Craig & Sam Down Under

Hello!

Since our last entry we’ve moved on and done some more stuff…

Bye!

Just kidding! We visited the Koala sanctuary at Port MacQuarie where we got to hug koalas, they were the snuggliest, sleepiest little fellas ever. There was a baby koala there too, his name was Kerrie and he was born on the 10th of Jan this year! We saw a display about reptiles and had our photos taken holding a little croc, we also touched snakes and other weird crap. There was a massive kangaroo pen that we walked through and we went right up and touched them. There were some mummy kangaroos with little Joey’s in their pouches.. so sweet!

The next day we intended to go for a walk through the canopies of a rainforest nearby on a boardwalk tour but unfortunately the scale of the town map was a bit misleading. We thought we could walk to the park in about an hour and that it would take us about another hour to walk around the tour. Unfortunately after 2 1/2 hours of walking we though we were nowhere near finding the park so gave up. We stopped to have some dinner and while we were sitting at a little picnic area at the side of the road eating our butties the weirdest little reptile creature came waddling out of the bushes towards us. Well, I say ‘little’ it was about a metre long and it was fat and… waddly. Despite the wussy girlie type I normally am, I jumped up, grabbed the camera and started snapping away, it was amazing. Didn’t give it any of our sandwiches though. Anyway, we walked back to the caravan park where the van was and realised we’d probably made to about 10 minutes away from the rainforest park! Oh well. Maybe next time.

Next day we carried on driving up the East coast and stopped at our current location, Coffs Harbour. This is another holiday type resort but as all the kiddie-winks have gone back to school now it’s considered off-peak holiday season, so we’re staying on a lovely 4* caravan park for next to nothing, there’s a massive pool and a games room and everything. We booked up to do some diving while we’re here cuz it’s supposed to be the cheapest place on the east coast to do it and yesterday we got up at the crack of dawn to get down to the dive shop and get kitted out. We went on a 40 minute boat ride out to the Solitary islands, just off the east coast and on the way we saw whales, flipping their tails up and down and blowing water out of their spouty things – it was amazing!! Anyway, when we finally stopped at the dive site the water was really rough, very very choppy and salty and yuk. Craig jumped in and although the cold was a bit of a shock he made his way over to the rope and was waiting to descend. I jumped in and promptly had a panic attack. The roughness of the water made me feel really nervous and I couldn’t get my breath, so they dragged me back to the boat and I sat out. (Parents don’t worry I’m ok now and I’m gonna give it another go somewhere else where hopefully the water will be calmer – more details when I ring). Craig carried on, he got buddied up with a dive master, this mad little Japanese guy who did all funky tricks under the water and pointed out loads of cool stuff, so he had a good time even though he said he was disappointed that I didn’t dive with him (ah bless!). He saw 3 grey nurse sharks and some nemos and dorys. I’m well gutted that I wussed out and will definitely go next time!!

That all made for a pretty tiring day so we’ve been slobbing about by the pool this morning and snoozing all afternoon – can’t be bad! The sun was out so we’re burned to a crisp but the tans are coming along beautifully! We’ve been feasting on some culinary delights at night, spaghetti bolognese, chili con carne, chicken fajitas – all sorts now we’ve got the camping stove and fridge sorted out. I’m forcing veg down Craig’s neck at every available opportunity so rest assured that we’re eating well!

We’re moving on again tomorrow morning, going to Byron Bay next and hopefully will get another chance to dive there. Thanks for the emails guys, some of these internet cafe computers are way too slow to let us send our email, it just disappears so be patient and we promise to get back to you soon.

Donna – thanks for the mail, pregnancy suits you so chill about the big bump. Give Alicia a massive squeeze and tickle her ribs for me, so glad she’s enjoying school, you must be well proud. Give Craig a thump, hangover serves him right!

Shaz, Kev n K8e, loving the posts and Shaz, make sure everyone in Morrisons is v v jealous! ta!

Everybody take care, stay safe we love you loads
More next time so keep watching…

Sam & Craig

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 at 8:48 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.