We are ab-seiling... (so bad, soooo bad.)

(The Three Sisters - the best recognised site in the Blue Mountains. It's the blue haze rising up from the gum trees in the background that gives the Blue Mountains their name.)

In a bid to provide some consistency and predictability, I've pledged to update the site at least weekly now. Could be a difficult commitment to keep to... but at least this gives me a big incentive to 'do things' so that I at least have something interesting to write about each week.

That shouldn't be a problem from next month when I leave Australia and start travelling round exotic parts of the world again. Not that there aren't exotic parts of Australia...

...like the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are part of the 'Great Dividing Range' and were a huge geological obstacle for earlier white settlers in Australia. Effectively, the high cliffs and deep treacherous canyons on the Blue Mountains kept the first visitors to Australia 'trapped' in the coastal area around Sydney for around the first 30 to 40 years after Cook's arrival.

These days crossing the Blue Mountains is a whole lot easier, either by car or by train which takes just two hours to run the scenic route from the centre of Sydney to the heart of the Bluies. I took the train to Katoomba on Tuesday morning, returning the next evening. The hugely relaxing effect of the visit was out of all proportion to its short length.

(The bird-life in the Blue Mountains is a bit of a shock if you haven't been before. It's more like an aviary than a world heritage site. Multicoloured parrots, lorikeets and cockatoos are everywhere. If you can't always see them, you can certainly hear them...)

I got some great photos walking through the eucalypts on the first day. This was an enjoyable trek, though with the tracks so well marked out and with metal and wooden steps preventing any mishaps, it felt like I was missing the true wilderness adventure. So, on the second day, I got up at the crack of dawn for an abseiling and canyoning trip which I felt sure would in some way recapture the spirit of the original nineteenth-century explorers.

Abseiling is a bit like parachuting. What I mean is that (and I say this with profound apologies to my skydiving friend Robert) parachuting isn't a particularly challenging sport to learn... in comparison with surfing, for example. I could spend four hours of every day for the rest of my life bobbing about in the surf without mastering surfing. But a day or so on an airstrip and anyone can learn how to parachute - it's as easy as falling out of a door and hitting the ground, something I mastered within a few months of discovering the university union bar as a teenager. What does make parachuting 'difficult' is the fear factor. You have to overcome millions of years of evolution to jump out of a plane. There is a deep-seated and quite understandable voice in your head which will persistently tell you that what you are doing is suicidal. (It helps to be crazy to do skydiving - apologies again Robert).

(Above - we start off with a fairly modest descent! Below - but we soon progress to more pant-wetting challenges.)

And that's where abseiling is similar - it's not difficult to learn how to let the rope out or how to move your feet down the cliff, it's just a major challenge getting over the top of the cliff and letting yourself dangle 100ft above the rocky valley-floor below.

Anyway, that's my take on abseiling. And of course, it's the fear-factor that makes it so attractive anyway. As the day wore on we tackled higher and higher cliffs until in the late afternoon, after scrambling and swimming down through one of the more inaccessible canyons, we reached the ultimate challenge - a 30m abseil down the face of a waterfall.

What a buzz! All confidence and abseiling technique goes out the window when you have several tonnes of water pouring over your head every minute.

So that was a top pocket mid-week adventure. Today I'm back at work as the regular Opportunity International Staff are now back from their away-day and the office is open again. So just today and tomorrow at work and then I'm off sailing.

"Visa-good, visa-good... his aussie visa's good!!!"

(Chest in time! After more than a month of uncertainty, John Howard is satisfied with my xrays and has approved my visa extension. I'm now allowed to stay in the country until the end of July. , though I'll be out of here by the start of June.)

I have more than the usual cause for a few relaxing beers this weekend. Just when i'd given up hope, the Australian Department of Immigration has at last deigned to approve my visa. I can now go ahead and plan for the next stage of the trip through Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal (possibly) and India without fear of being deported at short notice.

I'm glad I can leave oz in my own time. I've been involved in a couple of new projects with Opportunity International in the past week and it would be a shame if I didn't have time to finish those. The first is to write part of a brochure that will be published within weeks. I hope I can post a copy on this website. The other is a global competitor analysis and will take a few weeks to complete. Both projects support Opportunity's planned expansion in India.

I've been diving again at last. Because I don't have an advanced diver certificate I can't do any deep diving in Oz. This is kinda bemusing as they just don't care in central and south america where i dived a number of times below 40m - about twice my 'technical' limit - and I felt quite comfortable with that...

...then again, these pics might raise questions about my abilities. I was diving in a group with a friend, Roslyn, and a couple of other peeps. It took a long and unsteady walk over wave-swept rocks just to get into the water. It was only at this point that my tank started to come loose and fall into the water. Roslyn caught the comical efforts to reattach the tank with her underwater camera.

(Though this may look more like an unusual mating ritual between two creatures from the deep, our attempts to reattach the tank were eventually successful. The dive itself was somewhat less eventful. Visibility was v poor, made even worse by a huge grouper who insisted on following us about and getting in the way! I like the old fella though, a bit like an old-English sheepdog he was very curious and quite friendly.)

All the big news this week seems to be going on back in blighty. Even the always-naff Channel 9 news had coverage of the Scottish election result. Who wouldn't be interested to hear that it's the first time labour has come second in Scotland for 55 years and a notable shift towards independence just days after the 300th anniversary of the union. Interesting times...

Ok, I'm off to the beach. Dont even need to feel guilty about saying that as I understand the weather back in the UK has been top pocket in the last few weeks. Next week I'm going gorge-walking in the famous Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Hope to get some top quality shots.

Been listenin to some good new tunes this week. If you're interested in a top-quality innovative dance album (sadly thin on the ground these days) try LCD Soundsystem:

http://www.allofmp3.com/r2/LCD_Soundsystem/Sound_Of_Silver/group_6399/album_7/mcatalog.shtml

(just click on the song titles to listen)

http://www.allofmp3.com/r2/The_Aliens/Astronomy_For_Dogs/group_71011/album_1/mcatalog.shtml

Or for Scottish alt-indie try The Aliens. Mostly made up of former members of superb Scottish alt-rock band The Beta Band. Much more conventional than The BB in some ways, but 'Astronomy for Dogs' is still interesting stuff.

FOOTNOTE...

I got this story the other day from my friend Kirsty in Belize. I just love this, as it is sooooo Belize. Kirsty writes...

On Tuesday I went to the First Caribbean bank, downtown in the busy commercial area to cash a cheque. First Caribbean is a branch of Barclay's bank. I walked in and made my way to the front of the Que, and then noticed that there was something a little strange going on. When I actually looked and realised what was happening, I was shocked. The lady at the counter informed me that they had lost the keys to the vault, and therefore had no money. In full view of everyone, there were 2 men, with crowbars trying to pry open the vault. Only in Belize!!! Of course, no one had thought that perhaps closing the bank while this was taking place was a good idea, I mean lets show everyone just how easy it is to break into a vault!

Time to break the silence!

(Melbourne skyline - taken on a tripod with a 30-second exposure time (usual exposure time for hand-held shots is 1/90th of a second or less), this shot actually looks much brighter than it was at the time - it was almost pitch-black. The long exposure time gives a great effect with the motion of the ferris wheel. It also makes the lights of the buildings and the fun-fair look hyper-real. I've been working on this technique recently and I'm really pleased with this result.)

Ok, shorter, more regular and less well written updates coming up! As usual, it's not lack of things to talk about that have seen the latest silence, but a lack of time to do the blogging.

I haven't taken many photos recently but the one at the top of this update is one of the photos I'm happiest with from my travels. I took this a few weeks ago when i was visiting Melbourne with Adrienne. (Thanks for sending this on Addy)

In the few weeks since then I've been keeping really busy. Hard to believe, but despite all my efforts - including my chest x-ray - I still haven't got word on extending my visa. My original visa ran out last Thursday... Theoretically I'm on a bridging visa in the meantime, though i haven't even had that confirmed.

Social life here is still great, even now that summer is over and the light evenings have gone. Thursday nights out have been eventful as usual. Plus a number of other big nights out which have been fun, frantic or feverish...

Caroline had her baby-shower at the weekend. Chris had a similar event, which we 'christened' the babyshambles, or as Ed liked to call it, the 'afternoon delight'. We started at 2pm and it ended somewhere around 7am. Red Bull really does give you wings. Well done to all involved. There were many talking points, none of which need to be expanded on in too much detail here!

I've been ticking off some last few places from my 'must see in Sydney' list. I think I've now been on every ferry and most train lines. It's been interesting to be here in autumn. The weather is pretty mixed - four days of heavy rain in the past week and then today was bright sunshine. I've still only worn my fleese on two days since I arrived in Oz. I can now confirm that it's t-shirt weather for seven months of the year in Sydney.

Went to see 'Paris Je t'aime' last night though and it really had me pining for Europe. I'll be back all too soon, but it'll be great to again have the chance to take cheap flights to such amazing cities.


Getting quite into the salsa scene in Sydney. It's a great night out. Despite formerly having two left feet, i've now graduated into level 2 at my weekly nightclasses. You have to try everything once...

Hope everyone who's interested is still keeping up with Adam's website: www.clanblack.blogspot.com. I'll also be sticking a link on soon for Fraser's new website - watch this space. Plus I've been teaching myself website design and hope to have my own professional looking (and blogspot free) website in the next month. And media exposure news will follow eventually!

I was delighted to find that the Melbourne arts centre has a section dedicated to the history of the computer game. I was even more delighted to find that they have a section where you can try out old games. I was positively hyperactive when i discovered that you could play Horace Goes Skiing.

(After muscling some smaller children out of the way (they were rubbish and I'm sure they'd never seen a rubber-keyed computer in their lives) our hero is at the controls. LEFT - he dodges between 7 motorbikes and 2 ambulances... RIGHT ...and makes it on to the slopes!)

Later I had a go on classic spectrum adventure game 'The Hobbit'. Typing ASK GANDALF TO KISS LEGOLAS and getting the response: GANDALF TRIES TO 'KISS LEGOLAS' BUT FINDS HE DOESN'T HAVE SUFFICIENT EQUIPMENT, PLEASE TRY LATER. is just as amusing as it was in 1984...

Blast from the Past!!!

Hey! I can finally make good on a promise from way back in January.

I did the best diving of my life on Easter Island with a really great couple from California - Khalind and Lucy. Khalind had his underwater camera outfit with him and got a picture of me with a sunken Maoi. After Tahiti I said cheerio to Khalind and Lucy. They have since been travelling round Vietnam, Loas and Cambodia and have just been in touch with the photo, which I'm really chuffed about. Cheers guys!!

And here it is:


(Can't you tell it's me?! The tell tale signs are the dark hair, skinny ankles and the karate kid pose which I learned at Tae Kwon Do classes with Mr Love - wax on, wax off. Oh and as always, I'm letting off a lot of air.)

Update on Melbourne coming up...

Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

Hey! Welcome to the new look BigTrip website! After complaining of not having enough time to update the site, I've felt guilty and given the site a bit of a makeover. Hope you like the new 'features'... like the great mugshot. lol

I'm getting quite a bit of traffic now, so if anyone would like a link to their website let me know. I've also got some context-specific ads on the site. So stuff about travel and donating to good causes... and maybe snakes? ...or diy? ...or beer? who knows. (no further suggestions required!!)

So, latest news is... I've been to the dark side. Yes, I finally encountered the much feted Melbourne. And met up with my sometime travel companion Adrienne. Really pleased with some of the pics we got - all the 'outdoorsy' shots in this blog are from the Great Ocean Road - an amazing two day coastal drive between Melbourne and Adelaide.

The Great Ocean Road stretches from Melbourne to Adelaide and is famous for it's outstanding rock formations, dramatic cliffside beaches and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Adrienne and I hired a car for two days and drove down to the Twelve Apostles, one of Australia's most famous natural attractions. The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks towering above one of the Road's more remote beaches. They hit the news a couple of years ago when one of their number, originally 50m in height, collapsed into the sea leaving just a pile of rubble.

There were only ever nine to start with, and a few others were looking precarious when we were there so my advice would be to get there now...

Victoria seems just as sports crazy as New South Wales. We stopped at Bells Beach to watch the local leg of a national surfing competition.

The surfing looked pretty good to me from what I saw. It was certainly better than the live MOR rock on offer, which seems to be popular all over Australia. Zzzzzzz...

Anyway, we clocked up about 1000kms and took a huge number of photos so pretty successful all in.

Melbourne itself is another great attraction. After arriving on the first flight on the Saturday morning, first stop was the 90,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground where Richmond (Melbourne) Tigers took on Sydney Swans in a highly charged Aussie Rules Football game.

Wow. Four quarters, 6 points for getting the ball between the big
posts, 1 point if it goes in the sides. Erm... yeah, you can run with the ball but you have to bounce it now and again and you can't throw it but you can kind of punch it i think. You can also kick the ball and if you catch a ball that's been kicked the play stops and you get to kick it yourself... but not when it's been punched i reckon. and there are about 15 dudes on each side... and two referees and loads of linesmen. Really it was just chaos as far as i was concerned but fairly entertaining, helped by a friendly vociferous crowd.

So I, erm... remain to be convinced that 'football' as Australians call this game is any match for the beautiful game. But at least at $20 entry fee, or about eight quid, it's certainly better value than a trip to deepest Paisley for a St Midden v Dundee United game.


So what did I reckon to the Sydney Melbourne rivalry? I certainly have to agree that Melbourne has a well deserved reputation as Sydney's classier rival - if what is meant by that is a lack of beaches and a focus on parks, European style streets and cafe culture. The museums and galleries are excellent, not least the museum of moving images and technology where I was even able to play Horace Goes Skiing in the museum of gaming (happy days!).

The nightlife was pretty atmospheric too. The Melbourne comedy festival had just started and Adrienne and I had the pleasure of seeing the inimitable Ross Noble. I've seen Ross before and knew that we were in for a couple of hours of ball-bouncingly funny improv. I have to say, he has never been so good. I cried like a baby for most of the two hours and had a sore face afterwards. What a genius.

(Two evenings on Victoria's Great Ocean Road, and two amazing sunsets.)