So it's goodbye from him and it's goodbye from her, postscript from Oz and home

 We know that you have already seen some pictures from our Ningaloo Reef experience but not of the manta rays and fish that we saw when we were snorkelling. One of the team from the boat had a wonderful underwater camera and whilst helping and guiding us she also managed to take some pretty awesome shots. So apologies to Fogg but here they are..... The manta at the top is feeding, guiding the food, krill and plankton, into its mouth.

 In this photo the ray is being cleaned by small wrasse or cleaner fish. They were at a kind of fish spa where the rays come regularly to have dead skin and parasites removed by these tiny fish. Those of you who have had a fish foot spa will know what it feels like - kind of tickly but really pleasant!! These rays were quite large, the biggest we saw some 2-3 metres from wing tip to wing tip. Gentle giants who accepted our presence by completely ignoring us!

 On our second snorkel we had the chance to look at the reef and many of the fish that we had seen from the glass bottomed boat. These are staghorn corals with a range of fish that either feed on the coral or on other organisms living in and around it.

 One of our personal favourites was the parrot fish, so called because of its beak like mouth which it uses to bite off small pieces of coral.

 So now back to Fogg's photos, this one of Rommey Doug and Mary's new German Shepherd puppy. He was delightful if slightly over playful at times. He was teething and had a strong desire to chew anything that came his way, shoes, water bottles, ankles - you'll get the picture. Apparently the ear thing will sort itself out as he gets older!

 This was our third visit to Adelaide to stay with Doug and Mary in their lovely home high in the Adelaide

Hills

We were very tired by the time that we arrived but keen to see more of the area so headed off on two trips. The first to the Murray River, now fully in flood as was the surrounding hinterland. This is an important fruit and vine growing area - Penfolds, Banrock Station etc. No time for tasting unfortunately but we did purchase newly harvested navel oranges from this very colourful roadside store. The second into Adelaide and a trip on the revamped tram down to the coast. Also a chance to see the broad collection of art and craft at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

So, now we are home and already being asked 'where next?' Who knows, for now we have lots of pictures to sort and family and friends to catch up with. We have had a wonderful, amazing, awesome time. We have seen extraordinary places and met lots of interesting people and we hope that you have enjoyed experiencing some of that with us.

 So it's goodbye from Fogg ......

 .... and Phileas too.

Going South in Western Australia

 We have just had a week in a small corner of Western Australia driving south from Exmouth to Denham and Monkey Mia and then back again to Coral Bay. We then flew from Exmouth/Learmonth to Adelaide to stay with our dear friends Doug and Mary, from whose computer we are posting this blog. On our way south we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, so a good photo opportunity.This is a very typical road in this part of Australia, dead straight for mile after mile (rather km after km!) with very little traffic to be seen. This can make driving difficult and tiring and the mirages floating above the surface give the impression of traffic heading towards you on both sides of the road!

 One thing the guide books had not told us (fortunately from Phileas' point of view) was that in this part of Australia there are plagues of locusts!! We 'met' several of these as we drove and the bodies splatted against the car with a great force!! This one stuck to the radiator grill provided a passing bird with a good supper! The photo of the palm frond shows the damage they do, a real problem around Carnarvon, a major fruit and vegetable town in this area, which provides much of the fresh produce for the whole of WA.

 Much happier on one of the many beaches where a great variety of shells can be found. Can't carry any more home so photos will give us a memory of their range, shape and colour. These on the beach at Denham, 50 metres from our motel unit.

 Shell Beach, near Denham was made from tiny cockle shells and in some places was reputedly up to 10m deep.

 A handful scooped from the beach certainly revealed many more underneath. In places these shells have become compressed so much so that blocks can be quarried. In the past these blocks were used to build houses for the early pearling pioneers. These were very well insulated both from the hot summer sun and the occasional cool nights.

 Monkey Mia is another must do. Here the local dolphins come to the beach every morning to be fed. This routine is now nearly 50 yrs old and as well as giving a wonderful opportunity for visitors to see the dolphins up close and personal it has also given scientists a chance to study these extraordinary  animals and to learn more about their lives and behaviour. Only 5 females are fed and the amount of fish they are given is strictly monitored. They bring with them their calves and so we were able to 'meet' 4 families on the morning that we visited.

 Later on a catamaran trip to find dugongs we saw many of them again, easily recognised by the distinctive notches and scars on their dorsal fins. Unfortunately no dugongs that day, at this time of the year they migrate to warmer waters. Part of the trip involved a visit to a pearl farm where we learnt about how oyster shells are seeded to produce a cultured pearl - no grain of sand involved but a small bead of shell which is introduced into the gonad of  the oyster shell where the pearl then grows around the bead. The seeding traditionally done by Japanese women who have very small hands!

 We left Denham/Monkey Mia and drove north to Coral Bay to enjoy the delights of the Ningaloo Coral Reef which can be accessed from the beach. We took a trip on a glass bottomed boat and Fogg managed to capture these pictures of  a giant cabbage like coral ......

 ..... and an Emperor Fish. We also saw, amongst many others, lots of Parrot fish, Angel fish and brightly coloured neon fish.
 The reef was pretty spectacular as this photo shows, this part of it well out to sea. The photo taken whilst on a snorkling and whale watching trip. We were delighted to see humpback whales and the elusive dugong, a female with a calf, as well as a number of loggerhead turtles.

 It was here that your intrepid correpondents went snorkling with Manta Rays and saw more of the coral reef. We have no photos of the mantas (or dugong/humpback whale) with us at the moment but do have access to a CD of pictures taken by our guide so watch out for a supplementary blog written on our return home. We look exhausted but triumphant; this experience was one we both wanted to have. Phileas was very nervous and as some readers will know had been practising wearing a snorkel whilst doing the housework!! This tactic paid off and she was able to snorkel successfully on 3 occasions. Fogg was in and out like a dolphin, fulfilling a boyhood dream to 'meet' manta rays, some of which were 2-3 metres from fin tip to fin tip. These beautiful and totally harmless fish were found at a so called cleaning station where parasites and other debris was removed by cleaner fish. This meant that the rays were quietly swimming around quite unphased by our presence. A really wonderful experience and a great way to finish our WA travels.

This is our last posting from Australia, but look out for a final posting and photos once we return to the UK.

Until then, dear reader, best wishes from us both

Phileas and Fogg

A snapshot from The Kimberley

 It has been very difficult to decide which of Fogg's 300 or so photos of this trip to use for this blog. So we have decided to give you a snapshot of a range of images to try to give a flavour of this extraordinary place - twice the size of England with a population of about 30,000!! Many of the locals are of course indigenous Aborigines and we have had the privilege to meet a few including these 3; TJ, Angus and Sarnold. The floods in the wet season here have caused chaos and many parts of the Kimberley are still closed to visitors. These boys were called in to replace a washed out visit and they were wonderful. They live in a community called Jarimadangah Burr and we spent most of the day with them. We climbed up onto a hill to get an overview of the area, one of many climbs that we would make, looked at rock art, learned about bush tucker, crime and punishment and had camp tea and damper and jam at the end of a wonderful day.

 TJ, the head of the team had a good education and was very confident, funny and quietly and gently told us about his life and that of his community.

 One of the most iconic images in the K is the boab tree, this one is very old and like a number large and hollow and used in the past as a prison.

 On our second day we visited this beautiful gorge - Winnjana where we walked along the water's edge keeping a lookout for freshwater crocs!! Several seen here and at other locations, not as dangerous as the salties.

 Tunnel Creek is approached in a swimming costume as the water comes above the waist at various spots along the walk! Quite scary as it was also pitch dark and we only had small torches. But every now and then as this shot shows there was a hole in the roof and light flooded through.

 At the end we were greeted by this glorious Disneyesque scene, half expected fairies to fly by and then we had to turn round and walk all the way back!!!

 We stayed in a variety of accomodation but one of our favourites were the Wilderness Camps where we had tents with ensuite bathrooms (and resident insects). The staff at these camps were brilliant conjuring up excellent meals and stoking the campfires to keep us warm at night!

 One of the highlights was swimming in pools fed by waterfalls, this one is Adcock's. There was usually a fairly difficult walk/scramble to get to them but the reward was a freezing swim in crystal clear water with only water monitors for company!

 We took 2 flights, this one in a 12 seater over the Mitchell Plateau to look at the Mitchell Falls. The flight gave us a clearer picture of the size and emptiness of this area as well as a wonderful view of totally inaccessible country.

 We saw some quirky things on this journey including the phone box at Drysdale Station - it is a proper phone housed in an old fridge!

 We stayed on a number of stations, this one is Home Valley, a working cattle station complete with cowboys.

 Most of the roads that we travelled on were unsealed gravel roads and the rains had flooded many of them. Our driver/guide Vaughan had to stop at each floodway to check the depth for the best route through.

 We enjoyed a number of sunsets usually watched with a glass of wine and a canape!!

 Also cruises through gorges, this one Chamberlain on the El Questro Station. Commentary by Buddy a bow legged ex rodeo champion with a good patter and a box of chilled wine for us to enjoy.

 What can we say about the Bungle Bungles? They are the most awesome rock formations which we saw from the air - 5 seater helicopter with no doors - and on foot. They could almost have a blog of their own. Mind you that goes for each day but we thought 13 blogs would be too much!!!

 Just a beautiful picture taken on the Ord River where we had a 5hr cruise and learned about the flooding of the river to form the Argyll Lake which provides irrigation for the local community at Kununarra where Sandlewood trees form an important part of the economy.

We will leave you with this beautiful rock painting of turtles and spirits. The latter travelled with us and gave us such an amazing experience. We hope that this snapshot will give you pleasure and also a taste of some of the things that we have seen and done.

With love

Phileas and Fogg

A new take on P and F's extreme sports

 It's a done deal, when you are in Broome you have to take a camel ride on Cable Beach in the sunset!! Not to be outdone we girded our loins and climbed on board Alice. She is a very amiable camel but had a bit of an attitude, always trying to get to the front of the line!!

 We were not going up hill but the photos were taken by a passing nomad who obviously needs his eyes tested!!

Finally the sunset taken by Fogg from the camel's back!!! Broome is a lovely spot and has been an excellent place to stay while we prepared for our Kimberley adventure, described on our next blog

Best wishes

Phileas and Fogg

At the Top End - Darwin

 Please do not think dear reader that we have zipped back to the UK for a festival!, this blog describes our visit to the iconoc Mindl Beach Night Market in Darwin. This was an amazing experience and all the better for being quite unexpected. Phileas had failed to bring any travel information about Darwin as the stay was only to be brief. But amazingly, we were in Darwin on the one day a week when this market happens. A shuttle bus took us from our hotel and we spent an hour or so browsing the 100 or so food stalls selling food from all over the world, from Greek Souvlaki to French Crepes and Vietnamese Pho. We opted for delicious salads and took our supper to the beach to watch the sun set. Now we have watched the sun setting from Cornwall to Vietnam, Australia to Vancouver Island but we have never experienced a sunset watch like this one.

 We, of course, had to have a quick beachcomb, and Fogg snapped this rather intriguing photo of a small volcano made of almost perfect 'pearls' of sand. Phileas thinks she knows what animal made it, do you?

 A few shells and fragments of coral had to be collected and more wiggly lines investigated before we returned to the dunes to join the several thousand other sunset watchers.

 Families were enjoying picnics, playing footie or just sitting gazing out to sea waiting...... We are always happy to chat to people we meet, these 2 from Queensland were as amzed as us by the numbers. While we waited we swapped travellers tales and compared journeys we had made.
Then the sun began to sink slowly in the west (I know it isn't really!!!) and we were delighted when a range of boats moved across our view. We will leave the pictures to speak for themselves. Well, hopefully, as at the time of writing a couple seem reluctant to appear, maybe they will be there when we finally hit the publish button.

Quite beautiful and crazy at the same time!! We wandered through the market and chose a small painting of a turtle by a young, aboriginal woman called Natasha Lloyd. The green back sea turtle (gurlibil - Yawuru language) is her totem, given to her when she was born. It is painted in traditional colours and in the 'dot' style.

Now we are in Broome, waiting to head to The Kimberley. We will blog our adventures on our return in about 2 weeks.

Until then, best wishes from

Fogg and Phileas