Bunaken, Days 4-5

From Bunaken

We are now at the end of our diving holiday on Bunaken, having done 5 more dives since my last report, including a night dive. I have managed to get several reasonable photos with the new camera, but of course, on the dive where we saw three large turtles the battery was flat so you will just have to take my word for it. For me though, it is not the sightings of large marine life that make for an interesting dive. I am much happier looking as smaller fish and sea creatures and admiring the beautiful coral gardens that are found in the shallow areas, above 10m. There seems to be some sort of obsession amongst some divers for doing deep dives, which I can not really understand. OK, you are more likely to see larger fish, such as sharks, at these depths but otherwise, it can be rather desolate.

Looking back on this part of the holiday and comparing Bunaken with the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, I would say that they are both world class dive sites. I possibly have a slight preference for the Barrier Reef diving as the topology of coral ‘bommies’ makes for a more interesting dive, and the defined bottom at 20m makes it more likely to see the larger marine animals.

The Living Colours dive resort in Bunaken has been excellent, with friendly a friendly dive team and domestic staff, good food, and pleasant accommodation. Pity about the insects, but you can’t have everything. Anyway, beats freezing winter in Brentford.

Tonight being New Years Eve, time to party!

Bunaken, Days 1-3

From Bunaken

We have been on Bunaken Island for three days now, staying at the Living Colours Dive Resort. This is run by a Finnish team and at least 50% of the guests are from Finland, escaping from the long winter nights back home no doubt. The dive operation is quite efficient without being over-regulated, with very friendly Indonesian dive guides.

The diving here is spectacular, with an enormous variety of corals and species of fish to be seen. The island seems to be a coral atoll with a shallow coral reef surrounding it. Once you go beyond the reef edge, there is a sheer drop off into the depths. No one here knows how far down it goes. Certainly far too deep to dive, so most of our dives are along the reef wall, with opportunities to view the marine live as you swim by. More often than not, there is quite a stong current flowing, so we are swept along with it. The effect is like watching the countryside go by as you travel in a train.

Manado

I spent about one day travelling from Sydney to Manado, via Gold Coast and Kuala Lumpur. Manado is the principal city of Northern Sulawesi and is renowned as one of the world’s best dive destinations, or to be strictly accurate, the smaller islands and reefs that can be accessed via Manado are the main attraction. Our final destination is Bunaken Island, which is about 10 minutes boat ride from Manado, and gives its name to the Bunaken Marine Park – a large area of coral islands containing some very interesting marine life. Because of our flight schedule and the fact that it is Christmas, it was not possible to head straight for Bunaken, and we therefore chose to spend two days at a small village called Bahowo, on mainland Sulawesi and just across a short stretch of sea from Bunaken.

Having arrived on Christmas Eve, I quickly realised that I had not entirely managed to escape from Christmas altogether. Turns out that Northern Sulawesi is one of the few Christian enclaves in an otherwise mainly Muslim Indonesia, and of course, Christmas is a big deal for the locals. So our hosts, Phil and Paula, had to pop out to the church in the middle of our evening meal, in their role as, essentially, ‘lord and lady of the manor’. We decide to have Christmas Day as a chill-out day and not do any diving, even though it was on offer. Lying by the pool, even my noise-cancelling headphones were unable to drown out the sound of the singing (all morning) coming from the local church, which was right next door. Bah, humbug! In retrospect, we would have been better off staying in Sydney over Christmas and joining the other Brits in their festivities on Bondi Beach. At lease the Aussies take Christmas as a bit of a laugh and an excuse for a barbie and a few tinnies.

Today we went out for a dive to Buaken with one of the local dive operations. Lots to see, but difficulty to take it all in as we were in a drift current that whisked us along the coral wall at a rate of knots. I had my first opportunity to try out my Christmas present from Santa (Alison) – a new camera with an underwater housing. My old dive camera has been a real pain in the next virtually since day one, and totally unreliable. Thankfully the new one performed impeccably and the quality of the pictures was excellent, even if the content left something to be desired. Still, plenty of opportunity for improvement in my technique over the next few days in Bunaken.

Christmas Greetings

Happy Christmas !

Christmas greetings from down under to all readers of my travel blog.

For obvious reasons, I will not be sending out Christmas cards this year, so you will have to make do with this picture of me wearing a silly hat, standing in front of a 'Christmas Tree' in Sydney.

Jessica	Adam`	Claire	Mum
Jonathan	Martin	Nick	Alison
Peter	Robert	Jane	Ian
Nigel	Jim	John	Jeff
Daniel	Tim	Sarah

Sorry if you are a clandestine reader and I have not namechecked you.

Merryy Christmas

Robin

Sydney, Days 5/6

Yesterday was mainly devoted to shopping and hair care (I opted out of both of these activities). In the evening it was back to Darling Harbour for a happy hour drink at an excellent micro brewery there followed by a meal at Jordons, the renowned seafood restaurant.

Today was another hot and sunny one, so we decided to take the bus to the legendary Bondi Beach. This turned out to be a very attractive stretch of sand, and not too busy today. Apparently on Christmas Day it turns into a massive (but alcohol free) open air party with hordes of Sydney dwellers doing their thing in the sun and surf. Beats staying at home with the turkey and Queen’s speech I guess. We had a pleasant walk along the cliff path that links Bondi to Bronte Beach, before taking the bus from there back into Sydney.

In the evening we dined at the Sydney Cafe, which is located on the roof of the old Harbour Authority building. After a couple of cocktails to celebrate the end of the Australia phase of our trip, we ate what was arguably our best meal of the holiday so far (and there has been some serious competition), and all with stunning views of Sydney Harbour at night.

With weather like this and such pleasant surroundings, it is easy to see why Aussies are such a relaxed and easy going bunch. Last time I was in Sydney, I remember saying after only two days that it was somewhere where I could easily seem myself living. And that was in the dull winter months. This trip only served to reinforce my initial impressions. Sydney seems to have it all!

Sydney, Days 3/4

From Sydney

Our first full day back in Sydney after the Blue Mountains trip and time for a spot of sightseeing. We walked from our hotel though the CBD to Circular Quay and browsed around there for a while before catching a ferry to Manley. Since it was a hot sunny day, we made for the beach and a pleasant walk around to Cabbage Bay, were we stopped for lunch. In the afternoon, we headed back along the beach and watched the various surfing schools in action. Seems to be a popular weekend activity with the locals.

In the evening explored the Rocks area for a while, then after dinner headed over to the Opera House Bar. This was absolutely packed with Sydney trendies out for a fun evening. On the way home later, it seemed as if the whole of Sydney was one big party, with people queuing to get into nightclubs on every block, and hordes of merrymakers roaming the streets. Apparently, this is nothing to do with Christmas; just a normal Saturday evening in Sydney.

On Sunday we had brunch at a popular café called Billy’s in the arty district of Darlinghurst, before doing a long walk around some of Sydney’s suburbs, ending up in the Botanical Gardens. Sydney street names and districts seem to be mainly derived from London’s, but confusingly jumbled up. So for example, we went through King’s Cross via Liverpool Street and Oxford Street, and had we carried on, we might have ended up in Paddington. In the afternoon, we took the ferry to Darlington Harbour. The last time I had been here was in the winter of 2001, when it looked rather dull and dismal. Now on a sunny Summer afternoon in Christmas week, it was transformed, with loads of people milling around the various attractions, cafes and restaurants. Much more attractive this time around. Dinner was in a not-too-good restaurant in Chinatown. (Next time must remember to eat in restaurant that is full of Chinese, not tourists).

Blue Mountains, Sydney

We arrived in Sydney on Wednesday evening and stayed overnight at an airport hotel, as the plan was to get a hire car the next morning and drive out to the Blue Mountains National Park, which is about 100km from Sydney.

The drive was pleasant enough, but the whole experience was not quite what I had envisaged from reading various guide books. I had expected the journey to be on a very minor road passing through a few small villages, with views of the mountains on either side. The reality was a four lane highway for much of the journey, with an almost continuous ribbon of suburban development stretching from Sydney to Kalumba, which was our destination for the evening. To see the mountains, one had to head off along one of the various side roads that lead to the edge of the plateau. We stopped off for a walk to a waterfall at one of these locations, and had a longer walk once we reached Kalumba. This took us down a long and winding flight of steps to the valley floor and to an old coal mining site. The way back up was via a scenic railway, running on the tracks previously used for the old coal trucks. Apparently this was the steepest funicular railway in the world at over 45 degrees of slope.

The next day we continued on along the Blue Mountain Highway, but the sunny weather of the previous day had changed to low cloud, which completely obscured the view form the variously lookout points that we visited. We finished up with a visit to some botanical gardens before taking the road back to Sydney. I was interested to see that the botanical gardens were selling Wollemi pine plants that had been grown from seed obtained from the grove of pre-historic pines that were discovered a few hears ago in the nearby Wollemi National Park. These have gone from being rare and unique to being so common that they were using one as a Christmas tree!

Overall, I would say that the Blue Mountains are an impressive spectacle that is well worth a visit, but without doing a multi-day trek in the valleys, it is difficult to go much beyond the fleeting visit that is typical of the coach loads of tourists that come out of Sydney every day.

Daintree River

The Cockatoo Hill Retreat is a great place to relax and get though a large amount of reading; something that it is difficult to find time for during the rest of the year.

On the afternoon of day 3 we drove to Cape Tribulation, which is literally the end of the road north, or at least the surfaced road. 4x4 vehicles can still continue on to Cook Town on an unsurfaced road. Some leisurely walks along the deserted beached and through the mangrove swamps. Turns out the beaches are deserted because people are afraid of: (a) being eaten by saltwater crocodiles that emerge from the creeks, or (b) being stung to death b y the deadly box jellyfish that come out in the summer months. The local prefer to stay on land and be bitten by venomous snakes and spiders instead. Nice place Australia!

On our final day we headed back down to the Daintree ferry and after crossing the river, immediately went back on it again, on a river cruise. Apparently, the main aim of these trips is to spot crocodiles. We managed to see one towards the end of the ride, but it was a baby, only 50cm long, so not too impressive. The guide was entertaining though.

Then on down to Cairns and our flight to Sydney, where we will be spending the final 6 days of the Aussie part of our hols.

Daintree Rainforest

We picked up our hire car at Cairns Airport, and set off on the 2 hour journey to Daintree, along the Cook Highway. The Daintree Rainforest is virtually cut off from the rest of Australia by the Daintree River and the Great Divide mountain range. We took the ferry across the river and eventually arrived at or destination: Cockatoo Hill Retreat. This turned out to be even better than I had assumed from looking at their website. The buildings were all designed in Balinese style, with lots of hardwood and woven cane used in their construction. Our ‘treehouse’ cabin had a balcony with a wonderful view over rainforest and mangroves towards the sea. A great place to chill out for four days.

After a swim and a laze by the infinity pool, we headed towards Cape Tribulation for dinner at Whet restaurant. This is supposedly one of the top 10 restaurants in Queensland, a thoroughly justified accolade in my view, judging by the excellent meal we had there. Back at the Cockatoo Hill Retreat, time for some stargazing from the balcony. It seems you have to go as far as Australia or New Zealand to get away from the light pollution that ruins the night sky over most of Europe. The sight of so many stars that are invisible back home is quite spectacular. By late evening, all the jungle animals, birds, and most insects, have gone to sleep to the place is totally quite except for the distant sound of the surf on the beach.

The next day involved more lazing by the pool, and getting stuck into some good holiday reading. In the afternoon we went for a guided walk though the Daintree rainforest at nearby Cooper Creek. Our guide, Pru, owned a lodge and a considerable area of the surrounding forest, and turned out to be an expert in all the plants and animals that we encountered in our 3 hour walk, entertaining us with numerous stories as we went. The outing ended with a swim in the creek. Not as warm as the swimming pool but very refreshing.

Great Barrier Reef, Day 1/2

The last occasion that I swam at the Great Barrier Reef was about six years ago and I was keen to pay a repeat visit, this time with the ability to scuba dive. Alison and I had booked a three day live-aboard dive trip as part of this extended Australia holiday, but neither of us really knew what to expect, other than the option of lots of diving.

We were booked with a dive shop called ProDive in Cairns, who turned out to live up to their name. There were about 34 guests on the boat, some of whom were doing a PADI Open Water or Advanced course, with other such as us already certified, and a few snorkelers too. Our dive boat had a crew of 6, including instructors, dive master, captain and not least, the cook. The boat itself was well designed for its role, and we had a small but adequate cabin to ourselves.

The dive schedule was quite intensive, with four dives scheduled for day 1 and 2 and three more on day 3. My first dive didn’t last that long as I was getting though air too rapidly, but still long enough to take in the wonderful coral gardens and the great variety of small and large fish that inhabit the reef. Dive 2 was over even quicker for me as I got sick, apparently from the effects of the breathing problem on dive 1. I decided to pass on the remaining dives that day, but was feeling OK again by the evening.

The next day I was fully recovered and we were woken early for the fist dive of the day at 7:30. The boat moves to a new site after one or two dives at a particular location, so by now we were on to our third dive site. There was even more marine life around here than on the previous day’s sites, and we spotted several turtles and reef sharks. Unfortunately my camera was playing up so I’m afraid I did not manage to get too many good photos. For me, the highlight of day 2 was my first night dive. This involves carrying torches underwater and trying to spot the fish that come out to feed at this time. The first sight to greet us when we got into the water was several sharks circling round our little group of divers. Apparently, this was nothing to get too concerned about. These small reef sharks tend not to eat people! The rest of the dive was surprisingly mellow and relaxing and certainly an experience not to be missed. We were greeted by the sharks again when we got back to the boat, but we all managed to get back onboard largely intact.

Great Barrier Reef, Day 3

The first dive on day 3 was even earlier, at 6:30 in the morning. It was a really attractive site and we managed to see several turtles and a shark or two, in addition to the smaller more colourful fish and some giant clams. The next two dives were in the same location and at a shallower level, where there was extensive soft coral, which tends to be more attractive than the deeper hard coral. By midday we were all back onboard, and ready to head back to Cairns.

In the evening the ProDive team organised a get-together in a local bar for the divers to get together again one last time to have a drink or two and exchange stories.

The whole live-aboard experience turned out to be a very enjoyable part of the holiday, and a great way of doing a lot of diving in one of the world’s top dive locations. My only reservation would be that the dive schedule was quite intensive. I prefer to have a few hours break between each dive and take things at a more leisurely pace. But then I was the oldest client on the trip by some margin, so perhaps the schedule is geared more to the youngsters? Anyway, now that I know what to expect, I would certainly consider doing another live-aboard sometime in the future.

Kata Tjuta

From Kata Tjuta

Most people have heard of Ayer’s Rock/Uluru, but it neighbouring site in the National Park, Kata Tjuta, is less well known. In fact it is almost as impressive as Uluru, being another massive outcrop of rock in the desert. The main difference is that it has been broken into a string of hills rather than being one giant mass. This is due to its geology, being composed of hard volcanic rocks in a matrix of mudstone, as opposed to being a solid mass of sandstone as is the case for Ayer’s Rock. This means that Kata Tjuta has weathered much more rapidly than Uluru, and hence is now broken down into a number of smaller outcrops.

We again set out before dawn to see the sun rise on Kata Tjuta, and again we were thwarted by a bank of cloud obscuring the sun. We settled for a 7.5 km walk though the ‘Valley of the Winds’, which winds between some of the peaks in the Kata Tjuta formation, and involves a little more climbing than the flat path around Uluru. Spotted three kangaroos along the way (as well as a camel on the drive to the site). Back to the resort in time for a last laze by the pool before catching our flight on to Cairns.

Uluru

From Uluru

Uluru, otherwise known as Ayers Rock, is a must-do attraction for anyone intending to see as much as possible of Australia. We flew in from Perth and were whisked off to the Ayers Rock Resort, which is the only place one can stay when visiting the rock. The resort consists of five or so hotels, designed so as to appeal to all budgets, ranging from campers to 5-star luxury. We were stating at the Lost Camel Hotel, which is a mid-range ‘boutique’ hotel. Fine for our purposes with a decent pool and near to the resort centre shops and restaurants.

We had hoped to do some star gazing on our first night but this was cancelled due to cloud. Slightly disappointing as the sky had been cloudless all day up to then with temperatures over 40C. Even so, when the cloud did eventually break, the number of stars that were visible is amazing compared to what you can see in the UK with all its light pollution. Had to go to bed early as we needed to get up at 4:30 the next morning for our trip to see in the dawn at Uluru.

It was dark at the start of our drive to Uluru, so we missed the impressive sight of seeing the whole rock appearing out of the desert. When we arrived at the start of the walk the rock filled our whole field of vision, so it was difficulty to take in its massive scale. As we progressed along the path, the sun started to light up the rock and it took on its characteristic red glow. We carried on along the 13.5km path around the rock, while our guide told us about the various Aborigine creation myths associated with this sacred site, completing the circuit in about 4 hours.

Back at the hotel, time for a quick catch-up sleep and some lazing by the pool before heading back out to view the sunset over Uluru. We were out of luck with the weather again, as clouds hade moved in to cover the sun shortly before sunset, so rather a dull event in the end. The event was not a complete washout, however, as we were treated to a bottle of Champagne, and our guide told us about the research he had done into his family history, which turned out to be really rather interesting. Then an early night again in readiness for next day’s trip to Kata Tjuta.

Albany to Perth

From Albany

After a relaxing night's stopover at Angus and Lacey's place in Denmark, we drove into Albany. Not a lot going on there. They have tried to create some 'historic' sites to lure tourists, but it doesn't really work. best thing was the lookout spot on one of the hills, giving a great view of the various bays and natural harbours around Albany. Also a pleasant coastal walk, spoiled by the inevitable Ozzy flies.

The it was time to head off for the 400km drive back to Perth. A largely boring stretch of farming land with not much of interest to see. The highlight was finding a hotel in the middle of nowhere that was hosting a speed sheep shearing competition! We stopped off to take a look. Fascinating. Got back to Perth without incident, i.e. no kangaroos jumped out onto our car.

Pemberton to Denmark

From Denmark

The final part of our SW Australia trip took us from Pemberton, in the heart of 'Big Tree Country', along the South coast to Denmark and finally Albany. On the way we stopped at the 'Valley of the Giants' for the acclaimed tree top walk. The giants in this case are the tall tingle trees that are unique to this valley, and the tree top walk is an aerial walkway that takes you through the forest canopy, 40m above ground level. Both the trees and the walkway were quite impressive and well worth the visit.

We dropped in at a couple of small bays on our way to Denmark, where we stayed the night with Angus and Lacey, the couple who provided the house swap for me in Perth and who will be coming to stay in Brentford next May. A very pleasant evening chatting about this and that.

Cape Leeuwen

From Jewel Cave

We left Margaret River today and headed south along the coast, stopping first at Jewel Cave - one of the many limestone caves that are to be found in this part of SW Australia. Some quite interesting and unusual stalactites here.

From Cape Leeuwin

Then on though Augusta to Cape Leeuwen and its lighthouse. It was a particularly pleasant day, with a sunny blue sky and light wind, making for an ideal viewing experience once at the top of the lighthouse. We even managed to see some dolphins at play.

From Pemberton

In the afternoon we headed on to Pemberton and the Karri Forest Trail. The karri trees are to be found all over this part of Australia, with their distinctive silvery white bark, and some of the older ones can grow to an impressive height.

Margaret River, Wine Tasting

From Margaret River

The Margaret River region is renowned for its wineries, and a wine tour was therefore high on our agenda for this part of the holiday. We signed up for a day trip with a company that specialises in wine tasting for non-wine snobs, i.e. people who drink the wine they are tasting, rather than spiting it out. They provided an entertaining day our, with tastings at three wineries, plus visits to a cheese and a chocolate factory. At one of the wineries we had the opportunity to mix up our own blend of Cabernet and Merlot wines, which we could then drink with the picnic lunch.

Margaret River

The next phase of our holiday is a road trip around South Western Australia, starting and ending in Perth, and taking in Margaret River, Pemberton and Albany. On day one we motored along the coast, stopping of at Bunbury and Busselton for coffee and lunch respectively, before heading down to Margaret River for the night. This whole stretch of coast is very attractive with long clean sandy beaches and hardly anyone around. The towns along this stretch mainly seem to be full of retirement homes. I can think of much worse places to end up.

Today (day 2) we took in some more of the coast, dropping in at various craft shops and art galleries on the way. A visit to the local aborigine centre was one of the more interesting venues we stopped at, where we learned quite a bit about the history of the local aboriginal tribes. A late lunch was taken at a beach café on Geographe Bay, with excellent food food, and a superb view over the bay.