Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands

Hello again! We've just returned from doing a three day and three night boat trip around the Whitsunday Islands and it was pretty darned good. Beforehand we stayed a night in Airlie beach to book our trip for the next day, and that is where we are again now.

We stepped aboard the 120 foot yacht the "Anaconda 3" at 7 in the evening and after a quick safety briefing and a glass of champagne we sailed off into the night. We picked this boat because we could get a private room and we were told that even though it's a bit more expensive, the food is excellent and although you can't bring your own drinks on board, they will be supplied at a cheap price. What more can you ask for??

Well, we got our private double room which was compact but you're on a boat so what are you going to do? It suited us down to the ground as we had our own bathroom and shower - luxury!!! As we were to find out, the food was indeed excellent - especially considering the size of the kitchen (or is that galley?). We even had roast chicken with mash, peas and gravy one night!! I went up for thirds! The drink situation was a little less satisfactory though - they had a fridge full of cans alright but were charging 4 dollars apiece - considering you can buy them in a bottle shop for a little over a dollar apiece it was very cheeky. As well as that we were told that each persons name was on a clipboard and we had to put a tick against our name when we took a beer and we settled up at the end. The crew would be doing the same thing. THEN we were told that if there were any discrepancies (i.e. some thieving git was taking beer without ticking off his or her name) it would be up to everyone to bear the cost of the missing beers. Alarm bells were ringing! As it turned out at the end, 20 or so drinks were taken without anyone ticking the sheet so we were all asked to compensate for this. When myself and Su asked were the crew expected to chip in for this, we were told that they weren't. When asked why it was explained to us that the crews names were on the sheet as well and they put a tick against their names when they took a beer.

Ah ok.... hang on... that's what we did!!!  Total swizz I reckon. Luckily we had the good sense to sneak two bags of wine in with us so our tally of beers wasn't too high. Check-mate Mr. Bond.

Anyway, onto the trip itself. And some photographs! The plan was to visit Whitehaven beach on day 1, check out a few more beaches and reefs on day 2 for some snorkelling and diving (for those who wanted to) before heading out to the outer Great Barrier Reef that night so we could spend day 3 out there. We got to Whitehaven beach on the morning of day 1 after a bit of a bumpy ride (some pale looking faces around the boat after that trip). Whitehaven beach sand is comprised of over 80% silica so is pristinely white and squeaks when you walk on it.

We were lucky to get this photo as 5 minutes later the rain started and pretty much didn't stop for 24 hours. Disaster!!

So we got back to the boat in the rain, tried our best to dry off and spent the night and most of the next morning eating, reading our books, and watching a DVD (one of two on the boat). The dive people did go diving, and some people braved the driving rain to snorkel, while the rest of us were made feel guilty by the crew for our lack of enthusiasm. It looked like things were going down hill real fast when at last the weather got better and the sun came out again. Time for some more lounging - this time up on deck!!!

See, we're much happier now.

That evening we sailed over to another island and hit the beach to watch the sun go down:

That's our boat in the background. This was the night we got the roast chicken dinner. Did I mention that I had thirds! The food was so good.

So that was pretty much it! We spent the next day (which was a scorcher) up on deck getting some sun while the captain sailed us home. They got the sails out on the way back and it was all nice and relaxed. All in all it was a good trip - aside from a few points - the overcharging on the drinks, the attitude of some of the crew, and actually one of the girls in another cabin got eaten alive by bed-bugs and sadly wasn't given an apology or even any alternative. 

We're off to Rockhampton tomorrow! I hear they have great steaks there! Hmmmmmmmmm...... steak.

Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef and Mission Beach

Ok Ok - sorry for the lack of updates (says he hoping that people have been on the edge of their seats waiting..), but we've been had a very lazy weeks lately - well, it's hard work this backpacking business!! Not really. The truth is that after Su's amazing blog last time that I thought it would be a hard act to follow - but time is a great healer so you're stuck with me again. I will convince her to blog again but she's a busy woman so it's me this time...

So we're on the east coast of Australia now after flying from Perth of Cairns via Melbourne (Melbourne was cold!!). Cairns was lovely and tropical though and we booked a day on a boat called the Tusa 5 (sounded a bit Irish) where we did some diving on the Great Barrier Reef (the only living thing viewable from space so they say!). It was pretty cool but we don't have a lot of photos seeing as we were on our lazy period. Well listen, it's hard work finding Nemo but Su managed it:

Hair raising experience it was too. She told me where the little guy was hiding all this time was and I got in there aswell:

We were under water as this stage if nobody has realised which is why we are looking a bit strange.

We spent about a week in Carins and  moved on to Mission Beach where we spent a few days by the pool - I'm sorry but the only photo we took was of an insect that looked like a leaf. Maybe it was a leaf - it didn't move too much and we had a few glasses of wine. We were convinced it was an insect though. It had legs (we think). I'm sure the people in Mission Beach won't be too upset that we didn't get too many photos - it's sold as a place to relax and unwind and that's what we did. I know I know, surely five months of unwinding is more than enough but we're going for a record.

So now we are in Airlie Beach, further south on the East coast - great place - the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands where we'll be hopping on a boat tomorrow for a 3 day and 3 night cruise. We will definitely take some more photos and break out of this slacker mentality that we fallen into. Bear with us - the blog will get better... I'll get Su on the case again!

Hot and Sticky in Western Australia

G' day All, Susan here. Yep! Well I have finally gotten off my backside to make a contribution to Pete's fabulous blog.  I can't guarantee it will be as funny or as informative as his, I may ramble on a bit or have a quick chat with the girls half way thru so bear with me...

So we picked up our campervan and headed North, happy to be on the road again.  It's a 'Him' this time and is called 'Morris' (lovingly named after the first 'Box' of wine we had in him).  Our first stop was The amazing Pinnacles Desert, This is made up of thousands of limestone pillars, up to 4 metres tall rising out of golden sand dunes

It's pretty spectacular, even more so considering the surrounding earth is a rich red colour and the neighbouring beaches are snow white...

At this stage I think I should point out that for the last few weeks the average temperature has been between 35 & 39 degrees which is pretty darn hot in the middle of a desert, oh and while I'm at it I may as well mention the Flies.....  Oh yes 'THE FLIES' when people talk to you about Australia the mention the stunning landscape, the  tropical turquoise seas, the great friendly people, they even mention the nasty, nasty, horrible, HUGE (as big as my hand HUGE) spiders!!!  but no one warns you about the flies,  while in the middle or western Oz, as soon as you step foot outside at least 40 flies land on you (it's like a race) luckily for me they get to Pete first due to a certain height factor-poor Pete) then the flies that haven't landed on you are flying AT you, mainly into your mouth, into your ears, up your nose and even trying to balance on your eyelashes... Not good!  Ok that's my rant over for now... Well not quite just a quick word about the spiders.. I seem to have a special gift of seeing them everywhere and they seem to be getting bigger.. and they're always in the jacks, normally Pete would go in and inspect them for me (what would I do with out him he's the best) but the other day I ventured into one (unchecked by my main man) trying to be brave,there was huge spider in it, his body was the size of a meatball!! no kidding, I nearly passed out. Other than that I love Australia....

   Next stop was 'Shell Beach', well when I say next stop I actually mean 3 days later after a very long drive, this is Australia you know.  Shell Beach is one of the longest shell beaches in the world, it is made up of tiny, white cockleshells up to 10 meters deep in some places and the water is luke warm and crystal clear, a great spot for the daily bath...

The beach was almost deserted when we got there, it was beautiful...

From there we when to 'Monkey Mia resort' in Shark Bay to see (yep you've guessed it) Dolphins!!! Go figure? Every morning for the past 10 years wild Dolphins come right up to the shore line and interact with people, of course a few buckets of fish might have something to do with.  It's a bit of a circus during the morning feeding session

 

but is a great opportunity to see wild Dolphins up close..

The resort itself was beautiful, fab beaches, a cool swimming pool where we spent most of the day working on our tans, which are coming along just nicely thanks to the searing heat and the scorching sun!! We even managed to fit in a romantic stroll along the beach for sunset..

The next day it was back on the road again heading north for our final destination Exmouth and the Ningaloo Reef, home to Logger Head Turtles, huge Manta Rays and the amazing 18m long 15 tonne Whale Sharks.  Our plan was to head out on a boat and go snorkelling for the day over the reef in the hope of spotting some of the above... however, this was not to be.  Upon our arrival the clear blue skies quickly changed into dark black clouds, gale force winds, torrential rain which resulted in 'Cyclone Pancho' (No we didn't name it, that'd be the Aussie weather people, wonderful imaginations the Aussie's have).. The eye of the Cyclone was 200km off shore so no real damage was done but the roads were closed due to flooding and the winds were too strong to drive so we were van bound for a few very wet and very hot days, Morris let us down by leaking but then again maybe he was sweating as much as we were in the 80% humidity..  Sorry I've no Photos of the storm but if you saw it you wouldn't get out of the van to take a picture either.  

So that brings us up to date, we are now on our way back to Perth to give leaky Morris back, he's served us well but it's time to move on... in a few days time we will fly to Cairns (pronounced 'Kens' with a high pitched voice) on the East Coast to begin the last leg of our Amazing Australian Adventure... Stay tuned... There are loads of really BIG SPIDERS there so I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about all that...

Now for the girlie bit... Happy Birthday Mam on the 1st April hope you have a great day, lots and lots of love.. Su+Pete. Dad hope your enjoying your well earned rest by rebuilding the house maybe? or just building another one or two for fun? Mmm very relaxing... Daisy Mae so sorry haven't written lately, promise to write soon, hope all's great with you and writing away like a mad thing.x Gillie Gorie thanks a mill for the great email, I'm lovin' all the goss promise to mail you back soon, Jeannette, likewise promise to mail soon, any more thoughts on an early hol???  Maevey Baby any wedding news for me?? Suzy Mogs, how's it going? any goss? Bar and Su, Neal and Gabreilla give Aaron, Zak, Ginavera, Lorenzo a big kiss for me, Pete and Patricia 'how's it goin' bud!, Mr +Mrs Owen+Ruth MaGee (to be) congratulations that is wonderful news,  Eoin and Lucy, nice one on the job front!! Lavinia hope alls well with you,Marco and baby Lucca, Niallo, see ya in Sydney, Martin and Dee, howyanow! Thanks for the Grays Anatomy! A big hello to Pete's parents in Tuam, the Lyons' and Monica in Dunmow, Paul in Auckland (well done with the job), John, julie and kids in Glanmire, Martin and Catherine, hope you're well, how's lovely Sam? taller then his uncle Pete yet? ... Lots of Love Su+Pete. xx

Uluru and Kings Canyon

Hello again! We're back from a three day bus tour to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) and the Kings Canyon where we roughed it in swags (outdoor sleeping bags) and hiked like we never hiked before in sweltering heat. Actually, due to an arachnaphobic Su, we slept in a tent but we got the gist. We were the oldest people on the bus and got christened Mum and Dad by the tour leader (who was 25) but we didn't mind as what we lacked in youth we made up for in wisdom and experience (yeah right). The group was good old craic and we were able to fulfil our role as parents by given out worldly advice to all the kids about what to do when they got to New Zealand (as most of them seemed to be doing after Oz). We gave them Martin and Catherines address in Hastings so there should be about 20 or so hungry smelly backpackers looking for free food and lodgings in the next few weeks (not really).

Here's a photo of what the whole tour was in aid of:

It's a big rock in the middle of Australia! It's pretty awesome!

We also went to Kings Canyon another day - also pretty awesome! Awesome!!!

Notice our hats - we spent ages picking them out. Mine is made from Kangaroo leather! It's very springy and awesome.

After a bit of a climb down we came to a watering hole (maybe it was a billabong - I don't really know) called the Garden of Eden. Also awesome!

Notice how Su has her hat off in this photo.

So finally a photo of the whole tour group - we had a mix of Irish, Swiss, German, Japanese, Korean and a couple of Italians. For fun, see if you can figure out who is from where. A prize for whoever gets it right:

We has a couple of days in Alice Springs afterwards where I recovered from either a bout of flu or exhaustion from being on a tour where we had to sing songs on a bus for three days (probably the latter). We flew to Perth and what did we see from the plane? Uluru again! We would have been gutted if we paid for a helicopter trip over it just to see it for free from our plane. It was, again, AWESOME!

Off to collect another camper van tomorrow - Hyacinth Mark II. Up and down the West coast over the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, belated Happy Saint Paddys day!!!!

The Long Trip

Driving over 1500 kilometres in three days is never easy but that's what we had to endure from Adelaide to Alice Springs. Fair enough, you get some of this:

which is always nice. But most of it is this:

and a lot of this:

with quite a lot of this:

and unfortunately, a lot of road-kill.

However, we endured. Mostly due to the likes of this:

It was windy that day.

And this:

as well as this:

after the days driving was done of course. And this!

The big camper made it a breeze. We highly recommend it! Here in Alice Springs now enjoying the 36 degree heat. We bought hats! Off to Uluru soon!

Melbourne, The Great Ocean Road, and Adelaide

Well now! A busy few days for us! A lot of photos this time so downloading could take a while. We bummed around Melbourne for a few days, taking in the sights and generally chilling out. We are really terrible for not seeing more touristy things in the cities but by the time we get to them, all we want to do is wander around and get a feel for the city itself (and check out the shops). We did make it out to St. Kilda in Melbourne where we topped up our ever decreasing tan. Here's a photo of some kite surfers in St. Kilda:

Some of these guys were flying high into the air - extremely cool!

We got a relocation deal to bring a four wheel drive camper from Melbourne to Adelaide (5 dollars a day!) so we picked up and packed up and headed for the Great Ocean Road. See!

We stopped off at Anglesea golf course as we heard that they had resident kangaroos that lounge about near the fairway. Sure enough:

They say they have to hire a team of young lads to retrieve golf balls from the kangaroos pouches every evening. The kangaroos think that they are duck eggs and collect them for the winter.

Don't believe a word it.

We drove further along the Great Ocean Road stopping occasionally to see the sights and take photos. Here's one of The Twelve Apostles:

There's only six of them left - they're slowly being eroded by the sea. Ahhhhh.

You haven't seen a photo of the new van yet. It wasn't as roomy or comfortable as Hyacinth as you can see:

Cooking outdoors was a bit of a pain but the V8 engine was a lot of fun!

We just managed to eat in time for sundown. And what a sundown it was!

We continued on the next day and drove on towards Adelaide. Here's me in the morning with the van and an empty water bottle (just an excuse to show a profile of the van).

So, we're in Adelaide now where we've spent a few days. The temperature is in the mid thirties but we're not complaining. We getting a six berth behemoth of a camper van tomorrow and we're driving to Alice Springs. It's supposed to have three double beds, a shower, a toilet, an oven, a T.V., loads of stuff! All for 1 dollar a night! Hard to beat! Will update when we get to Alice! Oh yeah - Happy Mothers day to all the mothers out there!

Sydney Australia!

We made it to Sydney! Again, and I know this is becoming a habit, sorry for the delay, but I'm lazy. We ended up staying nearly a week in Sydney as we were glad to be in a big impressive city and out of a camper van for a change. We stayed with the bould Niallo in Manly for two nights. Niallo is a good buddy of mine from Galway and he and his flatmate Ashlee were good enough to put us up for two nights in Manly, which is a swanky suburb of Sydney. Having a real bed to sleep in was bliss! We checked out Manly beach in the morning - a short walk from Niallos place - imagine being able to stroll down to this every morning!

We stayed in a cool hotel in Ultimo for two days afterwards (a belated birthday present from me to Su - we vegged out and ate junkfood... again). We did manage to make it out and wander around Sydney - the highlight for me was Darling Harbour (we went to the biggest IMAX cinema in the world - 8 stories high!). Then we tried the other end of the scale and stayed in Kings Cross - in a room the size of a closet with bunk beds. Couldn't get out of there fast enough really. Didn't bother taking any photos of the roaches or the dodgy television. For a change of pace we booked into a better place in Bondi Beach for two nights - one day of sunning ourselves on Bondi beach (topping up the tan!) and a night on the town with Niallo, starting at the Opera bar (near the Opera House) where we finally managed to take a few more photos:

Su and myself first:

Hmmmm... beer. And the three of us:

Then as night fell (and the fruit bats came out flying overhead - seriously), Su got this one of the Opera House:

There are better things to be doing than taking photos in Sydney - needless to say we had a long and boozey night. You can't beat it. Our plan was to leave Sydney by getting a relocation deal to Melbourne. Relocation deals are when you pay a camper van company a nominal amount of money to relocate their camper van back to it's home depot. You have only a set (small) amount of days to get it there but it's much cheaper than hiring a car and you get a nice camper van to stay in while you do it. The plan was to get one from Sydney to Melbourne, then one to Melbourne to Adelaide, and then from Adelaide to Alice Springs. However, after arriving at the depot in Sydney early in the morning, we were told that the camper van was involved in a crash and we couldn't have it. Bummer. As we still had to make our way to Melbourne and pick up the next camper van from Melbourne to Adelaide (in a few days), we ended up getting an overnight train to Melbourne (not a whole lot of fun trying to sleep with crying babies, not enough leg room etc). But we made it! We're here in Melbourne now but as we haven't even taken one photo, I'll get on the case and update in a day or two. Melbourne is great so far though! The landlady of the hostel we are in at the moment has friends from Tuam! Murphys apparently - had to pretend I had an idea who they were. Great fun!