Pastries and Candy and Wineries ~ Oh my!

We just thought it would be nice to “introduce” you to the Dudek’s - for those of you who don’t know them. This is a picture of Bree and Lisa, with their 15-month-old daughter, Abbie, and Johnson, their golden retriever. Bree will be starting a new job as an assistant principal in February (when summer is over here and the kids return to school), and Lisa is a full-time mom, and she sure is good at it! Their hospitality has been phenomenal!!! They have taken the time to show us all over Western Australia to see all sorts of really neat sights and to good places to eat. The fridge was stocked full with Carmel Koalas when we arrived ☺ and they have really gone out of their way to give us a really wonderful visit.



Today, we are going over to Lisa’s mom’s house to relax around the pool and have a BBQ together with the rest of the family. Yesterday, Bree took us around town to show us some more beautiful beaches, the southern tip of Western Australia, some really neat karri trees (they grow really tall and really straight), to a winery, a candy shop that makes their own candy fresh there, a local bakery with all sorts of meat pies, pasties (sort of like a potpie filling in a fluffier pastry that you eat with your hands), and pastries, and we enjoyed a rather peaceful ride in the car out through the bush. We went for a walk in the evening as the sun was setting and spotted some more kangaroos in the field by their house. Bree had a basketball game that he played in, so we went and watched his team dominate the court and beat the other team. It was rather brutal… Here are a few pictures from our day yesterday. More to come from our adventures today.

Our day with the wonderful Aussies!

We are rather sore this morning after our day of waterskiing and tubing yesterday. What fun it was though! Lisa’s sister, Kim and her husband Sean took us out on their boat (that can go really fast!!) to play at a local freshwater dam. The sun was shining and the flies were buzzing ~ the flies are pretty nasty here. Thankfully, they do not bite, but at any given time you can easily have 20 flies on you. We were quite thankful when the wind kicked up and blew them away. We went skiing – both of us at the same time – and we both managed to get up! Everyone there went for a few laps around the lake either on the wakeboard, knee board, slalom ski, or water ski’s. Our favorite was the big “biscuit” – sort of like a big tube with no hole in the middle that can hold 2 people at once. Tim and I were out on it together, while Sean and his mate Paul were driving the boat, trying to throw us off of the biscuit around turns and such. We were laughing so hard and having so much fun trying to hold on for dear life and being thrown around back there. It was great! But, again, all of us woke up this morning feeling the after effects in our sore muscles…




We went to a party in a friend of Bree’s back shed. (Everyone has a back shed here that the men sit around in, drink, eat, and talk. It’s like a local pub in someone’s back yard). It was a neat experience to be the Americans invited in to shoot the breeze with these men. But we sat around for the evening and enjoyed some genuine Australian company. We also had a taste of rabbit (tastes a lot like chicken), maron (kind of like a freshwater lobster/huge crayfish) ~ it was Delicious!! You eat it cold with a little bit of salt, we’d have to say it’s better than lobster in our opinion. We also ate some homemade meat pies prepared by Bree’s dad ~ best meat pies ever! ☺ Tim entertained the gang by playing some songs on the guitar and singing for everyone. Not everyone recognized all of the American songs, but they still seemed to enjoy it and sang along to the ones they could. Bree’s dad also sang for everyone – 7 songs, each in a different language! Very impressive.

Anyway, we were pretty tired when we got home and had no trouble falling asleep. Waking up this morning was a bit more difficult… but we are ready for another day filled with adventures here in Perth.

Hope the holiday season is treating everyone well!

And we've made it to Perth!

After a 3 hour flight to Sydney, camping out in Sydney's International Airport last night (because the domestic terminal closes...), getting up at 4am to catch a taxi back to the Domestic Airport, and hopping on yet another plane for 4 more hours - we are finally here on the west side of Australia in Perth under the wonderful hospitality of Bree and Lisa Dudek. In case you are wondering who Bree and Lisa are, Tim and I met them in the United Kingdom on a 3-day tour of Scotland and have kept in touch ever since.

After our long 16 hours of travel, Bree was our knight in shining armor as he rescued us from the utter exhaustion of travel. He showed us around Perth, which felt like we were home in LA because the air is smokey from the bush fires. We enjoyed some more delicious Aussie breakfast, saw some BEAUTIFUL beaches, and then went to the Marapana wildlife world to see some Australian wildlife. Here, at this off-the-beaten-path zoo, we got to see dingo's, Tim got to drape a python around his neck, we got to feed (tame) kangaroos, ostriches, goats, deer, sheep, etc., and Deb got to fulfill her dream of holding a real-live koala! It was actually quite heavy, but surprisingly softer than imagined, and smelled of fresh eucalyptus.










We ended the day with a refreshing, much needed shower and then headed out to spot some wild kangaroos with Bree, Lisa and their 14-month-old daughter Abbie. Kangaroos are quite the pest and supposedly out number humans here. They knock down fences, eat plants, and cause car accidents. Sound familiar Pennsylvania...? Anyway, they were still neat to see them hopping and carrying a joey in their pouch. Bree and Lisa even made us feel more at home by frying up some food and cooking macaroni and cheese for dinner. Yum!

Tomorrow we're off to water-ski in the morning and to a genuine Australian BBQ tomorrow night. :)

P.S. ~ I (Deb) passed my final and am officially on winter break from school! Yippee!!

Into the Rainforest

Today was yet another wonderful day exploring another corner of this great continent (Australia, in case you’re just now joining us on this blog). Today we explored the tropical rainforests of north eastern Australia – just southwest of Cairns – through a tour company called “On the Wallaby Tours.” Our guide, Bart – a man of the world who has been in over 40 different countries, knows a ton about everything, doesn’t care much for shoes or cell phones, and can speak several languages – showed us around a specific part of the jungle called Atherton Tablelands. We got to see some fantastic vegetation – including a HUGE fig tree, which has a majority of its roots growing above ground. Apparently, 500 years ago, a bird pooped on a random (non-fig) tree and in that poop was fig seeds. After some time, those seeds began to grow on that tree and sent it’s roots down into the ground. Eventually, it grew so much that it choked out and killed the host tree and became it’s own, slightly freaky, fig tree. Check it out!


We also got to see some crater lakes and some beautiful water falls – all the while learning tons of random facts and jokes from Bart. We’re so glad we did this tour, despite the fact that we’re still recovering from 10 dives and 3 days on a rocky boat. No joke, I (timmy) am literally still swaying back and forth. Kinda hoping it goes away soon. I’d rather not get seasick while on land. Enjoy some of the photos from today.



Tomorrow is our last day in Cairns and tomorrow night we head back to Sydney and then to Perth on the other side of the continent. And if you think of it, say a prayer for Deb. She has to take a final online tomorrow for her grad course.

And the journey continues!

G’day
Tim and Deb

Great Barrier Reef? Try AWESOME Barrier Reef!

Well, we have returned safely to land after an incredible 3 days at sea, diving one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We are officially PADI open water diving certified!

Friday morning, we boarded a diving boat that took us an hour and a half (60 kilometers) away from land and to the reef. Here, we did our first few dives in the warm water. Theses dives were training dives and we had to perform certain skills, like fill our mask up with water and empty it out again underwater, for our certification. We then boarded the overnight boat (a much bigger boat) in the afternoon and got settled there. We did some snorkeling in the afternoon and could see tons of fish right from the surface. The reef is so colorful and alive with so many different fish and life. It was fascinating to watch. The gentle rocking of the boat put us to sleep that night.

Saturday morning we work up bright and early for a 6:30 dive. This was our final certification dive, and despite the moderately strong current, we managed to complete our tasks and pass for our certification. Shortly after breakfast, we went for a “free dive” and could finally go where and do what we pleased. We buddied up with a lovely couple from the Netherlands – Jon and Ineka – and went for a dive. It is absolutely breathtaking (no pun intended) and there are so many different kinds of fish down there. So much to watch and observe. We really enjoyed trying to swim past at a very slow pace to try to see as much life as possible.

Saturday night was a unique experience in that we participated in a night dive. Yes, indeed, we are officially crazy… but we were with many other “crazies” as well. ☺ At 7:00, it was dark out, and after a brief training session, we followed a guide out into the ocean at night. It is a completely different world at night! The smaller fish have gone to sleep and are no where to be found. The bigger fish, however, are out and about. We saw what we like to call “puppy dog” fish – big fish, roughly about 2 feet from fin to face, that swam just beside us the entire time and tried to find food using our beams from the flashlights. They would spot one and dart past you to go get it. We saw some other neat fish as well. Very cool to be diving at night.

Sunday morning we again woke up early for a 6:30 dive and this time spotted a sea turtle! We were probably about 5 feet away from it and watched it eat some breakfast in the coral. Throughout our diver, we saw some sharks, Trigger fish (mean, territorial fish – actually bit another diver (he’s ok though)), chocolate-dipped damsel (fish that looks like it was dipped in chocolate), murray eel, lion fish, and a million others that I can’t name. And we found Nemo!!! Anyway, the list goes on – we saw a lot of cool things out there.

It was a fantastic trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. And we made it back without getting eaten or stung by anything! Or puking ~ neither of us got sick. These pictures do not do it justice unfortunately, but we tried… Now we are relaxing back at the hostel and still feel like we’re rocking back and forth on the boat. Tomorrow we are off to the Tablelands for a guided rainforest tour. More pictures surely to come.

Day #9

Yet another incredible day in OZ! Today we finished up our in-class portion of PADI open water diving certification. Debbie got a 48/50 on her final - well done Deb! I, on the other hand, got a 49/50. How do I do it, you ask? 3 words: by being awesome.

So tomorrow morning we're on the boat for our HUGELY anticipated 3 day/2 night boat trip into the reef for 9 dives - including 1 night dive. So we're kinda flippin excited. I have my dramamine ready to go so I don't get the pukes and Deb and I bought brand new goggles and snorkels to use. So we are set. We rented an underwater camera - so expect some amazing pictures soon! We probably won't have web access on the boat, so this is our last entry for the next 3 days. But enjoy some pictures from last nights festivities (the fire dancers and Deb giving the didgeridoo a go)!

Cheers,
Tim and Deb

Scuba Class

Well, the internet is acting up again... so no pictures from today. Unfortunately you'll just have to read about our day.

We started our scuba class today and had half a day in the classroom, then spent the other half in the pool learning some skills on how to scuba dive. It was really fun and in talking to some people at our hostel, the reef sounds like it has many colorful and neat things to see. We're excited to go out on the boat and see it!

We enjoyed a BBQ at our hostel tonight and the exotic food they offered was kangaroo meat and cod that he had caught out on the reef (he hadn't gotten any crocodile). The kangaroo tasted pretty good, actually. They also had some fire dancers perform and we got to try playing the didgeridoo. It's really hard! And sounds so funny.

Well, we're off to bed now. Early start tomorrow for our second day of dive class.

~Tim and Deb