Jake's Latest News
Brisbane Photos… And I’m Back Home (kinda) - Sunday 24th June 2001
Another batch of photos up, most of which of Brisbane. View them here. Feels like I’m kinda back home as well after arriving in Brisbane a few hours ago, back to where I stayed for a month earlier on. Went and ‘vegged out’ with my sister and am now looking at all my new photos whilst chatting on MSN with my mum back home. Home sweet home!
The Reunion - Friday 22nd June 2001
Bloody weird. It’s a small world and this was proved yesterday evening when I was strutting my stuff on the dance floor in the legendry Wool Shed here in Cairns when out of nowhere popped Steve Browne, who I also met just a couple of weeks ago on Fraser Island. Well, if that weren’t strange enough, ten minutes later Ali Mckeough(another guy from my old school) and his motley crew: Joe Cook, Adam Cadman and Sam Gale. I couldn’t believe it! Half way round the world and there they were. Ended up having a good drinking session to celebrate, and staggered back into my hostel (fortunately not getting lost this time) at about 3.30am.
Went to Qantas today to change my plane tickets - I’m now flying to Brisbane on Sunday, then staying there for three weeks and doing my skydiving qualification course (basically jumping out a plane 17 times!) before heading off to Singapore to put my credit card to good use, then flying back to ol’ blighty around the 19th July. Knowing me though, these plans will stand for about five days!
Aussie Photos Up - Thursday 21st June 2001
A new batch of my photos are now online here. I’m currently looking through them myself for the first time, but there’s some there of Koh Pha-Ngan and Bangkok in Thailand, then the rest in Australia. Some are pretty cool!
Bungyyyyyyyyy… - Wednesday 20th June 2001
Jumped off a building today… four times! It wasn’t quite the same as Corrina’s jump from 150m into a gorge - this was a weeny 50m jump, but bloody hell - it was still an awesome experience! First jump I did in ‘classic’ forward style - and because I fell rather than jump, I ended up doing a water-touch - getting submersed in the natural pool below up to my waist! Excellent.
My second jump was a little more adventurous, jumping off backwards. That was cool - but no water-touch that time. I decided to take my camera down on the third so just did a simple forward-dive again. My fourth dive was called an ‘elevator’ and basically involved hopping off the platform backwards, feet-first, looking straight up. What a rush! Had to get a video, photos and t-shirt to remember the day of course. Sadly, my head got a big screwed by the dives, and whilst having lunch waiting to do my 5th, 6th 7th and 8th dives, whenever I looked down my eyes and forehead hert, so they told me not to do any more. Crap! I was well up for a hand-stand dive and a Cliffhanger dive. I guess they’ll have to wait until next time.
I’m a little lost now regarding my coming travel plans. I was going to go to Indonesia for a couple of months but the nice lady at Qantas told me that it was politically unstable where I wanted to go (Sumatra) at the moment so it was best not to go. Instead we looked at the possiblility of going across to Alice Springs (for Ayres Rock) then Perth, followed by Johhanesberg and an African safari. Problem with that though is that it ‘aint as hot as I’d like in Africa at the moment so maybe that would be best left for another time.
Well, today I decided it might be nice to do a skydiving course instead - learn how to skydive solo, rather than just a single tandem jump that I did before (photos coming very soon!). Well, I’m just about to do some research into where, when and how much, but if this is what I do then I’ll probably be getting home in about three weeks because I’ll be skint!
Mindless Stagger - Monday 18th June 2001
Had a great night yesterday at a bar in Airlie Beach with the guys from the dive trip - one guy was buying jugs of VB (Oz beer) for us all and we had drinking games etc. Made a complete twat of myself on the dance floor, I’m sure - but I didn’t care! Then it was time to get back to the hostel - decided to do the 20 minute walk and got a little worried when my staggering had been going on for a good hour or so! Where the hell was the hostel? Why can’t I walk in a straight line? Why didn’t I wear a jumper - it’s bloody freezing! Decided I’d try and stop a car/taxi and ask them where the place was - none would stop (for a drunken maniac) though. Eventually decided I must have gone past it so backtracked - and there it was, a good 3km back down the road. At least the trek had given me some time to sober up!
Had to get a bus at 9.30am this morning to get me to Cairns. Not having a watch I decided to look at the watch of the guy in the bunk next to me - 6.30am when I looked - plenty of time for some more much-needed sleep. After getting up and having a nice long shower I asked the guy what the time was and he said it was 9am - crap - then he said not to trust his watch ‘cos it was one and a half hour slow - crap! Trust me to choose his watch. Got in a bit of a panic but ordered a taxi to the bus station and had plenty of time to get the coach.
Impression of Cairns so far - small village/town but the hostel seems cool. Gotta’ organise some bungee.
Freezing My Nuts Off - Sunday 17th June 2001
I got back from a fantastic 3 day 3 night diving trip around the Whitsundays/Great Barrier Reef a few hours ago - top notch stuff. What most people do is a 3 day Whitsundays tour which just sounded so incredibly boring to me that I decided to do a proper dive trip instead - it included 10 dives (although I skipped one of them for reasons I’ll delve into in a minute). Got one well with all the guys n the boat as well - 10 of us in all, and we’re all going to meet up in about 10 minutes for some serious downing at the local boozer.
Diving in Malaysia and Thailand is sweet - beautiful blue waters with excellent coral in it… and all at the kind of temperature which feels warm and snug. Oz in the winter on the other hand has all that apart from the warm water - instead, it’s about 23 degrees and that’s pretty damn cold when you’re down there. Now, all this prolonged coldness is definitely not good for the big guys below, which became quite numb and not only shrink to ridiculously small sizes, but also get wedged half way up your belly and start aching like hell! Hence why I skipped one of my dives. Oh, and this isn’t just because I’m a weird freek - all the guys on the boat suffered the same ailment.
Well, after warming the guys up on dry land I’ll be off to Cairns tomorrow where I’ll start planning the rest of my travels - most likely to Sumatra, Bali and Lombok (and other islands) in Indonesia.
A Browne Moon Rise on Fraser Island - Tuesday 12th June 2001
Sunsets - spectacular. Sunrises - not bad. Moonrises - damn weird! Well, got back from Fraser Island yesterday, where I spent a three days and two nights with my Fraser Island buddies - Vicky and Cheryl from good ol’ blighty, Ceylan and Torsten from Germany, and Susan and Chuck from the states - a good bunch of guys to spend the trek with.
You may have heard of Fraser Island in terms of dingoes - some kid got killed by one there a couple of months ago - but it’s far more than just dingoes - and we actually only saw the one whilst we were there, and that was on the very last day when we’d as much as given up looking. Because of the dingo attack, they killed 30 on the island and shoot all the others that come near people with some sort of non-lethal pellet. Well - because of all the fuss, several members of our group shat themselves on several occassions over the prospect of being eaten alive by huge fierce and wild dogs - and instead we were just pissed off when we didn’t see them - even when we camped out on the beach one night, and then in the morning saw loads of dingo footprints inches from our tents!
Where was I? Oh yes - moon rise. Well, T’was a dark and star-lit night as we were camping out on the beach, huddled around our campfire checking ever two seconds for dingoes in the bushes. Then, out of nowhere (actually, it was the sky just above the Pacific Ocean) there was the big red light - looked to me like lots of little red lights, like a boat or something. And, get this, it was the bloody moon. I’d never seen the moon rise before and this was really quite amazing. The moon’s meant to be white/blue, but here, on the horizon, it was a reddy-orange instead - and it really did light up the surroundings a lot - we no longer needed to shine our torches ever few seconds to see if there were any dingoes around.
Anyway, that was the moon rise - now the rest of Fraser Island. It was pretty cool - we travelled around in a 4WD for the three days (which I couldn’t drive ‘cos I’m too young) along dirt tracks and on the beach, stopping at ideallic lakes, gorges, creeks and campsites. Oh, and Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world, which meant lots of sand dunes and extremely white lake-beaches (99% silica [the white sand] I’m told).
Oh, and the weirdest part was meeting Steve Browne (old school friend) whilst waiting to board the ferry to get to the island. So we chatted for a bit and should be meeting up in about an hour and a half for a ’nuff filling Pizza Hut buffet meal (only about two quid). So that was cool.
But what definitely was not cool was my camera breaking - or being broken, because I’ve got no idea what’s wrong with it or when it happened. I noticed it was broken when on the ferry going over to Fraser Island which meant the only photos I got on the island were with my water camera. Not good. I was extremely pissed off and hope like mad that I can get the camera fixed otherwise I’m f#cked.
Talking of which - now, there I was sleeping on the bottom bunk in a dorm when the girl in the bed above me came back with her guy friend. Well, it was about 1am at the time and let’s just say they were a little too amarous on the top bunk for about an hour which kept me awake for a good couple of hours. I mean - please, a little respect for other room-mates please!
Learn To Fly - Thursday 7th June 2001
Had the biggest rush of my life about two hours ago as I hurtled from 12,000ft experiencing a ’nuff good’ adrenaline rush. Absolutely ace. Wicked fun. And I’ve got proof of it as well - I got the full whack with a roll of film and a video, which’ll I’ll be sending home real soon for all to see.
Oh - and I haven’t told you all’s about the canoeing trip yet have I? Well - that was cool as well. Three days four nights in a canoe with three girls - Michelle, Corrina (not my sis) and Lorna. Bloody hard work as well. Two to a canoe, we had to cross this bloody-huge lake which took about two hours and you couldn’t even see to the other side - it was manic! Real scenic once we got onto the rivers though - tee tree oil from (surprisingly) the trees made the water black and hence extremely reflective. Was going to jump in for a swim as well but it was friggin’ freezing! Also involved a 12km walk up to some sand dunes with a view out at the lake and the sea - good stuff.
Off to Harvey Bay for Frazer Island now, where I’ll meet loads of dingoes who’ll want to eat me. Oh - and I forgot to mention the snake and kangaroo I saw on the canoeing trip - getting a real taste for Oz now.
Gagaju - Backpackers Retreat - Sunday 3rd June 2001
Well, here I am, alone again after a farewell to Corrina a couple of days ago in Brisbane’s transit centre, before I jumped on a bus which took me up here to Noosa.
After getting off the bus I was supposed to get a pickup from the place I’m staying at - but when they didn’t show themselves for about fifteen minutes, I phoned them and they told me I needed to get a taxi there because they were too busy etc. So - found a taxi and told him where I wanted to go and he’d never heard of the place before, and had no idea why I wanted to “go out into that place”. This was shortly followed by a lecture about the different snakes that I could find out there that could poison me, and how if it’s raining he’d never take anyone out there… sounded like fun! Off the beaten track a bit.
The taxi journey took ages and cost $30 - but the cool guys at Gagaju (the name of the ‘retreat’) paid for it which was a great relief! Basically - it’s like a campsite but with a few big tents for things like a tv room, kitchen and dorms here and there. Fantastic fun! There’s a campfire that everyone sits round every night and I’m getting along with the people here fine. I was going to be falling 12,000ft out of a plane today, but because this suicidal activity was fully booked, I’ve had to go for Thursday instead. Tomorrow I’m starting the three day self-guided canoe trek, whilst this afternoon I’ll be splashing around in baths/pools full of mud!
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