Flackattack’s Wanderings

Cairns Lagoon

Originally uploaded by Flackattack.

Greetings from the tropics. I am into the Tropic of Capricorn now in Northern Queensland. Cairns is the biggest town in the area, but is really just a launching point for the Great Barrier Reef, and the Daintree Rainforest. Also all kinds of other activities from bungy, skydiving, helicopter/airplane/ballon rides and tons more things that people want to book you on. Me, I’ll be taking a small daytrip into the rainforest tomorrow and then blowing out the budget on my scuba trip to the GBR. Thats right, another life goal goes down when I take a 5 day PADI certification course starting Wed. 2 days in the classroom is followed by 3 days/2 nights living on board a ship cruising to different reefs on the GBR. I have been looking forward to this trip since my planning started. Hell, I’ve been looking forward to it for a few decades. So my next entry should be a good one. Otherwise I am laying low, trying to work on my sunburn a little every day, and not doing too much crazy partying and carousing with the other travellers. Cheers. Howard

Bootsnall-the blog host-had a major server crash issue and has lost blog entries from 8/17/06 until the other day.  So the first entries from my trip are gone, and may not be coming back.  Has anyone saved mine by any chance?  Or perhaps set up an RSS feed to be notified when a new posting was made and then might have it in their google (or some other) cache?  If so, please send me an emaila nd let me know.  If not, I guess I’ll get over it.  Cheers.  Howard

Great Australian Bight Marine Park-Nullarbor Plains

Originally uploaded by Flackattack.

I know this entry has been delayed a while, but I was in one tiny, isolated place after another and internet access was either non-existant, or very limited and tons expensive. Anyway, here goes, and remember you can always use google and google image to find out more or see more pictures of anything I mention.
After the Perth-Exmouth trip I had 5 more days in Fremantle before travelling on. I joined 4 others for 2 days and 1 camping night on Rottnest Island. More great reef snorkeling, more swimming on deserted stretches of sand, more bike riding around a place where cars are not allowed, tons of stars in the southern sky. Quite wonderful.
Then I started a major road trip with a guy named Lliam who I hooked up with on a needaride website. He was finishing his 40000KM journey around Aus-He is from Melbourne- and wanted a rider to split costs. So with the flexibility that comes with no plans I joined him. Some highlights of our 4700KM in 11 days included:
Hiking aroung the Cape Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Parks where the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean come together; Going along the Southern coastal areas where the beach towns out of season followed each other one after another. More crap weather as we went through the forest areas around Pemberton and Albany. We did get in a bit of a tree climb and a canopy walk however. We escaped the weather and went north to Kalgoorlie-a gold mining area. We watched the Aussie Rules Football semifinals in a skimpy bar in Kalgoorlie. Mining towns are famous for a 15:1 or worse ratio of men to women, so skimpy bars are a tradition of mining towns. Basically the barmaids tend bar in lingerie, until after they pass around the tip jar (ie. the titty kitty), when their tops come off. It’s all great fun (REAL big bouncers). As for the AFL this year, a team named the Eagles won the championship, so maybe that bodes well for the homeboys. After Kalgoorlie, we crossed the 1500+KM of the Nullabor desert. Some great scenery, but a lot of nothingness also. Worth doing once only. The longest totally straight stretch of road is on that crossing-over 140KM (90 miles). Then we went through the Eyre peninsula before finally arriving in Adelaide last Thurs. Lliam went on home to Melbourne, and I have been happy to be in a city and staying still for the weekend. Hopefully I’ll take a flight up to Cairns or somewhere else in Queensland next week and start working my way south toward Sydney from there. I see scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and whitewater rafting in the Daintree Rainforest in my future. Hope everyone reading is doing well. Till next time. Cheers. Howard

Only 40 more hours until my travels commence.  The past 8 months have been quite a period in my life.  It really is a pain in the butt to uproot your world and start planting a different one.  At this point I am just trying to deal with the upcoming “lost travel weekend”.  24 hrs of flying, a 4 hour layover,  and 13hrs of time change. 

I packed my backpack this evening for the first time, and it weighed in at 37 pounds.  Then I repacked and got it down to 34.  I’ll try again tomorrow and see if I cant shave a couple more off. It sure has been a long time since I wore a loaded pack.  I guess I better get used to it. 

As for this blog, I’ll be doing my best to update when I can, but I cant promise a masterpiece.  More like a paint by numbers.  Enjoy.

mmmm cake

Originally uploaded by achilles1066.

Bon Voyage Party Cake. Yummy

Bridge

Originally uploaded by achilles1066.

13 tp go until I’m out of the house and put in notice. So much to do. DONT PANIC

Santa Cruz , CA

Originally uploaded by achilles1066.

July 25th 2005

House under contract, now its time to stop shopping and start buying.  Hooray!!

Sister’s Kids

Originally uploaded by achilles1066.

Aint they cute

 

IMG_0407Originally uploaded by achilles1066.

Enjoying the golf at Baycreek.