Seeing faces we may never see again....

Well this is not something we plan to do, but it does come with being “on the road again” (according to Willie Nelson anyway).  And that is where we are, heading for the good life.  It feels as if we have been waiting in limbo for so long, it is hard to remind ourselves that we have spent a lot of the time learning valuable skills and making contacts that will serve us in good stead when we buy our own project farm.

Carly and her dog!

And so we are driving south.  On our way down we popped in to see Carly and her dad’s avocado farm in Bundaberg and catch up, hard to believe it had been 5 years since she was in London with us.

Love that NZ scenery, check out those mountains.

We spent a week over in New Zealand helping Cor’s parent’s clean out their apartment in Christchurch, and got to see Casey and Natasha, plus spend a couple of days with our niece and nephew.

Caleb and Emily show promising climber skills

Caleb having a ball

Since then we have had a great few days in Brisbane spending time with friends and family (my baby sister!).  We picked up the trailer we ordered made and unpacked our storage locker.  12 years that stuff had been in there!  Two loads of rubbish went to the dump, including lots of mouldy clothes and shoes that we will never wear again.  A nice reminder of just how horribly I used to dress (my casual wear style could euphemistically be called “reformed skater boy”).  We have named the trailer “Taylor”, so that together with Chuck the Truck we can call them Chuck Taylor.

It had to be big enough to fit two cows..... and all our junk.

Chuck Taylor explanation for those who don't get it..... actually it doesn't make that much sense, but it rhymes.

We had a fun time catching up with our friends with kids as well as those who aren’t so encumbered, and it was amazing that everyone could make the effort to see us in the limited time window that we had.  It was great to see you all.  Sarah and Vince even promised us details of someone who lives just up the road from where we are looking to buy.  He dives for crayfish and abalone, so has immediately moved to the top of my “must get to know” list.  We received many assurances of visits, some will happen, some may not, but we know that we certainly won’t be getting too lonely down there on the “south island”.

With Kate and Kevin!

We popped into Sydney for a couple of days with Cor’s uncle Robert on his farm in Vineyard, tapping into his extensive poultry breeding experience and picking up more of Cor’s extensive library.  I don’t know how the hell we are going to fit all of her books into just one house, but it is going to need a full size library (she has requested one with those ladders on wheels).  And speaking of getting clucky this weekend we are with my sister for my niece’s first birthday, no doubt turning me into a wannabe parent, for a few days at least!

Clucky, me?

On 15 August we arrive back in Tasmania.  We will be farmsitting for a couple of friends for a few weeks, and after that we have decided that while we are looking for a property to buy we are going to rent a house.  Any place we likely buy will likely not have a house, and renting a place will give us time to get a cottage built, and also allow us to have our shipping container delivered to access all those things that we shipped from London.  It will give us an address, allowing us to transfer our drivers licences, vehicle registrations, and most importantly, medical info so that I can have my sinus things sorted in Hobart.

So that is where we are.  A week from Tasmania, accelerating towards the good life with the mainland in the rearview mirror.

Supposed to be driving into the future (but in reality just driving a moving truck in NZ)

Some photos from our catch ups.....

Rocking the Red Rocks

Palya, friends!  Since we last posted we have been enjoying the United States during its pre-election buildup.

We arrived in LA back in early October, picked up a van from the fabulous Lost Campers, and then hit the road.  We spent a fun night with an old Uni friend who has now settled down and got himself a lovely other half and a couple of rugrats.  His parents were visiting and we may have stayed up late with them to put a dent in their son's wine stocks.....which made our setting out for Vegas the next morning a fun drive.

Vegas.  What can you say about it?  It is a pretty artificial place.  No real reason for it to be here but some lines drawn on a map by some people when they were figuring out the state borders.  There is no natural reason for it to be here. No port, no river, no verdant valley.  It is only here for entertainment purposes, and at that they excel.  The gambling, the million different Cirque du Soleil shows, all the bands and comics that play here to halls that may or may not be full, are all part of the modern USA's equivalent of "bread and circuses".  Keep them fed, keep them entertained, keep them happy.  That is Vegas.

We haven't really been "in" that side of Vegas.  We did go to a Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler concert (Dylan was terrible, he has lost his voice, couldn't understand a word, Knopfler was great, but only played one Dire Straits track), and we did stay at the Luxor with a 50 buck internet special (tired rooms but it did have a hot tub!) but apart from that we have been camping outside Vegas rock climbing.  And that IS something natural that Vegas has, because Red Rocks park is awash with moderate to difficult sandstone rock climbs.  And it is almost in town!

As usual when we go climbing we have met awesome people.  People we learn from, people we laugh with, people we share a beer with.  The crew from Fairbanks Alaska, Erika, Vaughn, Erin, Chad, and Brian as an älso ran" were top notch, and have pushed us to do some big multipitch climbs we might not have attempted on our own.  Cor has started leading traditional style climbs but having these guys push me to do some longer stuff has been great.  Getting up at 5:45 to hit the wall at dawn and then do a stack of pitches followed by an hour's descent by head torch in the deepening dusk is probably not what I would have elected to do, but it has been really great fun.  I have learned a lot about climbing and myself, and I know that I will be training next year and coming back stronger.

So now my fingers are a bit of a mess and we are going to take the next week off as we travel up to San Francisco for our flight to Honolulu, no doubt listening to American public radio (NPR) all the way.

A big shout out to James from the Okeanos Aggressor - he encouraged me to shoot photos in RAW format and see what I could do with them afterwards, well my photos are really looking great, so stay tuned for the best of our USA pics!

So until we see you, whether it is on the rock, on the road or at the bar, pura vida!

Sorry officer, I'm not from around here.

Well we have now had our first (and hopefully last) run-in with American law-enforcement.  We were looking for a missed turnoff to the local Walmart and I thought I was just "going with the flow".  Apparently not!  This whole miles vs kilometers thing is a little confusing, but really I was just thinking of something else when those lights started flashing in my rear view mirror.

The moment the cop got out of his car I thought, hands on the steering wheel, don't get shot, hands on the steering wheel, don't get shot, hands on the steering wheel, don't get shot etc etc.  It transpired I had been doing 50 in a 35 zone (!!) and when he asked for my licence and registration I feared the worst.  A whopping big fine to go with the cost of a replacement GPS that we soaked with water in Costa Rica (a fun story for another post) would really make our hire car costs this trip very expensive.

But he was great and all my fears were for naught.  When he found out we were in the USA for a month he advised us that all the streets in Vegas running one way were 35, and the others were 45, so to do 44 the whole time and we would be fine as no one would pull us over doing 44 in a 35.  50 on the other hand.....

So all in all a let off and a big sigh of relief.  Plus, no one got shot or appeared on COPS.

Respect my AUTHORITY!

Pura Vida!!

I am sure anyone who has done a blog post about Costa Rica has titled it like this, and there is a reason. Pura Vida means pure life, and is a real echo of our "good life" philosophy. The Costa Ricans hustle, but they know why they are working hard: so that they can enjoy pura vida with their families. It's a bit of a cliche but I think we too often lose sight of this.

Now this will be a pretty long post, contrary to the wishes of a few people who apparently lead busy lives, but there is sex in this post so stick with it and it will be worth it.

We left the dive boat, (PICTURES NOW UP!!) picked up a 4WD hire car and did some travelling around Costa Rica with James (who had been diving with us on the Wind Dancer and found himself at a loose end for a few days).

First stop was La Fortuna in the shadow of the active Arenal volcano, which only appeared in 1968, a reminder of how quickly the planet can change without any help from us. We did some zip-lining (essentially flying-foxes set in and up to 200m above the forest canopy) and on one got up to 70km per hour, and on another travelled the better part of 800m across a massive gorge. Adrenaline pumping stuff. We did some walks on the suspension bridges and we did some wildlife spotting at the Danaus Ecocentre. We saw sloths (with a little help from the people at the centre), poison dart frogs, caiman crocodiles and leaf cutter ants. Sloths were smaller than I was expecting. I was expecting large animals but they grow to weigh 7kg at the absolute maximum, which gives them the edge over their predators in that they can hang out on some pretty small branches. The three finger sloth looks stoned and happy, while the two fingered sloth looks permanently cranky. Upset about missing out on that extra finger maybe! That they could create this paradise Danaus in just 15 years is amazing to me and the effort they are still putting in to making it better yet is fantastic.


It's a sloth!

We also sampled the hot springs of the local ticos after getting wet on a forest walk, and as we soaked our troubles away in the 44 degree water we were treated to a lightning show as the storm that drenched us rolled over the volcano.

Arenal volcano puffing away

That night James put his dive instructor cred on show with one of the girls from Oregon we met at the hostel. Anyone who has met a dive instructor knows what I am talking about. That's right folks, our blog just got raunchy!

After some challenging driving uphill, over some very rough roads for a couple hours, we made our way to Monteverde, home of some of Costa Rica's most pristine cloud forest. We did some excellent bird watching with a local guide and saw toucans and the elusive three wattled bell bird, among oh so many others. The toucan eats eggs and the young of other birds! That's why they have those massive beaks. Freaky stuff eh?

Hummingbird

After Monteverde we dropped James off in the crazy San Jose (don't drive here - no street signs and suicidal drivers) and headed to the tourist trap of Jaco on the coast. Most Costa Ricans shrink in horror at this as Jaco is a gaudy tourist trap full of prostitutes, but we were destined for a week at School of the World to learn how to surf (me and Cor) and Spanish classes (Cor). Coreen was inspirational in her work at Spanish and was quickly my go-to translator, while I was learning my way in the waves, with hardly any prostitutes at all. Cor hurt her back so didn't surf after day 2, but thank goodness her back is starting to loosen up now. Not even my mad acupressure massage skills could help at the time.

I'm up!

What I learned surfing: you have to work to put yourself in the right place at the right time (do nothing and you catch 90% fewer waves); fear of getting dumped by a wave puts you towards the back of your board, which only makes it more likely your fears will come true as the wave catches you not the other way round, so man up and get forward; and relax, it's only water. Thank you Riccardo and Alonso!

After our week in Jaco we farewelled our Escuela mates, then we caught a ride, two chicken buses and a boat to swap the Pacific ocean for the Caribbean. We crossed the isthmus in just one day. Remarkable (both that we did it in a day AND that I used the word isthmus)!

Tortuguero wasn't the white sand Caribbean beach town we were expecting, more like a river shanty town with a few touristy afterthoughts scattered about. We did some canoe trips in the river
and saw howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, caiman crocodiles, Jesus Christ lizards (they run on water? Jesus Christ!!), and oh so many birds. The guide James recommended, Francisco Bonilla, was absolutely tops, and any good photos we have were down to his excellent work in positioning the canoe.

Jesus Christ lizard

But the real reason people come to Tortuguero is for the turtles that give the place its name. Last season it was estimated that 50,000 turtles nested on this 18 mile stretch of beach, mostly greens but

also leatherbacks, loggerheads, hawksbill and olive Ridleys. The black sand beach looks like the woods around Bastogne post World War 2, full of massive holes, and each night new tank-like tracks of turtles emerge from and return to the water. Some turtles will nest up to eight times in a single season, fertilising her eggs as she needs to from a little chamber where she stores the sperm from her last male she shagged. I'm pretty sure there has been a court ruling about this, it's definitely psycho ex-girlfriend behaviour.

And the biggest danger to her eggs once she has buried them in this war zone? Some other dopey turtle digging them up while making their own nest! Egg breakfasts were definitely on the menu for lots of the local wildlife.

One night we were on the beach being pelted with sand from a couple of nesting turtles as they covered their eggs, it was a real privilege to witness it such a special event. And then, on the morning we left for San Jose and our flight, we took a 4:30am (!) stroll down the beach, and were lucky enough to see a nest of green turtle hatchlings boil out of the sand and make a mad haphazard dash for the ocean. As I learned in surf school, sometimes being in the right place at the right time takes work! There were so many we didn't know where to look, and all we could do was give these little dudes the best possible chance by keeping the birds off them until they made the water.

Escape!

So that is it for now. It has been an amazing few weeks in Costa Rica, and now we are in the USA doing some rock climbing. So until next time, whether it is online, on the rock, beneath the waves or at the bar, Pura Vida baby!

Under the sea!

We are in an inflatable boat in the rain, and we are soaking wet. The seas are running to 3 metres and we lose sight of the only land for 500 miles as the wind blows whitecaps off the waves. I tell myself that I am not crazy, but after 20 minutes of this I don't believe me. We hit the water and are under the massive waves instantaneously.

Welcome to Cocos Island diving.

As we descend through the gloom we see lots of little fish swimming in the ripping current, which lets up a bit when we reach the bottom at 30 metres. A quick fin over the nearest ridge and there it is, the reason for all that surface insanity. Hammerhead sharks, stacked, packed and racked 10 to 15 deep swimming by almost within touching distance. There are countless sharks, and just when you think their numbers have no end they are gone, off into the blue. The majestic giants return in numbers 10 minutes later, this time covering the sun. All around there are curious one metre Almaco jacks (trevally), cruising yellowfin tuna and octopus in the rocks.

This is just a sample of our week in Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The diving was challenging and rewarding in equal measure. We have met and dived with legendary people, including a famous underwater photographer and someone we suspect may have featured on a cover somewhere. The photos won't do it justice, in large part due to the relatively poor visibility experienced at Cocos following the large earthquake off the coast a couple of weeks ago. In any case it will be a while before we get them sorted for posting. But the memories of the diving are crystal clear and don't need any Photoshopping.

And the sinuses? They worked just fine for the most part. A few dives where it took some time to equalise the pressure but in the end A-OK.

So Cor and I are now in the Arenal area of Costa Rica, drinking $4 cocktails in the shadow of an active volcano after a hard day of zip lines and hot springs, looking forward to a day of sloths and lava tomorrow.

Palya!

On the road.... again!

A quickie to say we are off on the road again.  The last week has been a frenzy of packing and form-filling for the next 3 months, and now we are about to set off for Costa Rica and what will hopefully be an awesome 10 days of world-class diving. 

Despite all the prep and packing we still managed to get another day out on the boat squeezed in last week, and we were rewarded with breaching humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins playing around the boat, a mackerel (that I landed) and a tuna (that I lost).  North Queensland is a really special place in the winter.

We will put photos up here when we can, until then there are a few new ones in the Ingham folder to the right.

Palya!

A Lucinda life less ordinary

It has been a while since the last blog post, and for that I make no apologies.  Our two months here in Ingham has flown by, and it is now only a week before we jet off to Costa Rica, the USA and Micronesia for 3 months.

We have been surprisingly busy here in my home town, entertaining guests from out of town, going to birthday parties, getting our boat licences, sorting out our transition back to Australian life (driver's licences, Medicare cards, bank accounts, getting our house shipped over, that sort of thing), running on the beach, and of course, going fishing.

There have been quite a few fish caught, no real monsters, but it has been a cooler than normal winter, and we have had some busy days on the water nonetheless (by cooler than normal I mean we have occasionally had cause to wear jeans at night).  Cor has christened her fishing rod and is turning into a bit of a fishing demon.  It has been a real treat to be here, and it is now with some regret that our time at the beach house comes to an end.  If only it could go on for longer, but the next stage is coming and it promises to be exciting.

Thanks to everyone for the messages of support and good will over the last couple months.  It is great to know so many people care and get the whole carpe diem thing.

To give everyone an update I have had some further news on my sinus issue.  It would appear that while exacerbated by my broken nose, the sinusitis was also partially caused by what appears to an abnormal bone growth in my left cheek which has nearly closed my left cheek sinus.  The doc can't say for sure that this is what it is until he biopsies it, but as that test also needs a period of non-diving recovery this is going to have to wait until we get back from our next leg of travel.  He will drain the sinuses at the same time so for now we have our fingers crossed that we will get to Cocos Island in a couple of weeks and all will be OK.  The doc has said I am OK to dive but who knows what will happen when I get to 10 metres?

So that is where we are for now, stay tuned to see where we will be in a couple weeks!

The Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything...

...is 42.  Everyone who has read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy knows this.

But this post is more about what the meaning is for us, or in other words why Cor and I are on this journey in search of "the good life".  We are often asked why we left good careers, a happening place like London (in an Olympic year), and all our friends, to go off travelling the world.  Well, actually that part people understand, but what they don't understand are our plans of buying a smallholding / hobby farm and growing our own food.  That seems just like a crazy amount of work, right?  Why go to all that trouble?  So a post to explain a bit seems in order.

Back in December 2010, Cor and I were back in Australia on holiday driving from Ingham to Albury when we had a nasty car accident on the highway between Mackay and Rockhampton.  We aquaplaned off the road at about 105 - 110km per hour headfirst into a ditch and flipped the car over.  We were lucky, and for the most part walked away mostly unscathed.  I had a broken nose (check out the Disaster post for the issues this is causing now), whiplash, a gashed leg, a busted head plus some soft tissue bruising courtesy of the seatbelt, while Cor had a tiny scratch on her foot.  But more than anything else it was a wake-up call.

If we had come off the road 5 metres earlier we would have hit a massive gum tree and be dead.

There was lots of water on the drive and if there had been just 1 to 2 feet of water in the ditch, we would be dead (upside down, it took us a while to get out).

Take a good look at the photo of the inside of the car.  See that small tree above the driver's seat?  6 inches lower and one of us would be dead.

See what I mean about wake up call??

We owe thanks to our family Justin Burnside and Vayne Monzeglio for coming to our rescue after the accident.

At the time we were living in London going through the motions, but after this we decided that it was time to reassess our lives and live where we could engage in what made us happy, which is being outside.  Whether it is climbing, running, diving, fishing, camping, hiking or skiing, we love being outside.  So we decided to move somewhere we could do that from home, rather than living near work and commuting to what made us happy.  Our friends Tim and Lynne had done this with their new massage business and were an inspiration.

The other thing we love, though, is food.  We love growing it, cooking it and eating it.  We had an allotment and a great garden in London and were largely self-sufficient for fruit and vegetables 8 months of the year.  It had always been our dream to do a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or Gourmet Farmer, raise our own animals and be self sufficient in food as much as possible, but that was always off in the future in a semi-retired state.

Well, after our wake up call, we aren't putting it off anymore.  Bucket list?  Doing it now.  There is no point being rich but dead and therefore unable to dive Sipadan, or climb El Cap, or ski some insane off-piste.  The time is now.  And as for a smallholding, well why wait to do the things we have always dreamed of?  Some people ask if we have enough money to do it, and as anyone who has followed their dreams will tell you, you can keep chasing "just a bit more" but you will never have enough.  Far better to get out of the comfort zone, and see what happens.

I hope this goes towards explaining why we seem a little crazed, and perhaps inspire a bit of craziness of your own.  Perhaps we'll see you on that dive boat this year or maybe coming up the drive of our little farm one day for a cold cider and a warm welcome.  Palya!

Romance is dead, long live cheap airfares!

I never knew the glory days of flying. I was too young to see the days where men and women dressed up to fly, the men wearing suits, the women dresses and heels. I would have liked to, but even a few years ago turning up to a flight in a singlet (vest), shorts and thongs (flip flops) would have been frowned upon by all and sundry, with a good chance that the check in counter would just refuse to let someone board dressed like that. Fast forward a few years and because the flights are cheap, people seem to think the experience must be too. There almost seems to be a contest, with prizes for the grottiest and sluttiest up for grabs.

And when passengers dress like scum, that is how staff treat them, with this attitude leaching into all facets of customer service, regardless of who they are dealing with. The staff at low cost airlines are perfect examples of this, treating all people with a practiced professional disdain.

I know this is probably old fashioned thinking, and the people who read this won't be contenders for the aforementioned prizes, but we should all make an effort to dress well when we travel. Not uncomfortably, but as if we are visiting an elderly relative in hospital. Also, we should expect better customer service from our airlines. Price should not be our only consideration when deciding who we fly with, and we should let the airlines know this is the case, utilising social networks to publicise our experiences, both the good and the bad.

As for the airlines, I would love to see the introduction of a dress code to both lounges and economy class in line with that in business class. It may be too much to ask in Australia but I hope it can happen. Change the way people dress and you will change way they treat your staff. There would be uproar at first from the lefties but many more would applaud the move.

Now I won't pretend that these ideas will make airport security less onerous, or reverse the growing tendency of airlines to hide their fees as add-ons, or even address the lunacy of giving business class passengers metal cutlery while economy use plastic (what, the bad guys can't afford to fly business???), but it will bring some self respect back. So there you have it, my 3 step plan to get some of the romance back into travel!

We are currently in Singapore with Cor's family (oh the food!), having flown here on a horror show with Jetstar, the inspiration for this post. On Sunday we are off to Malaysia, photos to come when we have proper computer access and can connect the camera...

In the beginning.....

Well, here is our first blog post.  So far we have been in Japan for a week and in North Queensland for a week.  Yet to come are trips to Malaysia (June, diving), Costa Rica (September, diving & surfing), the USA (October, climbing) and Micronesia (December, diving), with a couple months in North Queensland (from mid-July to mid-September) for some fishing.

So far Cor has been held at immigration twice in two countries, once due to her not having a visa for Japan (and needing one!) and once because the Aussie immigration department made a mistake with her visa 3 years ago.  This does not bode well given our travel plans above!

Japan was good, not as different as I was expecting.  All in all it was just as busy as London, with people who are far more polite and eager to help.  As always I did the navigation and Coreen speaks to the locals, the very definition of teamwork.  My tattoo went well, and we had an awesome time going out for beers and top sushi with the tattooist (Genko) after the two days of work.  All in all I can't wait to go back to Japan to explore further afield beyond Nagoya and Tokyo.

The last week with Mum and Dad in Ingham has been great, four days of camping and hiking on Hinchinbrook Island, and two days of fishing.  I haven't been as successful with the fishing as last time but Cor is right on it so we have had two good feeds of fish with more in the fridge.

Next to come is fun with Cor's family in Singapore and then onto Mabul in Malaysia for diving.

Until next time.... here are a few pics.

A temple in Japan

Paperbark swamp on Hinchinbrook

Sunset on Hinchinbrook

Cor and one of her fish