Blogs from Cooktown, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 4

Days 71=73: (s of) Yule Pt. (20 miles), Weary Bay (50 miles), Cooktown (36 miles) The upcoming stretch - Cape York, there won't be much opportunity to top off the water bottle. I'm figuring it's about a 2 week paddle (last time I think it took me 11 or 12 days - but that's because I wanted to get out of the rain, and my last 'day' (24 hours) was typically a 3 day paddle (90 miles) ). So, if I use 1.5 liters a day (I think I've been averaging just a little over that), I should make it (if not - we are still in the rainy season, or - there is a little community of Portland Roads about halfway where I can 'water up'). The 1st day out of 'Yorkeys' I stayed at ... read more

Hey everyone...figured it was time for a new blog. It's a little delayed though, I wrote this at the end of the world cruise, which was last week, so I haven't written anything about the new cruise yet. Topics in the next blog will contain things like my scuba trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Asia will have to do for now though. Sorry. Anyways, here we go: I feel a little guilty about our trip to Hong Kong. When we docked, the gangway led us directly into a huge mall and I really didn’t leave the mall all day long. I spent the day with the rest of the youth staff and we all needed to pick up a few things, so it didn’t leave much time to explore. A couple of us got outside ... read more

I know, I know!!! So sorry it has taken me so long to upload our photos from Bill and Pat's (Mike's parents) visit to Sydney and our trip to the Great Barrier Reef with them. Life has been a little hectic, what with being pregnant and lethargic etc, but I think I am back in 'business' now. We had a lovely time in the Great Barrier Reef. We travelled to Cairns (north east coast of Australia) where we boarded the Coral Princess - a dive and snorkel boat - and spent four nights and three days exploring the likes of Cooktown, Lizard Island and various reef spots in the middle of the ocean. The reefs were enormous and the coral amazing. We were lucky to have some good weather too. Here is a selection of photos. ... read more

Cooktown Day s 193 - 194 Monday, September 03, 2007 - Tuesday, September 04 2007 Visited the James Cook Museum - a delightful old building originally built as a convent for the Sisters of Mercy who provided education for both day pupils and boarders in the early 20th century. Unfortunately after WW11 it was never used again and fell into disrepair - it was listed for demolition only to survive by the skin of its teeth to now stand as a brilliant testament to the architecture from yesteryear. It also houses a great collection of memorabilia from both white and black perspectives. The museum houses The Endeavour’s actual anchor, along with a cannon originally turfed overboard to limit the draw of The Endeavour when it was stuck. It also houses part of the tree that The ... read more

Hi All Less than a week to go to our flights to the US, and with no rain for ages all of a sudden the skies opened to pour rain upon the parched earth in Cooktown. 2 inches on Saturday night and then rained most of yesterday adding a further downpour - don't know yet how much (waiting for the Bureau of Met to release this info.) Had a good look on the Internet at the weather for Los Angeles, Santa Paula, Santa Clarita, Sacramento, Willows, Williams and of course San Francisco - all major areas that we will be visiting in the US!!!!! 4 night time sleeps and then off to Cairns - Skytrans again (what a great little service that is - and we hope to be on the new Dash 8) and of ... read more