Basirk in Australia

The continuing adventures of Chris Bassett

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2003-07-14 20:55:26 - Cardwell (yep, still here!)

The van had a seal replaced at the front of the engine. It had gone brittle and popped out! The front bushes have also been replaced, as has the coolant. With all the work done we headed off to Townsville on Sunday and when we got there we found oil dripping quite quickly off the bottom of the engine! We wanted the same garage to look at the problem as if the part that they replaced was faulty then they could do the job again!

As it turned out, there was some kind of oil pressure release valve that had stuck and this was probably the cause of the original seal blowing out. It is now fixed (hopefully) and we'll be heading back down to Townsville again this afternoon.

I have to say that my stay here at Cardwell Beach Backpackers has been great fun. Judy has looked after us all really well and the other backpackers here have come together like a big family. I'll be quite sad to leave, especially as the weather has got a lot better in the last 2 days.

So, on to Townsville.

2003-07-08 19:50:03 - Cardwell (still)

We should here about the van today. It is having a seal replaced, the front bushes replaced and the cooling system flushed (it was apparently full of oily mud).

We are staying at a place called Cardwell Beach Backpackers. It's a new place (opened about 2 weeks ago) with a really good group atmosphere. The person who runs the place (Jude) is a good laugh and has a kitten called Rex who has learned how to climb up people's legs. This isn't good as we all wear shorts.

It's the people that seem to make places like this, and Micky (Irish) and Tomo (Japanese) are 2 characters that make the evenings go quite quickly.

Seeing as we weren't doing anything over the weekend we went on a day trip over to Hinchinbroke Island. The Island is quite large with lots of mangroves around the edge and unspoiled forest at its centre. There are also a number of really nice beaches and we took advantage of these at a couple of places. The surf was just right of body-surfing :)

Stopping here has actually been really pleasant. It's a good break from travelling, and Jude (aka Mum) has been feeding as up nicely.

2003-07-04 00:44:27 - Cardwell

We've hit a slight snag to "get back down to Sydney as quick as possible" plan. As we went past a place called Tully, heading towards Cardwell, I smelled hot oil. Stu was driving and as he started to pull over the oil pressure light came on. Our trusty steed has emptied herself of oil all over the Bruce Highway (we'd check the oil level this morning at Cairns). The RACQ picked us up and we're now kicking our heels at a hostel in Cardwell.

The repair probably won't be too painfulll on the wallet (less than 200 quid) but there is always the chance that some damage has been done to the engine - they don't like running without oil! If they manage to fix the engine then we'll get them to replace the front bushes too. Being a Friday, they won't get it done until about Tuesday :( especially as Ingham (the next largest place just south of here) is having their show day at the weekend which closes everything including the place that provides spare parts.

Sh!t happens.

Oh yeah, and the weather forcast is for rain at the weekend.

2003-07-03 00:13:25 - Cape Tribulation
- Mt. Sorrow
- Cairns

We drove from Cairns up towards Cape Tribulation along rainforest covered mountains on narrow twisty raods - great fun! We stayed at a nice caravan park called Lync Haven (or something like that) that had lots of aviaries, bats (those big ones) and it's own squadron of mosquitos. The bats were incredibly noisy (they squawk) and we need more mossy repelent.

The following day we went up to the end of the Cape Trib road, and from there walked up Mt. Sorrow. I say "walked up" but what I actually mean is, "slogged our guts out in hot humid weather through dense rainforest for what seemed like hours". Mt Sorrow, so called because after climbing it you realise that you've then got to do it all again the other way (ok, I might have made that up). To be fair, the sign at the bottom did mention that the climb was for people of above average fitness.

Having said all that, the view from the top was very good, helped in part by a pair of rather nice blondes from Perth who sadly started the climb down not long after we arrived at the top. The view of the Cape was also ok. As we neared the bottom of the mountain the Perthian (?) blondes caught us up having apparently got lost (I'm not saying a word!). This cheered our flagging spirits and we dutyfully hurled ourselves down the remainder of the slope in Commando stylee.

We swam in the sea at Cape Trib to remove some of the icky sweaty grime ...no, the ladies had gone back to their hostel... and then motored back to our caravan park.

Today we are back at Cairns. Tomorrow we'll continue south.

It was our 3 month aniversary in Oz on 1st July, and my 5 month aniversary since quitting work. Tempus Fugits.

2003-06-30 02:09:04 - Cairns (Diving Medical)

Just had the Diving Medical. I didn't pass due to my asthma which wasn't totally unexpected. It is, however, rather dissappointing. Queensland is known for its really strict diving medicals. If I wanted to I could get the medical elsewhere (like the UK) but I'm really not sure if that's a good idea.

There's lots of other stuff to do so I'll have to content myself with doing those. Skydiving will definately happen!

2003-06-28 01:46:21 - South Mission Beach
- Cairns

We didn't hang around long in Townsville. It was a very dull place. So we motored on up to South Mission Beach, which is just south of, erm, Mission Beach. It was a really nice place with deserted (2 s's?) beaches that curved around to end in rocky headlands. The gentle surf lapped rythmically at the golden sandy beaches, which sloped gently up to tropical forest and coconuts lay strewn liberally at the shadowed boundary...

I'm feeling creative today, ok?

We got to see 2 endangered casowaries which are large flightless birds. I think they're quite ugly, but what do I know.

Today we have travelled to Cairns. We passed through some beautiful mountains to get here. I was expecting large skyscrapers and lots of traffic, but no. We stopped at an information centre and asked where the centre of Cairns was. The guy replied, "You're in it!" We were actually about 2 streets away, but the fact is Cairns in quite flat and not that busy. Most of the action is centred around 2 streets and most of the people here seem to be English or Japanese.

Quite an amusing fact here: Cairns has no beach. It has extensive mud flats when the tide is out but not a lot of sand. Not to be defeated the locals have made their own beach which is about 50 metres long and looks suspiciously like a swimming pool that's had a load of sand dumped in it. Not quite in the same league as Mission Beach, but this doesn't stop the locals and large tourist population flooding to it.

It's school hols here so everything is getting a bit busy. I don't think we'll spend long here though because if you're not doing anything Great Barrier Reef related then there isn't a lot to do! I am very tempted to do either the skydive or the SCUBA at Airlie (or maybe both) as the scenery there is much better. Before I do the SCUBA I need to go and get a proper diving medical. I'll try to do that in the next couple of days.

Nearly forgot to mention the weather (and I call myself and Englishman!) The weather is good. Very sunny, very warm (a bit too warm for me actually), a slight breeze.

Where to next? Well the sealed roads go a bit further north so that is an option. We could go inland a bit and see the Outback. We could head back south and visit the south coast. Find out in the next exciting installment of... "Basirk Downunder!" Dun Dun Daaahhhhh!

2003-06-25 01:26:15 - Townsville

Just drove here from Airlie. The place doesn't look all that great and I think it is mainly a jumping-off point for travellers to Magnetic Island (which we won't be going to see).

May I quickly apologise for my appalling lack of English grammar in the last log. I just re-read it and noticed the word 'there' instead of 'their'. Please be assured that I have taken swift action to ensure that such occurrences never happen again!

Probably heading north tomorrow. Getting close to Cairns now :) Still raining a bit which is one of the reasons for not going to Magnetic Island.

2003-06-23 23:49:52 - Still in Airlie!

Went up to Bowen today but it's there showday, which means a public holiday. All caravan parks full and no shops open. We came back here which is quite a nice spot. Started to rain though :(

Just put two nice new tyres on Freda. We now have no re-treads on the van, other than the 2 spares. I feel a bit safer now.

2003-06-23 01:59:41 - PHOTOS!

Just got the photos back on CD-ROM.

Myself, Stu and a fossicker bloke called Bob at Sapphire [~220KB JPG]
Myself at the helm of Apollo [~100KB JPG]

2003-06-23 01:52:54 - Whitsundays day cruise

The Apollo ticket came with a free 1-day trip on a 65ft catamaran called 'On The Edge' to the Whitsunday Islands. See:
http://www.backpackeraustralia.com/prosail.htm

After the Apollo celebrations and a storming English victory at Rugga, we had to get up at 7:00am (!) for the bus. The wind was a bit stronger yesterday and we managed 11 knots which got most people on deck drenched :) I got some more snorkelling in but this time I wore a wet suit. Didn't do much good as it was a bit too large and I ended up as cold as last time I did it. Still, I got to see lots of fantastic corel and fish including a Napoleon Maori Wrasse. This was nicknamed 'Elvis' :) and was over a meter long. I took an underwater camera with me so hopefully soon I'll be able to get some photos up that I took.

Today is a day of rest. I've got some photos in for developing now and I'll be getting a CD with it so some can go up on the web shortly

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To contact me and express your profound appreciation of this site, use this e-mail address: auslog@basirk.com

2003-07-14 20:55:26	- Cardwell (yep, still here!) The van had a seal replaced at the front of the engine. It had gone brittle and popped out! The front bushes have also been replaced, as has the coolant. With all the work done we headed off to Townsville on Sunday and when we got there we found oil dripping quite quickly off the bottom of the engine! We wanted the same garage to look at the problem as if the part that they replaced was faulty then they could do the job again! As it turned out, there was some kind of oil pressure release valve that had stuck and this was probably the cause of the original seal blowing out. It is now fixed (hopefully) and we'll be heading back down to Townsville again this afternoon. I have to say that my stay here at Cardwell Beach Backpackers has been great fun. Judy has looked after us all really well and the other backpackers here have come together like a big family. I'll be quite sad to leave, especially as the weather has got a lot better in the last 2 days. So, on to Townsville.
2003-07-08 19:50:03	- Cardwell (still) We should here about the van today. It is having a seal replaced, the front bushes replaced and the cooling system flushed (it was apparently full of oily mud). We are staying at a place called Cardwell Beach Backpackers. It's a new place (opened about 2 weeks ago) with a really good group atmosphere. The person who runs the place (Jude) is a good laugh and has a kitten called Rex who has learned how to climb up people's legs. This isn't good as we all wear shorts. It's the people that seem to make places like this, and Micky (Irish) and Tomo (Japanese) are 2 characters that make the evenings go quite quickly. Seeing as we weren't doing anything over the weekend we went on a day trip over to Hinchinbroke Island. The Island is quite large with lots of mangroves around the edge and unspoiled forest at its centre. There are also a number of really nice beaches and we took advantage of these at a couple of places. The surf was just right of body-surfing :) Stopping here has actually been really pleasant. It's a good break from travelling, and Jude (aka Mum) has been feeding as up nicely.
2003-07-04 00:44:27	- Cardwell We've hit a slight snag to "get back down to Sydney as quick as possible" plan. As we went past a place called Tully, heading towards Cardwell, I smelled hot oil. Stu was driving and as he started to pull over the oil pressure light came on. Our trusty steed has emptied herself of oil all over the Bruce Highway (we'd check the oil level this morning at Cairns). The RACQ picked us up and we're now kicking our heels at a hostel in Cardwell. The repair probably won't be too painfulll on the wallet (less than 200 quid) but there is always the chance that some damage has been done to the engine - they don't like running without oil! If they manage to fix the engine then we'll get them to replace the front bushes too. Being a Friday, they won't get it done until about Tuesday :( especially as Ingham (the next largest place just south of here) is having their show day at the weekend which closes everything including the place that provides spare parts. Sh!t happens. Oh yeah, and the weather forcast is for rain at the weekend.
2003-07-03 00:13:25	- Cape Tribulation - Mt. Sorrow - Cairns We drove from Cairns up towards Cape Tribulation along rainforest covered mountains on narrow twisty raods - great fun! We stayed at a nice caravan park called Lync Haven (or something like that) that had lots of aviaries, bats (those big ones) and it's own squadron of mosquitos. The bats were incredibly noisy (they squawk) and we need more mossy repelent. The following day we went up to the end of the Cape Trib road, and from there walked up Mt. Sorrow. I say "walked up" but what I actually mean is, "slogged our guts out in hot humid weather through dense rainforest for what seemed like hours". Mt Sorrow, so called because after climbing it you realise that you've then got to do it all again the other way (ok, I might have made that up). To be fair, the sign at the bottom did mention that the climb was for people of above average fitness. Having said all that, the view from the top was very good, helped in part by a pair of rather nice blondes from Perth who sadly started the climb down not long after we arrived at the top. The view of the Cape was also ok. As we neared the bottom of the mountain the Perthian (?) blondes caught us up having apparently got lost (I'm not saying a word!). This cheered our flagging spirits and we dutyfully hurled ourselves down the remainder of the slope in Commando stylee. We swam in the sea at Cape Trib to remove some of the icky sweaty grime ...no, the ladies had gone back to their hostel... and then motored back to our caravan park. Today we are back at Cairns. Tomorrow we'll continue south. It was our 3 month aniversary in Oz on 1st July, and my 5 month aniversary since quitting work. Tempus Fugits.
2003-06-30 02:09:04	- Cairns (Diving Medical) Just had the Diving Medical. I didn't pass due to my asthma which wasn't totally unexpected. It is, however, rather dissappointing. Queensland is known for its really strict diving medicals. If I wanted to I could get the medical elsewhere (like the UK) but I'm really not sure if that's a good idea. There's lots of other stuff to do so I'll have to content myself with doing those. Skydiving will definately happen!
2003-06-28 01:46:21	- South Mission Beach - Cairns We didn't hang around long in Townsville. It was a very dull place. So we motored on up to South Mission Beach, which is just south of, erm, Mission Beach. It was a really nice place with deserted (2 s's?) beaches that curved around to end in rocky headlands. The gentle surf lapped rythmically at the golden sandy beaches, which sloped gently up to tropical forest and coconuts lay strewn liberally at the shadowed boundary... I'm feeling creative today, ok? We got to see 2 endangered casowaries which are large flightless birds. I think they're quite ugly, but what do I know. Today we have travelled to Cairns. We passed through some beautiful mountains to get here. I was expecting large skyscrapers and lots of traffic, but no. We stopped at an information centre and asked where the centre of Cairns was. The guy replied, "You're in it!" We were actually about 2 streets away, but the fact is Cairns in quite flat and not that busy. Most of the action is centred around 2 streets and most of the people here seem to be English or Japanese. Quite an amusing fact here: Cairns has no beach. It has extensive mud flats when the tide is out but not a lot of sand. Not to be defeated the locals have made their own beach which is about 50 metres long and looks suspiciously like a swimming pool that's had a load of sand dumped in it. Not quite in the same league as Mission Beach, but this doesn't stop the locals and large tourist population flooding to it. It's school hols here so everything is getting a bit busy. I don't think we'll spend long here though because if you're not doing anything Great Barrier Reef related then there isn't a lot to do! I am very tempted to do either the skydive or the SCUBA at Airlie (or maybe both) as the scenery there is much better. Before I do the SCUBA I need to go and get a proper diving medical. I'll try to do that in the next couple of days. Nearly forgot to mention the weather (and I call myself and Englishman!) The weather is good. Very sunny, very warm (a bit too warm for me actually), a slight breeze. Where to next? Well the sealed roads go a bit further north so that is an option. We could go inland a bit and see the Outback. We could head back south and visit the south coast. Find out in the next exciting installment of... "Basirk Downunder!" Dun Dun Daaahhhhh!
2003-06-25 01:26:15	- Townsville Just drove here from Airlie. The place doesn't look all that great and I think it is mainly a jumping-off point for travellers to Magnetic Island (which we won't be going to see). May I quickly apologise for my appalling lack of English grammar in the last log. I just re-read it and noticed the word 'there' instead of 'their'. Please be assured that I have taken swift action to ensure that such occurrences never happen again! Probably heading north tomorrow. Getting close to Cairns now :) Still raining a bit which is one of the reasons for not going to Magnetic Island.
2003-06-23 23:49:52	- Still in Airlie! Went up to Bowen today but it's there showday, which means a public holiday. All caravan parks full and no shops open. We came back here which is quite a nice spot. Started to rain though :( Just put two nice new tyres on Freda. We now have no re-treads on the van, other than the 2 spares. I feel a bit safer now.
2003-06-23 01:59:41	- PHOTOS! Just got the photos back on CD-ROM. Myself, Stu and a fossicker bloke called Bob at Sapphire [~220KB JPG] Myself at the helm of Apollo [~100KB JPG]
2003-06-23 01:52:54	- Whitsundays day cruise The Apollo ticket came with a free 1-day trip on a 65ft catamaran called 'On The Edge' to the Whitsunday Islands. See: http://www.backpackeraustralia.com/prosail.htm After the Apollo celebrations and a storming English victory at Rugga, we had to get up at 7:00am (!) for the bus. The wind was a bit stronger yesterday and we managed 11 knots which got most people on deck drenched :) I got some more snorkelling in but this time I wore a wet suit. Didn't do much good as it was a bit too large and I ended up as cold as last time I did it. Still, I got to see lots of fantastic corel and fish including a Napoleon Maori Wrasse. This was nicknamed 'Elvis' :) and was over a meter long. I took an underwater camera with me so hopefully soon I'll be able to get some photos up that I took. Today is a day of rest. I've got some photos in for developing now and I'll be getting a CD with it so some can go up on the web shortly