Bye bye East Coast

(finally)

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks in Queensland. Tomorrow we head west, inland, out back! Next stop Darwin in Northern Territory. And not a moment too soon. Australia's east coast has some amazing beaches, but once you've seen ten...

Surfer, with Surfers Paradise in the background


Friendly / hungry wildlife in Lamington National Park


Profound thoughts on moody Seventy-Five Mile Beach on Fraser Island


Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands


Faye's sister Jane and me, about to scare some fish in the Whitsundays

More underwater action

As our van needed longer than hoped to be fixed, we've been holed up in Cairns for longer than expected. No great hardship - I've enjoyed the place, despite the dodgy weather. It also meant I could splash out (ahem) on more scuba diving.
The conditions weren't as good this time unfortunately: the water was so cold I ended up wearing two wetsuits and a rash vest on the last dive, and also the visibility was less than on the last trip. I did manage to get a pair of Nemos in focus this time though!



This is a parrotfish, for obvious reasons..

Scuba Pro

(that was the name of the boat I was on)

I got back from a 3-day cruise to the Great Barrier Reef yesterday, and the world is still spinning in front of my eyes. I thought I had decompression sickness last night, until we met up with the other people from the cruise in the pub. They'd all apparently had the same trouble standing up in the shower as me - phew.

I'm now a certified Adventure Diver - get me! That means I can do unsupervised night dives or deep dives... Might just do a few normal ones first (and get out a mortgage for it of course)

Typing is hard - the keyboard won't stay still. So here are some pictures...



There were a few of us looking for Nemo


Found him! (if only I'd found any focus)


After a hard day's underwater photo-taking, relax with a beer. The salt water may actually make aussie beer taste OK.....



The dive course was a 30th present from Faye - cheers love! It was easily the best thing I've done in Oz so far - in fact I'm going for another day's diving on the reef tomorrow. Then it's bread and water and free camping for the next 3 months...

As for the last month or so, I'll get some pictures off the camera sometime soon I promise. In the meantime, Faye's blog is as ever far more up-to-date than mine.