So I'm back on the East coast of Australia as of early this morning. Sydney to be exact. And it's strange - even though Perth's a fairly large city, it's so much more chill and calm compared to Sydney. It's like comparing Vancouver and Toronto (except Sydney's about the pace of Vancouver, I think). Met up with Kim, whom I'll be travelling with until the end of August, and we start heading north (to the warmth!) the day after tomorrow.
Today was mainly spent recovering from the red-eye experience of last night and then wandering around downtown with Kim. And other than it being 6deg. this morning when I got off the plane, it's been a fantastic day. Tomorrow I reckon we'll head out to Bondi Beach for the day but that's a post for a later date.
For now, it's just about time for dinner so I should probably sign off (and drag Kim with me).
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
I'm sorry it's been so long...
Mackerel Islands!
Now that I'm back on the mainland, I guess I should tell you all what I've been up to for the past 10 weeks, 'stuck' on an island with no internet access and no mobile phone.
First up, I most definitely wasn't stuck. Or perhaps I was stuck, but voluntarily. What I'm trying to say is, I had an amazing time on the island and I'm really going to miss the place (and the people).
Work-wise, I did a lot of cleaning and a lot of customer service stuff. The cleaning, well, I can't say I loved it but when you're cleaning a cabin with someone, you have a lot of time to chat; we defintely learned a lot about each other while cleaning cabins. And the customer service stuff was pretty fun, really. Most of the customers on the island were great, and not once did I have to tell anyone to stop taking photos inside the gallery.
Most days on the island, I started work at 7am and worked in the shop for two hours. The shop's pretty tiny but manages to sell quite a lot of stuff - mainly fishing stuff and booze but also groceries, ice creams, souvenirs and munchies. After the shop, and possibly a quick morning tea, it was usually time for some cleaning. Once that was out of the way, even on days I was working I usually had time to get down to the beach for a while before having to be back in the shop at 5:30.
Although I definitely put in a lot of working hours, I managed to get in a ton of snorkelling. And I even went out fishing a couple times (but I only ever caught 2 fish)! On one of my days off, I walked around the whole island - I did it quite leisurely and it took about 5 hours.
In the evenings, everyone would usually congregate in the bar before dinner. Guests got fed at 7, and then the staff would get called for tea once the guests were all in. Harold, the cook, always put on awesome food for us - especially the roast dinners! After tea, sometimes it would be back to the bar for a bit, or if the weather was nice and we were feeling lucky, we'd head down to the jetty for some fishing.
Usually in the evenings, people'd be trying to catch squid - so tasty! Often when got there, though, we'd see a bunch of dolphins hanging around; this usually means no squid for us poor landlubbers! On one occasion, though, one of the boys - Dave - was reeling in a squid from under the jetty and a dolphin followed it in, gave him the dirtiest look I've ever seen from a cetacean, and then circled around under the stairs for a bit. Definitely a pissed of dolphin! That same night, we saw at least 6 dolphins around, some of them leaping up into the air. So even on evenings where we didn't catch any squid, we'd at least see some dolphins - definitely a highlight for me!
The reef around the island has some amazing snorkelling, as well. Aside from all the people I met on the island, the snorkelling action was the best part of my stay! The other day, as I was puttering around off the front beach, I counted 42 species of fish in about 5 minutes or less. And I could have counted more but I was starting to lose track! The diversity out there was amazing - I've never seen so many different kinds of coral, either. While snorkelling, I also saw sting rays (mainly leopard rays), octopus, some kind of long skinny shark (sort of dogfish like), really huge blue bone and parrot fish, crayfish (rock lobsters), and even some turtles. And up until the last week or two, the water was warm enough that I'd just be out there in my board shorts and a rashie.
I've got so many more stories about the island but that's probably enough for today. I'm in Exmouth at the moment, and fly to Perth this afternooon. I'll be in Perth until the evening of the 30th and then I fly to Sydney to meet up with Kim! I'm a little worried about being back in the cold but I'm sure my Canadian blood's still in there somewhere!
And now that I'm back to having regular email access, I'd love to hear what you're all up to! I'll try to be around on msn on occasion, and I'll even reply to your emails! I missed you all heaps while I was on the island and can't wait to hear more about what's happening back home.
I'm currently uploading all my photos but it's going to take a while for them all to get there. The link on the top left will take you there, and I'll do a blog post with photos in it soon!
Now that I'm back on the mainland, I guess I should tell you all what I've been up to for the past 10 weeks, 'stuck' on an island with no internet access and no mobile phone.
First up, I most definitely wasn't stuck. Or perhaps I was stuck, but voluntarily. What I'm trying to say is, I had an amazing time on the island and I'm really going to miss the place (and the people).
Work-wise, I did a lot of cleaning and a lot of customer service stuff. The cleaning, well, I can't say I loved it but when you're cleaning a cabin with someone, you have a lot of time to chat; we defintely learned a lot about each other while cleaning cabins. And the customer service stuff was pretty fun, really. Most of the customers on the island were great, and not once did I have to tell anyone to stop taking photos inside the gallery.
Most days on the island, I started work at 7am and worked in the shop for two hours. The shop's pretty tiny but manages to sell quite a lot of stuff - mainly fishing stuff and booze but also groceries, ice creams, souvenirs and munchies. After the shop, and possibly a quick morning tea, it was usually time for some cleaning. Once that was out of the way, even on days I was working I usually had time to get down to the beach for a while before having to be back in the shop at 5:30.
Although I definitely put in a lot of working hours, I managed to get in a ton of snorkelling. And I even went out fishing a couple times (but I only ever caught 2 fish)! On one of my days off, I walked around the whole island - I did it quite leisurely and it took about 5 hours.
In the evenings, everyone would usually congregate in the bar before dinner. Guests got fed at 7, and then the staff would get called for tea once the guests were all in. Harold, the cook, always put on awesome food for us - especially the roast dinners! After tea, sometimes it would be back to the bar for a bit, or if the weather was nice and we were feeling lucky, we'd head down to the jetty for some fishing.
Usually in the evenings, people'd be trying to catch squid - so tasty! Often when got there, though, we'd see a bunch of dolphins hanging around; this usually means no squid for us poor landlubbers! On one occasion, though, one of the boys - Dave - was reeling in a squid from under the jetty and a dolphin followed it in, gave him the dirtiest look I've ever seen from a cetacean, and then circled around under the stairs for a bit. Definitely a pissed of dolphin! That same night, we saw at least 6 dolphins around, some of them leaping up into the air. So even on evenings where we didn't catch any squid, we'd at least see some dolphins - definitely a highlight for me!
The reef around the island has some amazing snorkelling, as well. Aside from all the people I met on the island, the snorkelling action was the best part of my stay! The other day, as I was puttering around off the front beach, I counted 42 species of fish in about 5 minutes or less. And I could have counted more but I was starting to lose track! The diversity out there was amazing - I've never seen so many different kinds of coral, either. While snorkelling, I also saw sting rays (mainly leopard rays), octopus, some kind of long skinny shark (sort of dogfish like), really huge blue bone and parrot fish, crayfish (rock lobsters), and even some turtles. And up until the last week or two, the water was warm enough that I'd just be out there in my board shorts and a rashie.
I've got so many more stories about the island but that's probably enough for today. I'm in Exmouth at the moment, and fly to Perth this afternooon. I'll be in Perth until the evening of the 30th and then I fly to Sydney to meet up with Kim! I'm a little worried about being back in the cold but I'm sure my Canadian blood's still in there somewhere!
And now that I'm back to having regular email access, I'd love to hear what you're all up to! I'll try to be around on msn on occasion, and I'll even reply to your emails! I missed you all heaps while I was on the island and can't wait to hear more about what's happening back home.
I'm currently uploading all my photos but it's going to take a while for them all to get there. The link on the top left will take you there, and I'll do a blog post with photos in it soon!
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