First week of Feb was spent in Melbourne, finished my beginner Spanish course, todo bueno! I went out to Werribee on Wednesday to see the kids and to create a welcome poster for the girls greating in Sydney. The poster work too us around 2 hours and I was amazed the kids had so much patience :) ... proud Savanha and Oden below!
Took off from Melbourne on Saturday 5th of Feb, flew up to Sydney ... and I still remember the floodings in Melb from the storm on the 4th Feb ... power was cut off in the apartment and the wind was strong, many bridges were closed. Despite the storm I could fly out from Melb :)
Had 2 days of chilling in Manly, didn´t do much ... ran in pouring rain along Manly to Shelly beach and was doing high 5´s with every runner I was meeting along the path, did a long beach walk from Manly to Curl Curl beach and back to Manly, had some beers with Andrew and was waiting for the girls to arrive from Sweden.
Big hugging day was early Tuesday morning (8th Feb) at Sydney International Airport, I stood and waited for Anna and Caroline, ready with the poster in my hand. When I finally saw them I was so happy :), was good to see them after more than 1 year!
Had 2 chilling days with the girls in Manly, went for long walks along the beach, talked and catching up for the lost time ... I did a 2 hour surfing lesson on Manly Beach and managed to stand up on the board for amazing 13 seconds hihi.
Surfing is easier for each time I try ... Manly Beach 9th Feb
On Thursday 10th Feb we took the train from Sydney to Katoomba, 2.5 hours on the local train up to the Bluies (Blue Mountains). Introduced the girls to bush walking around Katoomba, did some shorter walks in sunny weather on Thursday and Friday. I did a long 6 km circuit walk along Prince Henry track in pouring rain on Saturday, got so wet that I was freezing terribly afterwards. On Friday evening we met for dinner and drinks with Grant, had some delicious Greek food and continued to a local pub for beers. On Saturday evening we took the last train back to Sydney and stayed up the whole night for taking an early flight to Cairns at 6am. Puh, we did manage to stay awake, slept 2 hours on the plane.
Me in the Bluies close to the the 3 sisters
Grant with the 3 (one tall, one pink and one brown) chicks in Katoomba
Arrived to Cairns on Sunday (13th Feb) morning, tired and cranky, checked in at Gilligans Backpackers Hostel, stayed there for 2 nights. Were lucky with the weather, hot and humid and not so much rain, I was expecting more rain since it was the rainy period. On Tuesday morning (15th Feb) we went on a sailing boat cruise for 2 days in the Great Barrier Reef with the RumRunner, a boat from Cairns. Had an awesome time onboard, did a free intro dive and everything went all good and I did 2 more dives.
One big step into the GBR
Lots of fish to tick off from the map :) ... did see some sharks, colourful fish in all colours, a sting ray, cuttle fish, a trigger fish, octopus and one green turtle on the last dive
Me in the GBR fully equipped :)... of the 8 dives I did, the most memorable was the last one when I saw the turtle
Happy me on the RumRunner :)
Got back from the sailing on Wednesday afternoon, hard to walk straight, felt like being on a boat while walking on land hihi. After some beers in the evening I was all good again! Decided with the girls to hire a car and drive out from Cairns, so on Thursday (17th Feb) I drove to Cape Tribulation along the coast. Stopped for lunch in Port Douglas, which is a fancy pansy tourist town, glad we didn´t sleep there ... took the river ferry and checked in at Cape Trib Beach House and had a great dinner there before we went to bed.
Port Douglas beach view
View from south of Cape Trip on the way back to the ferry crossing back to Cairns
On the way back to Cairns we stopped along the way, had a look at the sanctuary where we saw many native animals from Queensland ... many crocs, spiders, snakes and birds ...
Since I loved the diving I took off with RumRunner for the second time, from Saturday to Sunday, 19-20th Feb, while the girls stayed in Cairns and did some things on their own for 2 days. All in all I did 5 dives, wasn´t allowed to do the night dive with the others since I don´t have a PADI license, but I was happy with my 5 dives anyway. Will have to do my PADI Open Water soon, maybe in June over the next long weekend in Victoria.
All good - OK OK, ready for the warm water :)
Back to Cairns on Sunday arvo and managed to walk better this time :)
Went with the girls to a bbq to Jason and Tess´s house close to the airport on Edge Hill.
BBQ-troup, American girl, Anna, Caroline and some others I don´t remember the names of
On the last week with the girls and February, we rented a car in Cairns for 2 days, drove south of the city and saw many beautiful waterfalls. This is gorgeous view just south of Cairns ...
One of the waterfalls around Milla Milla...
On Tuesday (22th Feb) arvo we flew to Darwin, a 2 hour flight. Could see from the sky all the water in Kakadu NP and guessed that the roads wouldn´t be so good for us to drive on. And yep, it turned out that Kakadu NP was almost closed, the main road from Darwin was closed and you had to take a longer way around to it. We decided to skip Kakadu and focused instead on Litchfield NP (a much closer national park from Darwin). We stayed one night in a backpackers hostel in Darwin and hit the road with the rental car on Wednesday morning to Litchfield. I drove the most time, much easier this time, Anna and Carro tried to drive for a short period of time. The route on Wed was Darwin-Batchelor-Florence Falls-Buley Rockhole-Wangi Falls-Tolmer-Termite Mounds. Slept in a cousy little cabin at Pandanus in Litchfield :)
Florence Falls in Litchfield NP, had a lunch here down on the rocks after a cool swim
Tres chichas eating lunch by Florence Falls :)
Wangi Falls, big falls, so noisy, was closed for swiming
Road view in Litchfield ... I'm not driving here :)
The Mitshubishi Outlander we drove for 2 days around Darwin, big and comfy car, good when crossing all the water on the roads like here ...
On Thursday (24th) we went to Crocodylus Park, outside of Darwin to see the mighty crocs ... nope, we didn´t see any crocs while walking, swiming or driving in Litchfield.
Croc loves meat ...
... and I got to hold one baby croc, a Johnson, a freshie one. The park guide next to me talked for 50 min non-stop, he really must love his work!
On Friday (25th) we returned the car and had a day in Darwin where we walked around and took a proper look in the city. Went to Darwin Museum, saw the Tracy exhibition (big cyclone that destroyed Darwin in 1974) and had a delicious lunch there before we walked back to the city centre. Met up with Lars and his friend in the evening, one of Mick´s old friend for dinner and drinks in the Wharf Precinct. Lars was a funny guy and the girls and me had a good time on our last Darwin-evening.
Me by the Wharf Precinct in Darwin
Flew back to Sydney on Saturday morning, a long 4.5 hour flight, where I managed to sleep for 3 hours and had a boring time the rest of the flight... danced around the plane while people were sleeping hihi :)
In Sydney we had a relaxing afternoon walking to the Royal Botanical Gardens before we took off to Andrew´s birthday party in Kings Cross. It was a fancy nice party with a guestlist, drinks and food. Good time there with the girls. Went to a salsa place by the Rocks with Anna after the party where we danced a bit before heading back to the hostel. Sunday was a bitter-sweet day, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and we went for a farewell lunch on Bondi Beach... had lunch at Icebergs where the service was non-existing, I had to act a waitress for my own food and drinks.
Last lunch with the girls for a long time :( ... great food and view of Bondi Beach
One tall, one pink and one brown on Bondi Beach - Sunday 27th of Feb 2011
... and the poster is in Anna´s hands now in Sweden, Lund
I flew back home, to Melbourne on Sunday evening and started to work again at IBM on Monday morning ... this since my business visa was granted and I can now stay and work for 4 years in Aussie :)
