October 3, 2007

Road to Perth

I traveled something like 6000km from Darwin to Perth. There were some really long drives through the hot Australian outback. Broome was really beautiful. Cable Beach is one of the nicest beaches I've been to. The sunset there was spectacular.

I did some scuba diving in Exmouth. The conditions weren't very good, the tide was blowing us back and forth several meters. The second dive was on a site called Blizzard Reef. After seeing all the sand that was flying around I can see why it got that name. I did get to see a Lion fish which was nice.

The best part about that dive was actually the boat ride back. We saw some Humpback whales out splashing around just off the coast. We got up really close. The crew of the boat told us to make a lot of noise when they came up for air. When we made some noise they'd poke their head out of the water to see what the noise was.

In Coral Bay I went on a snorkeling trip to go swimming with the Manta Rays, but we didn't see any Manta Rays on the trip. The company didn't offer any kind of refunds which I thought they should since it was called the "Manta Tour" on all their signs.

Next stop Was Monkey Mia which is right in the middle of Shark Bay. We didn't see any sharks, but thats ok because we got to see some Dolphins up close. Back in the 60s people used to feed the Dolphins there and the Dolphins have passed it down from one generation to the next that there was an easy meal if they swam up to the beach. Now they are trying to wean the dolphins from being fed by humans, but the Dolphins still get a little food each day and that keeps them coming back to the beach.

We visited the Pinnacles desert where there are all these cool stone pillars around.

Now I'm finally in Perth. It really is a nice city so I think I'll stay here a while.


On the Road

Manuel, Frank, me and Jessica, with Oscar the car behind us.

Lake Argyle

Taking a dip

Burning the dead grass

Burnt land

Some rocks that look like they belong in a western

Weeeeeeeee!!!

Sunset in Broome

Back on the road

Nice day for a dive

Finally back underwater.

Coral and fishes.

A big mass of yellow fish.

Some more fish

A sea snake

A giant white fish.

Some Banner Fish

Some coral and fish and sand

A Lionfish

from the side.

A tail of a whale.

Waving at us.

Taking a look.

Turtle in Coral Bay Some pretty blue fish

more blue fish.

Blowholes A big splash



an emu

me in the outback

sunset at Eagle Bluff

A fin breaking the water in shark bay...


But it not a shark its some dolphins


pelicans out for a cruise


Pinnacles Desert



Finally in sunny Perth

September 11, 2007

Litchfield Park

Back in Darwin again. I went out to Litchfield Park. It wasn't as spectacular as Kakadu, but it was a nice relaxing day. Went swimming at some nice waterfalls.

At one of the swimming holes there were a couple of Goannas, and they weren't shy at all, walked right up to people. They're a pretty big lizard, some of them can get up to two meters long. These weren't that big though, probably about one meter long.

Saw the magnetic termite mounds, which are flat and aligned north-south so that one side gets the sun while the other is shaded. This keeps the temperature inside at a constant level.


A nice view of the plain



A natural bridge



swimming at a waterfall


more swimming


a freindly goanna




magnetic termite mound

September 7, 2007

Singapore (again)

I'm back in Singapore again. I really enjoyed Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, but its good to be back in a modern country again. I even have free wireless at the hostel I'm at.

I've been spending most of my time getting my computer working again and uploading photos to this page. But I did get out to Fort Canning and took a tour of the Tiger Brewery, and spent an afternoon on the beach at Sentosa.

Yay! I'm finally caught up to now on this page!

Gate at Fort Canning


Its really more of a park than a fort now.


The Battlebox. This was the Malaya Command Headquarters in WWII until Singapore fell to the Japanese Feb. 15 1942.


Tiger Brewery


Pouring myself a drink.


Now I DRIVE the beer truck man!


Sentosa beach


Sunset


The lights on the horizon are refineries. Singapore is second only to Houston in the amount of oil refined and they do all of it offshore.

Learning to play guitar