Sandflies, Mosquitoes and Corrugations....

Insects just love me... I discovered after staying at Batten Point that I had many, many sandfly bites, which came up in big welts all over my body.  I tried taking anti-histamines and using dermaid cream to combat them, to no avail.  

So, off we went to Southern Lost City which is a group of spectacular red rocks in the Limmen National Park. This was really the beginning of our corrugated dirt roads along the Savannah Way.  Miles and miles of corrugations.... Carole and John were a bit concerned about taking the Ford Transit along this road, but it coped very well.  But there were some really, really rough patches, with intervals of relatively OK patches.  Trouble was, you'd get up some speed over the relatively OK bits, then come crashing back to reality when you hit the rough patches again, and it was difficult get back up to speed.

Southern Lost City was lovely - we went for a walk around the loop which took an hour and a half, just on sunset, with the sun shining onto the brilliant red formations.  I did take a few photos, then we set up our camp and had dinner.  Price per head at the park was only $3.30 - NSW and ACT parks take note!  The park had drop toilets, but when I lifted the lid to use one, a million mosquitoes flew out - yuk!  I took over some insect spray, and gave all of the toilets a really good going over.  But still they came out.  Eventually, I did have to use one of the toilets, and I'm sure the mossies took one look at my lily-white bottom and just attacked!  I ended up with many more mosquito bites to go with my sandfly bites.  Loving this!  I put antihistamine cream on that night, and lost count at 35 bites.  Not happy, Jan!

Next morning Trev and I did another quick tour of the Lost City and I took some sunrise photos.  Then we packed up and headed to our next stop about 30kms up the (corrugated) road to Butterfly Springs for a swim in the pool (a little bit cool - well, cold really).  There was no waterfall, as the last two years up here have been a 'dry wet', but it was still lovely, surrounded by paperbarks and orange feathered grevillea.  We enjoyed the swim then had lunch and moved on again. 

Back onto the corrrrrr-ruuuu-gaaaa-tions and up to Towns River, another popular fishing spot, for the night. Again, it was only $3.30pp per night.  This is where we spotted our first crocodiles.  In the middle of the river was a little sandbar - and there, sunning itself, was a reasonably-sized (2-3m) freshwater crocodile.  A little while later a smaller croc joined him.  The water was so clear and inviting, I really wanted to have a swim, but my mum will be pleased to know that I resisted the urge.

We had dinner then took another walk down to the river after dark to see if we could spot any crocodile eyes.  Yep, four sets of eyes over on the sandbar and the far bank.  How exciting!

We had been told to visit Tomato Island (which is not an island) by other travellers, so we headed there the next day.  It was only about 70km from our previous stop, but took about 3 hours to drive there over these wonderful corrugations.  Trev is loving it - well, maybe not???  It is hard work, takes lots of concentration, and you have to watch out for bends, oncoming vehicles, overtaking vehicles, but thankfully not a lot of wildlife on this stretch.   Tomato Island is a ranger station, a big fishing spot, and is huge and well laid out.  Cost here is $6.60pp per night, but the facilities are excellent - lots of toilets and showers, gas bbqs, hot water for washing, and Telstra service. 

Next morning it was off to Roper Bar to refuel, restock at Ngurkurr Community Store, have a look at Roper Bar, which is really just a little ford and waterfall across the road, then we finally got off the corrugations and onto the blacktop (Yayyy!) to drive to Mataranka.  I think we are all very happy to have finished with that section of the road - we can relax a little now.

Meanwhile, I just keep getting mosquito bites to add to my collection :-(

Cape Crawford to Batten Point

The road to Cape Crawford was another 'Eagle Highway' - but every time we stopped so I could take photos these shy birds would take off.  I lost count of how many we saw.  We arrived at Cape Crawford (which is basically the Heartbreak Hotel Caravan Park, pub, service station and helicopter pad) just after lunchtime and picked out our spots.  

After all the red dirt it was good to see some green, and I'm looking forward to hot showers and flushing toilets.  We set up, then I paid for USAT wifi so I could upload my blog and post some photos.  Carole had a shower and said it was good, so then I popped over for mine.  Well, I picked the wrong one.  The shower head was caked with calcium, so the water sprayed out every which way, except down to where I was standing!  No matter which way I turned I got sprayed in the head, but very little on the body.  I did manage to wash my hair, but it was a challenge.  I'll try a different shower next time.

Our timing was good, as we arrived on the day of the final State of Origin game.  We decided to go to the pub for happy hour, had a game of darts (which I won!), then Carole and John went back to their van to make dinner, while Trev and I ordered a meal from the restaurant.  Trev had a chicken parmigiana, I had a reef and beef - they were huuuuge!  And very tasty. 

While we were having dinner the restaurant started filling up with travellers who came to watch the game.  Well, the four of us were wearing blue, and yes, you guessed it, the rest of the spectators were on the other side.  It made for a very interesting, fun evening, with us against the rest of Cape Crawford.  It certainly wasn't our night, but there was some good-natured heckling going on from both sides and we all had a great time.  I was so glad when we finally got our one and only try - we drowned out all those maroon people!

Next morning I went across to try another shower, and picked one that had barely warm water - well, it wasn't even 'barely warm', it was more like 'not quite cold'.  When I returned from the shower I found Trev cleaning fruit bat guano from our van and car - not pleasant, but if you don't clean it off straight away it can damage the paint on the vehicles.

I'd managed to get in contact with our friends, Irene and Peter, who confirmed that they would be heading our way as we were heading north to King Ash Bay, so we would probably meet on the road.  We got underway and about half an hour up the road I put a message out on UHF, and saw their vehicle coming towards us.  We all stopped and had a chat for a while - it was good to catch up with them as we haven't seen Irene and Peter for about a year - our paths keep crossing and we keep missing each other. They gave us an idea of the condition of the roads we would be going on, then we continued on our way.

We got to Boroloola and stopped at the supermarket to get a few items - it was a very busy little town and had apparently grown quite a bit since Carole and John had been through a few years ago.  We saw a lot of the schoolkids dressed in a bright purple uniform with aboriginal motifs painted on them - they looked fantastic.  From there we drove through to King Ash Bay over a pretty corrugated 20km stretch of dirt road, which gave both vehicles a bit of a test.  About half way along we stopped and let some air out of the tyres, and we definitely had a smoother ride after that.  

We arrived at King Ash Bay and had a good look around at the campsites available.  It was very busy, dusty and the sites weren't quite what we were looking for, so we continued on towards Batten Point where there were plenty of bush camping spots right on the river. We found a good spot with water views and set up for a couple of nights.  Apparently there is a resident croc who patrols the river at night but we haven't seen him yet. There were heaps of eagles, little eagles, kites and a couple of sea eagles here, feeding on leftovers.  We had a brilliant sunset over the river and a magic inky black star-filled night. The night skies out here are so fantastic - no city lights to cancel out the glow of the stars.  

On our second night we had a roast dinner cooked on the little brazier:  roast beef (carne asada) with roast veggies and gravy - delicious.  

We still didn't see the crocodiles, but we did see a couple of huuuge gropers that patrol this part of the river looking for scraps from the fishermen.  I also got a couple of shots of SUNRISE over the river.  While having a chat with neighbours (who go to Batten Point every year for several weeks to meet up with friends and go fishing) they suggested we stop in at a place called Tomato Island which is a National Parks camp with electricity, water, telstra coverage right on the river.  I had a problem relaying this to my fellow campers, as I couldn't remember the name, and called it Red Turtle, or Big Red - but I did notice that they had a stubby holder with the name on it, so Trev and John did a bit of investigating and finally came back with the correct name - Tomato Island.  So we'll probably check it out on the way.  Next up, were heading for the Southern Lost City in Limmen National Park.

Northward bound - the first week

OK, it's that time again - when Canberra settles into winter, and starts having temperatures in the minuses, it's time to head north and chase the sun.  So here we go...

We packed up our Paramount Duet caravan, cryovacced lots of meat, stocked up on food and of course, drinks and set out for our first stop at Terramungaine Reserve just outside Dubbo.  We met up with friends, Desi and Geoff, then set off early next morning for Lightning Ridge.  

We tried to book into the Outback Resort, where we had stayed on two previous trips, but they were fully booked so we ended up at the local council caravan park, only $26 per night.  We booked for two nights, as Carole and John were hoping to catch up with us there.  Next day we did a 'Yellow Car Door Tour'of Lightning Ridge in our Landrover, checked out John Murray's Gallery, then got back to the caravan park in time to meet up with Carole and John. We had time to go to the artesian baths just up the road, where Trev, John and I had a good soak in the hot mineral waters - soooo relaxing. We had a good meal then sat around the brazier with a glass or two before bed.  It was still cold at night, so we made good use of the heater in the van.  


Next morning we headed for Mitchell and stopped just short at Springfield, a little freecamp on the banks of a sandy river.  We had a roaring fire along with a beautiful sunset that evening, before filling our hot water bottles and going to bed.

We went to Morven next morning, where Desi and Geoff left us to go to Boulia.  We carried on through Augathella, and stayed at Barcoo River rest area just before Blackall.  Another cold night.  Next morning we stocked up on groceries at Barcaldine.  This was a busy little place - all the grey nomads had stopped to do the same thing and we had to fight to find somewhere to park. 

Up the road we went to Longreach where we visited the Stockmans' Hall of Fame, as you must do when you get to Longreach.  It was quite interesting, a great building, but a little overpriced at $32pp.  Lots of reading to do, and not so many interactive exhibits.  We stayed the night at Macsland rest area - a big freecamp back from the road with decent drop toilets.  Another cold night, although the days are certainly quite pleasant - 25 degrees and rising. The roadkill from Longreach to Winton was unbelievable.  We must have seen hundreds, if not thousands of kangaroos in the middle and at the sides of the road.  The roadtrains must just bowl them over like skittles.  There were also a large number of wedgetail eagles that had been clobbered - they are huge birds and I think they must underestimate how long it takes them to take flight when they are  getting that last bit of meat from the roadkill.  Such a shame.

Our next stop was at McKinlay and we stayed at the Walkabout Hotel Caravan Park - $20pn for an unpowered site, with free washing machine - bargain!  This is the iconic hotel which was the base for the Crocodile Dundee movie. There are lots of photos of the making of the movie inside the pub, the 'Never Never Safaris' booking office and car and lots of memorabilia.  We had a drink in the pub and read a lot of the jokes and cartoons plastered all over the walls - very entertaining, and a good value stop.

Next day we went through Mt Isa, refuelled and grabbed a few more groceries, had lunch by the side of the road, then went on to Camoweal Billabong for an overnight stop.  This was a top spot on the banks of a billabong (hence the name) with lots of waterlilies and birdlife, including a pair of magnificent brolgas.  Unfortunately there were no toilets here, not a lot of trees, and many, many grey nomads camping all along the wetland area, so it was quite a challenge finding a private spot to go to the loo!  Regardless, it was the nicest place we've stopped so far.  As you can imagine, I did take a few photos here.  And the sunset and moonrise were fantastic. 

We have now crossed into the Northern Territory for the first time (at least for me) and stopped at the Barkly Homestead Roadhouse to refuel.  This was again very busy, and I did buy a nice top here.  We turned right up the Tablelands Highway, and our progress slowed down considerably.  There is one lane of blacktop with dirt road either side of it - when a road train approaches you have to pull over onto the dirt and let them pass.  If another vehicle or caravan approaches, each vehicle pulls over to the side, but remains on half the blacktop to pass each other.  There is lots of nothing out here - I took panoramic shots to prove it.  But even all the nothingness has its own stark beauty.  We are now at a freecamp at Brunette Downs it's huge, all red dirt, spinifex and free-roaming cattle.  It's about 220km south of Cape Crawford, which will be our next stop.  The night sky tonight was inky black, with millions of stars and a glowing Milky Way - magic.

So far this trip we have covered around 2800km, averaging about 350-400km per day.  From our next stop we will be taking it a little more slowly, giving us time to take in more and enjoy the trip.  We hope to be able to catch up with friends Irene and Peter, too.

Lord Howe Island Photo Album

Here is a link to my Picasa web album on Lord Howe Island: https://picasaweb.google.com/112185374834241030841/LordHoweIsland02

Last day at Lord Howe Island

Oh, it has gone so quickly.... and there's so much more to see and do.  We spent our last day walking down to the 'CBD' for the last time, and we had lunch at The Anchorage.  Then it was our last walk back to Lorhiti to wait in the 'transit lounge' for our lift to the airport.  Jess has the transit lounge well stocked with drinks and snacks for her guests, all on an honour system, and there is a shower and toilet available for use after you have checked out of your room.

We've been really happy with our accommodation and the cheerful, friendly service provided by Jess throughout our stay.  The gardens were beautiful, and the location was fantastic - I loved the fact that we could nip down to Ned's Beach from the back of the property, and that it was only a 10 minute walk to the CBD.   

Over 6 nights, I am very proud to say that we ate out every night - hey, I'm on holiday too!!!  Some of the restaurants were closed for winter, but we managed.  We ate once at Pandanus - lovely food, and the seafood salad in lime and chilli was excellent.  We ate twice at the Golf Club - we had to go back because the beef cheeks in Indian masala spices were divine!   We had many good coffees, several lunches (the chilli beef & chorizo pies and the Moroccan lamb shank soup were fantastic) and one dinner (yummy apple & rhubarb crumble) at The Anchorage.  And we had two meals at the Bowling Club - I previously mentioned the wonderful salt and pepper squid.  The meals were about the same price as you would pay on the mainland, they were of very good quality, and you got free transport there and back.  Can't complain about that.

Even though it was winter, the water at Lord Howe was still warm enough to swim or snorkel (though I'm from Canberra, so that might explain it).  The  coral and fish I saw while snorkelling was some of the best I have seen, particularly since it was only a 10 minute boatride out to the reefs.  And swimming with sharks and stingrays was an exciting bonus.

Because Lord Howe has a population of only around 350, with a cap on tourists of 400 at any one time, the island has a lovely, friendly, relaxed feel, where you constantly see familiar faces and stop to have a chat.  The locals are so proud of their beautiful home and are happy to share their stories with you and point out places to go.

During our time on the island we walked many kilometres over some challenging, rocky, but spectacular terrain.  We chose not to climb Mt Gower this time - we'll save that for our next trip, and we'll start training for it.  But we'll definitely be back.

Snorkelling at Ned's Beach

Second-last day at Lord Howe Island - it was a bit overcast in the morning, so we decided to go for a walk up to Top Shop and check out the goods for sale - if we were going to be cooking (which I wasn't planning to), we could have bought some lovely steaks or fish there.  We carried on up to Greenback Eatery (which was only open for dinner on Thursday, the day we were leaving), then down through Middle Beach Road and back on to Lagoon Beach Road.  We stopped at The Anchorage for our regular coffee, then headed back up the hill - which seems shorter and less steep each time we climb it!  Our fitness levels are definitely improving.

Time for lunch, then we grabbed our snorkelling gear and used our private pathway down to Ned's Beach to see how it compared to our previous snorkelling trip.  We hired wetsuits (all based on an honour system) from the shed then ventured into the water, which was around 22 degress.  We were again greeted by hundreds of fish - I've since discovered they were mullet, kingfish and silver drummers.  We got past them and out to the very close coral reef.  Again, there was a large variety of coral, heaps of fish including incredibly long garfish, parrotfish, wrasse, spangled emperors, and butterfly fish.  And all of this less than 100 metres from shore.  Just magic - I love this place!  We bumped into Jane and John, a couple we had done the snorkelling trip with, and they came up to have a look at Lorhiti Apartments - they were very impressed and said they would look at booking there next time they come to Lord Howe.

We'd booked into the Bowling Club for our final dinner at 6.30, so Jess took us down there again.  We had 'melt-in-your-mouth' salt and pepper squid for entree and it was delicious. I was tossing up whether to have fresh king prawns, but I ended up with a very good steak and Trev had a chicken parmigiana for mains.  We bought some tickets in the meat raffle, and we won a kilo of king prawns!  So it was a wise decision of mine to have a steak - looks like it's prawns for a late supper.  One of the chefs gave us a lift home from the club.  It's going to be hard to leave this place.

Another hiking day

Time for another walk - our bodies are gradually adjusting to all this walking, once we unlock the knees, the hips, the ankles etc.  We headed up the hill to the walking trail to Middle Beach.  Each of these trails is really well marked by a post which shows where you've come from, where you're going, and how far it is to each stop.  We walked through dense forests of palms, cane, ferns and banyan trees until we got to the steps down to Middle Beach.  

This beach was quite rocky, much smaller than Ned's Beach, and we clambered over the weathered, moss-covered rocks down to the southern end where there was another set of steps.  Did I mention before how happy I am that I brought my hiking stick?  Up we went, through another forest to Clear Place Point - a seat on a patch of grass overlooking the ocean. There are viewing seats and resting spots all over this island - thank goodness.  

We were doing well, so continued on to Transit Hill, a much longer walk through even more dense forest and farmland, and climbed up to the viewing platform which gave us wonderful 360 degree views of the island, including Mt Lydgbird and Mt Gower, two mountains which completely dominate the landscape.  It was pretty cool and quite breezy standing on this platform - we had intended to have lunch there, but quickly changed our mind.  Though, every time I think it's cold, I say to myself, "Well, I'm glad I'm not in Canberra at the moment, where it's been in the minuses!" So, on we went to Blinky Beach, found a seat and enjoyed our packed lunch while watching the waves crash onto the shore.


By this time we had arrived at the airstrip, which is currently being resealed.  The workers have been working day and night to get the building materials offloaded from the barge in the middle of the harbour (it's too big to get through the reef, so a smaller barge transits backwards and forwards with materials).   


We followed the road (yes, a real road) along Lagoon Beach spotted a couple of Sacred Kingfishers, and walked back into town.  We went past Wilson's Tours, and booked a trip to the northern end of the island to see the Providence Petrels later that afternoon. 


Then it was on to The Anchorage for a well-earned cup of coffee before climbing back up the hill to Lorhiti for a shower and rest.  We've had several coffees, a couple of lunches and one dinner at The Anthorage, and they've all been very good.

At 3.15 we were picked up for our tour.  We were taken by quite a character (can't remember his name), but he was very passionate about the petrels, and the island in general.  He told us lots of stories about people who had come to his island (damn bureaucrats) who knew more about the island than the people who had lived there for several generations - he was an avid conservationist and historian, and gave us his version of life on Lord Howe, rather than the one you might read about in books.  Very interesting.  Anyway, back to the petrels;  he drove us close to the base of Mt Lydgbird and while we were walking along the track we heard this strange squawking noise.  He was calling the birds down from the sky!  And they came -  they dropped down, swooped over us, called out to our guide, then flew back up.  A couple of them went into the underbrush where they nest, and he grabbed one, sat it on his arm so we could take photos.  

All up, we walked around 14km, again most of it vertical, so we're pretty pleased with ourselves.  It's been another interesting and tiring day.

Snorkelling, Sharks and Stingrays...

It was a bright sunny day, perfect for our snorkelling trip with Lord Howe Island Environmental Tours.  We elected to hang the expense and pay the extra $5 to hire a wetsuit.  What a good decision. There were only four of us on the boat, which took us to four snorkelling spots in the lagoon, each of them only a few hundred metres from the next, but all quite different in coral and marine life.  Before we hopped into the water, Dean (our guide) told us to prepare ourselves mentally, as we would probably see some Galapagos sharks, but not to worry - he had swum with them all his life with no problems. How exciting!  He was right - on our first stop at Erscott's Hole I saw one small shark, and Trev saw two.  He tried to film it on our 'gopro' camera, but something went wrong with the camera and it's now broken, so we have only mental images to take home with us.  

There was lots of staghorn coral, and so many fish of all shapes and sizes, including the Double Header Wrasse.  The next stop, Erscott's Reef, had bright green and red soft coral, luminous yellow and pink hard coral, and fan coral but just as many fish on a deep drop-off shelf.  Comet's Hole was next, and was quite different again with lots of clownfish. We swam with a Galapagos shark at each of our stops. Last was the Horseshoe - again, lots of luminiscent coral and butterfly fish, as well as two sharks, two huge stingrays and a butterfly cod.  What a great finish to a lovely morning.  I was so excited to swim with the sharks and stingrays, even though my heart was in my mouth each time I spotted one.  I had to tell myself 'just breathe, and keep moving' - fantastic!  When we got back to shore, we rinsed our feet in a tub of lovely warm water, and the manager made us a hot cup of milo to warm us up - brilliant.  What a great day out!

After the trip, it was back up to The Anchorage for a good cup of coffee, then home for lunch.  We had dinner at the Anchorage that evening - very nice meals, but a little on the small side.  Dessert (apple and rhubarb crumble for me and blue cheese and guava jam for Trev) was delicious.

Next up - another big walk.

Hiking day - great views and sore legs

We started with a leisurely breakfast then set off again for Malabar Hill, 208m above sea level.  It's a grade 4 walk, and as mentioned previously, most of it was vertical, rocky, with lots of tree roots across the pathways.  I'm so glad I brought my hiking stick, as it was invaluable.  Along the way, at our many rest stops, we took some photos of the amazing scenery. 

From Malabar we continued on to Kim's lookout, then down to the Old Settlement, and on to the Anchorage for a good cup of coffee and some lunch - a good, strenuous walk with amazing views.  In all, I think we covered about 4km from start to lunch, though it felt much longer, and we were both very proud of ourselves.  

We wandered along to Lord Howe Island Environmental Tours (it's the only one that's left open during winter) and booked a snorkelling tour for the next day.  Then it was back to our apartment via Joy's store where we stocked up on a few more staples for breakfast.

There are so many decisions to make when you're on holiday - where to go, what to do, where and what to eat - it's tough, but we manage.  We ended up at the Golf Club at the southern end of the island, with Jess (from Lorhiti) driving us out there.  I was expecting the Golf Club to be a little flashier than the Bowls Club, but I was wrong.  It was a very basic little club, with only a few dining tables, but the food was delicious.  I had beef cheeks in Indian spices which just melted in my mouth, and Trev had a very tasty Thai red curry with prawns and (with extra chilli).  Surprisingly good food, so we booked in again for Tuesday while we were there.  The waitress drove us home, and it turned out she is Jess's cousin - most of the people living on the island are descendants of two families, going back 6 or 7 generations, so everybody either knows or is related to everybody else.  

Another good day - I'm really looking forward to snorkelling tomorrow.

Feeding the fish at Ned's Beach - in more ways than one...

Next morning, after having breakfast on our front verandah, we walked down the hill to Ned's Beach.  This is one of the local attractions where you can feed millions - yes, millions - of fish directly off the beach.  You buy fish food for $1 from a dispenser, then head into the crystal clear water where they are all just waiting for you.

I headed into the water - Trev waited on the beach and took photos, cos he had no swimmers or other clothes to change into.  Well, I was swarmed by these fish - I don't know what they were, but the 'small' silver ones were at least a foot long, and the big blue and light blue ones (with really big teeth - more later) were up to a metre long.  I walked in up to my hips and was in the middle of this feeding frenzy. Seriously, they were almost knocking me over.  I was having a ball, while Trev took some photos and a movie. 

I mentioned the really big teeth - well, one of the big guys decided he wanted something a little more substantial, and I felt something connect very vigorously with my knee.  I looked down and my knee looked a bit red, so I moved into shallower water and found that my knee was dripping blood... he really did get a a good chunk out of me - see photo.  I hadn't realised that I was going to be on the menu!


We walked all along Ned's Beach, and further along near the rocks I spotted a brilliantly coloured parrotfish - as with all the others, he was not shy and came so close to me that I was able to get some good photos of him.  What a lovely start to the day.

From Ned's Beach we walked into the 'CBD' - about half a dozen shops, a church and a couple of restaurants.  We had lunch and a good coffee at the Anchorage Restaurant, which seems to be the hub of the island for locals and touricsts alike.  Quite a few of the businesses were closed, as it was Saturday, and apparently this is a Seventh Day Adventist island.

We walked a little further to check out snorkelling tours, but they were also closed, so eventually headed back to Lorhiti.  Late in the afternoon we decided to walk up to Malabar Hill to watch the sunset.  It was only about 1.5km each way, but unfortunately 90% of it was vertical!  We nearly made it, but the sunset beat us - it would have been an interesting return trip with fading light, so we turned back and promised to attack it again the next day.  But I did get some beautiful photos on the way up.  So pretty.

We booked into the Bowling Club for dinner and found that another couple from Lorhiti, Victor and Maria, were also going.  We had a lovely evening there with them, a good meal, and one of the locals drove us home.

So far, so good - the scenery is spectacular, the locals (and other tourists) are friendly, and the food is good.  Another good day.

Arriving in Lord Howe Island - minus luggage....

After an early start (for us, anyway) we arrived at Sydney Airport, ready for our flight to Lord Howe Island.  We boarded the transit bus at the domestic terminal, where a customer service officer advised us that because we were going to have some 'weather' flying to Lord Howe, they were going to load some extra fuel.  Good news, because we certainly don't want to run out of fuel in the middle of the flight.  The downside, of course, is that because of the extra fuel load, some of our luggage had to stay behind - about 14 bags in total.  We had been warned of this by friends prior to leaving, and I had discussed with Trev that perhaps we should pack half of our clothes in each suitcase, just in case.  Trev said, 'no, we should be ok', so we packed as per usual.  Bad move, Trev! The only saving grace is that it was his bag that got left behind, not mine!

And to compound the problem, one of the travel tips we have learned over the years is to take a change of clothes in our carry-on luggage in case of baggage loss.  So we both did that, except that Trevor forgot to pack any spare jocks.  So he's really not doing too well so far.  On arrival at the  airport Trev was issued with an 'emergency kit' from Qantas consisting of some lovely Qantas pjs and toiletries - together with a $100 voucher to be spent at any of the stores as compensation for having no clothes.  We were greeted by Jess, from Lorhiti Apartments, who drove us home via Joy's store, so we could stock up on supplies using the Qantas voucher.  We bought some staples for breakfast, as well as wine and beer, and that was the end of our voucher.

Our 1-bedroom apartment is lovely, with a deck at the front and the back, surrounded by lush greenery.  The island is very small, with a few restaurants (some of them are closed for winter), and the policy is that if you are going to eat at one of the restaurants, your hosts will drive you there at 6.30pm, and the restaurant staff will drive you back to your apartment when you've finished your meal.  Very civilised.

On our first evening we went to dinner at Pandanus restaurant, just down the road from us.  We had a lovely Malaysian meal there with a couple of drinks, then decided to walk back to our apartments - all uphill of course, in the dark, but we had a torch so we survived.  Looking forward to exploring the island tomorrow.

Nai Yang Revisited

Nai Yang Beach 2014

We first visited Nai Yang in November 2012 with Trevor's sister, Lyn and her husband, John.  We loved it for its laid-back atmosphere, the lack of hustle and bustle compared to places such as Patong, and the fact that we could eat in several restaurants on the quiet beachfront with our toes literally in the sand - see at left.

We returned in 2014, and a lot has changed since then.  The new government in Thailand has started to implement its policy of cleaning up the beaches - this includes the removal/demolition of any illegal structures on the beaches: restaurants, bars, shops, laundries, vendors, sunbeds, umbrellas etc. A total crackdown!  The beach was still in a mess, with a lot of clearing up needing to be done. It really was a shame that we could no longer eat on the beautiful beach and watch the sunset.  But, this is progress???  

This time we stayed at a wonderful hotel, the Dewa Resort Nai Yang.  We had a 1 bedroom apartment, with full kitchen, living and dining area and large balcony overlooking one of the swimming pools.  Breakfast was included, and was very good - we had a choice of menu items, as well as a breakfast bar.  Service was excellent, and the staff were delightful.  The Dewa is located at the northern end of Nai Yang, in Sirinath National Park, but it was an easy walk to the small town area.  There were still a few restaurants operating, but not a lot of shops, due to the clean-up.

We visited the local markets, which are always a delight (at least to me) - I love wandering around looking at strange items of food and wondering what they are.  I'll even try a few, but I have never got around to trying the deep fried crickets, cockroaches and various other interesting vermin on display.  May be one day??? Or maybe not.


We met up with our friend and driver, Kom, who we love to catch up with each time we visit.  He took us out one evening to one of our favourite eating places, Kru Suwit Floating Seafood Restaurant, near Ko Maphrao (Coconut Island).  We had a top meal there, as usual - snapper cooked two ways, and wonderful chilli mussels.  For someone who doesn't really like mussels, I've become a big fan.

The weather wasn't great, quite overcast and a bit of rain, so we didn't get to do much snorkelling, unfortunately.  But we took a trip into Phuket town, ate at a lot of the local restaurants, I had another 'fish spa' and we just generally relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.  

On another evening we went out to Mook Dee with our friend, Kom, and his family.  It's one of his favourite restaurants, on Rawai Pier, and is very popular with the locals.  We brought 2 snapper, 1 kilo of medium (to us they were large!) tiger prawns, and 1 kilo of calamari for about 1400bt (around $45) from the seafood stall directly opposite Mook Dee. The staff cooked the food for us - 1 snapper deep fried with sweet and spicy sauce, 1 snapper baked in salt, tempura squid, squid in spicy salad with chilli and coriander, tiger prawns in garlic and pepper, tiger prawns in tamarind sauce. We also ordered pineapple fried rice, drinks, a frozen coconut shake. The cooking of the food, rice and drinks cost around 1200bht. So we ended up with about 4.5kilo of seafood, rice, and drinks for 5 people for about $85 AUD! Fantastic value.  And the food was just so fresh, beautifully cooked and presented, couldn't be happier. The restaurant was very busy and full of Thai families - a good indication of the quality of the food. Highly recommended! Aroi maak!

All in all, another good week in Thailand.  Lots of beautiful, spicy food, a little bit of snorkelling, lots of relaxing, catching up with our friend, and practising our Thai language skills.  We'll be back....

Lord Howe Island for a quick break

We're heading to Lord Howe Island in June for a short holiday and to escape our cold Canberra winter.   Watch this space for some amazing photos of this lovely place.   Hope the weather is good to us and we can go snorkelling.