My Travels

Gallery: Antibes

jags — Sat, 8 Aug 2009 23:35:00 GMT

Antibes

jags — Sat, 8 Aug 2009 21:43:00 GMT

A long awaited round 2 blog entry... Sorry, Laying in the sun, eating fois gras, hanging out with Bec and Trav ... its been tough!!

I finished my Job on M/Y Pink Champagne just under 2 weeks ago which was so perfect because Bec and Trav arrived here the next day. Things went a little pear shaped on champers, The bubbles were a little too small, anyway won't bore you with the details. I left the boat and moved into my friend James's studio apartment in Antibes which he doesn't stay in. James is the captain of one of Pete Townsends boats and such a lovely guy. Like I said the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

After many missed calls and facebook messages Bec and I finally got in touch with each other. I was climbing at a spot on coco beach where you can do deep water soloing ... its amazing. Definitely one of my favourite spots in Nice by far. like everywhere around the med the waters are so pristine, crystal clear blue, turquoise. The climbing is awesome, not too high but a few really nice over hangs and its perfect because when your too pumped you just fall into the water, although the first climb is always the easiest as wet hands make it harder but challenging...

So Bec rang and we decided to meet each other on Nice promenade.... I mentioned what i was wearing just in case she didn't recognize me from my awesome tan that I've been working on . As I was walking I could hardly contain my excitement .. had a bit of a bounce in my step. Bec saw me from about 200 meters away as i was trying to fumble with my camera to get the perfect shot, which of course never happened... All 3 of us actually did the the run towards each other on the promenade next to Nice beach and hugged and kissed .... i know were sickening.

10 days of laughter until we almost peed our pants.. good food that we all cooked every night and took a picture of every meal of course and lots of love which is exactly want I needed. The apartment is 2 mins from the beach so we did a lot of swimming and relaxing.... Feel really good for it.

James drove us and our gorgeous friend Dawn to Gorge du loup which actually means river of wolfs. Its this amazing river that runs from really high up in the mountains. The hick or down climb i should say was a little scary as we all pretty much had on thongs (flip flops for my none Aussie friends) it was all really steep gravel rock.. After the assistance of trees branches and basically anything we could hang onto.We reached a point half way were the drop was straight down but some nice person left us a rope that we could ab sail down. We reached the bottom and then walked up stream, sometimes on rocks and other times through water that came up to the shoulders holding bags up over our heads.Because i'm just a shortie i didn't have to carry anything apart from my towel which a still managed to get a little wet. Found the perfect spot where Travi found a massive boulder to jump off . I went up for the jump got to the top, looked down and felt so chicken scared. After syking myself up with the help of my friends I finally jumped... such an awesome feeling straight into fresh mountain water... Awesome.

James, Dawn and I dropped B and T off to the bus station last night on their way to Barcelona... i think i shedded a little tear.

In the mean time I received a phone call from an agent on Thursday offering me a job and asking me to fly to Barcelona the next day to work on a 43 meter motor yacht for one month which is perfect because Domi arrives like 10 days before I finish. It all happened so fast. Long story cut short, i am now going to Genoa tomorrow then taking a ferry to Olbia in Sardinia. The name of my new 43 meter Motor yacht is called Sedation...... Here i come x

OOOO la la ... The South of France

jags — Sun, 5 Jul 2009 06:58:00 GMT

Ahhhh Cote D' Azur.... Superb. After a sad goodbye to Melbourne, a very long flight and a few airport dramas I finally made it to beautiful Nice. This has got to be the most amazing place i have ever seen. The bus from the airport into town took the scenic route down the coast just for me, i think. Amazing clear blue and turquoise waters. It felt so surreal after leaving cold Melbourne and then to be here in 30 degree Mediterranean sunshine, i thought i was dreaming.

I checked into my hostel with just my handbag as the airline decided to not put my luggage on the plane! Accommodation was fantastic, really clean, at the end of my bed was a very large window which looked out onto a small valley of orange roofed villas. The staff were so super friendly, not to mention good looking, obviously not as hot as the staff at longrain but hey they'll do for eye candy.

Went for a wander into the old town where I stumbled across the daily fruit and flower market, the smell and the colors were to die for. I was tempted to by kilos and kilos of juicy peaches and bright red strawberries but after converting Euro to dollar i settled for just one peach and one banana.

Everywhere i looked it looked like a perfect picture from a post card or a travel magazine, cobblestone roads, long narrow streets with really high walls, washing hanging out over balconies. I decided to go on a hunt in search of the best baguette in town, after searching long and hard.. well kind of i settled for mussels and chips with a carafe of Rose accompanied by 2 lovely american guys who i ran into. They just finished becoming doctors and decided to visit paradise. After exploring for a little while longer jet-lag started to kick in so headed back to the hostel which was packed full of travelers. Got chatting to Valerie and her boyfriend Jeremy from Canada who were super nice, we ended up spending the next couple of days together.

Took the bus down to Cape Di beach which is this pebble stone beach nestled in this cove, kind of hidden away from it all anyway, the beauty is too hard to describe in words, i'll let the pictures do all the talking.

After clillaxing for a few days I decided to try my luck at dock-walking in Antibes. I heard from many that the season has been very slow and people were leaving to go back home after being here for a couple of months and not finding work so i didn't expect to get a call back from a boat that was owned by Russians to come back at 10 am the next morning. However the next morning came around and I was 10 mins late. One of the dudes started yelling at me in half russian, half english in front of all the key, he wouldn't even let me get a word in, he had obviously had a very bad morning. So I walked off feeling a little disappointed in myself but more relieved thinking 'thank god I was not on time' because i totally would have taken the job considering the situation. I brushed it off and started dock walking again. After asking about a hundred boats I got to the end of a key and saw a guy washing a motor yacht, caught his eye and got a call back for the next day to start as a stew on day work. He even offered me accommodation on the boat which was sweet!. The next morning i checked out of the lovely hostel and checked into the 'Pink Champagne' Its been 2 weeks since i started. and I know have a contract until September. My captain, Daniel is really nice, we've been going to yoga and he has driven me around Antibes a few times on his scooter which is lots of fun. He has an apartment in Nice so i pretty much have the boat to myself in the evenings. The owner came down from the netherlands last week with his mistress and her daughter yes.. i did say mistress. Anyway we sailed to St Tropez which is about a 2 hour journey. On the way I saw the most amazing red rock mountains which i so desperately wanted to climb. St Tropez is so Gee-gee . We anchored and took the dingy across to land All the boats that were moored on the key had bright lights and fancy cocktails, girls in glitter dresses with cowboy hats on doing pole dances... crazy. Alot of the boats also had body guards. The street was crawled with either obvious tourist, bright white or should i say barossa poached chicken with water melon walking around or super tall, men dressed in white linen suits, women with botox and I'm sure the men looked a little plump as well. Lots of sparking ooooo la la. So if you want to be seen (Phil) then St Tropez is the place to be.

Anyway must go and ice my hand. Managed to fall down the hatch into my cabin last night... a bit sore!

Gallery: Cote D'Azur

jags — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:13:00 GMT

Nice Nice