NOVEMBER 18, 2006- NOVEMBER 23, 2006

Novmeber 23, 2006

We spent the morning just trying to regroup. Victoria worked on the blog and Lori made a few calls home to catch up on what is happening. In the afternoon, Jim took us south a bit to Surfer's paradise and to sit on a beach in the afternooon. Lori made supper and we had another relaxing night.

November 22, 2006

Today we drove to Brisbane. It wasn't as long as we expected and finding the Bradburns house was easy to us. We arrived in the evening and had a nice relaxing dinner and had one little kid fall asleepalmost immediatly to the Bradburns travel DVD (their lastest one). Their home is beaustiful. The backyard is nicely landscaped in a tropical decor and the house is inviting.

November 21, 2006

Today we got up and ready to set sail for The spirit of1770 to go scuba diving. We had winds of 20 knots or so and the wind was supposed to come from the east. But, no that never happend, the wind was from a different direction and the waves were not 1.5 meters but more like 2.5 m. Dave and Syd ended up being sick and Tor's and Lori's insides got slammed around. It was a rollercoaster ride on a boat. We couldn't dive becaise of Lori's athsma and another crew member said that Sydney and Victoria were too young. So we got a snorkel guided tour and saw sea turtles up close, held a sea cucumber and held starfish. We came back to our campsite tired and a bit sea sick. We didn't have much for supper and of course went to bed.

November 20 , 2006

Today we went to the Capricorn Caves, got groceries and had lunch with Tracy. After ourreally good lunch and talk wee drove the small distance to The Town of 1770. It took a while to find and get set up because it isn't really big. But we found it a bit later than expected.

November 19, 2006

Today we travelled to Rockahamton and Victoria planned. We stayed at the Big 4 there and slept alright. During the night Toria andSyd had to go to the bathroom and thought theysaw the southern cross. We aren't really sure if they did but hey it's worth the imagination. Other than that we contacted our friend Tracy in Rockhamton and relaxed. Oh yeah, and the birds were horrible, they just wouldn't be quiet!

November 18, 2006

Lori and Dave went to the farmers market this morning. We then went to look at some sail boat since Lori and Dane want to buy one and travel the world in it (for retirment). For the rest of the afternoon we slept, did the budget, and checked emails. We made the girls get involved again so Syd made supper and Tor is planning tomorrow. We also watched the openair movie tonight and enjoyed that time together.

NOVEMBER 9, 2006- NOVEMBER 17, 2006

November 17, 2006

We woke and left by 7 am. The birds and the sun always seems to get us moving. On our way to Cape Ferguson we stopped at the Australian Marine Science Institute (AMSI), it was great. We drive to Airlie Beach and stayed at the Big 4 there. We found a nice spot and the pool was great. We played golf adn then hit the pool (you can't go in the water because of the box jellyfish, very fatal). Other than that we had a very ralxing time.

November 16, 2006

We packed up and headed to the pool for an excellent Pancake breakfast. We met 2 other families from Canada adn talked with them for a while. Then we headed to Townsville (sorry guys we are really making you check you geography aren't we). On the way we stopped at a fruit farm and Lori found a man that is a refrigeration mechanic like Dave and jokingly asked if David could have a job. Really, the guy was ready to hire him on the spot. There was a cyclone that went through there 9 months ago and destoyed everything, that is why the bananas are so pricy. We ate lunch over looking the sea and eventually made it to Townsville. We saw many teens in their grad formals. Unfortunatley, it was very someky at the Big4 campground so we had to stay somewhere else.

November 15, 2006

Another great day today. We lounged around beside the pool, called home, and ate. It was extremly hot here and there was only one way to cool down... jump in the pool. The girls got sunburnt but mostly Sydney was the lobster. She'll be sore for a while but hey at least she'll have the tan Lori will be jealous about. we picked up the Britz and did shopping, other than that we did nothing else.

November 14, 2006

Today was..... Supercalafradulousexpiallydotious (correct me if my spelling is wrong). Well, for those who know their geography, you should know that the Great Barrier Reef runs along the east coast of Australia, from around the northeren tip to about Rockhampton. We went on it today to go scuba diving. We went on Quicksilver, a highly recommended tour, and were at the reef all day. Our instructor/guide was a Japanese man and he did the underwater part so well that when we came back up after our first dive we asked to go again. Both dives were awesome! Just to make an exremely long story short, we got to tickel enenamies, make huge clams shut suddenly, touch an enormaous fish that was just a baby, touch the coral, and have a variety of fish show us their home in a very strange way. In all of this you couldn't smile or you would drink the ocean, so that was so hard to do. The lunch was great and the crew were excellent. When we finally got home after a long, amazing day we ordered fish and chips and watched Take the Lead at teh outside movie theater.

November 13, 2006

Today we moves to our campsite, a super ensuite. We did laundry, got the Britz service for the return trip to Melbourne, did our shopping, and booked our tour of the reef. Since we spent Lori's b-day in the Outback we decided to celebrate it today (since in Canada it is offically the 12th). The girls had the hardest time trying tobuy a cake, candels and balloons without her seeing. Before supper, Dave took Lori for a swim while Syd and Tor blew up ballons for her. Occasionally you would hear a pop because the balloons were so fragile that they would just pop after touching the side of the tent. Ayway, Lori enjoyed them and we had a good birthday dinner with a cake stuffed full of candles.

November 12, 2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LORI!!!!

We left Normanton early, it seems to have become a routine when camping with us. Some of us were tired, so we left the bed up in the back and rotated our seating plan every hour. With music and talking the trip wasn't as bad as we expected. The little green tree frogs we ocasionally found in toilets were interesting.Lori first found out in Mount Isa, there was a sign on the wall but she didn't see it. When Lori did she was, of course, afraid of having peeing on a little green fog. Sadly, she did but the good news is it didn't get flushed down the toilet as far as we know. On the way there were some lava tubes that we tried to see. Unfortunatly, there was no room on the tour for our family so we couldn't go. We continued through the Table-top Mountains to Cairns. The drop rom the outback to Cairns was full of switch backs and windy twisty roads. The girls becmae bored adn started playing the broccoli game (it's where you yell a name of a veggie to a pedestrian, and it seems that broccoli is the most effective). We ended our days trip at the Caconut caravan park in Cairns. Is is extremely beautiful place to stay.

November 11, 2006
REMEMBRANCE DAY (Canada)

Another hot and sunny day here, down under as humid but still as hot. We are headed to the coast which will probably take us a few days. It's around 1300km to Cairns (pronounced Kans, these people have strange names for cities).
We visited the Mount Isa underground hospital. It was built during World War ll to help in the bombings of the Japanese (which never came). Eventually the use was over for it so the nurses closed the entrances and left everything there. About 30 years later they were expanding the new hospital and a guy in a bulldozer accidentally found one of three entrances to the underground hospital. It was cool and well organized.
We spent the night in Normanton and ran into the same family we met in Mount Isa. We hung out in the pool and laughed till our sides hurt then pretty much went to sleep.

November 10, 2006

We got up early and were happy to know that there was no rain. Easy pack up and out on the road again though the outback to Mount Isa, Queensland. Sometimes on the road we felt like we were driving through Saskatchewan. And others we were on the Hansen Lake road up to Flin Flon Manitoba. When we pulled into Mount Isa there were smoke stacks from the smelter. They had mines for copper, zinc, lead, and silver. We stayed at the Big4 and had a wonderful swim. We met another nice family from Perth who are traveling their country for a year or so. Had a nice cold night and had an even better sleep.

November 9, 2006

We learned we got up at 7 am and left. The nice Korean man came by as we were packed up and gave us these huge mangos for free. When we say huge we mean HUGE!!! We then settled down for the long drive ahead of us. We arrived in Tennant Creek with nothing too exciting to report. We looked around at all of our options for the night. The YHA hostels were gross, the hotels would take us too deep into our daily budget and not much of the campgrounds had enough shade. We choose the Outback campground with a cold pool, powered sites, and little frozen Hoppy Pops (like freezes but in the shape of animals and stuff). It was good.

NOVEMBER 1, 2006- NOVEMBER 8, 2006

November 8, 2006

We drive to Katherine today. Sydney and Victoria had the job of choosing our accommodation for tonight. With our coupon book we stayed at the Palm Court Backpackers for around $65 Aug. It was nice, we took a walk around the gorge that was there and decided not to swim because of the crock. They were fresh water crock but they were crocs all the same. The saltwater ones are the aggressive ones and the freshwaters are the more timid ones and won't come near you unless intimidated. Lori and Dave made meal for the next few days along with supper. After we went for a swim and had our dinner. Had an amazing sleep in the air-conditioned room.

November 7, 2006

We were up and moving early this morning to get everything packed and be on our way. We said goodbye to our friends and bought some food. Super Dave suggested that we go to the Litchfield park falls. We enjoyed the falls that were refreshing after a hot day in the car. Since we aren't yet climatise to the weather we were sweating like pigs most of the way. We also saw these magnetic termite mounds. They were cool if you like bugs and tall mounds in lined like a graveyard. We spent the night in Batchelor at the Big 4 campground. We learned a few things on what not to do:
1. The concrete holds heat, so don't put you tent on one.
2. Have the tent fly on or put it under the tarp. (it rained and rained and rained on us)
3. Make it so you can have a quick set up and take down.
4. Leave early in the morning to beat the heat.
5. Freeze any water we have.

November 6, 2006

We didn't do a whole lot today. We got the caravan cleaned and did laundry. We then met Super for supper beside the pool. We saw our friends from Perth and the Gold Coast again. It was great and the pool was a little warm for a pool but oh well. We wont complain.

November 5, 2006

The family we met from Perth told us about these jumping Crocodile tour. So, what do we crazy Canadians do? You guessed it, we went on a tour. Now, imagine you are sitting in a perfectly stable boat with a 2-4 meter croc staring at you only inches away. Can you imagine that? The largest one we saw was about 3.5 meters long with a mouth full of 66 teeth as sharp as knives. After our very eventful morning tour we headed back to the campground for lunch. In the late afternoon we went into Darwin to meet our friend Super Dave. He took us to a ski club for dinner and a drink and we had a very relaxing time with the cool breeze, live band, and ocean not far away.

November 4, 2006

We got up today ready to go explore and get the few things we needed before picking up our Britz at 1:00pm. We checked out the Saly Anne store and Bunnings warehouse. Since it is so humid here and hot, after getting our little camper, we went to the pool. Dave was sitting in the shallow end enjoying not being sticky when he suddenly saw this little girl run straight to the pool. Her mom just caught here in time before she went in to the drink. What happened next was extremely unexpected. The little girls dad and Dave began to have a conversation. That was the beginning of a new friendship with the family from Perth and their parents from the Gold Coast. We had an awesome time at the pool.

November 3, 2006

Boy oh boy. Well, today we woke up expecting to take the train to Alice Springs. We walk into the station lobby and get told that the tracks have been ripped up. Lori's mouth just dropped. It happened yesterday, when we were on Kangaroo Island. A freight train derailed and ripped up all of the tracks from where the tracks split to got to Alice Srings or Perth. So we are standing in the lobby trying to decide what to do. They had a Grey hound bus transport the passengers. But that's a long ride and we didn't want to sit on a bus for 10 hours. In the end, we decided to catch a plabe to Darwin a bypass Alice Springs completely. We really lucked out. The plane ticket would have cost bout $150 more tomorrow than if we flew today. So at 2:35 pm we took off and landed in Darwin in our jeans and t-shirts. We almost fell over with the heat when we walked outside. Not only was it hot but it was humid too. Not a good mix. We drove to the wonderful Big4 campground and melted there for the rest of the night.

November 2, 2006

What an awesome day! We went to Kangaroo Island today on a tour. We got to learn how bees make honey and their lifestyle, have an amazing lunch, pet koala bears (they aren't actually classified as a bear, but as a marsupial), feed kangaroos, hold a baby kangaroo, and observe sea lions lying on a beach snoozing from a distance of 7 meters or so. It was a real adventure! Oh, and we also watched the pelican feeding with a guy with a whole lot of humor.

November 1, 2006

Last night was not as good as we would have liked. We stayed at Annie's Place, a hostel that had dirty floors and not very clean bathrooms. For breakfast we got was only toast and coffee. We left there A.S.A.P. Lori and Dave got our rental car while Sydney and Toria packed up. We then drove to the Big4 campground for the rest of the day, and chilled. We learned in Aus. that you have to pay to make a transaction at a bank to cash a travelers cheque.