So July - September we worked for a mining exploration company in the middle of the outback. We were based 900km from Perth in the middle of the outback. The company had a great camp set up there where we lived for 2 weeks at a time. Then for the one week off we went back to Perth. It was a great job, the company is still at the early stages so no actual mining goes on, but they have done drilling programs to help them know when the good stuff is. Our main job was collecting all the soil samples and either dumping them or analyzing them. We also did a heritage survey which involved finding Aboriginal artifacts, that was a great job & we learnt a bit about the history and culture of the Aboriginal people.
After 3 months of working we started to get itchy feet and on a whim looked up a relocation website to see about going to the East coast. Sure enough a van was in need to moving so we decided it was time to get going again! The project manager was great, he had no problems with the relative short notice we gave him and even rearranged the shifts so two of the guys we worked with could come as well! The drive involved moving a van from Perth to Sydney, the relocation company gave us 6 days to move it but charged us a dollar a day. We paid for our own petrol which added up to almost 1000dollars so it was a good thing we had four to split the costs!
The van fit the four of us easily enough, even with all the bags, food, beer and a surf board! We split the driving each day to that we only had to do a few hours driving each. Driving through the Nullabor which is the great big desert was awesome. It was just so flat and nothing for so long. Australia keeps surprising me when I think I have an idea of what it is all about. We went through hot, cold, completely flat for 100s of km and then mountains and grasslands. Its just so big that it has everything. It even has a ski resort, I never knew that! We eventually made it to Sydney and I met up with some frisbee friends from Ireland who live there. It was great to catch up and have a few scoops with the guys!
We did the tourist things, Museum beaches etc but will have to do more when we get back there in a month. One of the best things we did in a our visit was a trip to the top of the tower in the middle of the city. I can't remember the height of the viewing point but the elevator took almost 1 minute to get to the top so it was pretty high! The 360degree views are outstanding! You can see for 10 miles in every direction. The city just sprawls out below you. Pictures will follow for sure!
Next stop was Cairns, we flew up and then booked onto a 3 day diving cruise on the great barrier reef. 11 dives over 3 days, the people on the boat were great. In fact everyone on the East coast seems to be great, its the same as Asia, loads of people travelling the same direction and you keep meeting the same people. So the boat, the diving was pretty spectacular, we saw turtles, sharks, moray eels and countless fish! We went diving at night twice, the second time twp grey tipped reef sharks were circling around the back of the boat and we jumped in to do diving then. They leave you alone but a little bit scary/exciting as you jump in! One of the sharks swam right past my head, it appeared out of the dark and torpedoed by. Eek! I also saw the biggest turtle I have ever seen on that dive, 3 or 4 meters wide, incredible!
Up next was mission beach, a sky diving place further down the coast. I picked up two pretty bad ear infections from the diving so that ruled out most of the activities at the next place for me. Colm did the sky dive and his video is hilarious. He was terrified but but he still it so fair play! The hostel there was great as well, cleanest and most friendly place I've stayed so far! We missed the bus when we left there and ended up on a greyhound going to Magnetic Island which cost us more money but we met even more great people so it was worth it. The island is about 20 minutes off the coast and packed with gorgeous bays and inlets. The land there is all huge boulders, easy to explain with pictures but not so much with words! It was a beautiful place, we stayed there for 3 nights and then jumped back on our Oz Bus for Airlee beach which is how we get out to the Whitsunday islands.
The Whitsundays are pretty beautiful as well (I know I keep saying that about everything, sorry!). We went on a 3 day boat cruise, the weather was really bad the first two days so that limited our sitting outside and swimming to non-existent! Lucky we had a really good group on the boat and we made our own fun,we had so many puzzle/riddle games! The weather was slightly better last night and is great today so at least we got an evening outside and a morning sailing today.
So how is that for a quick recap! I have 1 minute of time left on this pc so forgive any spelling or grammar errors. I'll fix them later!
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