Diving in Victoria

I'm reading this book called Down Under by Bill Bryson.  I would recommend it to anyone coming to Australia, living in Australia, been to Australia, or just has a curious nature about Australian culture.  Bryson is from small town America and lived in London for awhile, which I think is why his way of describing things is right on and hilarious.  Its exactly how I would describe things, just written a hell of a lot better and funnier.

I tell you this because Bill Bryson devotes a lot of time in the book to a infamously tragic accident when the Prime Minister of Australia in the 1960's, Harold Holt, went for a swim in south Victoria and disappeared.  Never to be seen again.  Presumably he drowned and was eaten up by sharks and shit, but there's a ton of conspiracy theories floating around (get it...floating around...hehehe).  They built a monument to him in Melbourne....a swimming pool.

This pic is strange, but it shows what I want to show.  Where Harold Holt went swimming that day was near the Rip, or the Heads, which is a very small inlet (only a couple hundred meters) into Port Phillip Bay which Melbourne sits atop of.  The Mornington Peninsula is a get away area for Melburnians, and I can understand why. All of South Victoria has become my favorite part of Australia <3.  Anyways, the Rip is notorious for capsizing boats, its one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.  Guess where we went diving? 

Ok, we did NOT dive in the Rip.  Not possible.  We did do some diving in the bay and outside the bay, requiring us to drive through the Heads, which was scary enough in my opinion.  In fact, as we came in from our last dive out, we heard an emergency call on the radio for a capsized boat near the Rip!  When we docked another call came through that someone was signaling that there were people trapped in the vessel and they had to send out rescue recovery teams.  I just googled it to see if there was more information, but no luck. But how scary is that!  I'm just glad we were on our last dive, not sure I would've gone back out after hearing that.  Macca said it was a calm day for the heads when we went through, but my arms are sore and I have blisters on the hands from white-knuckling the bar so I didn't go flying out of the boat.  It was well worth it though, cuz the diving was awesome!

Macca took some awesome pics underwater.  I don't know what these are, maybe a nudie branch?  (seriously that's what they're called)

We followed some little squiddies around for awhile.  They were just squid, but smaller than I would expect squid to be and cute, so I call them little squiddies :)

A Gobi sticking out of coral 

We did a pier dive and fish count the third day.  You literally dive around and count how many fish you see.  I found it rather uninteresting except for this guy!  Weedy seadragons were everywhere.  Very cool.

I'm a diver, and you can't see my arms flailing!  Its really hard not to use your arms when you're diving, but they're useless, lol.

 Blue Devil Fish

 

We saw a shark!  Thankfully MC Hammer is the only shark we saw.

 The last dive we did was my favorite.  Mostly because I am disproportionately proud of myself for diving without a more experienced guide with me.  I had to pay attention to the computers to make sure I wasn't going to deep, and I guided the other two people I was partnered with around.  And I managed the accent with a very good safety stop at 5meters!  I actually felt like I knew what I was doing, pretty much for the first time.  It changed the whole experience :)

This is my fav pic form all our dives-fluorescent orange starfish in macro!

Limited antics of the Red Center

I'm trying very hard to update the blog and possibly just possibly get caught up....not likely.  But the crap internet of Australia is trying very hard to hinder all efforts on my part.  I have about 100 photos from the Red Center that I want to put up (and that's just the best of the best). Unfortunately, uploading photos takes a loooooong ass time.  Here, I have spent the last 20 minutes and only able to upload 4.  So please enjoy, 4 photos from the Center of Australia:

 Road bowling.  It is exactly what it sounds to be.  Funny enough, we were all quite keen to do road bowling, though thinking about it now, I don't think the bowl at all in Australia.  If you go to a bowling club, its lawn bowling, which is widely different and has a minimum age of 85 to play.    Regardless, road bowling outside of Daily Waters Pub (which is in fact very Australian but the pics did not upload) was good fun!

 Pavel, the Polish army man who liked to tell me that 9-11 was a US government conspiracy at Devils Marbles.  Devils Marbles are a set of natural rock formations that look like....marbles.  Quite remarkable actually.  Pavel's theory...not as remarkable (but awkward as hell to listen to when stuck on a bus for hours and hours)

Pushing one of the Devil's Marbles over...I wonder how the Devil would feel about that...

After the hours on the bus together, people get a bit silly.  Moira, Brecht, and Julie dancing a jig at Daily Waters Pub :)

Sunny Darwin

This was Darwin.  Ha!  I didn't actually see much of Darwin cuz I arrived late the night before our tour picked us up at 530am the next day.  But I remember this ad.  And its true.  Mobile phone rates are painful.

First day of the tour we went here.  I have no idea what the name is, but they were cool little swimming holes with little waterfalls.

Penny was a good tour guide.  She made us kangaroo steaks.  I love kangaroo steaks.  Who knew Skippy was so tasty?!  Seriously, American friends...we are missing out.

Our first big waterfall! Maguk, I'm pretty sure it was called.  All the falls and places we went on this leg of the trip are part of Kakadu National Park.  The park overall is huuuuuge and well worth the trip.

Penny the tour guide.  Whats nice about this part of the trip is that it was as north as you can get (for the most part) in Australia...which means even though it was winter in July...it was nice and warm and perfect weather for a swim.  The water however, was freezing!

Polish Army man and a yak?  I think he was giving it coffee or tea?!  Seemed dangerous to me, so I took a picture.  The thing I remember best about Pavel is that when he ate an apple he ate the whole thing, core, seeds and all.  The only thing left was the tiny little top stem.  Hardcore man.

And this would be Pavel fixing our second of three flat tires!  4 wheeling on red dirt roads (not the Alan Jackson kind) is dangerous, but 3 flats in 2 days was a record!

Part of our group at Jim Jim falls...waaay in the background.  It was dry season, which is why they're kinda measly.  I guess in summer, aka wet season, they crazy powerful, but you can't actually do this hike during wet season because the crocs will kill you.  Seriously.  Apparently there was a tourist a few years ago that didn't head the signs and got eaten by a croc on one of these tours.  Or at least thats what they tell us so we'll actually listen to them.  I don't know about you, but if someone says Crocs live over this way...I'm gonna go the other way...just sayin.

What a lovely group.  Its not everyone, but there's Netherlands, America, Poland, Germany, Australia, Australia/Germany/Peru. Ireland, Canadian, and Balanese (?)

Maguk Falls

Hiking to Jim Jim Falls.  When I'm hiking I think of it as a physical puzzle.  Every step is well thought out to get you to the other side quickly and safely.  I'm a dork, but it makes it challenge, and I like it. 

 Its not Maguk, and not Jim Jim, but I don't remember the name of it.  I do remember that this water was the coldest of all the watering holes we went to cuz its was covered in shade by the cliff.  And it was frightening to swim all the way to falls cuz the water isn't clear and you're just waiting for you leg to get ripped of by an unseen croc.

 I think that's me being a tour guide?!  It does look like I'm saying something very interesting. But everyone listens when I tell stories, right Hannah?!  ;)

Swimming at JimJim=cold!!

 Speaking of crocs (was I?)  On all of our hikes was this sign.  We did go on a croc cruise, which was quite nice.  (and safe.)

 Salt water croc.  They get big and can kill you.  And like to live in fresh water.  D'oh.
 

 Lilly pads and what are those flowers called? 

 Bird sanctuary behind lilly pads

 Friends on the boat!  Leticia, Kevin, and Julie

 Sandra!  She lives in Sydney, you've probably seen pics of her on this blog of on FB...this is where we met :)

 Lilly pad hats, lol.  We are dorks.  Moira and Sandra modeling

 Leticia and Julie

 This might look familiar to you.  Its where Indiana Jones (or Crocodile Dundee...I always get those two confused) was filmed.  Buts its aboriginal owned land (technically all of Australia is) and supposedly the dude cracked the whip incorrectly which is offensive to Aboriginals, and they kicked him off the land.  Could be true, could be another tour guide story to make things more interesting...entertaining either way!

 Nothing as far as the eye can see.  Beautiful.

 Group photo! 

 Just chillin on the cliff face watchin sunset <3

 Wish I was in this one 

 Aboriginal rock painting.  I think thats a long neck turtle.  Important to aboriginals, someone who reads this probably knows why and can fill us all in.

Sunny Darwin.

Finito

As tired as I am, I wanted to take a quick second to recognize this momentous occasion in my life.  It is exactly 10:30PM on Monday, November 8, 2010 and I have just submitted my final graduate school assignment.

I.AM.DONE.

(a better analysis will be available when I can coherently think without using buzzwords and jargon)