Good morning Bali!
We have some wonderful adventures And pictures to share on our everlater link. Bali has been a wonderful place for us to rejuvenate and relax with lots of yoga, good cheep food nd meeting absolutely incredible people that make both of us want to stay longer but it's time to move on. So in two days we leave for Lombok for another Indonesian adventure before heading up to Thailand. If you don't hear from us it's because we're having too much fun to connect to Internet and would rather connect with this incredible energy that surrounds us and the people it attracts. Love you all and remember that sometimes no news is good news. Xoxo
Slideshow
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Good bye Aussie...
We have enjoyed a wonderful 5 weeks on the Eastern coastline of Australia seeing all we could of the beaches, wildlife and meeting as many fabulous Assies as possible. After 4 weeks of driving from Melbourne to Cairns we were lucky enough to score a 7 day livaboard dive trip up the Great Barrier Reef to Osprey Reef and then the rarely visited Bougainville Reef due some spectacluar weather conditions even the crew was surprised by. They had a rare half price special going on so Craig and I jumped on it the moment we could. As the highlight of our trip we got to add 25 (for me) and 26 (Craig) dives to our experience in some of the most beautiful diving spots in the world also getting our Advanced Open Water certification.
We were graced with the company of a rarely seen whale shark one afternoon who let us snorkle with him for over and hr and then joined us on our ascent from our afternoon dive again. Absolutely incredible! Among our dives was a shark feeding where about 20 or more grey reef, white tip and silver tip sharks along with some giant cod devoured the fish provided by the staff just meters in front of us. Craig was able to snag a tooth from one of the sharks that had broken off on the cage, after the feeding of course. They are magnificant and quite lovely creatures with a bad reputation and though I knew they wouldn't harm me I still kept my distance through all the dives. Giant Cod were fed right in front of our faces at Cod Hole, literally slapping us in the face with their tails as they whipped by. We saw fantastic marine life from eagle rays to lion fish, morays and even nemo and his family a few times. Over all we were treated like royalty by a phenominal crew, ate more than we should have of the abundant food and met some wonderful people from all over. I miss the rocking of the boat already and still hear the anticipated "dive time!" call in the back of my mind every now and then. We have some spectacular pictures to share as soon as we get to Asia where the internet is faster and by far cheeper, or so we hear.
We had heard that the Aussies are even nicer than the New Zealanders which was hard to believe after many lovely encounters with kind people in NZ, but i must say the competition was on. The people here were so nice to us, some of whom i know we'll remain friends with for a long long time. Thanks to all of you, you know who you are. Even one Brit who was the dive trip director living here shared his kind heart and Aussie hospitality and even took us to the airport in Cairns.
Our last few nights in the country were spend back in our tent on the Great Ocean Road back down in Victoria where we were able to see a cuddly koala very close up in the wild which made my day, and of course the regular sworm of wallaby and kangaroos. The Twelve Apostels was spectactular though over popluated with tourists which is to be expected. The drive was well worth our time with breath taking ocean views and if the water wasn't freezing coming up from the Antartic we would have enjoyed a swim or two.
So we say good bye to the land down under and in just a few hrs board a plane to Singapore where we'll spend only a day or two, then fly down to the southern Indonesian islands for some down time and maybe even a dive or two more. We need a little rest and recupe from the vacation from being on the go for the last 2 months. We are still loving every moment of the journey and learned loads along the way.
More updates to come and apologies for the speradic updates.
We love you all so much and hope you had a fantastic holiday season.
We were graced with the company of a rarely seen whale shark one afternoon who let us snorkle with him for over and hr and then joined us on our ascent from our afternoon dive again. Absolutely incredible! Among our dives was a shark feeding where about 20 or more grey reef, white tip and silver tip sharks along with some giant cod devoured the fish provided by the staff just meters in front of us. Craig was able to snag a tooth from one of the sharks that had broken off on the cage, after the feeding of course. They are magnificant and quite lovely creatures with a bad reputation and though I knew they wouldn't harm me I still kept my distance through all the dives. Giant Cod were fed right in front of our faces at Cod Hole, literally slapping us in the face with their tails as they whipped by. We saw fantastic marine life from eagle rays to lion fish, morays and even nemo and his family a few times. Over all we were treated like royalty by a phenominal crew, ate more than we should have of the abundant food and met some wonderful people from all over. I miss the rocking of the boat already and still hear the anticipated "dive time!" call in the back of my mind every now and then. We have some spectacular pictures to share as soon as we get to Asia where the internet is faster and by far cheeper, or so we hear.
We had heard that the Aussies are even nicer than the New Zealanders which was hard to believe after many lovely encounters with kind people in NZ, but i must say the competition was on. The people here were so nice to us, some of whom i know we'll remain friends with for a long long time. Thanks to all of you, you know who you are. Even one Brit who was the dive trip director living here shared his kind heart and Aussie hospitality and even took us to the airport in Cairns.
Our last few nights in the country were spend back in our tent on the Great Ocean Road back down in Victoria where we were able to see a cuddly koala very close up in the wild which made my day, and of course the regular sworm of wallaby and kangaroos. The Twelve Apostels was spectactular though over popluated with tourists which is to be expected. The drive was well worth our time with breath taking ocean views and if the water wasn't freezing coming up from the Antartic we would have enjoyed a swim or two.
So we say good bye to the land down under and in just a few hrs board a plane to Singapore where we'll spend only a day or two, then fly down to the southern Indonesian islands for some down time and maybe even a dive or two more. We need a little rest and recupe from the vacation from being on the go for the last 2 months. We are still loving every moment of the journey and learned loads along the way.
More updates to come and apologies for the speradic updates.
We love you all so much and hope you had a fantastic holiday season.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Philip Island
Now, I know it's been far too long since the last update and being its Christmas time it's probably even worse. But The good new is, we're still having an amazing time and still making our way further and further each day along what's becoming a more familiar world.
We've been moving north east from Melbourne since the 13th of December and now just days before Christmas we found a place to sleep just north west of Sydney. That's what we've been doing every night, finding a place to stay along the way. It's another trick we learned from some savvy travelers and it's been saving us money and getting us off the tourist track every day since. We don't book ahead anymore, we just drive until we feel like stopping. Then find a safe and level place, usually away from noise and call it home for the night. Most of the time we find other travelers doing the same but occasionally its just us, alone for miles and nothing but the oceans rhythm to sing us to sleep. My favorite nights by far.
Our little green and purple home on wheels however hideous it looks has been great to us. We can stop and eat, sleep or read whenever we wish and most of the time wherever. It's small enough to waddle around in cities and though Juicy rental company should never know this it's been off road just a littler for a good camping spot or two.
From Melbourne we took the the A420 south until it runs into the Bass Strait, over a small bridge on the B420 to the end of Phillip Island! It's not a very big island so we explored it and found a spot overlooking a surf beach to read, have lunch, take a nap and just do nothing before heading to the watch the Penguin Parade. Ever night just after sunset little patches of penguins waddle up to their colonies after being out at sea fishing for weeks at a time. For hours emerging from the break in little groups, finding the way to the certain main paths they all take one group at a time then branching off one by one. The babies waiting patiently in their little nests amongst the colony of other waiting penguinos, literally come charging down at the adults begging to be fed. The adults only feed their own babes and no one else's so unfortunately if one of them doesn't make it back, the babe has to learn to swim and fish quickly, or die.
This specific colony holds only 6,000 of the 70,000 Little Penguins found all over Philip Island, and that number is low compared to the masses that occupied the island before locals and tourists started trampling the nests to get to beaches and penguin watch. Over the years more conservation works been put in place and now you can watch all the action from boardwalks at this specific spot.
We get there after dark and the stadium seating down to the beach was packed so we started up on the board walk above what looked like one the the main paths. Turns out it was one right under our feet, so when they started ascending up and passed the people in the front/beach section they turned and came up right under the boardwalk where we were standing. Incredible. There was a little fella charging down at every single group coming up, squawking for food and almost tackling them! He definitely provided sufficient entertainment to make up for the over priced ticket. It only got better.
Once the people cleared from the stands and beach up to the board walk, made our way down, all the way to the beach. With no one around we crouched down and waited for the group coming up ahead to pass by us. Before long they were literally heading straight for us so as still as we could watched them waddle curiously within a foot of us on either side. Surrounded by Little Penguins, the smallest of the penguin species found in Australia and New Zealand. The park ranger watching from behind said they rarely do that even with them. They were closing up or I would have stayed and tried my luck for another close encounter. Though it was a pricey ticket it was well worth it with experiences like that!
We slept that night at a beach access in a small town on the west side of the island with another van and station wagon camper. With the beach just behind us we fell asleep and woke to the sound of waves again. That morning I met a Dutch couple with the van on my way down to the beach. On their way down from Cairns to Melbourne in three months, also only on the island for one night. They provided great tips on must sees and don't bothers along the way and even offered a place to stay in the Netherlands. They live south of Amsterdam a few hrs where he's a chef too in what they described to be a very laid back city compared to Amsterdam. They had also had a green Juicy van through New Zealand so had tricks and tips for improving the not so wonderful features of the thing.
Philip Island has two wineries so we dropped into one for a tasting on our way out, a quick stop at the chocolate factory and a look at the seals from The Nobbies and then back over the bridge and on to the next spot...
We've been moving north east from Melbourne since the 13th of December and now just days before Christmas we found a place to sleep just north west of Sydney. That's what we've been doing every night, finding a place to stay along the way. It's another trick we learned from some savvy travelers and it's been saving us money and getting us off the tourist track every day since. We don't book ahead anymore, we just drive until we feel like stopping. Then find a safe and level place, usually away from noise and call it home for the night. Most of the time we find other travelers doing the same but occasionally its just us, alone for miles and nothing but the oceans rhythm to sing us to sleep. My favorite nights by far.
Our little green and purple home on wheels however hideous it looks has been great to us. We can stop and eat, sleep or read whenever we wish and most of the time wherever. It's small enough to waddle around in cities and though Juicy rental company should never know this it's been off road just a littler for a good camping spot or two.
From Melbourne we took the the A420 south until it runs into the Bass Strait, over a small bridge on the B420 to the end of Phillip Island! It's not a very big island so we explored it and found a spot overlooking a surf beach to read, have lunch, take a nap and just do nothing before heading to the watch the Penguin Parade. Ever night just after sunset little patches of penguins waddle up to their colonies after being out at sea fishing for weeks at a time. For hours emerging from the break in little groups, finding the way to the certain main paths they all take one group at a time then branching off one by one. The babies waiting patiently in their little nests amongst the colony of other waiting penguinos, literally come charging down at the adults begging to be fed. The adults only feed their own babes and no one else's so unfortunately if one of them doesn't make it back, the babe has to learn to swim and fish quickly, or die.
This specific colony holds only 6,000 of the 70,000 Little Penguins found all over Philip Island, and that number is low compared to the masses that occupied the island before locals and tourists started trampling the nests to get to beaches and penguin watch. Over the years more conservation works been put in place and now you can watch all the action from boardwalks at this specific spot.
We get there after dark and the stadium seating down to the beach was packed so we started up on the board walk above what looked like one the the main paths. Turns out it was one right under our feet, so when they started ascending up and passed the people in the front/beach section they turned and came up right under the boardwalk where we were standing. Incredible. There was a little fella charging down at every single group coming up, squawking for food and almost tackling them! He definitely provided sufficient entertainment to make up for the over priced ticket. It only got better.
Once the people cleared from the stands and beach up to the board walk, made our way down, all the way to the beach. With no one around we crouched down and waited for the group coming up ahead to pass by us. Before long they were literally heading straight for us so as still as we could watched them waddle curiously within a foot of us on either side. Surrounded by Little Penguins, the smallest of the penguin species found in Australia and New Zealand. The park ranger watching from behind said they rarely do that even with them. They were closing up or I would have stayed and tried my luck for another close encounter. Though it was a pricey ticket it was well worth it with experiences like that!
We slept that night at a beach access in a small town on the west side of the island with another van and station wagon camper. With the beach just behind us we fell asleep and woke to the sound of waves again. That morning I met a Dutch couple with the van on my way down to the beach. On their way down from Cairns to Melbourne in three months, also only on the island for one night. They provided great tips on must sees and don't bothers along the way and even offered a place to stay in the Netherlands. They live south of Amsterdam a few hrs where he's a chef too in what they described to be a very laid back city compared to Amsterdam. They had also had a green Juicy van through New Zealand so had tricks and tips for improving the not so wonderful features of the thing.
Philip Island has two wineries so we dropped into one for a tasting on our way out, a quick stop at the chocolate factory and a look at the seals from The Nobbies and then back over the bridge and on to the next spot...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)