Broome

Broome is paradise on earth. We stayed at a resort called 'Sea Shells' in a lovely apartment. The resort was quiet as it's the rainy season in Broome. Apparently, this means that every so often a few drops of warm rain fall.We didn't really see any rain at all. The temperature was about 35 degrees and quite humid.
We just took it easy for the first day in Broome - after all the running around in Darwin we all needed a bit of a rest.
The next day we headed off to Willie Creek's Pearl Farm where we learnt all about pearl farming. They also showed us how to chose a pearl & then look after it once you get it home. The pearl oysters take quite a lot of looking after. There are jobs for backpackers cleaning the shells which pay $1000 per week - hard work but lucrative. We met a couple at the pearl farm called Adam & Becki (more of them later).
One of the most impressive sights in Broome is Cable Beach - white sand going down to turquoise sea with a blue sky. At sunset you can ride camels along the beach. Adam & Becki were involved with one of the camel ride companies. Annabelle & Lucy rode one camel while Gary & I had a camel each. You climb onto the camel while they're sitting on the ground. They then stand up bum end first - tricky hanging on!! We then walked along the beach for quite a long way. The biggest concern was that a croc had been spotted on the beach the previous day (not sure what would have happened if the camels came face to face with a croc). As we got towards the end of the ride Gary's camel decided to take a nip out of my back.
Broome is just gorgeous and very relaxing. Definitely somewhere to put on your list of places to visit.
We left Broome to fly to Perth. Broome Airport is a series of wooden benches under large fans......



Top photo - Geraldine on Cable Beach
Bottom photo - Camel riding on Cable Beach - girls are on 5th camel from front, Geraldine on 6th Gary on 7th

Darwin

We arrived in Darwin to be welcomed by a thunderstorm - fairly familiar theme. Luckily this was the only rain that we saw for the 3 days in Darwin.

Our first full day in Darwin was spent on an open topped double decker bus very like the one I used to go to school on (obviously not open topped - bit cold for Mow Cop). We saw the sights of Darwin including the gaol, the Museum (cyclone Tracy and Sweetheart the croc) and all the other highlights. Darwin's a fairly small place but has the most expensive real estate in Australia outside Sydney!!

On our second day we went to the Kakadu World Heritage Site. Kakadu is 220km outside Darwin. We did get to see some fantastic scenery and Aboriginal rock art. We also cruised on the Yellow Billabong where we saw crocodiles. Although the boat was flat bottomed and never going to capsize Lucy was terrified (given recent events) of the boat capsizing leaving the Massons as croc food. We also saw kingfishers, sea eagles and jabirus (Australian storks).

On our third day we headed for the Litchfield National Park. This time we went on a croc jumping cruise. They bait the crocs & get them to jump for the food. We were asked to keep the children in the middle of the boat as well as our hands & heads within the confines of the boat. After the croc cruise we headed into the park where we went swimming in crystal clear rock pools at Wangi Falls & Florence Falls. In the photo you can see Gary, Annabelle & Lucy swimming in the pool at Wangi Falls. The swimmimng was blissful and refreshing.

We left Darwin having had a hectic but interesting few days. Onward & upward to Broome....

The Ghan

We had a fantastic time on the Ghan - the train which took us from Adelaide to Darwin.
The crew were brilliant & a lot of fun. They welcomed us onto the train and then showed us to our cabins. Susan was looking after our carriage for the trip (she came from Solihull originally). The cabins had a sofa & were en suite. Susan turned the sofa into bunk beds when we went for dinner.
The food on the train was fantastic. The best bit was that Annabelle loved virtually all the meals that were presented. They had some excellent wines too.
We got on the train 11am Sunday & arrived in Darwin 5pm Tuesday.
On Monday we stopped Alice Springs where we could choose to do a variety of things. Gary & the girls decided that they wanted to go on a helicopter flight - so off we went. It was great fun seeing Alice Springs from the air.
On Tuesday morning we stopped in Katharine. This time we decided to go canoing down the river. The first trauma was when Lucy discovered that there were crocs in the river. They're only freshies (freshwater crocs) so they are quite small & tend to hide away from humans. After a lot of coaxing we got her into a canoe with Gary. Annabelle & I climbed into the other canoe.
We were sent upstream, the ranger said the going would be easy as they hadn't had too much rain. Off we paddled.....
The first little mishap happened when Annabelle passed her hat & sunnies to Gary (not sure why). Both fell in the river. The hat was rescued but the sunnies sank without a trace - one unhappy Annabelle!
A bit more coaxing and we managed to get paddling again. We eventually reached a point where the current was quite strong so decided to turn back and float downstream. Suddenly Annabelle became hysterical - she'd just noticed that there were spiders in the canoe (think they might have been there all along). Gary brought his canoe alongside to try & help sort out the spiders. Annabelle meanwhile was dancing about in the front of the canoe - I thought we were done for. Something then landed on my hat & crawled onto my sunglasses - I pulled it off my face & threw it into the river. It was a spider the size of your hand!!! At that point I decided that it might be a good idea to come out from under the trees. We started to paddle downstream. Gary & Lucy were far ahead. We suddenly realised that they had capsized and paddled like fury to catch their canoe. We then realised that Lucy was clinging to a branch to stop herself from being washed downstream so we turned our canoe round to rescue Lucy. Gary lifted her into our canoe (I thought we were going to capsize too) and we took her back to the jetty where she went to get the ranger to help us. Annie & I then set off to collect the canoe, hat and barrel that were all floating downstream (we're still trying to work out how many points each item is worth). Another English girl on the trip took her canoe back upstream & helped Gary retrieve the paddles. At the end we were all very wet but agreed that the canoing was more fun than the helicopter ride.
Anyway we got back on the train for the last hop to Darwin where it was raining!!!
Take care & see you soon

Love Geraldine xx

Leaving Seacliff

A thousand apologies for no recent posts - as our time in Adelaide is coming to an end our free time is disappearing.

Mum & George have been here so we've had a crazy time trying to keep up with the oldies..yet more wine tasting and the challenge of finding a beer that George liked. He ended up blending his own!

I finished work 3 weeks ago and had a really nice send off. It's been great working at Flinders but all good things must come to an end. I left Flinders on Friday. The next day we went to the Barossa to see Tanunda Town Band play the Last Night of the Proms in a winery - what a hoot!

I then flew to Sydney for 11 days to teach on the MOET/GIC/MOET courses (as you see yet another reference to wine). The teaching was hard work but fun & we have given MOET a good solid start in Australia. The teaching was interspersed with nice meals overlooking the Opera House & cocktails in the Shangri-La. Definitely a great gig.

Eventually I got back to Seacliff with the hopes of a nice restful week at the seaside haha..

As I've finished work we're no longer eligible to stay on the work visa so have had to convert to a tourist visa. Yet more red tape, form filling, a trip to the immigration office and $1000 later we were granted visas to stay in Oz until early January. Lucy, bless her cotton socks, was hoping that the visas would be refused so we could go home sooner. Slight problem with that - we would miss out on our big trip around Oz.

Oh I nearly forgot - the girls did have a school closure day on Monday so we went swimming with the dolphins. It was fantastic & we have some brilliant photos to show. We went out on a catamaran, got dressed in wetsuits & then every so often jumped in the sea & were dragged along by ropes. The sea was quite choppy but the dolphins were interested in coming to play -excellent.

Anyway, back to the big trip.

On Sunday we're getting on the train to Darwin. It's called the Ghan. We're travelling Gold Class which means we get fed (useful on a 3 day train trip). Whilst we're eating breakfast
they put the bed away & get it out again at teatime. We thought we could show the girls the desert & how big Australia is. We will get to stop at Alice Springs & Katharine. When we get to Darwin there are various trips planned to Kakadu & Litchfield Falls.

We'll leave Darwin on 5th December & fly to Broome - the pearling centre of the world. Apparently it's beautiful - white sand, blue sky and blue sea. On 8th December we fly to Perth for a week. We'll then fly north again (it was the only way I could get the flights sorted - got a few frequent flyer points though) to the Ningaloo Reef to take the girls snorkelling. After a week on the reef we'll fly to Perth again & back to Adelaide for Christmas.

Our week in Adelaide is already packed with parties. On 30th December we fly to Sydney for New Year - should be fun as we've booked a boat on the harbour for New Year's Eve. Eventually we fly back to Manchester arriving on 6th January 2010.

I'm really sad to be leaving Seacliff - it's a great place to be even when the sea's wild (like it is at the moment). The beach is coming alive now. The yacht club is open so people are sailing every weekend. The beach is full of children doing Surf Life Saving - definitely something I would have had the girls doing if they had been here for longer. The kids start when they're about 4 - they look so sweet doing their life saving drills.

Take care everybody - I'm sad to leave here but am looking forward to seeing you all in January. Internet access permitting I'll post on the blog more often

Lots of love
Missing you all

Geraldine xxxx

Masters Basketball Sydney

Well folks - all that time spent on the basketball court hasn't been wasted. Gary's team made it to the finals. They played against the Russians & lost. So they got a silver medal - very lovely.

Missing Gary

Hi folks

Gary's gone to the World Masters in Sydney to play basketball for 10 days so I'm single Mum home alone but that hasn't cramped my style.

I went for a walk along the beach Saturday morning to stretch my legs (and get rid of those wine inches). I was feeling a bit sad cos Gary had gone! All of a sudden this vision of loveliness happened buy. Two gorgeous hunks, bronzed & sweaty, jogging along the beach. I thought I'd imagined it!! I was enjoying the memory of the vision as I walked home when they passed me again - bliss. Being in Oz has certainly become even more interesting :)

As Gary left Sally & Graham reappeared. They knocked on the door early Saturday morning having just got off the plane. They decided that as it was such a lovely day they would take their yacht out on the water. It was also the Opening Day for the Yacht Club so there were loads of boats racing on the water - it was fantastic. I can now see the attraction of being in a sailing club. We spent the afternoon on the boat having tea & cake, oh and then cheese & wine. The day was finished off with a Gourmet Barbecue at the Yacht Club which we gatecrashed.

Gary was grumpy that we were on the boat while he was in cloudy wet Sydney on boys trip playing basketball - I ask you?!

The weekend was lovely & warm but it's now started raining again (funny drought this). The girls are grumpy because they're in out of school club while Gary's in Sydney. Ever get that Monday feeling? Anyway only a few more days then Mum will arrive from the UK so we'll just have to do more wine tasting.

We are definitely coming back to the UK. We go walkabout in November so will only be contactable by email/ phone. We'll catch up with you all when we get back. For those of you planning to get pressies for girls - please don't worry about it. If you really want to we'll get then when we get home (our luggage is already over the limit!)

Missing you lots - big hugs to all

Geraldine xxx

The Gold Coast

Annabelle: Last week was the start of the holidays between term three and term four and we went to THE GOLD COAST, however mum couldn't go with us because she had to go to work.
We left home on Saturday the 26th of September at about 4:30am to catch our flight at 6am to go to the gold coast, when we got to the gold coast it was 28 degrees.
A few hours later after sitting in a traffic jam we got to the place we were staying, THE GRAND APARTMENTS, we had the rest of the day being lazy and going swimming in the sea and the pool.
The next day we went to SEA WORLD. It was fun, we saw the dolphin show, the sea lion, the polar bears and all the other aminals there however there wasn't any killer whales.
On Monday we went to the WARNER BROTHERS MOVIE WORLD, and went on many rides inculding the scooby doo ride and the wild wild west ride also we saw the Hollywood Stunt Driver show.
Lucy:
I'm talking about the last two days that we were in gold coast!
At about 11:00 o'clock we went to wet 'n' wild water world, there was like splash landings but bigger!! Frist me and annabelle went on the lazy river. Then all of us went in the wave pool they were giant waves! Then we went on mammoth fall it was a 8 person ride we went on it twice and when we went round a bend I mostley felt as if i was going to fall down to dad!!!
The next day we were out of the room by 10 am and we went to NSW and backthen we went in a zorb (a ball that you sit in and it has water in it and you go down a hill) then we went to the airport and flew home!!!

lucyx PS Miss you lots.