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
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