We knew there were kids on both sides of Asher's van, as they were eyeing it off to move a third family in. So Asher starts to get to do some play with them and Daniel introduces himself and within minutes we find that both sides are selling up and moving to a holiday house nearby that they have all bought together. So there are two prime location van sites soon to be available. I guess there will always be new kids for Asher to play with just not these ones.
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| the old totem set |
Back to reality time here. We have done a short shopping trip in Geelong to get back in time for a meeting. We have lost track of our bins but I think I will have to go out now and give the lawns a mow and we have had loads of washing for everything that was in the suitcases. I have been working on some videos taken last week. This one is a shortened version of a walk we did up to the Forts area. There were gun emplacements, a command post, observation post, barracks, ammo dumps, admin halls and the whole shebang.
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| command post |
The reef is close to the beach in Nelly Bay. The first marker is about 100m out however there are things to see after only 30 metres. In fact that was the only area we could see. The deeper the water the cloudier were the depths. I think this may have been the reef itself always shedding small fragments. We still followed all the markers but when you arrived, the rope line descended into gloom and you could not see much and I did not want to pull myself down. Closer to shore there were coloured stripey fish and plenty of different coral types. We brought back a piece of brain coral that had washed up.
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| New Brain |
We got off the second plane at 4:30pm yesterday and the slight breeze and overcast sky meant 9°. However today is bright and all sunshine, who needs to go to QLD. You do if you want 26°. The sea water was pleasant to swim in. The hotel pools were very cold. Overall we had good weather this time around. Some mornings were cold and all the evenings were cold but during the day it was T shirts and thongs. We had a small car on Maggie Island. The guy said don't worry about fuel, just bring it back as is. It wasn't a jeep, it wasn't a mini moke. It had no doors, it had no roof. The maximum you could drive in one straight main road would be no more tham 10km. We did that out and back each day, so around 50 to 60km total.
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| the old pier at Picnic Bay |
Everything was unloaded here up until 2002 after which it all moved to a new port at Nelly Bay.
I am having coffee numberthree at the moment in airport number 1 today. There are two more airports to go today as well. The last night always seems to be restless, especially this time with a broken watch. Will the 6:00am alarm work? In time for the 7:00am breakfast queue. This has to be finished in time to wheel the bags to the ferry terminal for the 7:45am boat. This has to arrive without delays to get the taxi in time. There were no taxis at the rank, so had to order one, even though we were told there would be some there but there are taxi shortages. At the airport our bags cannot be directly routed to Melbourne as there are baggage handler shortages. At least the planes are flying, so far.
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| evening light |
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| Grand Designs stilt house |
It has been a fast week here but fairly physical. Our usual late afternoon idea of sitting seems to have been forgotten but we are probably out of holiday practice. We did some walks today instead of the second snorkel trail as the water clarity was poor. I did go in to test it with my mask but could not even see my feet. Tonight we will be eating in as we have been to the same restaurant for the last few meals. Tomorrow is a long day of travel with a 6:00am start. Time for a rest. The only casualty seems to be my watch which may have had water in it.
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| Track to Hawking Point |
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| Balding Bay |
There are two snorkel trails that were put in after our last visit here. They are buoys on top of and below the water. It takes a fair effort to bring snorkel gear on the trip so we wanted to at least give it a go. The water turbidity was not good. We swam thru all five buoys but could only see the reef on the approach to the first buoy. We dawdled at this spot on the way back. There were some good zebra type fish and quite a bit of coral. It was not very colourful. We have identified the second trail and have a plan to try it at the lowest tide tomorrow. Again the water did not look very clear as we could look down from a side road.
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| The snorkel beach |
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| Too tame |
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| Brain Coral on land |
