Changing Gears Cycle Tour

Life in Shute Harbor

Our view from the house over Shute Harbor

Spent a great deal of time in here

Giant insects in the tropics

This stickbug is the size of a book

One of the only arguments is who gets the hammock

Temperature in the sun... feels like on the sun!

Postcard views

hacking open coconuts

Lisa on the lookout for salties

Python in the garage

Monitoring category 5 cyclone Yassi tracking our way

The first real winds hit us and knock out the power

Tagging along on a catamaran in the Whitsundays with friends

Lisa caught little fish

And one big one

Snorkeling in the tropics - must where a full jelly fish suit

Goanna in the back yard

Chartering a boat in the Whitsunday Islands

A few weeks ago, Roland and Penny called to say they were thinking of "popping" over for a sail. I love that Roland used the words "popping over" like he was coming from down the street when in reality they live on the other side of the country. That is similar to someone in Ohio saying they are going to pop over to San Diego. Absolutely fantastic!

They were planning on getting into town the week of the cyclones, but the charter company shut down, therefore pushing back their visit a week. This worked out well because the cyclones were quite intense, and we would have been called back in anyway and stuck in a hotel.

We took a 30 minute ferry that leaves from down the street and met Roland and Penny on Hamilton Island where they flew into. Being a small island that was specifically built around a resort, we easily found each other and were on our way for a week of sailing the Whitsunday Islands on a 46 foot catamaran. Big boat with plenty of room for four people. 4 rooms, 4 bathrooms and plenty of sitting room all through the boat, inside and out.

Cyclone Yasi

It's 3:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday and we are lying in bed with books trying to pass the time, occasionally glancing out the floor to ceiling windows that surround us. 80 foot high palms are being beaten by the strong gusts of wind, causing them to sway to 45 degree angles at times. The palm branches that will be strewn throughout the property by morning seem to be holding on for dear life while their coconuts surprisingly stay in place. Our house sits on the very edge of the property before a steep decline to the water. A harbor to our right where Ryan watches the boats (we saw a sailboat get washed onto shore during cyclone Anthony) move with the wind, and islands to our left that are now barely visible due to the current massive wall of rain coming at us. Predictions for up to 3 feet of rainfall here overnight. Yikes.

Life in Shute Harbor, Queensland - Writing

Shute Harbor, the town in Queensland where we are house-sitting, is not the easiest destination to travel to. There are no direct flights from Perth, forcing us to take a layover in Brisbane. Finding the cheapest flight on the red-eye of course, we flew out around midnight and arrived in Brisbane at 7am. Hearing Brisbane is a great city, and the fact that there is a train that travels from the airport into the city, we thought we would plan a full day to explore, opting for the 10 hour layover. Landing in Brisbane, we were completely exhausted. I guess 6 weeks of drinking and staying up late, followed by a red eye with maybe 2 hours of sleep will do that to you. Well, will do that to us anyway. Deliberating what we should do for a solid 2 hours, part of being a Gladstone I guess, we chose to stick in the airport. Exhaustion and rainy weather made sleeping in the airport quite an easy task and we spent the day taking turns sleeping and reading our books. It was much better than we expected.

In Perth, we had an opportunity to take a 4 wheel drive trip for about a week into the Outback with our friends Roland and Penny.

One of the out-of-the-way tourist spots in Western Australia: Wave Rock

Surfing the rock

Scouting for the campsite

dragon

Narrow track that we drove for days. Absolutely nothing man made out here... except the trail.

Two Toyota Landcrusiers out in the bush

Ancient Aboriginal water hole

Fire good. Sausages good. Beer good.

Almost everything was cooked over, around or in the campfire

One seriously decked out Landcruiser. Yes that is a refridgerator.

Lisa happily driving a stick shift on the wrong side of the "road"

If you ever travel to the Outback, bring a headnet. Flies were our constant companions

One wild ass

If "nowhere" has a middle, this is it

Exploring a cave for aboriginal art

Who knew 100 year-old telegraph poles in the middle of a dried salt lake bed could be so much fun?

On the go!

Barreling down a red desert track

Cape Arid National Park

Road? What road?

Roos

Stopping for lunch on the beach - Cape Arid

Huge Banksia flower

Early in the morning rolling out of bed. The best place to sleep is on top in the swag under the stars. Comfortable mattress, sheets, pillows and nothing poisoness wanting to crawl in bed with you at night.