Leaving On A Jet Plane !

The Barron Gorge + first Cyclone

The Barron River flows from the Tablelands down over the Barron Falls near Kuranda and on down through Kamerunga, under the Cook Highway to the sea.

The falls themselves are not as spectacular these days during the dry season as they have a Hydro Electric Power Station (the latest one built in 1963 but there was one there before that too I believe. Looks like something out of a 60's Bond film don't you think ?) that diverts the water down a tunnel from a dam above the falls, althought I believe during the wet season the volume of water means that the dam overflows so looking forward to that.

Anyways, we walked up the gorge last saturday and had a picnic near the first lot of falls we came to. Big swimming hole there too, saw some fish plus lots of little lizards and hundreds of dragonflies. These aren't the falls themselves but further downstream.

Link to  pics including a couple of the actual falls taken from the top.

I did and still do intend to walk up the gorge as far as the falls proper ! one day !

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/Barron%20Gorge/

This weekend has sen the first cyclone of the season off Cape York - "Guber" it was called which is apparently a boy's name (they go boy/girl/boy/girl etc.). Category 3 but now downgraded to Cat 1. So we've had quite a bit of rain over the last couple of days which was nice for a change and good for the desert we laughingly call a lawn ! Lots of squished cane toads on the road last night ! They light up in the headlights, their whiteish fronts glow as they sit kinda upright in the cycle lanes. people here swerve to try and squash them. Had to fish a couple out of the pool last night too ! they were doing laps until I disposed of them. not something I like doing but necessary as they are very bad for the local fauna.

Camping at Cape Kimberley

Just a quick update tonight (as if!)

We went camping last weekend with the kids and two other families - Irish Trevor and his family (came over same time as us roughly, work with him and he plays footie for the New Endevours) and Damien and family (fixed my car and plays footie too).

Stayed at a camp site called Koala Beach Resort, camping in the trees, lots of room for the kids and 50 yards to the beach, fantastic morning chorus from what sounded like hundreds of exotic birds in the surrounding trees. Bar, pool, shop, cabins and permanent tents too. Kids had a great time with all the other families kids being there too.

Better beach than Noah Beach which is a bit further up Cape Tribulation, Cape Kimberley is at the exit of the Daintree River. Lovely deserted flat sand, crystal clear water that is actually warm until knee deep then changes to tepid ! no getting used to the temperature of the water there !

did a spot of fishing, kids played in the sea and on the beach, nearly trod on a stingray or two ! (they hide in the sand maybe 10 yards out and if they feel your footsteps coming they shoot off. I had 2 do this but then I had obviously started walking a bit more tentitively so the third one I had to give his tail a nudge with the suncream bottle I had in my hand !) Being english, we then spent the next half hour walking up and down in the water trying to find some more !

we also found the shell off a Nautilus which is a huge mollusc thing that is unchanged since prehistoric times and usually swims at a depth of 300 metres, coming up to 100 metres to feed ! it's not complete but as you can imagine, for any of it to survive the journey to the rocks is remarkable and quite a find. huge shell with a pearlescent shine to the inside. needs a clean but have included a pic of it in the latest pics

Fascinating creatures, look here for more info :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus

Here's the link to the rest of the pics. Some from Mossman Gorge ages ago, some from Crystal Cascades recently, some from trip to the Zoo (Cassowary, Rainbow Lorikeet trying to pick Jedd's nose for him ! etc.) :

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/New%20Pics/

All for now.

Pics of the new house

Seized the moment just before our Australian MotoGP party (i.e. after we had tidied up the place !) to take some pics of the house.

As you can see, the grass gets pretty bad at this time of the year but we are concentrating on the borders/plants at the moment and we've been told no-one waters their grass here cos when the wet season comes along it recovers and you can almost see it growing before your eyes !

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/New%20Pics/our%20house/

Latest camping trip and update

I'm just going to see what my last update was and get back to you..........

Ah, that's better, Paronella Park wasn't it ?

Well, since then we've been getting on with as you do, same sh** shinier bucket and all that ! Weather has been fantastic in recent weeks, sun shining every morning, a nice 28 to 30 degrees during the day and a pleasant 20 degrees of an evening ! another couples of months of this hell too before the Wet.

How's the weather back home ? muwahahahahahaha !!!!!!! read it and weep suckers !

Ahem, sorry about that. Will we will miss autumn to be fair. The leaves do turn nice red colurs and fall off the trees here, just that they do it individually throughout the year which is a bit wierd.

Settling into our new house nicely, finally getting my head around how the bleedin pool filter and chlorinator work (me and the guy at the pool shop have been seeing quite a lot of each other recently !). All seems to be coming together, the water is about right chemistry wise accordin to the pool guy which is good as I seem to have to buy acid or stabiliser or salt etc. every time I go, worst being a new paper cartridge filter which set me back $149 ! yes, that's right, $149 for a bit of folded paper and rubber !

We have lots of noisy rainbow lorikeets in the trees flying around the house ealry doors and early evening plus a pair of little lovely yellow bellied sunbirds, a few cane toads, numerous asian geckos (not all outside either ! fun to see them scurry across the wall when you're watching tv. that's our 50" plasma tv that is btw! ), lots of Indian Mynahs who everyone hates but I quite like cos they make loads of cool sounds even some like space invaders, car alarms etc., the odd big fruit bat, a gang of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos in the trees one morning, little frogs and the odd green tree frog, enormous Rhino beetles that are so huge they struggle to fly but the highlight so far in the garden was on sunday - a large Lace Monitor lizard who spent most of the afternoon walking around the grass at the back of the house ! see the pic !

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/New%20Pics/

also this weekend we have been exploring the new estates being built nearby - saw a big Leaf Katydid outside the local shop which is like an enormous grasshopper that flies and has wind casings that really do look just like a leaf ! found a dead baby snake, India had a large green preying mantis on here arm at the park, Lou had a Rainbow Bee Eater flying round her, saw some big dragonflies and we saw a couple of Kangaroos hopping off into the bush ! it's a shame really cos the bush used to come right up to our back fence before a large section was cleared for Smithfield Village. Fair play to them though, they have put in 2 large wetland areas next to the edge of the bush/rainforest so they should be teeming with wildlife when they fill up during the wet season. You should see the size of someof the stormwater drains here ! There's clearly gonna be a lot of rain coming sometime soon ! we can't wait !

What else ?

Well, we had a 4 day camping trip up to Lake Tinaroo again last weekend. We went up on Friday night again, this time taking the 4WD track over the mountains as it avoids the Gillies Highway (that's the 220 corner 20kms of twisty road up the mountain to the Tablelands. Jedd gets car sick and whenever we're going out the first question he asks is wether it involves the Gillies to get there !)

So, it's dark, we're on the start of the off road bit, gravel but flat and we're chatting about kangaroos/wallabies and we spot one at the side of the road ! cool we said, I pointed it out to Lou, and then, the bloody thing sees the lights and runs straight out into the road, straight towards the car !!!!! You aren't supposed to swerve when encountering them, you're supposed to just keep driving straight becausue that's what your Roo bars are for (we have a huge steel Nissan genuine girder attached to the front of ours) but I tried to avoid the crazy antipodean kamikaze bouncing machine ! to no avail though, he wacked the front near side with a sickening thud. you are also supposed to stop and remove any roos you hit so that other people don't damage their vehicles but I couldn't go back. on a brighter note, apparently they are pretty bloody hardy and often swerve away and wack the car with their tails and there was no body there on the way back so we've convinced ouselves it was just a bit dazed ! further up the track (the proper 4wd bit - although it quite easy for the Patrol) we came across cows. Cows with nowhere to go as we're half way up a mountain at this point so we had to follow them for a while until there was a clearing. following cows arses, lit up by bright headlights for a mile or so. not to be recommended, esp. as they seem to have a tendency to poop while they run !

Eventually we got up to Tinaroo to our fave Kauri Creek campground (there are quite a few to choose from up there, some better for people with boats, some for fishing, some for kids, some for teenagers and a couple of school/scout camps. The lake is man made, dammed in the 70's.) It was busier this time compared to our last trip up there as the kids were on hols so we couldn't have our fave pitch, instead going down to the lower level right next to the lake bank. No firepit or benches but we had a camp fire anyway and poistioned the tent so that the door looked out onto the lake. lots of grass for cricket, step outside and down the bank to fish and to launch our new toy - the inflatable 2 man kayak (see pics). Loved it, saturday morning, paddling out across the mirror calm misty lake me and Jedd to the first big sunken tree and back while TWS (The Winged Serpent aka Louise) fished or should that be Turtled ? the place seems to have far more turtles in it than fish if our hauls were anything to go by!

Jedd and I also went for a walk up the Kauri Creek - shallow, crystal clear surprisingly cold water that emerges into the lagoon (pics). We saw 3 Kookaburras sitting on trees, fishing, quite successfully, for freshwater crabs and then bashing the living daylights out of them on rocks or branches of the trees. Cool !

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/New%20Pics/

The kids enjoyed expeditions up the creek, one day getting a large log and riding it down the creek to the lagoon where Lou had them doing that log walking thing where all 3 of them tried to stand on it and you have to "walk" as it rotates, trying to be the last man standing. Understandably, they enjoyed that.

On Sunday, most of the campers left, the weekend over for them. For us it was the opportunity to move camp and get the primo pitch on the corner where the lagoon is on one side and the lake on the other. Having one of these fancy modern carbon fibre (or whatever it is) dome things and 3 kids helped as we simply unpegged the tent, lifted it up and walked it up to the new pitch ! The new pitch, apart from the proximity to the lagoon also has Kookaburras in the trees around it and on the ground, on the firepit, etc. etc. On the monday we fed them with some of our fish bait - large banana prawns that looked quite appetizing until the birds battered them on the ground and made them all muddy (see pic). We then went one better and held out pilchards and they swooped past and snatched them with perfect technique in their rather big pointy beaks ! Way cool !!!!!!!! I was so wrapped up in this pursuit that I didn't take any pics, hence the one on the morning we were leaving of Jedd and India holding up smelly old fish to try and tempt them. Obviously, now that I had my camera in hand, they were elsewhere. Typical.

Did get some pics of some crazy little blue and yellow jumping things (they were maybe 3mm long!), a beetle or two and some good shots of the multitude of birds that perch on the submerged trees in the lake. I have to give props to my trusty silent oarsman for some excellent stealth rowing on that score - TWS. I can't row in a straight line anyway when I'm in the front of the kayak so we agreed it was best I just concentrated on the pics !

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/New%20Pics/

We also had a really nice moonlit paddle across the lake to drop our redclaw pots. The lake and surrounding hills lit by the almost full moon, the lake again mirror calm and warm from a day in the sun. It is surprising how warm it gets considering it's such a large body of water.

We returned to camp, full of enthusiasm although more than a little wet and asked the kids if they had seen us rowing across the moonlit lake but not surpisingly they weren't paying any attention! India has a fixation with fire and burning leaves, Jedd refuse to go to bed and falls asleep, often on the floor in his sleeping bag and Zak complains of being cut off from the world once his phone and PSP went flat. He was saved however from going out of his mind with boredom by India's Nintendo DS and proceeded to annoy us with the beeps and noises associated with Mario brothers something or other.

So we had a great time up there, caught a few fish but nothing big, lots of turtles, intended to come back Monday and only booked until then so had to pray the rangers didn't come and turf us off which they didn't although they did turn up on the monday. a few minutes of nailbiting suspense there, waiting for them to come and grip us I can tell ya !

other news for those that don't know - we have now bought TWS a bike. A rather mint 2004 Suzuki SV650S in blue (see pics) and I have aquired a 9 year old, absolutely mint original red and white Yamaha R1 with amere 28k kms on the clock. It cost me about the same as it would have to send my one over from Blighty and it's in like 10 times better condition and rides like a new bike. I LOVE IT !!!!!

The incident that sparked my change of bike came as I was travelling to work one day on my GSXR (which I hated with a passion cos the paint job was cack and the gears/clutch were agricultural to say the least). I did the usual, filtered between the 2 lanes of cars at the lights near the airport on the Cook Highway on the way into town, nailed it in 1st and 2nd and then thought "oops, police car up ahead" so eased off. they're really hot on speeding here (Lou got done passing a police car going the other way on the way to work one morning). So, I tootled along behind them for a while and feeling rather smug that I was toally legal (for a change unlike the uk where a chance meeting with a cop car led me to break out in a cold sweat) I passed him as I was going to turn right at the next set of lights ahead.

As soon as I passed him however, he pulled out behind me and gave it the old "blues and twos" and pulled me over. I thought this is blatant biek discrimination and was about to tell him so when he pointed out that my rego (road tax) had expired 2 months previous ! (I had it in my head that it expired end of Spet. but it was actually end of July!)

He then went on to give me 3 fines totalling $390 and then his mate removed the reg plates from my bike ! gave me a certificate that let me ride the bike until 9pm that day and said that I'd have to get new plates and a new Safety certificate (like an MOT). I accepted my fate with good grace or as much good grace as I could muster and dropped the bike off at the local bike shop for them to do the safety cert.

It was then that I spotted that they still had the mint 98 R1 that MMJTBFC had mentioned when we arrived (yes, after I had already bought and paid for the gixxer). I inquired if a P/x was a goer and they came up with a figure we could both live with. Cool.

Other stuff ? We went to the end of the Cairns Festival week parade with fireworks which were ok but not as good as the burning hillside behind them with Jeff, his missus Jen and Behailu, and Zak returned to action after his broken collarbone to play inthe play off semi and then the Grand Final for his footie team "Redlynch Cyclones" which they won 3-1 against Stratford. A tense affair, Redlynch having their best player missing as he was on holiday in Italy but a deserved victory despite a late penalty scare which was saved and the ensuing melee scrambled to safety. Much celebration and a presentation ceremony later that day. (see pics)

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/New%20Pics/

India had a weekend sleepover at her mate's house for her mate's birthday and did loads of cool things and Jedd has had a couple of mates round a few times to go in the pool (see pic).

We had a work's "do" to celebrate finishing the job I've been working on. It was at Mondo's which is Cairns Hilton restaurant and free food and drink, looking out onto the marina, Lou and the kids too who were well behaved  as usual, the tables backing onto a line of palm trees filled with Flying Foxes (fruit bats) who looked down on you with furry faces and big ears backlit by the lines of lights wound rouns the top of the palm trunks and dropped palm flowers into your drinks and or food ! Cool.

Sorry this installment was so long, I'll try and keep it shorter and more frequent in future !

Upcoming events - the annual Australian MotoGP day will see around 15 people descend on our house this year as I volunteered. A relaxing day by the pool, food, drink and watching the GP from Phillip Island

Also, a ride up to Cooktown with overnight stay, wives and kids in the cars, boys on bikes. 300kms each way, inland across the savannah, avoiding cows, wild boar, roos etc. Should be good.

Weekend - Paronella Park etc.

Crystal Cascades (again!)

This Sunday just gone, having done nothing all weekend I was climbing the walls with boredom so made TWS and the the young 'uns go out to Crystal Cascades which as I've xplained before is just down the end of the road, maybe a mile.

I had in mind a particularly painful steep climb from there up to the Copperlode Dam at Lake Morris as someone at work had done it the week before. However, in true FNQ tradition, the path isn't signposted to prevent tourists getting lost so we couldn't find it.

While we were looking Lou spotted a bloody big Lace Monitor Lizard (maybe 6 foot long tip to tail with razor sharp claws!) who was ambling across the grass and reluctantly, in no great hurry, he climbed back up his favourite tree. I was so gobsmacked that I forgot to take his pic until he was well up the tree and then another of him sitting sunbathing at the top when we were on the way home.

In the meantime we walked the 1.2k up the path alongside the creek and then on the way back Jedd braved the water and had a great old time sliding over the small waterfall you can see in the pics, joined by 3 of the local indigenous population.

Pics:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/Crystal%20Cascades%202/

Kids be warned ! I now know where the track up to the dam begins !

Moving house this weekend !

Andy

Week off ! - edited longer version

We went up to the Crater Lakes on the Tablelands (Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham) - there's a 5 km walk round Lake Barrine along a path in the rainforest. Quite early so it was a bit cool in there but nice views of the lake and the occasional picnic bench

Lake Eacham has a nice swimming area with a concrete retaining wall about 10 m out and gravel infill with concrete walls and steps. Crystal clear water. As usual our kids braved it and the locals marvelled at their bravery !

Had a good week off with the kids although by the end of the week Jedd was begging for a day at home so that he could play with his mates from down the street. He has 4 or 5 mates which is great as he's always been the one with less than the others.

Also stopped at the Cathedral Fig Tree - a 500 year old fig that originally strangled another tree and now that the original tree has long since died had a huge hole in the middle of it.

The others don't seem to have any in the street but Zak is on the computer speaking to old school mates and new school mates too depending on the time of day or night !

they all have bikes now so they ride them up and down the road and there is the bike ramp in the park round the corner. It's a moto cross style course for push bikes made of local red earth. It's amazing how red the soil is here as soon as you get below the topsoil. good for staining clothes once your kids have fallen in a big muddy puddle of the stuff while attempting the bike ramps course  ! I'll get a pic of the ramps sometime.

We also went to the beach one day  - it's kinda cool to have 8 or 9 beaches all within easy reach ! chose Kewarra as it's a bit more sheltered and there's a creek there that you can fish in. Nice day, I caught a couple of small Mangrove Jacks, Zak got a Moses Perch and another little spikey fish and Jedd caught 15 little puffer fish with the hand net. Easy to forget that there are crocs in the creeks though ! Not that we were in it but really you should stand a couple of metres back from the water.

Also went fishing off Palm Cove Pier as everyone asks if you have fished off it when you mention going fishing. Far too busy though but we did see some Japanese almost catch the biggest green puffer I've ever seen. Must've been the size of a football !

There is also a sea Eagle who swoops down and takes fish from local fisherman's hands ! Cool ! Loads of birds of prey here.

Also went for a drive up to Lake Morris on Saturday. I had seen the the sign for the Copperlode Dam on the way home from town a few times. 16 kms. I thought 16 kms? just nip up there and have a look as my geordie mate from soccer Richie had mentioned that you could walk up to the dam from Crystal Cascades which is at the end of our road (by car). 16 k's of twisty little road on the edge of cliffs up the mountain (great views of the city though)

Lovely lake, cafe, play area and walks up there.

Sunday we went fishing on the sea wall at Yorkey's Knob Marina. There are 2 sea walls making up the harbour/marina made of enormous rocks and we walk to the end of the northern one and fish off it. Jedd and India stayed on the beach and played and Zak Lou and I fished. Caught 11 fish between us (me 6, Lou 5). Zak didn't catch anything (spends more time with his hook out of the water than in it due to tangles etc.) but entertained himself with his and Lou's new sport - "puffer fish popping".

We noticed that as you bring in your hook, if there's still a bit bit of prawn attached then loads of little 1 or 2 inch puffer fish attack it. By luring them to the surface with the bait you can then "pop" them out of the water with a quick jerk upwards, at which point they let go. Great fun !

The Saturday before we went up to Davies creek. It's on the Tablelands, half way from Kuranda to Mareeba and is an unsealed 4x4 dirt road to a pristine creek running down from a waterfall at the head of the valley, over flat rock beds. freezing cold, crystal clear mountain stream, camping facilities near picnic areas and secluded camp pitches further up near a swimming hole - too cold to swim in now but plan on camping there when it's hot.

 Here are the pics from recent days out:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/Week%20off%20pics/?

The near Tablelands are beautiful countryside, green farmland, rolling hills with mountains in the distance, termite mounds everywhere, long thick lush grass below the vast forests of gum trees. Very nice.

Stoney Creek

Despite some distinctly dodgy weather on Sunday we decided to take a walk in the Barron River National Park which is a mere 10 mins drive from home. The path starts at the end of the Kamerunga RainForest Estate and the track we chose is called Wier Path. It follows the Stoney Creek along an old rocky path 1km up to the wier built many moons ago. Here there is a nice swimming hole where TWS and the kids took a dip and a vine swing from a fallen fig tree trunk.

Appalling conditions for photography but I'm trying to at least take a few snaps to give you an idea of the places we visit even if the pics aren't good.

Here's the pics:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/Stony%20Creek/

Life on Lillipilli Street (inc. pics)

Finally got round to taking some pics of the rental here.....

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/Rental%20house%20in%20Oz/

As you can see, it's a nice street in a nice suburb. Plenty of kids around for ours to play with (Jedd's got loads of mates !) and the neighbours are friendly. We actually have been across the road to a barbie a couple of times that Walter has every Monday night and invites the neighbours to.

I should point out that he has it on Monday's presumably because people are busy at weekends not least the man himself cos he's a pastor. Yep, that's right, a man of the cloth ! He's a nice bloke though, an Arsenal fan from Sydney with nice wife and small kid. He has numerous piercings and sings and plays a mean guitar (no, not religious songs, rock ! some of which he has written himself) and used to have a GSXR !

There has been a young backpacker couple from Yorkshire there when we've been and the young bloke who's name is Oliver also plays guitar and sings. He's very good and a nice lad. There were also a couple of young lads who Wal was putting up from the church in Brisbane. They had been to stay at the local Aboriginal settlement on the Tablelands. One of them reminded me of one of Flander's kids of the Simpsons. Say no more !

Last time we went we really enjoyed it even though the kids were the ones that made us go. You don't really fancy socialising on a Monday night after work do you now ?

Anyways, we're here for another 2 months. Like I say, nice enough quiet place to live, kids can walk to school etc. but as you can see, not a lot of room for a pool in the back yard is there ?

Bought a house !

Well, as the bleedin’ internet doesn’t seem to be working her at work this lunchtime I thought I might do you a quick update.

Big news here with us in case you haven’t heard is that we’ve bought a house!

It’s in the northern beach resort of Trinity Park and is nothing fancy, a 4 bed low level block home plus self contained granny flat or servant’s quarters as I like to call them (for all you free loaders who plan to come out. Well you’ve gotta pay your way now haven’t ya ? Mines a cup of tea, 2 slices of brown toast with marmalade at 7:15 am sharp ok ?). It has 3m high ceilings (rare for the area and more expensive to build due to scaffolding requirements etc.) enormous master bedroom with en-suite, is spacious, cool, Air Con in every room, nice décor plus large outdoor pool, carport for 3 cars plus boat (I’m working on that !) a shed for my bike and gardens all on 1065 square metres (most modern blocks are 600).

We will be putting in a lot more tropical plants around the pool area, fruit trees at the rear (you can grow all sorts here including pineapples, figs, oranges, lemons, limes, dragon fruit, papaya, avocados, bananas, paw paw, lychees, etc. etc. etc. Approx. between $12 and $20 for a fruit tree at Bunnings who are like B&Q) and maybe a sail over the pool to give some shade when the kids are in it.

Here’s the link to the house: http://www.reefcityrealty.com.au/index.cfm?pagecall=property&propertyID=559584&CFID=9747134&CFTOKEN=90662070

The suburb is an up and coming one and has a pristine tropical beach at the end of the main road (1500m away) with creek running into the sea opposite Yorkey’s Knob Marina (insert your own Jordan/Dwight York joke here! Not sure whether the locals get it but no-one seems to titter or nudge nudge wink wink here when you mention Yorkey’s Knob. Not even this weekend just gone when they had the Festival of the Knob ! maybe they’re just soooo tired of the knob jokes ?). The knob is a hill/rock by the way and is very nice. It’s on the flight path though so we didn’t consider living there.

Back to Trinity Park – lots of new development going on there. They’ve just put in a new Marina with houses with pontoons, shops, restaurants etc. to be completed, there’s a new estate called Bluewater going in the north of the main beach road which is going to be huge including lake etc.

So, Lou has started work (and is doing fine – new job, newly qualified, different country being considered) so I went to see the house and put in an offer (it ticked all the boxes for us and there was other interest. The offer was accepted and the contract signed (once everyone has signed the contract you have 14 days to get the finance sorted, any building & pest inspections done etc. and then it can be as little as 30 days to completion. We opted for 60 as they need to find a rental and we need to sort out our lease/get someone else to take it over or sub-let.)

We have been looking elsewhere since we’ve been here but not over seriously, esp. as most of the houses we like are out of our price range now L

Saw a really nice modern Queenslander in Rainforest Estate in Kamerunga but it was $550k and had no land at all. The estate is really really nice but head ruled the heart etc. and we decided against it and knew that we wouldn’t be able to afford the other houses in the estate, plus the maintenance costs, termite barriers etc. etc.

Sorted the mortgage through a broker recommended by the previous tenant of our rental house (nice bloke called Damien). The broker is a nice bloke called Michael who is married to a girl from Portsmouth, supports Pompey and was brought up on a 5000 acre farm in NSW !

Young bloke at work next to me has recently bought a house and his partner works for solicitors so that was that sorted and he recommended the building & pest inspectors. ($200 for each).

Weird thing also, once you have signed the contract, you then become responsible for the insurance on the property ! so have had to get contents insurance on our contents at Lillipilli street and Buildings insurance for the new house in Sandra Close. They’re ok with that and still give you the 15% discount for having both even though they’re at different addresses.

Lou and the kids saw the house on Saturday morning. We arranged to see it again as it was within the 5 day cooling off period you get after you sign the contract so if she really didn’t like it we could have pulled out. Thankfully it was all good, she liked it (phew !) and the kids liked it.

We went at 10:30 so we had an hour or so before to go for a walk collecting shells on what is to become OUR local beach. Pristine white sand, palms, creek, deserted tropical beach, sunshine, cloudless blue sky. Nice.

We’ve since been fishing there (Sunday) and caught a few, watched with envy as people in boats of various shape and size cruised up and down the creek, (jetskis, waterskiers, fishermen etc. etc.) stopping off wherever they liked to chill or dig for bait, do a bit of fishing off the shore etc.

IT was Jedd’s 9^th birthday as well on Saturday so we went to the pet shop and got him the Land Hermit crabs that he wanted ! (they’re quite cute really !). Quite how $6 per crab (he got 2) turned into $120 total bill I’m not sure. At least if they die he’s got all the stuff now so we can just get more from the beach (as Zak did on Sunday – we now need another hermit crab house !).

Jedd’s are called Larry and Barry, Zak’s is called Bob.

Went to another beach yesterday (Bank Holiday for the Queen’s Birthday !) – Kewarra Beach for a picnic with MMJTBFC and family, played a bit of beach cricket, kids went in the sea with their boogy boards etc. and it was a lovely chilled way to spend the day.

They’d better make the most of it though cos next week I feel like a Bush Adventure inland !

Finally – back to things here that are different from back home.

Pet shops – they still sell puppies and kittens in the window. Very cute they are too !

Link to Photos from Lake Tinaroo

Here it is:

http://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2920129#157369120

not many pics I'm afraid due to the bad weather and TWS's laptop's increasingly frustrating slowness (don't tell her I said that !)

Camping weekend at Lake Tinaroo

Having Ok’d it with the boss at work I managed to sneak out early on Friday arvo in order to get home before the kids got home from school, help TWS to pack the car for our camping trip to the Lake. The weather here has been awful most of the week but we had booked it now and I was damned if we were going to lose our $36 camping fees ! ($18 per night for a family = approx. 7 and a half quid)

We had been to KMart for a 55l esky $89(cool box. Going to get a decent one around 200l which will keep stuff cold for up to a week at a later date. Approx. $375) and camp shop for a twin burner camping stove $59, fold up table $159, lobster pot $5 etc. on Thursday (open late night till 9pm) so had the basics required for now we reckoned. Stopped there again on the way for 2 bags of logs for the fire $9 a bag for some seriously dense hardwood blocks. Also got the fishing licence there - $35 for a 1 year licence which covers me and Lou, kids under 18 fish free. Covers over 30 dams in Oz and you get to choose which dam your money benefits - Tinaroo in our case seemed appropriate. You can fish any river, estuary, beach, jetty etc. for free anyway, it’s just the dams that you have to get a licence for.

It’s amazing the amount of stuff you need to go camping ! The patrol was full to the brim with stuff, even just for a weekend trip.

So off we went, down to Gordonvale south of Cairns to then take the Gillies Highway up onto the Tablelands. There are a few ways up there but the Gillies (remember? 220 corners in 20 kms ?) was the shortest route even if it was the twistiest. Stopped at the lookout for a breather and to admire the view of the valley below (see pics) and on we went.

Now, the forest road round the lake can be accessed from the road up and we wanted to take it as Kauri Creek campsite was at the near end of the lake but it was shut so consequently we had to drive all the way round the lake (at high speed on the unsealed gravel Forest Road in the gloom !) so it was pretty much dark when we got there. We picked our pitch, easy enough as there were only 2 other campers there and there’s maybe 20 pitches ? and then put up the tent by the light of the headlights of the car ! Just like the good old days as a kid only at least these days the poles come colour coded ! The tent is great. As you’ll see from the pics, it’s plenty big enough with 3 pods on the side big enough for 2 adults but the kids have 1 each and then a central room which we are using as a bedroom. You could sleep 4 r 5 adults in this area.

Once the tent was up it was easy enough to cook on the stove (steak and feta cheese salad. Note to self: must remember metal cutlery and or steak knives next time, plastic cutlery wasn’t up to the job !) and enjoy the view across the lake in the moonlight and have a beer or three (XXXX Gold, 24 x 375ml stubbies for $30).

Saturday was a mixed bag weather wise, light showers, rain and sun. Zak and Lou got up early to fish on the banks of the lake. I briefly surfaced to sit up and look out of the tent door across the lake at dawn but then didn’t rise again until the cheeky Bell Magpies (Pied Currowongs) woke me by hopping on the camp chairs, the tent porch, the camp stove, the fire pit etc. They’re a bit scary looking, about 50cm tall (eek!) with big nasty looking raven like beaks and yellow eyes but are pretty tame. There was about 6 or 7 of them making themselves at home in our camp ! Make some nice noises though, not least the noise they make with their wings.

The bird life up at the lake is amazing. You’re standing on the edge of the lake fishing and the noises of some of the unseen birds behind and around you is brilliant. Then there’s the gangs of noisy cockatoos landing in the trees, and maybe 8 or 10 laughing kookaburras in a nearby tree making monkey noises ! (if you’ve never heard a kookaburra “laughing” before then you’re missing out. If you were in the jungle you’d swear they were monkeys. They make a “oo oo oo oo oo oo, a a a a a a a” noise and flap their wings around while they’re doing it and when there’s a few of them all at different stages of the calls it’s pretty cool. Imagine huge kingfishers maybe 30cm high that just sit in trees literally feet away as you walk up to them they just look at you. Saying that, if I had a beak that big I’d probably just sit there too!).

Also here there seem to be sooo many birds of prey. Everywhere you go you’ll see them, all different types, cruising about on the warm thermals looking for small ground based prey or other birds to eat I presume.

Anyways, I went for a walk on Saturday arvo, up a 6km circular walk into the rainforest along the banks of the Kauri Creek. Very nice little creek, crystal clear water, sandy bed that you have to cross a couple of times on the walk. Didn’t see much wildlife on the walk except the usual little lizards,  and dragonflies everywherea bush turkey who was very interested in me taking pics for while but there was just me, no-one else there. No-one to have to say hello to as they passed you on the trail, no-one. I’m sure there would be if the weather was better though to be fair. Got a bit lost, had quite a few leeches on my legs that had to be removed (little fellas, easy to remove as they’re walking up your leg at the time like those caterpillars that make a bridge when they walk? but 1 little bigger did get under my sock and had a good suck. That one hurt when I pulled it off !) and got stung by a stinging tree but eventually arrived back at camp safe and sound. Might invest a GPS device at some point, particularly for when I’m not with my Indian tracker guide (Lou) ! but also as a safety aid anyway as you really don’t want to get lost in the bush in Oz.

Despite our lack of success on the fishing front a few young fellas turned up from nearby Tolga around 5pm, caught a load of fish in a couple of hours and then went. One almost got a huge Barramundi as Zak witnessed it leap out of the air on the end of the lad’s hook. We had a chat to one of them as we were making Zak leave the water in the dark and he assured us that if we take prawns next time and fish at 5 we’ll catch stuff.

Saturday night was cool. We got the fire going - each pitch has a couple of picnic type benches set around an iron circular thing with a hinged top. You light a fire in it and can put a pan/billy on the top and cook your stuff which we did – beans in the billycan and sausages in the frying pan. We also did baked potatoes but the heat of the pit was so intense and we left them in too long that they were a bit black when we got them out so we abandoned them.

We had made a halfhearted attempt at it the first night but this time did it properly and Jedd and Indie had been out and about collecting kindling for it earlier on. That fire kept us going for the night, we did marshmallows on sticks, then burned the rest of the sticks on the fire, sang songs and had a few glasses of red (4L box of passable red wine - $19 !!!). The embers were still hot the next morning and cooked us another batch of potatoes!

Zak was up and out early, standing up to his waist in the lake fishing ! He caught a turtle that was a couple of feet long and apparently not very happy ! Lou went and helped to ease him back into the lake.

Didn’t get anything from our lobster pot other than a couple of small fish (there are what they call Redclaw – freshwater crayfish in the lake and you are supposed to be able to drop them in with a piece of potato in them overnight and they crawl in. No-one told us that the spud had to be par-boiled mind you ! Hey ho, next time !)

Left early about 12 as it was raining and we wanted to get back in plenty of time as Lou started work the next day, lots to unpack and wash and the car badly needed a hose down/vacuum.

All in all a great weekend for our introduction to camping. Next time though, we’ll be checking the weather forecast first !

Will add pics when I get chance, hopefully tonight. Still having to do them on Lou’s laptop which is painfully slow but at least it works – unlike my new PC that I built in the uk and shipped here. It did work to be fair, but only for 2 days ! I’ve just sent the video card back to dabs.com in the uk and then they’ll be sending it back to the manufacturer for testing/replacement which takes 4 to 6 weeks and then they’ll send it back to mum’s address and then I’ll have to get it sent to Oz. Pain or what but my own fault I spose. I’m making do with the Xbox360 connected to the flat screen monitor ! How do I cope ? lol !

Good news on the IT front though – we have broadband and it works ! set up Lou’s laptop on it last night, got webcam today (bought everyone else one, forgot to get one ourselves !) and will install skype etc. tonight.

Zak’s at soccer training tonight and tomorrow for Redlynch (his mate plays for them and his mate’s mum is the club secretary). Got him some new boots, shin pads and socks yesterday as his clown like feet have grown so much since last season’s boots.

Redlynch socks mind – they play in yellow and maroon which they pronounce marone here in Oz – WEIRD ! I mean, I get the whole US pronunciation of things like Yoghurt being YO-gurt but marone ?

They play Saturdays so that’s our weekends buggered from now on ! It costs $175 for the insurance as well ! We’ll see how he goes with his knee which is bothering him again and we’ll have to get him to the docs to get sorted.

Other kid’s news – Jedd is performing the theme from Rocky with his class, all dressed as boxers, at the Eisteddfod (sp?). Eisteddfod? Didn’t know we were in Wales? what’s that all about ?

Finally, I thought I’d add things each time I add to my blog, things that I notice are different to the UK. Thought it might be fun to point out the differences. They’re not big things and some of them are annoying, some funny, some just weird. I knew about most of them before we came here due to my extensive research !

WARNING ! There’s lots already !

So, we’ve already had the fact that they call yoghurt YO-gurt and maroon is pronounced marone.

Other things – the traffic lights don’t go from red to red/amber to green, they go from red straight to green. Not good if you’re on a bike having filtered between the lines of traffic and rely on that split second to get away before the dopey “cage” drivers have realised the lights have changed.

On the subject of traffic lights – they take forever to change. It seems like you’ve been sat there for hours sometimes. Unless it’s early Sunday morning and you’re rushing to meet your mates for a ride out. THEN the lights are on demand so every tosser coming out of a side road makes the lights on the main road you’re on change to red !

Some of the gutters/kerb/pavement interfaces have huge changes in level due to the large amounts of rain in the wet season. A real shock the first few times you hit them and the car lurches from side to side and you all hit your heads on the doors/roof/dash board etc.!!!!

All the roads, when the road goes from 2 lanes to 1, the lane that ceases is the left lane unlike uk. Generally, you have to be assertive when this happens cos the bloke in the outside lane won’t let you in !

People ride motorbikes – proper big, fast 1 litre sports bikes, in shorts and t-shirt. If it’s raining, they ride in shorts and t-shirts with an old yellow sou’wester on the the top ! Madness !

Lastly – here, even though the lights are green for you in your car, if you’re turning, the green man for the pedestrians on the side road is also lit ! makes for some interesting road crossing on foot ! (the pedestrians have right of way in that case by the way).

Manchester is the name for the bedding dept.

Flybys – loyalty cards

EFTPOS – electronic funds transfer at point of sale. Same as switch/maestro but not as catchy a name!

Then you choose which account to pay from : Savings = your current account, Cheque account = your savings account ! weird !

In the shopping mall they have big leather Lazyboy type armchairs that massage your body and limbs in exchange for $2. Not tried one yet. Dying to but too embarrassed !

Kids are desperate to have a go.

I takes hours to watch a film because of the ridiculous amount of ads every 5 freakin minutes. Some programs they have an ad break BEFORE the opening credits of the program ! and they have a break when there’s like 2 minutes of the program left. I know the Uk is going that way ( e.g. when LOST was on C4 ! ) but it’s much worse here.

The news is on all the bleedin time. Like 5 they have news update breaks in the programs but it’ll be for a financial news update or something. Sports news on the local channel is news of results from the local Saturday/Sunday league. They have video clips of goals/tries and I swear it’s just the local park. There’s no crowd or anything there.

Usual b*llocks like back home, if anything even more obsessed with the royal family, headline news like Lyndsey Lohan crashes car and their favourite is anything to do with any Australian. E.g. – Kylie has returned to Australia for a holiday ! I kid you not. Footage of her visiting her parent’s house in a Melbourne suburb etc.

Lots of US TV here like NCIS, CIS: Miami, Vegas, New York, Criminal Intent, Without a Trace, Numb3rs, Cold Case, The Closer, Grey’s Anatomy, etc. etc. but at least that’s better than “Australia’s Biggest Loser”, “Teen Fit Camp”, Big Brother, Extreme Makeover, even a program following people who have all had organs from the same donor complete with sympathetic, emotionally charged voice over. No, really! A program where they follow the recipients of someone’s organs. I kid you not.

As it goes dark here at 6:30 it’s not easy to avoid all this crap.

They have no watershed so although programs come on and they give you all the warnings etc. they still have unsuitable stuff on before 9pm.

They have adverts about everything from cervical cancer to erectile disfunction (blokes playing the piano with their knobs having used the product in question !) usually while you’re having your tea ! No shame, nothing taboo.

Chocolate – people complain that even though you can get Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut here it’s not the same as back home and that’s true. It’s not quite as nice BUT there are about 10 different sorts of cadbury’s including Rocky Road which has nuts, marshmallows, cherries and all sorts in it ! there’s also one which is milk, dark and white choc layers, and loads more.

Lizards (Asian house geckos) live outside and inside your house. Noisy beggars (they chirp or bark every now and then), crap everywhere but they are cute!

That about covers it for now !

Let's go "Off Road !!!"

Since my last entry we've bought ourselves fishing rods and been to dip our lines in the Barron River at the old Kamerunga bridge where Jedd caught a Bullrout - a spiky nasty looking fella with poisonous spines on his back.

We've also been off road along the Tinaroo Creek Road which starts from the road between Kuranda and Mareeba up on the tablelands and changes from tarmac to narrow tarmac, to unsealed road with red earth dust and goes up over the mountains around Lake Tinaroo with some spectacular rainforest and views and rocks and stuff then down to the lake through forest with muddy slippy downhill sections.

So we now have had our Patrol actually in 4WD mode although only 4H and not 4L yet and have christened it with some mud and a few splashes of muddy water even over the bonnet and windscreen. I certainly enjoyed and so did everyone else I think.

Once we came down we joined the Danbulla Forest Drive which again is an unsealed road that runs round Lake Tinaroo, visiting some of the campsites/day areas dotted around the lake. It's a very nice place despite being a man made dam as there are plenty of valleys off the main one that was flooded and lots of walks and woods to explore. Not to mention the fact that it's Oz's premier place for Barramundi fishing ! It's $35 for a permit to fish and lasts 1 year and covers not only Tinaroo but 30 other dams in Qld. The permit covers a couple i.e. me and TWS, kids under 18 fish free. Bargain ! We're also gonna try for some Redclaw if we can buy a couple of  redclaw pots.

So we've decided that it's a good a place as any to do our first camping trip and are booked in for this weekend. $18 per night, right next to the lake, no amenities other than bogs and a firepit each to burn wood and toast marshmallows on sticks by the fire so should be good.

On Sunday I went for a bike ride up to the Palmer River Roadhouse (nice burgers!) with Jeff. The road over the tablelands and further on Northwards towards Cooktown gives views of spectacular mountains and dry savannah forests etc.

Stunning stuff, great views from Bob's Lookout and loads of things like birds of prey floating about above you. Not too hot as long as you stay on the move either despite it being the middle of the day. Warm but comfortable.

On returning home I got a message from Lou that they were at Lake Placid which is near the fishing bridge, maybe 15 mins from home so headed up there. The kids had been swimming in the lake, they had rented a couple of Kayaks and attacked the rapids  and swum in them too !

I should explain that the lake is on the Barron River and the river sort of flows through it with rapids at either end. If you stand on the bank you can see big fish, turtles and eels in the water (no fishing unfortunately !) and there's a tree you can literally walk up from the bank and jump off and also a big rock to jump off. Even I jumped off the rock !

The kids were the subject of fascination and wonder from a group of Japanese tourists (again !) who actually had the daredevils posing with them for photos. They seemed to think we were very brave for jumping in and swimming in the lake. Very polite people they are too !

Took a couple of pics up at Lake Tinaroo, will post them later.

Croc Park, Zoo, Mossman Gorge, The Tablelands moving house etc.

We've been our usual busy selves recently.

Taken a trip to Hartley's Croc Park/Farm where you get to go on a boat and they dangle the old chicken head on a stick off the side of the boat until the croc jumps out of the water to eat it. Pretty spectacular stuff ! Then a talk with a guy standing next to a pool as a croc tries to bite him. The noise is what you remember most. What noise you ask?

The hollow noise of bone on bone as the croc's jaws snap shut with whatever it is 2200 sq. lbs of thrust or whatever. It's a unique sound that has to be heard live to be appreciated. Followed by much looking at each other and agreement that it's gotta hurt if you get gripped by one !

Pics:

http://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/Family

(Hartley's Croc Farm album)

We've also been to the Zoo (1 year ticket covers the Crocs, the Zoo and the Koala Park) which was OK, the highlight by far was having our picnic lunhc in the bird house. There were no signs not to eat in there and there wasn't really anywhere like a picnic area or large area of grass to sit so we went in there.

At first the Rainbow Lorikeets carried on eating their seed/fruit etc. on their birdtables but eventually curiosity/cheekiness got the better of them and they began to land on our heads, arms, etc. and started trying to pinch bits of our ham rolls, progressing from trying to bite bits of them while they were in our hands to actually trying to get it out of our mouths, ears, noses etc. A very funny experience for us all ! and by far the highlight of the day.

More macro pics that I've got round to:

http://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2797899#149296609

The caterpillars are wierd. They stand up like that all the time so you can see a bush full of them, all standing up like that ! and as for the Northern Beauty Spider (that wierd shaped thing with a white stripe on it's back, spikes to either side, and yellow blotches underneath, well ,wow! and you'd think something like that would be rare but no, there's loads of 'em in the botanical gardens.

As you can also see, Dave the Fly insisted on coming to Oz with us and demanded to have his pic taken !

A Day out at "The Port"

Last Sunday we went what the locals call "up to the Port", the Port in question being Port Douglas, one of the world's top tourist destinations.

The road up to the Port is a winding road through pristine World Heritage Rainforest, giving glimpses through the forests of the azure blue seas and then breathtaking vistas as the road clings to the cliffs. Apparently they have numerous accidents when tourists literally stop and stare just round the bends in the road !

Half way is Ellis Beach where people go hand gliding. They stand next to you and almost just jump up in the air and the wind does the rest !

We had a walk around the stalls near the centre, went for a picnic on the grass nearby fringed with palm trees and made friends with a lovely staffie called Jed (who the locals seemed to think was lost and the kids wanted to take home!) and then took a walk along 4 Mile Beach, the kids collecting coconuts that had fallen from the Coconut Palms lining the shore as the sun went down. Pretty idyllic I must say !

Can't wait to get up there at dawn during the "golden hour" for some pics (the locations of classic shots done by the likes of Peter Lik etc.)

Here are the pics: http://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2761894#146925431

The Skyrail to Kuranda

First of all, here's the link to the pics from Brisbane: http://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2747307#145990859

Now that's that out of the way, it's week 3 of our adventure so here's the latest.

The weekend began for us this week on Friday. After finishing work at 5pm I met TWS and the kids to do a bit of food shopping in the mall over the road from work.  Not very interesting I know but it had to be done as we had 2 picnics to make.

So, we did the shopping and then moseyed on over to the Esplanade and spent a couple of hours swimming and playing in the Lagoon on the front as it went dark and watched the fruit bats fly out, one of them actually landing in a smallish mango tree near the Lagoon and then proceeding to clamber about in it for a while, throwing the unripe mangoes on the floor in frustration !

As we had planned we then took the Skyrail up the mountain to the village of Kuranda on Saturday. There are a couple of stops on the way up where you can get off and walk in the rainforest and a cool interactive centre. Once up top we went for a walk along the river and came across a swing. Not, I hasten to add like the ones we usually find back home, made of bright blue nylon tow ropes ! This one was a pukka genuine vine ! Just hanging there, waiting to be swung on ! (see pics) Even I had a go. The walk followed the river for a while, then went through the rainforest, then along the Jum Rum Creek where we stopped for out picninc by the creek, sharing our picnic area with lots of different coloured dragonflies (no, I didn't have my macro lens with me !) and emerged back in the village.

Photo link : http://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2747360#145993603

The village itself is a colourful mix with markets, shops and stalls all selling some very nice aboriginal art, digeridoos, jewellery etc. etc. and has a colourful mix of people too ! Ask anyone in Cairns what the populous of Kuranda is like and they'll all say hippies, dope heads and abo's. Which ones of them can afford the numerous $500k + pole homes I'm not sure.

So, anyways, we had a lovely time up there and I've been trying to persuade TWS that it would be worth all the hassle of living up there but she's still not having it. (yet !)

Again, all the staff on the Skyrail really nice and friendly, stopped to talk to a nice girl just after we got off near the village who I think works up there at the weekends and a nice woman at the ice cream shop who was telling us that she'd had to get the animals in that morning as there had been a Tree Python on the roof of the porch again !

Kids enjoyed themselves, India bought a combined water sprayer and fan that makes mist when you spray it with the fan on, she also left her wide brimmed school hat on the skyrail (we checked on my camera to see if she had been wearing it on the way up) but when we asked on the return trip they had seen it and it was 3 cars in front of us so was duly returned. Which was good for Indie as we were threatening to make her pay for it out of her birthday money ! (rule 'em with an iron fist !). Spotted lots of lizards, caterpillars, butterflies, dragonflies, spiders, ants etc. including the "fridge magnet" souvenir gecko pictured in the gallery !

It's now 22 to 24 degrees in the mornings, rising to 28 to 30 during the day, bright sun, blue skies. Heaven ! It's so good to walk to work in short sleeved shirt, the warm morning sun, the birds etc. and the nice heat aas I leave my air conditioned office, the parrokeets squabbling in the trees adjacent to the mall on the way home. Work is good, busy but people all nice, and they go for a pint and food every friday lunch so did that last friday too. This week I have Wed off as it's ANZAC day and also have Monday 7th May off as it's May Day / Labour Day. Not sure what we're doing yet but plan to go to Harley's Crocodile Adventures next weekend. Playing soccer tonight again, 11 a side !

I haven't done the photos from Sundays trip to Port Douglas yet so will do an update when I've done them.

Pics from Singapore (link)

Here ya go:

http://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2733955#145139266

Will get round to the few I took in Brisbane asap. but we are doing the Skyrail up to Kuranda Village tomorrow (Saturday) and then I'm riding the Gillies Highway on't bike on Sunday morning and then we're going up to Port Douglas with the kids on Sunday so more pics will surely follow !

Singapore Part II and beyond......

Singapore Part II

So, where was I ?

On day 3 of our stopover in Singapore we decided to take a trip to the Jurong Bird Park. Being the stubborn stupid one that I am, I decided that, rather than just hop in cheap taxi for the 15 minute trip to the park we should take the MRT to experience travelling round the island properly. After another 15 minutes of walking fruitlessly around in the searing heat and humidity we finally found the station (bearing in mind we could have probably got there by now). Anyways, we got the MRT, then got off at Jurong at the end of the line, expecting to see the entrance to the Bird Park but it was nowhere to be seen.

Another 10 mins fruitlessly trying to hail a taxi in the hot sun and we finally got one to take us the seeming miles to the park. It was the one problem we had there, that despite there being hundreds of taxis, hailing one was very hard (admittedly mainly because they were already hired).

The park itself was fantastic ! It was one of those days when we seemed to time everything to perfection. First we arrived just in time for the talking and performing bird talk/display, then walked up to the Lori Loft. This has hundreds of Rainbow Lorikeets and other small parrots / parakeets in an enormous rainforest enclosure with walkways above it linking “stations” in the sky. You buy a cup of nectar liquid and are then bombarded by loads of hungry noisy Loris, jumping onto the edge of the cup, your shoulders, arms and head all desperate for a nectar drink ! They’re absolutely everywhere, bathing in the sink where the guy prepares the nectar, falling into his plastic jugs for a bath, perching on the rails and cables of the walkways and then swooping in flocks below you across the enclosure. Awesome !!!!

When we finally managed to pull ourselves away from the Lori Loft we moved on to the monorail which took us to the waterfall enclosure, a huge enclosure with the largest man made waterfall in the world (allegedly!). It’s something like 200 metres high and a great photo opp. With birds flying around. We walked around in here and again stumbled upon a bloke with little cups full of meal worms that he was dishing out free to people. You hold them up in the air and the birds would swoop past and snatch a worm or two from them. He was also throwing live crickets into the air and the birds would catch them mid air as they flew past. There were some amazing coloured iridescent starlings, blue winged kookaburras, all sorts of amazingly coloured birds, some of which would get tired of the fly by method of feeding and just perch on your hand and pick worms from the cup.

Next up were some Pelicans, perching obligingly on a couple of stumps in the water for me to take pics of until TWS and the kids decided that they had had enough of cooking in the sizzling sun and begged me to move on to the final highlight of the tour, the Birds of Prey display.

Here, in another amphitheatre, keepers put on an amazing display, everything from eagles, owls, kites, vultures and buzzards, all catching meat thrown into the sky and swooping low over and amongst the crowd close enough to touch, the wing from their wings ruffling your hair (if you had any that is before anyone comments on my lack of it follicles !).

A cracking day out all in all.

So, the last evening in Singapore. We decided to treat ourselves to a meal at Boat Quay, a quayside famous for it’s restaraunts, the buildings of which are of the old Singapore, surrounded by the towering skyscrapers of the new city.

We were determined to sample the famous seafood no matter what the kids wanted and so I had Chilli Crab which was enormous and Lou had an enormous lobster platter with the tail and the body the front and rear of a wooden shape of a Junk !

So, onto the last day,  and that was spent in the pool at the hotel.

Brisbane

After a 10 hour overnight flight from Singapore we arrived in Brisbane at 6 am and got a maxi taxi to our Motel. We booked this from our hotel room in Singapore the night before as we had lost the details for the one we had originally booked. The one we were staying in was the Best Western Hacienda, 6km from the airport and I’d just like to say at this point, don’t ever stay there !!!!

The rooms had artexed walls, some white but a feature wall painted avocado green, non-matching chintzy bed covers and a kitchen worktop along the other side of the room. All of this was complimented by the most horrendous disinfectant smell. Euurrrgghhh !

Anyways, we assured ourselves it was only for 1 night and so walked down to the CityCat stop on the nearby Brisbane River.

The CityCat as the name suggests is a catamaran service that runs up and down the river, the stop we were alighting at being the last stop inland. It was $16 (£7) for all of us (5) and the tickets last all day and you can get on and off as many times as you like.

The boat really rips and if you’re lucky as we were you can stand on the front deck and feel the wind in your hair, take some piccies of the very nice waterfront homes with boats moored at the jetties at the end of the garden and if you’re stupid like me, lose your shades over the side when they get caught in the wind as you pan sideways to take pics! Bugger !

Good to laugh at all the people trying to get onto the front deck but being told by the “driver” that they couldn’t stand where they were, i.e in front of the sign that stated “no-one to stand in front of this sign”. The look on their faces as they turned round to read the sign that they hadn’t noticed was priceless.

Something that was nice was that when we were looking at the route map for the cat, a woman who works for them comes up and asks if she can help anyone and duly gave us advice on the service. You just don’t get that in the Uk, especially not unsolicited from a friendly cheerful person.

So, we spent a nice day in the city, went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens (where to Zak’s delight he was able to buy a “Golden Gaytime” ice cream/lolly), and then had a pleasant meal at a waterfront Bistro. Rather annoying is the fact that because it was a bank holiday they up the prices by 20% ! Totally up front about it, signs outside telling you but hey ho.

Got a bottle of wine at the drive through Bottle O on the way back and had a quiet/early night  in, ready for the 8:30 minibus to the airport.

The minibus duly arrived on time and we were ushered to the group check-in for Virgin Blue. The lad on the check in Steve was brilliant. What we had realised after packing our overweight suitcases was that unlike Singapore Air who are pretty good if you’re a bit over the weights, Virgin Blue are the equivalent of Ryan Air and so the excess baggage should have run into hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Stevo being the top bloke that he is told us that he wasn’t going to charge us for it seeing as it was easter and that we were new to the country. He also tried to blag us that his mate at the desk was an indigenous aborigine (I believed him) but then confessed that he was actually from South Africa.

An uneventful 2 ½ hour flight later and we arrived in Cairns. I say uneventful but I’m forgetting the views through the windows of the plane of bits of the Great Barrier Reef (yes, I managed to squeeze a few shots off with the camera at this point !)

Cairns – Week 1

We landed in Cairns and it was raining ! warm but raining never the less. Everyone has been most apologetic about the weather but it’s no biggie as there has been plenty of sunshine and heat in the mornings and as I say, it’s still warm even when it’s raining.

True to their word, the hospital had arranged for someone to meet us at the airport and they had a taxi voucher to get us to the apartments.

We arrived at the CitySider Apts and MMJTBFC had surpassed himself again ! not only had he picked up the keys from GHD and left them in an envelope near reception (closed as it was Easter Sunday) but he had also left us a welcome package consisting of a couple of tinnies, choc eggs for the kids, a local paper (complete with front page headlines about lunatic speeding bikies!), a book about Tropical North Queensland wildlife and a free pass for  for the SkyRail, the cable car service up to Kuranda.

Top bloke !

For the next 2 days we settled in as it was Easter i.e. bank hols, went down to the Lagoon on the esplanade, checked out the apartments pool, the mall in the CBD (which is a good size and includes supermarkets, the railway station and free parking) etc.

The first night, the kids were in the pool at the apts as dusk approached and suddenly loads of massive flying foxes (fruit bats) flew over, going to feed after spending the day hanging in the local trees. Wow ! massive things, silently flapping their way across the sunset sky. Even better when one “buzzed” the pool and flew over our heads about 10 foot of the ground !

We’ve also seen lizards, large blue butterflies, cute little asian house geckos that stick to the walls of the balcony and other crazy insects.

So, after making the kids walk everywhere for a couple of days we decided that we needed some transport, and went to Rent a Bomb. As the name suggests, they specialise in the cheapest rentals available and our silver early 90’s Ford Falcon Station Wagon (4 litre V6 auto)  was $250 for 7 days. It came complete with oxidised paint on the bonnet and so many dints and scrapes that when the guy had finished marking them all on the pre-inspection diagram he admitted that if we did damage it any more they probably wouldn’t notice ! So off we went to look for a car to buy, picking up a “carton” of Corona bottled lager from the drive in bottle shop on the way (we panicked having driven in their and picked the first thing we saw that we reckognised, i.e. expensive imported lager ! $57), windows open (hand wind jobbies) as the air con was barely working.

We drove up Mulgrave Road which is where all the car sales places are and stopped at Pacific used 4X4. There was a car parked in the road next to the lot which attracted our interest and after speaking to the salesman discovered that it was the manager’s (Brendon) car.

It was a Nissan Patrol 2.8 TD, 1998, 120k kms, 7 seats, manual, top alarm in mint condition, full service history, all bills inc. recent tyres snorkel (for driving half submerged in a river!) and special suspension with a $3000 Alpine stereo system inc. pre-amp, sub woofers in the back etc. etc. for $22990.

Brendon was a top bloke, went for a test drive and he told me he had lived in Wales near Lake Vyrnwy and Scotland and we both laughed at how we disliked the Welsh !

When we got back we agreed a price at $22000 and he helped fill out all the paper work and got us a quite on the insurance as they are agents for Suncorp. $560 fully comp (£220) which I thought brilliant for such a big car.

Off we popped to the bank and nipped back to pick it up. Went for a drive then up to where the kids will be going to school, and then got a bit lost in the hills in the dark, driving along roads bordered by glow bugs lighting up the undergrowth. Cool !!!

What else have we done since then ?

Driven half way up the road to Kuranda, realised it wouldn’t be a good road for Lou to drive up after a night shift ! very steep and twisty and even when you get to the bottom I would still have a half hour drive to work, dropping the kids off at school on the way.

We took the Rent a Bomb back to ask if it was possible to get a refund even though we had rented it for a week and that was no problem (1 day rent + $25 penalty).

Spent a day or two driving round suburbs and can’t seem to find the pole homes that we have seen on the net (apart from the ones up in Kuranda) and most of the modern estates leave us cold. The houses are so close together, have very small rear gardens and the houses themselves are small so we can only presume small room sizes as most of them are 4 bedroom !

Did like some roads down past the schools (the ones where the glow bugs where, on the way to Crystal Cascades) but only a couple of houses for sale down there. One in  a recent estate with pool, end of close backing onto reserve (bush/rainforest) for $455,000 and a rainforest pole home on 2.5 acres but it’s listed as “high $500,000’s”.

Either way, we probably can’t buy while we’re both on our 3 month probation periods so we are hopefully renting one of the aforementioned 4 bed rabbit hutches near the schools for 3 months or more for $350 a week.

Finally, we went to see the principal of St. Andrew’s Catholic College on Friday for our “interview”. She was very nice and the interview which we had prepared for (i.e. talking about how we liked the ethos of the school, their holistic approach to education etc. despite not being “practising Christians” ourselves ! ar*e licking basically!) didn’t really materialise ! it was basically us trying to pressure her into squeezing Jedd in as they had places for Zak and India but not Jedd.

I gave her the hard sell, saying that we were here to stay, that we would be living just down the road etc. etc. and Lou gave her the mother side, saying we wouldn’t split them up and it was either all of them or none of them.

A nice bloke from Adelaide called Keiran showed us round the grounds while she tried to persuade the teacher in Year 4 to fit him in.

Gorgeous peaceful setting in the Redlynch Valley, surrounded by hills covered in Rainforest, loads of new buildings going up including sports arena, 1000 seat Performing Arts centre, loads of IT stuff inc. trolleys with 30 laptops on, 1 for each student as well as the usual IT rooms with desktop PC’s, a citrix system to allow access to work, library etc. from home available to all students, linked to tuck shop cards on which you can specify what food you won’t allow your kids to eat e.g. crisps and when they try to buy them with their card the computer says “no”. Loads of stuff available at lunch time, after school, sports teams going to places like Brisbane for tournaments, instruments available for all who want to try them etc. etc. etc.

She rang us back while we were at the nearby Estate Agents (realtors) to confirm they would take them all ! sorted !

So that’s us so far, everything going smoothly, I start work on Monday and the kids start on Tuesday. Every person we’ve met so far has been great, friendly, interested in where we’re from and how long we’ve been here etc.

Jeff is picking me up at 10 am tomorrow morning and taking me to pick up my bike and we’re going for a leisurely ride up to Port Douglas, meeting Lou and the kids back at his in the arvo for a Barbie !

Got helmet, gloves and lock from bike shop round the corner (Wayne Leonards) and went back for insurance. Spoke to nice bloke called Robert who is a Kiwi and got a good deal, again about $560 fully comp., mainly because they allowed you to use your car no claims on your bike insurance, even though I had already used them to discount the car insurance !

Now, I’m determined not to play the “oz vs uk” game but that would NEVER happen in the uk. Back home you can’t use them more than once and you certainly can’t use your car NCB on your bike policy. I ain’t complaining though !!!

He also told me about a charity ride they’ve got coming up next month up to Cookstown up the Cape Of York. Overnight job so will be sure to do that and take some pics.

Finally, on the subject of pics, no net access at the mo and I’ve been a bit busy ! but will post up the links once I’ve sorted them out and got them online.

Lovin it so far !!!!

Singapore Part I

Hey dude,

Just a quick note from Singapore.

We've been to Little India today, went to the I.T. Mall and the kids spent their cash we'd promised them at Xmas all in one go (thank god!). Jedd and Zak got a Sony PSP each and India got a new DSLite so they will at least be kept entertained and out of trouble in their room at night !
Little India as the name suggests is an area of the city that is full of Indians, small shops selling everything under the sun and, when you get into the backstreets it really is like being on the sub continent ! blokes pushing tv's on trollies, small local shops etc. not like the rest of pristine singers at all !
Finished it there by eating at a local hawker centre which has numerous food kiosks and sells local or rather in this case Indian food. I had Mee Goreng, a spicy egg noddle with onions etc. $3 (about £1) and Lou had Mutton Steak, which was basically a mutton stew $5 (£1.75). Even the kids had some despite initially claiming not be hungry !
 
So far we've also been to China town (mainly to keep the kids awake the day we arrived to try and get their body clocks adjusted to SP time. not easy when you've been awake for 24 hours plus! talk about the walking dead ! and yes, we did make them walk ! hot and humid ain't the word ! the air conditioned malls are soooo nice to step into and cool down while you browse the many many gold, electronics and clothes shops)

The flight from Manchester was fine but long, plenty of films to choose from etc. and we then caught the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) to the city. Spotless, air conditioned carriages, empty at first but soon filled up as we got nearer the city as it was 7 am. Trouble was we bought tickets to Orchard Road not knowing where our hotel was and then after luggin our 1 heavy case for bit in stifling heat we cadged a taxi from the line outside the Singapore Hilton ! (didn't know the exact location of our hotel because we have mislaid the file of important documents that I have been painstakingly compiling over the last few months ! worse things happen at sea and all that ! Let's hope we can find our apartment in Brisbane, the name of which escapes me !)

The hotel is fine - Holiday Inn so we were not expecting too much. Bit far out from the city centre but not too far. The hotel puts on a nice AC coach free for a lift to Orchard Road the main shopping street. (Taxis are dirt cheap anyhows. All Toyota Crowns a basic lada style shape with bitching air con ! again had a nice chat to a couple of them about kids, the English Prem etc.)
Nice pool on the 6th floor, we're on the 7th. Kids love it and it's open until 9pm and generally we have it to ourselves. It's great to get in and cool down and then to be able to get out and feel the heat again unlike back home where you sit huddled in a towel for 10 minutes with you're whole body shaking until you warm up again)
Bought myself a rather nice silk shirt today in the shop where TWS (Lou aka The Winged Serpent !) got a nice silk kaftan from a lovely Indian bloke called Don. I say lovely but he was a Liverpool supporter. I spose everyone has their flaws ! He was telling us that he has been to Cairns 9 times and loves it.
We also went for a boat ride on the river which was ok but we should have done it at night for all the lights on the skyscrapers. Top bloke, sitting cross legged driving the thing, his somewhat toothless smile and pidgeon english interspersed by the american english tape that he plays every now and again when something of interest comes into view.

Going to Jurong Bird Park and the Reptile and Croc Park tomorrow so that should be a nice easy relaxing day, then maybe down town to Boat Quay for a meal in the evening. Don't know how I'm going to take pics of the night skyline without my tripod !

Venice and the countdown continues..........

21 days and counting. yep, 3 weeks today. Still doesn't seem real yet.

So yeh, erm, went to Venice the other week which was nice.

We had 4 nights in a nice enough hotel (All Angelo). The best thing about about it was the location, first right off the main shopping street right behind St. Mark's Square. The weather was nice and that allowed us to leave the windows open and be woken by the bells in the nearby square every morning at 7 o'clock. We got 4 nights B&B + 1 free dinner for 410 Euros which was excellent for the location alone (it meant we had to go through the square on our way out and so there was usually few people there apart from the pidgeons and the Japanese tourists. They must have earlier alarm clocks than the local bells!). Only problem we had in the hotel was the lack of a corkscrew for our bottles of red. This resulted in a couple of red wine fountains as we had to push the corks into the bottles using a Bic biro and a towel (you know, the cream towels in the ensuite?).

Pics: https://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2545661#133845964

Anyways, had a lovely time, walked for bleedin miles, got lost one night and had a ferry ride back in the pitch black, met lots of Italians who don't speaka da lingo and saw lots of art. We event went to see some Jackson Pollocks (no, that's not rhyming slang although it might as well be !!!) in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. He had a room to himself and our fave was Alchemy. The best thing about this pic was the very comfortable 2 seater white leather sofa you could sit in and contemplate it. Took me a good 10 minutes to start to understand what he was trying to say on that one !

Here's the link to it so you can spare yourself if you ever go to Venice:

http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/inglese/collections/artisti/dettagli/pollock_alchimia.html

The best bit is the "Jackson Pollocks" text accompanying the pic. Read it and weep !

So, what else have we been doing in the run up to leaving? Well, I've sold my bike for starters. To an Irish bloke called Noel. Had to ride it all the bleedin way to his house in Bolton for him too in the freezing cold. Wasn't too bad until I had to brake when I got off the motorway at the other end. Ahhh frozen fingers, can't.......feel.......brake.......lever !!!!!!!!! I tell you what though, they must be hard up there in Bolton judging by the size of some of the clothes their young ladies were wearing on the high street of town as we went home. I nearly had a chest clutcher looking at some of 'em !

This weekend just gone we went to watch my brother's return to racing at the lovely ex WWII airfield now converted into a race track that is Darley Moor near Ashbourne in Berbyshire

Pics: https://cadmonkeyphotographic.smugmug.com/gallery/2572241#135414711

Went for a meal on the way home, to one of these pubs with no kid's menu's, no tomato sauce and to be fair nice food.

I had a fillet steak, described as matured for 28 days, prime beef etc.  Trouble was, when it arrived it had no steak knife with it. We asked 2 separate serving monkeys and had to complain to the manager before we eventually got the steak knife 20 mins later. We had to wait 20 mins more to get to speak to the manageress who was younger than either of us. Needless to say, I had a nice steak for free ! Their excuse for not providing the steak knives (not only to us but to numerous other tables in the section we were in. The table behind us had waited an hour) ? The bottle washer was off ! Jeesus !

Most of the boxes ticked now, leaving do next Saturday, Egg Run motorcycle charity run the day before we leave.