We have been staying in Margaret River for about a week now, and it is SPECTACULAR! There is so much to do! I thought it was just be a river, and lots of grapes... but no! There is whole lot more! There is a multitude of touristy things here! And it is also a famous surfing area (who knew!). I looked into learning to surf, but the lessons cost just too much. However, despite the crushing disappointment of not being able to surf, we have been out and about and doing HEAPS of things over here!
One of the first things we did was to explore the caves in the area. There are many caves here, so we just picked three of the biggies. We saw Jewel Cave (Kristy’s favourite), Lake Cave (Megan’s fav) and Mammoth cave (my fav). We climbed up and down over 1,500 stairs (it felt like 15,000!) on Cave Day and my calf muscles were screaming the next day (and the day after, and the day after)! And... I received a cave injury – my arm scrapped on a stalactite! And in case you are wondering, yes, I have recovered. Question: does my stalactite injury beat Kristy’s previous tuna injury? I say YES! Vote 1 for Linda! On the same day as I was almost mortally wounded by a stalactite, Megan suffered a fern injury whilst she walked through the forest. I think she was being wimpy even mentioning it – as if that is on par with a stalactite injury – but I will let you all be the judge of the most exciting injury.
We also visited the BushShack brewery, where for $12 we could sample six different beers. The Passionfruit beer was YUM, as was the Mango beer and the strawberry one. The Chilli beer was undrinkable (and I like Chilli!), and they had ran out of the Chocolate Beer (unthinkable!). It was such fun, sitting in the sun, drinking our sample beers and kicking back. This was also the day that, as we were getting ourselves ready in the morning, I took my clothes to the shower block to get changed into, and Kristy changed her clothes in the tent, and when I came back, we were dressed in almost identical outfits! We had on black shorts, and black and white striped t-shirts! Megan couldn’t stop laughing. We took a photo (it’s on FaceBook) and when Kristy saw how she looked in the photo, she changed immediately – because she looked like she was 20 kilo’s heavier than she actually is! It is one of my fav pics of her – because it soooo doesn’t look like her body! It looks like Kristy’s head has been put on a pregnant woman’s torso! Yes Mel, you have told us never to buy horizontal stripes, and I don’t think Kristy will be buying them again.
After the BeerShack Brewery, we headed over to see a Sheep Shearing display. It was actually quite good, and interesting for me who has had limited exposure to the intricacies of sheep and the shearing of aforementioned animal. The guy who was heading up the display was a real aussie larrikin, and he liked to pick people from the audience to come on up and help him. As myself, Megan and Kristy were pretty much the only ones who were under 80 years of age, we got picked on a bit. Megan and I were CRINGING, and we tried to hide at the back everytime he wanted a ‘volunteer’. Kristy was loving it, and she wanted to be picked all the time, so she would push her way to the front. I was the first person to be picked, and he picked me to be his Roustabout – someone who sweeps up the left over sheep wool after the shearing has occurred. Despite being a Leo, I do not like being in the limelight. I think that the guy who was running the shearing display liked Megan – he kept looking at her. When I told her this, she said, “He’s only human.”
Kristy and Megan also got chosen to go up the front and feed the baby lambs. Megan’s stonewall face reflected her exact feelings of being up the front. I took a photo of that stonewall face, before she had remembered to put on her ‘audience’ face. Then a boy lamb was handed to Kristy and then shearer showed everyone it’s ‘maleness’, and even got the old ladies to tweek the doodle! They were shocked... and they loved it! Poor Megan, though, she didn’t get a chance to tweek the doodle.
Kristy and I took ourselves off to the Eagle Farm (Megan wanted some well earned ‘alone’ time). We arrived at the Eagle Farm (a self-funded place for injury eagles) in plenty of time because we wanted the opportunity to have a raptor sit on our arm (as advertised). And as it turns out, we were the ONLY ones there, watching the flying display! The whole display was done just for Kristy and I! And it was so exciting having an eagle sit on my arm (big glove on the arm first, of course). I know you have heard the term ‘eagle-eyed, and now I will tell you why that term is used: If a wedge tailed eagle could read, it could read the head-lines of a newspaper over 1 kilometre away. There you are – a bit of trivia for you. You can thank me later for that.
I think it was the night after the eagle farm, when we were all sitting in the tent, having a few drinks (Nicole had just left and gone to Perth– she ran out of money) when Kristy looked over at me and said that the little creases in my forehead looked like ‘in-built’ devil horns. Megan and I laughed and said, “I think you mean ‘built-in’, not in-built”. Then Kristy said to us (in her Sponge-Bob-Cranky-Pants voice), “It’s not my fault I say things wrong, I have HDD!” Who knew that HDD was the new ADD????!!!! Ahhh, Kristy, you bring me so many smiles.
There appears to be less mosquito’s here in Margaret River than in Esperance, however that hasn’t stopped Kristy from spraying fly spray around like it was a cheap perfume. It is a brave mozzie that dares to enter our tent! However, I wish Kristy would wait until Megan and I had LEFT the tent before she started spraying, as we are ambush fumigated when we least expect it. In any event, I suppose we should be grateful because, despite our burning throats and stinging eyes, we are free of mosquito bites!
We looked in an Antique shop yesterday. It had a great sign behind the counter that said: “That was lovely, but I need to scream now”.
Oh, oh, oh, and we went to the Chocolate Factory, the Fudge Factory, the Nougat Factory, the Cheese Factory and Muesli Factory (thought we better add some healthy in there). And they all had FREE tastings. You should have seen Kristy and Megan at the Chocolate Factory. They took HANDFULS of the free samples. And I mean BIG HANDFULS! And over and over again BIG HANDFULS! I think that Kristy believes that because the samples are free it doesn’t count on the diet. I think I would also like to believe that. Over the last 2 days we have eaten quite a lot of free cheese, chocolate, muesli, fudge, nuts, biscuits, nougat, jams and lollies (OMG, the Candy Cow!!!!). Not to mention the wine tastings!
Ahhh, Margaret River, we have also liked swimming at your beaches. The other night we went to the beach to watch the sunset – beautiful. Kristy knows that Ronnie is gonna love another sunset photo to add to her collection. T
Last night we headed out to the much acclaimed Margaret River Fiesta, but unfortunately for us, it was more like a siesta than a fiesta. And is there something in the water here at Margaret River? It appears that every second person is either pregnant or pushing a pram! That means the Fiesta was quite family orientated. We saw everything once, ate some of those dutch pancakes (ummmm – delicious!) and left to go back to the tent and drink the wine we had purchased earlier – Howling Wolf – very good!
We came back to our site to discover that we were now camped next to a Muppet. But it is a naughty Muppet – she is a beer drinking, Windfield smoking Muppet, and is here having a dirty weekend with her boyfriend! She has a VERY high-pitched voice, and when we were sitting in our tent all we could hear was her Muppet voice (mixed in with the music they were playing – The Cat’s in the Cradle – WTF?). Having said that, this is and example of what they heard coming from our tent:
Kristy to Linda: Babe, can you rub it? Go harder, go harder. It’s getting bigger I think. Push in harder. Yeahhhhhh, that’s gooood. (This was when I was massaging a knot out of Kristy’s back).
Megan to Kristy: You need more drugs, the other drugs aren’t working for you. Here, sniff this. (Kristy has sinus issues).
And... guess what...? For me and Megan, the Dukan diet is O.V.E.R!!!
Yes, it is true, after almost six weeks of being on the Dukan diet, I have left it for greener (and yummier) pastures. I have moved on from eating primarily only 2 food groups – meat (low-fat) and dairy (no-fat), and have now added the following food groups to my diet – vegetables, fruit, chocolate and fudge. Megan is with me on this. Only Kristy is resisting the call of sugar, unless, of course, it is a free sample (although I am sure I saw her earlier, hiding behind the van, scoffing down a coconut ice fudge).
Kristy is the skinniest of our little camping trio (Nicole has left us), and the Dukan diet really worked for her. But me, no, I lost hardly anything, so I figure, why bother? This morning I had a toasted fruit muffin with banana and strawberries and I think my mouth thought it had died and gone to heaven (It’s been a while since I have eaten fruit).
Anyway, it’s all good, because now I’m on the Vodka diet, and I have already lost two days.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Crossed the Nullarbor - TICK
We have crossed the Nullarbor! We drove 9 and ½ hours on the 1st day and about 5 hours on the 2nd day. The first section of the Nullarbor is so awesome – looking over the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight, the ocean looked magnificent! The music as we crossed the Nullarbor? Mostly the Glee Soundtrack! Kristy has an obsession with Glee at the moment – and she purchased all 6 discs of the first season of Glee! Although, at one stage I did manage to slide Counting Crows into the disc player, and when I was singing to “Round Here” at the top of my voice (as you do, and you know you do!) the car became so hot (or was it my singing?), that the empty jelly cup that Kristy had on the dashboard blew it’s lid with the loudest POP!
We stopped at a little place called Cocklebiddy to sleep the first night of the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy is a trucker’s stop along the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy has a population of 8 people (a sign also informed us that there is also 25 budgies, 7 quails, 1 dog and 1,234,567 kangaroos in Cocklebiddy). It was blowing a gale when we got there (apparently it was the tail end of the recent cyclone) and we were all tired, hungry and pretty much over all the driving. We set up Megan’s tent, and it was pretty tricky, considering the canvas became like a parachute (and boy, did that help our moods!!!!) In addition, the ground at Cocklebiddy was so hard that the tent pegs would not hammer in (another mood enhancer – ground too hard for tent pegs!), so in the end, Megan’s tent was set up over a dried up puddle, because it was the only place where the ground was soft enough (and we prayed in would not rain that night, because then Megan would be sleeping in a actual puddle). Nicole decided that she was not going to struggle with the setting up of her tent, so she slept in her car that night. Kristy and I had the van to sleep in, but because we have accumulated so much STUFF since we began travelling, we have to shift that stuff to the front seats or the ground outside, just so we can sleep. I think that I am getting good, strong arm muscles since we have started travelling, moving that stuff back and forth. It is surprising that we have so much STUFF though, because, believe me, we cull a lot of things along the way– I don’t know how it happens, that stuff just grows! Like some strange osmosis process!! It is just another one of those mysteries of life. Although, I did just purchase a printer, and one does have to ask oneself, was that completely necessary?
After the 2nd day of Nullarbor, after driving on the longest (146.6 kms) straight road in Australia (we were told it would be “Nullaboring”, but it wasn’t so bad. I mean, really, we have driven up and down the middle of Australia and through a number of deserts), we ended up in Esperance, W.A. Oh... My... God... Esperance, the beaches, STUNNING!!! I have never seen anything like the coastline in Esperance, it was better than the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. And the beaches! They are beyond description! The water is crystal clear, the sand so soft, everything is so clean, the view is perfect, it was just THE BEST!!! We swam at Twilight Cove and took 1 billion pictures. I am not even that much of a beach person, but I couldn’t wait to get my chubby, little body into that water. And then... just when I thought I would never see a better beach... we drove into the National Park and went to Lucky Bay. It is famous for its white sand. And that beach was even better! Four wheel drives are allowed to drive right up on the beach, so we did, and set up the van’s awning, and had a day of swimming in the most perfect water, sitting on soft, white sand, walking along the beach to a lookout, and eating a protein lunch (yes still on the Dukan diet), as we watched the waves roll in and looked at the most amazing scenery. You can actually camp at Lucky Bay, it is very much a bush setting (no shops close by), and I wish we had of organised it. Next time. Obviously, I HIGHLY recommend Esperance as a holiday destination, even if you don’t currently love beaches, you will after seeing the beaches of Esperance! P.S. Kristy purchased new bathers, which is lucky for all of us really, considering her old blue ones were see-through. Definitely too much on view for the others Kristy (Megan is gonna need therapy for the amount of time that she has seen Kristy’s bum crack anyway, she doesn’t need anything else to be traumatised about!)
We have stayed in Esperance for a number of nights, and each evening, Kristy, Megan and myself take our daily exercise (part of the Dukan law to losing weight) and we walk from our camp to the local pier and back (about an hours walk). Under the pier lived Fatty the Seal, and each night we would say hello to him. One night he was snoring on the sand and Kristy got close up and personal with him (and Megan has the photo to prove it!). Fortunately he didn’t wake up, because knowing Kristy, there definitely would then have been a seal injury happening if he had seen her. However, our Kristy did get another injury, a thong injury! She had her thong in her hand and a March Fly was buzzing around her, and so she started slapping at the fly with her thong, and ended up slapping herself about four times! You think she would have stopped hitting herself after the first slap! And, lol, Megan managed to snap a pic of this event! Well, these thong slap marks added to her look, because Kristy was sporting a cold sore the size of a small planet for most of Esperance!
The caravan park that we stayed in was great, except that our camp site backed onto a railway line and a main road. We eventually got used to tuning out the sounds of trains (and huge ones at that) and horns blasting. Oh, and those damn church bells that rang out every half hour – I won’t ever forget them! And we were not camped under a tree, so we had no shade whatsoever and WOW that sun can get hot in the afternoon! Oh, and the March flies would congregate where we camped (they are following Kristy), but apart from the trains, the traffic, the church bells, the flies bitting us and the heat... the caravan park was great!
At Esperance, we went on a tour of the Port, and that is one hour of my life that I will never get back again (lucky it only cost $5.00, however it was my first proof that you really do get what you pay for!) Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone on the tour in the first place, because I am not really into the statistics of big sheds, shipping, etc. And so I was very, very bored. I am sure if you like hearing about the amount of barley being carted around and sent overseas, or how much iron ore can fit in a shed, then it would be fascinating, but for me... no. So I did what any sensible, rational adult woman would do, and that is, I started texting Kristy and Megan to see if I could make them laugh. We were on a very little bus, (which, btw, was about 50 years old, and smelt like it! The usual minibus was in getting fixed, sigh) and it was very intimate tour (all of us up close) and therefore it was obvious if anyone wasn’t paying attention to the tour guide. But, my evil plan backfired, and the girls ended up making ME laugh, as they replied with wicked comments. So I couldn’t hold the laughter in anymore but I did manage to pretend I was coughing, because I didn’t want the tour guide to think I was laughing at him. E.g’s of our texting include, “I think my ears are bleeding”, and “I now understand the concept of dying of boredom” and “I heard him say exit and I got excited” and “let’s have a drink when we get back, I can’t be sober any longer”). Kristy and Megan took some photo’s on this tour (why????) but I wish we had taken a photo of Megan’s face when we drove into one shed that was filled with a salt-like substance, and he told us it was sulphur, and sulphur is the only thing in the world that Megan is allergic to!!! Poor Meg-a-sarus!
Oh, and on a completely different note – why does W.A have no pokies???!!! Megan and Kristy were SHOCKED, little gamblers that they are! And I do mean little, because the Dukan diet is working for some of us (regrettably, I am not ‘some of us’, yet I still persist! What am I doing????).
And on another completely different note – WHY is the supermarket at Esperance so cold? We needed thermal jackets just to shop!
Here are some examples of things I hear/see/experience when we are camping:
• Megan speaking to Kristy: She MEANT to say, “I am rubbing OFF on you.” What she ACTUALLY said, “I am rubbing UP on you.” Oh yes Megan, a completely different meaning with the exchange of that one little word!
• Kristy speaking to Megan about sharing the rotisserie roast chicken that they had purchased: If I can chew on your leg, you can have my breast.
• Kristy telling us about the bowel movement that she had that afternoon, as Megan is eating her chocolate pudding (99% fat free of course!).
• Kristy telling us the graphic story of how her eye was bleeding once because she had a leach in it, as the rest of us tried to eat our breakfast.
• Nicole yelling in her sleep, or frantically unzipping and zipping her tent up (she not only sleep talks, and sleep walks, she also sleep zips!)
• Megan saying this to Kristy when Kristy was grumpy to her: “Don’t hate me coz I’m beautiful.”
• Kristy telling us, “Look there’s a seat, to sit on.” Ahhh, yes, thank you for pointing that out, because I thought that seat was for standing on.
• Megan needing a new light-bulb for her lamp, and then putting the new globe in, and that didn’t work, and she was worried until she realised that she hadn’t plugged lamp in to the electricity.
• Megan searching for the hole in her air mattress, because it kept going down, and then noticing that she hadn’t put the stopper in.
We are all getting so, so brown. Oh and Megan got her hair cut! It not only looks great, but she did lose 2 kilo’s in the process (she has VERY thick hair).
Margaret River... HERE WE COME!!!!!
We stopped at a little place called Cocklebiddy to sleep the first night of the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy is a trucker’s stop along the Nullarbor. Cocklebiddy has a population of 8 people (a sign also informed us that there is also 25 budgies, 7 quails, 1 dog and 1,234,567 kangaroos in Cocklebiddy). It was blowing a gale when we got there (apparently it was the tail end of the recent cyclone) and we were all tired, hungry and pretty much over all the driving. We set up Megan’s tent, and it was pretty tricky, considering the canvas became like a parachute (and boy, did that help our moods!!!!) In addition, the ground at Cocklebiddy was so hard that the tent pegs would not hammer in (another mood enhancer – ground too hard for tent pegs!), so in the end, Megan’s tent was set up over a dried up puddle, because it was the only place where the ground was soft enough (and we prayed in would not rain that night, because then Megan would be sleeping in a actual puddle). Nicole decided that she was not going to struggle with the setting up of her tent, so she slept in her car that night. Kristy and I had the van to sleep in, but because we have accumulated so much STUFF since we began travelling, we have to shift that stuff to the front seats or the ground outside, just so we can sleep. I think that I am getting good, strong arm muscles since we have started travelling, moving that stuff back and forth. It is surprising that we have so much STUFF though, because, believe me, we cull a lot of things along the way– I don’t know how it happens, that stuff just grows! Like some strange osmosis process!! It is just another one of those mysteries of life. Although, I did just purchase a printer, and one does have to ask oneself, was that completely necessary?
After the 2nd day of Nullarbor, after driving on the longest (146.6 kms) straight road in Australia (we were told it would be “Nullaboring”, but it wasn’t so bad. I mean, really, we have driven up and down the middle of Australia and through a number of deserts), we ended up in Esperance, W.A. Oh... My... God... Esperance, the beaches, STUNNING!!! I have never seen anything like the coastline in Esperance, it was better than the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. And the beaches! They are beyond description! The water is crystal clear, the sand so soft, everything is so clean, the view is perfect, it was just THE BEST!!! We swam at Twilight Cove and took 1 billion pictures. I am not even that much of a beach person, but I couldn’t wait to get my chubby, little body into that water. And then... just when I thought I would never see a better beach... we drove into the National Park and went to Lucky Bay. It is famous for its white sand. And that beach was even better! Four wheel drives are allowed to drive right up on the beach, so we did, and set up the van’s awning, and had a day of swimming in the most perfect water, sitting on soft, white sand, walking along the beach to a lookout, and eating a protein lunch (yes still on the Dukan diet), as we watched the waves roll in and looked at the most amazing scenery. You can actually camp at Lucky Bay, it is very much a bush setting (no shops close by), and I wish we had of organised it. Next time. Obviously, I HIGHLY recommend Esperance as a holiday destination, even if you don’t currently love beaches, you will after seeing the beaches of Esperance! P.S. Kristy purchased new bathers, which is lucky for all of us really, considering her old blue ones were see-through. Definitely too much on view for the others Kristy (Megan is gonna need therapy for the amount of time that she has seen Kristy’s bum crack anyway, she doesn’t need anything else to be traumatised about!)
We have stayed in Esperance for a number of nights, and each evening, Kristy, Megan and myself take our daily exercise (part of the Dukan law to losing weight) and we walk from our camp to the local pier and back (about an hours walk). Under the pier lived Fatty the Seal, and each night we would say hello to him. One night he was snoring on the sand and Kristy got close up and personal with him (and Megan has the photo to prove it!). Fortunately he didn’t wake up, because knowing Kristy, there definitely would then have been a seal injury happening if he had seen her. However, our Kristy did get another injury, a thong injury! She had her thong in her hand and a March Fly was buzzing around her, and so she started slapping at the fly with her thong, and ended up slapping herself about four times! You think she would have stopped hitting herself after the first slap! And, lol, Megan managed to snap a pic of this event! Well, these thong slap marks added to her look, because Kristy was sporting a cold sore the size of a small planet for most of Esperance!
The caravan park that we stayed in was great, except that our camp site backed onto a railway line and a main road. We eventually got used to tuning out the sounds of trains (and huge ones at that) and horns blasting. Oh, and those damn church bells that rang out every half hour – I won’t ever forget them! And we were not camped under a tree, so we had no shade whatsoever and WOW that sun can get hot in the afternoon! Oh, and the March flies would congregate where we camped (they are following Kristy), but apart from the trains, the traffic, the church bells, the flies bitting us and the heat... the caravan park was great!
At Esperance, we went on a tour of the Port, and that is one hour of my life that I will never get back again (lucky it only cost $5.00, however it was my first proof that you really do get what you pay for!) Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone on the tour in the first place, because I am not really into the statistics of big sheds, shipping, etc. And so I was very, very bored. I am sure if you like hearing about the amount of barley being carted around and sent overseas, or how much iron ore can fit in a shed, then it would be fascinating, but for me... no. So I did what any sensible, rational adult woman would do, and that is, I started texting Kristy and Megan to see if I could make them laugh. We were on a very little bus, (which, btw, was about 50 years old, and smelt like it! The usual minibus was in getting fixed, sigh) and it was very intimate tour (all of us up close) and therefore it was obvious if anyone wasn’t paying attention to the tour guide. But, my evil plan backfired, and the girls ended up making ME laugh, as they replied with wicked comments. So I couldn’t hold the laughter in anymore but I did manage to pretend I was coughing, because I didn’t want the tour guide to think I was laughing at him. E.g’s of our texting include, “I think my ears are bleeding”, and “I now understand the concept of dying of boredom” and “I heard him say exit and I got excited” and “let’s have a drink when we get back, I can’t be sober any longer”). Kristy and Megan took some photo’s on this tour (why????) but I wish we had taken a photo of Megan’s face when we drove into one shed that was filled with a salt-like substance, and he told us it was sulphur, and sulphur is the only thing in the world that Megan is allergic to!!! Poor Meg-a-sarus!
Oh, and on a completely different note – why does W.A have no pokies???!!! Megan and Kristy were SHOCKED, little gamblers that they are! And I do mean little, because the Dukan diet is working for some of us (regrettably, I am not ‘some of us’, yet I still persist! What am I doing????).
And on another completely different note – WHY is the supermarket at Esperance so cold? We needed thermal jackets just to shop!
Here are some examples of things I hear/see/experience when we are camping:
• Megan speaking to Kristy: She MEANT to say, “I am rubbing OFF on you.” What she ACTUALLY said, “I am rubbing UP on you.” Oh yes Megan, a completely different meaning with the exchange of that one little word!
• Kristy speaking to Megan about sharing the rotisserie roast chicken that they had purchased: If I can chew on your leg, you can have my breast.
• Kristy telling us about the bowel movement that she had that afternoon, as Megan is eating her chocolate pudding (99% fat free of course!).
• Kristy telling us the graphic story of how her eye was bleeding once because she had a leach in it, as the rest of us tried to eat our breakfast.
• Nicole yelling in her sleep, or frantically unzipping and zipping her tent up (she not only sleep talks, and sleep walks, she also sleep zips!)
• Megan saying this to Kristy when Kristy was grumpy to her: “Don’t hate me coz I’m beautiful.”
• Kristy telling us, “Look there’s a seat, to sit on.” Ahhh, yes, thank you for pointing that out, because I thought that seat was for standing on.
• Megan needing a new light-bulb for her lamp, and then putting the new globe in, and that didn’t work, and she was worried until she realised that she hadn’t plugged lamp in to the electricity.
• Megan searching for the hole in her air mattress, because it kept going down, and then noticing that she hadn’t put the stopper in.
We are all getting so, so brown. Oh and Megan got her hair cut! It not only looks great, but she did lose 2 kilo’s in the process (she has VERY thick hair).
Margaret River... HERE WE COME!!!!!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Adelaide -- Port Lincoln -- Streaky Bay
Last night I had a dream that I was holding a chubby baby, and when I woke up, I realised that I had moved lower down in the bed and I was snuggled into Kristy’s bum! This is a true story! Honestly, if I had of been conscious, there is no way I would be close to that bum (since the diet, her “wind” is a bit lethal, and OMG, I cant even talk about the breath!).
Well, we have left Melbourne, been to Adelaide, left Adelaide (we wish we could have taken Elle with us!) and are now headed to the Western Australia border. Along with us are two buddies from Yulara, Megan and Nicole.
Our first stop was five days in Port Lincoln. We were camping on the banks of Boston Bay and, God, it was beautiful. Once I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (yes, again I have to get used to freezing my ass off to run from the van to the toilet block) and saw the moon reflected in the sea - stunning. The sunrise would happen right in front of us, and Kristy and I would look at it through the curtains of the van as we woke up each morning to see it. Of course we went straight back to sleep after that, because, no matter how beautiful, who gets up at 7.00am when they are on holidays?
Whilst at Port Lincoln, Kristy, Megan and myself went on a fishing charter. OMG! We caught a lot of fish, and also saw dolphins and seals playing. And when we fished! Almost every time we threw a line in, we caught one. We ate fish for days after that fishing charter – well worth the money. AND... we were the only ones on the boat! Yay! So it was like a private charter just for us. First we went squidding. Kristy caught the first squid, and she did not know that they squirt ink! So, after she proudly brought the squid over the rails of the boat, it squirted black ink all over the front of her favourite shorts – basically got her right in the crotch! (I have since tried to wash the ink out (once she took off the shorts people!), but to no avail. I have heard it will fade out, but I kinda like the squid memory on her shorts, so I hope it doesn’t). We then went trawling and caught 2 snooks (Megan and I did). I have never even heard of a snook before, let alone seen one. It is a very long and skinny fish! But then the real fishing began – whiting (huge and we kept them), sea bass (threw them back), rock fish (threw them back too), flathead (too small, back they went), leather-jackets (as if we kept them), mullet (as if we kept them either!), and reef cod (think we threw them back). Hmmmm, just read over what I wrote, so ok... we only kept the whiting, threw the rest back! Kristy nearly sprained her wrist as she was bringing in her big whiting, however this is no reflection on the size of the fish, as she does have weak little wrists (poor fragile Kristy).
The following day we went swimming with the Tuna far out in the bay. I have not really seen tuna outside of a can (I’m such a city gal!). Well, the tuna that we swam with were just adolescents, however they all weighed between 40kg and 70kg – and they looked like mini sharks! Kristy was the first one in the ocean with the tuna – she is the bravest one of us. Megan went in next and I followed Megan. The ocean was so cold that I honestly think my heart stopped beating for 10 seconds when I hit that water – Bloody hell! I followed Megan, who had followed Kristy, which was to a rope we could hang on to. Nicole was behind me (and once Nicole had grabbed that rope, she did not let go of it for the whole time!).
With my head above the water, it all looked mostly peaceful (occasionally a fin broke the surface), but the second I put my snorkel under the water, I saw all these huge tuna swimming around, in touching distance! Hairy scary! They have sharp looking teeth and fins! And did I mention that they were big!! Eventually I was snorkelling around and looking at the tuna swimming, and it was actually quite peaceful and really a really amazing experience. I only got touched by one tuna, and it just brushed against my leg.
Then the Charter Tour owner started throwing pilchards! The tuna loved them and they went into a feeding frenzy all around us! Unreal! Sometimes he would throw the pilchards really close to our heads and the tuna would dive and swim and churn up the water all around us, and snap up the pilchard right in front of our noses! We even hand fed the tuna with pilchards, but we had to be careful, because their teeth are very sharp. Only one person on the charter tour got a tuna injury, and of course that was.....Kristy (who is surprised by this?). One of the tuna grazed her hand as she was feeding it. I think it is fun to have a tuna injury – how many people can say that? (She has since added to the injury on that hand by trying to pull out my stay-sharp knife that she had put upside down in the holder!)
Megan, Kristy and I are all on the Dukan diet. Megan and Kristy are losing a good amount of weight, but I have only lost 2 kg. TWO KILOGRAMS!!!! FOR WEEKS OF DIETING!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO UNIMPRESSED!!!!!! Kristy has lost the most weight, and considering that before she left Adelaide, she had the following conversation with my daughter:
(Mel is making up a potato salad, she is in the last stages – stirring it all up)
Kristy: That looks good.
Mel: Thanks, I am making it to have with our dinner.
Kristy: Can I have a taste?
(Mel reaches for a teaspoon to give Kristy a taste)
Kristy (before Mel dips the teaspoon in): Can I have a small bowl?
But now that Kristy is on the diet – Kristy has not cheated at all, not once. I am very proud of her, and she is truly becoming a skinny mini (fortunately I CAN be totally jealous AND totally supportive at the same time – for how much longer, I do not know!). Megan, Kristy and I all now have a mantra which we regularly chant ---- “Bring on Vegie Day” --- because with the Dukan diet, every 2nd day we can have vegies with our protein. We do get a little sick of meat and non-fat dairy, day in day out. PS - Have to say that Megan’s hair is growing out of control and I think if she trimmed her hair, she would lose 5 kilo’s doing that alone!
Oh and I did promise Kristy that I would not mention her difficulty with bowel movements, but considering that we all hear about it a number of times a day (true!!!!), I do think it bears a mention here. Megan is shocked that Kristy mentions it so much! (Megan, I can hear you laughing!)
Since we have been away, the four of us have had killer games of UNO. Megan can’t shuffle, so Kristy and I do it for her (hence her card nickname “shuffle-uff-i-gus). Megan has extremely long fingernails, talons really, which look great, but do not allow for effective card shuffling. Nicole is a gun at UNO, however, she is yet to win (yes it is possible to be a gun, yet still not win!). I haven’t won a game yet either, which is causing me difficulty, and I will amend this state of affairs soon!
I have been doing lots of puzzles, and sometimes the four of us answers the trivia quiz’s or crosswords together. Oh, that reminds me, as Kristy and I were driving to Streaky Bay, I had a brain lapse on the question, “What is the symbol for the star sign Taurus?” I just couldn’t remember what it was (Me! Of all people!). Anyway, Kristy, in her helpfulness, said, “Isn’t it that man with the fork?” A man with a fork!!!! I laughed so hard, to imagine that the sign for Taurus is a guy grilling sausages??!! (Btw, for those of you who are not astrologically inclined, the sign for Taurus is a Bull).
Oh, and another thing Kristy said (gotta love the Kristy-isms), when she saw seagulls in Port Lincoln, she said, “I wonder why I didn’t see any seagulls at Ayers Rock?” Hmmmm. One of those questions that will follow us all to our graves.
I have been unwell, which has not been fun, yet I still managed to do the couple of tour charters. Just had a head cold sort of thing, but I am glad it is almost over. My brain was a bit fuzzy for a while there. Once I lost my sunglasses, and considering that they are Ray Banns, I was a bit devo about losing them. However, I eventually did find them! Kristy pointed out to me that I was wearing them! Duhhhh!
I may have a job when I get to Perth!!!! I applied for a number of jobs in Perth, and the main one I am interested in has already telephone interviewed me, and I have moved to the next stage for a second interview! It is between myself and another candidate. They are going to fly me to Perth for a morning for the interview in the next couple of days so everyone cross your fingers for me!
I am in a bit of a crazy place at the moment because I have no telephone reception. Kristy does, but I don’t – so not ok!!! Come on Optus!! I love my telephone, is hard to be without it! So if you need to contact me, please email – it is the best way to reach me.
Tomorrow we cross the Nullarbor! Excitement is reigning supreme! I am really looking forward to reaching W.A.! Bring on the Nullarbor! I am prepared and ready (sorry mum, I forgot the Mars Bars, but do I have plenty of water).
I miss my family! I miss my mum, Mel, Elle and Logan!!! Love all of you.
Our thoughts are with Annie and with Leanne. Lots of love and healing are being sent your way.
Well, we have left Melbourne, been to Adelaide, left Adelaide (we wish we could have taken Elle with us!) and are now headed to the Western Australia border. Along with us are two buddies from Yulara, Megan and Nicole.
Our first stop was five days in Port Lincoln. We were camping on the banks of Boston Bay and, God, it was beautiful. Once I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (yes, again I have to get used to freezing my ass off to run from the van to the toilet block) and saw the moon reflected in the sea - stunning. The sunrise would happen right in front of us, and Kristy and I would look at it through the curtains of the van as we woke up each morning to see it. Of course we went straight back to sleep after that, because, no matter how beautiful, who gets up at 7.00am when they are on holidays?
Whilst at Port Lincoln, Kristy, Megan and myself went on a fishing charter. OMG! We caught a lot of fish, and also saw dolphins and seals playing. And when we fished! Almost every time we threw a line in, we caught one. We ate fish for days after that fishing charter – well worth the money. AND... we were the only ones on the boat! Yay! So it was like a private charter just for us. First we went squidding. Kristy caught the first squid, and she did not know that they squirt ink! So, after she proudly brought the squid over the rails of the boat, it squirted black ink all over the front of her favourite shorts – basically got her right in the crotch! (I have since tried to wash the ink out (once she took off the shorts people!), but to no avail. I have heard it will fade out, but I kinda like the squid memory on her shorts, so I hope it doesn’t). We then went trawling and caught 2 snooks (Megan and I did). I have never even heard of a snook before, let alone seen one. It is a very long and skinny fish! But then the real fishing began – whiting (huge and we kept them), sea bass (threw them back), rock fish (threw them back too), flathead (too small, back they went), leather-jackets (as if we kept them), mullet (as if we kept them either!), and reef cod (think we threw them back). Hmmmm, just read over what I wrote, so ok... we only kept the whiting, threw the rest back! Kristy nearly sprained her wrist as she was bringing in her big whiting, however this is no reflection on the size of the fish, as she does have weak little wrists (poor fragile Kristy).
The following day we went swimming with the Tuna far out in the bay. I have not really seen tuna outside of a can (I’m such a city gal!). Well, the tuna that we swam with were just adolescents, however they all weighed between 40kg and 70kg – and they looked like mini sharks! Kristy was the first one in the ocean with the tuna – she is the bravest one of us. Megan went in next and I followed Megan. The ocean was so cold that I honestly think my heart stopped beating for 10 seconds when I hit that water – Bloody hell! I followed Megan, who had followed Kristy, which was to a rope we could hang on to. Nicole was behind me (and once Nicole had grabbed that rope, she did not let go of it for the whole time!).
With my head above the water, it all looked mostly peaceful (occasionally a fin broke the surface), but the second I put my snorkel under the water, I saw all these huge tuna swimming around, in touching distance! Hairy scary! They have sharp looking teeth and fins! And did I mention that they were big!! Eventually I was snorkelling around and looking at the tuna swimming, and it was actually quite peaceful and really a really amazing experience. I only got touched by one tuna, and it just brushed against my leg.
Then the Charter Tour owner started throwing pilchards! The tuna loved them and they went into a feeding frenzy all around us! Unreal! Sometimes he would throw the pilchards really close to our heads and the tuna would dive and swim and churn up the water all around us, and snap up the pilchard right in front of our noses! We even hand fed the tuna with pilchards, but we had to be careful, because their teeth are very sharp. Only one person on the charter tour got a tuna injury, and of course that was.....Kristy (who is surprised by this?). One of the tuna grazed her hand as she was feeding it. I think it is fun to have a tuna injury – how many people can say that? (She has since added to the injury on that hand by trying to pull out my stay-sharp knife that she had put upside down in the holder!)
Megan, Kristy and I are all on the Dukan diet. Megan and Kristy are losing a good amount of weight, but I have only lost 2 kg. TWO KILOGRAMS!!!! FOR WEEKS OF DIETING!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO UNIMPRESSED!!!!!! Kristy has lost the most weight, and considering that before she left Adelaide, she had the following conversation with my daughter:
(Mel is making up a potato salad, she is in the last stages – stirring it all up)
Kristy: That looks good.
Mel: Thanks, I am making it to have with our dinner.
Kristy: Can I have a taste?
(Mel reaches for a teaspoon to give Kristy a taste)
Kristy (before Mel dips the teaspoon in): Can I have a small bowl?
But now that Kristy is on the diet – Kristy has not cheated at all, not once. I am very proud of her, and she is truly becoming a skinny mini (fortunately I CAN be totally jealous AND totally supportive at the same time – for how much longer, I do not know!). Megan, Kristy and I all now have a mantra which we regularly chant ---- “Bring on Vegie Day” --- because with the Dukan diet, every 2nd day we can have vegies with our protein. We do get a little sick of meat and non-fat dairy, day in day out. PS - Have to say that Megan’s hair is growing out of control and I think if she trimmed her hair, she would lose 5 kilo’s doing that alone!
Oh and I did promise Kristy that I would not mention her difficulty with bowel movements, but considering that we all hear about it a number of times a day (true!!!!), I do think it bears a mention here. Megan is shocked that Kristy mentions it so much! (Megan, I can hear you laughing!)
Since we have been away, the four of us have had killer games of UNO. Megan can’t shuffle, so Kristy and I do it for her (hence her card nickname “shuffle-uff-i-gus). Megan has extremely long fingernails, talons really, which look great, but do not allow for effective card shuffling. Nicole is a gun at UNO, however, she is yet to win (yes it is possible to be a gun, yet still not win!). I haven’t won a game yet either, which is causing me difficulty, and I will amend this state of affairs soon!
I have been doing lots of puzzles, and sometimes the four of us answers the trivia quiz’s or crosswords together. Oh, that reminds me, as Kristy and I were driving to Streaky Bay, I had a brain lapse on the question, “What is the symbol for the star sign Taurus?” I just couldn’t remember what it was (Me! Of all people!). Anyway, Kristy, in her helpfulness, said, “Isn’t it that man with the fork?” A man with a fork!!!! I laughed so hard, to imagine that the sign for Taurus is a guy grilling sausages??!! (Btw, for those of you who are not astrologically inclined, the sign for Taurus is a Bull).
Oh, and another thing Kristy said (gotta love the Kristy-isms), when she saw seagulls in Port Lincoln, she said, “I wonder why I didn’t see any seagulls at Ayers Rock?” Hmmmm. One of those questions that will follow us all to our graves.
I have been unwell, which has not been fun, yet I still managed to do the couple of tour charters. Just had a head cold sort of thing, but I am glad it is almost over. My brain was a bit fuzzy for a while there. Once I lost my sunglasses, and considering that they are Ray Banns, I was a bit devo about losing them. However, I eventually did find them! Kristy pointed out to me that I was wearing them! Duhhhh!
I may have a job when I get to Perth!!!! I applied for a number of jobs in Perth, and the main one I am interested in has already telephone interviewed me, and I have moved to the next stage for a second interview! It is between myself and another candidate. They are going to fly me to Perth for a morning for the interview in the next couple of days so everyone cross your fingers for me!
I am in a bit of a crazy place at the moment because I have no telephone reception. Kristy does, but I don’t – so not ok!!! Come on Optus!! I love my telephone, is hard to be without it! So if you need to contact me, please email – it is the best way to reach me.
Tomorrow we cross the Nullarbor! Excitement is reigning supreme! I am really looking forward to reaching W.A.! Bring on the Nullarbor! I am prepared and ready (sorry mum, I forgot the Mars Bars, but do I have plenty of water).
I miss my family! I miss my mum, Mel, Elle and Logan!!! Love all of you.
Our thoughts are with Annie and with Leanne. Lots of love and healing are being sent your way.
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