Tandem Sky-Dive Completed

Well as you can hopefully see from the above video clip I finally managed to get my tandem sky-dive experience completed. Sunday 2nd May, was a beautiful day at Cockerham airfield with the Black Knights Parachute Centre and following briefing and kitting up in a bright yellow coverall (yellow is not really my colour) we got airborne at about 09.30 and some 12 minutes later we were at 14,000 feet and that is were the video starts.
It was an exhilarating experience and if I were younger, I may have been tempted to take up the sport as a regular hobby as it is however, I think I will leave it to the younger generations. Should anyone be tempted to do a sky-dive I thoroughly recommend the experience.
That,s all for just now but will be back in the near future with more antipodean pictures.

East to Queensland and beyond

Continuing our journey north from the Devil's Marbles we eventually arrived at the Three Ways Roadhouse some 25Kms north of Tennant Creek where appropriately enough we turned right and headed for the coast some 1,500 kms away. A distance we covered in just 3 days, arriving at Townsville, on the Queensland coast on 10th February. As you can see below this is a beautiful place where Christine was to meet up with her penpal of some 40 years standing. It is also the place where we experienced our first ever true Aussie prawn barbie. Brilliant.

Departing Townsville on 12th Feb we headed towards Airlie Beach and a wildlife park run by Rob Bredl, the Barefoot Bushman (he had a series on UK TV in about 1999.) Below is Rob feeding one of his aligators and you can see evidence that Christine willingly handled a real live snake.

Although we don't have photographic evidence, we were fortunate, at this time, to be travelling about 2 days ahead of some severe weather. In fact almost every place we had been through suffered torrential rain and flooding approximately 48hrs after our leaving.

In the next couple of days while continuing to head south along the coastline we deviated slightly inland to Mount Morgan where we hoped to see, and perhaps ride on, the Dee River Railroad. Unfortunately, it was closed, undergoing renovation. However, we managed to have quite a good chat with the chap in the information office, an ex-Londoner, who had emigrated to Aus on a £10 passage in 1965 and who had now retired to Mount Morgan.

Before leaving, we had a wander around the small town and a visit to the local museum before I took my life into my hands by using a rather delapidated swing bridge, as shown on the left, which Christine flatly refused to go anywhere near.

 

Leaving Mount Morgan behind we headed back toward the coast over the gentle hills of the Dawson Range until we once again struck the Bruce Highway and turned South heading for Miriam Vale.

17th February, saw us passing through Gin Gin where we stumbled across a small museum and narrow gauge steam engine.

North from "The Alice"

This is a view of Alice Springs town centre where Christine and I stayed for a few days with Valerie and husband Nick during the first week of Feb 2000. [Clicking on any of these images should bring up a larger image. Then clicking on your browser back button will return you to the blog] We visited a number of places of interest whilst there including the Desert Park, the Telegraph Station, the Aviation Museum and the Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment.
We couldn't leave Alice without paying a visit to the Anzac memorial which is shown on the left with the view of Alice from the memorial shown below.
 Leaving Alice Springs, we travelled North on the Stuart Highway, passing over the Tropic of Capricorn . The road seemed to stretch on interminably into the distance with very little but scrubland to either side, until eventually we came across an unusual rock formation known as "the Devil's Marbles". (See below.) Naturally we had to stop for a photo call.
Time seems to be getting away from me just lately and I am aware that it is almost 3 weeks since my last posting so I thought I had better get this latest instalment out for you to see. With regard to the 2010 trip I have now confirmed bookings for the campervan requirements which will enable me to do the travelling I want. This is going to make a big hole in my wallet but I feel sure that it will be worth it. One other bit of news, not related to the Aus trip but, I was due to take a tandem Sky-Dive yesterday, (a 65th birthday present from Samantha- I told you she had designs on the house!!) however, the weather was not good enough so have had to re-shedule for Friday 16th April.

Previous Trip to Australia

In what turned out to be quite an emotional trip down memory lane, I spent a bit of time over the last few days digitizing photos from the trip to Australia I made with my wife Christine in 2000, just after I had retired from the Royal Air Force and I'd like to share a few of those pictures with you.

We departed the UK on 25th Jan 2000, once we were sure that the long forecast millennium disasters were not actually going to come about. We were flying to Perth but had arranged a 24 hour stop-over in Kuala Lumpur where we made sure to get a picture of the Petronas Towers which was the tallest building in the world, at that time. The following day we arrived in Perth in the early hours of the 28th Jan and were well looked after by long lost relatives with whom we spent a considerable number of hours reminiscing over our dim and distant childhoods back in the UK.

The cities of Perth and Freemantle were a pleasure to visit and the picture here was taken from King's Park, overlooking Perth with the temperature hovering around 37 ^oC.

After a couple of days being wined and dined by the 'relies' we flew on the Adelaide. During the flight we were presented with a bottle of Champagne to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

Following an overnight stop in Adelaide, we boarded 'The Ghan'. The celebrated central Australian rail link to Alice Springs. This line has now been extended all the way to Darwin, at the 'Top End' but in 2000, it terminated in Alice. The journey took some 19 hours but was mostly during the hours of darkness. However, we were travelling first class so thoroughly enjoyed the trip anyway, sampling kangaroo steak for the first time and finally arriving in Alice Springs at 09.00 on the 1st Feb.

Welcome to Alice Springs

A view of the golf course

Alice Springs Water Hole

I will post a few more pictures next time but I must report that for the 2010 trip, I have now firmed up the intention to visit New Zealand and have managed to confirm bookings for all flights. Starting from Manchester to Hong Kong on Friday 27th and arriving in New Zealand on Tuesday 31st August. I will provide further details later but I can confirm that I have been granted the necessary Australian visa to cover my stay in that country.

See you next week.

Expanding Horizons

In an idle moment I had mentioned to Samantha (my darling daughter) that, whilst visiting Australia, it might be opportune to take in New Zealand at the same time, since I have never visited the islands despite hearing how beautiful they are. Almost overnight I was presented with a copy of the 'Insight Guides' to New Zealand and the exhortation that, "it would much too good an opportunity to miss." So, it looks as though my trip will be extended a little so it is likely that I will be setting off some time in August now, instead of September. Good job I hadn't booked my flights yet.

Talking of flights; as you can imagine, I have been doing a considerable amount of Internet searching trying to find the best deal, without having to commit myself to specific dates. This has proven to be rather frustrating, so I am now contemplating discussing the entire trip with a professional travel agent to see what sort of a package they can put together. I will keep you posted as to how I get on.

I promised you some photographs of previous visits to Australia and I am in the process of digitizing those from 2000, which was my first visit with my dear departed wife Christine, and I will have some of those for you next time. In the meantime, here is one of myself with daughter and grandson (Matthew) shortly after arriving at Willunga, SA where we stayed with my sister Valerie and her husband Nick. Willunga is approximately 40 Kms south of Adelaide and this photo was taken at Aldinga Beach.

As indicated in my profile, I recently retired on reaching my 65th birthday and I am already wondering how I ever had the time to go to work. However, for my birthday, Samantha has purchased for me a Tandem Sky Diving experience (I told you she had designs on the house). The 'experience' is booked for 6th April and I am really looking forward to it but I am wondering if I should defer booking my antipodean flight until I have safely completed the descent. I will keep you posted on the event and may even have a video to show. Because of my advancing years, I have had to get the doctor to certify me medically fit to undertake the jump so, at least he thinks I should survive.

Talk to you again soon.