Live and let Dive!

WOW! We have just had the most awesome 3 days diving in one of the seven wonders of the world, The Great Barrier Reef!

It is as beautiful as the books show, and the marine life is just incredible. However it wasn't all plain sailing I can tell you!

Darren and I spent the first night on the water with our heads in buckets looking at our dinner we had 3 hours before. It was horrendous, however we weren't the only ones and we are now proud members of the bucket club along with one dutch shiela and one french bruce. That's one way of making new friends!

Once we got to the reef in the morning all was calm and we plunged into the sea no worries. Our first dive was on Wheeler Reef and with a white tip shark, sounds scarey but believe me he was only a meter in length and was dozing on the sea bed a good few meters below us, but still very cool.

We also dived with plenty of reef fish just like in an aquarium and the corals were beautiful. It's a shame we have no underwater camera to show you all so you're going to have to use your imagination.

After two days on the water diving on two different reefs we then went further a field to the open ocean to dive the Yongala Wreck, a British boat which sunk in 1902 but was only discovered in 1950. INCREDIBLE, this was the best dive of all, it wasn't so much a wreck dive but more of a nature programme in real life. In just a 25 mintue dive (due to deeper depth) we came across 1. Bull Shark 2. Heaps of Turtles 3. Sea Snakes 4. Giant Grouper 3 mtrs in length 5. Shrimps 6. Eagle Ray 7. Heaps of tiny reef fish all multicoloured 8. A Schoal of Barracuda 9. Giant Bat fish 10. and even the famous Nemo!

Darren and I are so overwhelmed by it all, we have also met some really great people from all over the world - I think diving is the best thing we've ever done!

Right well I'll come down from my high and tell you now what we're up to. We are in Airlee Beach, a backpacker mecca, so plenty of bars! We are going to make our way to Bunderburg where they make the local Rum and then we're going to make our way to Brisbane, so quite a lot of driving in 2 days. However, we have out-smarted the system (with the help of our new friends with campervans from the dive) and found a book with all the free rest stops where you can sleep over and still go to the loo in a toilet and not a bush!! yippee, so we are hoping to save a lot more money this way.

Oh yes I forgot to say, I cuddled a Koala bear the other day, ahhhh he was so cute with big fluffy ears, I tried to sneak away with him but to no avail, and we also found that koala bears smell of mash potato, which stays with you for a few days - I'm having troubles keeping Darren from licking me all the time!

Pictures to be uploaded as soon as we find a good PC.

Onwards and south we go...

Bruce Highway!

G'Day Mate, Bruce Highway!

I kid you not! The main highway down the east coast is actually called "Bruce Highway"! Ha ha ha. Well. We've picked up the campervan, it turns out to be an Evil Camper (666...) but handles ok, and has a fridge for cold beers and such like, which I've never had in any previous vehicles. Oh, and more importantly, a gas hob and kettle for non-stop tea! woohoo!


It's an Evil Campervan

Since picking up the van we've done a fair amount of travelling, but only as far as 'Townsville' so far, which isn't very far away from Cairns at all. Jodie's been making up some great meals each night making up for 4 months of eating noodles and rice. Last night we parked up on the seafront here for a proper fish & chips supper. Bloody Poms! Hmmmn, nice though.


Eating Well

We have 'heaps' of spare time on our hands these days too, what with not having to move hostels all the time, so we're playing a LOT of cards. I've managed to teach Jodie a thing or two about poker, gambling with the high stakes of Mint M&M's..... yes, that's MINT M&M'S!


Mint M&M's. Yummy.

Other than that we've been to Tully, and seen the big 'Golden Gum Boot', the main attraction in Tully. Don't ask, its complicated/dull.


Tullys Golden Gumboot (sigh)

We also went along a big trek to see the Wallerman Falls. It's the highest waterfall on this side of the planet, so we thought we'd best make the effort - and it was well worth it. A long walk, and a very dodgy drive in the little camper, but we made it ok, stopping only for another quick cuppa tea and some eggs on bread when we got back up to the top. Awesome stuff.


Massive Waterfall Action

This "Arvo" (they DO say that!) we're off on a liveaboard cruise around the Great Barrier Reef, where we'll be doing some diving for the next 3 days. Its all very exciting!

New pics are up of the Oz Camper Adventures, click here.

Cairns, Australia

Ok, we've left tropical Bali. This we can tell, not only because of the amount of flying it takes to get to Cairns (very disorienting with multiple flights and timezone differences), but also because its cold and rainy - much like being in England, although everyone in England keeps telling us how hot and sunny it is back there! Ok, we get it, its our own fault! Karma! Next time we'll keep quiet about our fab weather.

Mooching around Caines, it turns out to be mainly exposing what we learned from Neighbours to be true.....

• Everybody is overly friendly and chatting - this is great normally, but not so good when you're tired or hungover.


• The roads/houses/cars/beefburgers/chocolate are big - in fact everything is oversized, well, when compared to back home anyway. But if you've got tons of space then why not freak out English people by making everything massive?


• Everyone says "Bruce", "Rack off", etc - ha ha, no not really. But they do say "How you doing!" a lot and "Heaps" and "Sweet" quite a bit too.

First day here was a write-off. We arrived at the hostel at 11am, very tired after no-sleep the night before (in transit). There has been complications earlier that morning at Darwin airport, when a Miss Jodie Brown was apprehended, and read her rights, while attempting to smuggle a lethal weapon into the country! The item in question: A Mosquito Swatter! Ok, fair enough, it plugs into the mains and had electrocuted a fair few Mossies to date (this is fine, mosquitos contribute nothing to the circle of life as far as I can tell), but who knew these things weren't allowed in developed countries!? Apparently, we're told by the police customs people, they can hurt humans too. Ah.

We went on a jungle tour when we woke up. We started off by visiting some cuddly koala bears, and cute little mini-wallaby things (basically small kangeroos). It was good. They see if you have food, and if not check out other people instead. Next we went to find live, wild crocodiles! "Look at this little fella!" we found ourselves saying as we spotted some proper 10" big crocs! That's 10 inches mind, not feet. Good fun though. Off to Cape Tribulation after that for stunning/overcast views of the bay, then a windy lunch (we were banished to the beach because we took packed lunch rather than the $20 all-you-can-eat buffet, hey, we're on a budget here). Then it was off to see a bit of the rainforest, with a proper 70's style Tree Hugger telling us what the trees were and why these trees in particular were so very important.

Wow, its exciting stuff. We've done much of the stuff to do here in Cairns, so tomorrow we pick up our amazing home for the next 2 months - A Campervan (welll, motorhome)! Mmmmmn, Nice Wheels! Photos to arrive soon. Using a Mac at the moment which makes no sense, but looks very pretty. When we get the van we're off down the coast to explore! Sweet!!!!!!

Surfing Bali

Still in Bali, although we managed to stray from our beach resort to Ubud, "The cultural Centre of Bali", which means lots of craft stuff going on. Textiles, wood carvings and things of that nature. How did this happen!? We have no idea. We'd been out the night before for a particularly tricky evening out drinking 'arak', the local alcohol (recommended by Sadie Brown). Its fair to say we were both in a fairly bad way the next morning, but we'd already booked the bus to Ubud. It was hard work.

So in Ubud, there's a lot of cultural things to look at. By that, I mean a lot of shops selling stuff, which Jodie was very pleased about. We did a bit of a mooch around the shops, then went out to see a show of the local Balinese dances, which to my amazement, were actually very good. The final dance involved the dancer guy being put into a trance (they set fire to something in a pot in front of him to do this.... Call the cops!), then he danced about a bit around a fire - and then, through the fire!?! A few times. Just to make sure. Looked like it hurt to me, and I'd probably avoid doing that sort of dancing.

Next morning we were up bright and early for a lesson in (butch voice) Jewelry Making. I don't mind admitting doing jewelry making, since its basically the same as CTD at school, but without having to do anything too tricky. Jodie was very very happy about this class - Ubud is reknowned for it silver jewelry, so we both designed and manufactured an item each. Jodie created a ring for herself (hasn't got enough, apparently), and I made a pendant which I plan to present to my Mum, if it makes it back to the UK in one piece. There you go, something new which we've done.


Hit it with a hammer


Jodie hard at work


Jodie's finished article, ooooh.


Darren's (much simpler) finished article, aaaw.

The other new thing which we've done, which I think is much cooler sounding - was a Surfing lesson last week! We spent about 2 hours, much of it in torrential rain, learning how to stand on a plank on the water.... Surfers make it look easy! It was very hard work - like constant exercise and everything, a bit of a shock to the system - and we can see now why you don't see too many fat surfers, which is a shame. Needless to say we were both completely knackered by the end of the lesson, but we did both manage to stand on the boards, and go along on waves at the same time!!! I won't go into detail here about how large the waves were, concerned Mums are reading this ...

Also, because we were concentrating on not-drowning, and that included from the rain, we don't have any pictures of us surfing. But we do finally have some diving pics up now! Hooray!


Wow, its all underwatery!

I'm still very happy about Pompey staying up in the Premiership, evening though its easy to predict another season of bottom table scrapping. Incidentally, Pompeyfans might be interested to read this article about how dangerous being a Pompeyfan can be - this incident was reported about Steve, who is Sadie's (Jodies sister's) bloke! Beware!
Mendes wonder goal put fan in hospital
Respect!

We're back in Kuta for a few days now - then on the 12th we're off to Australia! We've never been there, but I've seen Neighbours, so we know what to expect.... "G'Day!", "Rack Off!", "Bruces and Sheilas!", "Dags!" and other such things. Can't wait.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Hooray! A Millionaire at 30. And we spend our days sitting by a big pool of a fairly high end hotel, drinking beer (buy 2 get 1 free, after 2pm!), with nothing else much to do until the evenings. My life is exactly going to plan!

Ok, it IS only because the exchange rate is about 16,000 Indonese Rupiahs (silly money) to the Brit Pound, but it still counts I tell you. Makes it tough working out how much we're spending. The hotel, which is quite swanky (but obviously not too posh, as they still let us in) cost us "something million". I can't say exactly because the number was far too big to remember. We've worked out food prices, and beer prices, just to make sure everything's reasonable and it turns out it is! Hooray!

Oh, forget to say, we're in Bali now. There's a lot of surfing going on which we really probably need to try out, but the waves are pretty big, and we're both a little bit concerned about the possibilities of drowning. Honestly, I have no natural sense of balance. And that's without beers.

We're staying in Legian, just up the road from Kuta, which is ace. Hardly anyone else is around all day, so we pretty much get the pool (1 of 3 - and with bar attached) to ourselves. Even Kuta is quiet these days, the people that you see there are either locals trying to sell you something, or Australians trying to eat something. Everyone is very friendly though, its all good.

We're here in Bali for another 10 days or so, which means at some point we'll leave the safety of the pool and venture out a bit. There's lots of villages around the island, and they all specialise in carvings, and dancing, and Jodie said something about silver jewelry. Possible we'll give surfing a go, and there are a few dive sites to check out. Then we're off to Oz to do some proper sitting around. Anyway, here's some pics of recent action...


Jodie trying on 'Croc' shoes.
Really, that's what they're called.


Singapore's silly number of rules on the tube


Jodie makes it look easy


"Where are you from, Mate?"
"Seriously?... I just told you..." (sigh)
'Pompey Top'. Unrecognised all over South East Asia.


Portsmouth stay up!!!!!! Woohoo!
I love it when a plan comes together.


Jodie was very happy too

Photo's are up for the Perhentian Islands, and for Singapore, and a few for Bali.

I should also point out to those back home who know him, Nav is still alive and recently emailed (I know, shocker!) in this updated thingy. Very funny.

And this, which just made me laugh.


NASA bogroll! But why?