Day 108 Lush

Today was a very leisurely day, I spent the morning chilling in my room and playing on the internet.  Mainly trying to get this upto date!  I had a shower and realised that my soap is nearly finished so thought the best plan for today was to restock my toiletries.  As I headed into town I nearly fell on my bum about 20 times, as the pavements get really slippery in the rain!  Funny for the other people walking in town!  I stopped at a book shop to get the lonely planet guide to New Zealand and found they had all the travel guides on sale, bonus!  I then went in search of the Lush shop to get a new soap and shampoo.  The very helpful people who work in lush really do get you to buy alot of stuff.  In my defense I did need face wash and moisturiser as well as the soap and shampoo.  I just hope it all fits in my toiletry bag!  After a few more near slips I went in search of better shoes, flip flops are not the best for walking in the rain.  I searched for a shop Jessie had told me about but they didn't have anything suitable.  I went to target, which is abit like TKMax, and found some ballet style shoes with better soles for $10.  I had the checkout person to cut the labels off so I could put them straight on.  I had sushi for a late lunch and headed back to the hostel so I didn't spend anymore money!  Once I had squeezed everything back into my bag, I went to browse the internet for options of diving on the great barrier reef.  It got late quickly and I went to the bar by the hostel to have some food and listen to the live music before heading to bed. 

Day 107 Dentist and Photos

Up early today to get the train to Jessie and go to the dentist.  Fun fun fun!  I was,  surprisingly, at the station in good time to get the train which is not like me I am not the best morning person.  I also managed to get on the right train and off at the right stop!  Jessie was there waiting for me looking all glamorous and I just look the same as I did on the island, as I don't have any other clothes!  The first thing to do was go to the dentist to see what the tooth ache had been.  It was in a tooth that I have a large filling in as it broke when I was in Vietnam seven years ago, I have to say it has never been right.  We were abit early for the appointment but I had to fill in some paper work as I don't live in Australia.  I am not afraid of the dentist at all but am not to keen on injections in my mouth so was very glad when she said she would drill with out.  She took x-rays with a fancy little thing connected to the computer but they didn't really show much so she began to drill.  It didn't hurt at all just abit rattlely.  But, why is there always a but!  She said I think we will have to give you an injection, oh no!  She did put emula cream on and left it for a while which really worked and the injection wasn't bad at all.  I was very glad she gave me the local as I was in there for an hour and a half!  Drilling the whole time!  It turns out there had been a bubble in the old filling and it has been decaying under it!  That'll be why it has always been really sensitive and why I have been back to the dentist alot.  She drilled the old filling out and put a new one in.  As I was sat there I was wondering how much it was going to cost!  Oh dear!  Once she had finished I went out to pay and as you do when half your mouth is numb felt like my lip was swollen and sticking out!  Jessie assured me it wasn't.  I paid and was quite pleasantly surprised that it wasn't nearly as much as I had been imagining. 

We went back to Jessie's house for some lunch then the plan was to go to the modern art gallery in the city, as I am abit sick of museums as they all seem to have the same things in now, but still want to see things of culture in the city.  Jessie's house was really nice and I had the grand tour then we set about making lunch.  Jessie had bought the ingredients for me to make a chicken dish that my mum makes which is the thing I miss most and will be the first meal I cook when I get home.  I marinated the chicken and left it while we went to swop pictures and put them on discs for Jenita.  This took longer than expected and while we waited we made a colslaw style salad to go with lunch.  We found some dressing but unfortunatly it didn't pass the sniff, lick test!  So we made one.  Lunch was lovely even if I do say so my self and my mouth was nearly mine again.  We decided to cut down the massive amount of pictures I took to a reasonable amount to put on facebook.  This took a while as I took around 1500 pictures in the month we spent on the island!  I do love pictures though!  We managed to cut it down to about 350 but that was with Jessie saying 'no Katie you don't need 4 pictures of that on facebook!'.  We then began the long job of uploading them to facebook!  Well in the mean time we made a bran cake and then realised that maybe we should head for the gallery.  However we hadn't noticed the time and they gallery was due to close in a hour so we would of only had about 10minutes by the time we got there. So we abandoned that idea and stayed at Jessies uploading pictures!  As dinner time crept up on us we left the computer uploading and went in search of food.  Jessie's favourite food is Janpanese so we had that.  It was lovely and they had soya beans like yo sushi!!  yum yum!  Back at home we finished off load pictures which still took anouther hour and it was 10pm by now.  Her mum gave me a lift back to the hostel and fell into bed.  Fingers crossed my tooth will be fine now after having the brand new fililng in! 

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Day 106 Leaving Vanuatu

I had to get up reasonably early this morning to do my erans before I leave Vanuatu.  The first stop was breakfast, since it's included!  The next stop was the post office to send my postcards, they have turtle stamps so I made sure they put those ones on!  I want some material with turtles on and some that will remind me of Vanuatu so I went in search of a shop with lots of variety.  I found one and began rumaging through the piles of remnants and precut bits.  I found one with turtles, one that looked like erupting lava and one which I just liked.  It was then a rush back to the hotel for a shower and to check out.  I was just in time to check out!  Yet again the girl said 'Arh Miss Jones!', I think I may have made an impression!  I paid up and, after telling an old guy why I prefered to have my backpack instead of a case on wheels, jumped in a taxi to the airport.  I was abit to keen I think as I had over an hours wait at the airport before I could even check in.  It wasn't to bad a wait as I sat and people watched.  There was two french guys who were complaining about the fact the internet wasn't working.  When the check in desks opened I wasn't very quick and ended up behind a group who had just arrived, they were faffing and hadn't filled out the departure forms.  Typical, first there and stuck behind a slow group.  When I got to the desk the guy wanted to see my Australian visa, I don't have a copy as the annoying girl in the travel agents didn't give me a copy it is all sorted online.  He disappered off to call immigration to see if they would let me in, ridiculous!  Not surprisingly they said yes and he gave me my boarding card.  The security wasn't yet open so I sat and waited with everyone else.  I was the first one through secturity and on the other side I got a drink and sat to watch the planes taking off.  A guy bussled over muttering about loosing something.  He began to talk to me and said he had lost his boarding card, and it was because he had 3 computers.  He kept talking to me as he checked all his computers and bags and pockets for the ticket.  Once he had found it he told me he was there as he had been filming a sort of documentry about the king of Tanna.  The last king was apparently thrown in prison and sent to France, before he died he handed the throne over to this king.  He was making a film a bit like the program that was on tv a few years ago about four guys from Vanuatu who were taken to London called the Natives.  The french guys I had seen complaining earlier turned out to be the king and the prince.  It was interesting to listen to this guy tell me all about the trip and showed me clips of the king meeting the people of Tanna.  He took my picture with the king (whos name I can't remember unfortunatly), I said hello in french and instantly regretted it as he asked if I could speak french and when I said I spoke a very small amount he didn't really listen and talked away.  I didn't really understand any of what he said but smiled and said thank you for the picture.  The chatty guy began then to show me his gadgets and it was quite interesting.  When they opened the gate he was the first one to jump up and bussle over to be the first on, I just waited until the queue had gone down abit and I was sitting at the front of the plane so thought I wouldn't have far to walk once I got on.  Once on the plane I found a super sudoku in the magazine and thought I would give it a go.  It took the whole three hour flight and even then I hadn't finished it, I had done a few other puzzles as well.  The flight was abit bumpy but generally not to bad.  Once I had my bag I headed to the train station and jumped on the train to town.  It was raining when I got off the train and went to find a taxi to the hostel.  I had to ask a few people in the station which way the taxi rank was and one woman began to tell me I was going the wrong way and the tax office was in another suburb!  People need to listen better I think!  A very nice man showed me the way and held the door open for me.  Once I checked in to the hostel and got settled, in the same room and same bed as last time I stayed here, I set out to find some tea.  Once I had eaten I went and had a lovely shower and climbed into my squeaky bed! 


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Day 105 Cascades

It is my last full day in Vanuatu, I am a little sad.  I got up to say goodbye to Jenita, as she leaves today, then went and had some breakfast.  I spent most of the morning chilling in my room and sorting out my stuff to pack it back into my bag.  I looked up things to do in Port Vila on a sunday as the shops are all closed.  I ahd read about the cascades (waterfall) before I came and thought it would be quite good to go as you can absail down them.  Unfortunatly they don't do it on a sunday so I would have to settle for walking up to the base of the falls.  I went to the reception desk to ask the best way to get there, I think I may have asked a few to many questions over the last few days because as I walked to the desk the lady said 'Arh Miss Jones!'.  I'm sure it's not that good when they know your name, or maybe it is! Anyway she said a bus would be the cheapest so I got a my camera and put on my board shorts and bikini and set off to geta bus there.  The bus driver was abit starnge and stopped at a petrol staion for five minutes to talk to someone but mot get petorl.  At the cascades I walked up the steps to the waterfall.  It is a 20metre fall and you can walk up the stream to the bottom of it but you have to walk holding on to a rope as the water runs quite fast in some places and can take you balance quite easily.  When I got to the base I was the only one there and so tried to take pictures of myself using the self timer.  This would have worked fine had there not been so much spray as I got a really good picture apart from the water drop right over my head!   Then, very inconsideratly, my battery died!  Rude!  As I walked back down, taking a detour to the look out over the city, there were a few more peolpe climbing up and I had to wait for them to pass as I didn't want to get in their way on the slippery rocks.  A the very bottom I jumped into the pool, there was a local family there and I got talking to them.  Once I was sufficently prune like from being in the water for a couple of hours I set off walking down the road to catch a bus back to town.  As is always the case when you want a bus they are always going in the other direction!  One did look like it was going to turn round for me but it just turned into to cascades entrance.  I was quite a way down the road when I heard a bus coming in my direction so I stuck my hand out.  It stopped and the door opened and the family I had been talking to were inside.  The bus was also the one I thought was going to turn round.  Bonus.  Back at the hotel I decided maybe I hadn't been in water for long enough so jumped into the pool to write my postcards.  I thought I had better send Vanuatu postcards form Vanuatu as it would look very strange sending them from Australia!  There was a group of Australian netball players staying at the hotel too and they came back from their games and jumped in the pool too cool off.  I had finished my postcards by this point and was swimming up and down,.  As I swam to the deep end and turned around, the netball leader was heading towards me and she looked like she was talking to me.  I looked at her and she said 'oh', turned round and ran off.  I could hear her saying she thought I was one of the players!  Hehe!  I stayed in the pool for a bit just floating around then once I got cold I went for a shower.  I ate in the hotel again as it had been so nice yesterday and I wasn't disapointed.  I then went up to my room and packed everything into my bag while listening to my iPod.  It took me quite a while to squeeze everything in so it was late by the time I got into bed. 


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Day 104 Volcano Day

I got up early this morning to meet the others for an early breakfast before Jenita goes on the volcano tour.  I had called a company yeaterday to try and go on a tour too but they had told me to call today at 7am.  We met at 6.30 and waited in the restaurant for the waitress.  It was only when I went to call the tour company that I found out breakfast doesn't start until 7am!  I could of had another half an hour in bed!  When I managed to get through to the company they said the tour was going ahead and I had to be at the airport at 8.30.  The volcano is called Mount Yasur and is on another of the Vanuatu islands called Tanna.  After breakfast I threw a few things in my bag; sunscreen, camera, stop itch cream for my bites and my purse.  Said goodbye to Jessie, as she will have left before we get back, and got a bus to the airport.  At the airport Jenita was already there and had checked in for her tour.  There was no one at the desk for my tour so I got a bottle of water and sat to wait.  There was a group of people also hanging around the desk so I presumed htey were for the tour too.  The guy arrived and took our payments and weights then went to get the plane ready.  He gave us specific seats on the plane as it only had seven seats and the weight had to be distrabuted evenly.  I was put in the seat next to the exit door and had to make sure it was locked properly once everyone was in.  The pilot got in, started the propeller and we moved to the end of the runway to take off.  The take off was a little rocky but not to bad considering the size of the plane.  I took pictures of Vila as we went higher.  There was a few clouds in the sky and that made it even more beautiful as the plane went over them and the sun cast a rainbow in a circle around the shadow of the plane.  It was warm in the plane as it had been in the sun before we got in, I struggled to stay awake and did a good head bobbing impression!   The flight took about an hour and the landing was a bit more rocky than the take off, to the point that I thought we were going to land all cock-eyed.  Jenita's plane landed a few minutes after ours.  We went in to the ariport and through into the car that would take us to the volcano. 

First we stopped at a hotel for a drink and toilet stop as the volcano is a 2 hour drive from the airport.  The roads on this island are very bumpy so the drive was a bit uncomfortable.  The guide explained about the village life which was everything I already knew and experienced.  We stopped at a lookout point, which to be honest was more like a gap in the bushes on the side of the road, to take pictures of the volcano from a distance.  The landscape is crazy it is forest and green then black ash plains and the volcano.  Jenita's car had stopped to so we took pictures of each other then carried on.  As we got closer the ground began to change until we were driving on the ash plains.  It was just like black sand, we drove passed a group of locals who were trying to walk up it, crazy people!  We stopped alittle bit away to take some more pictures, as we were doing so there was a really loud rumble, the guide said casually 'that's it erupting'.  Erupting and I can hear it from far away!!!  A little scared now!  He drove us round to behind a few bushs for lunch, classy and it got even more classy when lunch was greasy fried egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce and cucumber!  Once everyone had had there sandwich we set off to drive to the edge of the crater to watch Yasur erupt!  I just hoped Jenita was there too. 

It didn't take very long to get to the top, well it wasn't quite the top we had to walk up the path the edge of the crater.  Jenita was there all ready and her group were sat at the top of the path, I later found out this was so they could see which way the lava was flying so they would know the safest way to walk.  Our guide however just motored on by and took us up the path.  Jenita came to join me as she wanted me to hold her hand.  As we walked up the guide kicked a large piece of rock, about a metre diameter, and said very casually 'it spat that out last night'.  Spat!!!  Last night!!!  Well that was it for Jenita she didn't want to go any higher but I held on to her and carried on up.  Then it rumbled, we screamed and it erupted!  Throwing molton rock high into the air.  That was it for me as the rock was coming in our direction and it was only the wind that was slowing it down before it got to us.  I did however have my wits enough to get a picture and video of the eruption.  This however turned out to be the best video I would get, ironic, as its the one were I am running away!  Jenita and I retreated back to the bench by the path.  The volcano was quiet for quite a while then, considering it has been erupting about every five minutes according to the guides.  As it erupted again I was very glad we weren't at the top as it was a much bigger eruption and the rock landed only metres from the people at the very top!  Scary stuff!  Once I had my fill of flying molton rock and rumbling ground I went back down to the car to wait for the rest of my group.  I aplogised to everyone if they had my screaming ruining their videos!  My legs were absolutely back with ash and due to having put supersonic sunscreen on it was well and truely stuck!  Nice! 

On the drive back we took a slightly different route and went along the coast to see the people fishing.  Their was whole families there parents, and grandparents fishing and the kids playing with sticks and trying to fish.  The pilot wasn't at the airport when we got there so the driver went to get him.  When he arrived he said he was surprised we were back to early.  We told him Yasur had been quite active and the rock had got quite close to the group, I did add that I had already ran away by that point.  We jumped back in the plane with an extra passenger this time so a few people had to swop seats to keep the weight equal.  I was still in the same seat and again looked out for wild life in the sea as we flew.  I was lucky this time though, I thought I saw something but it went behind the wheel of the plane.  As we moved on I saw it was 2 whales swimming.  I was so excited to tell the others that I missed getting a picture.  Then as I looked again after telling the guy in front of me there was a third whale just behind the others.  I wish we had been lower so I could see them better and maybe got a picture.  I didn't fall asleep on this flight, after spotting the whales I had my eyes peeled for more things.  I saw a pod of dolphins too but they were to small to show people and we were moving to fast for photos.  The landing was again rocky but I am typing this so we made it down ok! 

When I go to the hotel I went to see if Jenita was back yet, but she wasn't so I went to the pool and read my book and tried to get the ash off my legs.  Jenita did the same when she got back, luckly it wasn't enough to turn the water black!  We stayed in the pool for ages chatting again, as the sun went down a guy came round and lit oil burners around the pool.  It looked really pretty.  We did eventually get cold and decided to get dressed and eat at the hotel.  I put a dress on that I hadn't worn at all on the island but that had been out on the shelf and it stank of damp and mould!  It wasn't mouldy but it is definatly going in the wash tomorrow with everything else that I didn't wash because I hadn't worn!  Dinner was beautiful!  We then went to the bar for a cocktail after our near death experience (I know probaly not really near death but thats how it had felt at the time!).  The bar had just closed but the barman said he would make us a quick cocktail.  We got chatting to him and discovered it was his last shift as he was going to train and work on cruise liners.  The cocktail was lovely too.  Then to bed I was exhausted. 

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Day 103 Bye Bye Moso Hello Hot Shower!

I think we jumped out of bed this morning, grapefruit for breakfast then finish off the packing.  Kalo seemed to be very keen to get us off the island very early as the boat was ready to leave earlier than it has ever been on a friday!  We loaded all our stuff into the boat and showed Kalo the tings we were leaving, sheets, mosquito coills, shampoo etc, so he could hand it out later.  Amazingly as we got to the other side the bus was also early and we squeezed on and headed for Vila.  It doesn'e really feel like we are leaving as we have done this journey every friday so I won't believe it has finished until this evening when we won't be coming back.  We droped everyone off in town and shook hands with lots of people, some of which I don't think we have met until today.  The bus then dropped us at the hotel and as I said the first thing we did was to put our clothes in to the laundry!  We went  to the internet cafe to check our flights and then to the cafe for lunch.  Kalo was supposed to be meeting us for lunch but when he arrived he had already eaten with some friends he met.  We said good bye and he left us to it.  After lunch we went a looked in some fancy, nice smelling shops.  We met back at the cafe for afternoon tea, which for me wasn't tea it was cheesecake!!  Yum! 

We walked back to the hotel, checked in and picked up our clean clothes!  The first port of call was the pool!  We spent quite a while just chilling, chatting and messing aorund in the water.  I then had the best shower ever!  We walked down to the cafe for tea and to watch the film.  The walk down was really dark as none of the street lamps were lit.  The film was due date, it was funny and the food was really really nice.  Back at the hotel Jessie and I tried out a face mask we had bought to day but it didn't stay on very long as after about 3 minutes it began to burn!  It was washed off quickly!  We chatted for a while then I headed ot my room and had another quick shower just because I can!  It still doesn't quite feel real that we have finished with the turtle project, am sure it will sink in soon. 

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Day 102 Packing and Party

This is the last full day on Moso island!  I was a bit sad as I had breakfast but this unfortunatly didn't last long.  I went to get our clothes from the other bungalow only to be greeted by fleas!!!!!  Yes FLEAS!!!  They were all over my legs and I just grabbed my clothes and ran out in to the open.  Yuck Yuck Yuck!1 now not only do I have lots of mosquito bites I also have flea bites!!  I bashed all my clothes against a tree to try and get any fleas off them.  We all had a wash in the hope that once we felt clean it would all seem a bit better.  It worked alittle bit but still once we get to the hotel tomorrow everything is going on a boil wash!  Jessie and I then looked at our packing and decided that a couple of games of cards would be a better idea to start with.  We went back for another look and decided that we should take the chalk to the school first, so thats what we did.  School had finished early so we just gave it to one of the teachers and went back to tackle the packing.  I managed to get everything to go in my bag apart from the things I need for this evening and tomorrow.  We went up to ethas kitchen to see the food they were preparing for our feast tonight.  Whole fish fried in a pan which we had seen Susan wasing out in the sea earlier.  We went back to our kitchen and made popcorn for the feast, the first batch was burnt but we seemed to get the hang of it after that.  Qutie a lot of people came down and Kalo gave a speech half in English and half in Baslama.  He gave us each a wooden turtle which was really cute and asked us to say a few words.  I said thank you for having us in the village and for taking care of us through the earthquakes and tsunami.  For cooking for us and for teaching us to weave!  We ate and then the party began!  The music was some Vanuatu string band but was quite catchy however every song seemed to be the same.  It was like being at a school disco at a junior school,  girls on one side, boys on the other.  A few of the boys came and grabed us to dance, they spent the whole time laughing with their friends and trying to twirl us with out notice which was interesting.  We danced for 2 hours to the same song about ten times!  They did play one english song which was good.  It was a fun evening and we got in to bed quite tired after the dacning.  Last night on Moso island! 

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Day 101 Last Day At The Beach

Today is the last time we will walk to turtle beach!  As I have said before I have come to quite like the walk to the beach.  I sang to the playlist we made yeaterday for most of the walk.  Even the walking along the beach we enjoyable today, possibly because we know we don't have to do it again.  John once again found nests for us to dig.  When your digging its a bit like am I ever going to find the eggs as you seem to have dug a deep hole but there is no sign.  Poor turtles digging such deep holes when they are in labour!  Just as you are about to give up you take one more hand full of sand and there they are.  Then it seems there is no end to the eggs, you think you have them all and do one last check in the hole and about 30 more fall out of one of the walls!  One of the nests I dug turned out to be a very good nest.  As I dug there was a baby turtle poking out of the side of the hole, cute!  I gently picked it out and took it down to the beach, as I took pictures Jenita came down with another one!  Two baby turtles in one nest and on our last day!  They will be called Kasita (my turtle) and Murtle (Jenitas turtle).  One of Murtles front fins didn't seem to be working, I hope she will be ok in the big blue ocean!  I watched as the waves came in and took them out to sea, tumbling them through the rocks.  The name Kasita is a mixture of our names, the Ka for Katie, the si form Jessie and the ta from Jenita!  John found the seeding coconut we had found the other day and planted it for us, I hope that it grows big and tall so I can come back some day and climb it!  As we walked back to the path I some how managed to walk face first into a big branch!  Ouch sore nose!  I honestly have no idea how I managed it because it was a huge branch!  On the walk back home we all seemed quite lively, dancing to the music, Jenita even doing the moon walk!  It rained alittle bit which was quite nice and refeshing, I joked that the rain was the beach crying as it is sad to see us go!  John said thank you to us for all the work we had done and for choosing to come and help with the turtle conservation. 

We spent the afternoon weaving again, I made a mothers day gift for Mum and heart for Dan.  When Susan came in the evening she wasn't happy that we hadn't finished Jenita and Jessis's colourful mats.  She said we would have to finish them in the morning before we could pack.  I think not!  Does she know how long it will take me to pack everything back in to my bag!  After tea Jessie and I went for a late night swim with our head lamps on then we washed and went to finish off the mats by the light of our head torches so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning.  One of the main things that annoyed Jessie was she had told Susan she didn't want to weave anymore but Susan still made her a mat saying she would do it all.  Anyway I helped Jenita and finished Jessie's as she was totally fed up of it, then to bed. 

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Day 100 Weaving Day

Today is a whole day of weaving!  We have pink and purple leaves to weave with as Susan used the dye we bought in town to colour some.  I began by making a little fan but managed to miss a stage so it looked a bit odd but still pretty with the colours.  I wrote out step by step instructions of how to weave the head band so that I can teach the guides when I go home.  I made step by step samples and stuck them along with the instructions, just incase the writing makes no sense in 8 months!  I then finished off my earthquake mat, thats the one we were weaving when the earthquake happened.  Lunch came very very early at 11am!  Susan had started a mat with colours in for me, I tried to follow the pattern but it didn't make and sense and her teaching really is difficult to follow.  Again there were wrong bits but they were in the parts she had done and she kept taking it off me to 'fix my mistakes'!  I had to stop before tea as my eyes hurt and I was getting a head ache from weaving all day.  At tea we had our main and left the bananas for desert, but Susan, Etha and Ethas sister helped themselves and only left us 2 bananas between us!  Rude!!  We had a cunning plan to see if they would do the washing up today and went to fill the drinking water container up after we had eaten.  It worked and all the plates were washed when we got back.  I do think though that if Ethas sister hadn't been there we would have been washing up again, I have a sneaking suspision that it was her who washed not Susan or Etha.  Jessie and I compiled a turtle beach playlist on my iPod for the last walk to the beach tomorrow.  We then attempted to wash the dye off our hands which were now a mixer of purple and pink!  Early to bed in preperation for the last day at turtle beach! 


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Day 99 Chillaxing

Today is the second to last trip to the beach, I am a little sad to be honest.  I grown to like the walking boping along to my iPod!  At the beach we dug unmarked nests that John (turtle man) found for us.  There was one live baby in one of the nests and Jentia took it to the beach to release it.  This one will be called Suzie.  We asked if we could set off back for home earlier to try and avoid walking in the sweltering midday sun.  At the start of the track we had had a quick rest.  John showed us how to shell a coconut with a stick and found a coconut tree for us to climb again!  I think I may take it up as a new hobby!  He also made a sand turtle and found a seeding coconut that he said we will plant on our last day at the beach.  Jessie and I had bought lolly pops for the walk back so we got them out, I started the music and we were off.  On the way back I photo documented the track taking pictures every 10metres or so!  I think I may make them into a flick book so its like your walking the track yourself!!  Genius idea if you ask me!  Dispite leaving the beach earlier it was still a roasting walk back in the sun.  We crashed when we got back and after rehydrating and lunch we sat back to have a relaxing afternoon making the gifts for Susan and Etha.  I taught Jessie and Jenita how to tie the knot to make the braclets and we improvised a way to stick a shell on it too.  We had bought a candle and poured some wax in to the shell them put the thread in and put more wax on top.  It seemed to work pretty well, again genius!  It was a fun afternoon just chatting and messing about making things.  After we had eaten our tea Susan and her friends came and finished off what we had left.  They then left, leaving all their dirty plates saying girls you wash up always so we left the plates.  Now we do wash the plates but by plates I mean the ones the food is bought on, which is actually what Susan gets paid to do.  This really annoyed us, as we really don't mind washing them but it was a bit rude.  Tomorrow Susan has us weaving all day!!  I think I may have been a little to enthusiastic about the weaving, and it is getting a little boring now.  Especially as she sets us off then comes and throws a finshed one down on top of ours as if to say 'and thats how it done'!  Oh well at least we have coloured ones to play with! 


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Day 98 Diving Day

WooHoo!!!!  Diving day!!!  I jumped out of bed this morning and got ready to go diving.  The pick up was at 9am so we were all ready and waiting with plenty of time to spare.  9am came and went, then 9:15 and 9:30, Kalo came down and was surprised we were still there.  He called the shop and we could hear the boat motoring it's way to pick us up.  We arrived at the dive centre and it was only the three of us so Jessie and Jentia would be diving off the beach and I am going out on the boat.  I got all my kit and set off on the boat to the first dive site.  It was just round the corner from the anchor we snorkeled at yesterday.  It is called the Bottlefish reef because there are coca cola bottles in the coral from world war 2.  There are also thermal vents were water that has been heated in the ground flows out.  Once kitted up we jumped in and as we desended I was so surprised by the visability.  I could see really far, I have never dived somewhere with such good visability.  As we swam over the thermal vents it was lovely to swim through warm water.  I took lots and lots of pictures and kept keeping an eye out for turtles and manta rays, as the divemaster said her partner had seen a 5m wide manta ray at this spot a few days earlier.  It was so beautiful but I began to get cold as the dive went on and wished that we could go back to the termal vents to warm up!  We got out and we motored back to the centre. 

Jessie was still in the water, Jentia hadn't managed to do it she couldn't get the breathing right so had done some snorkelling instead.  I rinsed off under a running shower!!!!  You really have don't know how exciting it was to be under running water, even if it did come out of a coconut shower!  Once Jessie had finished we went to the kitchen for lunch, steak and salad, tasty!  The dive leaders took us down to the 'turtle sanctuary' after we had eaten.  I know I put it in inverted comas that is because I don't think it can really be classed as a turtle santuary.  They take baby turtles from the nests when they hatch and keep them in tanks.  They feed them with mashed up fish and squid and anything else the catch.  This is not what turtles eat, they eat coral.  there is one rock in the tanks with the larger turtles that they fight over climbing on.  They looked so cramped and just not right in my opinion.  The tiny baby ones were very cute though but there are loads of them in small tanks.  Anyway enough of my ranting.  We headed to the boat to go for another dive, this time Jessie would come down with me and 2 dive masters and Jenita would snorkel above us.  We jumped in and went down the bow line.  Jessie had some trouble with her ears and so me and my divemaster began the dive with out them.  Again the visability was really really good and the fish are all so beautiful.  I was taking alot of pictures as usual and as I was trying to take a close up of something my dive master began to gesture at me.  I looked up at her and she was signning that there was a sting ray.  I  looked round to see a big devil ray or pigmy ray,  gliding off into the distance.  I tried to get a photo but it was to far away by the time I had faffed around.  We jumped out at the end of the dive and I was a little disapointed that I hadn't seen a turtle, Jessie had seen one on her first dive off the beach.  But as I was getting dry we spotted one at the surface not far from the boat.  It was to far to try and swim to it before it went under again but it was huge and really cool to see for a good few minutes as it took a few breaths.  Once all on board we headed back to the centre to fill out my book and wash all the kit.  Now this is the trouble when I dive that I do a couple then I don't want to stop!  I would be quite happy to stay here for a week or more and dive everyday!  Unfortunatly though our week is fully booked and I will have to be satisfied with todays dives. 

On the boat trip back to the village I spotted 2 more turtles one quite a distance away and one that was just going under the water right next to me!  When we got back home we remembered that the woman who was down to cook our food for today was having to care for her ill husband so we had bought stuff to cook our own meal in Vila on our day off.  The idea was to make some sort of wrap/quasadia/taco thing.  We had lettuce, peppers, cheese, sweetcorn and carrot.  Due to Kalo and  the other men putting their leaking bottles of kava in the cool box with our food, the peppers were ruined and the carrot was only just saveable!  Men!  We did the best we could and the end result wasn't to bad to be honest, better than I had imagined anyway.  We shared it with Susan and she took the left overs to her daugthers.  Jenita had showered while Jessie and I had prepared the food, so Jessie and I went to wash our hair by torch light which wasn't as hard as it sounds and the bonus of doing it at night is there seemed to be less mosquitos.  This is a good thing as when you are having a shower there are places they can bite where you don't want mosquito bites!!!!  Once all clean we chatted for a while to give our hair a chance to dry, there is no such thing as a hairdryer when you have little solar electricty.  Then to bad, diving is quite tiring and as I lay in bed I could feel the bruises from my weight belt begin to develop!  But well worth it!!

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Day 97 Moso Island Tour

Today we will fanilly get to go on the tour of Moso island, the island we are living on.  Now this may sound like an organised tour that other people would join us on but no it is Jessie, Jenita, Kalo and I, in a boat for the day.  So after breakfast and slapping about half a bottle of sunscreen on we hopped in the boat and set off.  Once we were out of shallow water Kalo let me crive the boat.  It did take abit of getting used to as when you push the handle right you go left and we did wiggle along a bit.  It was fun but I think I prefer the sailing boat.  We arrived at the first snorkelling spot and Kalo chucked us in the water, not literally of course.  It was beautiful and makes me even more excited for diving.  While we were swimming Kalo went off to try adn catch fish with the lure we had bought yesterday in town.  The main attraction at this spot was a large anchor for a war ship that was here in the second world war.  It was quite interesting to see but what was more interesting was trying to get back into the boat from the water.  When I say interesting I obviously mean hilarious!  I'm not sure belly flopping quite does it justice and I can't really think of any way to descibe it, needless to say we were all in stitches.  We stopped off at a few more good spots for snorkelling, the fish are so bright and so many of them.  I also tried my hand a lure fishing which unfortunatly, due to Kalos slow driving, it didnt go to well.  The lure got caught and the line twanged out of my hand and I ended up with big welcks ont my legs were it caught me.  At this piont we decided it was about time to stop for lunch.  Now the lunch was what ever we had bought from the shop and fruits prepared by the women in the village.  However Kalo had forgotten to bring the fruit so we just had crackers and cheese, which was a bit sweaty due to the heat, oh and full of fruit biscuits.  The beach we stopped at for lunch was the beach the crew lived on while they filmed Survivour the reality TV programme.  The fire island was just behind us as we ate, Kalo told us about when the contestants were there and one woman came and took the food out of the crews cool box.  I think she was then thrown off the show.  The weather took a slight turn for the worst and it began to rain and we could hear thunder in the distance.  As with most tropical climates this didn't last long and the sun was shining again.  I wanted to try and climb a coconut tree so Kalo took us down the beach to find one to climb.  It was hilarious trying to climb, I ended up taking my shoes off to climb as it was easier.  Jessie was my spotter incase I sliped and Jenita the photographer.  I didn't get a coconut mainly because there weren't any on the tree, I did reach the top though!  As we walked back to the boat I found a small hermit crab that kept folding it's self up in the shell then poking its head out.  It is crazy to see them all folded up.  Jentia had a slight wardrobe malfunction as she tried to jump back into the boat and this put Kalo in hysterics. 

The next stop was a secret beach, however it wasn't so secret becuase there was a group of people on it.  Kalo wasn't very impressed as they hadn't asked permission from the island chiefs.  We just cruised passed and on to turtle beach.  Oh my word it is a long beach!!  I mean I know its long because it takes a long time to walk from one end to the other but when you see it from the sea and can see the whloe length of it, man its long!  I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture I had to take a series of photos to join together later.  The last stop was at Moso caves.  Here we were going to snorkel into the cave, but the tide was to low and when the waves went out there wasn't enough water for us to swim in.  We settled for snorkelling around the outside.  When we had got cold and it was time to go back we all jumped, gracefully, back into the boat.  But there was a problem, Jenita couldn't pull the anchor up.  we tried wiggling the rope to no avail.  So I was nominated to jump in and see what the problem was.  Lucky me!  When I got in it looked like the anchor had broken a large peice of coral and that had fallen trapping the line.  I dived down to see if i could wiggle the line free but no luck.  I came up and said Kalo would be better as he can hold his breath a bit longer than I can.  He didn't seem keen on getting wet, so while he faffed round getting a mask I dived down again to try and move the coral.  I managed to pick it up and move it out of the way and free'd the line!  Woohoo!!  We pulled the anchor up and motored home.  It was a good and quick trip back.  After tea we chilled and I again tried to get my diary upto date!  Diving tomorrow I can't wait!!

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Day 96 Day Off

Another day off, and I have a skype date with Dan!!  This would be the day the boat was late and the bus was late and there was a parade in town so it took us ages to get to the internet cafe!  The internet isn't that good over here so it was more like a MSN chat than actual video skype but still it was good to talk to him.  We spent about 2 hours on the internet and by that time it was lunch time.  We went to the cafe that shows films as their menu had looked really nice.  I had eyes bigger than my belly and couldn't finish the salad mix I had.  After lunch we went a did the shopping we had to do and bought the gifts for the people who have looked after us on the island.  We are going to make them something as it is more personal than just buying something.  We had time to kill so we went back to our favourite haunt the internet cafe.  On the way back to the boat we stopped again at the kava bar.  This time however we didn't partake this time for the sake of our health!  It was again dark as we got back to the village but Jentia had her torch with her.  Once we had sorted our shopping out and eaten dinner we were pretty tired and washed then went to bed early.  There was yet another earthquake!!  I hope that it is the last one! 


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Day 95 Earthquake Day

The beach again this morning, as we had dug a few nests last visit there wasn't really anything for us to dig.  John, AKA turtle man, found us enough nests to keep us busy.  There were alot of hatched eggs and not many bad ones and there was even one baby turtle!  I took it down and put it on the beach thenwent to help witht he digging.  When I looked up the turtle had got stuck ont he rocks, I went down and put it closer to the water and watched it crawl to the sea.  They are so cute I want to put one in my pocket!  It was really really hot as we walked back to the village and this made it seem longer than normal.  The plan for the afternoon was to go to the school but by the time we had walked back, washed and changed it was to late.  As I was putting my wash stuff away there was an earthquake!  I ran outside as I thought it would be better to be outside than inside.  Kalo came runnign down to check on us because he thought we were in the water and had come to get us out in case there was a tsunami.  As we weren't going to the school Susan gave us another mat to weave, this one was an easier pattern.  After Dinner we carried on until there was again another earthquake!  This one was bigger and lasted longer, it was like being in a bowl of jelly!  It freaked me out a bit and we went to pack our valubles back into a bag just in case.  We went to Kalos to see if the radio had said anything but he hadn't been listening to it so he turned it on and said he would call us if we needed to move.  We went back and went to bed, I didn't think I would sleep well though. 


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Day 94 Siviri Cave

After breakfast Kalo came to take us to Siviri cave.  When we asked him if the tsunami was still around he didn't say anything and hurried us into the boat.  This made me suspicious that it was still around he didn't want to tell us.  Stanley, Kalos 4 year old came with us and he is so cute.  On the way we saw a turtle in the water but it was going down after taking a breath.  The weather is beautiful and sunny and the water is so blue you can see the bottom.  On the way we passed a few islands and one was pretty flat, I thought I'm glad I wasn't on that island when the tsunami was coming for us!  At the cave we walked down to the entrance and went inside.  It used to be full of water but because the villagers had used it as drinking water the level had dropped and it was no longer good for drinking water.  The guide took us one by one in a kayak deeper into the cave.  It was pitch black and I was glad we had our torches.  The ground was quite slippy and seemed to be covered in brown mud, it was however bat poo!  The guide led the way deeper into the cave and the roof got lower and lower until we were almost pot holing!  There was no way of avoiding putting our hands in the poo as we crawled through the cave.  We came to the end and took a few picture but they aren't very good as it was very dark.  When we got back to the kayak the guide gave us the option of swimming back through the water or going in the kayak.  I decided I wanted to swim as it was fresh water and would be nice and refershing.  We put our cameras and the other two put their torches in the kayak and I kept mine on so we could see.  The water was nice and refreshing until I saw the layer of poo on the surface!  We climbed out of the cave and walked back to Kalo and had some fruit.  The guide then took us out for a snorkel to see the giant clams.  I have to say I was a little disapionted at the size of the giant clams because they were no where near as 'giant' as I imaginged.  Also the coral was quite ruined as the locals just stand on it and break it.  The fish were beautiful though and I took, as usual, lots of pictures. 

On the way back to the village we stopped at an area they were burning and cutting the trees down so they can split it and sell the land for development.  I didn't like it seeing all the tree stumps and burning trees, so we didn't stay long.  We picked some people from the main land who had supplies for the clinic.  Again on the way back we saw a turtle swimming on the surface.  Fish for lunch which was really tastey.  Kalo came to take us out snorkelling again just off the beach by our bungalow to see more giant clams.  These were more the size I imagined as giant clams.  The fish were even more beautiful and the coral not quite as destroyed.  I saw two turtles swimming down in the water but was so excited and wanted to show the others that I didn't manage to get a picture.  We also saw; clownfish, black and white stripped ones, blue spotted ray and the lips of a sweet lips!  The only problem with snorkelling is that I forget and try to trun my head like I am diving which means I put the end of my snorkel in the water and end up with a mouth fill of nasty salt water.  I am even more excited about diving on sunday!  After collecting water and washing we carried on with our mats, Susan showed us how to finish them off.  Kalo came and said the tsunami had still been around this morning but he didn't want to tell us incase we wouldn't go!  It was fish again for tea and I think it was a parrot fish as Jenita had the beak of it and thought it was a shell fish!  Beach again in the morning so not a late night. 

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Day 93 Weaving Mats

We are abit fed up of not being able to do anything and so this mornign decided that we would go to the turtle beach.  I felt dodgy as we walked as I haven't been well the last few days but managed the walk because it was better than just sitting round.  We walked along the beach and checked nest as we passed them.  There were quite a few that been dug agaes ago but stillhad the sticks and ribbons on.  We checked the peperwork and took off the ones that had been dug as it is just confusing.  We dug a few nests and managed to find one we had searched for the other day.  I managed to stick my finger in a couple of bad eggs and the smell turned my stomach!  Over all it was quite a productive morning. 

After lunch we did some more weaving.  Susan taught us how to make mats, these were alot more complicated than the other things we have done.  I think it is partly the way she explains things.  She just says you do this over and this under and this over and does it really fast.  When you ask her to repeat it she does the same thing so you have to be able to pick it up from watching her speedy demo.  Then once you have done it she says no you did it wrong, I'll fix your mistake.  Most of the time its the bit she did thats wrong!!  Oh well we got there in the end and managed to help each other.  Well we kind of just made it up and did go wrong a one point but just kept quiet.  We carried on and chatted afetr dinner, Kalo came and said we would be going to the cave tomorrow if the tsunami had gone away.  It got dark and we gave up on the mats for today as it hurt our eyes in the bad light. 


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Day 92 Wan Smol Bag

Today we were supposed to be doing the island tour but the tsunami is still roaming around so it is postponed again.  Instead Susan taught us to weave fans, I managed to weave a relly little one which was really cute.  We spent most of the morning and early afternoon weaving and making random things.  The local drama group had come to do a play for the village so we went to watch it too.  It was in bislama so we couldn't really understand it but I think it was about sexual harrassment.  Everyone in from the village was laughing, which was strange.  A few of the children came over and played with us once the play had finished, they really like round and round the garden so we did that abotu a thousand times.  After dinner Susan came and saw our weaving and was delighted, Jessie had made a turtle.  Susan is always happy with our weaving but is very quick to tell us she can do it better and is the best in the village.  This is a very short post but as we can't do much because of the tsunami. 

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Day 91 Melody Melody

Woke up feel surprisingly ok, it didn't last long though! We got ready for church as we can't go to the beach because of the tsunami, as the turtle beach is on the north side of the island.  Kalo came down to tell us that there wouldn't be any church as someone from the village, who lived in another village, had died so everyone would be going there.  We changed out of our sunday best and filled up the water bucket.  We went down to Kalos and played with the children, I sang some silly action guide songs for them and tried to teach them hopscotch.  I drew pictures of animals on the ground and got the kids to guess what they were.  This proved quite amusing as my drawing skills are not that good.  After lunch we sat in the shade under a tree and did a bit of weaving and diray writing.  In the eveing we went to Kalos and watched videos with his kids.  They were very strange videos, one was songs by the destined kids and the other was a video by a local drama group about STIs.  A very strange thing to be watching with kids as young as 4!  Hopefully we will be going on the island tour tomorrow so early bed as none of us have been to well over the weekend and it will be a long day. 



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Day 90 Down from the Hill

As 1am came and went and the updates said the ETA was now 1:30, then 2am, I became more tired and slept between updates.  I had to wrap myself in my waterproof as I was being eaten alive by mosquitos, even through my cloths!  Eventually I think I fell asleep for a few hours and woke as the sun came up.  There seemed to be a lot less people on the hill and I could see people packing up.  Kalo said all was safe and we could go down to the village.  I had begun to feel unwell and kept having to beathe to stop myself from being sick.  The woman who had made breakfast was sorry that she had made bread but because we had all been up the hill she hadn't managed to cook it.  We were just greatful that she had bought us anything for breakfast.  The island tour was postponed as the advice was to stay off the water. 

We collected water and all had a shower.  After I felt even worse, Jessie and I played cards and lay on the floor of the dining room on our sarongs and slept on and off.  The lunch was lovely but I could only manage a couple of mouthfuls of rice.  After another nap I had to run off and was sick, I did feel alittle better afterwards but went and slept again.  We went to Kalos and sat anad chatted to a few people for a bit but soon had to go back and sleep.  Again at tea I managed a few mouthfuls of rice but again was sick.  We played cards and Jessie and I came to the conclusion that it is the Kava that is making us ill.  Tha tide today has been very strange it has gone in and out at least every hour.  We called the dive people and changed it to next sunday too.  I fell asleep very quickly as I was exhausted. 


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Day 89 Tsunami!!!

Today is our second day off and trip to Port Vila. The boat was full of people from the village and a cool box for our food for the island tour tomorrow.  Once we got to Vila we went straight to the Internet cafe. After some well needed Internet time we set off the get everything we had written on our list so we wouldn't forget anything. It was quite a longish list! Jenita and I bought blankets as it had been cold with the wind blowing through the window on to us. We got chalk for the school and gum ball for the kids and food for the island tour.  We went to the dive shop to book a days diving for Sunday, I can't wait I love diving!!  After lunch we went back to kill the rest of the time at the internet cafe.  I got really bad tooth ache after eating a mint and decided that once I get back to Australia I will go to a dentist as this tooth hasn't been right for ages.  I managed to change my flight as well so I hopefully can see some of the other stuff in Vanuatu.  Jessie and I went to get a drink and found a cafe that shows films on a Friday evening so we deceided that we would go there once we finish the turtle project.  The bus back to the boat was busy again and as usual we stopped at a Kava bar again.  We had another try of the kava and, even though I managed a few more mouthfuls, it still tasted vile. 

When we got back to the island it was nearly dark and we only just managed to find our way back to the bungalows.  After dinner we sorted out our purchases and then went to collect water for showers.  Well Jenita went to start collecting it, when Jessie and I got to the well Etha came out and said she needed to talk to us.  Now I honsetly thought that she was going to tell us off for leaving Jenita to collect water on her own in the dark.  If only that had been the case!  She sat down on the bench and said 'there was an earthquake in Japan and there is a tsunami heading our way, Kalo said to get your passports and a change of clothes and go to his so we can go to higher ground'!!!!!!!!!  Well thats obviously what everyone wants to do on a Friday night!  I think panic packing possibly doesn't cover what happened when we got to the bungalow!  I packed everything I would be devistated to loose into my day bag and put everything else into my waterproof bag on the hook on the wall.  We covered each other in insect repellant and put long sleves on to try and protect ourselves from the mosquitos.  Once we had filled our water bottles and got some food to take with us then headed to Kalos.  We all headed up the hill behind Kalos and at the top settled down for the night.  Kalos wife gave us a woven mat to lie on and people put the radio on so we could listen to the hourly updates.  As the hours ticked by and the radio updates were the same.  It had been an 8.9 scale earthquake that had caused a devistaing tsunami that was estimated to reach Vanuatu at 1am, all people should take cautionary action and get to higher ground and listen to the updates for further instructions.  I did keep thinking that the hill didn't seem very high and the image in my head was of a massive wave that would just come and sweep us off the hill.  As the hours ticked by I played suduko on my phone and read emails from Mum and Dad and Dan over and over. 
Continued on next post....

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Day 77 New Boots

Mission for today get new walking boots, as mine have died a very sad death. The soles, despite being glued, have come off again and even more than before. I set off in search of a shop early and as it was Sunday it turned out to be to early. After a wait outside for the shop to open I went in and told the woman what I needed. She tried to get me to buy walking shoes with no ankle support, I think I have worn boots alot and have come to rely on the support they give you.  Luckly the first pair of boots I tried on fitted well and gave the support I wanted, SOLD!  They are also pretty and have pink on them, and are a lot lighter than my old boots.  I went back to the hostel and put them on to walk round town as the woman was horrifed that I don't have 3 weeks to wear them in.  I headed into the city with my list of things to get and managed to tick everything off quite quickly.  I was abit concerned about how much everything weighed as I carried it round and hope that it doesn't tip my bag over the 23kg mark for the flight!  My boots seemed fine as I walked all day in them so fingers crossed I'll have no trouble in Vanuatu.  Once I had ticked everything off my list, I went back to the hostel to pack.  This my friends was a case of tip the bag out and start from scratch!  Much to the dislike of my room mate but hey it was four in the afternoon.  I think I managed to pack it all quite well, however I do have three bags of things to post home which I will have to take to the post office at 7am when they open as I have to be at the airport early to check in!  Once I had done as much as I could I went to meet Nat and friends for dinner, which was really nice and then earlyish night again as I have to be up and at them in the morning. 


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Day 76 Dolphins and broken buses

It was another early morning as the surprise PJ had arranged for us was a trip to feed dolphins at a nearby island.  The bus picked us up and took us to the boat then left to get more people.  While we watied we fed some fish around the boat and once the boat was pretty much full to bursting we set off.  It was a very leisurely ride to the island.  When we arrived there were two dolphins in the bay waiting to be fed.  I can't remember what breed of dolphin they are, sorry.  They come in to the bay everyday to be fed but what they get is oly 5% of there daily food intake so they do not depend on the feeding here to survive and still hunt fish the normal way.  I took lots and lots of pictures (some with an annoying girls head in most of the time as she seemed to want to be in everyones pictures!).  You got a fish in a bucket and queued up to feed one of the dolphins.  I fed the female and was lucky in that once she had taken the fish she touched my hand with her nose too.  The woman working there said they don't often touch you just take the fish, so it was really cool that she touched me!  Once everyone had finished we headed back to the mainland to jump on the bus and head for Brisbane, or so we thought. 

Back at the hostel we checked out and piled our bags up ready to get on the bus.  However, this bus obviously didn't want to break with the tradition of all the other bus and work nicely.  No it was borken too, the water pump was broken so we were going no where!  We therefore had to wait around again for another group to arrive so we could comender their bus.  We killed the time by wandering round the shops (all 8 of them) and writing dirays and going on the internet.  Four hours later the bus had arrived and we jumped on for the 2 hour journey to Brisbane.  The drive however took a bit longer than that and when we arrived in Brisbane PJ told us he didn't really know his way arouind so just dropped us on one of the main roads and we had to walk to our hostels.  This was ok for Nat as her's was only about 5 minutes away, mine was about 25 minutes away!  But no worries as my hostel appeared to be a nice one which had won awards!  Now the plan had been to get here early afternoon so I could get walking boots as mine have well and truly died a number of deaths now.  However due to bus trouble and a longer drive than anticipated all the shops were closed.  I had a shower, checked emails and went to meet Nat and her friend for dinner and drinks as the bar by her hostel was serving free chamagne to girls!  It does pay to be female sometimes!  I think all the partying has taken it's toll on Nat though as she called it a night early.  I walked back to the hostel and climbed into my very very creaky bed!



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Day 75 Fraser Island Continued

Today our breakfast was included and it wasn't toast, it was provided by the hotel we were staying in and it was good!!!  Just like dinner had been yesterday.  There was cereals and fruit and cooked breakfast stuff yum yum!!  After we had eaten all we could manage we checked out and piled back into the cars for todays adventures.  The first stop wasn't far from the hotel at a lake called Lake Wabbley.  We had to walk for about 2km to get to the lake through forest and over sand dunes.  The lake is beautiful just sitting in the midst of forest and sand dunes like something out of a film.  Tina and I made sand angels but they didnt come out as well as snow angels do.  As I was totally covered in sand I jumped striaght into the water which was lovely and cool but was a funny yellow colour.  This is because it has tea tree in from the forest around and is apparently really good for your skin and hair.  Bonus!  The walk back from the lake was supposed to take us past a hidden lake, we didn't pass it and ended up at the look out which was in the opposite direction to the cars.  Ooppss!  It was amazing views though, there was some moaning about the fact we had gone the wrong way but I just ignored them ont he walk back to the car. 

We drove for quite a while to a picnic area for lunch.  The guide took us for a little walk and showed us trees and plants native to Australia.  After we had all eaten he said we could go for a walk ourselves and he and PJ would pick us up at the other end.  No one had seemed that keen before lunch, only Kathi and I but now everyone wanted to come.  We could dordle as we had been late back fromt he lake this morning and if we took to long we would miss the ferry back to the mainland.  It was hard to make sure everyone was close together as Kass kept striding off moaning about slow girls and the girls behind moaned about the fast walking.  Kids!  It was a nice walk and only took us about 40minutes, we saw kookaburas and lizards.  At the end we jumped in the cars for the trip to the last lake, Lake Mckenzie.  This is the main lake that is on all the brochures or Fraser Island and was therefore the busiest.  The sand was lovely white and soft, I spent the whole hour we had there in the water taking silly pictures, usual!  I did nearly wind myself trying to get a good picture of me jumping behind people.  I got changed quickly in the car park and we set off for the hour and half drive back to catch the ferry.  The guide decided to take us off the beaten track so it was a bumpy ride but really really good fun with the bushes nearly coming in through the windows. 

We could see the ferry as we drove along the beach.  The tide was fast coming in and there were a few spots we nearly got stuck as the waves came right up to the cars.  I jumped out to take some pictures and as I was trying to put my shoes on I heard the thing no one wants to hear, 'Dingo'!  I moved so fast I was a blur!  I dived back into the car and shut the door.  Now I know I should of been doing the dingo dance but really instincts took over and I did the better thing getting in the car.  The dingo did just saunter passed and didn't look at us twice.  Once I was sure the dingo had gone I ventured out of the hot car again.  This time my super sonic spotting skills spotted dolphins feeding in a gully about 2 feet from the shore!  There was alot of little fish and they were swimming up and down to catch them.  We couls still see them from the ferry and as they went to deeper water they were jumping.  I do love seeing dolphins they are so graceful and beautiful.  We were later than planned back to the hostel, Nat and I offered to help clean out the cars as they were pretty sandy.  PJ wouldn't let us help so we resigned to the internet.  I tried to get skype to work with Dad but the connection was rubbish so quickly gave that up for a bad job.  I just got my pictures on to my hard drive, then after dinner we were all in bed pretty early as we have to be up early for a surprise!  I can't believe my time in Australia is nearly over, I'll be in another country in 2 days!  So much I need to do before then!! Oh Dear!

Day 74 Fraser Island

Yet another early morning! Yawn! Quick breakfast, store our bags in the luggage room, then to meet the 4x4 to head to Fraser island. Or so we thought, there was a delay and we spent a couple of hours on the Internet while we waited. Eventually 2 cars arrived and we packed our stuff in to them and set off. The guide drove one and PJ drove the other, I was in the one with PJ. On the ferry to the island I spotted a few dolphins but not close enough for a picture. When we arrived at the island we set off driving along the beach to the other end of the island. It was strange driving along the beach and even though the weather wasn't very good I took alot of pictures. I think it's quite hard to drive on sand because there are bumps and you can't really see them as they blend into the landscape. This being the case it was a bumpy ride, but PJ was a good driver. The first stop on the island was at a hotel for a toilet break and then on to Eli creek. Named after the only woman to be captured on Fraser island and survive. It is a beautiful clear creek and you walk along a walk way to the top then walk back to the beach in the water. Kathi and I raced to the water and dived in head first. I scraped my sore knee and pulled some of the scab off it, ouch! It was cold but nice to be in the water. Nat and I tried to take pictures of me flicking water with my hair. They looked quite cool a big arch of water over my head. Not exactly like the pictures in magazines but close hehe! There were big flys and the guide caught and killed one and fed it to a fish swimming in the creek, I also spotted an eel swimming up stream. Once we had all cooled down we got back in the cars and set off to the next spot.

We went to the very north point of the island and climbed up to the top of the cliffs to look for sharks and dolphins. Unfortunately because the weather had been bad the water was all cloudy and we couldn't see anything in there. The views were really good so I took plenty of photos and we did the compulsory group shots. The next stop was a pool called Champagne pools because the sea crashes over rocks into them. It causes a lot of bubbles and foam to form on the surface of the water to look like champagne in a glass. The water was a little chilly and lots of rocks to climb over but we found a sandy part and again tried to take good pictures with the water splashing over the rocks and bubbles all around us.  I think possibly there will be one good picture out of the 30 or so that we took.  It got a bit cold after a while even though the sun was shining so we went to dry off in the sun.  Once back at the cars we headed for the hotel.  On the way we spotted a dingo stroling along the beach with something in its mouth, it turned out to be a coconut.  This began the discusison of what you should do if confronted by a dingo, which carried on for most of the evening.  We also stopped at a spot with some quicksand, I volunteered to stand in it and tried to do it gracfully but failled miserably!  it was very strange, but don't fear there was a rock under the ground that you stood on so you didn't sink all the way under.  There is a video of my 'graceful' quicksand entry!  At the hotel we were very excited to have towels provided in the rooms, luxury!  The dinner was a buffet style and it was lovely, especially the desert!  After we were all sufficiently full a few of us went to check out the beach bar.  On the way the dingo dance was born, this is the dance you should do when confronted by a dingo.  I shall try and describe it, first you stop and stand back to back with someone, then you put your arms across your chest and look the dingo straight in the eyes, finally you walk away from the dingo in a groovy manner!  I'm sure it is more funny when you see it and infact had Anja in stitches on the floor almost.  We couldn't find the beach bar but did find one with a pool table so played a game, which Anja and I won, then headed to bed.  Oh and they were bunk beds so no climbing tonight woohoo!!

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Day 73 Bush Safari

As our bus is broken we are stuck here until Princess comes with another bus for us. This does mean we get a lay in! After breakfast Jonny one of the ranch owners told us all to jump I the back of the truck and he would take us round the national park. To be honest it was more like a bush safari.  It was a bumpy ride in an flat bed truck, through steams and spider webs!  Oh so many spider webs! Nat and Doris were sat in the cab and were supposed to be the spider spotters, and warn us so we could duck under them.  They weren't very good at their job and we nearly got so many massive spiders right in our faces.  It was a long drive all over the national park and ended at a water hole.  Only Kathi, Nat and I went in for a swim.  Well we had to wade out through water plants but it was nice fresh water and we swam over to a rock and messed around with Nat's underwater camera.  It wads brilliant way to spend the morning as we would of just been moping round otherwise. 

Back at the ranch lunch was ready and Princess had arrived so we ate and jumped on the bus for another long drive to rainbow beach.  We slept and chatted on the way but that all soon got boring.  We persuaded Princess to give us a quiz, most people took part.  It was all on Australia or Australian things. Now I must of learned some things from all the stories I have heard on the tours as I won! Woohoo!!  I do love quizzes!  At rainbow beach we were all in the same room and after eating and a few games of pool, we packed overnight bags for our next adventure.


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Day 72 Hidden Talents

Early start to muster the goats. Mustering is the old way of herding animals kept in large areas on horse back. It requires man power and nowadays it is cheaper to do it by helicopter or quad bikes! But for the experience we would be doing it the old way on horse back. I was given a horse called Peanut to ride! I was happy about this as it reminded me of my friend Claire who's nick name is peanut! We set off to find the goats. We could only walk which got a bit frustrating after five minutes. When we found the goats the ranch workers told us the call to get them to move, I'll try to describe it but you really have to hear it to appreciate it fully. It's: aayupupup! Needless to say it took us a little while to feel ok shouting it. It was quite fun moving the goats and the terrain changed too which was interesting. One part was down a steep hill and then straight back up the other side my horse decided she wanted to go first down this bit so off we went down then up no problems. I looked back to see everyone else was tentative to go! Now peanut was a beautiful horse, colour and soft fur, the only down side was her liking to biting the rider! She kept turning her head and trying to bite my foot or leg. The workers said to kick her when she did it but I couldn't bring my self to do it to hard. However she then very nearly got hold of me so I gave her a good thump and she stopped but only for a while! Minx! We successfully mustered the goats into the field.

The next activity was to go to a field and learn how to throw a boomerang. We took it in turns and when I was my turn I was pleased to find that I was quite good at it! My first throw went far and came back round then lost it's spin and fell. Still a good first throw even if I do say so myself. The second throw went further and came back behind us! Hehe! We spent a while throwing them until everyone had had enough. After a tasty steak lunch there was the option to go for a quad bike around the ranch. Now if there's a chance to do something then you should do it! That's what I did, Kass and PJ came too. It was raining so the track was muddy, it flew everywhere even in my bra! I was quite slow to start with but once I'd got stuck in mud and the guide had to get in the mud to get me out I picked up the speed. At one hump I had picked it up to much and as I went over I took off into the air and took off from the seat, all I could see was the front of the bike looming closer to my face! The front of the helmet hit the bike as I gripped harder with my legs. I did manage to stay on! We stopped at a fence and the guide cane to check I was ok, I said don't worry I won't be doing it again! I managed to go through all the water and muddy parts though. Once we got back I thought yes shower time, I was wrong! It was rodeo time! We went to a sort of arena place and did a few more activities. First we had a go at clay pigeon shooting. One of us had to throw the 'pigeons' though. Kathi turned out to be the beat at it as the rest of us couldn't get it to come out of the holder. I was first up and managed to hot one out of five, not bad for a first try I think. It seemed to be the average so that's fine. They then taught us how to lassoo! That was really fun and again as it turns out it is another hidden talent of mine! We had to get into groups of three and lassoo a goat in the arena. The girls I was pair with were scared, I did the lassoing and one straddled the goat and held it's horns. The last girl branded it (with a cold brand with red paint on). We all had a picture taken straddling a goat then they said they had one more activity. We had to stand in a circle and hold hands. There was a bottle in the middle but it's not what you think! They spun the bottle who ever it landed on had to, with the person next to them, hold each point of a cattle prod and on the count of three it would electrocute all of us! One person stepped out. It was fun it tingled in your wrists. They then said there was a more extreme way to do it. Now I'm up for anything! Only six of us volunteered, we had to stand in a circle and with our right hand hold the person to the lefts ear lobe! It again just tingled quite fun really! It was now shower time! We ate the most commonly eaten meat in the world, can you guess? I'll give you a clue we had mustered them and lassooed them, yep goat! It was tasty like chicken, no not really like lamb! It was then time for more whip cracking which I got an even bigger crack out of the longer whip! Woohoo! Oh did I mention we wore cowgirl hats the whole time and neck scarves!


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Day 71 Cowgirl

Early rising again to get off the boat for 8:30 as we have another long drive to our next stop, Kroombit ranch. I was sad to get off the boat I could happy have sailed for another day. PJ had spent the last couple of days getting a new window for the bus as we had swapped buses on the way to magnetic island and the one we got had a shattered window. I slept quite abit of the bus journey again, I don't know what it is about buses and listening to stephen fry read harry potter but I just can't help but fall asleep!

It was a very long drive and it got dark as we got closer, it then started to rain along with a good bit of thunder and lightening! Now what is the last thing you want to happen when it's dark and your in a storm? That's right you don't want the bus to break down! Guess what happened?! There was a cracking noise followed by very questionable scraping noises! Now this would be ok if it had happened on a main road but we had turned off the main road about 25minutes before and just happened to be in an area with absolutely no phone reception! PJ was about to go out in the storm to get reception to call ahead for help but as he did a guy came behind us in a truck and offered us a tow. Which of course we took. However there was so much noise coming from under the bus we gave up after only a couple of metres. He said he would go on ahead and radio to the ranch we were headed to for someone to come and get us. About 10minutes later Princess arrived (I have no idea why he's called princess) and saved us.

Once at the ranch we ate dinner which was good and then sat down for a talk about things we would be doing. The first thing we got to try was cracking a whip! Hehe! As it turns out I was quite good at this! You could do it with a short whip or a long whip. Al the boss said I had an excellent technique and gave me a long whip, I said I hadn't managed to make a noise with the short one but he said I would get a better noise out of the long one. And he was right! I managed to crack it good! The next thing to have a go at was the mechanical bull, this I did not enjoy quite as much! I did however manage to stay on for 10bucks then fell off head first! After a drink and playing a few drinking games I headed for bed.

Day 70 Sailing and Snorkelling

We got up early as it was to hot to stay in bed, and after breakfast we jumped in the dingy boat and went to explore the Whitsunday island. The first stop was a look out point where you could see the beach we would be playing on for the next couple of hours. After the compulsory group picture we headed down to the beach for swimming and sunbathing! The sand was so so white it was beautiful and the water so blue. We chose a stop to leave our bags and went for a swim in our sexy stinger suits! They remind me of star trek! Four if us played catch in the water and tried to keep the ball out of the water but we only managed 7 passes then kept dropping it after that! I went off to see if there was anything interesting to look at but there was very little fish just a couple of baby sharks who swam away as I got near. It was hot by now and nearly mid day so I headed off in search of some shade, and read my book.

Once we had got back on the boat we motored round to a new spot for some lunch and snorkelling. We had a talk on the deadly jelly fish that are in the water and quickly put our stinger suits on again! We were dropped off near the reef and as I jumped in there were alot of little jellyfish, everyone panicked thinking they were the deadly ones and got out but they were much bigger than the picture we had seen so I was fine and stayed in! There were loads of fish, not much coral but loads of fish and I kept hearing people squeaking through their snorkels when they saw a colourful one. One of the jellyfish bounced off my lip and I didn't get stung. I was the last one out of the water as I do love snorkelling, diving, swimming! Anything in water! Back at the yacht Kathi and I jumped in of the back just because we wanted to!

We sailed most of the way back towards the mainland. I again helped pull the sail up this time sat on the very front of the boat guiding the sail up. Mal, the skipper, let me steer the boat for quite a while! It was really fun, I like sailing and am quite good at it! Once we had reached our stop for the night, Nat and I helped to drop the sail and pack it into it's bag. I had being playing with a piece of rope and Mal said if I could do 6 knots I could keep the rope! He obviously didn't know I'm a girl guide and know my knots well! Hehe!! Needless to say I did all 6 well and kept the rope! We messed around tying each other in rope handcuffs before dinner then once again had 2minute showers and climbed into our beds. Ready for tomorrows adventure!



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Day 69 Eureka

My alarm went off far to early for my liking! I ate breakfast then after the ferry back to the mainland fell asleep on the bus! This made the drive to our next stop quite short for me. The next stop on our tour is a yacht on the whitsunday islands. We grabbed lunch and a hat for Nat as she had left hers in cairns then hopped on our home for the next 2 nights, Eureka. That's the yachts name, not just me going mad. After we had got our beds, mine in the main galley way, we got on the deck to chillax! We motored out of the dock and into the open ocean. It was a lovely sunny day a perfect day to be on a yacht! We helped to pull the sails up to catch the wind. I pulled the front sail up! It was an advert for feminism all the girls doing the work and the one guy sitting drinking beer. Once we were under way we all lay back and sunbathed! Nibbles were served and I elegantly fell into my seat! This is the life!!

We arrived at the main island called Whitsunday island and anchored up for the night. We watched the sunset which was beautiful then ate dinner which was also beautiful! As the sky darkened we looked at the millions of stars you can see when there is no light pollution. I've said it twice I'll say it again beautiful! It's a full moon tonight so there was a moon rising too. We all sat and chatted for a while then had our 2 minute showers to conserve the water supply on board then climbed into our beds. Some people slept on deck but there wasn't enough room so I snuggled down in my tiny bed and fell almost straight to sleep!


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Day 68 Magnetic Island Continued

So after a night of no sleep we got ready fast for the kayaking. When we got there the guy taking us out was like the fat controller and patronising like nothing I have even seen before! I am not 5 years old mate! No need to talk to me like a child. We donned our very sexy stinger suits which were just like hospital scrubs and were instructed to tuck our top into the bottoms as the jelly fish may get up our tops. Not likely if I am in a kayak me thinks but hey we embraced the geekiness of the whole thing. We hopped in our kayak and after much instruction on how to paddle we set off. It was pretty calm so was pretty easy going. He told us about the island and about the marine life, for it to be classed as a siting 2 people must see it. Nat and I chatted between our selves, however the subject got on to work and breastfeeding at which point he decided to join in and tell us about breastfeeding! Really!! We saw a couple of turtles pop there heads up on the way and learned about the difference between the noises when a dolphin surfaces to when a turtle surfaces. One exhales and one inhales can you guess which is which? (comments below please!). We arrived at a small beach and hopped out for a stretch, he laid out our breakfast, muesli, fruit, tea, coffee, juice, all on a table cloth with a silver vase and flowers! How romantic! We learned more about the island and then jumped back in kayaks and set off for home. Again we saw more turtles on the way back. Overall we paddled about 10-11km in total not bad on no sleep and before 11am!

We got back to the hostel and called Barron to take us fishing. Well he would be fishing and we would be chilling. We went to a local beach and off he went spear gun in hand to catch our tea! I climbed I to a slightly more flattering stinger suit and went for a snorkel. The visibility wasn't very good as the cyclone had churned everything up. He came out with a big fish! None of us knew what it was but it was huge! Nat asked to gut it, I must be quicker of the mark! Once it was gutted and clean we set off back to cook and eat it! After a stop at the bottle shop we got to the house. Nat and I were tired and so we watched tv while Tina and Barron cooked the fish. It was really tasty, I had to be careful as the others were having prawns and using the same fork to get flesh off the fish. There was alot of flesh on it, we only managed to eat one side between us. After a nap on the sofa we went back to the hostel. We had every intention of having an early night but the german girls wanted to go to the house party again and wouldn't go unless Nat and I went. So after some more bar games, which involved me eating a boost with no hands (not easy!), we went again to the house party. But we went under the provision that we leave in time for some sleep before the morning. It was a good time more games and the german girls enjoyed it. I was happy to get into bed though after I think over 48 hours with little to no sleep!

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Day 67 Magnetic Island

After a night of very little sleep begins a morning/day of driving! We were supposed to go to mission beach but cyclone yasi has wrecked it so magnetic island is our new destination. Unfortunately it is a long drive to magnetic island that takes most of the day. This makes quite screw people moan about the amount of driving but how do they expect to get to places if you don't drive there?! A bit of sleep was had on the bus which was broken up by listening to Harry Potter audiobooks. We arrived after a ferry journey only to find that we couldn't swim! This was the one thing that was keeping us going on the bus. The cyclone also hit here and the decking round the pool isn't safe and the sea is full of jellyfish! Oh well Natalie, Svenya and I settled for a stroll along the beach. After a nice BBQ curtesy of PJ we played cards with some randoms, a game I didn't fully understand! But I didn't loose to much. We partied and Natalie and I took part in the bar games. I was first up and had to do the limbo! I'm not as good as I was 7 years ago when I won the Imbak limbo! Natalie's game was to get as many clothes as she could in a line. I donated my top and Kasses T-shirt! We didn't do to well. The last games was for one to give the other a lap dance!! Again we didn't do to well! We danced the night away then head with some people for a house party. Drinking games (which I was good at being sober!) and attempting to play keep ups in a pool. Nat and I had booked to go kayaking in the morning but she wasn't keen now that we had not really had any sleep.

Continued on next day!

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