It's hammering down with rain in Townsville today. Hope that brightens up your Monday mornings at work! I was under the impression it was sunny in Australia?!?
And as I did the only tourist attraction in town yesterday - the aquarium - then I'm stuck today. Was supposed to be diving Yongala wreck today but I woke at 0600 to find out it was cancelled due to high winds (not my own).
The aquarium was good though. Their 2.5 million litre tank contains about the only living coral reef - basically a hunk of the Great Barrier Reef - in captivity. Plus I was there for shark feeding time.
Anyway, today I'm about to go to the pub and commence my first ever solo all-dayer.
Wish me luck.
Monday, 18 June 2007
Sunday, 17 June 2007
When Animals Attack!!
To get to Josephine Falls, near Innisfail, you have to walk along a 700m path through the rainforest. It was pretty wet as it's a rainforest, but also it had been raining that morning. I was wearing flip flops (I still haven't started calling them thongs like Aussies do!), and I enjoyed seeing the falls.
Back on the bus I noticed a little worm or slug like think inbetween two toes. I tried to flick it off but it didn't budge, so I flicked harder. When it didn't move that time I got a little worried about what it was so pulled it off my toe.
It was only a bloody leech and I started to bleed a surprising amount! It's okay, I survived the ordeal and mopped up the blood with a tissue.
Another example of how you can't turn your back for a minute on the savage Australian wildlife!!
Back on the bus I noticed a little worm or slug like think inbetween two toes. I tried to flick it off but it didn't budge, so I flicked harder. When it didn't move that time I got a little worried about what it was so pulled it off my toe.
It was only a bloody leech and I started to bleed a surprising amount! It's okay, I survived the ordeal and mopped up the blood with a tissue.
Another example of how you can't turn your back for a minute on the savage Australian wildlife!!
Great Barrier Reef
My first experience of the Great Barrier Reef was good and bad.
Good because the colourful corals and abundance of fish were fantastic, also the boat I lived on for 4 days - Reef Encounter - had great crew, good food & a comfortable living area.
But bad because the sun never came out, it was windy & rainy which meant the boat was restricted to more sheltered parts of the reef and I spent most time on the same part. Luckily I wasn't effected by sea sickness - my sea legs must have come from my granddad's DNA as he was in the Navy during WWII!
I'm glad I went though, I did 13 dives in my time on board and completed my Advanced diver course which means I am now able to dive to greater depths. Doing that many dives in succession really increases your confidence and ability & I've noticed my buoyancy and navigation skills improving.
Having said that about my diving skills, I did manage to get stung by the slightest touch of my big toe on some fire coral - it stings man!! A blister forms and pops and it's still healing days later.
I met some cool people including a 50 year old guy from North Carolina. He was an instructor and technical diver with quite some experience - he did over 200 dives in 2006 alone!! It was good to pick up a bit of knowledge from him.
Here are a few photos, but I didn't always take my camera out when doing the Advanced course dives or when the light was poor. The camera also can't capture the extent and colours of some of the coral gardens I saw, they were spectacular and cos they were not in deep water the sunlight made then shine.
Good because the colourful corals and abundance of fish were fantastic, also the boat I lived on for 4 days - Reef Encounter - had great crew, good food & a comfortable living area.
But bad because the sun never came out, it was windy & rainy which meant the boat was restricted to more sheltered parts of the reef and I spent most time on the same part. Luckily I wasn't effected by sea sickness - my sea legs must have come from my granddad's DNA as he was in the Navy during WWII!
I'm glad I went though, I did 13 dives in my time on board and completed my Advanced diver course which means I am now able to dive to greater depths. Doing that many dives in succession really increases your confidence and ability & I've noticed my buoyancy and navigation skills improving.
Having said that about my diving skills, I did manage to get stung by the slightest touch of my big toe on some fire coral - it stings man!! A blister forms and pops and it's still healing days later.
I met some cool people including a 50 year old guy from North Carolina. He was an instructor and technical diver with quite some experience - he did over 200 dives in 2006 alone!! It was good to pick up a bit of knowledge from him.
Here are a few photos, but I didn't always take my camera out when doing the Advanced course dives or when the light was poor. The camera also can't capture the extent and colours of some of the coral gardens I saw, they were spectacular and cos they were not in deep water the sunlight made then shine.
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| Great Barrier Reef |
Monday, 11 June 2007
Next stop the Reef
I've arrived in Cairns today and the temperature here is much more like it - around 28c. I'm heading to the outer Great Barrier Reef tomorrow for 3 nights and I don't expect they have internet on board so it's au revoir for a few days.
Mail me if you're bored at work!
Mail me if you're bored at work!
Sunday, 10 June 2007
My Uluru Experience
Background: Ayres Rock was first discovered by a European in 1873 - William Gosse was searching for a route through Central Australia and saw the monolith and named it after a politician from South Australia who was funding his expedition. In 1986 the rock and surrounding land (including the Olgas) were returned to the traditional owners, i.e. the local Aborigines, who in turn leased the land back to Australian National Parks on a 99 year lease. At this point Ayres Rock was renamed Uluru and The Olgas were renamed Kata Tjuta. The new owners now get a lot of the ticket sales revenue and other income derived from the national park. As there are only about 150 of the locals living in the area, they each get about AUS$50,000 to AUS$80,000 each year paid direct into their bank accounts for doing sweet FA. Not a bad life!
Uluru is 348 metres high and covers about 9 square kilometres.
Camels: There are estimated to be about 1 million camels roaming central Australia. Originally brought over from Afghanistan in the 19th century to help explorers as they were better equipped than horses for the terrain. They came over with their handlers (called camelteers), so there is a small local population descending from Afghans. There are so many camels and they are of such a high quality breed, due to the lack of disease and predators, that Australia now export camels to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Genius! Enterprising aussie exporters are next planning to sell coal to Newcastle and ice to the Eskimos...
Sunset at Uluru was easily the best bit for me. You'll see from the photos here that the change in colour is spectacular. As the sun went down the rock got darker and duller but then suddenly it lit up and glowed bright red as the red light part of the spectrum in the setting sun refracted onto the rock (excuse any inaccuracies in my science here!). The sunset itself was amazing too - the best I've seen for a long while.
In the morning we got up for sunrise but that wasn't as good as sunset. I did the 9k base walk, which was interesting cos you get right up to it and can see a lot more of the formations caused by erosion and the aboriginal cave paintings.
I also visited Kata Tjuta (known as The Olgas before 1986) and we hiked the 7k rim walk around Kings Canyon. Both were great to see as well. Equally impressive but unheard of and basically ignored in terms of tourism is Mt. Conner. At 344m high it is only 4m lower than Uluru but covers 30 square metres so much bigger. Plus it has a flat top (like Table Mountain), and I found it just as cool. But it's on private land so you can't easily get up close.
The camping part of the trip was fun, although 2 nights in 1 degree overnight temperatures was enough! We only had 4 people in our tour so quite peaceful (the tours can accommodate up to 24 people) and meant we got more of a tailored service from our tour guide, Ned.
It was definitely a worthwhile trip I reckon despite me not expecting too much from it before I came to central Australia. (P.s. Alice Springs is pretty quiet and boring, glad I'm not here more than 1 day).
Uluru is 348 metres high and covers about 9 square kilometres.
Camels: There are estimated to be about 1 million camels roaming central Australia. Originally brought over from Afghanistan in the 19th century to help explorers as they were better equipped than horses for the terrain. They came over with their handlers (called camelteers), so there is a small local population descending from Afghans. There are so many camels and they are of such a high quality breed, due to the lack of disease and predators, that Australia now export camels to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Genius! Enterprising aussie exporters are next planning to sell coal to Newcastle and ice to the Eskimos...
Sunset at Uluru was easily the best bit for me. You'll see from the photos here that the change in colour is spectacular. As the sun went down the rock got darker and duller but then suddenly it lit up and glowed bright red as the red light part of the spectrum in the setting sun refracted onto the rock (excuse any inaccuracies in my science here!). The sunset itself was amazing too - the best I've seen for a long while.
In the morning we got up for sunrise but that wasn't as good as sunset. I did the 9k base walk, which was interesting cos you get right up to it and can see a lot more of the formations caused by erosion and the aboriginal cave paintings.
I also visited Kata Tjuta (known as The Olgas before 1986) and we hiked the 7k rim walk around Kings Canyon. Both were great to see as well. Equally impressive but unheard of and basically ignored in terms of tourism is Mt. Conner. At 344m high it is only 4m lower than Uluru but covers 30 square metres so much bigger. Plus it has a flat top (like Table Mountain), and I found it just as cool. But it's on private land so you can't easily get up close.
The camping part of the trip was fun, although 2 nights in 1 degree overnight temperatures was enough! We only had 4 people in our tour so quite peaceful (the tours can accommodate up to 24 people) and meant we got more of a tailored service from our tour guide, Ned.
It was definitely a worthwhile trip I reckon despite me not expecting too much from it before I came to central Australia. (P.s. Alice Springs is pretty quiet and boring, glad I'm not here more than 1 day).
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| Uluru experience |
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Next stop Uluru
I'm back in Perth tonight, thankfully after a much more straight forward trip back from Exmouth on the bus. Just the 'usual' 19.5 hours rather that a day and a half like the journey north!
Before I left on Monday I had 2 final dives on Ningaloo Reef - saw an olive sea snake, an octopus, a scorpion fish, a few more wobbegong sharks, trigger fish. It was really challenging diving conditions with strong swells and surges and poor vis at 2-3 metres only. A test of diving though and I was happy with how I coped. Ningaloo was amazing, it was sad to leave (esp. after I heard the whale shark tour on Monday saw 7 sharks all over 7 metres long. Bast*rds!!)
Tomorrow I fly to Alice Springs and then the day after that go camping in the Red Centre so am fairly certain I'll be offline for a couple of days. No worries, I'll be back on the blog with amazing photos of Uluru hopefully.
Enjoy the UK weather - up to 25c at the weekend hey - hotter than Alice Springs, which is only maxing at about 14c! I thought the outback was a hot desert, maybe I got mixed up...
Before I left on Monday I had 2 final dives on Ningaloo Reef - saw an olive sea snake, an octopus, a scorpion fish, a few more wobbegong sharks, trigger fish. It was really challenging diving conditions with strong swells and surges and poor vis at 2-3 metres only. A test of diving though and I was happy with how I coped. Ningaloo was amazing, it was sad to leave (esp. after I heard the whale shark tour on Monday saw 7 sharks all over 7 metres long. Bast*rds!!)
Tomorrow I fly to Alice Springs and then the day after that go camping in the Red Centre so am fairly certain I'll be offline for a couple of days. No worries, I'll be back on the blog with amazing photos of Uluru hopefully.
Enjoy the UK weather - up to 25c at the weekend hey - hotter than Alice Springs, which is only maxing at about 14c! I thought the outback was a hot desert, maybe I got mixed up...
Saturday, 2 June 2007
I've added more photos to the South Africa blog
If you're interested, some photos from the 1st half of our road trip have now been uploaded from my other memory card. I've put the photos at the start of the album to avoid you having to go over the same ones again!
So long Western Australia
I only have a few more days in Western Australia so here are some of my highlights, excluding the mantas (see blog posting below).
Tomorrow I'm hiring a car and going to Coral Bay, Turquiose Bay and the Oyster Stacks, which I've heard are all great beaches with top snorkelling.
Then tomorrow I dive at Lighthouse Bay in the day then get the Greyhound back to Perth in the evening.
I fly to Alice Springs on Wednesday and start a 3-night camping safari tour around the Red Centre, e.g. Uluru (Ayres Rock) and Kings Canyon.
On the 11th June I fly to Cairns and next day I hop onto a live aboard diving boat for 4 days & 3 nights. The boat is called "Reef Encounters" if you want to google it. I'm going to do an advanced diving course while on board, plus the boat sails around the outer Great Barrier Reef where the diving is much better. I will also do one or 2 night dives which will be a first for me.
The day after the live aboard finishes I get onto the Oz Experience bus for the start of my journey to Brisbane. First leg will be Cairns - Townsville (about 10 hours). From Townsville I have booked a dive trip to the Yongala wreck, which is one of Australia's top dive spots (which implies one of the world's top) and my first wreck dive so I'm really excited about that! I'll also visit Magnetic Island from Townsville.
After Townsville I head to Airlie Beach, which is where I will sail to the Whitsunday Islands from. That trip isn't booked yet and no more of my bus journey is certain, but I hope to take in Bundaburg / Hervey Bay for trips to Fraser Island and Lady Musgrave Island, which is a small idyllic desert island Sam told me about with fantastic snorkelling.
So plenty to look forward to. I'll keep you posted.
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| Western Australia |
Tomorrow I'm hiring a car and going to Coral Bay, Turquiose Bay and the Oyster Stacks, which I've heard are all great beaches with top snorkelling.
Then tomorrow I dive at Lighthouse Bay in the day then get the Greyhound back to Perth in the evening.
I fly to Alice Springs on Wednesday and start a 3-night camping safari tour around the Red Centre, e.g. Uluru (Ayres Rock) and Kings Canyon.
On the 11th June I fly to Cairns and next day I hop onto a live aboard diving boat for 4 days & 3 nights. The boat is called "Reef Encounters" if you want to google it. I'm going to do an advanced diving course while on board, plus the boat sails around the outer Great Barrier Reef where the diving is much better. I will also do one or 2 night dives which will be a first for me.
The day after the live aboard finishes I get onto the Oz Experience bus for the start of my journey to Brisbane. First leg will be Cairns - Townsville (about 10 hours). From Townsville I have booked a dive trip to the Yongala wreck, which is one of Australia's top dive spots (which implies one of the world's top) and my first wreck dive so I'm really excited about that! I'll also visit Magnetic Island from Townsville.
After Townsville I head to Airlie Beach, which is where I will sail to the Whitsunday Islands from. That trip isn't booked yet and no more of my bus journey is certain, but I hope to take in Bundaburg / Hervey Bay for trips to Fraser Island and Lady Musgrave Island, which is a small idyllic desert island Sam told me about with fantastic snorkelling.
So plenty to look forward to. I'll keep you posted.
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