Jamie and Kate's Oz Adventure

Merry Christmas

2007-12-17T14:51:00.000+10:00

In case we don't get a chance to get on this again.

Merry Christmas

We will be home on Boxing Day. Looking forward to seeing everyone, but not the weather!

Back in Brissy

2007-12-17T14:30:00.000+10:00

Brissy

We are here in Brisbane for a couple of weeks before we head home. Basically we have not done much at all except chill and drink some beer.

We did go to the Gold Coast which is south of Brisbane. We went to the beach but the weather was not the best again! We also went to Wet 'N' Wild - Which isn't a porno directed by Mr Monkey, but a water park. It was good fun being a kid for the day.

The moody Gold Coast.

It's not cold, just bloody cloudy! (Kate: Check out Jamie's skirt!)

Of course we have had a few 'barbies' while we have been here and we have been out a few times too.

Me and Matt.

Jodie, Matt and a few of their mates celebrating Jodie's birthday.

Monkeys Diary - Post 13

2007-12-03T18:27:00.001+10:00

Hello people. Check me out. I also have a sexy new wardrobe and I'm lookin goooood!

Looking for my rels.

Sh#t it's high up here!

I'd prefer it in the car as it's bloody cold out here!

I'm getting mad cos people keep taking me outside on these cold days!

Ali Monkey and the 40 thieves.

I don't care how long and straight it is. I'm not the idiot driving.

Guess where I am. You'll never get it!

I'm going to have this on my barbie tonight.

It's a hill, Woo!

Do people have nothing better to do than build a big pointless horse?

You still won't get where I am.

That reminds me, I could do with a p*ss...

The hills are alive with the sound of... a chimp farting!

Pondering life's big questions. Like when can we go and drink some wine?

All it took was a little stick of dynamite and kaboom!!

Once again, no-one will guess where I am!

I love BBQs. But who is that goddam psycho Aussie behind me? Do you like my new jumper?

And another new jumper! Courtesy of my good friend Karen from Geelong.

It was flamin' hot at Sovereign Hill.

This is my beer, ok? And who's that poncey barman posing on MY pic?

Why does Kate look so fed up? Cos Dr K loves me best, that's why!

I auditioned to be Bouncers replacement. But they thought I wasn't ready for such a big role. What do they know?

What a miserable day, where's the bloody sun gone, Australia??

What can I say about this pic, except that I'm lookin hot hot hot, baby yeahhhh!!!!

You may have heard that there's a new PM in Oz. Its me!

I told you I needed a wee.

That's all for now, guys. Naydine, if you're reading this, say hi to my other brother for me.

Phillip Island to Sydney

2007-12-01T14:03:00.000+10:00

Phillip Island

Once we left Ramsay Street, we headed south to Phillip Island and back into the tent (boo hoo!).

Once here we went to check out the views from the coast at The Nobbies. They a few rocky island of the coast. From here we used a telescope to see the largest fur seal population in Australia they were on some more rocky bits called Seal Rocks amazingly!

There are seals in this pic. Honest!

At sunset we headed to the penguin parade. We sat on the steps leading down to Summerlands Beach to watch the Little Penguins (they are about 30cm tall which is the smallest type of penguin in the world) come waddling out of the sea, across the beach and up to their burrows on the grassy bank. Then afterwards we walked back along the boardwalk past some of the burrows where you could see the penguins wandering about and getting frisky with each other and being very loud about it too! The males beat their wings in excitement when mating. Quite funny. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos as it would scare the little uns.

Venus Bay

After leaving Phillip Island we headed east to Venus Bay. From here we explored an area what is known as 'Prom' country. Firstly we went up to Agnes Falls and then into Tarra Bulga National Park up in the hills and did a small walk through a fern forest and across a suspension bridge which Kate didn't like too much.

Agnes Falls.

The bridge of Kate hate.

The next day we went to Wilson's Promontory National Park, which is the main draw here. We did the Lilly Pilly Nature Walk, a 5km walk through the rainforest. We were disappointed not to see any wildlife as the animals around this area we suppose to be quite tame due to the high amount of people that visit. Afterward we drove to Squeaky Beach where we had a squeaky stroll on the white quartz sand.

On the Lilly Pilly walk.

Lakes Entrance

Once we left Venus Bay we headed east to Lakes Entrance. We didn't much here as the weather was poor and the flies we driving us crazy. We were getting fed up of camping now especially having spent 9 day of luxury back in Geelong.

Galahs at the campsite.

Why did the echidna cross the road? To get his picture taken of course!

Mallacoota

The next day we headed further east to Mallacoota. On the way we headed to Buchan and the cave you can visit. We had a guided tour of Royal Cave. It was a good break from the FLIES!!!

Inside Royal Cave.

If the flies were annoying us by day, then at night the mozzies were out in force for the first time in months. We think its a conspiracy to get us out of the country. Apparently the insects are not usually this bad in Victoria. The weather hadn't improved any either, so we had big steaks for tea and a bottle of wine to cheer us up!

The most boring boarder sign in Australia!

Canberra

Once we left Mallocoota, we headed north to the nations capital. We stayed in Sutton which is just on the NSW side of the border. The weather was getting slightly better, but to cheer us up a bit we had a go on the giant jumping pillow that was at the campsite.

I know you're all jealous because you want a go too!

We drove in to Canberra to check out some of the sights. (Quick fact: Canberra is derived from the aboriginal word Kamberra, meaning 'meeting place') Being the political capital, we did all things government and monetary. First we went to the old Parliament building and luckily for us got a free guided tour around. We then went to the royal mint and made our own 1 dollar coin for $2.50, Bargain! Then we went to the new parliament house, there were no politicians there strutting their stuff as there had just been an election here and they have got a new government.

On top of the new parialment building.

Judge Judy.

Kate in the House of Representatives (The Commons).

Me in the Senate (House of Lords).

Next to a big squirt.

Sydney

The journey has ended, sort of. We are now back in Sydney, in Glebe, trying to sell the car. Once that is done we are off to Brisbane to see Matt, a guy I used to work with back in Manchester. In the meantime we met up with Ben, a canoeing friend from back home, as he is over here meeting his woman and seeing a few of the sights as he has also quit his job.

Cruise ship at Sydney harbour.

Geelong, Melbourne and around

2007-12-01T13:29:00.000+10:00

Geelong

We stayed at George and Karen's house in Geelong. We met them on the Margaret River wine tour the previous month and they insisted on us staying, so we did!

We stayed here for 9 spoilt days of luxury, mainly doing nothing but we did go to a few places while we were here.

BBQ

We were all invited around to a neighbours house on the next street for a traditional Aussie barbie. We didn't know anyone except G & K but we were made very welcome.

Me making friends with the guy doing the cooking of course!

Ballarat (Sovereign Hill)

George took us to the old gold mining town of Ballarat and the historic Sovereign Hill Living Museum. Basically its set up as an old village during the time of the gold rush with people dressed up in period costume acting on the streets. The buildings were actually from Ballarat itself but they had been moved to this spot which is situated on top of an old gold mine. You could visited a recreation of a mine, see how a gold ingot is made and actually pan for gold! Its a bit like Beamish for the ones who know what that is.

The main street.

There be gold in them there hills.

Me and Kate on the street. Feeling very hot!

The guy getting ready to pour the gold.

Helicopter Flight

We went to the centre of Geelong for a wander round and there was helicopter flights available on the sea front. George and Karen asked us if we had ever had a helicopter flight, but we said no. The next moment they had paid for a flight for us to our surprise. It was only suppose to be a 5 min flight, but luckily for us we had an extended flight because the pilot had to go and refuel back at the air strip. In the end we had a 20 minute flight which was pretty fantastic!

I'm a VIP of course

Kate with the windswept look.

Melbourne

We all went to Melbourne for the day and had a look in the Crown Casino. A huge entertainment and shopping complex in the centre of the city, but its main purpose was the casino with rows upon rows of slot machines and roulette tables etc. We also had a walk along the Yarra river up to Federation Square where they were having some sort of Polish festival, very busy! We went into some strange arty farty museum on the square. It was all a bit weird so we didn't stay in there long.

The view of Melbourne from the Yarra river.

Kate in Federation Square. It was another scorcher!

Yarra Valley Wine Tour

Yes, yet another wine tour! George and Karen were now back at work so we got the train into Melbourne where we were picked up for the tour to the Yarra Valley which is north east of the city. We drunk lots of course but didn't buy much as we had lots of wine from the previous tours.

Doing what she does best!

Cheers!

Kate thinks we bought all these!

Neighbours Tour

Kate insisted we did the neighbours tour (Whoopee!!!). So on the day we left Geelong on our way to Phillip Island, we parked up in Melbourne and went on a 3 hour tour of the Neighbours sets and outside locations. We even met Dr. K (My Hero!) on the back lot of the studios. Kate told him that she cheered for him when he was on Soapstar Superstar (Kate was in the audience), but not because he was any good. She thinks that might of been a bit mean. Overall Kate thought it was fabulously cheesy! I think it was bonza mate!

The Doc

Kates off with the street sign!

No. I'm off with it!

We would like to thank George and Karen for a fabulous time at theirs and we really appreciate
them letting us stay there. Plus the beer, wine and food as well.

Our excellent hosts, George and Karen. Plus two lovely guests!

Adelaide to Geelong

2007-11-18T23:14:00.000+10:00

Adelaide

During our stay in Adelaide, we went on a wine tour of the Barossa Valley - you can never do too many wine tours! We visited a few wineries including Wolf Blass and Maggie Beer's Farm Shop to taste some jams and sauces (very yum).

The view of Adelaide from the pier at Glenelg.

The Wolf Blass logo

Me relaxing on the lawn at Wolf Blass vineyard.

Some old vines.

On our last day, we went to the Whispering Wall (A.K.A. Barossa Valley Dam), where you can hear another person speaking from the other end (or in J's case, burping!). We also visited the Big Rocking Horse and the small wildlife park next door, where we were followed by peacocks and psycho guinea fowl who thought we had food. A cute little roo wandered right up to me, sniffed my feet and let me stroke him.

The noisy dam!

Old Red. He was at the sanctuary too.

Later that day, we paid a visit to a German settlement called Hahndorf and we drove up to the Mount Lofty lookout over the city.

View from Mount Lofty. Adelaide is there, trust me.

Mount Gambier

From Adelaide we travelled south to Mount Gambier. On the way, we passed through the Coonawarra wine region for another spot of wine tasting - no complaints there!

In Mount Gambier just before dusk, we went to feed the possums at the Umpherston Sinkhole garden. It was a lovely garden and we've never seen so many possums in one place! I was a bit cheeky and stroked a couple of possums whilst they were busy eating, but by the looks of it they were used to the human interaction.

The view into the gardens.

Possum and joey.

Trying to stroke the possum.

The next day we headed east across the SA/Victoria border to The Grampians

Welcome to Victoria!

The Grampians (Halls Gap)

On the way to Halls Gap in the Grampians National Park (named after the Scottish mountains), we stopped at the Petrified Forest on the coast.

Jamie is really petrified! They are not really trees, just a natural rock formation.

Jamie feeding the Crimson Rosellas at the caravan park.

The next day, we took some photos from the Boroka lookout over Halls Gap and the Reed lookout over the Grampians. We also went to see The Balconies - a rock formation that looks like a lizard's mouth and Mackenzie Falls, which was pretty spectacular.

View from Baroka lookout.

See the lizards mouth?

Mackenzie Falls. (Jamie trying to be arty!)

Jamie on the edge!

After leaving the Grampians, we headed south to drive along the Great Ocean Road.

The Great Ocean Road (Port Campbell)

On our Great Ocean Road trip, we stayed at Port Campbell, where we went to look at the Twelve Apostles rock formations in the ocean. There aren't 12 of them anymore, however, as some of them have fallen down. It was recommended to us that we visit the Apostles at sunset, which we did, but it was pretty cloudy, so we went back to the campsite to watch Rove and drink wine!

The evening shot of the 12 (6ish) Apostles.

The Great Ocean Road (Bimbi Park - Cape Otway)

The next day, on the way to Cape Otway, we went to check out London Bridge (part of which did actually fall down in 1990), The Grotto and The Bay of Martyrs. I also enjoyed some lovely cheese tasting at Timboon and Apostle Whey cheese shops. And we did some wine tasting at Heytesbury Ridge Vineyard. It's so nice to taste the cheese/ wine at the place where it's made and chat to the people who make it and are passionate about it.

The Grotto.

Bay of Martyrs

Later on, we went back to see if we could get better photos of the Twelve Apostles in daylight and we visited Loch Ard Gorge, the Thunder Cave and the Gibson Steps leading down to a beach.

Take two: 6ish Apostles during the day.

London Bridge HAS fallen down!

An arch.

Me and J on the beach at the bottom of Gibsons Steps.

I was really looking forward to staying in Cape Otway because our campsite was called Bimbi Park Camping Under Koalas - and I wasn't disappointed! We must've seen about a dozen koalas in the trees and wandering around the campsite. Did you know that koalas communicate by growling? They look like such cute balls of fluff, but the noise they make is quite unnerving! Especially when you're sleeping in a little tent and those growls sound awfully close.

One of many koalas hanging around the campsite.

Geelong

On the way to Geelong, on the last stretch of the Great Ocean Road, we did a fairly short walk to the impressive Triplet Falls through ancient rainforest. We also did some koala spotting at Kennett River - we saw quite a few fuzzy bums in the trees.

Triplet Falls.

Margaret River to Adelaide

2007-11-17T10:27:00.001+10:00

Denmark

From Margaret River, we headed to the south coast to a place called Denmark. On the way, Jamie climbed the Diamond Tree, one of the tallest types of trees in the area, it used to be used as a lookout for forest fires (helicopters are used now). Jamie also fed some brightly coloured birds. I did neither of these things because that tree was bloody tall and those birds were psychos (maybe a slight over exaggeration there!)

Jamie up the Diamond Tree (He got down after that point, he said it was too high and scary!). I think it was about 60ish metres high.

J's got yet another new bird!

After all our complaining about it being too hot up north, it was too COLD down south! The weather was very British: very windy and rainy. We were the only people crazy enough to sleep in a tent in our campsite in Denmark.The wind was so strong that I was sure that the tent would cave in any second!

The following day, we went to Walpole-Nornalup National Park to do the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. A steel walkway has been erected in a forest of Tingle Trees. It ascends to 40 metres at its highest and you can see through the floor - it's very scary! But J enjoyed it, he did it twice.

J in the giant trees

The view from the canopy.

We also visited the Giant Tingle Tree, which is over 450 years old and has a hollow base.

Apparently they used to drive their cars into the hollow!

Esperance

We headed east along the south coast to Esperance. On the way, we stopped near Albany to check out the blowholes. Basically, they're a natural phenomenon of seawater being 'blown' out through holes in the rock. It was pretty impressive and reminded me a bit of Jamie after eating a curry. We also checked out some other natural sights on the rugged coastline.

Jamie's arse!

The Natural Bridge.

The rough seas around Albany.

The weather was much more cheerful in Esperance, though still a bit cold. We drove to some of the sights including the Pink Lake, a beach and some coastal lookouts. The Pink Lake was, disappointingly, not pink! There was a detailed explanation of where the colour comes from (involving the ingredient that makes carrots orange), but the lake was more like a grey-blue. Oh well.

What a difference a day makes!

The Nullarbor Road Trip

We drove north from Esperance to Norseman, where we began our journey east across the Nullarbor Plain into South Australia. Apparently, people do this drive just to prove that they can do it. It's a very long drive and there's very few places to stop on the way. It also includes the '90 Mile Straight' between Balladonia and Caiguna - the longest straight road in Australia! 'Nullarbor' is derived from the Latin for 'no trees' and although it would be wrong to say that there are no trees, the land is very flat and monotonous.

We stayed the night in Caiguna.

Very misty and atmospheric at 5am

The next night, we stayed at Eucla. In the evening, we went to see the old telegraph building out in the sand dunes. It was a very serene place - nice cool breeze, very few people and the sound of the sea in the distance.

The old telegraph building.

The dunes around Eucla.

The next day, we crossed the border into South Australia.

One of the many lookouts over the Great Australian Bight.

We drove on the true 'Nullarbor' section, where there isn't a single tree for about 40km (a relatively small distance). We stayed the night in Ceduna. After tea, we enjoyed a few hours drinking wine and chatting to an old Aussie biker and a Swiss-German guy by the fire (as it was a bit chilly).

The long and not winding road!

Port Augusta (Spear Creek)

We drove to Port Augusta, the following day, passing through Kimba on the way.

Mad Jam: Beyond Thunderdome - loo break on the way.

A big gallah with the Big Gallah!

The weather had been pretty crazy recently in this area and roads were flooded. Luckily, the place where we stayed hadn't really been affected.

Sunset over Spear Creek.

The next day, we drove south to Adelaide via the Clare Valley wine region. We stopped at 3 wineries for a spot of tasting - not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Monkey Diary - Post 12

2007-10-26T18:44:00.000+10:00

Mr Monkey is back on t'internet, baby! Did you all miss me?

Chillin' at my Coral Bay crib. J & K are so cheap, this is the first bed I've slept on in months!

Tropical Baby!

Why am I on this rubbish beach!

Welcome to my crib, homeys!

Fancy a few beers at my bar.

That's it, you're my bitch now! Thrashing Jam boy at a game of strip poker.

It's a hole a rock. Life doesn't get anymore exciting than that.

Just waiting for the perfect wave, then i'll be out there showing everyone up.

What are they?

Hot in the city.

Meet my new woman. Miss Monkey - very original! We had a couple of dates, but she was too clingy.

I liked eating the witchety grub. Juicy!

It's feckin' cold!

Perth to Margaret River

2007-10-23T14:58:00.000+10:00

Perth

We took the car into the garage to get the brakes sorted and the mechanics said it would be a few hundred dollars to sort it. So we left the car a nd went into the city to have a look around. We then got a phone call from the garage and they said that something else needed fixing and then another thing as the list got bigger. In the end, the car car was in for 2 days and we spent way too much money to mention to get most of the problems fixed. This means our plans are going to change slightly. Instead of going to Melbourne, we are going straight back to Sydney more or less and selling the car, then we are going to do Melbourne and Victoria any way we can. After that a very kind Matt Tilly said we could stay at his for as long as we need to, which is very nice of him. We are pretty damn skint, but we are going to make the most of it while we are here. After all it's a once in a lifetime trip.

Perth as seen from King's Park.

We're back on Manchester soil on Boxing Day morning, with 10 layers of clothes on to face the UK winter.

Margaret River

After not really doing much in Perth, we decided to leave and go down to Margaret River and carry on with our journey.

We had a fantastic day out on a wine tour around the area yesterday. We were taken to 4 wineries and a brewery. Our bus driver also prepared our lunch for us. We had kangaroo, wild turkey, salad and lots of sauces and dips made from local bushtucker. It was fantastic stuff. A couple of 'lucky' volunteers got to try a witchety grub. A one of the wineries we tried 'Dukkah', which is a mixture of nuts, herbs and spices which you dip bread or crackers with olive oil on . It's very moreish!

At the second winery before we had drank too much.

At the brewery with the sample beers.

The group on the tour.

Today we went for a drive around the Margaret River region, but the weather was not the best so we really didn't see much.

Cape Leeuwin. Where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean.

An old water wheel near Cape Leeuwin. It doesn't move anymore as it's encrusted in lime and salt.

Kate on Hamelin Bay beach. The weather was rubbish!

Exmouth to Perth

2007-10-23T14:15:00.000+10:00

Exmouth

On our first evening, we drove up to the lighthouse to watch the sunset and to see if we could spot any whales. We managed to spot a few breaching in the distance.

Sunset at the lighthouse.

A legless lizard, we think.

The next day we hired out some snorkeling equipment and drove to couple of recommended spots in Ningaloo Reef Marine Park. Firstly we went to a spot called Lakeside, then after lunch we went to Turquoise Bay. The colour of the sea, surprise, surprise, had turquoise colour to it, with darker areas where the reef was. (Kate: J is V sarcastic!) I spotted a few Stingrays and followed them, while Kate decided to keep her distance in case they got a bit moody and stung one of us.

The creature from the deep.

Angel fish, we think.

Stingray. If you can see it. It's in the middle of the pic.

On Turquoise Bay beach.

On the way back to Exmouth, we stopped to have a quick look at the wreck of the SS Mildura, which struck the reef during a cyclone in 1907.

SS Mildura wreck.

The next day, it was down the coast to Carnarvon.

Carnarvon

We stayed one night. I HATE FLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monkey Mia

On the way to Monkey Mia, we stopped at a lookout over the vast landscape of WA. We didn't stop for long as it was fly central. I HATE FLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I welcome you to 'Fly'stralia.

The emptiness of WA.

We also stopped at Hamelin Pool, to look at the stromatolites. These particular stromatolites are 3000 years old but it's believed that very similar stromatolites were the first lifeforms to inhabit the Earth. They are made from bacteria and there are very few living examples of them remaining.

An old thing and the stromatolites.

We also stopped at Eagle Bluff looking for sharks, whales, dolphins and dugongs.

Eagle Island off EAgle Bluff, with me showing my gut off.

Honest, the dark shape is a shark.

In the morning we walked to the beach to watch the dolphin feeding. They have feeding the dolphins there since the 60s, but it is a lot more controlled these days, you can't feed them burger and chips anymore! The guide book says that it's all predictable and not the normal way of life for the dolphins, but it is good to see them close up and it's not as if they are in captivity. They swim around near the beach as one of the rangers talks to the tourists, then they eat a few fish and swim back out to sea again, they're certainly not daft.

Dolphin at close range.

A couple more dolphins.

And a pelican thrown in for fun.

After leaving Monkey Mia, we drove south down the coast to the town of Kalbarri

Kalbarri

On the first day we drove into Kalbarri National Park and did a couple of short walks. We didn't want to do anything longer because of the flies. I HATE FLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first walk was to Nature's Window, a natural window made from rock framing the Murchison River. The second walk was to another part of the river called Z Bend.

Natures window framing the river below.

Kate fighting the flies away.

The river from the Z Bend lookout.

The next day we travelled down to Jurien Bay.

Jurien Bay

On the way to Jurien Bay we looked at more sights on the Kalbarri coast

Kate on the Kabarri coast being attcked by more flies.

A natural bridge.

Once we arrived in Jurien Bay, we went to the local bar and listened to an Aussie band called Cambridge 43. They were pretty good, playing songs from U2, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and others.

The next morning we drove to Nambung National Park to see the pinnacles desert. They are bizarre limestone formations on bright yellow sand.

More flies attacking. I'm trying to stop Kate wafting her hand everywhere so we could get a good picture but this is what we ended up with.

Kate liked this phalic shaped one.

More of the sticky up things.

Some close up.

On the same day we continued to the outskirts of Perth to a place in the Perth Hills called Mundaring. On the way we passed through Yanchep National Park to look at the koalas that were there. Kate loves koalas! (Kate: It's true.)

Mr Koala.

Mundaring

We camped at the YHA in the national park. It was very picturesque and we saw lots of Western

Grey Kangaroos in the grounds. Two of them had joeys in their pouches. We like camping at hostels as we have use of all the indoor facilities, especially the lounge with the log fire and TV. The weather was noticably cooler here, especialy at nice. It's the first time Kate has wore her 'Ugg' boots since July (Kate: Ugg boots are lush!!)

Very arty shot of the roos.

One of the mums with joey in pouch.

The first morning, we were woken up very early by a bird singing the guitar riff from Lenny Kravitz 'Are you gonna go my way'. It was quite funny at first, but became quite tiresome after 3 hours of it!

We spent our first day taking it easy as I was feeling a bit ill and it was a Sunday so nothing was open anyway (Kate: I reckon he was ill because of that lanb chop that some weird Aussies gave him. It must've been a Homer Simpson moment: Weirdos offering me food..... Free food, woo hoo!!!.... D'oh, I feel ill).

Broome to Coral Bay

2007-10-23T13:39:00.000+10:00

Broome

While in Broome we went to the Sun Pictures, another outdoor cinema but with a difference. An occasional plane flying over at close range. (Kate: I love these outdoor cinemas, watching a movie under the stars. We watched Hairspray, which is a fab feel good film and even Jamie liked it!). Anyway we did the manly thing and went to the pub and got talking to few people we met at the camp site. They were all watching the rugby against Australia. When we got in the pub, the game had just finished and there were a few miserable looking Aussies there crying into their beers.

On our last day, Kate had some quality beach time. I spent most of the time untangling the kite strings. then we went to watch the sunset at Gantheaume Point just north of town. (Kate: We sipped our red wine and clinked our glasses - cheap pink plastic ones - as the waves crashed onto the rocks below us and the red sun set over the Indian Ocean. V romantic). I think Kate wants to be a romantic novelist.

The next morning we headed west 600km to Port Hedland

Port Hedland

We stopped for a night at this industrial town. Theres nothing much to see except the 2km long trains. We had to wait for 2 of these to pass before we could get to our camp site. The price we paid for the camping was crap considering we had to camp on a tatty patch of ground next to the stinky bins. So all in all, Port Hedland, we loved it!!! From Port Crapland we headed south inland to another mining town called Tom Price.

Tom Price

On the way down to Tom, we drove through Karijini National Park and I went for a swim in Fortescue Falls.

A view near the falls.

Fortescue Falls.

Kate wondering what i'm doing at the top of the falls.

The next day we went for a tour to the local iron ore mine, complete with hard hats and really big tonka trucks, good stuff!

Kate dons the hard hat.

A big hole in the ground!

A big 'Tonka' truck.

Later on, we returned to Karijini NP and we went to the gorges area of the park. Firstly we went to Oxers Lookout which looks over where 4 gorges meet. These are Weano, Red, Joffre and Hancock gorges. We decided to go down Weano gorge as this was the easier of the gorges to get into. Kate waited for me as I went further in to the gorge, wading through pools and jumping between big boulders as the gorge got really narrow. I got as far as the Handrail Pool. To get any further, I would have had to swim across the pool and use ropes to abseil down the next section - proper canyonning stuff! We were advised not to go on the dirt road to the gorges and it was supposed to be quite bad, so I ignored that and drove down it and it was not worse that what we have driven on before.

A look into one of the gorges.

Inside Weano Gorge.

Further down Weano Gorge

As far as I could get at Handrail Pool.

One of the endless trains.

The dirt roads of Karijini.

Once we left Tom, we travelled another long tiring 600km west to Coral Bay on the west coast.

Coral Bay

As it was our 'unoffical' anniversary, we decided to splash out on a room at the Ningaloo Club, one of the hostels in town. It was very nice to have a break from camping and sleep in a bed with some give in it for the first time in 2 months!

On the first evening, we had a few drinks at the hostel bar and ended up joining in a game of giant jenga. Later we went on to another bar, then after it closed, one of the local Aussie guys invited a group of us down to the beach to drink more beer. We walked to a small cave and joined some people sat around a small campfire. There were 2 young guys playing guitars (one was only 14) and they sang loads of song we knew. We also ended up singing some oasis songs, maybe we had a little too much drink! No one joined in so it ended up being a duet. It was a great night. Its often the things that are not planned that end up being the best experiences.

The group in the second pub.

The next morning we went out on aglass bottom boat to see Ningaloo Reef. We also did some more snorkelling although the water seemed quite cold. Seeing all the fish was great but Kate was very wary of the rather large group af big fish swimming around the boat. She didn't want them to touch her. (Kate: Actually I thought I might get nibbled by the fish!!!)

Me snorkelling.

Kate snorkelling without the fish.

Here's the fish Kate didn't want to go near.

In the evening, we played some pool and chilled out in the bar. We met Australias sweetest boy. He was dancing to the music vidoes on the TV. When he had to go to bed, he hugged everyone in the bar and said goodnight. (Kate: V cute!)

In the morning we moved up the coast to explore more of Ningaloo Reef so we stayed at the larger town of Exmouth.

Cutta Cutta Caves to Broome

2007-10-06T16:14:00.000+10:00

Cutta Cutta Caves

Once we left Katherine Gorge, we headed west towards Timber Creek, but we took a slight diversion south to Cutta Cutta Caves first. We did a tour of the limestone caves, which was really enjoyable especially after the disappointing cruise at Katherine Gorge. The tour guide was very charismatic and his passion for the caves was infectious. It was impressive to see the crystals sparkling in the limestone. The name 'Cutta' means star and 'Cutta Cutta' means lots of stars. The crystals in the cave twinkle like the stars.

Limestone formations above the cave.

A dragon in the cave.

Elvis also lives here.

Timber Creek

Not much to do here except sleep. The next day it was Kununurra.

Kununurra

On the way, we visited the Gregory Tree - named after Augustus Charles Gregory, an explorer who had a base camp beside this boab tree in the 19th Century. Members of the party carved their initials and the date on the bark of the tree.

The Gregory Tree.

We also visited Keep River National Park before we reached the Western Australia border. The park had some aboriginal art at the Nganalam Art Site.

Painting of 2 spirit people - Aboriginal people of this region believe that spirit beings were the first to inhabit the earth.

We crossed the border into Western Australia, after having our onion confiscated by the border patrol as onions are illegal in WA. No not really! But seriously, you can't take fruit, veg or honey into WA to prevent the spread of diseases. WA time is 1.5 hours behind Northern Territory, which makes us 7 hours ahead of the UK until the clocks change.

Just before we said farewell to our onions.

As we were only a few kms into WA, the sun rose an hour or so earlier so it was getting hotter even earlier. We had gotten into the habit of doing things early before it got too hot, but now that would mean getting up at 5am!

After spending the night in Kununurra, we went to the nearby Hidden Valley (AKA Mirima National Park). We did a couple of short walks, including a nature trail with a fabulously fat boab tree amongst other things. We missed out the walk with the 'moderate' climb because it was so bloody hot! Originally we intended to reach this point in Australia a few weeks earlier so the heat wouldn't be so unbearable. We probably shouldn't have spent so much time in Cooroy, but we loved it in the 'Wee Hoose'. We then drove further west to Halls Creek.

It's hot work all this walking.

Halls Creek

On the way we had a brief stop at Turkey Creek Roadhouse for lunch where the thermometer was at 37 degrees in the shade! We also drove past a bush fire on the way.

Fire.

Once at Halls Creek, we visited the nearby 'China' wall, which is a natural formation of quartzite. We think it is supposed to resemble the Great Wall of China.

At the China Wall.

Cute roo.

Fitzroy Crossing

The following day it was further west to Fitzroy Crossing. This campsite had TV in the kitchen - luxury, we had not set eyes on a TV for weeks! There was also a shaded pool, which was just the cure for the hot and sweaty weather.

We paid a visit to Geikie Gorge National Park in the afternoon. We did an hour long walk and saw a fair few roos as the sun started to go down. I don't think I could ever get bored of seeing the wild roos.

Geikie Gorge.

Broome

The next day we drove to the coastal town of Broome. It's by the Indian Ocean. En route, we took a detour to Derby to see the Boab Prison Tree and stop for lunch. The tree has a girth of 14.7m and is about 1500 years old. It was used as an overnight prison for aboriginals who had been captured by Europeans to be used in the pearling industry. It now has a fence around it because it has religious significance to the local aboriginals and it serves as a reminder of a sad history.

The Prison Boab Tree.

We have decided to stay in Broome to have a break from driving hundreds of kms a day, plus it's great to be back by the sea. We sat on Cable Beach last night to watch the sunset. It wasn't the best we have seen, but the cool breeze was lovely.

Sunset at Cable Beach - random couple in the way of pic.

Darwin to Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge)

2007-10-06T14:15:00.000+10:00

Darwin and Litchfield National Park

On our third day in Darwin we drove to Litchfield National Park. We saw the magnetic termite mounds - not actually magnetic, but they line up on a north/south axis. They are quite bizarre things. There were also other termite mounds which were huge called cathedral termite mounds. Some were up to 10m tall.

The magnetic termite mounds.

J doesn't quite measure up to a big cathedral termite mound.

Another big one.

Tolmer Falls (you couldn't swim here).

We then checked out some pretty waterfalls (Wangi and Florence Falls), where we had a much needed cool dip. We also had a quick swim in one of the water holes at Buley Rockhole.

Wangi Falls.

Me having a nice dip.

Florence Falls.

J about to take a plunge.

Me!

A rock wallaby on the way back from Florence Falls. We can see you!

Buley Rockhole. (Trying to take a timed picture of us together, with not much success.)

J being silly.

Kakadu National Park

After another hot and sweaty night we travelled to Kakadu National Park. On the we did the Adelaide River jumping croc cruise. A woman dangled pork chops over the side of the boat and the crocs jumped up to get them basically.

Video of one of the jumping crocs.

One female croc had had one of her legs bitten off by a male croc during mating one year; then had the other bitten off the following year by the same male. Some women like bad boys, I guess! We also got to see a white bellied sea eagle and some kites grabbing meat. On the way we also stopped at one of the wetland areas of Kakadu and had a look at the large amounts of birds gathered around the lake.

The legless female. (Not drunk!)

Sea eagle grabbing some pork.

Loads of kite flying over the boat.

The wetlands.

Once we'd set the tent up, we went to a place called Ubirr to catch the sunset, though it was a bit cloudy.

Rock art at Ubirr.

Sunset over Kakadu from the lookout at Ubirr.

The next day, we went for a walk around a place called Nourlangie to see some aboriginal rock art and listened to a couple of ranger talks about aboriginal culture and the geology of the land. Some of the paintings could be thousands of years old and some were recently repainted in the 60s and 70s. Many of them show images of the creation (Dreamtime), hunting and ceremonies. We also went to Anbangbang Billabong, which featured in Crocodile Dundee. By the time we had done this, it was only about midday, but it was too hot, so we went back to the campsite and cooled off in the pool.

Two pictures of rock art at Nourlangie.

Anbangbang Billabong.

Before heading to Katherine Gorge, we went on a cruise starting on the Yellow Water Billabong, then out on to the South Alligator River. It's quite a badly named river because there are no alligators... but there are plenty of crocs! So we had the chance to do some croc spotting and as we did the early morning cruise, we saw a few of them basking in the sun on the banks of the river. We also saw quite a few birds. The river was lovely and tranquil and the scenery was amazing. The boat guide told us the story of why there are now warnings not to swim in any of the waterways in Kakadu. In 2002, a tour guide took some tourists swimming at night in a well known croc inhabited billabong. Inevitably, a small German lady (the easiest prey) was killed by a croc. The croc was harpooned the next morning, with the body still in its jaws. And that is just one more lovely, sweet Aussie horror story that they just can't wait to tell you!!

Sunrise at Yellow Water.

The South Alligator River.

Paperbark swamp.

A Jabiru bird.

This is a Saltwater Crocodile (or Saltie) - Quick fact: They can live in fresh or salt water, but they have a gland that can secrete salt.

Nitmiluk National Park

On the way to Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge section), we went to Edith Falls in the north of the park and J had a quick swim in the plunge pool at the base of the falls.

J having a dip at Edith Falls.

The next morning, we went on the Nitnit Dreaming 2 gorge cultural cruise. It was quite disappointing for the price we paid. The gorge was nice, but the tour commentary was poor: it seemed kind of rushed and there wasn't much cultural info - considering it was a cultural cruise.

Mr Roo at the campsite.

Me in the middle of the 2 gorges.

Katherine gorge.

Monkeys Diary - Post 11

2007-09-26T12:33:00.001+10:00

Admiring the big fruit in my sarong, David Beckham stylee! (although I'm cooler obviously).

Chillin' with a schooner on Maggie Island. It didn't last 2 second after this picture was taken.

I like a big bird me!

At home in da jungle.

Schwing!

Me with my new bird, she's spaced out man!

Watching the film at the deckchair cinema.

My bro' went on hols to France a few weeks back. Here are some pics he sent me.

Chillin' in the pool

More chillin'. Lazy git!

Thats better, chillin' with beer.

And another.

Hope you're not over doing it.

Too late!

Big Thing 3

2007-09-26T12:25:00.001+10:00

The big mango in Bowen.

The big brolga in Townsville.

The big cassowary in Mission Beach.

The big gumboot in Tully. Its 7.9m tall to indicate the amount of rain that fell here in 1950s in a year, which makes it the wettest place in Australia.

Aye, aye captain. the big Captain Cook in Cairns.

The big marlin in Cairns.

The big barramudi in Normanton.

Undara to Darwin

2007-09-25T13:28:00.000+10:00

Undara Lava Tubes

From the Tablelands, we drove to the Undara lava tubes where we stayed for a couple of days. On the second day we did a half day tour of the tubes, finding out how they were formed. Kate had a few creepy crawly moments while we were here. She found lots of ants on the towel and had a 3 inch beetle crawling over her leg. There were quite a few kangaroos and wallabies around the resort. We were cooling down in the pool and there were a few kangaroos grazing on the other side of the fence.

Oh a lava tube.

Why is Kate taller than me in this picture?

The end of a lava tube.

Some kangaroos at the campsite.

The Journey to Darwin

Once we left Undara the roads became incredibly narrow and quite scary to drive on as you still got these huge road trains (an articulated lorry with 3-5 trailers on - approx 50m long). Our first stop over was Normanton.

Fancy driving down these roads with a road train heading towards you?

This is an average size road train.

Normanton

Its f*cking hot, but everyone says its not!!! The air con in the car had packed up so the driving wasn't very pleasant. We had the windows open but it was like having a hairdryer in the face for 500kms. We also had a bit of an ant problem. Basically the ants were making their home on the back seat of the car. Nice! A few cans of bug killer hopefully has sorted that problem out.

Bloody ant hills everywhere!

Cloncurry

Another 450km of hot hairdryer. Not much to do, so we had a curry.

Kate doing a bit of driving.

Barkly Homestead

On the way we had a stop at the Burke and Wills memorial, which marks the spot where an ill fated expedition across the continent passed by in 1861 led by Burke and Wills. We are now in the Northern Territory for the first time since Alice Springs. Surprise surprise, Its v hot. We are sitting with bags of ice on our heads to cool us down. At the roadhouse, we had a meal and a few beers with a couple we met at Cloncurry. We had a lamb roast, which is the first roast we've had for a couple of months.

Burke and Wills memorial

Phew its hot!

Welcome to NT.

Wycliffe Well

Yes you guessed it. Another hot uncomfortable day driving to the UFO capital of Australia. This place has had the most reported sighting of UFOs than anywhere else in Australia. It a very quirky roadhouse/caravan park with random figures dotted around and newspaper clipping in the restaurant. While we here we went to the Devils Marbles which are a series of granite rocks that have been shaped by water and wind to make them look like giant balls or 'marbles' positioned precariously on top of other rocks.

And you wonder why the Hulk gets annoyed.

Its life Jim, but not as we know it.

Elvis lives in Wycliffe Well!

Kate holding up a marble

Very picturesque

More marbles

Daly Waters

By the time we got here we were very smelly indeed. This pub is basically in the middle of nowhere, but the local airstrip was used as a stop off point by Qantas to refuel on the flights to Singapore before they had planes that could fly direct. It was also a WW11 airstrip and used as a landing stage for Amy Johnson.

We threw the tent up at about 4 o'clock and went in the pub for a beer and didn't leave till midnight. The pub is also famed for its interior with lot of decorative features such as bras, knickers, undies, currency, flags, people's IDs and anything else you can think of from people who have visited the place. Not to be left out, Kate added a bit of England to the wall in the shape of some knickers. Its a fabulous laid back place and we had a good time.

Inside the pub.

Kate with the evidence. We had a far few schooners by this point, hence the cheesy smile.

Darwin

Yes we made it and we got the air con fixed, Hurahhhh!!!!!!

We went to the deckchair cinema last night. It literally an outdoor cinema by the sea.

The Daintree and the Tablelands

2007-09-25T13:10:00.000+10:00

The Daintree and Cape Tribulation

From Cairns we headed north to a campsite at Wonga Beach, which was a convenient spot as it was close to most things.

Firstly we drove back down to Mossman Gorge in the Daintree NP to do a rainforest walk. We spotted what may have been a rat kangaroo, but it bounced away to quickly for us to take a pic.

Mossman gorge

Us in the gorge

Kate didn't like crossing this wobbly bridge.

On the second day, we did a so called croc cruise. We didn't see a single croc and no one was willing to dangle a leg over to attract any. After the cruise we got the ferry across the Daintree river and drove up to Cape Tribulation. It called this as it has something to do with Captain Cook. I think they may have stopped here for a while. We saw another Cassowary at the toilets which were there.

Us from a look out along the road to the cape

Kate on the beach at the cape

The cassowary at the cape

The Atherton Tablelands

The next day we drove back south, stocked up in Cairns and then headed west to the small town of Yungaburra. On the way we stopped and looked at the cathedral fig tree. Basically the fig seed germinates in the high canopy of a host tree, grows downwards around the host and kills the host tree by strangling it.

The cathedral fig

Kate inside the cathedral fig

The following day we had a look at the curtain fig tree. Same as the cathedral tree, but this one had fallen to one side thus creating a curtain effect. After the curtain fig we went to lake Eacham where I went for a dip. The water was very pleasant but Kate thought it was too cold for a swim. We also did a drive around the waterfall circuit which were three different falls. In the evening we went platypus spotting with not much luck, although we did see one for about five seconds and that was it! We also did a bit of didgeridoo playing back at the hostel we were staying at. I can play it ok. I must have good technique (Kate comment: woooooohhhhh show off!!)

The curtain fig tree

Me going for a dip in lake Eacham

Millaa Millaa falls

Zillie falls

Me and Ellinjaa falls

Turtle basking below Ellinjaa falls

Lookout over the Johnson river. ( good paddling river in the wet)

Cardwell to Cairns

2007-09-11T15:23:00.000+10:00

Cardwell

Once we left Magnetic Island, we went up the road to the small town of Cardwell. We didn't do much, mainly washing. We did go to a small waterfall nearby called Murray Falls. we also went for forest drive, but half the forest had been chopped down. Kate also found out that she had won $100 for an article she wrote for one of the backpacker mags, which she is pretty chuffed about!

Mission Beach

After leaving Cardwell, it was short drive up to Mission Beach. We stayed at a YHA which had camping space. It was called the Treehouse and basically it was a big wooden house on stilts. Mission Beach is an area where the southern cassowary lives. Its a relative of the emu, but is endangered. Its also a very large bird which could kill a human, so in all the things you hear about it, the main one is don't run away from one as it will chase you and probably attack you. Luckily (or is it unluckily) for us one decided to visit where we were staying.

The cassowary that came to visit

Cairns

After leaving Mission Beach we stopped off at Murdering Point Winery for a bit of wine tasting and we bought some tropical plum wine. The name comes from when some explorers we murdered and eaten by some Aborigines years ago. We read the macabre story when we arrived at the winery. It was then a couple of hours to Cairns and the campsite at Crystal Cascades.

On the first day in Cairns we did a trip to the outer reef. We did another scuba dive which was very different to our first dive. After going through a few safety skills, we descended about 10m and swim around just under supervision instead of having to hold on all the time. It was a lot better this time although Kate had a little panic when her mask filled up with water and she couldn't get it out. Eventually she figured it out and we carried on. (Kate comment: The instructor was excellent and kept me calm and Jamie was very sweet as well holding my hand as we swam and checking if I was ok). We saw some clown fish (Nemo fish) as well as hundreds of other fish. We also saw a turtle while snorkeling.

The Great Barrier Reef.

On the second day I was going to go kayaking with some raft guides I met but they all bailed on me so I wasn't very happy as I had hired all the equipment.

On our last night in Cairns, we went for a meal at the Green Ant Cantina. We only paid $5 each for a Mexican meal, total bargain and v tasty.

Whitsundays to Magnetic Island

2007-09-05T14:54:00.000+10:00

Whitsundays Cruise

We went on a sailing cruise on a catamaran called 'Camira' to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. The weather was miserable for most of the day so we spent much of the time sheltering under the trees next to the beach. Then we sailed to a snorkeling spot. Even though there was a fair few of us in the water, the fish didn't seem to mind. The trip included food (fab BBQ lunch) and booze from 11am. So you're thinking we got p*ssed, right? Wrong! The snorkeling took up a lot of that time so we only had a few drinks plus Jamie was sea sick on the journey there so he didn't feel like drinking too much. It managed to stop raining on the way back to Airlie Beach so we chilled out on deck.

Camira just off Whitehaven Beach.

Me and J on the beach in between the rain. Look at the sky behind us.

It was a bit windy.

We got talking to 2 couples on the boat and also met up with them for drinks later on. It was a good night. We played some boys v girls pool. We went for pizza after and in true Jamie style, J also managed to fit a pie in (Jamie comment:- The pizza was tiny and we shared it, so i was still hungry!)

This is Pierre the possum who visited the camp kitchen every night while we were at Airlie Beach. You could feed him food, he especially liked pasta. On one occasion Jamie pretended he had some food but pierre didn't know this so he munched Jamies thumb. J gave the possum a smack to stop it and he ran off p*ssing everywhere because he was scared. Pierre is a special possum cos he's the only ginger one we've seen and he taught J a lesson.

Townsville

Once we left Airlie Beach. We went up to Townsville where we spent a couple of days before we went to Magnetic Island. While in Townsville we went to the Museum of Tropical Queensland. The most interesting part was the HMS Pandora exhibtion. The ship sank on the Great Barrier Reef in 1791 and the museum has salvaged artifact from it. It was the boat that went in search for the HMS Bounty after they heard of the mutiny. Thats the history lesson over with! They also had a talk on one of the cannons that was on the Pandora, which was entertaining.

Townsville from the lookout in town.

Magnetic Island in the distance.

Magnetic Island

Townsville was the stepping stone to Magnetic Island. We spent a few days here. The day we arrived we had a look around the small village we were staying at called Horseshoe Bay.

Me walking down Horseshoe Bay beach.

Having a beer at the pub with my new hairdo.

The view from the pub.

The first morning, we had brunch inside a wildlife sanctuary, then a tour around with the chance to hold a few different animals.

Jamie the snake-charmer, the snake practically fell asleep on him! Its a carpet python by the way.

Me keeping a close eye on the snake. It was actually really nice to hold, an unexpected neck massage!

Me & J with the very cute Dexter. (Quick fact: 'koala' means 'no drink' as people used to believe that they didn't drink anything. But that's not true because they take moisture from the eucalyptus leaves).

A blue tongued lizard with another strange tonguey creature.

And there's the lizard's blue tongue.

Jamie's got a new bird! (a black cockatoo)

Jamie with a small croc.

Afterwards we went for a walk around The Forts, which was a WW2 gun post and barracks. It was also a good place to spot koalas in the wild.

At the top of The Forts hill.

A nice view of the island from The Forts.

A mother koala and her joey in the wild.

Another wild koala.

On this day we bumped into a friend of Jamie's, Brinky. Jamie knew he would be in Australia, but it was a huge coincidence that he was here at the same time as us. We had a few beers with him and his girlfriend Jo.

The next day we walked to Balding Bay, the unoffical nudist beach of Maggie. Most people were wearing their swimmers, but we had the pleasure of seeing a chubby old guy parading his 'goods' up and down the beach. In the afternoon, the campsite feed the lorikeets so Jamie decided to go and have a go

The birdman of Maggie Island! And yes he did get some sh*t on him!

The Great Barrier Reef.

2007-08-28T14:50:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-28T14:34:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-28T14:01:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-27T17:22:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-22T12:19:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-13T10:02:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-07T13:22:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-03T13:20:00.000+10:00

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.

The crazy woman has gone and done it!

2007-07-28T15:25:00.000+10:00

With thanks to Jamie for the post title - I think he means it in a nice way.

Yes I did it. I jumped from 14000ft on a tandem skydive this morning. It's something I've always wanted to do and I'm sure that the gorgeous Sunshine Coast was the ideal place to do it. The view was absolutely amazing. I did the jump from the heighest I possibly could so that I could have the longest freefall. I had about a minute freefall. It's quite hard to explain the experience, but I'll give it a try... It didn't really feel like falling, except when you first leave the plane. Then it was absolutely freezing (-10 degrees!), I could feel my face being pummelled and the pressure was starting to hurt my ears (I still haven't totally recovered my hearing yet). But apart from that it was fab. When the guy released the parachute, I felt a jerk and it felt so serene just floating slowly down. And I actually landed on my feet on the beach (that has to be a first for me!).

To be honest, the most frightening part for me was when the plane was taxiing and as it was taking off, I was sat right by the door and it was still open! After that I tried to stay as far away from that door as I possibly could... until I had to jump obviously. By the time we got to 14000ft, somehow the view below didn't look real, more like a map - so that's how I got round the old vertigo!!

Me (looking a wee bit tense) with my tandem guy about to take the plunge.

The green splodge is me!

Touch down on the beach.

Monkeys Diary - Post 9

2007-07-25T14:49:00.001+10:00

HEAVEN!!!!!
I am there - just very small in comparison to the beautiful food.

I've been stalking these two from neighbours for weeks now. (well someone has to!). There is also some random kid invading the picture too.

I don't even like pineapple.

This is my new friend, Simon COwl.
We are keeping warm beside the fire in the 'Wee Hoose'. It owned by scottish people, duh!

I just though i'd say hello to my younger bro Master Monkey and his parner in crime Connie. Hope you are looking after him little miss.

Big Things - Part 1

2007-07-25T14:26:00.000+10:00

On our journey around Australia we have found a few big things for you to look at.

The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour.

The Big Prawn in Ballina

The Big Pinaeapple in Nambour. (Cheeky monkey mooning.)

Australian people just like big things, weirdos!!

On to Brisbane and beyond

2007-07-24T15:54:00.000+10:00

Once we left Coffs Harbour we drove up to Brisbane. We didn't do much although we did go out for beer, that probably didn't help either having hangovers the next day. When we finally got out to do stuff we went for a wee drive around and saw a beach and a waterfall. We also saw a big thing - see the next post.

Diggars beach, north of Coffs. (it was still fairly cold.)

Dangar Falls.

Once in Brisbane, we met up again with Kate's mum and Pauline. The first day we went to Australia Zoo, Crikey! As it says the home of the crocodile hunter, or not because he's no longer with us. It was a good day but not worth the money we paid. In 18 months its gone up from $30 to $50. We think they are cashing in on Steve Irwins death, a bit sick really. Anyway here some pics of our day there.

I'm touching a baby croc

Edna feeding an elephant.

Some guy thinking he is Steve Irwin at the show.

(I've got a small video that i'll put on at some point).

Tie me kangaroo down sport.

Kate stroking the koala bum.
(Comment by Kate: We were told to touch it there so that we didn't annoy it.)

The Barking Owl - It does bark like a dog. Kate found this really funny for some reason.

The next day we went up to Mount Coot-tha where there is a lookout over Brisbane.

Brisbane in all its glory.

We have now moved onto a place called Cooroy just west of Noosa which is on the sunshine coast north of Brisbane. We are staying in a small cottage owned by a couple of family friends of Kates. We will probably stay here for a couple of weeks exploring the area.

Monkey'sDiary - Post 8

2007-07-23T16:50:00.000+10:00

Guess who's back, Monkeys back, Guess whos back, guess whos back, guess whos back, na na na nah! (sing like Eminem).

I've got nothing to say to you lot. Just check out my sweet ass!

Chillin' at Kings Canyon.

I knew it wasn't the rock.

Chillin' on Kate's head at the rock at sunset. I didn't do sunrise because I don't get up before midday!

I'm at the Olgas, stupid!

We have left Sydney. Hooray!

2007-07-15T19:39:00.000+10:00

Yes, we finally did it. We have left Sydney until December. We have bought a car to get us round. We had a few teething problems with it at first, but it all got sort before we left Sydney, so hopefully no more issues.

We spent a couple of nights in the Blue Mountains where they are having a 'Yulefest'. Basically they are celebrating Christmas in July! We had christmas dinner at the YHA and Kate won a bottle of wine, which was useful as we had just finished off one. After a dedicated search for mulled wine, we couldn't find any. Apperently the Aussies don't know what it is, shocking! We continued drinking in a local pub as it is our 1st anniversary!! We also went to the Jenolan Caves and had a guided tour around one of the 9 caves open to the public.

Kate looking a little worse for wear (she wasn't feeling too good, but not caused by alcohol this time).

Bishop rock in the Lucas cave.

We have now moved up to the Hunter Valley stocking up on our favourite wine. Then we are off to Coffs Harbour for 2 days and then up to Brisbane. Lots of driving ahead!

Birthday Thanks

2007-07-10T14:19:00.000+10:00

Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who sent me birthday cards, presents and messages. Much appreciated!!

The Red Centre. Part 4: The West MacDonnell Ranges

2007-07-09T23:09:00.000+10:00

Once we had dropped Edna and Pauline off at Ayers Rock airport so they could continue their hols in Cairns. We (or just me) had another 5 hour drive back to Alice Springs. Once back, we spent our final full day exploring the West MacDonnell Ranges. A series of mountains west (no surprises there) of Alice. We started from the furthest point the sealed road went which was Glen Helen. Then worked our way back towards Alice visiting the gorges, gaps (amazingly enough its a gap in the mountain!) and other things of this area.

(Comment by Kate: Jamie is on top sarky form this evening.)

A Mountain (can't remember at the mo. I'll look it up in the guide book).

Glen Helen with a pool which forms a part of the Finke river when it flows. Apparently its one of the oldest rivers in the world.

Kate at the lookout over Ormiston gorge.

In the gorge with the water holes.

The Ochre pits. This is where the aborigines get their face paint from.

Kate at Simpsons Gap. There were two girls swimming in it (Look behind Kates head). We may have been in the desert but it was pretty cold and the water was freezing!

Spot the rock wallaby.

The Red Centre. Part 3: Kings Canyon, Ayers Rock and The Olgas.

2007-07-09T21:27:00.000+10:00

After a 5 hour drive we finally arrive at Kings Canyon Resort. Expensive but not too bad a place.

Kings Canyon

A short drive from the resort is the canyon itself. We did two separate walks in the area. the first was a short walk up the dry creek bed to a lookout. The other was the rim walk which took about 4.5 hours to complete.

Me, Kate and Pauline at the lookout. Edna taking pic.

View from the lookout

Me with the 'Garden of Eden' below.

Me being artistic with the camera.

The shear cliffs of the canyon.

They told me to jump. I think I must have been annoying them.
(kate: you? never!)

A birdy.

Me being attacked by the flies.

Edna and Kate trying to pose.

Don't look down!

Ayers Rock (Uluru).

From Kings Canyon its a 3.5 hour drive to reach Yulara, the resort that we stayed at near to Ayers. Ayers is a further 20km beyond the resort.

The resort itself is a big rip off, charging what they like for rooms, food and drinks. If you ever go be prepared to spend big bucks for a decent room.

Pics below.

can you guess what it is yet?

Wrong!

Its Mount Conner. Edna and Pauline made the same mistake

This is the rock at sunset.

This is the rock at with the sun nearly gone.

The rock at sunrise with the moon still out.

Its too early to be up.

People climbing the rock. We didn't do as the full day we were there it was too windy (this picture is from the day we were leaving so we didn't have time). the local aboriginal tribe ask you not to climb it as it is sacred to them.

We could have put more picture of the rock on, but I don't think 60 or so picture of the same thing would be very interesting.

The Olgas

50 km from Ayers are The Olgas (Kata Tjuta, the aboriginal name meaning 'many heads').
Before we got to them we went to a lookout where it became ATTACK OF THE FLIES!!! We love our fake B movies. Once we arrived we went for a small 7.4km walk on a trail called 'The Valley of the Winds'. The walk wasn't too difficult but god was it windy! (Comment by Kate: Jamie felt right at home). Pics below.

View of The Olgas from the lookout.

The flies liked Edna A LOT!

Can you see the face winking at you?

The group at the top of the valley (very windy here, look at Pauline's hair).

More on part 4 soon (I think monkey is going to write something too, if he can be bothered. He's such a lazy git these days).

The Red Centre. Part 2: Up, up and away.

2007-07-04T18:19:00.000+10:00

Just arrived back in Alice after our 3 day mini adventure in Kings Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and The Olgas. Major road trip!

We're on the road to nowhere.

First off was a hot air balloon trip over Alice as a treat for my birthday (yay!). We were picked up from our hostel at stupid o'clock (5 am) and driven to the middle of nowhere (literally). Then, after assisting Franz (our lovely Dutch pilot) inflate the balloon, we were airborne just before sunrise. It was a very surreal but awesome feeling. My mum and I are normally fearful of heights, but somehow we didn't feel that fear on the flight. There were about 10 of us in a flimsy little basket. The pilot even let me have a go at firing the gas - he said I was freaking him out by jumping every time he did it, oops! It was excellent spotting the kangaroos bouncing across the outback land - those things can certainly move with some speed! Probably the craziest part was the landing. The basket bounced off the ground about 6 times before coming to a halt perched on its edge... then finally tipping onto its side, covering us all in dust.

Jamie blowing up the balloon with his own wind.

In the basket before lift off.

Another balloon flying at sunrise.

Spot the kangaroos.

The setting moon.

Us in the air.

Mum with the friendly pilot Franz.

Once back on terra firma, we sat down to a champagne breakfast with unlimited top-ups, but only the 1 drink for J as he is after all merely a chauffeur. I was also given 2 extra bottles of bubbly for my birthday.

Later, we did a 5 hour drive from Alice to Kings Canyon.

To be continued......

The Red Centre. Part 1: Hello from a town called Alice (ohh ohh yehh!)

2007-06-30T23:35:00.000+10:00

We are now in Alice if you might of guessed. We arrived mid afternoon so didn't have much time to do anything before the sun went down. We went to two small areas of the East MacDonnell ranges called Emily Gap and Jessie Gap to see a bit of rock art and set eyes upon the outback.

We took a few pics for you see. Including the much missed Mr Monkey (he might have to reactivate his email to do his own personal posted. We'll remind him to sort it out. WATCH THIS SPACE!!)

Kate and Edna with the Mr himself doing a pose in Emily Gap.

Pauline, Kate and Edna with him again!

Kate and myself with the cheeky f@#ker yet again (get your own post going boyo!)

No one paying attention to my photograhic skills as usual.

Our next thing on the list is a dawn balloon ride over Alice with a champagne breakfast for Kate's birthday (we have to get up a 4.30am, work out the time I posted this and you'll realise I'm not going to get much sleep) and then a 5 hour drive to Kings Canyon (Guess who is drive, great!).

We're moving on. Finally!!!

2007-06-29T17:34:00.000+10:00

After about 10 weeks of doing crap jobs, we are finally going to do some travelling (hooray!!). We are off to Alice Springs tomorrow, flying out from Sydney with my mum and Pauline. We'll spend 6 days exploring Alice, Kings Canyon and Uluru (Ayers Rock). They're all very far apart from each other, so we (i.e. Jamie) will be doing a lot of driving (the rest of us will be chilling out or reading in the passenger seats!). So, we should have loads of cool pics to put on here when we return to Sydney.

This is me, J, mum & Pauline eating out on Darling Harbour last night

Edna and Pauline have arrived in Sydney!

2007-06-26T14:54:00.000+10:00

I'd just like to introduce a couple of lovely ladies who would like to keep their friends up-to-date with their own Oz adventure: my mum, Edna and her friend, Pauline....

We arrived in Sydney Monday at 7.50 am, and despite what Pauline says, I hadn't had a wink of sleep for 48 hours. (Rubbish! Pauline interjected)

Sunday: We checked into the Grace Hotel and met up with Kate and Jamie. They gave us a whistle stop tour of Sydney, including the Opera House, the Bridge, the Rocks, a street show, the botanical gardens. Finally, we caught the ferry to Manly Beach where we had a wonderful meal in the Whitewater Restaurant, ate good food and downed several bottles of red wine (and not a drop was spilt) Apparently, both of us kept falling asleep mid sentence but were rudely awakened by Kate and Jamie who insisted we fight the jet lag.

Monday: We had a late breakfast and then found our way to the tourist information centre and booked trips to the Hunter Valley on Wednesday and the Blue Mountains on Friday. Then along with Kate (Jamie was working) we went to the Sydney Tower - the highest observation point in Sydney, there is a 360 degree panoramic view of the city and surrounding areas. We took some marvellous photos but unfortunately technology is against us so therefore we cant show you any of them. In the evening we went to Leichhardt where there are lots of Italian Restaurants, we went to Moretto's where we found to our dismay that it was unlicensed, luckily Jamie managed to get to the supermarket next door to grab 2 bottles of wine with seconds to spare before closing.

Tuesday: The plan was to go to Taronga Zoo, however, the weather had other ideas - it's absolutely p****d it down today, so we've been shopping instead. The weather before today has been cloudy with the odd shower - not too bad - quite mild really considering it's winter.

I'd just like to end by saying how marvellous it is to be woken up with a cup of coffee in the morning by my lovely travel companion, Pauline, who is barking mad! She has a very sore throat and cough - and apparently I kept her awake with my snoring last night!!!!!!! I don't think so!

Thanks

2007-06-13T17:36:00.000+10:00

Just a quick thank you to all those who sent cards. I received a few of them before my birthday but some are still turning up now. I'll pick those up as soon as I get a chance.

The Jamie Birthday Weekend (not the Queens)

2007-06-11T15:41:00.000+10:00

As you all know and for the ones who didn't it was my 30th birthday this weekend. It was also the Queens official birthday so the Aussies have a long weekend to celebrate this, why? we don't in the UK. Probably just an excuse to drink more beer.

On the Saturday night we went out with Nigel and Kendi to a few bars in Darling Harbour. Nigel and Kendi very kindly splashed out on 2 bottles of champagne as you can see in the photo below

From the photos below you can see the bubbles have gone to our heads a wee bit.

Nigel and Kendi doing a bit of dirty dancing.

Me with 2 drinks on the go. Thats how to spend your 30th!

The Big Day!

On Sunday me and Kate went for a meal on Darling Harbour. We went to a steak house and I had a huge lump of meat, which was nice. Kate was a bit more reserved and got a smaller steak.

We also had a few Strawberry Royales, which is a champagne cocktail, very nice too!

This is me showing the new watch Kate bought.

Kate isn't as drunk as she looks on this picture but we tried to get that way drinking the champagne cocktails.

A Few Hellos

2007-06-04T12:34:00.000+10:00

David & Mary - Thank you both for the lovely messages! I hope you have a fabulous holiday in Torbay (Jeanette told me you were going)

Mum - Can't wait to see you in less than 3 weeks! Missing you loads.

Sue - Hope you had the best time in Egypt. Can't wait to hear all about it. I bet you have a wonderful tan (I'm not jealous.. much)

Elaine & Syl - Jamie and I hope you have a great time in Rome. Hope it's not too hot for you.

Reply To Comments (by cheeky readers!)

2007-06-01T12:24:00.000+10:00

Andy - Well that is just bloody charming!! Whilst Jamie and I have been slogging our guts out at work, Mr Monkey has been at home sat on his big lazy arse. Although we suspect that he's been nipping down to the pub - so that's where all our money is going!

Mum - It wasn't exactly a tattoo in haste. I thought about it for a couple of weeks and planned the design before I went to the tattoo parlour. Anyway, Sue has a huge sun on her back, mine is tiny compared to that. I don't intend to have any more done in future.

Counting The Days Until We Finish Working

2007-05-30T12:46:00.000+10:00

Jamie and I are totally fed up of working now! I know we shouldn't complain because we only have to work for a few more weeks (till end of June). But the nature of this temping work tends to be very tedious and repetitive. Plus we're more than ready to move on from Sydney now - been there, done that. I must apologise also to our readers, I guess our blog entries haven't been very exciting lately.

This week I've been working at MAN Financial on the 21st floor of a building in the Central Business District. I'm sure there would be a fantastic view if it wasn't for all the other tall buildings in the way! I've been doing data entry mostly. They thought I'd finish the work in 2 days, but I'm not that fast, often find my mind wandering. But my lack of speed has worked to my advantage as they're going to keep me on for the whole week, rather than just 2 days.

My mate, Naydine, asked me what we've been doing in our spare time. Well, we're trying to be good with our money, so often we just stay in, drink wine and watch TV. We get a fair few decent American shows in Oz, we also like to watch Rove which is a v funny Aussie chat show and Rove reminds me of Dave Walker, in a very obscure way (Dave, if you're reading this, I promise you that's quite a complement). We've also been to the cinema a few times, chilled out at the beach the weekend before last (jealous, anyone??) and we've been going to a weekly trivia night in a pub in Paddington with Kendi and Nigel. (Note to Mum: We would be v pleased if you and Pauline would like to accompany us on the trivia night!)

I had a tattoo done on my ankle at the weekend. The design was inspired by the Aussie flag: it's a 7 point star coloured in a shade of blue similar to the background colour on the flag. So, it's not an obvious Aussie icon, that would be silly as I'm English, but it's Aussie influenced. That was the idea, anyway. It's fairly small, can be covered up if necessary and I'm happy with it (that message goes out to any disapproving people out there).

Well, I guess I'd better get back to work.

Maybe Tomorrow, We'll Wanna Settle Down...

2007-05-18T11:39:00.000+10:00

Good news: we've found somewhere new to live! Actually, we were quite lucky as we liked the first place we looked at last Sat. It's a similar kind of place to the English Lodge, we have our own room with bed, fridge, sink, TV, wardrobes, but we have to share kitchen and bathroom. The place is in Randwick which is near Coogee, the beach town that we stayed in in March. So, it's only a fairly short walk to the nearest bit of sea and sand :) . Anyway, even though our new place is very basic, it looks clean, well cared for and it has a little garden that you can sit in, plus the rent is pretty cheap. We're hoping to stay in the new place until the end of June - third time lucky..?

Jamie has had more luck with getting work this week. He's on the books for two separate warehouse-based jobs, so that has provided more work opportunities. One of the jobs is at Toys R Us and the other is at an electronics company, where he mainly has to pack stuff in boxes. He says his jobs are ok, just very repetitive.

My current job at Adcorp finishes next Tuesday, so I'm relying on the agency to find me a new role for when I've finished. It's been a nice place to work, the people are very friendly, always asking "How you going?" and the work has been ok I guess. It's been interesting to use new computer systems, like I've been testing a system called Connect2 that you can use as a template for adverts in newspapers and brochures. But, to be honest, I've often found myself with nothing to do (like now!) which can be frustrating. So I've been surfing the 'net quite a lot and at least when I'm typing away on this blog or an email, it looks like I'm working to any passing managers. When I first started here, I was told that the girl who did my job before me was actually sacked because other staff complained that she never did any work and that she would often sit and read a book. Can you blame her?? So I'm sticking with surfing the 'net - less obvious methinks.

New Home Needed - 2 Stray Poms & 1 Pampered Chimp

2007-05-10T17:00:00.000+10:00

Well, we're on the move again! Nigel and Kendi need their spare room back, so we're looking for somewhere else to park our rucksacks. We've been a little bit down on our luck lately, as Jamie has been struggling to find regular work.

At the weekend, Nigel and Kendi had a housewarming party. It was only a small do, as there were just 6 of us there - a friend of Nigel's from Brisbane came with his girlfriend. But we had some good food and beer (Carlton Draught is the best Aussie beer, I reckon (p.s It was actually Tooheys Extra Dry - Jamie)) and it was warm enough to sit out at the back of the house.

Nigel & Kendi

Me & J

Later on, we went to a local pub, where Jamie got to watch the second half of the United match, so he was pretty chuffed about that! Unfortunately there wasn't a happy end to the night, Tim's (Nigel's mate) girlfriend got the hump with him because he was smoking Kendi's cigs and he was supposed to have given up; then I was refused entry to the club we wanted to go in as I didn't have any ID! Now, it's been a while since the last time that happened - I'm almost 26 years old for cryin' out loud!! However, it transpired that the bouncer was asking every woman for ID. He even admitted that I didn't look under 18. So I told him that he was sexist and full of bullsh*t, which didn't concern him in the slightest.

Wednesday night, we went to watch a stand up comedy show at the Metro Theatre called Il Dago. Basically, it was 4 guys of different nationalities, including a Sri Lankan called Nish who is also staying with Nigel and Kendi at the moment. We had free tickets that also included free food and drinks before the show which was nice! We were really impressed with Nish's performance and he handled it well when his microphone kept cutting out. But we ended up leaving early cos I was falling asleep (working full-time - it can't be good for you!)

Well, it looks like we're gonna have a fun-filled weekend, searching the 'net for somewhere else to live! Wish us luck - I don't think we could cope with any more bugs, floods, stinky carpets...

The Escape from The Bed Bugs

2007-05-03T21:29:00.000+10:00

Great news! We've escaped from the clutches of the monstrous critters - commonly known as bed bugs. We've moved in with Nigel and Kendi who are friends with Matt, an ex work mate of Jamie's. They are renting a house in a nice suburb of Sydney called Paddington. All the guide books portray Paddington as the hip and happenin' place, which sounds promising. There is supposed to be some cool pubs and restaurants that I'm sure we'll check out at some point.

Monkey's Diary Post 7

2007-05-03T21:13:00.000+10:00

G'day to all you Monkey fans out there!

Well the good news is we've moved away from those bed bug b*st*rds! I had to be left in quarantine over night because of those things - J and K had to put me in the freezer.

But the bad news is that I can no longer nip across the road to the titty bar (see picture) - jelly wrestling night was my favourite. Petersham was my kinda place - never mind the poncey bars in Paddington!

I love the Oxford Tavern!!!

The Attack of the Bed Bugs!!!! (Tues 1st May)

2007-05-03T21:03:00.000+10:00

Current location : Work

Current state: Bored - nothing to do and supervisor has gone a.w.o.l. (as usual)

So, to explain the B-movie title of this post: our room at the English Lodge is indeed infested with evil zombie bed bugs! Jamie started getting itchy pink spots on him last week, so we figured he was allergic to something, like the washing powder maybe. Then, at the weekend, I started to develop pink spots too. My left arm especially is covered in them.

So, after doing some research on t'internet, we've concluded that it must be bed bugs. Bed bugs don't just infest the bed, they can also spread to nearby sofas, bags and clothes. So, Jamie has had to de-bug our stuff so that we don't take them with us when we move. They haven't had any work on at the warehouse for Jamie this week, but we're hoping they will do next week.

Back To Work For Me!

2007-04-22T13:54:00.000+10:00

First of all, I wanted to say cheers to everyone who has left comments for us. A big thanks to my cousin, Mel, it was great to hear from you and the best of luck with your exams (though I'm sure you won't need it!) Jamie and I are quite curious about who wrote the anonymous cheeky comment about Jamie's hair products... We suspect it was Monkey feeling pissed off about being left in the room again, thinking he'd cause a bit of trouble!!

Well, after 2 weeks of interviews, searching the net and getting very frustrated, I've finally got a job! I start at 9.00 tomorrow morning at a marketing communications company called Adcorp. It's an office support role, not sure exactly what I'll be doing yet, so I'll have to wait and see. It's an 'ongoing' role, so hopefully if I put in the effort it will last till the end of June.

As for Jamie, he's been having to work pretty hard at his job. He says it's fairly mindless work, but he's been coming home covered in dust and with big blisters on his hands. At least it's only for a few more weeks and we have a bank holiday on Wednesday (Anzac Day), but unfortunately we don't get paid for days off (so mean!)

Monkey's Diary Post 6

2007-04-17T00:30:00.000+10:00

The Sands took me on a day trip to the Blue Mountains this weekend and, it's got to be said, I had a blast!

Here I am getting back to my roots, doing a bit of tree climbing... Yes, ok, I got stuck and bloody Jamie took my picture.

And being manhandled by one of the 'Sisters' (wahey, she's in the nuddy!!)

Help, there's the witchdoctor! (Note by Kate: That goddamn monkey disrespecting those aboriginal sacred statues, it's a disgrace! Can't take him anywhere.)

The world's most handsome chimp at Katoomba Falls.

And me again with the Sisters in the background.

And again inside one of the Sisters. I must say that's a pretty arty shot and check out my smooth pose - someone get me a modelling contract!

That's all folks - catch you again soon.

Jamie's Got a Job!

2007-04-16T23:46:00.000+10:00

Well, we've been spending quite a bit of time lately searching the internet for jobs in Sydney. I've had a couple of interviews and I'm still awaiting the result of my latest one. But, as the title says, Mr Jamie has now got a job. He starts work tomorrow for Toys R Us, working in a warehouse, stacking boxes and stuff. OK, so Jamie has one interview and starts work the following day.. I'm not bitter! But seriously, it's going to be kinda weird and possibly a wee bit scary as I'm going to be on my own from now on. In other words, I'll be making my own way to any interviews/ new jobs. All my close friends and relies know that this is quite a daunting prospect!! Plus, Jamie and myself have been together more or less 24/7 since we arrived in Oz about a month ago, so things are looking to be a quite a bit different for the next couple of months.

Anyway, I thought I'd let you check out our home for the next couple of months:

Mr J and Monkey chilling out watching TV (with a nice bottle of rose wine at the ready). Our bed is just overhead.

That's me, as photographed by J from the couch. We've got everything we need (well, most things).

Just to update you on the 'Stinky Carpet' situation, the goddamn stink was just starting to die down when, this afternoon, I noticed that water had seeped into our room. Yes, the f***king washer next door was leaking again (and yes the air did turn blue when we realised)! But, it's been fixed again, so please everyone keep your fingers crossed for us that future flooding will remain at bay - merci beaucoup.

Blue Mountains

2007-04-16T21:09:00.000+10:00

On Saturday, we went to the Blue Mountains, which are about a 2 1/2 hour train journey from Sydney. It felt like we were back in the UK when we had to switch trains due to 'mechanical faults'! We bought a combined travel ticket that also allowed us to use the Explorer Bus which goes round the main towns of Katoomba and Leura where most of the touristy parts are found.

Our first stop-off was Scenic World where we took a cable car ride (the 'Skyway') across Katoomba Falls. The 'Skyway' had a glass floor in the middle that you could walk across - needless to say, I avoided that like the plague! (i.e. the vertigo kicked in).

Katoomba Falls (taken from the 'Skyway'). Can you spot the little people?

Then we took the World's Steepest Railway down the cliff and I'd like to mention this railway does what it says on the tin! The ride was certainly short but sweet!! Then, we went for a wander through the temperate rainforest.

You can see the 'Three Sisters' in the background. Aboriginal legend says that a witch doctor turned three maidens into stone.

The 'Three Sisters' again.

The boardwalk through the jungle (temperate rainforest).

Me on the boardwalk.

A Gum Tree, better known as a Eucalyptus.

A bird we spotted in the forest (don't know its name - answers on a postcard!)

A hollow tree burnt out by the last bush fires in this area.

Me on the viewing platform for the hollow tree (in a bit of a compromising position methinks)

Me with one of the 3 Sisters.

You just can't get away from those Japanese tourists!

This was one of the many lookout points around the area.

Lovely view over the Blue Mountains.

Another nice view.

Close-up of one of the 'Three Sisters'.

Me and Mr J in a little cave in one of the Sisters (no sly comments about the matching pants!)

Me trying to hide the fact that I was huffing and puffing up the stairs!

Me at Echo Point - probably the most well known viewing point for the 'Three Sisters'.

Can you see the face?

There's plenty of walks you can do around the Blue Mountains, so you could probably spend a few days doing them all. We might go back at some point, if we get chance.

Monkey's Diary Post 5

2007-04-11T14:07:00.000+10:00

Greetings from Smelly Carpet Land! (Will explain later).

I've been a naughty boy. I got a bit drunk on the wine tasting tour, so as punishment I was made to stay in this pouch all day. Admittedly, I probably would've struggled to walk round otherwise.

We're all now staying in a self-contained room/ mini bedsit in Petersham which is southwest of Sydney centre (a short train ride away). It's going to be more of a long term thing (until end of June) as Jay Boy and Kate have to get jobs to keep up my wine and banana supply. I guess it's alright, we've got our own bathroom, fridge, TV and internet, just one small problem.... the fecking carpet stinks!! Basically the carpet was flooded yesterday before we moved in, apparently it was from the laundry room next door. The estate agent woman gave us some stuff to get rid of the smell on the carpet - that lasted all of 2 hours before it started to reek of wet dog again!

I was quite happy chillin' out listening to the mp3 last night whilst Kate and Jamie cleaned the place. (Note from Kate: That bloody woman said it had been cleaned when it obviously hadn't, so we'll be mentioning that tonight when we reluctantly pay our deposit.) We also found gay porn in the DVD player, which I'm sure that Jay was watching this morning when he said he was watching Man U... 7-1? My arse!

Easter Weekend

2007-04-11T13:08:00.000+10:00

Hunter Valley

On Saturday we went on a minibus tour of the Hunter Valley, which is a wine growing/ producing area and a 2 hour drive north from Sydney. As hoped, we had the opportunity to do quite a lot of wine tasting!

We visited a few of the smaller wine producing companies. We were shown how wine is made and had a couple of talks about how you should taste the wine etc. The best bit was the tasting. We tasted reds, whites, sweet wines, ports and a chilli flavoured schnappes (thankfully not as lethal as chilli vodka). We also dropped into the Smelly Cheese Shop for some more fabulous tasting. But we didn't stay there long, as I think the smell was making Jamie nauseous.

View of the Hunter Valley taken from the restaurant where we stopped for food. We didn't take any pics of the wineries cos we were too busy tasting!!

Easter Show

On Sunday evening, we went to the Royal Easter Show at the Olympic Park. But we were unlucky with the weather again! There was a five minute rain shower after the rodeo, which made it too wet to do most of the scheduled stunts. Apparently, Lady Cannonball was complaining about a wet net - couldn't they just shake it?! Anyway, the pics and videos below show some of the stuff that we did get to see.

The rodeo - Australia v USA. This included the bucking bronco, bull catching and races.

There was an 11 year old lad riding a motorcycle round the inside of the sphere.

Cool firework display at the end.

Home and Away Special

2007-04-11T12:54:00.000+10:00

In other words, we took the bus up to Palm Beach, which (if you hadn't guessed) is where they film Home and Away. It's a pretty nice beach but there's nothing else around there - no nice Surf Club to have lunch and a shake (and we were pretty goddamn hungry!).

Sydney Observatory

2007-04-11T11:09:00.000+10:00

One evening last week we went to Sydney Observatory to do some star gazing. So, first of all, we wandered round looking at old astronomy equipment, then we listened to one of the astronomers talking about the size of the universe, galaxies etc accompanied by a 3D video. But then we were informed that this was one of the worst possible nights for stargazing, as it was cloudy and there was a full moon (typical!) However we did get to see Saturn and its rings and the star Alpha Centuri which we discovered is in fact a double star. We also looked at the moon through the telescope but it was too bright to see much detail. Plus it literally made you go blind in one eye for a minute when you looked away, which was an odd experience!

Just to point out: yes we do realise that going to an observatory when it's cloudy isn't the brightest of ideas, but what can you do when you've had a really sunny day then suddenly it clouds over? (So, no wise guy comments!!)

The Opera House and (that bloody) full moon as photographed from the ferry from Manly to Circular Quay.

Monkey's Diary Post 4

2007-04-03T15:03:00.000+10:00

That cheeky weirdo Jamie caught me naked on camera. But check that sexy bod!! This is me bronzing on Manly Beach, by the way.

Manly

2007-04-03T14:16:00.000+10:00

We've been in Manly for almost a week now. The other day, we went for a mini beach walk from Manly Beach to Shelly Beach and up to the look-out point at the head of the bay.

Manly Beach

Jamie surfing... you don't believe me? Ok then, it's just a random surf dude

Me and Mr J at the look-out point

Yesterday (Monday), we headed down to Manly Beach in the afternoon. Unfortunately it was blowing a gale (well, almost!), not forgetting the Tsunami warning (seriously), but luckily that didn't happen. We only stuck it out for an hour or so.

J chillin' on his Man U towel (hidden, as it should be!)

Pic of me taken last Sat. Gorgeous sea (Tasman Sea/Pacific Ocean) in the background

My Bag

2007-03-31T14:55:00.000+10:00

Just to let you all know, I got my bag back the following day after arriving but it had been wrecked by the baggage handlers either in Sydney or Heathrow (more than likely Heathrow). Qantas replaced it though with a more expensive one, so I can't complain too much. The bag is ok except for the 2 million pockets it has!

Manly Ferry

2007-03-31T14:41:00.000+10:00

We have moved on to Manly. Its a 30min ferry ride from the city.
Here are a couple of pics of the view from the ferry.

Mrs Macquaries Chair (hidden behind tree in the centre)

The city landscape.

We're staying in a small hostel which seems to be really quiet with strict rules! There are little signs everywhere saying stuff like: 'No alcohol', 'No cooking after 10pm', 'Keep the TV on low at night'. It seems that there is just one little eccentric guy who runs the place on his own and lives on site. But we think it's a nice enough place, especially as it's cheap!

Just a quick note about pedestrian crossings!! The first time we used one, we thought we'd landed in a sci-fi movie and had just been shot with a giant "laser". They make kind of a schumpf noise - so much more exciting than the British beepers!!

Was someone expecting us!

2007-03-31T14:26:00.000+10:00

Resturant in Coogee. We were quite impressed by the name.

In our room at the Beachhouse in Coogee before we went out and got a wee bit drunk.
We meet some locals who took great pleasure in taking the piss out of us. Kate told one of them that Steve Irwin was a tosser but he just agreed (so we need a better insult for next time Leif).
Anyway they were lightweights and couldn't take their drink (typical aussies).

Monkey's Diary Post 3

2007-03-27T15:53:00.000+10:00

I've been a busy boy this week. Here's a few places i've been.

Opera House.

Royal Botanic Gardens.

Mrs Macquaries Point.

Meeting the rels at Taronga Zoo.

I've not been that busy really, i've mostly been staying in drinking goon and chatting up the female backpackers in the hostel.

Note from Jamie: Goon is a 3L carton of wine you can get in the supermarket.

Speak to you all later i'm off to shoot some pool at the pub.

Mr Monkey.

Southern Beaches

2007-03-27T15:38:00.000+10:00

Since moving to Coogee beach we have been for a coastal walk between Bondi beach and Coogee beach. It's about a 2 hour walk non stop, but there are plenty of refreshment breaks along the way.

Bondi Beach

Jamie about to jump!

Me at Coogee Beach. Quite an unfortunate choice of photo this (cheers J!)

Taronga Zoo (21st)

2007-03-27T15:14:00.000+10:00

We took the ferry to Taronga Zoo and spent most of the day there. Here are a few pics of the locals.

Tasmanian Devil

Koala (Aw cute!)

Joey and Big Ass Roo (Red Kangaroos)

We also met a Manchester local

Tim the Tapir (Only joking!!)

As far as zoos go this is one of the better ones we have visited. They try to recreate the animals' habitats and give them as much space as poss. Although it's built on the side of a hill be prepared to go up and down a lot of stairs.

View from the zoo.

Birds!!

2007-03-27T14:21:00.000+10:00

We had a walk through the botanic gardens today (20th). We went from the Opera House to Mrs Macquaries point following the shore line.

Here are some of the birds we met on our way

We think Kath and Sue would like these two! On the second picture it was coming to attack Jamie. That bird knows what it's doing!

The bird life of the Royal Botanic Gardens

Cockatoo fighting with a leaf.

Mrs Macquaries Chair

At Mrs Macquaries Point is the chair which is cut out of an outcrop of rock. In the 1800s, the governor decided to have the chair made for his wife, who liked to sit at this spot and look out over the bay (so there's a bit of history for ya!). The chair faces away from the bridge so thats why there are no pictures from it.

Jamie looking anywhere but the camera.

The view from Mrs Macquaries Point (not the chair). And check out who has sneaked into the pic with Jamie!

Fri 23rd March (happy birthday, Sue!!)

2007-03-23T11:59:00.000+10:00

Just to let people know that there are more pictures on the way, we've just been struggling with crappy computers.

We've now moved on from Glebe to Coogee (you say it like cudgie), which is by the sea.

Monkey's Diary post 2

2007-03-18T21:30:00.000+10:00

Hello its Mr Monkey here at the bridge birthday celebrations. I didn't do the walk across the bridge as I couldn't be arsed with all that walking cos i'm still a bit jet lagged.

2007-03-18T21:08:00.000+10:00

Sydney Harbour Bridge.

75 years young!! Its birthday was on Sunday.

Sydney Opera House.

The past two days (Sat & Sun), we've wandered round Sydney Darling Harbour, The Rocks and The CBD checking out the obligatory tourist points! I think we have brought the cloudy skies of Manchester with us although its still warm! We've also been to The Rocks Market and Kate has bought some cool earrings.

Evidence that we are actually here and haven't pinched some pictures and posted them.

Monkey's Diary post 1

2007-03-18T20:41:00.000+10:00

Here I am the VIP of the group chillin' at Manchester Airport!

Fri 16 March - we've arrived!

2007-03-16T22:36:00.000+10:00

Jamie's luggage has been left at Heathrow. Those goddamn donkeys - all that pissing about and they still make mistakes. So a huge thanks to the 'reliable' staff at Heathrow!!!

We've booked into our hostel in Glebe (Sydney). It's basic but looks alright. Can't believe how warm it is this evening (about 25 degrees) and poor Mr Jamie is stuck with a pair of jeans and a sweaty "Rock Dur" T shirt until tomorrow afternoon... shame that(!)

Thurs 15 March 07 - the flight

2007-03-16T22:26:00.000+10:00

And so our Oz Adventure begins!

Current location: Qantas plane, waiting to leave Heathrow Airport.
Current state: Pretty knackered (had to check in at 6am!), but quite excited too.

Firstly, I'd like to introduce the team:- there's my partner in crime and hubby, Mr Jamie Sands; then there's myself, Kate Sands and lastly our glamourous mascot, Mr "Sydney" Monkey who (despite appearances) is so much more than a PG Tips' freebie!

So, right now, we're catching our last glimpses of England before we jet off to the land Down Under. Admittedly, it's not very exciting at the moment, as we're stuck at Heathrow waiting for the handlers to finish faffing with the luggage.

Looks like Jamie's asleep already. Think I'll check out what films I can watch - we have our own little screens and a hell of a lot of flight time ahead.