Sydney and Beyond

Well the last two weeks have been a blur. I rented a campervan and left the storms and cold of Sydney and have ended up in Alice Springs. Todays temperature is 25C and haven’t seen a single cloud for the last three days.

I have actually had two campervans up to now and have travelled across 4 states covering 4800km. The second campervan has been a brand new Toyota with DVD, fridge, microwave and cooker.

Even better though is that it is free with the company paying us to relocate it from Adelaide to Alice Springs.

I pick up another relocation on Thursday to go to Darwin.

There have been many highlights over the last two weeks but the ones that stand out the most are

Snowboarding in the Snowy Mountains
Watching Aussie Rules at the MCG
Climbing Ayres Rock
Ayres Rock at Sunset
Featherdale Wildlife ParkI
nstitute of Sport at Canberra
Driving along the Great Ocean Road
Having my first shower in days at Adelaide Aquatic Centre

Once I get to Darwin then I will fly to Cairns and then across to Fiji before travelling down the East Coast

Having arrived in Darwin it is hard to get out of as there are no rail networks, the planes are full as itis the end of the school holidays and the campers have been booked up - i am stuck!

See you all soon

Andy

G day Sydney


Well here I am at last on the other side of the world - Sydney- and it is pissing it down. What did I expect. It is the middle of winter. Well I have got my priorities right - found a football team to play for, found the pub and now I have to find somewhere to live and work.

As you can expect, Sydeny is an awsome city land the sights are amazing. they do really take your breath away. At the moment I am staying in the Wake Up Hostel, a 500 bed hostel with its
own night club - not quite Fridays.

Am trying to find accommodation in Manly at the
moment which is the more affluent part of time,
a mere 20 minutes away on the ferry but rent is
fairly ok split between a few of us..


Off to watch Sydney play in the AFL at Telstra stadium tomorrow and on Monday am making my debut for North Shore Sydney. Can you believe Monday is a day off for the Queen's birthday!

Anyway see you soon


Andy

Koh Tao and Koh Phangan

Koh Tao is 55km from the Thai mainland and is a two hour ferry journey from Samui. It is a very laid back, chilled out island dealing mainly with divers. All resorts offer free accommodation with a dive package. I chose the Open Water PADI certificate that allows any qualifying diver to dive up to 18m anywhere in the world.

The course had both a theory element - three hours in the classroom and a written exam and 5 dives where we had to go through numerous skills. The haredest was probably sitting on the ocean floor, 12m down, taking off my mask, swimming off and returning to put the mask back on and clearing it of water! Although I passed and I am sure I will use my license when I get to the Great Barrier Reef, I dont think water sports are for me - there is too much preparation and safety checks and not enough doing!

From Koh Tao I moved onto Koh Phangan, home of the infamous full moon party. Even upto to the full moon party the area of Haad Rin was buzzing and during the day a local hotel organised a 3 day beach soccer tournament. Our team was thrown together at the last minute and comprised of several Brits, Yanks and Norwegians. looking at some of the opposition - a team from Israel, one from Chile and the reigning champions from Thailand, we didn't think we had much chance but after a quick team talk which some of you who know me probably will not be surprised to hear it went along the lines of "Two at the back, two up front. Look at the pitch. You can't play football on that. Just launch the ball up front and if we get a throw in I will just throw it as hard as I can at the goals!"

Well 3 days later we had kicked the Israelis off the park, bundled in a few throw-ins, outskilled the Chileans (you would have been proud of my goal JC) got to the semis and missed a hat-full of chances against the worst team we had played to date. We eventually lost out to a dubious golden goal penalty. But we made up for it by beating the Thai holders in the 3/4 play-off to win 100oB and spent it quickly on buckets of samsong and sprite. Thanks to the lads who made those three days such a good time and thanks for their graft in such hot conditions. Come on the Wankers!