Blogs from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 11

Monkey bats – is that the time? (Cue Batman Theme) We wanted a picture of the massive bats, so we went back to the spot we saw them around the same time and waited. While we were waiting, I went up to a taxi to speak to the driver. "G'Day Bruce", I said, "do you know a good place for bats round here?" “There’s a massive colony of them”, he replied, “about half a kilometre from here. Hundreds of the filthy little buggers, and they stink”. “Ooooo”, I said, "Quick Robin, into the Bat Taxi". Moi, sorry, Robin jumped in too. “Holy Bat Droppings, to the bat colony Bruce and don’t spare the roos.”, said Moi, sorry Robin. "Don't call me by my real name in public", I hissed, before I realised she, sorry, he wasn't ... read more

Strewth mate ! (Hang on, hang on. How long is this going to go on for? You’re going to be in Australia for another two and a half weeks and it’s already getting tedious). Silence. (Well?) Silence. (Look at me when I’m talking to you!). OK. OK. Well, we were supposed to go ballooning over the rainforest today but it got cancelled due to the unsettled weather. So, for a consolation prize, we booked a helicopter flight over the rainforest and reef (tee hee). And what an amazing experience that was. Our own private helicopter, just me, Moi and Nick (the pilot). The helicopter took off from the hotel, flew along the coast, then along into the rainforest. We followed the contours of a few mountains covered in dense tropical rainforest, then out to the sea ... read more

Strewth cobber – we’ve only gone and landed in bladdy Austrarlia !! And I'll tell you something else mate, it’s as warm and as humid as a lizard’s backside, no worries. Today we are half way through the trip and we’ve left Asia - Oz is a whole brand new continent. What’s more, I can understand the bladdy natives. Weird. Anyway, we crossed the bladdy equator yesterday. No fuss, no certificate, no champagne corks popping, no letter from the Queen, nothing. The equator itself was a like a big bladdy black line, say five or ten miles wide, stretching as far as the eye could see from horizon to horizon. Like a big bladdy 28,000 mile long zipper. I imagine that somewhere on the planet, there’s a huge zip fastener they can pull whenever they need ... read more

How ya goin' mates? Well, I think it's pretty common knowledge that the Great Barrier Reef is a wondrous place that needs no verbal description. It's been documented countless time for several decades, and I just consider myself lucky to have been able to hang out here for a while. I don't have my SCUBA divers' certification, which is a shame, considering the opportunities it would afford in this neck of the woods, so I did the next best thing, and went snorkeling in the reef. Fortunately, the sun was shining, which made it possible to see the fish and coral fairly clearly from a relatively shallow depth. I bought a small inexpensive waterproof camera in Melbourne just for this purpose (by the way, if ever in Melbourne, visit Michael's Cameras in the Central Business District ... read more

Ok, so I know I have been here a while and not written to you guys and I am kind of sorry but at the same time really really not because I have been having far too much of a good time to sit down and type at a computer. Today is a pretty good day to start though because it has been the best by far :D But first things first; I had a pretty good and yet very long trip over here. I was sat next to a very chatty woman on my first flight which is usually very nice until it gets to 2am and she starts telling me all about the operations she had on her bladder, that wasn't appreciated all that much. Other than that it was reasonably uneventful and the ... read more