Water Dragon, Ebor Falls Northern NSW
The last four months have gone by in a bit of a blur and the blog has sat on the back burner for a while! We arrived in Hervey Bay at the beginning of February driving up via Brisbane to see our good mate Diver Di the Submersible Human. Then heading up from Brisbane to Hervey bay through the downpour that was the southerly last gasp of Cyclone Olga to be greeted by the sight of 100,000 fruitbats flying overhead in the evenings. We have settled into a routine again with myself working at the L&P in a small country town down the road called Maryborough and Amy at the Hervey Bay Emergency Department Plus we even survived this mornings Tsunami warning!
So apologies to anyone who has been checking in to find out where we are, finally we have gotten around to updating the Blog!
For those who want it here is a quick update of what we got up in Coffs Harbour, otherwise you can can just look at the pictures...
If anyone wants to escape from Sydney (i.e. anyone who enjoys not spending at least two hours a day sitting in traffic and stupid parking fines for trying to park on your own street!) we can throughly recommend Coffs Harbour! But buy a property up the hill, it's a little floodprone on the plain, as the people still wringing out their houses will tell you.
We totally enjoyed our time there, and a bit sad to leave a great bunch of colleagues both at OPSM and the Coffs Base Hospital Emergency Department - both currently needing new staff...
Managed to get in a few dives in out at the Solitary Islands with a few close encounters with the resident population of Grey Nurse sharks. Water temperature was variable, and my first dive was in my Tropical 3mm wetsuit, as a cold current came through at about 16 degrees C It was probably the coldest dive I can remember and that includes various quarries in Yorkshire and the Lake district in Winter! Fortunately my wonderful Fiancee bought me a fancy new wetsuit for christmas, Problem solved. Also variable was the visibility with some dives down to only a few meters vis, mainly due to the farm runoff following the heavy rains. It's a bit of a surprise when a 2.5m Nurse shark suddenly appears in you face out of the gloom. So if you fancy getting wet up in the Solitaries and seeing these wonderful creatures go when the water is a little cooler, just take a thicker wetsuit.
I feel I ought to give the guys at Jetty Dive a plug, we made all our trips with them and were looked after well, if you head up that way give them a shout details at http://jettydive.com.au
Getting the camera wet for the first time in six months, you can see how bad the vis was in the second shot
We also attempted to learn to surf, with help from Logan, the Optometrist from OPSM Toormina, with both successful (and not so successful results)
Trying my hand at surf photography, Logan does his stuff
Handing over the camera, I attempt the same...
The big unexpected announcement in November was the sudden arrival of Ewyn James Lochead to our great friends Leah and James. Ewyn was obviously a bit impatient to get into the world, and gave his folks a Pre-christmas surprise. After a bit of time in the incubator Ewyn made it home for christmas, and recieved more prezzies than the rest of Perth put together! The young fella is now doing very well and doing all the usual stuff a baby does (Eating, sleeping, keeping mum awake, projectile pooing over dad etc.) As we shot over to Perth for Christmas this year to see Amy's folk's (A long way to go for only 3 days, but totally worth it!), We made sure we took the cameras with us and set up an improvised photo studio for a few shots to make Anne Geddes cringe...
My oldest bestest mate Ronnie paid us a visit just after christmas dragging her poor old mum in tow, they dragged us along to the Dolphin show at the Famous Coffs Harbour Pet Porpoise Pool, so we dragged them up the hill to the Dorrigo National Park.
Personally I dislike dolphin shows, something about using intelligent mammals to perform tricks for the amusement of gawping bogans! I'm on the Seaworld killer whales side! The Coffs Pool is a little different as they rescue and rehabilitate injured seals and dolphins releasing them back to the sea where possible. Star attraction at the moment is Jet, the newborn, on show to the public for the first time in November.
Jet with Mum!
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!
Dorrigo National Park
Thats a quick rundown of our three months in Coffs, I'll try and get updates done a little more regularly, including what we have been up to since arriving in Queensland. Strange thing about moving between different states, everything is the same but different. Anyone remember the TV show Sliders?...
Bye for now!
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