Well,
we are still in sunny Australia and having a wonderful time. Katya finished the
term at Maroubra Bay School and took part in the end of year school musical
extravaganza. She settled in amazingly well and has made some great friends in
such a short space of time.
Jude and I, with the kind help of Mike, went up to our house to tackle our somewhat overgrown garden. What a mess it was. 7 years of growth required some major work. We spent two days cutting and clearing and took all the mess to the local tip. Now a bit of gardening does not sound that bad to most of you, but here in Sydney it can be very unpleasant and even dangerous. Never mind the heat. We have all sorts of insects and animals waiting to pounce on you. A variety of poisonous spiders, venomous snakes and even venomous paralysis ticks are all residents of our garden. We were lucky and only got attacked by the paralysis ticks. Not very pleasant I can assure you.
Whilst
at our house we were rummaging through the garage as we still have some of our
belongings there. We came across my stash of wine bought over from the UK 10
years ago buried in the mess. The stash included a number of bottles of French
wine, my ’63 port from my christening and a case of 2000 Margaux. All sounded
great but had it stood the test of time and temperature in a Sydney garage? So
without further ado we took the bottles back to Mike’s house for “tasting”. We are still working our way through them. The
case of Margaux has survived very well but a couple of the older French wines
(86-93) have not fared so well. We have had a great time tasting them with Mike
and his friend Serge, who bought a number good Australia wines to “Challenge”
the old world wines. Oh what fun! We have now decided that we need to drink the
remainder.
I was
lucky enough to be invited to crew aboard an ex America’s Cup boat for the day
on Sydney harbor. I must admit I felt very humble by the experience of the rest
of the crew. All of them were serious racing and Ocean racing sailors competing
in numerous America’s cups, Volvo Ocean races, Sydney Hobart winning yachts. And
here was me. A “cruiser” They must have thought what the heck, but they were very
welcoming and I had a great time on the water.
Christmas
and new year came and went very quickly. Christmas day was spent at Mike and
Irit’s house with lots of their family, and Jude’s, joining in the festivities.
There was a true fusion of western European and Eastern European cuisine on the
table which made for a very interesting meal. Still seems strange having
Christmas in a hot climate.
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| Christmas lunch |
Katya
went down to Kangaroo Valley with Mike and Irit for New Years eve and Jude and
I stayed here in Sydney to enjoy the celebrations. Dan and Carolin came over to
the house and we watched the New Year being welcomed in from the roof top with
the accompanying fireworks from all around the city.
On
the 3rd Jan we packed up our Land Rover Discovery with all our
camping gear, including a tent I swapped for a water-ski from one of Mike’s
neighbours and set off up north to tropical Queensland. We stopped off on the
way to stay with Paul and Victoria in Byron Bay. They have a lovely house just
across the road from an amazing beach and a short distance from some
interesting towns and villages. Much food and wine was consumed and we had a
few games of RISK. It has been great to catch up with them after so long.
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| Jude, Victoria and Katya in Byron Bay |
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| Byron Bay |
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| Jude at the Crystal Castle |
From
Byron we travelled up to Hervey bay for our first night in the tent. We decided
that one small tent was not quite enough space and bought a small, and cheap,
tent that will hopefully last the distance. Being the school holidays the
campground was packed so we went to see if we could get a ferry to Fraser
Island (the world’s largest sand Island, being about 150kms long) which might
give us the space and solitude we were looking for. The lady in the ferry
booking office told us that they were all booked up and suggested we come back
after a week or so when there would be nobody there. This sounded like an
excellent idea to us. The following morning we drove a few hours up the coast
to Bargara, just outside Bundaberg, a town famous for its production of Rum,
found a lovely quiet campsite just across the road from the beach and settled
in a for a couple of days exploring the area and swimming in the surf.
From
Bargara we drove north to two small adjacent towns: Agnes Water and Town of 1770
(so named after Captain Cook’s second landfall in Australia in 1770). These two
towns were idyllic backwater summer destinations. We booked into the campsite,
set up the tents and went down to the waterfront to swim and cook our supper. Later
in the evening we went down to another beach to see if we could find the nesting
Loggerhead and Green turtles that had been spotted nesting on the beach. No luck.
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| Sunset in Town of 1770 |
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| Town of 1770 |
We decided
take a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef and spend a day snorkeling on the
reef, something that Jude and I have done before but it would be a new
experience for Katya. It’s not quite the same turning up at an anchorage on a
tourist boat laden with 100 souls clambering to get into the water and harass
the resident population. Saying that we did manage to get away from the crowds
and see shark, turtles, squid and a host of other incredible creatures.
We
had been told that there was a great National Park campsite 20kms south of
Agnes water that was worth a visit so we packed our stuff and headed off to see
if we could get a spot there. We arrived just before dark and found a suitable
spot only to be confronted by the acting ranger (Turtle watch team) that we did
not have a permit to camp. We knew there were no camping spots back in town and
that the journey back to town was 20kms down a dirt track. With some confrontation
and pleading the ranger allowed us to stay the night. Although it was a great
secluded spot it was infested by mosquitoes and other biting insects.
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| On our way to Deepwater National Park |
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| Visitor to our camp |
Our
original intention was to travel up to Airlie beach, probably another 300 miles
from where we were now. We decided that there was probably no need to go
further north as we could not swim due to the Irukandji jelly fish, another
deadly animal found in Aus. 7 people had been taken to hospital in the last
week to be treated for stings. These stings can be fatal in as little as 20
mins. Although death is unusual it is apparently extremely painful and can
leave one scared. So with that we decided to head back to Bargara and spend a
few more days on the beach swimming. Katya met a Swedish friend, Cornelia, and
they enjoyed some “kid time” and even had a sleep over together. We found a
wonderful camp spot under a huge tree which gave us great shade from the heat
of the summer sun.
Oh I
forgot to say that whilst staying at Paul and Victoria’s I decided that it was
time for a hair cut. The last time I had a cut was in early August in Denver,
five months ago! I had one hell of a mop. Extreme measures were required and
this took the form of Paul’s electric hair clippers. So down to the wood it
went. This is the first time I have had such a short hair cut. Even at boarding
school it was not this short. It felt rather strange and I think the girls
though I looked a bit weird, even scary.
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| Down to the wood |
After
our revisit to Bargara we headed off to Frazer island on the afternoon ferry. Who
knows what was going to be in store for us. I was a little concerned that we
might get stuck in the sand as the whole island could only be traversed by
single lane tracks that were deep sand. There were a few moments where I thought
we were doomed but a heavy right foot and the Land Rover diff-lock in place saw
us through. The tracks are very bumpy and it takes a long time to go anywhere. We
soon found out that the best was to move around the island is to get on the
beach at high tide and zoom up and down the east coast of the island. The last
time I drove on the beach was in my mother’s Renault 5 when I just passed my
test (17). I got stuck and had to be helped out before the tide came in. Anyway
all was good. The landrover dealt with it well and ploughed through where
others got stuck.
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| Lake McKenzie - Fraser Island |
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| Dingo - Fraser Island |
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| Our camp on the beach |
Fraser
Island has a few official campsites with basis showers and toilets with fences
to keep the large resident population of Dingos out (indigenous wild dogs). We stayed
our first night in one such camp and decided that it was not for us: too many
mosquitoes and the bats crap on your tent at night. We drove up the beach and
found great spot on the beach with a fresh water creek nearby, nobody else for
miles around, and pitched our tents. We spent the afternoon building a dam
across the creek to make a pond that we could swim in and cool off as it was
not possible to swim in the sea (sharks and jellyfish). How wonderful to have
such a wonderful beach all to ourselves.
We
departed Fraser Island after 5 days and headed south again to Bruswick Heads.
Our intention was to stay at a rural campsite just outside Mullumbimby. We arrived
to find the campsite was a bit too “alternative” and headed back to the coast.
The following day we went back to Paul and Victoria’s to celebrate my birthday,
last one in my 40s. Victoria cooked a wonderful meal and we had a great
afternoon / evening. Unfortunately P&V had to leave for Sydney the next day
but the very kindly asked us to stay in the house for a few extra days.
Marvelous! A proper bed and shower.
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