The Great Barrier Reef.

We are now in Airlie Beach, which strangely doesn't really have a beach. We have been here for a few days now stuck on a computer trying to update this blog.

Sunset on Airlie Beach.

On Sunday we went to the Great Barrier Reef to a section called Knuckle Reef. Whilst on the way there we decided to do an introductory scuba dive - which wasn't originally planned. I sort of persuaded Kate to do it as she was a bit scared of being trapped underwater. Me, Kate and 2 Irish ladies we in a group together. Kate and one of the Irish ladies went with Stuart (the p*ss taking Scotsman), the most senior instructor because they were the most scared. I went with other trainee instructor. Kate reckons she took to it better than she though she would but the lady she was with struggled and they kept having to return to the surface. I also had a few problems with my ears as I couldn't get the pressure in them equalised (its the same as going up in plane). We ended going to a depth of a 4m, which is ok for a first dive. It was deep enough to get close up the coral and the colourful fishes including Wally a huge friendly Maori Wrasse. I had disposable waterproof camera, but all the pictures are crap because on most of them you can see my thumb (I was a bit busy remembering to breathe).

We also did a bit of snorkelling and we went on a semi-submersible boat which took us to a different section of the reef.

Kate with something big in her mouth!

Look, I 've got all my fingers.

Coral as taken from the semi-sub.

A fish taken from the semi-sub.

Me snorkelling.

The crap picture of the big Maori Wrasse

Kate snorkelling.

Someone put a cauliflower in the sea.

Big Things - Part 2

Good evening and welcome to the second instalment of BIG things.


The big painting (Van Gogh's sunflowers) in Emerald (near the gemfields).


The big ring in Sapphire (Gemfields).


The big sapphire in Anakie (Gemfields).

Monkeys Diary - Post 10

Hello monkey fans. Sorry I've been negecting you lately. You'll see that I've been busy doing stuff. Check out these sexy pics, oh yeh!


A little something I've been working on while those two gallavant all over the place - Van Gogh, eat your heart out! (or your ear. What ever takes your fancy.)


Reckon ya tough, long legs! (Quick take the picture. That ugly git is eye, eye, eye, eye, eye, eye, eye, eyeing me up)


I think I'm the star here, push off!

Gemfields to Mackay

The Gemfields

We arrived, after a 350km drive inland, at Anakie caravan park to discover they were having their annual ball/bbq. We had to put the tent up in the pouring rain - nightmare, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. We had a great night of free food (lots of pork - see pic), booze (Gluhwein heaven) and entertainment. This being the outback(ish), they had a live country and western band playing and a pole dancing comp. Totally hilarious, one guy told us he had 'bruised his balls' whilst competing. Admittedly, we were the youngest people there by 30 years, but these guys really knew how to enjoy themselves, some were still partying when we went to bed.


Squeal piggy!


Hans & Joan (the owners) having a merry dance.


J with orange bag full of pig! (They gave us some leftovers that lasted us for days).


The next day we went to a nearby gem park called Pat's Gems to try our hand at fossicking. Basically we bought a bucket of stones each and we had to filter and wash them before searching for gems (sapphires and zircons). You had to look out for glassy or sugary textures rather than particular colours. I found it pretty difficult, but Jamie developed a bit a skill for it - it takes a 'good eye' which kinda ruled me out straight away. Jamie became quite hooked, he did a few more buckets at the campsite too. We decided to have one of the sapphires cut, so that we can maybe have it made into a ring when we get home next year. I actually almost lost that particular sapphire, I dropped it when J passed it to me (oops!). Luckily J found it after a mad panic search.


J feeding his addiction (fossicking).

Mackay and around.

Once we left the gemfields, it was an even longer drive back to the coast and Mackay (about 450kms). The campsite was fine for caravans but not great for our tent. The ground was too tough and there were hardly any trees for shade. I also had my haircut in Mackay. This is a major event as I haven't had it done since March (we're on a budget). I think it might be a wee bit too short - it's the shortest I've had it for years - but it should keep me cooler as the weather gets warmer.

We drove to Eungella, near a national park in the mountains, the following day. The campsite we stayed at was ok but had an excellent view.




The view from the campsite.

On our first evening, we went platypus spotting by the river. We managed to spot a few as well as some turtles. One platypus popped its head up out of the water right near where we were standing. Unfortunately I had a 'dizzy Kate' moment (no sly comments, please!), I shouted "Look, there" and scared it away.


This is the only picture we got of a platypus.

The next day, we went for a rainforest walk around Finch Hatton gorge and saw some goannas. We liked one in particular because he had a "Don't Worry, Be Happy" smiley face on his back.


Finch Hatton gorge.

A gecko.


See the smiley face?

The next morning, we had to take the car to the garage as J had put water in with the steering fluid (now that beats the 'dizzy Kate' moment!!). The mechanic had insisted we bring the car in by 8.30am, but when we arrived promptly (for once), he said something about it being Sat morning, he was reading his paper, come back in 2 hours - for a 1 hour job! What happened to customer -bloody- service?! Ok, rant over.

From 1770 to Great Keppel Island

No we haven't vanished we just been in a few places that have had very little access to outside world on the www.

1770 and Agnes Water

We spent 3 nights here. On the first day, it was fabulous to have the beach to ourselves even though it was cloudy and quite misty. This gave the beach a really brooding atmosphere (unfortunately we didn't have the camera with us so no pics).

On the second day, we headed to the headland and went for a walk.

Rather arty picture of Jamie on the beach.

Bush fire in the distance from the same beach.

Spectacular sunset at 1770.

On the third day, we went to Yeppoon.

Yeppoon and Great Keppel Island

On the way to Yeppoon we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn. Yeppoon was a stop off point for us to access Great Keppel Island which was only a short ferry ride away.

Once on Great Keppel we camped on sand at the Holiday Village advertised as the 'Quiet Alternative' - we must be getting old!

Whilst there we went snorkelling on fringing reefs around the island. I was very nervous to start with - it's quite strange breathing through a tube. But it was definately worth the effort as we saw lots of fish and coral although a lot of it was bleached. It was just recovering from this so there wasn't much colour to it. We also invented our own underwater sign language. But we kept making each other laugh, so had to continuously clear out our masks.

Shelving Beach where we went snorkelling.

You can see the reef, it's the dark blob in the water.

At night, the possums came out searching for food. They were so fearless, one even climbed on the bench where we were sitting. They were cute little things, but quite annoying to the owner when they rummage through the bins. But the crows were the most annoying, waking us up at dawn and trying to steal our food.

Hello possums!

We met some cool people and birds who we went to the bar with on the second night. We played a few drinking games and planned to go snorkelling the next day, but that didn't happen! We ended up sleeping in a hammock for most of the day.

One of the sexy birds in the bar. It's a curlew we think.

Jamie lazing - what a perfect way to recover from a hangover.

Before the drinking started.

Once back on the mainland we stayed at Yeppoon for a night. Then it was off to the gemfields to hunt for treasure!

Canoeing in the Noosa Everglades

Last week we went on a two night, three day canoe trip through the Noosa Everglades. They call the area the river of mirrors, from the picture you can see why.



On the first day we were dropped off at an information shelter at the end of the Noosa river and told where we were camping which was about a1.5 hour paddle upstream. Once at the camp site called Harry's Hut we set up for the two nights we were staying there. There were a total of 13 people in our group. It was like a big brother situation where no-one knew each other and some people were being the leaders of the group without them even realising.


Mr Goanna.


Me doing all the work and Kate posing.

The second day we all decided to go to the sandpatch. A big area of sand believe it or not. So it was a 8km paddle upstream to the start of the walk, then a 12km walk to and from the sand patch and then 8km back to camp. Basically a bloody long way to see some sand on a hill! Some of the crazy people in the group decided to walk even further to the beach, which meant walking over the sand which they said was a nightmare.


Big patch of sand!

We decided to leave first back to camp because we were taking it easy (sort of - Kate was hot and tired from the walk.) When we got back we went for a swim in the river. It was a wee bit cold, but refreshing after all the exercise.



It was cold!

We lived off a very exciting diet of cereal bars, soup and strawberries, but Kate was lucky enough to get some chilli off a person in the group the last night we were there.

On the final day we packed up and headed back to the pick up point. It was a good experience but I think I'll stick to moving water from now on and Kate thought there was far too much walking and paddling on the second day and wasn't in the best of moods.

Whale Watching from Hervey Bay

Yesterday we took a day trip up to Hervey Bay to go whale watching. After a 2 hour drive and nearly missing the boat we set off into the Great Sandy Straights and Platypus Bay in the search for whales. We weren't disappointed within 20 minutes of setting off we had our first sighting of.. you guessed it dolphins!


Flipper and his friend.

We then went along the shore line of Fraser Island to see if we could spot any Dingoes, but we didn't see any.


Fraser Island - Very picturesque.


Kate posing on the boat.


Our first glimpse of a whale about 1 hour into the trip.



He gave us a wave.



And a wave of his tale.

A bit later on we found another pod (a small group) which were very inquizative and came right up to the boat.

(I've got a vid to put on as well)

To keep the whales interested in us we all had to wave and make noise to attract them back to the surface, so every minute or so they would pop back up and blow spray up at us. After about an hour we had to leave the whales, but the only way we could do it was to get another boat near us, so they could get the whales to go over to them and we could start the engine and move off.

Even on the way back there were still whales appearing in the distance, even more dolphins, but we couldn't stay with them as we had been out to long already. In all we visited 4 different whale pods and 2 dolphin pods which was pretty good.

G'Day from the Sunshine Coast

The Sunshine Coast, it does exactly what it says on the tin. The weather is simply gorgeous and it's the middle of winter.


The Wee Hoose where we're staying at the mo.


Especially for you, Dave - this is our Schlurple Purple set of wheels (Jamie has cleverly captured it with the sun reflecting off it, so you can't see how dirty it is!).

Must admit, we've been pretty lazy these last couple of weeks, chillin' out, having lie-ins. But, we have done a few things, such as surfing a couple of days ago. We had a surf lesson with an ageing hippy surf dude, complete with dreads and beard. But he was a v good teacher and also a bit of a therapist (he told me to have more self-belief and be positive). Jamie managed to stand up first time (jammy git) and I eventually managed to do it a few times. You get a really good buzz when you manage to do it. I'm not sure if I'd do it again though, I actually found it more scary than the skydiving at certain points (big waves, being hit by board, etc). But it was a fun experience overall.

We've been out for a couple of drives to Mapleton Falls and Kondalilla National Parks. See pretty pictures below.


Pretty view over Kondalilla NP.


Jamie in a hollow tree cos he fancied slipping into it!


Me with the view.


The top section of Kondalilla Falls. We couldn't go to the base of the falls as the path was blocked off for safety reasons.


We know what bird this is (for once), it's a Kookaburra. He refused to laugh for us, even though we pestered him for a while. Isn't he fluffy?

Yesterday, we headed down to Noosa Heads Beach to bask in the sun for a while and read some more of my Harry Potter 7 book (what a bloodbath so far, but lovin it anyway). We took Jamie's stunt kite out for its virgin flight, as it got quite windy later on.


Mr J with his new toy.


I nicked his new toy and played with it!

On the way back to the cottage we stopped off at Mt Tinbeerwah (or "Tin o' beer? Yah!" as I call it!) lookout for sunset.


The view over the Sunshine Coast hinterland.