An Officer and a Gentleman

Twelve Apostles & Triplet Falls

debs_and_rick — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:20:00 GMT

A Real Feeling of Space

debs_and_rick — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:57:00 GMT

Mums Birthday

debs_and_rick — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:03:00 GMT

Byron Bay, Bellingen and further

debs_and_rick — Tue, 3 Oct 2006 12:12:00 GMT

Saturday 30 September 2006 - Tuesday 3 October 2006

The journey continues back down south with stops at Byron Bay, Bellingen and Nambucca Heads, again. At Byron we had to update the blog because it took ages when we wanted it to do somewhere else. We saw a lot of old familiar faces and we went to the beach for updating our tan.

We stayed there for a couple of days and then went to Nambucca Heads. We drove through Bellingen and made a spectacular climb 762m up through a ‘Dry Rainforest’ to Dorrigo then under cover of darkness we decided to take the 30km off-road! route back through the forest to Bowraville with Debs driving our 4 litre rear wheel drive station wagon, which was fun and had its moments. We made it and stopped off at Nambucca Heads.

We stayed in a cheap motel ‘Nirvana Motel ‘ where not only people spend the night but also big cockroaches. We met a possum and it ate from my hand. It was fond of apples so we called it ’apple the possum’.

Then the long drive to Sydney to meet up with our Dive Buddies Maike and Muus who are already there. Before we left we were invited to dive or snorkel with some Groupers especially a large ‘Bright Blue’ one somewhere near Manley and Bondi Beach that would be cool and sounds like a good day. We have also a days fishing lined up on a boat and maybe even 18 holes of Golf for me while Debs does a tandem sky dive? Just why would anyone throw themselves from a perfectly good aircraft? I don’t know but there must be a reason.

Hopefully there will be time for one last trip to Melbourne to my old mate Moti, that would be good as we had lost touch with each other for a few years, it would be good to catch up there are stories to be told and beers to be drunk, I can’t wait.

Australia Zoo

debs_and_rick — Tue, 3 Oct 2006 10:37:00 GMT

Friday 29 September 2006
‘Crikey’ Australia Zoo.

Well since the recent events concerning Australia’s local hero Steve Irwin we felt it appropriate to visit the famous ‘Australia Zoo’ home to the crocodile hunter, it was on the way to Brisbane and the Camper drop off so we went. Very, very busy although not cheap at a whopping $50 a head. It was very well laid out and felt like a Zoo should be, really big natural enclosures for the animals and really clean conditions. It’s nice to see, no concrete floors in sight, I am sure the animals love it, the kids certainly did shrill screams of excitement coming from every direction.

We started in the ‘Crocoseum’ and they let loose a range of tropical birds to fly amongst the crowd and you got nice n close. Some of the birds didn’t want to listen to their keepers and flew their own agenda. After this there was a song dedicated to Steve. The crowd was quiet and impressed. Outside the zoo was a memorial made for Steve, all covered with flowers.

The next show in the crocoseum was the exciting one: the biggest Crocodiles I’ve ever seen to eat half chickens from the keepers hands, a real spectacle.

We also decided that we should have a look at the Tasmanian Devils as I had been told they were extinct? They are alive and kicking and they don’t look like nasty little devils; they look quite cute.

Really, the zoo is great but we had to end our tour through the maze of cages and crowd because we had to continue our journey as we had an appointment at Travellers Auto Barn and it was getting late.

Beautiful Noosa Heads

debs_and_rick — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:04:00 GMT

We got dropped of back at the camp site around 4 o’clock and showered ready for our short drive down to Noosa Heads. It was getting late when we arrived and so went straight out for a drink at the biggest bar in town, the Bloody Mary was spicy and the red wine choice was good.

Ok since we were in a lively up to date town we thought we would try to find a wireless network from the van and update the blog excellent lots of choices so we drove up and down the main street until good signal strength was found on the laptop and sent the pictures and some more text, it took ages and by midnight we had drained the battery and were ready for bed.

Finding a camp site was out of the question so as usual we parked at a local beauty spot and settled down for the night, a good sleep with no real disturbance except the sound of waves and the humidity. We awoke to a gorgeous view of the sea and sandy beaches, then I noticed the sticker on the windscreen ’no parking here please it’s a national park, we’ve got your no and next time the fine is $1500’ oh well time to find that campsite, we did and have spent the day on the beach being very lazy.

Thursday 28 September 2006
Travellers Autobarn Sydney
This will be our last night in the camper as we are swapping it for a car so the van decals can be put on for the ’World Nomad’ sponsership, as real shame it has been really brilliant, totally reliable and very economic to run, it drives great even at the rather slow pace we have come to expect.
We would like to thank the guys at Travellers Auto Barn for the loan of the camper and especially Peter Burke and John Lang without whom we would be walking, we have travelled from Sydney to Airlie Beach and put 4000 km’s on the clock without problems.
Next stop Australia Zoo, "Crickey!" Then dropping the camper van off in Brisbane. Tot later

Capricorn Caves and Agnes Water

debs_and_rick — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:51:00 GMT

Monday 25 September 2006
The Capricorn Caves and Agnes Water

South again to all those places we spotted on the way up but could not stop at.

First port of call was the Capricorn Caves just north of Rockhampton, discovered by a Norwegian and now privately owned. They are all above ground in a huge limestone outcrop.

We stayed on site and the camping is good, cheap, very tidy with clean toilets and showers. The next morning was hot and being in large limestone caves was like having air-conditioning, lovely and cool. The guide for the tour was Jason a young local lad who is clearly not fazed by the dark and is certainly not claustrophobic in the slightest. A very interesting hour and a half worth doing just to get out of the heat. Oh yeah, if you don’t like bats or snakes or spiders they do a Devon Cream tea in the restaurant!

We continued south to the next recommended destination 1770 and Agnes Water, on the way we stopped and had a chat with the local authorities! It was not that interesting and soon made good headway! We arrived at 1770 it was gorgeous long deserted sandy beaches and we thought this was ideal.

However our tummies were rumbling so we thought we should grab a bite, no such luck everything was shut and no one could even help with suggesting where food could be found, we searched and came up with a Kebab house that could make us 2 tuna melts @ $5 each ’crikey’ go for it, oh no after an agonising wait of at least 20 minutes they turned up without the tuna melt bit? So a short conversation soon had them understanding the error of their ways, however another brief 20 min wait saw the worst tuna melt in history of shit sandwiches.

Ok forget the beauty and tranquillity lets hit the road, so we refuelled and drove to Hervey Bay we found a really nice clean campsite after an hour or so and we are still here, tomorrow we will be whale watching and will fill you in as to our luck.

Hervey Bay: Tittie Police and Whale Watching

debs_and_rick — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:37:00 GMT

Tuesday 26 September 2006
Getting a Suntan

We went to the beach and I tried to improve my tan. The sun was burning on my skin while in the meantime Rick updated the blog.

We wanted to update the blog as soon as possible because it was about time. We searched almost the whole morning for a internet café to update it wireless, but no, nobody could help us because they were afraid we would mess up their network.

Finally we found one and we went over there after our sunbathing.

I woke up on my sun lounge because I heard a woman voice saying: “Allright mate, is she with you mate?”, on which Rick just stared at her as it was obvious we were lying next to each other together. Than I saw two policewomen on quad bikes parked right next to us and one of them said: “We’ve had a complaint of nudity cos this is a family beach and you can’t expose your breasts over here, so if you wouldn’t mind rolling over please cover yourself up, misses.”

Despite the glut of badly dressed, ignorant, fat people laying around half naked she chose to target the best titties on the beach. We were amazed at the speed of the response to such a stupid issue. Surely the “Tittie Police” should be out catching real criminals however through our journey in Queensland we’ve come to understand that we must be the criminal element and it was lucky that we were nipped in the bud.

Wednesday 27 September 2006
Whale watching off the Fraser Islands

We were collected by bus from the campsite at 08:45 and driven to the Marina of Hervey Bay. We boarded the Casey Lee and we were greeted by an over enthusiastic photographer who insisted on taking our picture while my mascara was everywhere and Rick was having a bad hair day!

We motored up the coast of Fraser Island in our search for Humpback whales. We spotted a rare Dingo on the beach but I couldn’t take any pictures of it cos a fat bloke was blocking my view. He was blocking the view of the entire island! It’s unbelievable how fat the Australian are. They were introduced with junk food not so long ago and they managed to get fat in now time.

We continued our journey and almost instantly came across a pod of dolphins. Then we came across a pod of whales; a mother, a last years calf and a calf born this year. They didn’t show of for the crowd and just continued their migration to the South. So the boat kept going and e kept looking.

Within a minute we found lots more who were more willing to show off. It was a marvellous sight. They were blowing and showing their tails and breaching out of the water. The mother was just going along swimming and the calf was playing and showing off. He or she jumped out of the sea on many occasions, so I made endless photographs till my films ran out. It was spectacular to see them so close, behaving in a totally natural way. Unforgettable experience and highly recommended.

The two Japanese tourists were licking their lips and rubbing their tummies in eagerness for a early lunch.

Pro Dive and the Great Barrier Reef

debs_and_rick — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:08:00 GMT

Monday 18 September 2006 and Tuesday 19 September 2006
Diving theory and diving in the swimming pool

It was time to stick to our plan: getting our dive certificates! We arrived at 08:00 at the Pro Dive centre in Airlie Beach and we were seated in the class room to get our theory lessons about diving. We did the Open Water Diving course with the possibility to expand it with Adventure Diving course. At the start of the course we had to introduce ourselves. The theory was easy if you had read the course book already. Debs was scared she couldn’t understand the theory because it was in English, but she had the luck her theory book was in Dutch.

If you are not good at English it’s hard to understand some terms. We had a Japanese girl in our class and she could hardly speak or understand any English.

The first day we did all the theory and at the end of the day we did an exam. We passed and the next day it was time to do some diving exercises in the swimming pool.

The equipment we get handed out wasn’t really good. The fins were too small or too big, the masks were to tight and leaked and some of the BCD’s leaked too. (for the Dutch readers: BCD is een trimvest waaraan je je duikfles vast maakt).

Our instructor in the swimming pool was an ex-forces dive master and was very rude. He insulted the people who had some problems with diving in the pool.

A student asked the instructor: “How do you come to the surface, with a clenched fist or an open hand?” and the instructor answered: “If you want to pretend to be superman mate, help yourself!”. The same bloke passed the comment: “I’m a little cold” and the instructors response was: ”Take a spoon of cement and harden yourself up!”.

Because non of the fins fitted Debs she had to wear socks in her fins and she had to buy a mask to avoid leaking and fog. The exercises were quite easy if you listened carefully to the instructions. Some students were really struggling to do the exercises because they were very loud and not focused.

Rick finished the day with a bruise on his head because he crashed with a roll door and Debs finished this day with a sore toe because she was hit by the gate. This was a good start for the next days out in the sea…..

Wednesday 20 September 2006 till Friday 22 September 2006
Great Barrier Reef under water

We had eight dives to do. Four dives would get us to our dive certificate for Open Water Diving and the other four dives existed out of three fun dives and one night dive. In the first four dives we had to do different exercises. Nick was the instructor of our group. Our group of five people was big enough. Nick could give us extra attention because the group wasn’t big. Rick and I were each others buddy. Most of the exercises in the Great Barrier Reef were practised by buddy pair. We had to exchange regulators (automaat), finpivot for practising buoyancy control (controle over het drijfvermogen), mask clearance from water, correct ascent and descent (stijgen en dalen), use of alternate regulators from the buddy, under water navigation, correct using of your air and lots of other buoyancy exercises.

On the second day at sea we passed our Open Water certification and we had four more dives to go. We also wanted to get our Adventure diving certificate so our second dive on the second day was our Adventure naturalist dive to identify flora and fauna under water. We had to name five fish, four invertebrates (Bijv. Koraal) and two plants. The current was extremely strong we had a weak link in our buddy team. A third person to baby-sit. It took him ten minutes to make it to the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef while Rick and I consumed air waiting for him. We made the decision to stay within the lagoon because there was plenty to see. After we finished our task Rick and I wanted to explore more but our baby consumed his air to fast so we had to ascend to the surface.

Our third dive was the night dive and this was one of the most relaxed dives. It’s strange to dive in the dark with just the light of the torch. We had to do some navigation and this was quite simple to do.

The final part of our Adventure diving was a thirty metres deep dive with some mental skill tasks. We had to identify 16 numbers on a slate while touching our nose and being timed. Doing this under water and under pressure of the water is slowing your responsive. Very weird. The colour red vanishes beyond a certain depth and the pressure of water is enormous; it crushed a plastic bottle. We couldn’t stay longer under water because we consumed air at a greater rate. The current was strong. Nick tried to grab the bottle but it was all tangled around his tank so I had to untangle it, while we held each other to avoid drifting too far apart. This was our final task to get our Adventure diving certificate, we passed.

The Last dive was our fun dive. And it was fun. We were at Manta ray Reef which is a green zone. Fishing is not allowed over there so everything was huge. There were many fish and they were big, real big. Under the boat swam giant travelly’s who looked like sharks from the surface. When we were diving around the reef we saw a Bull ray (yes, the one which killed Steve Irwin), a blue spotted ray, turtles, a huge parrotfish and many other fish with all colours of the rainbow. Really wonderful. Now we have another addiction: diving……

We want to thank all the people at Pro Dive, especially Nick Leigh who gave us so much confidence and superb instruction, the skipper Simon for getting us there safely and Chris for keeping us so well fed. We thoroughly recommend it as it is exactly as the name suggests ‘Pro Dive‘. We also met a great couple at the Oceania, Maike and Muus from Holland. They still have a couple of months to go and we wish them lots of fun.

Now it’s Saturday the 23th and we are resting after an exhilarating week. The best week we have had but also the most exhausting week. Tomorrow we head south again because time is short and we want to visit another few destinations. Tot later.

To view the pictures go the photo gallery

Croc resort and flying over Whitsundays

debs_and_rick — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:05:00 GMT

Friday 15 September 2006
The Great Barrier Reef & The Whitsunday Islands

We arrived late at night and parked next to the ‘No parking in this car park sign’ we were woken at 5.30 by the ranger banging on the van, “you can’t park here” so we moved and drove around till the rest of the town woke up, got breakfast and went strait to the Pro Dive centre booked a 5 day intensive dive course on a boat to the outer barrier reef, excellent we were starting on Monday.

So what do we do till then? We searched the travel companies and booked 2 days on a Island resort for some luxury, away from the town at ‘Club Croc’. We got the Ferry boat from Shute Harbour and landed on Long Island.

The weather changed and it rained again…the tide was wrong for sailing and they had no wind surf boards so we went to the bar, “two bloody mary’s please barman“, “sorry mate no tomato juice, oh and this is a no smoking area!!”. Great it was looking good already, the second day was fab and sunny the food was good and plenty of it we were lazy and bummed about drinking and sunbathing, we decided to book in with the massage and some waxing of bikini line and legs. Debs legs were hairy like a monkeys back and Rick’s back was sore from horseback riding. We went to club spa and Debs couldn’t get waxed and Rick would have a massage the next day. However they would call us if there was a spare space for waxing. We are still waiting for the call and Rick forgot his massage and forgot to call to cancel his appointment, ooops!

When we booked this all inclusive resort we didn’t know we had to pay for about everything. For the drinks, for hiring kayaks, for the sunbath towels etc. It was average and to do something special we were picked up the next day by a sea plane.

Sunday 17 September 2006
WhitSunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef by seaplane

Erick Hersel was the pilot of the Cessna six seater who picked us up at 10:45 from ’Club Croc’. People were staring at us when we walked in the sea and stepped in the plane. We flew to Air Whitsunday airfield to transfer to a bigger plane because eight other people had booked for this luxury flight over the Great Barrier Reef.

We left with four people to Long Island to pick up the other six. Debs was lucky to sit next to the pilot, Michael East, because he hadn’t enough seats.

The flight was terrific, the sight of the Great Barrier Reef from out the sky amazing and magical. The Great Barrier Reef exists of coral reef islands when it’s low tide and the lagoons seem light blue with white edges. There is one coral reef who is heart shaped and according to Michael, many couples were married above this coral. After 45 minutes of flying and picture taking we landed in the middle of the lagoon next to a boat. On the boat we put on our swimming suits and made us ready to do some snorkelling around the reef.

It was wonderful. The colours and different fishes over there were amazing. We snorkelled for about 1 hour and when we entered the boat again we had a glass of champagne and some toast with cheese. After exploring the reef in the water we took off for visiting Whitehaven beach.

Whitehaven beach is one of the whitest beaches Australia has. The sand is as white as salt and when you walk along the shore the sand squeaks under your feet.

The lunch we had was excellent and the seagulls couldn’t hold their eagerness. Debs was enjoying her sandwich and in an instant her sandwich was snatched away by a cheeky seagull. We made some pictures for Wicked Weasel and swam in the blue sea. Then it was time to get on the plane again and we took off for the way back to Air Whitsunday airfield. It was a perfect day and this day made it up for ‘Club Croc’.

After this adventure we went straight to camping site ‘Airlie Cove’ and spend the night in our van.