scary stuff

Having fun!!! Been on Safari, seen Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Rhino and lots more. Been to Swaziland and am currently in Mozambique, its scary here. Heading back to Swazi tomorrow, then St Lucia in SA on Thursday.

***edit***
In St Lucia now, just uploading a few pictures...

busy busy busy, oh and going to South Africa on Tuesday

Just uploading some WA photos, click here to see them

Anyway, loved it in Coral bay but had to move north on to Exmouth where I stayed for 4 nights. The town of Exmouth itself was not that amazing but the surrounding area was very scenic and the sea was full of Humback Whales jumping around which can easily be seen from the beach and lookout points. Did a Whale watching tour that also included Manta swimming again! The Whales were amazing, we had 5 massive Humbacks surrounding the boat and breaching and splashing there flippers directly next to us, was difficult to take pictures and protect camera from all the spray they were creating as they were that close!!!!! Managed to get a lift of an Aussie friend (Simon) to the Cape Range National Park and did scenic walk through Mandu Mandu Gorge with Karen, Ross and Graham (people I met on my hop on and off bus trip). Also did some excellent snorkling at Turquoise bay were I saw another loggerhead turtle and lots of other marine life on the reef.


Humpback Whales going crazy


Humpback Whales going crazy


Humpback Whales really close to the boat!!


Me at Mandu Mandu Gorge

Moved on to Karajini national park where again I spent a few nights exploring the many gorges and swimming places in the area. Did a day abseiling, climbing tour down the gorge. Was very good but getting tired of typing now, sooooooooorry.


Karajini

Then travelled north to Pardoo cattle station then Broome. Booked onto a 9 day 4x4 tour via the Gibb River rd and the Bungle Bungles to Darwin - was amazing - see photos as cant be bothered to write now (hopefully type more later!!).


I have some really good pictures of the Bungle Bungles and this is not one of them.

Anyway, been in Darwin just over a week but leaving tomorrow for Perth then South Africa on Tuesday!!! Can't beleive i'm leaving OZ really, been a good 11 months and will come back.

Dolphins and Manta Rays

Had a good couple of weeks, it finally nice and sunny so that makes me happy! Last week I fed a wild Dolphin at monkey Mia and yesterday I went snorkling with a 4metre wide Manta Ray, it was really cool. In a place called Coral Bay at the mo, as you the name suggest there is lots of Coral so doing lots of snorkling.

Update... Also did the best value trip in Oz. Did a kayak and guided snorkling trip of the reef for $40, bargain! Was amazing, here is a pic of me and a green turtle!!

Perth, Working in Manjimup, Perth, Leaving Perth!!

Hello,

Been a while since I posted anything and I doubt this post will be much better to be honest, soooory. The big and exciting news is that i've added quite a few new photos, see the top 2 links on the right.

Right, ok, so where have I been???

Shortly after arriving in Perth we took a bus to a place called Manjimup about 6 hours bus journey south. There is not a lot in Manjimup but trees and lots of farms so spent about 8 weeks there becoming a master at pruning vines and earning very little money. It was good fun but not sure if pruning vines is a particularly good skill in Derbyshire, (fingers crossed on that global warming thing), oh well. It was quite a tricky job as each vine had be pruned a particular way so it grew correctly the following year, this sounds easy but we were paid about 40 cents per vine so you also had to do the job quickly and without chopping your fingers off with compressed air secateurs (yay, still have all 11 fingers :) ) .

Anyway, been back in a very rainy Perth for a couple of weeks to see the sites and appreciate civilisation. It might surprise some of you to know that is winter here, it just silly Aussie marketing people that make the world think the sun always shines. If it rained as hard as it has the last 2 weeks here at home, it would be considered some kind of national disaster. Soooo i'm heading North up the West Coast and back to the tropics on Saturday, wahoooooooo!!

Byeeeeeeeeeeee


Evidence: Me in a very cold Vineyard, very early in the morning, May'ish

In Melbourne again (just for 15 hours though)

Arrived in Melbourne at 7 this morning, actually on my why to Perth but the cheapest way to get there was to take a flight to Melbourne first, only 3432km out of the way. Here for about 15 hours before my next flight so taking the opertunity to upload a few more pictures to flikr. Flying with budget budget Tiger airways, was really funny last night when my friend Clare was told she had $300 of excess luggage for her bag being 22kg. Even more funny was watching her wear almost every item of cloathing she owns whilst still in the tropical heat of Darwin.

Anyway, tour through the 'Red Centre' of Australia was great fun. Sleapt under the stars most night in swags (which is kind of like a bit thick water proof sleeping bag) or tents. Met loads of cool people, but was sad to say goodbye to a few long term travels chums in Darwin last night. Will try and list the places i've been to, but don't have my book to promt me at the moment, so will try and do that later.