Happy Halloween!!
Trick or Treat! 
Have a spooktacular day!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
It's Great When Mates Donate....
The Australian Red Cross has had a donor campaign all over the tele and radio lately. Did you know that one blood donation saves three lives? It's not just trauma victims that you will be helping; the majority of the donated blood goes to those with cancer, heart disease, liver and kidney disease, people with haemophilia and to newborn babies and pregnant women.
Amazingly, with all of these people who need blood product to stay alive, only 1 in 30 people donate blood regularly.
So, can you think of a reason not to lend your arm and become a great Aussie bleeder?
See if you are eligible at: http://www.donateblood.com.au/
Amazingly, with all of these people who need blood product to stay alive, only 1 in 30 people donate blood regularly.
So, can you think of a reason not to lend your arm and become a great Aussie bleeder?
See if you are eligible at: http://www.donateblood.com.au/
Monday, October 15, 2007
Magnetic Island
For our last day in Townsville, we decided to hop the ferry to Magnetic Island just off the Coast to see if there was any snorkeling to be had, since our dive trip had been called on account of weather.
The island is rocky granite and quite hilly which makes it pretty funny that the primary mode of transportation is the moke. The glorified golf cart was actually quite tricky to drive and the steep ascents and descents and sharp curves gave me flashbacks to the Hana Highway debacle. Sometimes, I truly thought we were going to start rolling backwards or I was going to be flung from cart when Jon whipped around turns. Of course, he loved every minute of it!
Ironically enough, most of the island is a no-go moke zone. So, we had to hike down to our snorkelling spot at Nelly Bay. Visability was absolute crap and we had no stinger suits, so it wasn't worth our lives to see nothing but swirling sand. We went down to the main drag on the island for lunch and a long walk along the bay.
With the rest of the afternoon to kill, Jon got some thrills by driving the mope up and down the island from end to end over and over. I was never so happy to hand back the keys to a rental car.
The island is rocky granite and quite hilly which makes it pretty funny that the primary mode of transportation is the moke. The glorified golf cart was actually quite tricky to drive and the steep ascents and descents and sharp curves gave me flashbacks to the Hana Highway debacle. Sometimes, I truly thought we were going to start rolling backwards or I was going to be flung from cart when Jon whipped around turns. Of course, he loved every minute of it!
Ironically enough, most of the island is a no-go moke zone. So, we had to hike down to our snorkelling spot at Nelly Bay. Visability was absolute crap and we had no stinger suits, so it wasn't worth our lives to see nothing but swirling sand. We went down to the main drag on the island for lunch and a long walk along the bay.
With the rest of the afternoon to kill, Jon got some thrills by driving the mope up and down the island from end to end over and over. I was never so happy to hand back the keys to a rental car.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
S.S. Yongala
The Yongala is one of the best dive spots in all of Australia, perhaps the world. The ship sank in a cyclone in 1911 and remained undiscovered for 50 years. The wreck now lies on its starboard side in 14-28 metres of water and at 109m long is the largest and most intact, historic shipwreck in Australian waters. Jon was so excited to have a chance to make this dive, but....
Townsville continued to be troublesome. There were only a few dive operators running trips to the Yongala and only one in the days that we were in town. The only other diving option was to go out to the Great Barrier Reef on one of those cattle herding FantaSea boats, which neither of us were keen to do. We visited the one boat going out to the wreck within our time frame and we were told that the conditions had been so terrible for the last few weeks and there was a snowball's chance in hell that we were going to get to the site. Brilliant, absolutely bloody brilliant. Townsville had done it once again.
Jon was shattered. He had wanted to go diving so badly. Think of what a three year old would look like if you told them Christmas was cancelled and you've got half the idea. As a poor substitute, we went to the aquarium and he walked around all forlorn that he couldn't swim with the fish.
Reef HQ was quite impressive. The centrepiece is a 2.5 million litre tank of living coral habitat with all of the colourful fish, eels, rays, turtles and sharks. There is a tank of predatory animals that replicates the flora and fauna found at the Yongala complete with a replica shipwreck. Didn't help matters much. The Night Tank was staggering with glow in the dark fish and luminescent fish.
Still, we had fun and the wreck will be there to dive later. The pirate toy Jon got at the gift shop made him feel a little bit better and we went off to try the TexMex restaurant by our hotel.
It had to be done. The question had to be answered: Can a place that is neither Tex or Mex make a good burrito? The answer is a resounding no.
The upside: American beer (for nostalgia's sake) which can be hard to come by here
The downside: Montezuma's revenge knows no bounds
Townsville continued to be troublesome. There were only a few dive operators running trips to the Yongala and only one in the days that we were in town. The only other diving option was to go out to the Great Barrier Reef on one of those cattle herding FantaSea boats, which neither of us were keen to do. We visited the one boat going out to the wreck within our time frame and we were told that the conditions had been so terrible for the last few weeks and there was a snowball's chance in hell that we were going to get to the site. Brilliant, absolutely bloody brilliant. Townsville had done it once again.
Jon was shattered. He had wanted to go diving so badly. Think of what a three year old would look like if you told them Christmas was cancelled and you've got half the idea. As a poor substitute, we went to the aquarium and he walked around all forlorn that he couldn't swim with the fish.
Reef HQ was quite impressive. The centrepiece is a 2.5 million litre tank of living coral habitat with all of the colourful fish, eels, rays, turtles and sharks. There is a tank of predatory animals that replicates the flora and fauna found at the Yongala complete with a replica shipwreck. Didn't help matters much. The Night Tank was staggering with glow in the dark fish and luminescent fish.
Still, we had fun and the wreck will be there to dive later. The pirate toy Jon got at the gift shop made him feel a little bit better and we went off to try the TexMex restaurant by our hotel.
It had to be done. The question had to be answered: Can a place that is neither Tex or Mex make a good burrito? The answer is a resounding no.
The upside: American beer (for nostalgia's sake) which can be hard to come by here
The downside: Montezuma's revenge knows no bounds
Saturday, October 13, 2007
On The Road Again, Townsville
Driving to Townsville seemed like such a good idea at the time, to use Jon's favorite phrase. It was such a long, tedious drive on along the motorway. The whole day was a blur and there was much talk of abandoning our hotel reservations and bailing out in Airlie Beach.
We plugged on in hopes of getting on a dive trip out to the SS Yongala and we arrived in Townsville around midnight, bleary eyed is putting it mildly.
We set off in the morning to walk around the Saturday markets. Jon quickly abandoned me when he spied a Red Sox game on the TV in a sports bar. Beer and brunch was all the boy needed to hear; he disappeared into the dark back room into the glow of the big screen tv. He finally emerged when the locals turned off his game to watch the cricket and we were off to the Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary.
On first glance, the place is not exactly aesthetically appealing. First impressions be damned, I was going to cuddle a wombat if I had to do so in a porta-loo. We walked around while we waited for the cuddle time and saw all of the animal exhibits in under 10 minutes. With a half an hour to burn, we sat and fed the ducks.
Finally the hour was upon us, Belle the wombat came out to visit with the public. They are just the most adorable little creatures, but quite bristle-like when you touch them. We did our little cuddle and photos with Belle and started chatting to the keeper who happened to be from America. She was just about to go check in on the koalas and invited us to come on a little "behind the scenes" tour.
Normally, when you see koalas they are just lounging and lazily stuffing their cute little faces with eucalyptus leaves. When we entered the enclosure with the keeper, one of the little fur balls came down from his perch and was trotting around sniffing at our feet.
The greatest moment was when she pulled down one of the Momma Koala's pouches to reveal a little baby! It was a sight to make your heart melt.
After leaving the wildlife sanctuary, we explored Townsville a little bit. Our hopes had been to go for a swim in the lagoon, a man-made swimming area because of the prevalence of dangerous marine stingers in the area. Our bad luck, there was no water in the lagoon.
Plan B was to set off and grab a bite to eat. At 3:00pm, this is easier said than done. Lunch is no longer being served and dinner is not yet being served, so the kitchens at most restaurants are closed. We tried every restaurant on the Esplanade with no luck, so it was back to the hotel for a room service snack grumbling about how ridiculous the situation was.
We had tried to get reservations at the restaurant at casino restaurant because it was supposed to be the nicest in town (the criteria being that they have tablecloths), but the only serve on select nights during the week and we couldn't get a booking. Townsville was just not being kind to us at this point.
The steak house across the street was settled for and the only highlight of the meal was the salt was pink. Australian pink salt, who knew?
Too tired from his early morning boozing to go out on the town, Jon fell asleep shortly after the sun set leaving me to catch up on my movie viewing and find a dive operator to go out to the SS Yongala the following day - easier said then done.
We plugged on in hopes of getting on a dive trip out to the SS Yongala and we arrived in Townsville around midnight, bleary eyed is putting it mildly.
We set off in the morning to walk around the Saturday markets. Jon quickly abandoned me when he spied a Red Sox game on the TV in a sports bar. Beer and brunch was all the boy needed to hear; he disappeared into the dark back room into the glow of the big screen tv. He finally emerged when the locals turned off his game to watch the cricket and we were off to the Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary.
On first glance, the place is not exactly aesthetically appealing. First impressions be damned, I was going to cuddle a wombat if I had to do so in a porta-loo. We walked around while we waited for the cuddle time and saw all of the animal exhibits in under 10 minutes. With a half an hour to burn, we sat and fed the ducks.
Finally the hour was upon us, Belle the wombat came out to visit with the public. They are just the most adorable little creatures, but quite bristle-like when you touch them. We did our little cuddle and photos with Belle and started chatting to the keeper who happened to be from America. She was just about to go check in on the koalas and invited us to come on a little "behind the scenes" tour.
Normally, when you see koalas they are just lounging and lazily stuffing their cute little faces with eucalyptus leaves. When we entered the enclosure with the keeper, one of the little fur balls came down from his perch and was trotting around sniffing at our feet.
The greatest moment was when she pulled down one of the Momma Koala's pouches to reveal a little baby! It was a sight to make your heart melt.
After leaving the wildlife sanctuary, we explored Townsville a little bit. Our hopes had been to go for a swim in the lagoon, a man-made swimming area because of the prevalence of dangerous marine stingers in the area. Our bad luck, there was no water in the lagoon.
Plan B was to set off and grab a bite to eat. At 3:00pm, this is easier said than done. Lunch is no longer being served and dinner is not yet being served, so the kitchens at most restaurants are closed. We tried every restaurant on the Esplanade with no luck, so it was back to the hotel for a room service snack grumbling about how ridiculous the situation was.
We had tried to get reservations at the restaurant at casino restaurant because it was supposed to be the nicest in town (the criteria being that they have tablecloths), but the only serve on select nights during the week and we couldn't get a booking. Townsville was just not being kind to us at this point.
The steak house across the street was settled for and the only highlight of the meal was the salt was pink. Australian pink salt, who knew?
Too tired from his early morning boozing to go out on the town, Jon fell asleep shortly after the sun set leaving me to catch up on my movie viewing and find a dive operator to go out to the SS Yongala the following day - easier said then done.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Map Not To Scale
When we woke up the following morning, neither of us were really keen to get moving right away knowing that we had 7+ hours worth of driving ahead of us. We had a look at the map and decided to make the drive a circuit and go north to for brekky and continue home by driving south east to Gympie.
While we were planning our route, we watched in as the families around us were breaking down there camping operations. I've camped quite a bit stateside and there is something to be said for the Australian take on it. A site for a family of four generally consists of several tents including the two story one that rises off the back of the 4WD with a special tent for the solar shower. I've seen kitchens with sinks and ovens, toy tents filled with all of the kids playthings and tarped eating areas that are bigger than my living room. The funniest part is to watch them break it down like trained worker ants; everyone has a job and the whole thing comes down in 15 minutes flat.
It was getting to be late morning and we had to start driving. After a minor incident with *someone* backing the car into a tree, we started down the long dirt road dodging cattle in our hatchback to return to civilization.
We had breakfast at the only restaurant in Rollerston. It was an experience; the town was a post office/gas station/corner store, church & the cafe. We were the only people under 60 in the restaurant; we had stumbled into a congregation of the caravan retirees that inhabit campgrounds all over the country.
The drive was gorgeous to start: rolling hills, iconic country Australian farms, paddocks filled with livestock and wildflowers, but after a few hours you've seen one windmill, you've seen them all.
Note to self: nothing is ever as close as it seems in Australia.
While we were planning our route, we watched in as the families around us were breaking down there camping operations. I've camped quite a bit stateside and there is something to be said for the Australian take on it. A site for a family of four generally consists of several tents including the two story one that rises off the back of the 4WD with a special tent for the solar shower. I've seen kitchens with sinks and ovens, toy tents filled with all of the kids playthings and tarped eating areas that are bigger than my living room. The funniest part is to watch them break it down like trained worker ants; everyone has a job and the whole thing comes down in 15 minutes flat.
It was getting to be late morning and we had to start driving. After a minor incident with *someone* backing the car into a tree, we started down the long dirt road dodging cattle in our hatchback to return to civilization.
We had breakfast at the only restaurant in Rollerston. It was an experience; the town was a post office/gas station/corner store, church & the cafe. We were the only people under 60 in the restaurant; we had stumbled into a congregation of the caravan retirees that inhabit campgrounds all over the country.
The drive was gorgeous to start: rolling hills, iconic country Australian farms, paddocks filled with livestock and wildflowers, but after a few hours you've seen one windmill, you've seen them all.
Note to self: nothing is ever as close as it seems in Australia.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Carnarvon Gorge National Park
We woke up early the next morning and set off for a swim in the nearby Rock Pools. At 8am, it was already really warm and the swimming hole seemed like a great idea. That is, until, the girl at the campground kiosk told us the Rock Pools were filled with non-venomous snakes - that was all I needed to hear to not put more than a toe in the water! Jon had a grand old time splashing about and trying to drag me into the snake pits.
With no luck trying to coax me into the water, the trail we decided to take was a 14 km round trip bushwalk that weaved across the Gorge Floor with numerous creek crossings. It was a beautiful day to explore "Australia's Grand Canyon."
According to park literature, the rugged 16,000ha Carnarvon Gorge section is the most popular destination in Queensland’s central highlands. Remnant rainforest flourishes in the sheltered side-gorges while cabbage tree palms, ancient cycads, ferns, flowering shrubs and gum trees line the main gorge. Grassy open forest grows on the cliff tops. The park’s creeks attract a wide variety of animals including more than 173 species of birds (or which we saw two!)
Since this is drought country, the river was far from freely flowing, but it still made for a beautiful landscape for a bushwalk.
It was a really warm day and it was very buggy - it now made sense why Aussie blokes are often portrayed with corks hanging off their hats. We made do by shoving ferns in our cap brims. Not exactly a runway look, but it kept the gnats away.
The walk was "destination hiking" which works well to motivate Jon and I to keep going; there were four stops on our itinerary. The first being a "Moss Garden." The rain falls on the top of the porous cliff walls and trickles down like a really big Brita filter until it hits a hard rock layer of shale. The water permeates out of the cliff side and brilliant mosses have bloomed in the moist habitat. It was a little rainforest oasis in the rather dry surroundings and the cool breeze and shade made it a nice spot to stop and have some lunch.
Then we continued along the bottom of the Gorge losing count of how many times we crossed the semi -dried up creek, making our way to The Ampitheatre, which reminded me of the hiking in The Gunks (Near New Paltz, NY). You are climbing ladders and squeezing through small crevasses into deep gorge. Water eroded away a space into the rock to create a little room that the Aboriginals in the area used for shelter. The walls of The Ampitheatre are absolutely gorgeous; there are 1,000s of color bands that extend hundreds of feet into the sky. The walls make for good acoustics for doing the Ricola commercial, as you do.
The Cathedral Caves, a few kilometres down the trail, were formed by running water like The Ampitheatre. The cave is one of the largest rockshelters in Queensland and the magnitude is staggering.
As we continued on to the piece de resistance, the Art Gallery, Jon found a pointy palm frond and decided that he was Zorro. There was poking, then yelling and I ended up with a few welts on my bum. The drama subsided when we arrived at the Art Gallery, a 62km sandstone wall with ochre Aboriginal cave drawings. It's hard to imagine that these markings have stood the test of time and continue to be so vibrant.
There are examples of line drawings, as well as outlines of tools, hands & weapons that had paint blown around them that have survived the harsh terrain for hundreds of years.
The sun was setting and we were really keen to get back to camp to try and catch a glimpse of a platypus in the river alongside the campsite. No such luck; there were heaps of kids making loads of noise, so the shy platypus didn't make an appearance. A few kangaroos visited our dinner table while we made some kebabs. All dreams of having a few beers by the campfire were dashed; we couldn't keep our eyes open. As soon as my head hit the air mattress, I was out like a light.
See all of the photos from our trip on Webshots:
Carnavon Gorge National Park ~ Central QLD
With no luck trying to coax me into the water, the trail we decided to take was a 14 km round trip bushwalk that weaved across the Gorge Floor with numerous creek crossings. It was a beautiful day to explore "Australia's Grand Canyon."
According to park literature, the rugged 16,000ha Carnarvon Gorge section is the most popular destination in Queensland’s central highlands. Remnant rainforest flourishes in the sheltered side-gorges while cabbage tree palms, ancient cycads, ferns, flowering shrubs and gum trees line the main gorge. Grassy open forest grows on the cliff tops. The park’s creeks attract a wide variety of animals including more than 173 species of birds (or which we saw two!)
Since this is drought country, the river was far from freely flowing, but it still made for a beautiful landscape for a bushwalk.
It was a really warm day and it was very buggy - it now made sense why Aussie blokes are often portrayed with corks hanging off their hats. We made do by shoving ferns in our cap brims. Not exactly a runway look, but it kept the gnats away.
The walk was "destination hiking" which works well to motivate Jon and I to keep going; there were four stops on our itinerary. The first being a "Moss Garden." The rain falls on the top of the porous cliff walls and trickles down like a really big Brita filter until it hits a hard rock layer of shale. The water permeates out of the cliff side and brilliant mosses have bloomed in the moist habitat. It was a little rainforest oasis in the rather dry surroundings and the cool breeze and shade made it a nice spot to stop and have some lunch.
Then we continued along the bottom of the Gorge losing count of how many times we crossed the semi -dried up creek, making our way to The Ampitheatre, which reminded me of the hiking in The Gunks (Near New Paltz, NY). You are climbing ladders and squeezing through small crevasses into deep gorge. Water eroded away a space into the rock to create a little room that the Aboriginals in the area used for shelter. The walls of The Ampitheatre are absolutely gorgeous; there are 1,000s of color bands that extend hundreds of feet into the sky. The walls make for good acoustics for doing the Ricola commercial, as you do.
The Cathedral Caves, a few kilometres down the trail, were formed by running water like The Ampitheatre. The cave is one of the largest rockshelters in Queensland and the magnitude is staggering.
As we continued on to the piece de resistance, the Art Gallery, Jon found a pointy palm frond and decided that he was Zorro. There was poking, then yelling and I ended up with a few welts on my bum. The drama subsided when we arrived at the Art Gallery, a 62km sandstone wall with ochre Aboriginal cave drawings. It's hard to imagine that these markings have stood the test of time and continue to be so vibrant.
There are examples of line drawings, as well as outlines of tools, hands & weapons that had paint blown around them that have survived the harsh terrain for hundreds of years.
The sun was setting and we were really keen to get back to camp to try and catch a glimpse of a platypus in the river alongside the campsite. No such luck; there were heaps of kids making loads of noise, so the shy platypus didn't make an appearance. A few kangaroos visited our dinner table while we made some kebabs. All dreams of having a few beers by the campfire were dashed; we couldn't keep our eyes open. As soon as my head hit the air mattress, I was out like a light.
See all of the photos from our trip on Webshots:
Carnavon Gorge National Park ~ Central QLD
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