Lady Elliot Island, 2007

We spent a week on Lady Elliot Island, the southernmost island on the Great Barrier Reef. The island is a coral cay, home to thousands of Noddies and Rails. There is a lot of bird shit! The island was mined for guano but is now a Marine National Park. The coral and sea life are thriving.

Our days were spent snorkeling, diving, and lying about reading. While snorkeling, we met many fish, sharks, turtles, and live coral. Some of the turtles around Lady Elliot Island like to get their shells cleaned by passing snorkellers. On our last snorkel we met a large Shovel-Nosed Ray.

Trudi did some dives, including the Severence Wreck, the Blow Hole, and Lighthouse Bommies. While diving on the wreck, Trudi hung out with a Groper that was as long as her. While diving at the Lighthouse Bommies she saw Manta Rays.

Norway, 2006

We flew into Bergen and spent the first two days at Olav's house recovering from the flights. We headed south with my mother and walked into Folgefonn (a glacier) before heading to Kari's house. The next day we climbed Prekestolen with her.

We headed towards Lofoten from Audun's house. The driving took three days. Along the way we stopped for dips in the rather cold rivers. We crossed the Polar circle (if we had come a month earlier we would not have seen the sun set. It did set while we were there, however, we were to get no darkness at night).

We took the ferry across to Lofoten (to a town called Svolvær). The views of Lofoten were fantastic. We spent the next few days in a wonderful fishing village called Nusfjord. It rained. We avoided a landslide by one day on our way to the town of Å. It still rained so we headed back to Bodø via another ferry.

We headed south again via the cost. We saw the famous current at Saltstraumen. We had fantastic weather to see Svartisen (another glacier).

We visited Gisle and family at Stjørdal and saw Trondheim with Vivi.

We spent the next week or so heading back to Bergen via Andalsnes, Trollveggen, Trollstigen, Ålesund (which has a good aquarium), Geirangerfjorden, Nærøyfjorden and Stalheim (visited Jan Olav).

Back in Bergen, we met Olav's horses, visited many museums and caught up with Trond.

We headed down to Øs to visit Laila and family. Andes took us out on his boat for a bit of water skiing (on a tyre).

For the last week we stayed on Reksteren in my fathers cabin. We ate many blue-berries and did a lot of fishing. We caught up with Jarle, Britt and Dag.

Camping on the Murray River, Labour Day weekend, 2006

We took another trip up to the Murray River with Sarah and Peter. We camped in the same spot as last time but only for two nights.

We pretty much got up to the same sorts of things... lazing about in the river, eating, drinking, and going for the occasional bike ride.

Christmas holiday in Merimbula, 2005

We spend two days out fishing. The first day we went out around Haycock Point and we caught seven Salmon. The ocean was calm enough to jump in for a quick look at the Empire Gladstone wreck. The second day we took a trip up to the coast to Tathra where we caught six Salmon and one Taylor.

We did a bit of touring between Merimbula and Bermagui. We went for a snorkel at Kianinny Bay (Tathra), then went up the coast to Aragunnu (Mimosa Rocks) where I photographed my first Port Jackson Shark. We went up to Bermagui to the pool on the point where we saw some @#$% spear fish a Moray Eel! We found a new place to visit called Wallagoot Gap at Turingal Head. The gap is in the cliff which exposes a hidden beach and swimming hole that fills with the tide. We also visited Bithry Inlet and Picnic Point.

Other highlights were our trip to Mumbulla Mountain which has a natural fresh water rock slide. Bournda Lagoon and Bournda Island are always wonderful.

Camping on Lizard Island, September 2005

We camped on Lizard Island for a week. We spent most of the time lazing about in the shade and snorkeling on the coral reef where there are plenty of clams. One of the days we went out to the Cod Hole thanks to some yachties.

To get to Lizard Island you need to take a flight from Cairns. We had a baggage limit of 20kg per person which was tough because that included all our camping and snorkeling gear AND it had to include all our food. So we packed light and survived on scary dehydrated meals. "Sweet and Sour Lamb" was the worst, but the rest were OK. For water we used the ground water pump near the camp sites. It didn't taste too good and we had to treat it with water purifying tablets.

I climbed the summit one morning before the sun got too hot, the view is certainly worth it.

Camping on the Murray River, Easter 2005

Sarah, Mel and I camped for four nights on the Murray River. The weather was perfect. We lazed about in the river on a lilo under a fallen down tree. The water isn't very clean, but it still was nice to get in and get the dust off.

We cooked all our dinners in a camp oven in a pit fire and ate them on the river bank with a bottle of red.

Camping holiday in NSW, Feb/Mar 2005

We camped at Bittangabee Bay (Ben Boyd National Park), Aragunnu (Mimosa Rocks National Park), and Green Patch (Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay). While at Bittangabee Bay we did the coast walk from Green Cape Light house to Saltwater Creek. We also visited Boyd Tower.

We popped into Tathra on the way north and had a snorkel under the wharf where we said hi to the local Sting Rays. After Tathra we visited Moon Bay (a nudist beach) and Nelsons Beach, but we didn't swim because of the Blue Bottles.

At Aragunnu we found some Fiddler Rays. And we also found a wonderful ocean pool at Bermagui. This was a bit of luxury because it had fresh water showers (there are no showers while camping in these national parks).

Jervis Bay was very pretty, even though a fire had been through the area recently. The Green Patch camping area does have very good shower blocks and Cave Beach has lots of friendly Kangaroos.

We stayed a few nights Sydney after Jervis Bay and then back to Merimbula for some fishing and snorkeling.

Oberon Bay hike - Wilsons Promontory (January 2005)

We took the inland route on the way to Oberon Bay, camped over night and took the coast route back to Tidal River.

Holiday in Western Australia, 2004

We were due to go to Broome. However, a hurricane was heading there also. So while being stuck in Adelaide, we decided to change our plans. We jumped on the next flight to Perth and the next day we were on Rottnest Island. We spent a week on Rottnest riding bikes around the island and stopping for a snorkel where ever it looked good. During our stay we met lots of Quokkas, saw the foaming salt lakes, and saw the sun rise over Perth.

The second week we went to the Margaret River area and drank wine, ate cheese, ate chocolate, ate yoghurt, drank weird flavoured beers, and generally got chubby. We went for a dive under the Busselton Jetty and I went for a dive on the Swan wreck .

Two years of backpacking, 1994 - 1996

I started out zig-zagging the USA which included two brief visits to Canada and one to Mexico. I then flew to Paris where I spent the next few months because I broke my arm while horse riding in Normandy. After a while I needed some dollars so I headed over to England and got a hospitality job in Eastbourne. Later I got a better one in London.

For a long while I worked and traveled back and forth between England and France. I also visited Norway twice (to catch up with my parents), went to Ireland, Scotland, Amsterdam, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland.

On the way home I went via the USA, Hawaii, Western Samoa and New Zealand.

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