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Well hello
Yes we are still alive on this planet...Eastern Australia...just off the Great Barrier Reef. Glad we're just off the Great Barrier Reef and on 'dry' land...cos its blowin a hoolie out there ...a huge tropical cyclone -" Ului " is strutting its stuff and causing havock...been really difficult to get to the GBR to snorkle cos of the winds..but we did it ...we made it....we actually swam, snorkled and freedived the GREAT BARRIER REEF......WOW ..can you believe it...watched it on documentaries for years...the ultimate 'watching the fishes' spot...and how was it?...........pretty crap actually!! The conditions were awfull....swimming in a bubbling cauldron of 'soup'...visibility was pretty bad and the wind was blowing 35knots, so hard it was blowing the tops off the waves and scattering the spume ahead...kicking like mad to stay still... very knackering.....and half the passengers and crew...spent the journey out to and back from the reef spewing up...Bob also got 'sicked on' so went to the toilet on board..with shower to clean up.bracing himself against the violent rocking and thudding of the boat..sitting on the toilet with shower going when ....whoosh the valve on the toilet back-filled on one of the massive waves and projected the contents up.....his backside!......talk about getting your own back...well actually not his own!! I did wonder why he'd come back into the saloon absolutely soaking wet when he'd left dry!
However ...we did see and swim with a turtle and a grey tipped reef shark..and saw huge parrot fish and grouper...and we could see how fantastic all the corals were and how brilliant it would be in 'normal conditions'....miles and miles of pristine reef to explore.....I'm really glad we did it though..it was reallt difficult being here and thinking that we wouldn't get out to see it because of the weather.
Our other plan for here was also scupperd...we planned to charter bareboat - yacht to sail around the Whitsundays...no chance of that....the cyclone actually hit land at the Whitsundays on Sunday....the islands had been evacuated...boats were thrown up on the rocks...roofs were blown off houses and massives of homes and road flooded....Millions of $ of damage to the sugar cane crop...55,000 homes with no power, declared a disaster area.....we only just misseed it..our flight was booked from there...but a lady at the Omnimax cinema ( fantastic dome)..in Townsville really persuaded us not to go South ..only 150miles but stay put. So we changed our flight, changed our car drop off and booked into a safe concrete building to weather the storm....best advice we'd been given. ...we had been sleeping in our hired car...to save money.......its absolutely outrangeously expensive here...had simple breakfast out...no juice either!...and it sost $40...about £24.
So we've been cyclone dodging up here ..but had a greatt time in our campercar ( ordinary car with lovely yellow bucket!).....touring the National Parks....ancient tropical rainforests with beautiful beaches....Oh yes...lovely sunny weather hot.35 -40 and humid ..but nothing like as bad as Indonesia....between heavy downpours...and the lovely beaches....but you can't swim off them!.....there's 'stingers' in the water..jelly fish ..which dont just give you a nasty sting....they do that ..then your respiratory and cardiac systems shut down..lights out //bye...so no swimming here...and if they didn't get you the freshwater crocodiles might have....again signs everywhere...Danger ...cocodiles inhabit these waters!.....and Bob did lift his toilet seat whilst at a jungle eco toilet block...and there was a red backed spider under it!!....Great Country. Enjoyed an eerie night drive through ...then sleep in ..the jungle...with frogs jumping ahead of us and jungle noises all around....yellow bucket well used that night!
We didn't see any crocodiles or snakes but we did see lots of lovely exotic birds, ..grey and pink and white and blue and red parrots, a Cassowary ...endangered emu type bird, turtles and kangaroos..dead unfortunately ..on the road .....probably knocked flat by one of these road trains...in the picure....long nosed Kenworths mostly trailing three articulated loads behind. Met them in the 'outback'...not real desert but isolated road surrounded by forest fire damaged trees...road ran along a flat platau ...on the top of a mountain ridge...single track road with rough at the side..to avoid these monsters as they thundrered towards us......we were the only non 4 wheel drive car on the road.....all great experiences.....
..need to go ..flight coming in to Sydney....will give all other updates on other countries later......Bob fine now and we're still having a blast......going to sail around Sydney harbour in 24ft yacht on Friday afternoon...then going to a classical concert at the Opera House .Syndey Symphony..(Paul Vaughan...is that a funny shade of green..I see) ..at night ....how cool is that day!
lots of love ..keep sending messages.
Heather and Bobxx
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