Back from our very exciting week on a liveaboard with MIKE BALL dive expeditions. It was super awesome, except strong currents prevented us getting to Osprey Reef which was a bit of a kicker. We had some really brilliant dives and I saw my first sharks. I made friends with an Aussie called Bruce - we're thinking about keeping him as a pet.
Currently waiting for the camper to turn up so I have to go. I'll write a proper one later.
Katy x
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Uluru, Kata-Tjuta and King's Canyon...
... were fantastic! Don't have much time to write but I'll do my best.
Flew into Alice Springs. Turns out the Masters Games is being held there for the next 2 weeks - massive competition for lots of sports with teams from all over Oz. All participants must be over 35. This turned out to be really brilliant for us, because although the rooms were twice the price they normally would be, all the sites were more or less empty because there was no space in the town for tourists.
First day - up at 5am to be picked up and taken to Uluru. We were in a group of 10 (inc. guide) - 2 Swiss, 2 Germans, 1 Finn, 1 Korean, 2 Oz and us. GOt to Uluru and did the base walk - 9.4km in horriic heat. ULuru is hugely impressive and we managed to find a Thorny Devil along the way which kept me happy taking pics. Back to camp and we slept under the stars in swags. I was woken up sometime in the night by howling Dingos which was pretty eerie under a full moon =)
The next day we did a walk through Kata-Tjuta called the Valley of the Winds. Completely different landscapes (even though both places are big, red rocks) as this is made of granite, not sandstone. Also gorgeous. After the walk we drove about 300km to King's Canyon and camped in King's Creek cattle station. This one ranch is bigger than Belgium. Lots of cows. We cooked a Kangaroo tail in the fire and ate it, tasted like brisket. Lots of aboriginal tales around the fire and then bed.
Third day was a rim walk of King's Canyon. We both agree that this was the best part of the trip. I don't have time right now to describe it so I won't even try (Google it!). Hopefully I'll get some pics up soon...
Right now we're back in Cairns doing our washing and getting ready for the dive boat tonight - hopefully this trip will double the number of dives I've done! We'll be out of touch until next Thursday.
Katy xx
Flew into Alice Springs. Turns out the Masters Games is being held there for the next 2 weeks - massive competition for lots of sports with teams from all over Oz. All participants must be over 35. This turned out to be really brilliant for us, because although the rooms were twice the price they normally would be, all the sites were more or less empty because there was no space in the town for tourists.
First day - up at 5am to be picked up and taken to Uluru. We were in a group of 10 (inc. guide) - 2 Swiss, 2 Germans, 1 Finn, 1 Korean, 2 Oz and us. GOt to Uluru and did the base walk - 9.4km in horriic heat. ULuru is hugely impressive and we managed to find a Thorny Devil along the way which kept me happy taking pics. Back to camp and we slept under the stars in swags. I was woken up sometime in the night by howling Dingos which was pretty eerie under a full moon =)
The next day we did a walk through Kata-Tjuta called the Valley of the Winds. Completely different landscapes (even though both places are big, red rocks) as this is made of granite, not sandstone. Also gorgeous. After the walk we drove about 300km to King's Canyon and camped in King's Creek cattle station. This one ranch is bigger than Belgium. Lots of cows. We cooked a Kangaroo tail in the fire and ate it, tasted like brisket. Lots of aboriginal tales around the fire and then bed.
Third day was a rim walk of King's Canyon. We both agree that this was the best part of the trip. I don't have time right now to describe it so I won't even try (Google it!). Hopefully I'll get some pics up soon...
Right now we're back in Cairns doing our washing and getting ready for the dive boat tonight - hopefully this trip will double the number of dives I've done! We'll be out of touch until next Thursday.
Katy xx
Edit: Found some more time to write. Forgot to tell you about James eating a Wichetty grub. On the way back to Alice Springs we stopped on the roadside for a loo break and saw a Wichetty tree. I was instructed to dig up the root until I found a swollen part and then snap it off. Lo and behold there was a grub inside, about 4 inches long. After a quick toasting on the fire, James bit the head off (spitting out loads of yellow goo) and then ate it =) Apparently it tasted like watery mashed potato. Unfortunately my pics of this are on my other camera and I can't get them off at the moment, but I've uploaded a few from the bigger camera on Facebook - take a look.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Uluru
Hi!
Just a quick one - off to Uluru tomorrow for 5 days, so we'll more than likely be out of touch. Updates when we get back!
Katy x
Just a quick one - off to Uluru tomorrow for 5 days, so we'll more than likely be out of touch. Updates when we get back!
Katy x
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Plans
Hi everyone!
We've been frantically making plans. James found a lovely and very knowledgeable lady called Carmen at Experience Cairns (incase you're ever here) who knows everything there is to know about diving and everything else. She's managed to book us on a 7 day liveaboard with UNLIMITED dives for the very nice sum of about 700 pounds (a discount of about 800 pounds each!). Both very excited as this is quite literally some of the best diving in the world and we can't wait. Look up Osprey Reef if you're interested. We leave for that on Thurs 16th.
So, between now and then we may head out to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) which involves a bit of a journey but by all accounts is more than worth it. Future plans are to hire a camper and make our way slowly down the east coast to Sydney in time for Christmas and New Year.
Feels like I'm spending money at an horrific rate at the moment but it'll set us up for the next 3 months which will hopefully be a lot cheaper. We're in good spirits today as the $A has taken a fall today, which means that instead of 2.1 to the pound we now get about 2.5. Makes a big difference!
Tonight we're going to barbeque some bits of kangaroo and probably give ourselves food poisoning. Love to hear from you all so please keep in touch.
xxx
We've been frantically making plans. James found a lovely and very knowledgeable lady called Carmen at Experience Cairns (incase you're ever here) who knows everything there is to know about diving and everything else. She's managed to book us on a 7 day liveaboard with UNLIMITED dives for the very nice sum of about 700 pounds (a discount of about 800 pounds each!). Both very excited as this is quite literally some of the best diving in the world and we can't wait. Look up Osprey Reef if you're interested. We leave for that on Thurs 16th.
So, between now and then we may head out to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) which involves a bit of a journey but by all accounts is more than worth it. Future plans are to hire a camper and make our way slowly down the east coast to Sydney in time for Christmas and New Year.
Feels like I'm spending money at an horrific rate at the moment but it'll set us up for the next 3 months which will hopefully be a lot cheaper. We're in good spirits today as the $A has taken a fall today, which means that instead of 2.1 to the pound we now get about 2.5. Makes a big difference!
Tonight we're going to barbeque some bits of kangaroo and probably give ourselves food poisoning. Love to hear from you all so please keep in touch.
xxx
Monday, October 6, 2008
Nemo's first 5 weeks
I think as i cant read, i find these things rather boring so ill keep it dyslexically simple :D
Ive been here 5 weeks so far, flew into Cairns and got the Greyhound bus to Mission Beach. Lovely place with 14km of pretty much unused beach. Stayed in the dive centre for the first 2 weeks then moved to an awesome hostel called Absolute for the last 3 weeks.
Completed my PADI Divemaster course with no problems, took an easy 4 weeks, so now i can take people on guided tours of the reef! Also went white water rafting and sky diving, both of which were awesome and must be done again. See Facebook for photos.
Met loads of locals and backpackers alike, all very friendly, especially 3 German girls called Ami, and two Mirijans (or something like that, sorry Miranda!).
Now in Cairns to meet the equally lovely Katy! It is nice. Apart from the tall buildings and more stressy city people. And cars. And a grid like layout. And a 'scrotty' (thanks for that word katy) beach. The End.
Nemo x
Ive been here 5 weeks so far, flew into Cairns and got the Greyhound bus to Mission Beach. Lovely place with 14km of pretty much unused beach. Stayed in the dive centre for the first 2 weeks then moved to an awesome hostel called Absolute for the last 3 weeks.
Completed my PADI Divemaster course with no problems, took an easy 4 weeks, so now i can take people on guided tours of the reef! Also went white water rafting and sky diving, both of which were awesome and must be done again. See Facebook for photos.
Met loads of locals and backpackers alike, all very friendly, especially 3 German girls called Ami, and two Mirijans (or something like that, sorry Miranda!).
Now in Cairns to meet the equally lovely Katy! It is nice. Apart from the tall buildings and more stressy city people. And cars. And a grid like layout. And a 'scrotty' (thanks for that word katy) beach. The End.
Nemo x
Katy arrives in Oz...
Hello! And welcome to the tales of our lives out here.
I've finally arrived in Cairns over 40 hours after leaving 3 Castle Hill. I was lucky enough to put my first mark on my 'Neighbours stars that I have seen on this trip' chart, as I shared the flight to Heathrow from Newcastle with a certain JASON DONOVAN. Oh yeah!
Kerry and Lisa did a marvellous job of feeding me with a large amount of pig before I headed off to Singapore, which I am immensely grateful for. The flight to Singapore was pretty good, apart from the aggressive Indian businessman sat next to me. He seemed to be made entirely from very pointy elbows. After that, 5 very dull hours in Singapore airport (not a Neighbours star in sight) and then on to Cairns via Darwin. It was very boring.
I did have an exciting incident in Heathrow which I have so far forgotten to recount. I was walking past Wetherspoons when a very helpful barman shouted out, "Excuse me love, you've dropped something..." I looked around on the floor for the elusive dropped something, only to hear him shout, "...my jaw!" Well, I didn't hear it exactly, and kept grubbing about on the floor looking like a complete arse. Only 5 seconds later did I realise what a prankster he was, and shuffled away looking mighty embarrassed. =)
Now I'm in Cairns with the very lovely Nemo. After a shower, we went a-awandering and sorted out some diving type things. We then found the Esplanade, a big free outdoor swimming pool/lagoon. Very nice.
That's where I've got to so far. Comments always appreciated =)
I've finally arrived in Cairns over 40 hours after leaving 3 Castle Hill. I was lucky enough to put my first mark on my 'Neighbours stars that I have seen on this trip' chart, as I shared the flight to Heathrow from Newcastle with a certain JASON DONOVAN. Oh yeah!
Kerry and Lisa did a marvellous job of feeding me with a large amount of pig before I headed off to Singapore, which I am immensely grateful for. The flight to Singapore was pretty good, apart from the aggressive Indian businessman sat next to me. He seemed to be made entirely from very pointy elbows. After that, 5 very dull hours in Singapore airport (not a Neighbours star in sight) and then on to Cairns via Darwin. It was very boring.
I did have an exciting incident in Heathrow which I have so far forgotten to recount. I was walking past Wetherspoons when a very helpful barman shouted out, "Excuse me love, you've dropped something..." I looked around on the floor for the elusive dropped something, only to hear him shout, "...my jaw!" Well, I didn't hear it exactly, and kept grubbing about on the floor looking like a complete arse. Only 5 seconds later did I realise what a prankster he was, and shuffled away looking mighty embarrassed. =)
Now I'm in Cairns with the very lovely Nemo. After a shower, we went a-awandering and sorted out some diving type things. We then found the Esplanade, a big free outdoor swimming pool/lagoon. Very nice.
That's where I've got to so far. Comments always appreciated =)
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