Clare's Photo School

Clare is doing a photography course. This Sunday she saw my model potential and decided it would be a good idea to practise her new skills.

This is the relaxed, ethereal look....
The "If only I had been looking at the waves rather than the camera" look.....

The dry land swimming minus an arm look....

The running on sand (it's good for your ankles) look.

This one is impressive: notice the in focus me and the out of focus background people....

The "where DID you get those manly shoulders?!" look....

and finally the skydiving pose..........!

I don't think modelling is for me but at least I got to ride on the back of the scooter all the way home.

Could my helmet be any bigger!?!

Bye Bye Mikey, Hello Minnie!

It was very sad to say goodbye to Mikey after another fantastic campervan trip. As a special farewell ,we went to the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition down at Bondi Beach.

I tried to reassure him that it couldn't possibly be that bad in England - at least not in Bournemouth - at least not in November - at least there wouldn't be any really bad storms.......?

While Mikey headed back home, I flew to Brisbane for a quick visit to see Michelle, Edee, Theo and Paul. They are all living in Australia for a while to decide if it's somewhere they want to settle.

Edee said she liked Australia a lot, especially the ice creams.....

I arrived back in Sydney just in time to see the very new and beautiful addition to the Whittle family - welcome to the world Minnie!

Fergus really loves his new baby sister and especially enjoys riding in her new hug-a-bub baby sling. All credit to hug-a-bub... I hardly noticed he was there. Helen had to remind me to take him off before I went home....

How Many Mechanics Does It Take to Fix A Camper?

ONE....

TWO....

THREEEEEEE......And finally, when no one can fix it.... a replacement van and a tow for the old one!

This does not make for happy campers. Lots of time to check out the map (to look at all the places we're not able to visit), read our books and drink tea.

Finally after 24 hours of "down time" (for which we're still waiting for a refund), we were able to enjoy some more of the rainforests and tablelands.

Quel est le mot pour dolphin?

FNQ (Far North Queensland) is what it's all about if you're looking for scary wildlife.

If you're not being paranoid about crocs jumping out of the mangroves at the edge of the beach....




.....you're constantly checking all the available signage for safe swimming areas to ensure not being stung by jelly fish!



Lucikly we found a very safe and friendly boat to take us to the Great Barrier Reef. They promised us that we would NOT see any sharks... We didn't - but we did see some truly amazing fish and coral.

Everyone on our trip was French so we both had a chance to practise our GCSE phrases while modelling the latest in snorkelling fashion.

I didn't really get any photos of the wildlife that we did see but here is a list for information:
Numerous bush kangaroo rats
A really big, scary cricket
Fresh water turtles x 2
Cassowary + 2 cassowary children (a VERY rare spot)
One fake shark......

and the best spot of all....

A PLATYPUS!!!!!!! - "10 points, automatic win" - well done me.

So far, we love FNQ....