CHAPTER 10 - AUSTRALIA PART III

Mo 2/22/99 - Whitsunday Islands, Arlie Bay

We woke again to a table set for tea then dove again below the boat. I was perturbed as I swam along, wishing we were back on the reef in clearer water. I talked to Dan about this and he replied, "This is a good dive sight. That's what you have in the rainy season. The rivers flood and silt up the coast. We need a good tide to clean things off. Some people prefer this location to the reef, hey, I've been doing this all my life and I know what I'm doing." Then, magically, a fellow diver appeared to say it was his bet dive yet.

Another mass breakfast was set and consumed of Corn Flakes, Wheatabix, fruit salad, toast and toppings, and tea. Yum.

We then waited a couple of hours, lounged, read, slept. Our last dive was a few hundred meters away at Hayman Haven. Instead of exiting the boat from the rail or using the big metal dinghy to be transported, we used the Flying Dutchman as a moving launch and pickup platform. As the boat glided slowly along we each jumped off the side, while we dove she motored slowly around waiting to retrieve us.

This dive was the first and only to go near perfectly. I borrowed Rachel's watch (she was having occasional panic attacks while under and skipped a few dives) which relived me of chasing John and others for dive time. My dive partner and I agreed to ignore everyone else and concentrate only on ourselves and the dive. We were the first down and maybe only ones to head left along the reef, we never saw another person afterward. This simplifies the dive since you do not have to differentiate your partner from other divers and people are not bunched up and potentially annoyingly kicking one another.

On other dives this trip I typically kept an eye on John because of his watch, my partner(s), his partner to differentiate people, and then tried to view the coral and fish. A couple of times I lost John who was normally attending to Rachel, and needed to find another watch. I never had so much confusion while diving before.

But this dive went well, two people, one watch. The visibility was better here and the coral wasn't covered with silt. The variety of color and coral was great. Large schools of various colorful fish were found near the coral heads.

I was also delighted to see a passing school. This can be really amusing, because they follow one another through three independent planes, creating a troop line as if drawn by a French curve, one fish following the next up and down, ignoring the notion that a straight line between points is the shortest. A fish edict dictates the importance of orderly movement, not to be broken by the nearby stares of visiting rubber necking land dwellers.

The sun was shining brightly to illuminate the coral for us. There were expanses of small lunar craters in shades of brown and green, burning red blotches neighboring white and yellow and blue. There was stag coral, although not in as great abundance, sea anemones, and funny black with luminescent green spotted coral.

Crustaceans, some scallops, also provided entertainment. As you scan along the wall of a coral column, various textures and colors of coral built up upon each other over decades harbors these animals, but often they are hidden quite well. A small crooked slice of black sometimes gives away their hiding location. If you sweep your hand by, they suddenly close up, but the appearance is of a wall moving, shutting a mysterious hidden door to the recesses. Some scallops beam there serpentine smile proudly through big sparkling purple lips. Again, sweep of the hand will create current causing the smile to close. Slowly the lips then open, testing the water for predators.

I got along well with Dan hitting upon our interests in sailing and the sea. I asked as many questions without coming across as obtrusive to learn more about this man. He has been on boats since fourteen, working the fishing industry with his father, eventually spending as much as six months at sea. His appearance is a bit shoddy, thin, long stringy hair, and real bad teeth. We talked about books including "The Perfect Storm" by Junger and he lent me the "Hostile Shore", although he says he is dyslexic. Dan worked on the Flying Dutchman in the mid 80's, then bought her once her shape deteriorated. He had wanted to be his own boss. Divorced and remarried, he had a chance when he was younger to follow his mates and work boats in the South Pacific and the Caribbean, but domestic responsibilities kept him home.

The sail back was great, pure blue sky, good wind, arriving at 3:30p.

Tu 2/23/99 - Airie Breach to Yeppon

We kicked around what to do next over lunch in Airlie Beach. After counting our last available days, Alice Springs was out of the question, this further realization was a relief since I didn't trust the car in the ridiculously hot temperatures of the outback summers. Reading the Lonely Planet, we hit upon Great Keppel Island, off the coast from Yeppon.

After a five hour drive south, we shacked up in Yeppon Backpackers and arranged ferry and accommodation for two nights on the island ($A53). We rented "Twelve Monkeys" having had the movie a reoccurring topic since Rachel arrived.

We 2/24/99 - Yeppon to Great Keppel

The 30 minutes ferry to Great Keppel was pretty cool. The ferry was new and clean and had an upper deck. The ferry runs up onto the sand at the island and a spiffy motorized gangway extends to the sandy beach to offload passengers.

9am ferry, 30 minutes,
went for walk alone at 12:30
lost
goats
24 peacocks
lorikeets
beach alone, three islands, billion small round sand balls, snorkel
skittish school, bright coral, school chomping, beakers, soft coral changing color
five stingrays
forty birds at homestead
only saw one rather large lady driving an atv with shade canopy with two boxes fruit
butterfly, black with white and blue spots, being eaten by band of ants

dinner in community kitchen of pasta, sauce, and cheese
john's instant cheesecake with caramel chocolate, peanut butter, and chocolate cream cookies

laid on bunks and talked about everything - music, traveling, fruit bats,

Th 2/25/99 - Great Kepplel Island

Clam Bay
ride on outrigger w/ Geoffrey to Middle Island, eagle's nest, sea snakes, rain, rain, sunset, observatory

into his outriggers, has a number custom made
wants to take one he is having made from Rotterdam in canals through Holland then Belgium, France, out to sea at French Rivera, along coast and down western coast of Italy. modified the 20 foot one we were on for sleeping, telescoping outrigger, two sails also used for cover

pizza and dessert at store - magnum bar

Fr 2/26/99 - Great Keppel Island

walk to Long Beach, walked along rocky coast half way to Wyndham Cove
great snorkel
shark
many stingrays
naked, burnt butt
two porcupine fish
lobster
rain, set up under rock overhang
loads of stag coral
foot and a half oysters with purple lips

off island at 4pm, drove overnight to Blue Mountains, 100 km west of Sydney

Sa 2/27/99 - Overnight drive to Blue Mountains

started drive 6pm night before
Hadn't slept and then I drove 12:30am to 5:30am, tried to stay awake until daybreak, couldn't do it. Kept falling asleep, shaking head to stay awake, closing one eye, then other, saw signs an trees blurring and flying off into the sky

drove on Leichhardt Highway through Banana, Goodiwindi, Coonabarabran, Orange, and Lucknow.

drove again about 9am, then started to fall asleep just before reaching Blue Mountain's area. was driving up a hill and was falling asleep with eyes open, my body falling backward to jerk me back awake, pretty weird.

arrived Katoomba 2pm, checked in to caravan park near the Three Sisters, the popular rock formation we saw last time here. Sleep for a few hours, then drove the short distance to town for Chinese.

Su 2/28/ 9 - Canyoning in Blue Mountains

Rock Sports from Glenbrook
heard of through climber we had met in Grampians named Peter and later saw in Blue Mountains (Blackheath)
Brendan Helmrich, friend of Peter Ryan was guide
also had Wayne (one quarter Aboriginal) along as second guide
$A120 each
canyon called Claustral at Mt. Tomah in Blue Mountains National Park
picked up at 8am, back to Katoomba at 6pm
Canyoning is organized sport, flipped through book on canyoning around Sydney a couple of weeks ago
on canyoning scale of 1-6 (6 most difficult), Claustral's is a 4
most popular
300 canyons have been surveyed, 30 often used, 12 used often by Rock Sports
Claustral has four abseil's 1) 10m 2) 8m 3) 15m with the Black Hole of Calcutta. People killed here at hole when flood water catch them after rain 4) 6m

We were at the trailhead at 9:30am, donned river shoes with socks, swim shorts, T-shirt, goofy looking white helmets, backpack with water bottle and full wetsuit.. I couldn't help but to laugh aloud at John, his head looking overly high, only able to lessen insult by saying, "I hope I don't look as bad as John". They said I did. We walked an hour and then into the canyon and watched Brendan get a laugh from our first feel of the cold river water, although I wasn't overly stunned by the temperature. After a couple of dunkings, we donned our wetsuits. The walk through the canyon was mostly clambering over and stepping on rocks and trees. We were kept occupied by admiring the curves and bowls formed in the sandstone by endless years of water carving, the high canyon walls covered in ferns where the walls were exposed to sufficient sunlight, while other areas of the canyon were nearly covered over in rock allowing very little light to reach the water. In between his stories, Brendan had a few sessions trying to catch the small fresh water crayfish, like exact miniatures of our lobster. I often observed the symmetric design of spider webs, sparkling with moisture, and usually unoccupied.

corkscrew sandstone, cool formations, canyon walls over fifty meters high in spots, often covered in ferns. Even though weather was rainy, the sky light emphasized height and formations and ferns well.

abseils and scenery and variety highlights of this particular canyon

At the first abseil we had bumped into another canyoning group, and Brendan called for lunch to allow the group to gain distance on us. I had wrapped my little Nikon in sealable bags, then placed it under the wetsuit on my chest. I was surprised to find it a little wet, and held and waved it and the bags to dry them off. I needed to pee, and holding the camera climbed atop some larger rocks until in total surprise my feet were flying to the side. Instinctively I opened my hands to catch my fall and immediately swore as I heard my camera hit rock. The wetsuit helped prevent injury as I fell a few meters downward along the edge of adjoining rocks. Later we all had a good laugh at my resultant posture. The fall was stealthy, Brendan had looked at my fall and saw all fairly normal, but blue wetsuit vertical, then realizing, "hey, he's upside down". John, heard my slight profanity, something close to a soft "oh shit", and said I laid there upside down for awhile. I, on the other hand, was most interested in retrieving my camera. I slid headfirst down the rock and my brain ran in circles through thoughts about the Nikon. Someone asked if I was alright, and disgustedly and quietly I said, "Ya". I climbed back atop the rock to find the camera battery and the plastic camera corner that held the battery. I didn't find the camera on top of the rocks and assumed the worse. I jumped down to the rock bottoms and stuck my arm under rock, into the two foot deep pool, and searched under water. Yep, it was there, submerged. I opened the camera, removed the new film I had placed in it, and drained what water I could from it.

abseil 1 - good one to start on, 10m, rope falling down into canyon, heavy covered above by rock, first half a 45 degree incline, then straight down to water. Gave the novices as easy start. John and I were wary of Rachel being nervous. I watched Rachel slip and fell halfway down, then immediately gather herself, back on feet an going again. I used Rachel's disposable camera for a good pic.

abseil 2 - a bit shorted, again falling into darkness, but very slippery. I slipped twice and was pinned against the vertical rock, John below cranking down in the bottom belay. I had to force myself away and back onto my feet, water falling down loudly around, and became aggravated with myself for slipping, although I later found that others had also slipped on the different abseils. I reached a ledge at the bottom, unclip my harness and jumped into the large bowl of water and swam on.
xxxx
Although the first abseil was the most picturesque, the third was by far the most interesting. It begins at the Black Hole of Calcutta, a wonderful two meter round hole at the end of a pool of water, facing horizontally along the general river path. The climbing rope was tied in on the upstream side, and we had to climb through before clipping in. At 15 meters, this was also the highest abseil. Wayne was followed by John and once he was out of sight, Brendan held back water flow through the hole with his body, allowing the pool to build, then abruptly let it through to humorously hinder John and to top it off, laughed and screamed and pushed and slapped water further through the hole. We all had the same treatment. I was thankful that the rock here was not so slippery, and I was able to navigate the abseil without slipping, making me a bit happier with myself. Once down in the dark recesses of the canyon, I again found the ledge to unclip from and jumped with a plop into the cool water.

The fourth abseil was the shortest and with an interesting feature of an overhang at two an a half meters above the water. I could not see anyway of negotiating this, and decided that leaving my feet on the overhand edge and lowering my head to the water would be creative and look amusing. Once at a forty five degree angle, the rope unexpectedly moved an I was flung sideways and then into the water. This was another Brendan trick, at top he had moved the rope a couple feet to the side and held it under foot until I held felt it fly. This was his normal procedure to disallow people from spending too much time trying to negotiate the impossible. Damn, would have looked good entering upside down.

We rambled along through the canyon to the take out point where we looked forward to the only real jump. All previous jumps were less than a meter and a half, here was ten meters. The trail to the jump is willy, narrow, pitched, and slippery. The launch spot small, the far canyon wall only eight meters away. I jumped twice, both times feeling nervous as I looked down and loving it.

xxx add here

The canyoning was a good trip, hard on the wallet though, and the abseils were the draw. The canyon was very different than the two kloofs (Afrikaans for gorge) I did a few times in Cape Town, and to prefer one over the other is a matter of taste. In Cape Town, the kloofs were done without wetsuits, requiring the heat of summer and as much sun as possible. They are have much more water and great scenery of a different type, and include beautiful waterfalls.

booked into Macleay Lodge, King's Cross

Mo 3/1/99 - Sydney

up early at 730a after poor night sleep to get car inspected for King's Cross car market. Actually passed, man said rare for car market car/ went to market to find they wouldn't take car because it isn't registered. damn. o o. options... that took all day.

cheap Indian for dinner on john because I was having bad day

car nicker

Tu 3/2/99 - Sydney

spent hours in afternoon running to car dealerships, trying to get offers. range from $100 to $500. damn.
slept on john and Rachel's floor to save money

We 3/3/99 - Sydney

went to park to dry tent an fly. also spread out sarong in grass but on shit, so washed in fountain and spread that out to dry also.
used john's address book night before to call Gary and fee, lost it, maybe in theater
want to buy digeriedoo

looks like I lost John's address book night before in theater

Met Gary and Fi and stayed at their home in Gray's point, 45 minutes south of Sydney while John and Rachel stayed in King's Cross. We had met Gary and Fi earlier in our trip in Papeete Airport and then again in Cook Island's Airport.

Th 3/4/99 - Sydney

Came into Sydney with Fi. Supposed to sell car, John went to beach with Rachel.

$A100 mailing back 1) monica's pink tent and sleep sheet, mike's camp stove, snorkel, mask, fins, book on Australia 2) tent poles

downloaded scanned pictures of Blacky to website

Hepatitis shot A for me, $A110 for visit and shot at King's Cross Traveler's Clinic, Dr. Seidler

back to Gary and Fi's on 8:25p train from King's Cross to Gymea Station
talked a bit then went to river nearby. dark, calm, stars, bird noises

Fr 3/5/99 - Sydney

in to Sydney with Fi again
transferred chapters 8 and 9 to website
called mom
mailed home jeans for $13.05
met john at 11am to sell car. found john and Rachel in room laying on bed, Rachel teary eyed. I walked downstairs, saw firehose. When John walked down I felt little boy excitement, milled, and started to pick up the hose, "You know what John Peters did to me once?". We were both excited about ridding ourselves of the car and leaving Australia for Nepal tomorrow. But John was most excited about his newly acquired hard contacts. After four days of traveling across Sydney this week, he finally picked them up. Once outside the hotel, he looked at me with wide smile and asked, "Notice anything different?!". And I eagerly replied, "You shaved?". John rambled on about how great it was being able to see properly. He looked around and read license plates, explained he could now see the details of the pavement, and that he could now see my nose hairs. The girl across the street had a nice chest and he stared at his hand and said he noticed a wrinkle for the first time. I warned him about the mirror.

We finally sold the car. It was all so simple, a large segment of the backpacker crowd does it in Australia. It sounded easy, great, a way to budget travel. Not for us!
xxx blah blah blah ... $400 to Robert at Metro Automotives on Park and Parametta Road.

On our train ride back into the city, I asked if he would return to the clinic to settle our malaria issue. The doctor at King's Cross Travel Clinic recommended that we go without prophalatic since we would be in malaria areas for over eight months. The side effects over long terms can be serious.

I stayed on the train to Circle Quay, the stopped nearest to Sidney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and a tourist area called the Rocks. Between the Opera House and the rocks was the quay, a flat inlet for tourist boats. I walked along the waterfront to The Rocks and sat and spoke for a while with Terry, a rotund old retired man mostly naked tanning and reading a Sydney newspaper in the good weather and excellent harbor scenery. I'm baffled and in a bizarre way jealous of a certain type of person. Terry's mid section was larger than a pregnant Amazon's, and the his end of his nose, enlarged, deformed, and veined, signs of long term alcoholism. But his mind was huge! His commentary was interesting and endless, detailing varying topics from traveling Australia and America to the lives of the countries richest. I was impressed. How can some people who constantly abused themselves have such large and capable minds? I snapped a photo of Terry in the foreground with the Sydney Opera House in the background..

In traveling back to Gary and Fi's for the night, I was in Kings Cross Station on the platform, calling them to arrange a pick up at their end. As I lifted the handset, the train loudly pulled in. Gary answered and I hurriedly said, "Hi Gary, this is Bob. The train just pulled in, so I'll see you in a bit, okay". His replied was simply "Okay". I later found out he then went on to ask for further details to a vacant end. They assumed I had arrived in Gray's Point and drove to fetch me. Without Bob at the station, they then reasoned I had called from King's Cross and tripped over a second time forty five minutes later. As the train neared their end, a train worker said we were at Sutherland, and I looked at the train map to find there were two stops to Gymea Station. The next stop was dark, I couldn't read a station sign outside, and there was not an announcement. The next stop I jumped off to find myself one past Gymea. Damn, I felt like a fool. I was putting out my hosts, and the Terry in Melbourne incident came rushing back. Damn, damn. A train heading to the city came by within minutes, but at Gymea I found myself alone in the station. So, I walked down the street lined with closed shops, bothered a reluctant girl for change at Domino's Pizza, and called Gary's. They ran to the station for a third time.

At there house I found a small merry contingent, neighbors and friends and bottles of wine around a table in the patio. I was treated to barbecue lamb and squid and never thought of the meal as cold until it was pointed out. I was also treated to varying interesting discussion lined with quick humor. Gary was especially quick and dry with short comments. I made bed at 2:30am after a long call to Sue using my callback account for the first time since Melbourne..

Spent over $US1236 just in Australia, double our allotment of $30 per day!!

Australia money - unexpected spending
$A101 shots
$A100 for post
$A160 more for shots
$A800 lose in car sale
total $A1161 = $US766