Week Eleven
Well after our last blog, we had our dinner of leftovers and settled in for the night with a book. Tom went outside a bit later, and warned me that Harry the huntsman was back. He was on the side of the van going for his nightly run around. We did a run around the van with the flip flop and the spray, again we must have looked pretty funny, me wearing the head torch, Tom with the torch, searching the outside of the van for the buggar. I found him first and squealed for Tom to get him. We sprayed him and the force of the spray knocked him to the floor, where he dissapeared. This saga carried on for about an hour in the dark until we had sprayed him twice and hoped that this would then be the end of him. We got back in and went off to sleep, woken by a gang of kids with banger fireworks. We thought they were going to throw them at the van so waited with the light on. No worries though, they weren't interested in the van, phew.
Wednesday, I woke up early. It was a stunning morning, the sun had just come up and it was still cold. I put my hoody on for a quick wander and tried to wake Tom up. The surfers were already down, parked and in the sea. We got on the road and drove to South West Rocks in the search for Shark diving. We found the dive centre straight away and booked our trip. Tom was buzzing, i was cr*pping myself. The dive was not only a shark dive, but also a cave dive, in the pitch black. I never thought i would agree to do either but if Tom was doing it, I wanted to share it with him and not miss out on this oppurtunity. We had bought some body boards on the way today as you cant get far on just your body. I had a wicked $8 kids one and we found Tom a big blue one with a giant shark on it. We parked along the front and went in the sea for a couple of hours, narrowly missing kids and swimmers. You can imagine how cool we looked with a pair of kids body boards. It was actually pretty cold so i went in to dry off in the sun, Tom the water baby carried on swimming. I watched this guy who seemed to be a pro body boarder, put his flippers on, on the shore and flop down to the water like a beached fish. He chose the most stupid place to board, right in the middle of everyone. He had all the kit but no common sense and proceeded to smash into a few kids before deciding that maybe he should move down the beach. We tried to find a free camp in the area and drove towards the old Gaol. At the head where the Gaol is, you can watch dolphins from the point. After watching, we carried on our way until we saw signs for Smokeys Lighthouse. Sounded good, so we went there. It was amazing, The view was a 360 around the sea and back into the rainforest. Captain Cook landed here many years ago and you could really imagine a big boat being washed up like in a film, it was spectacular. If you go at the right time of year you can see the Whales passing out at see. We planned to camp here and had our dinner as the sun went down. Tom went to explore and found loads of horrible looking spiders. We even found one that had something in its nest that resembled a mouse. We soon moved on so that we didn’t have anything else join Harry in the van. We parked in a roadhouse for the night and had one of the best nights sleep for ages.
Thursday, we got up early to drive to the dive shop for our dive. It was called off, the wind was too high. We hadn’t even noticed, Tom in his state of excitement and me trying to psych myself out of being scared. We had a day to fill and not much to do in the area. We visited the visitor centre who told us we could walk but that all of the brown snakes were out at the moment, no thank you. Then we sat in the van most of the day reading and snoozing. Was an uneventfull but well needed relaxing day. We stopped at the shore for the night next to the waters edge. When we were making dinner, there were loads of Kangaroos around, we just hoped there weren’t any snakes to!!!
Friday, we raced to the dive shop, sure that the wind had died down, only to be told that we couldn’t go out that morning but there was hope for the afternoon. The wind was due to die down but we would have to sit it out and hope. Back to the sea front for some more coffee, reading and hoping. We went back to the dive shop at 11am and were told that yep, we are on our way. Tom was elated, i went silent i think. Panic panic!!! We got kitted up and got our equipment sorted and on the boat, then jumped in the van down to the jetty. I warned the other couple and the instructor that we were diving with that i was 1) afraid of sharks, 2) afraid of caves and 3) afraid of the dark, but not to worry! They all carried on taking the mick out of me, i wasn’t sure whether this was to relieve my fears or because it was funny for them. The boat ride out was an experience in itself. We had to cross the bar from the river into the sea, this is where it got rough. We all laughed when we were asked to put our life jackets on, but seeing the waves, we were all holding onto them for dear life. At one point a wave in front of us rose, and kept rising and rising until the tip of it was about to the top of our boat. Then it started to turn, like it was going to come over us and turn us over. We slammed down the other side and all jolted. It was pretty lively getting out to the island and not much better there. Tom was loving the hairy boat trip as much at the thought of diving with sharks. A hammer head was in the water when we arrived and we had to kit up quickly and get off. There is something slightly un nerving about being in 2 metre swells and jumping into what you know is shark infested water. Parppp. Getting down was tough, we went down the anchor line but with the boat on the surface jumping around, it pulled the line with it so we were all being dragged everywhere. The line was old too so covered in barnacles which shreded your hands if you weren’t careful, again, not something you want to happen in shark water! Tom couldn’t even get down. Tom has the buoyancy of a lifejacket, so needs about a tonne of lead to sink. After a few minutes he gave up and we went up to get more weights to his belt. After all that, we got down. The visibility was good but not great and the swells on the surface made it hard to control yourself, we were really controlled by the elements. We saw some wicked things though, nemos, electric blue fish, cuttlefish, wobbygong sharks and of course Grey nurse sharks. They were huge and in abundance. The visibility around them was only about 3m and you needed to sit still to watch them which was almost impossible with the swells. At one point i ended up sat on the other girls shoulders because the swell had sent me there, we then got tangled in torch straps. Tom got stuck further up with his buoyancy again and we had to drag him down so that the sharks didn’t think he was one of them! It was amazing, the sharks are really big and scary looking and they move so gracefully, we would jump to do it again but hopefully in better weather conditions so that we could sit and watch them for longer, easier. Once we surfaced, I was freezing, my lips had gone blue, there was no sun to dry us and after hot tea and a 30 minute surface, i was still shaking un controllably. With this in mind and the fact that caves and dark scare the hell out of me, i decided to sit the next dive out. Tom was fine with this and agreed to go on. We assumed the guide would buddy with Tom, but he didn’t, which gave Tom a little bit of a bitter sweet experience. Tom's tale - There was another couple diving with me so it was the two of them, the guide and me. I was so excited about this dive, I've wanted to do it for years, however I had pictured diving with sharks in a cage.. Oh well, he who dares and all that! I had made the assumption that I would buddy with the guide and the couple would follow us, however this wasn't the way it went. As we got into the water we were told to start our decent, which would take us down to 26 meters to the small entrance to the cave. At that point the guide went first and the couple followed straight after him, not allowing me to get in front to buddy with the guide. This left me on my own at the back of the group with no buddy. Not a great experience in shallow water, let alone 26 metres down, in a cave, with sharks!! When we got down to 26 metres the water was freezing and you are being thrown around by the surges of the water. In front of you is the opening to the cave which is no wider than a metre. You have to squeeze yourself (with all your gear on) through the entrance and switch your torch on as its pitch black in there. As I was going into the cave I had a last minute panic, thinking what on earth am I doing down here. I had to just suck it up and get on with it though as you don't have a lot of options down there. This last minute panic was made worse by the guy in front knocking my mask off with his fins as he entered the cave. I managed to get my mask back on and into the cave I went, thinking I really shouldn't have worn my white shorts..As you get into the cave there is a 10 metre chimney that you have to swim straight up which leads you into another opening. Here you can see hundreds of really bright lobsters and wobbygong sharks. My torch was a bit dim so I couldn't really see the Wobbygong shark until I almost kneed him in the face. I'm glad I didn't as apparently if you touch them they will bite and they chase you until they have bitten..phew! As you continue along the cave it starts to open wider and wider and you start to feel surrounded. When you shine your light around you can see that you are surrounded by schools of fish, thousands of them. There are also turtles in there and they sometimes swim through the middle of the fish and make them dart around to get back in their group. As you continue along you can start to see the light shining through at the other end of the cave. I must admit, I was thinking, thank god i'm almost out of this cave!! The guide signals for you to get into the side wall and as you get there the light shines through and you can see the silhouette of 30 to 50 sharks entering the cave and heading right for you. They swim straight at you and when they are about a foot from your face they swerve away, like a game of chicken. I was definitely the chicken down there, I wanted to run like a girl but there's something quite amazing about a shark heading for you with all his teeth hanging out of his face and there's nowhere to go but back in the cave!! It was hands down the most amazing sight, you really are surrounded by these huge, scary looking sharks. Finally as we were coming to the end of the dive, just as we came out of the cave we saw a massive bull ray swim straight in front of us, which is what sadly killed Steve Irwin. Luckily I didn't try and stick my finger up his bum or I may not be here to tell the tale!! When we got back to the surface and into the boat, I was pretty speechless about the whole experience and just had to have a quiet time on the journey back, thinking about the most amazing experience yet.
One more life ambition, done.
Once everyone was up we headed back in as a weather front was coming in and the sea was getting choppier by the minute. We got bloody soaked on the way back. With no dry clothes we had to sit in the car to the shop in our wet pants and a top, un prepared. We had to get on the road again after the dive and headed on down to Port Mcquarie where we stocked up with bbq food and checked ourselves into a site to charge the van and have a hot shower. We were so charged up from the dive we called home to tell them. We then made up for lost time (because you shouldn’t really drink before dive!) and drank a load of wine. Whilst prepping for dinner, Harry made an appearance. This time he was nearer the inside, too near. Tom found him in the sliding door, he had to go. It was a sad moment but Tom had to do the deed and squish Harry. He was HUGE. It made us both feel bad but we had to defend our territory as he would his and we couldn’t risk any more nervous miles in the van or nights with one eye open. Poor thing, but spider ordeal over for us.
Saturday, we were due to check out but really had to energy to rush or move so we did our washing and chilled out for the day (a common theme recently). I again had an afternoon snooze, and then we trudged into town for a look around and a few crimbo bits. We found a brilliant English sweetie shop, which they call the lolly shop. It had everything, we would go back, and stock up! It was only when we went out buy something in one of the shops that we realised that we didn’t have our cash card so, nothing was bought today, we went home and carried on with the wine. We had a glass on the water front wall and watched the sun go down. There was something that kept jumping out of the water which someone said was a turtle, it was a nice end to the day. Tom got pretty lashed tonight and was hilarious. He got a craving for salt and vinegar crackers in his head and he had to have them, although they were stuck in the box under the bed and i was snoozing on it. He woke me up to help with his plight in extracting the box. It went on for ages until he got them and shushed up.
Sunday, we needed to get back on the road and stop being lazy so we drove South to Newcastle. We were really hoping to do some crimbo shopping here but the place was like a deserted UK Newcastle. We had a drive around, with the doors securely fastened, then headed on down. We took the coast road and drive through Booti Booti national park and the Myall lakes which were beautiful. We sat on Boomarang beach for ages watching the surfers. We stopped at a free rest stop on the motorway tonight with a toilet full of spiders. We were nearly in Sydney and looking forward to it.
Monday we spent doing a lot more driving towards Sydney and stopping enroute if we saw something. We drove past the last rest stop we found in the hope of finding a better one. We ended up very near to our campsite for the next week and in Sydney. We hadn’t planned on getting that far but got a bit carried away. We had a thai in a great big shopping centre and watched the ice skaters on the rink in the centre. Then it was time to find somewhere to sleep. We drove for ages, asking if we could stay in the petrol stations but we couldn’t. Then we found a playing field with no parking signs and parked there. Halfway through the night we heard kids giggling, something we always seem to come across when we are free camping in weird places. We thought we heard a wheelie bin being moved and a girl saying, ‘no don’t do it’, then there were torches shining through our windows. We had had enough so we opened the curtains, put the light on and made a fuss. They seemed to go away but we could still hear them in the distance. We got up and pretended to look for something in the front all the time staring at the kids, until 2 of them came over and apologised for shining their torches in. They said they weren’t sure if anyone was in there and thought that some paranormal activity was happening, we confirmed that we were aliens and told them to have a good night, little rascles!
Tuesday morning, we woke up early and headed for Manly Beach for the day. On the way we came across a toll road, Tom tried to avoid the toll road and ended up going the wrong way. We drove over the harbour bridge in the wrong direction and had to turn around in the city. It was brilliant over the bridge, with the view of the opera house next to it. Everything you think of seeing in Sydney was there. Well done Tom for taking the wrong turning, that was a great decision in the end (he added that!). We were really excited to be here and looking forward to the week ahead. We managed to turn around and find our way to the right road, still having to pay the toll fare. We made our way to manly and managed to find a parking space that didn’t cost $4 per hour and have a limit of 2 hours. We did have to walk a mile to the beach though but never mind! We spent the day sunning ourselves and body surfing. Tom got taken out by a surf board at one point so had an aching jaw for the day, he was lucky not to have been knocked out. Thats one thing we didn’t get about Oz, the beaches are shared with swimmers, body boarders and surfers, sometimes all crammed between the same flags. Dangerous! After sunning up we met Andy for a beer and discussed our Christmas Day plan. We had to leave before Tom got the taste for beer and so stopped in Coles on the way home to stock up on Christmas food and wine. We bought it all, yum yum yum! When we found our campsite, the first thing they said was ‘have you got a booking’, ‘yes’ i smugly said.....it seemed however that we hadn’t. Our booking had got lost in cyber space and instead of a confirmation i thought we had received it was purely an acknowledgment that i had requested it. Buggar. Lucky for us, our stars were shining that day and there was an emergency pitch available for longer than we had booked, so we had it. Phew, Crimbo on the street didn’t sound like fun!!! It was nice to be in one place for a while with no worries of moving on or finding somewhere. We made our pitch our new home and settled in for a film and wine. It was nearly Crimbo...