www.davesisland.com

Wow, what a packed couple of weeks it has been for me!

Singapore turned out to be great fun, by day it was the Botanical Gardens, Orchid Gardens, Sentosa Island, and the many many shopping malls and food courts…and by night Singapore Slings at the Raffles Hotel, Clubbing at the Ministry Of Sound, and views of the city from the 72 floor of the Swissotel. Singapore is a funny place, they have rules for everything with zero tolerance to public disturbances, drug use, violence, and chewing gum! The streets are spotlessly clean and everything is run with a degree of efficiency I have never experienced before; trains, buses and the metro all arrive bang on time no matter what time of day it is.
The people are friendly but slightly self-absorbed, running their own lives with the same degree of efficiency as their transport systems, however the taxi drivers are a laugh-a-minute, all real characters!

Random Fact:
By LAW, to be a taxi driver in Singapore you have to fit the following model:

1. Male
2. Over 30 years old
3. A resident Singaporean
4. Married!! - The reasoning being that if a girl gets in your cab then you wont touch her. Makes sense

The area I was staying in was quite different from the rest of Singapore. Little India was just as it describes, a little version of India (smelly drains and all), in the midst of this ultra-clean metropolis…quite an achievement! I enjoyed some of the best curries in my life there and loved the place.

Thanks to a lad called Dylan who worked at the hostel, I left Singapore on the 17th June with a pretty precise plan of what I wanted to do during my time in Malaysia and traveled by bus over the border to peninsula Malaysia and a city called Johor Barhu (JB for short, they abbreviate all their city names here). From JB I caught an Air Asia flight to Kota Kinabalu (KK) on the west coast of Sabah, Borneo. KK is a great place, a lot smaller and more “lived in” than Singapore and the people are really friendly, life here is considerably slower, I like it.
From day one here I was straight into it, Dylan had booked me into Borneo Global Backpackers and they in turn had booked me onto what turned out to be one of the greatest, and hardest, treks of my life…the ascent of Mt Kinabalu.

I scarcely had time to pack my daysack and stock up on cakes, peanuts and chocolate before it was time to leave for the base of the mountain. It took 2 hours to reach the gate and first checkpoint where I was teamed up with my guide, Chiki, and he and I began the ascent to the summit base camp. Now I had an inkling that this was going to be quite a strenuous exercise but boy was I in for a surprise…

The track up to the camp is 6km long, “Not that long” I thought, however over that 6km it ascends over 2500m in altitude along a track thick with mud, crude wooden steps, wet rocks and more mud. This was a grueling hike, several times I found myself asking the question “why?” and “I’m paying for this!?”…mainly to myself but occasionally to the other poor, red, sweating souls along the way. Meanwhile Chiki remained cool, calm and sweat free throughout and didn’t seem to even loose his breath! The altitude began to get to me at around 2 thirds of the way up, I began to loose my breath very easily and so began to hyperventilate as I tried to compensate for the lack of air…after a stop for water and chocolate I got myself back under control and we made a push for camp. Slowly the Kilometers dragged by until finally, and not a moment too soon, we arrived at Laban Rata, summit base camp. I’m not 100% sure of how long it took but I think we set off about 10:30-11am and arrived at the camp by 3.00pm, so it was long enough!

Rumble In The Jungle

Now I was hoping for a nice hot shower, maybe a spa bath and sauna but nooooooo…a luke warm shower cubicle was all I was greeted with. The beds were nice though and after a 30min power nap I was ready to face the world again and enjoyed an excellent buffet meal with my fellow climbers, over which we all reflected on the day and most of us agreed…”never again”. I was in bed by 6.30pm, wrapped up warm in my hoodie and blankets.

2am came around very quickly but I didn’t feel too tired and layered up, readying myself for the summit climb by drinking lots of tea and eating toast with butter and sugar on. at 2.30am we started up the final 2km trail to the summit. It was pitch dark and our torches hardly seemed to make any difference, in fact after about 30mins mine didn’t and it packed-up with a broken bulb. Luckily Chiki had great night vision and lent me his torch, I was quite worried for the guy and kept expecting him to disappear off an unseen drop or something but he was, as ever, cool as a cucumber and without a word (he didn’t speak English very well), we continued on. Soon the trail turned into steep granite and soon after that it became very steep granite, with ropes for pulling yourself up. I necked my one and only can of Red Bull and we made a break for it, getting in front of the leading group and heading for glory…however, we actually got up to within 300m of the summit a little too early and realised that we’d have to wait over 1.5hrs before sunrise…oops. It was getting pretty cold and the wind was starting to bite so we huddled up in a little bunch of rocks until it was time to go for the last section of the climb…by which time we had been joined by a friendly bunch of Canadians who contributed some more body-heat to the cause.

At 5:30am we reached the summit, 4095m (13,435 ft), it was amazing…as the sun rose above the mountains in the distance the darkness lifted and I could see for miles around, it was breathtaking (maybe that was the altitude too!). Soon after, mist and clouds began to form around the peaks and down the valleys and it was time to start heading back.

The World At My Feet

I’m not going to go into much detail about the journey back, as much to say that it was HELL. My legs and knees were aching before I even began to start the 6km back from camp to the first checkpoint and by the time I got back to where the whole adventure started, I could barely walk. But it was worth it

Since then my whole body has been a mess, I can barely walk let alone tackle any form of staircase so I have been using the past couple of days to recover - I even treated myself to a full 1hr body massage, which cost less than 10 quid and was worth 10 times as much. Yesterday I dragged myself out of the hostel and had a quick poke around KK before hopping on a boat cruise along the Klias river, a swamp system which is home to all kinds of creatures including the famous Proboscis Monkey, the Barry Manalow of the animal kingdom, and the bum-flashing firefly.

The monkeys were hard to spot and even harder to photograph but eventually we came across some that were less than 100m away…the fireflys however were amazing, once darkness fell the trees lit up with them so brightly that you could make out the branches and leaves, all outlined and flashing in time…and the guide said “Happy Christmas!”.

Today I haven’t done much, pain is still dictating my plans at the moment but tomorrow I should be a bit fitter to do stuff…I did have a look around the Sabah Museum which was pretty interesting and had some good exhibits such as the tribal blow-pipes and a huge replica cave containing models of the birds nests they collect for the famous Birds Nest Soup - an asian delicacy. These nests are made by swallow spit and can fetch nearly 1000 quid each!

I’ve made a couple of local mates so tonight i’m going to be able to go out and order something without guessing what it might be, looking forward to some Satay or lamb dishes…yum. I’m going to spend tomorrow in KK then head up north to Sandakan where there is loads off stuff to do, the Orang-Utan sanctuary, Turtle Island to name but a few.

Until the next installment, check out my photos!

- Mt Kinabalu -

TTFN!
Dave
x

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETE!

Have a great party mate, all the best little bro.

Dave

Ahoy there!

After leaving Cairns and saying goodbye to the great people at Tropic Days, me and my Irish mate Stu purchased our Greyhound tickets and began the journey South along the East coast, stopping firstly in the small town of Ayr. There aint much to do in Ayr…in fact scratch that, there is practically NOTHING to do in Ayr, however like many spots in Australia, it has one major attraction which makes it well worth a visit. Ayr has the fastest method of getting to the famous S.S. Yongala shipwreck, taking a full 30 minutes to reach it - all other trips take over 2.5 hours. However, even as much as a 4 hour trip would be worth it to see that incredible place! Everything down there seemed 5-times bigger than normal; Giant (GIANT) Trevally, Barracuda, Moray Eels, Sea Snakes, Bat Fish, Nurse Sharks, Turtles…the list is endless. The wreck itself was very impressive too, quite spooky as it is still very intact and you can make out all of the features (such as the 1st class toilets) easily. Sadly no pictures from this dive, I decided that I would enjoy the dive fully rather than go snap-happy!

From Ayr we left for the supposed “haven” of Airlie Beach. Now don’t get me wrong, Airlie is a nice enough place however the backpacker hostels there are distinctly lacking and it took us a few nights to find an ok place (the YHA which are always a safe bet). Airlie Beach is also lacking…a beach, strange. It has a strip of sand which touches the sea at high tide and it also, like Cairns, has a lagoon (a landscaped outdoor pool) but, like Cairns, I wasn’t about to go jumping in - not when you know what goes on in there of an evening, if you know what I mean catching an STD without the S part could be considered ironic. Ergh.
Sorry, got on a tangent there. I had to wait around in Airlie for 5 days in total, which was more than enough time to make a good opinion of the place and decide I was never going back. So, on the 26th June I took the ferry to Hamilton Island to begin my RYA Competent Crew course - what better place to do a sailing course than round the Whitsunday Islands?! I had a great time, my instructor Gregor was awesome, the rest of the crew, Dianne, Roger, and Kate were a pleasure and the whole experience was all and more than I expected. As far as sight-seeing goes, the weather wasn’t perfect the whole time but for sailing it was great with steady strong winds which put us to the test.

I left Hamilton Is. on the 4th June and caught the overnight Greyhound down the coast to Agnes Water and 1770 - named very aptly after its year of discovery by Cook in…1770! This place was lovely, a real nice break from the intesity of the other East Coast “resorts”, with great value tours and just a completely different feel. Unfortunatley it rained for the 3 days I was there but the hostel I stayed in, 1770 Sothern Cross Backpackers was fantastic, a complete contrast from many other backpackers and I didn’t mind hanging around there.

I left 1770 on the 7th June and caught the 12 hour bus down to Brisbane where I met up with my good mate Tom for my final few days on Aussie soil. After a couple of nights out around “Bris-vegas” we decided to get off our rears and do something; so we hired a car and drove down to Byron Bay, spent the night there and then drove inland (via a few diversions, thanks to a not so accurate map - right Tom ) to the Lamington National Park and returning to Brisbane. Then the day had finally arrived, my last full day in Australia…nearly a year to the day after I arrived. A great final day it was too. We drove north of Brisbane to a town called Noosa Heads, a beautiful spot at the mouth of the Noosa River which, although still very popular with backpackers and holiday makers has still retained a lot of its charm. It was sunny, it was warm, it was beachy…it was great. So great in fact that we decided to spend the night there and drive back the following day.

So to the here and now then…I said my farewells and flew from Brisbane, arriving here in Singapore at 8.30pm last night. Using Singapore Airport’s free internet facilities I found what seemed to be a good hostel and booked in, i’m staying at the The InnCrowd which is in a area of Singapore called Little India, packed full of Indian markets, shops and restaurants…a far cry from the Land Downunder.

And thats about it for now, i’m going to stay here for a few days, see a few sights and then make my way either overland or by air to Malaysia where i’ll spend as long as I see fit and until I get a nice tan to come home with!

I have a few pics to upload and i’ll get on to them tomorrow, keep checking for updates!

Thanks Australia, for great times…amazing times.

TTFN
Dave
x

Hi Everyone!

Back into the tropics, this time in north eastern Australia at the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef - Cairns.

Arrived here in the small hours of the morning on the 9th May, tired and happy to have a bed waiting for me at the lovely little hostel that is Tropic Days, a truly great place and where I have spent the remainder of my time (on land). First impressions of Cairns, it has to be said, were not that great…its a bit, for a better word, trashy, but maybe thats just because I was in Melbourne which is far and away anything but trashy. However, its the ideal place to book tours and dives which are very competitively priced. Which is exactly what I did…I booked myself onto a 5-day liveaboard dive trip with Taka Dives, a company with a good reputation and an exciting schedule which takes you right out into the most unspoilt sections of the reef. I was not dissappointed, 14 dives later and back on dry land I look back at one of the best trips i’ve been on since coming to Australia. Great staff, a good crew of people, amazing food and incredible diving experiences made for a trip of a lifetime. The highlight of which has to be the shark feed…i’ll say no more, just look for yourselves, and yes I am the one taking the video!

Shark Feed!

Not only that but I was also lucky enough to see (and this time video) a Manta Ray, at least 2m in width with some speed to him too!

Along Came A Manta…

All of this coupled with stunning corals, fish of all shapes, sizes and colours and superb water clarity and visibility resulted in perfect dives. I have to admit that before I came to the GBR my expectations were low, many travelers I had met had not been impressed but I know now that you have to see things for yourself and not always rely on other people’s opinions and I’m glad I had the chance to look for myself. It was excellent.

Anyways thats what I’ve been up to and after 5 days of diving I am knackered, yet satisfied. I’m just gonna chill out around the hostel pool for the next couple of days and then make my way south to Ayr and Townsville.

Hope you all enjoy the pics from the dive, i’m happy with them, they came out really well! Check them out…

- Great Barrier Reef -

TTFN
x

UPDATE: Check out the photo’s I’ve uploaded from our trip:

- Melbourne And Around -
- Campervan Road-Trip Around Victoria -

Its taken me ages so they don’t all have comments yet, I’ll try and update them in a few more days. ENJOY!

Hi all!

Yeah I know, i’m a big let down with this site sometimes, after all its been over 2 months since my last post…maybe closer to 3!! *blush*

However, the reasons behind this are all positive. I have been having such a good time I haven’t had the chance to sit down at a computer and write any of it down!

Just to bring you all up to speed…
I left Sydney, and my good friends Tom, Craig, and Dom, for pastures new down in Melbourne with my girlfriend Kat. Since then we have been having a good old time taking in the sights both in Melbourne and around Victoria - which has to be, second to WA, my favourite Aussie state, rolling hills, forests and mountains combined with un-swimmable (too cold in Autumn) but beautiful beaches. Melbourne has been my favourite city so far, it is vibrant and full of arty-farty types as well as the cool cats, such a mixture of people who all seem very happy here.
We have been living in a suburb called South Yarra in a little house with our housemates Bec and Roger (see below), and its been great.

Roger!

Admittedly we haven’t spent all that much time there as, about a week after we arrived, we decided to get a campervan (courtesy of Apollo) and tour Victoria, taking in some popular (The Great Ocean Road, Philip Island - and the wonder that is the ‘Penguin Parade’, The Grampians) as well as lesser-know (The Great Alpine Road, Yarra Ranges, Gippsland) sights…all of which were just brilliant, I would particularly recommend the Great Alpine Road as it is not too widely known and in my opinion has a lot more to offer than the Great Ocean Road, Mt. Buffalo National Park was stunning. I was also lucky enough to celebrate my 25th Birthday during the road-trip in the picturesque town of Marysville, well worth a visit if anyone ever gets the chance

The Great Ocean Road

Its not all been travelling about though, whilst we were in Melbourne we took the opportunity to spectate on the great sport of AFL (Aussie Rules - Australian Football League) at the largest stadium in Australia, the MCG (The Melbourne Cricket Ground, “The Home Of Footy”, or the ‘G’ as it is fondly known, Aussies love to abbreviate even the shortest of words). We witnessed an epic battle between Richmond ‘Tigers’ and Collingwood ‘Magpies’ which was a see-saw affair with the Tigers taking most of the points from the first two quaters…but, after much ‘barracking’, shouting such phrases as “C’mon you Tiges” or “Go the Pies”, the match ended with Collingwood ( the team I was backing ) clawing back an emphatic victory.
AFL is a very complicated game to an outsider, basically because the rules don’t appear (to the untrained eye) to be applied very consistently, …not to mention the fact that at any time the pitch can be invaded by ‘trainers’ who come on in yellow tabbards and give advice to the players - probably such enlightening words as “hit him hard”, “bash his face” or “run Forest!”. However, given all of this its a very entertaining game to watch live as the atmosphere is amazing and the fights that erupt on the pitch, unchallenged by the officials, are first class (a prerequisite of a ‘rules player is to be built like a brick poo house…and be in possession of a mullet hair-do). This, all matched with 4 chances to get to the bar (one for the start of each quater) and a meat pie makes for a very enjoyable evening. And before you all ask there is no way I’m going to try and explain the rules - all I can tell you is that its played on a cricket pitch with a bouncy rugby ball and is referred to by those who reside in New South Wales as “Ariel Ping-Pong”.

Me, Kat, Bec and Nic at the game

And there has been lots more going on which I can’t remember so you’ll have to take a look at my photo album in a few days for the pics from the past month.

So, to the here and now then. My time in Melbourne, and with Kat, as come to a close…for now. I am flying up to Cairns on the 8th May to start my tour of the East Coast before my Visa runs out at the end of June. Plans include; visiting the Cape York Peninsula, diving the Great Barrier Reef and the wreck of the SS Yongala, completing a RYA competent crew sailing course around the Whitsunday Islands, 4WD adventures around Fraser Island, Brisbane, and possibly the Gold Coast if I have time.

It seems strange to think that I only have just over a month left in Oz but i’m going to make the most of it.

So, TTFN, I will be uploading pics tomorrow or the day after and will post again with links to these when they are done. All the best!

x

P.S. All you Facebook addicts, add me if you haven’t already,
dave_searle “AT” hotmail.com

Hi all!

Well its time for my monthly report, and its been a busy one so you’ll have to bare with me!

For those of you who want to cut the crap and just see some pics I have just uploaded my Tasmania trip album as well as some crackers from Christmas, New Year, the Blue Mountains, and Australia Day.

– Tasmania —
– Xmas —
– NYE —
– The Blue Mountains —
– Australia Day —

Now to catch up with my life in Sydney so far…

After a great trip round Tasmania, Snip and I arrived back in Sydney and moved in (or rather squatted) at Tom and Craigs’ flat, situated in the centre of the city next to Darling Harbour. We celebrated Christmas with a massive feast, cooked up by yours truely, and some other good friends - Kat, Dom, and $5 (or cheesey, cheeseburger, hot dog, whopper….or just plain Steven). It was a great day with all the christmas trimmings including port, brandy, cheese and capped off with more drinks and a good old game of charades - Dom’s rendition of the brutal murder of Bambi was breathtaking.

After a few days of parties and celebrations it was time for the Big One, NYE in Sydney - a night I had always wanted to experience and safe to say I was not let down! A great day/night with some old and new mates, climaxing in the most impressive fireworks I have ever seen. Check out Snips footage of the Harbour Bridge display below.

— NYE Fireworks Harbour Bridge–

The wind-down after the festivities ended with Snips sad departure, but not before we did a bit more sight-seeing, hiring a car and visiting the spectacular Blue Mountains. It was sad to see him leave and i’m sure a tear would have been shed if it weren’t for the fact I was half-asleep and hungover when he made his long way back to Old Blighty.

Since then it was all hands on deck to get a job and some positive cash-flow again, which was much harder than I expected! Finding IT work was near impossible and even office temping work was scarce - a lot more people in the area flooding the job market I guess. However after two weeks, sifting through papers and contacting numerous agencies, it was my good mate Tom who set me up with a logistics job at a stationery warehouse. Not all that glam but it pays the bills and the lads there are a good crack, although I have suffered mercilessly thanks to my cricket team…and of course being a “pom”.
I finally got my own back after Friday though when we finally managed to break the Ozzies and avoid a total tour whitewash! Yay!

Oh and of course, I forgot to mention the Australia Day celebrations, held on the 26th January. A fantastic day followed by even more fireworks, which were almost as good as the NYE ones! Check out these two die-hard Ozzy chicks!

So thats about it from me at the moment, I hope you are all well and enjoying life where-ever you are! I’ll be updating again in a few days and adding some comments to all of the pics as well as some more for you to take a look at - there are some good ones to come

TTFN!
Dave
x

Hi everyone!

Yet again it has been ages since I posted to let you know what I’ve been up to…and yet again i’m sorry but the time has just been flying by!

After the great trip up the west coast of Oz with the lads (Tom and Craig) I headed back down to Perth for a months work before I finally had to say good-bye to all my friends there and go east coast.
The last month in Fremantle was eventful to say the least, with the summer gaining momentum and the backpackers full to bursting point every night. It was really sad to leave but the thought of moving to pastures new spurred me on and the prospect of meeting up with old friends helped too. I’ll never forget the friends I made and the people who enriched my life in more ways than I could have dreamed of, you are all great and i’ll miss you.

So moving on to the here and now…
I flew into Sydney on the 10th where I met up with Tom and Craig who are living in Pyrmont, just across from Darling Harbour. On the same evening my mate from home, Snip/Philip (since renamed to Scratch) landed in Sydney and we met up - there was much rejoicing.
Two days later we were on yet another plane to Hobart, Tasmania, on the start of a completely new adventure.

We landed in Hobart (the capital) and jumped straight into our Toyota Corolla Ascent, 1.8 Automatique…
Leaving the tent securely stored at the side of the parking space (unintentional) we headed for the south/south-west where we did a spot of sight seeing before catching the ferry ($25 return) to Bruny Island. After doing a lap of the northen portion we drove along the beautiful straight which joins the north and the south and attempted to spot some penguins, without much success (we could at least smell them).
We spent the night in our own little cabin (bless) in Adventure Bay and played some frisbee (kindly donated to me by the Canadian Ultimate Team) on the beach. The next day we marched through dense rainforest in search of the Mavista Falls, which we found but not after falling victim to leeches and other biters.

After Bruny island we carried on down the south west, following the Huon Trail, to a town called Cygnet where we spent the night in the Cygnet hotel in a rather plush room with a magnificent portrait of a busty serving wench (Scratch got a shot of her on his nice new camera - pics to come soon).
After a hearty cheescake breakfast we continued along to the small logging town of Geeveston where we secured our room at the quirky backpackers of Bob’s Bunkhouse (later renamed, although not advertised, to Bobs Monkhouse - made us laff anyway). From there we drove right down to the southern-most tip of Tasmania, Cockle Creek. There wasn’t a great deal to do here as it was more for long term walks etc but it was a great drive down through some beautiful scenery and townships. We also stopped off at Hastings Caves and the thermal springs. The caves were good, the springs weren’t - just a swimming pool at an off-cold temperature (not recommended).

After a night in Bob’s Monkhouse we ventured inland to the Hartz Mountains National Park, where we took it upon ourselves to scale the highest mountain in the region…Hartz Mountain. It was a great walk and was made all the more rewarding by the weather which, in true Tasmanian style, changed by the minute - starting off fine, then progressing to sleet, then snow, then fog, then clearing nicely as we reached the summit - allowing us to view the entire south-west in all its glory…spectacular.
Afterwards we opted for an easier walk along the Tahune Airwalk, another Ewok-style tree-top walking platform which lead out to a rather bouncy viewing platform - not my cup of tea, especially when Scratch decides to bounce on it.
From there we backtracked all the way back to spend a night in Hobart before we began our journey northwards. Here we spent the night in a shoddy, crappy backpackers called the Pickled Frog - which also had an annoying attendant who spoke in an American accent as he was ribbing us English about the cricket (work that one out if you will).

Leaving the “Knackered Frog” behind, we began a mega-drive out to the Gordon Dam, which turned out to be worth the drive as it was pretty impressive - very steep and VERY high…I had to fight with myself to take a peek over the edge!
From the dam we wound our way through the mountains to the foot of Lake St. Clair - at the end of the famous 6-day Overland Track. We booked into our port-a-cabin accommodation at the Derwent Bridge Wilderness Hotel and had meal at the lakeside restaurant, Scratch had his first taste of kangaroo and I enjoyed a nice lamb dish.
The next day we woke early and enjoyed a massive fatty breakfast at the Hungry Wombat Cafe- we felt we deserved this after the grueling drive the previous day. We then popped in to see a work-in-progress project called The Wall in the Wilderness - a carving masterpiece by a guy called Greg Duncan. Basically he is spending the next few years carving out a huge wooden sculpture which will be over 100 metres long. Not usually something I’d mention but the carving was exceptional, quite amazing what this guy can do. Scratch agrees.

The rest of the day panned out into another mega-drive, again through winding alpine roads up through the west and cutting back in again to the base of Cradle Mountain. Here we stayed at Cosy Cabins - and shared our 4-bed dorm with a sleep-talking chinaman and biscuit-munching american. After a nourishing meal of spag-bol and teaching Scratch the now legendary card-game of Sh*thead we retired early, in preparation for the day to come…

…Up at the crack of dawn, we donned our winter warmers and began our hike along Dove Lake and up to the summit of Cradle Mountain - after casually forgetting to sign ourselves in to the walker’s registration book…never mind, we are experienced enough and don’t need anybody to come and rescue us - yeah right.
I’d like to say that we made it to the top that day, but we didn’t, the truth is that the cloud came in thick and fast and we decided that getting to the top just wasn’t worth the the trouble - as there would be nothing to see anyway. I know, I know, “its the sense of achievement!” I hear you cry but to be honest we just weren’t prepared to break our necks in thick fog for non-existent self-gratification ( put that in your pipe and smoke it )
Even so, we had a great walk 4hrs turned out to be just enough….by the time we got down the whole place was covered in cloud/fog anyway. Fortunately, due to our early start, we had already had the best of the views.

From there we drove up to the north coast, through Burnie and west along to Boat Harbour where we threw the frisbee around on the white sand beach and even had a dip in the Bass Strait to wash away the grime of the day.
We treated ourselves that night and spent the night in the sea-side town of Stanley, in our own self-contained cabin at Stanley Cabin Park with a double bed each…yes.

In the morning we walked up “Fly” Hill, an out-of-place flat-top mountain which looks down over Stanley - we called it Fly Hill because there were a lot of (annoying) flies there.
We then continued along the north coast to the north west tip of Tasmania, Arthur River, and The Edge of the World. On the way we popped into a place called Dismal Swap, basically a sink-hole swamp with neat visitors centre…and a novel way of getting down to it…via a huge slide. It sounds better than it was however, because although the swamp itself was quite interesting (as interesting as a swamp can be), the slide was a bit of a let down - we were hoping for a rip-roaring, teeth-clenching, eye-watering ride - and when we were issued with hairnets and helmets our adrenaline began to pump. However on completing the ride we realised we actually got was what, at best, can be described as a kids helter-skelter (maybe we had our sights aimed a bit high, but who can blame us?

Anyways, disappointments aside, we drove to Arthur River, visited the Edge of the World, then turned round and missioned it Launceston (we are never sure how to pronounce that). Here we stayed in a much better backpackers, aptly named The Launceston Backpackers - after initially checking into a room with a stinky-footed person we were moved into a much nicer twin room - a great backpackers with clean facilities and friendly, helpful staff.
We had a couple of drinks out in town then hit the hay.

From Launceston we made our way to the upper north east corner, not forgetting to mention the little town of Scottsdale - where I received my first ever speeding ticket!!! oops! However, I flashed the copper a winning smile and played the dumb-tourist, baffling him with our array of guidebooks and maps. He reduced my penalty to a mere caution and sent us on our way with some helpful advice on how to avoid certain towns where “Dick Heds, and Druggies” hang out. Nice chap.
We proceeded to the very north east tip, a little town called Anson’s Bay. Not a great deal to do or see here and we moved on hastily to our final destination of the day, St. Helens where we stayed in a great little backpackers which isn’t actually in the guide books or anywhere else for that matter - as we can’t remember the name its the right next to ChickenFeed on the main street, and its not the YHA.

The following day we drove up to the Bay Of Fires, a region of small coves and beaches, pretty in the sun but in the dull day we visited, not so.
From there we made haste down the coast, driving through the blackened forests and burnt-out homes of Scamander - where the bush-fires had been raging a few days before. Quite an eerie sight.
We stopped off in the Freycinet National Park, to take a peek at the world famous Wineglass Bay. Unfortunately for us, the weather that day was not the best and the beauty was a bit spoiled by low-cloud and smoke from the fires…having said that, it was still impressive and we could imagine that on a sunny day it would be stunning.
As the weather was not on our side we decided to mission it down the east coast and get to Port Arthur, a former penal settlement which housed British prisoners right up the late 1800s and is still kept as a Historical Site.
Here we booked into an amazing cabin by the side of Stewarts Bay, in the Stewarts Bay Lodge. As this was going to be our last stop before returning to Hobart we decided to splash out and had a blinding meal at The Mussel Boys restaurant, we then retired back to the cabin to watch Bruce Lee, The Chinese Connection on our cabin’s DVD player entertainment system.
We explored the historic site and the rest of Port Arthur the following day, as well as visiting the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Centre to get a glimpse of the little fellas. The final leg of the trip took us back to Hobart, where the festivities were already in full swing with a huge street party going on down by the warf.
And that is where we are now, and where this story ends…Tasmania has been an amazing experience and I recommend anyone to come, fantastic. We are flying out tomorrow morning and meeting up with Tom and Craig to start our Christmas and NYE partying. Looking forward to it.

To all of you, have a brilliant Christmas and an even better New Year, miss you.
Also, to all of you in WA..
Pirates Crew (Vaughan, Charlie, Yimmy, Dot n Terry, Dave, C-for) Em, Mon, Lori, Terri(y?), Kings…thank you, and enjoy the summer!

TTFN!
Dave (Sniff)
+
Snip (Scratch)

P.S. For those of you, which will be most of you, who are wondering on our sudden change of nicknames - its because Snip is always Scratching and I’m always rubbing my nose and sniffing…it made sense, and made us laff… at the time.

Happy birthday to my Grandad who is in his 85th Year! Look forward to speaking to you, and the rest of the rellies, on Sunday!

Love Dave

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Jo…
Happy birthday to you!

Love Dave xxx

Finally, after over 5 weeks living out of a tent we made it to Darwin on the 27th!

Since then its been all hands on deck, preparing Lotty for her sale - it was a bit emotional I can tell you. Anyway, after three days we have finally sold her and got a fair price too

So now its just chillout time, we are taking in the sights and sounds of Darwin - a really nice city by all accounts - and last night was the first time back in a hostel in ages, felt a bit strange too.
I leave to fly back down to Perth on the 5th of November and Tom and Craig are flying over to Sydney on the 10th so we will part ways in a few days however I’m sure we will meet again when I go over to Sydney for the New Year

For our own amusement we have put together a list of repeated quotes from the trip - many of which have come from Tom as he does tend to live in Groundhog day…

“Ere Dave”
Tom uses this quote to attract my attention - usually for some stupid reason or request…

“Craig, where’s the toothpaste?”
Used by Tom every morning noon and night, usually he finds it immediatley after - in his washbag or some other equally secretive hiding place

“Ere Dave…Ave you seen my…?”
Usually followed by “Keys”, “Wallet”, “Phone”, “Toothbrush”, “Floss”, the list is endless.
Again used by Tom when he has lost something and expects me to know exactly where it is.

“What page are you on?”
Frequently used by all members when some other member is reading, usually followed by numerous random questions - this is a tactic employed to prevent the person reading from enjoying their book

“Ere Tom…”
Used mainly by me to get back at Tom for all his questions - I usually time this quote just as he is about to go to sleep or reading. I don’t follow up with any question, its just to annoy him

“Ere Dave….that would make a good picture!”
Again, a Tom quote, used whenever he spots a “good picture” location…which usually turns out crap but has yeilded some good results…well, one as far as I can remember….

This is because Tom doesn’t have a camera.

“Ere Dave….can I have a look at the pictures from today?”
This is because Tom doesn’t have a camera, and is usually asked at the worst times such as when I’m driving or trying to cook etc.

I’m sure there are many more quotes and we’ll add them as we remember.

Its been a fantastic trip, even though the quotes might suggest otherwise we have got on really well and I’ll be looking forward to meeting up with them when I get to Sydney, cheers lads!

I do have a few more pics to put on but will probably do that when I get down to Perth. I also have a journal from the trip which I may/maynot choose to post - i’ll have to vett it first.

Hope you are all well!

TTFN
Dave
x