Wednesday 17 October 2007

The Blue Mountains

Hey folks

Just a short blog as we wanted to show you some pics from the Blue Mountains which we visited last Saturday. We also wanted to report that Thundercat survived her first road trip. So she has officially been broken in and we will now commence our travels!

The Blue Mountains are about an hours drive from Sydney and they get their name from the blue mist that rises from millions of Eucalyptus Trees (also known as Gum Trees) this mist hangs in the mountain air and tinges the sky.

Here are a couple of pics:

The famous Three Sisters - Katoomba
The Three Sisters - Katoomba (1)

Us at George Phillips Lookout - Blackheath
George Phillips Lookout - Blackheath - Gav and Jess

A view from our Bushwalk to Katoomba Falls
Views from Katoomba (1)

This weekend we are off to Jervis Bay so will blog again next week.

Friday 12 October 2007

Whale hello there (this fantastic pun will make sense later!)

Howdy doody people.

Gav and Jess here. Might as well get the shocking news out of the way at the start.... we are coming home early. Really haven't enjoyed the weather and the laid back pace of life and the lack of stress and hassle. Aye right you won't be seeing this laddie and lassie for a good while yet! Still having a ball (although not a football, still missing it terribly but i am sure Jess will be able to get through this tough patch). We are both still working hard but we are finding the time to spend together and have those wee romantic times (bag of chips and a can of coke!). We have even taken up swimming together in the local outdoor pool! I haven't swam in years, maybe the last time was jumping in the pool in my pyjamas trying to save a black brick from drowning. But we are getting better and really enjoying the exercise and both having an interest in same hobby.
Last weekend we went Whale watching. We left the harbour and passed the bridge and opera house which was cool but what we were really there to see were the whales. When we first got on the boat the captain and his mate gave us all an info sheet about humpbacks and what to look out for, i.e blows, fins ect and when we saw them we were to shout out. We took the sheets but deep down we thought that someone who had studied Aquaculture and his wife who had long suffered fishy stuff would know what a whale looked like.
Not too long out, Dr Mckinley spotted something in the water not even 10 meters away, with a loud and confident shout i informed my lesser educated shipmates " Dolphin, Dolphin!". My moment of elation was quickly and somewhat cruely cut short by the voice of the ship worker person shout over me "No, it's a seal".
Jess found this hugely amusing and i dropped my head once again to study the ocean...... 10 years of studying children, that's where it gets you.
To cut a long story short we didn't see any whales that day but we did see some albatross. Thankfully the company that we went with allow you to keep on coming back until you see whales so we weren't to upset. Whilst we didn't have a whale of a time the trip had certainly got our seal of approval (yes i have spent the blog building up to that) so we booked to go back out again on the Sunday. Below are some of the pictures of the whales that we saw, they were a female humpback and her calf. What an amazing site it was, although they didn't jump out of the water they did criuse on the surface and then flick their tails to dive down. You will also note in the picture of Jess that there are some Japanese tourists with their heads down, these people certainly didnt have a whale of a time!

Humpback's Whale Tail.. we were not fast enough on our camera:
Humpback Whale (1)

Jess:
Jess on boat

Some ill tourists:
Some sick tourists!

The other bit of news is that we have finally got a picture of our little car that we bought for 80 pounds. This little beauty has a number of very attractive features including a C.D player, electric windows, central locking which sometimes works and a drinks holder on the passenger side. Not bad for a 1986 volvo! But the best part of it is that it has a sports exhaust on it and therefore it purrs like a cat (snores like an asthmatic elephant depends on how you look at it) therefore it is quite the attention puller! Because of it's sound and sleek appearance we have called her "Thundercat".

Gav and Thundercat

Tomorrow we are both off and we are going to take a drive up into the blue mountains, from the picutres we have seen it looks amazing. And next weekend i think we are going to head off as we are both off on the Saturday and Sunday to a beautiful coastal region called Jervis Bay.