Chris and Tinks’s Delica Adventure

Chris is working on a blog entry of our great Southern adventure, so I am skipping a big section of all we have seen and writing one for one of the most spectacular places I have seen so far. These are just some rough notes I made- as it turns out I don’t really enjoy writing blogs- especially when the weather is always hitting over 40 here in Exmouth- and we think it’s a nice cool day when its 36 degrees.

Anyway Kalbarri is a town of approx 2000 people, a lot of pelicans and as Chris will tell you, a zillion flies!! When we arrived in Kalbarri the temp was about 44 degrees, which along the coast is tolerable, however temps in the National park are normally 10degrees hotter than town- so your talking mid 50’s- youch!

The coastline and the Kalbarri National gorges were all spectacular.

Flight over to the Abrohlos- scenic cliffs, little plane- just the two of us and the pilot, only ones on the Island- like a little private charter to a private Island!

Plane didn’t make the first landing and we speed back out over the island for a second attempt- so fun- bounced about 10 times on the landing and it was only a little 600m run way so if the pilot didn’t land or take off quick enough we would have ended up in the drink for a nice swim.

Island was awesome- big Ospreys and other sea birds, some fabulous fish and the biggest sea cucumber’s I have ever seen- found Nemo’s cousin, a giant clam and some amazing tropical fish.

Explored the ancient Gorges, and spent a lot of time relaxing-

Sweated so much in that town that when we had to weigh our selves for the flight we found we’d both dropped 3 kilo’s each. All fluid probably as I’ve still been hitting a block a day!

[Show as slideshow]

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[Show as slideshow]

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yes we have been VERY slack, it’s hard to find time to write a post when we have limited electricty, net etc, so i hope the photo’s will  do.

Amazing, Spectacular, Remarkable

I have said these words hundreds of times with in the last week, and if the scenery continues to be this good I am really going to have to buy a thesaurus and extend my vocabulary!
Driving across the Nullarbor there were many “that is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen” all of it has been topped as we arrived at Cape Le Grand National park in Esperance, we I am sitting now on the whitest sandy beach with crystal azure water and Western Grey Kangaroo’s at the water’s edge sifting through the washed up sea grass for a tasty treat.

We have been gone for a week so I will start at the beginning and try to be as succinct as possible so I can kick back and enjoy this wonderful place.

After spending a week on the Murray River getting in some last minute wakeboarding and doing our 60km canoe, we had a mad rush to get the Delica ready for the big adventure. It’s safe to say that don’t want to see another Bunnings, Spotlight, or Supercheap Auto for quite some time! We had so many last minute things to do that it stretched on for 5 days! Jean, Chris’s mum worked madly to finish our fabulous curtains which are fantastic for keeping the van cool and blocking out any light. She also made us a great mosquito net that we could clip over the back of the van so we could sleep with the back door wide open, and well as some for the front doors, so we could have those windows open too.
Then it was off to my parents in Melbourne to get the awning ready and pack all my clothes, buy food etc, and somehow try and fit it all in! Dad, being the true handyman he is, saved us another painful visit to Bunnings by providing us with everything we needed for the awning straight from his garage. Both Chris and I feel very grateful to have such fantastic families who support us on our crazy adventures.

The last thing on our list to do was format our laptop so we could clear up the clutter and it would run like new. In the process we moved everything onto an external hard drive which has worked perfectly for the past year, but decided to die as soon as we transferred everything from the lap top onto it and then deleted the lap top files. Devastatingly I lost all of the work and lesson plans I had created at Matthew Flinders as well as my work from uni, and a few photos. Luckily Chris is super conscientious a regularly backs up our photos and has copies stored on a few different drives so thankfully, the photo loss wasn’t great. We decided losing the data wasn’t the biggest deal, we could survive on the trip without it, and we would sort it out when we got home. So finally we were on our way Woo hooo!!

Our first stop was Mt Buangor just outside Ballarat to say seeya to Blake and K.J. We had a fun time drinking, laughing and playing pass the pigs, and in the morning they sent us off with a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs, but not before we took some cool photos together in our true dorky style.

On our first big day of driving we encountered the big Koala, (who pays for these big things anyway?) and pretty much drove the whole day just to get some km’s under our belts before we got too sick of being in the car. We camped in Tailim Bend just a few km’s outside of Adelaide in a not so spectacular rest stop.

Day Two we made it to Adelaide first thing in the morning and stocked up at the central market on fresh fruit, veg, and meat to get through to the border. We stopped along the way in a town called Port Pirie which to my delight boasted a Great White Shark exhibition, so we stopped in and had a tour by an entertaining retired Volunteer who told us all about the beautiful shark that was tangled in a long line and died. They had created a mould of her and she was displayed in the exhibition. Being a big fan of sharks, I have watched many documentaries on great whites and new that they grew big but seeing this 5and a half meter beauty really put into perspective how big a shark Great Whites really are! That afternoon we stopped just outside Port Augusta at Mt Remarkable National Park, and I would strongly recommend it. We saw out first ‘amazing’ sights including massive wedge tail Eagles, wild emus and on our walk up to the top of the mount we stumbled across the BIGGEST lizard I have ever seen. I think it was a Goanna, but not sure… I really wanted to buy a lizard I.D book before we left but Chris insisted ‘no more books’ however we have seen so many great lizards and it’s such a shame not to  be able to ID them properly that he has come around! Yay!
Day three- as usual we rose early and got started on a long day’s driving. We stopped for lunch at Pindaloo rocks, and then drove to Point Sinclair, home of the renowned Cactus surf break, and set up camp. The camp site was truly amazing, perched up in the sand dunes, where surfers have set up what look like permanent camps. We got a great spot for the Delica, as close to the break as we could get. So close that I slept with the side door of the van open, and looked out onto the moonlight and crashing waves as I fell asleep. I rose just before 6am as the sun started to rise and got out and checked the surf… Unfortunately it wasn’t working, but fortunately the van was so close that I was able to get back into bed before it even got cold… what a life- beats driving the 40mins to Point Lonsdale to check the surf only to find it’s flat as or blown out.

Day Four we put in some hard core driving and made it from Cactus to Cocklebiddy, our biggest day of driving so far. We crossed the Nullarbor, and stopped and took the classic tourist photos near the camel, kangaroo, and wombat signs, and we spent a lot of the drive hoping to see a camel. I think we had gone a little crazy by the end of the long drive, as we made up our own ‘camel calls’ that we hoped would draw the camels nearer… Surprisingly they did not work, however they did have us in stitches, lucky the road was straight for the next 146km so there was no chance of missing a bend in between giggles and having an accident. We also saw some AMAZING scenery today. We witnessed the edge of our great country; the Bight. The cliff tops and views were incredible and the photos certainly do not do justice to their beauty.

Day 5- The Longest straight road in Australia, followed by a slight bend, then another million km of straight road, followed by another bend and then straight road again, repeat x 3. We then arrived in Esperance!! As planned we headed straight to the beach, where kangaroo’s roamed freely and the water was the clearest blue I have ever seen. White sand stretched around the beautiful lucky bay and we sat and celebrated reaching the destination with a bottle of wine I had purchased in the Hunter Valley and was saving for this perfect occasion. The next morning I woke as the sun was rising and ventured out on a bushwalk which provided beautiful views of the sunrise over the bay and rocky outcrops. I was lucky enough to have the whole track to myself, and was even luckier when I returned that I also had the whole white sandy bay to myself. Chris joined me a while later and we went for a lovely early morning swim and started on his exercise regime of push ups, sit ups etc. So basically this has been our life for the past week, we lounge on the beach, swim in the blue water, four wheel drive on the beach, snorkel, run, bushwalk etc. We also met a lovely French couple, Laura and Jerome, whom we have spent quite a bit of time with over the last few days. Jerome took us fishing and caught heaps of fish, in fact Zebra fish, the same beautiful fish we had been admiring during our snorkel earlier in the day! I was sad for the poor fishies and I think that will definitely be the end of my short lived fishing career. I thought it had been the perfect day, however when the sun went down my least favourite amphibian emerged from the bushes. No not frogs; worse than frogs… TOADS. Yuk yuk yuk. You can imagine how I spent the rest of the night; stuck in the tent, with torch frantically pointing in every direction that I heard a noise. The next day with our French buddies we decided to climb Frenchman Peak, the summit was only 264m high however was a pretty steep rock face, so some of it was actually spent on all fours clambering up to make the ascent. The view from the top was stunning, and panned all of Cape Le Grand National Park.

I guess I will stop there and display a few photos of the things we have seen; as usual Chris has taken some brilliant photos. Our plans from here are to make our way along the coast up to Perth, with our next stop being Stokes National Park. Thanks for reading if you made it to here, (sorry I know its long), and apologies for any mistakes, I don’t have time to proof read!!

Take care

Tinks

Since the last post we have completed our canoe down the Murray River. Paddling 60km all up in 3 days stopping interminably for cups of tea and games of “pass the pig”. We did 25km on the first day, 25km of the second day and a leisurely 10km on the last day. Fine wine and pirate Rum was the sustenance needed to get the job done without a hitch. The statement to sum it up was “This is much better than the Barwon”. If not sure what im taking about when I say the Barwon. Please refer to picture on tinks face book of my sister (one legged) crutching across shin deep water with a kayak tied to here waste in the middle of winter.

On a serious note: I would like to apologize for the actions of the Delica on the 29/12/2008. However the kitten that the Delica murdered in cold blood had been recently released on bail for the murder of a small green hot dog which the Delica in defense thought was a long since forgotten relative.

To new years where we drank a few beers and played with sparklers and went to bed. Not a big one but really cool to be able to spend it with some mates.

Since getting home from the river we have been flat our visiting bunnings about 20 times, spotlight 10 and Rays about 15. A big thanks to Tinks and my mums and dads. All pitched in to make sure we could get the bed, curtains, awning and various other things ready. A big thanks to Tinks dad who spend his weekend helping with the bed and my mum who put in the hard yards in a final hours before we left to get the curtains ready.

We left on our real trip on the 6th of Jan heading toward Mt Buangor to meet up with Blake and KJ. Had a few beers and worked out the finer points of the van and the set up and sleeping. Got up in the morning said our good byes to Victoria and I now write this from a road stop Tailem Bend a couple hundred km’s from the Victorian Border.

Well I won’t bore you with any more details. Have a good one and ill be thinking of you all going back to work.

Chris

Tinks’s Mum And Dad

Some people at Mt Buagor camp ground jumping due to an earth quake. (From left Me, Tinks, KJ and Blake).

It seems that the earth quake was due to a giant Koala. We did not hang around as the Delica kinda looks like a moldy green hot dog.

Me doing and hand stand on Lake Pink, (Salt Lake).

Since finishing work on the 20th me and Tinks have been busier than ever. We have officially started our holiday and already started to do some KM’s on the road. Me, Kerry and a couple of mates headed down Warrnambool way to get a wave in on our boogie boards. We had a look at placed called “Wells” near Petersborough but it was not that good and the getting out of the water looked like a bit of a challenge. The challenge being crawling though a whole in the cliff of razor sharp rocks. Had the surf been a bit better it might be worth it and we would have given ourself an opportunity to cut ourselves up. We ended up heading all the way into Warrnambool and had a surf at Logan’s Beach.

The next day the surf was rubbish so me and a mate carried on to Beach Port in SA while Tinks made her way back to Geelong with the Delica to do some diving, where she saw a “whopper” of a sting ray and a nice sized rusty catshark.
Beach port is a bit of a boys town. Most people are there to fish or 4 wheel drive. Stayed there a couple nights with the guys and they tested their 4wd’s and bikes on the beach and dunes. Beach Port is a pretty amazing place with a buggy park that looks like something out of the Sahara desert. Winds blowing over the top of the dunes made it look very atmospheric. I wish I had of taken the camera but I’m sure the sands would have done it no good.

Did a 6 hour drive on the 23rd back to Geelong and then back to Tinks in Melbourne. So a big day of driving.. I thought of it as good practice for driving across the Nullarbor. Christmas eve was at my sisters and her boyfriends new house with my parents. Had a BBQ and played some traditional sport … i.e totem tennis!

Christmas day was at Tinks’ parents place. We scored ourself a device that will stop many a domestic along the road, a GPS. Christmas Day we made our way up to Barmah up on the Murray river. About 30km outside of Echuca. Got some wake boarding in and really started to get myself in to the rhythm of relaxing, taking photos, trying to stay cool in 35+ temps and drinking beers.

Today we are on the edge of our great canoe adventure for three days and 60km down the Murray river finishing Barmah lakes. We are going to hire the canoes from Gondwana for $40 a day. Click here if you are interested in having a go yourself. Our only experience in canoeing was down the Barwon 27km in the middle of winter. It ended with half our group near hypothermic and pushing our canoes though the lake Connewarre in ankle deep water. I’m not sure if I’m evil watching my sister and her boy friend drag a canoe though the water on crutches. I’m not really sure why we are going back for three days of this. But as I have been saying to all my friends it will be nothing like the Barwon.
Thanks to all and don’t be afraid to send me a message once in a while as I will have my same mobile number.

Chris

Hello World

This is the spot on the WWW where you will be able to find out about where we are, what we have been doing, and why we have been doing it.  So please come back often to find out what great adventures we are having.  I will be updating the look of the blog so stay tuned.

In 2 weeks we are heading off on our “Delica” adventure!!  The Delica, as some of you will know, is our very good looking 4X4 van that we have decked out with a bed, three batteries, a fridge, and of course an inverter so we can use our laptop to edit photos (yes we know- true outback campers!) We have done a little test pack, and I have found numerous hiding spots for extra clothes; including my pillow case, Chris’s pillow case (he doesn’t know it yet), under the seats, down the side of the bed… ahah and as most of you know I’m not particulalry clothes needy, it’s just that Chris has limited me to something ridiculous like 3 T-shirts, 2 pairs of pants, a couple of shorts etc! Pfhhh what a joke!!!

Will try and update the look of the site and add a few more detailed posts A.S.A.P; Life is just quite hectic at the moment being homeless and all!