all those Birds...

Wednesday, 09th October 2013

After breakfast Dietmar worked on Flight plans, me on washing and mails and a couple of research topics.

Late morning we took a complimentary shuttle bus from the resort to Port Douglas to an Indigenous Wildlife Habitat Animal Site to view those Birds and Koalas we have not found in the Rainforest nearby. We did not want to leave Australia not having seen a Koala, (which is not a Bear) or an Eclectus Parrot ... going into a man-made Park was the next option.

Well, we saw them all. The huge area was devided in three areas, Rainforest, Grasslands and Wetland.

Very nicely done with walkways, the restaurant area full of Parrot-stands and different species of parrots you could hold and socialise with and the wooded and forest area one could go into and observe the different animals. Birds of all kinds flew from tree to tree and we could watch them interact, feed and/or bath in one of the many ponds, waterfalls etc..

Female Eclectus

Male and Female Eclectus

Sleeping Koala

The Koala is a small bear-like, tree-dwelling, herbivorous marsupial which averages about 9kg (20lb) in weight. Its fur is thick and usually ash grey with a tinge of brown in places. The koala gets its name from an ancient Aboriginal word meaning "no drink" because it receives over 90% of its hydration from the Eucalyptus leaves (also known as gum leaves) it eats, and only drinks when ill or times when there is not enough moisture in the leaves. ie during droughts etc. The koala is the only mammal, other than the Greater Glider and Ringtail Possum, which can survive on a diet of eucalyptus leaves. We learned that a Koala sleeps 20hours, eats or chews leaves three hours out of 24hours. The remaining 1 hour? He hardly ever moves..so we assume he spends the remaining time shuffling around the tree stump. 

Still sleeping ...

Late afternoon we prepared once more for the next couple of days ahead as we are due to leave very early tomorrow morning leaving Australias east coast to go further west.

REAL Paradise

07.Oct to 10.Oct 2013, Silky Oaks Lodge, World Heritage Rainforest

08..Oct 2013, 13h09 local time, SA/D 20131008, 05h10

This morning, after breakfast, I left for a short but strenous hike, it went one way only...up up up. I can hardly believe it myself...I am walking in one of the oldest Rainforests in the world, all by myself listining to birds and the sounds of this wonderful forest. The short hike leads to a lookout point and is very well marked and apart from hiking up, it is a relaxed walk for me.

Rainforest definition: more than 80% canopy coverage is required for a forest to be classified as a rainforest.

Typical rainforest

Instructive Signage

Birds are calling, sounds are around me, falling leafs, the forest is alive, once or twice I thought I hear steps. But there is no-one, no-one except gekkos and birds moving about. Iam alone but not lonely. 

I am engrossed and in awe. Me, my soul is jubilantly, and it feels great to experience this creation.

The colored marking on the trees makes me smile; sometimes green, sometimes red or lilac, very well ;) I will not lose my way.

Walkways are marked with coloured bands

Soon I am on top of the mountain and I make my way back. The river is good for swimming, cool and refreshing and the boulders are good for resting. While I sit and watch the water, searching the trees for colorful birds, which by the way, I never saw on the hike, I detect movement on my left hand side. A snake, long, it does not end. Circling around a boulder nearby, one end in the water, around around it slithers. About 5cm in diameter. Because I could see three bodylines around the boulder I reckon it was 2.5m long, at least. Only then I got scared, I get up slowly, backed up and reached into my Backpack for binoculars and camera. Needless to say the snake was gone by then.

While swimming, I was surprised by a large snake in the water next to me

After that no more swim in the river. We spend a relaxing day by the pool.

unusual and well integrated natural swimming pool

well equipped bar in wonderful setting

restaurant at tree-top height with view down to river

typical guest chalet - well equipped

The most relaxing days....

Cairns, 04.10.2013, 10h30 local time

Arnim greets us on the Coral Princess II

We board the Coral Princess II.  3 Days we will spend on the cruiser mainly to view the Great Barrier Reef. First we were a bit disappointed, the cruiser had seen its best time. We settled in and our water adventure began and never stopped for the whole four days and three nights ... it was just unbelievable. Waters are clear, clean and just unbelievable blue in all tones. Dietmar took precaution against motion sickness from day 1 and he managed just perfect. We loved the tour ... to tell you upfront.

3 Days on Coral Princess II, 04.10 - 07.10.2013

We started the day at 06h45 with a 10 Minute Information talk regarding the days activities to be followed by breakfast at 07h00. By 09h00 we either anchored near an Island for a walk or a swim on the beach or once we got closer to a reef we snorkelled in the Reefs. It was most fantastic!!! The fish, the corals and the life under water was just unbelievably beautiful.

The second day Dietmar and myself tried real diving, we first had to undergo a theory session and from there we went onto the beach and had to perform different exercises in very shallow water. We did all that but in the end decided it was not for us at this point. Myself I kept snorkelling inside the reefs along all the channels and it was fantastic!!! I saw parrot fish, a small shark, all kinds of other fish and lots of life and of course 100's if not thousands of different kinds of corals. In the end I bought a throw-away underwater camera and I can not wait to see the photos, but that will  probably have to wait until we get home.

Island excursion for swimming, walking and snorkelling

Coral Princess II

Excursion on glass-bottom boat

Vero goes snorkelling

Very effective platform on the boat, reef channels visible in the background

We like University City Brisbane

Wednesday Afternoon 2.Oct

We arrived in Brisbane, went quite quickly through Customs and Immigration and refuelled. Pilots say: you refuel when it is available, not when you feel like it. Well I can say the same with eating and relaxing and sleeping on this trip: you do this when there is an opportunity. Anyhow, we booked into a very nice and central downtown accommodation and our first walk took us to Ben's Camera Shop and we have now replaced our defect camera.

Off we go sightseeing and we walked thru town and a market, passed a 'Bratwurstbude' with a pitchblack body serving customers and next door the 'Backstube' mit einem Dirndl bekleideter jungen Dame.

We went down ' Brisbane River' on a City Hopper Cruiser, looked at the buildings, People and had a very relaxing afternoon. After a Thai Meal we fell into bed, exhausted. We enjoyed Brisbane.

Thursday, 02.10.2013, 09h10 local time

At the airport, we asked for start up which was approved, a few minutes later we asked for clearance and taxi instruction, ground control kept asking us to stand by...stand by...after 10 minutes we were just about to ask him again when another pilot asked for Taxi instructions. Well, he was told by ground control: "I asked you to stand by, you are not the only one on this airport. STAND BY", after that we kept quiet for the moment. Than we were given our clearance and taxi instructions. Off we went taxiing for at least 10 minutes. We were about No 5 to depart. Another pilot 'dared' to say: Sir, your instructions were not clear, at one point or another. Ground control in that case answered: 'Sir, would you like to come and join me up here?' As if to say: do the job yourself.  We could not believe what was said to each other! By the time we departed 50 minutes were gone. Never ever anywhere in the world did it take as that long to depart.

We had a beautiful flight, nearly 05h00 hours to Cairns. Below us islands, fantastic coast lines, beaches and nature pur for neverending miles. We start liking Australia....

The aircraft performs nicely, we have an Outside Temperature of minus 10 degrees, even the fuel gauge starts working again.

We arrived in Cairns, and parked in front of a AMO. We would like them to do an oil change, oil filtre change and have the aircraft washed. Two weeks prior we had booked an appointment for this week with that particular maintenance company. After us listening to long excuses, why and when and how....Dietmar decided, no worries mate, lets leave it ... we will just carry on flying in 5 days. He bought 3 litres of oil, again from a Helicopter Company, we parked and refuelled the aircraft and left for our Hotel. 

Once we got settled and had unpacked we walked a few hundred metres and found a very casual dining place on a busy intersection. We chose to sit on a hight bistro table to be able to watch people walking past. We took a picture of the menu, mainly to remind us of the cost of a casual meal:

In front of us high trees and the next moment huge flocks of Parakeet birds settled in those trees with lots of noise and sounds. It was most amazing and once sunset was over it got quite by the minute until they all settled down. So did we. We finished our meal and wine and walked back to our hotel  choosing to walk along the beach parade. On the way we watched a Fire artist and very nice light features along the walkway.

Pics to follow

I have lost todays blog!

All the pictures, all the info, Iam really peased...

Extensive Ramp Check - First ever!!

Wed. 02 Oct 2013, 09h10, local time, SA/D 20131002, 00h10, midnight

We just departed in New Caledonia; now I can report back:

We were about to climb into the plane as mobile Gendarmerie and police arrived, "Pardon, could we check the plane?"...Oh NO NO... 'Yes, sure, anything, please go ahead ...'

They checked every piece of paper, Certificate of Registration of the Aircraft, Pilot Licences, Radio Station Lisence, Certificate of Airworthiness, Passports once more, etc etc. "No diamonds from South Africa, no?", 'No, no diamonds from South Africa.' All very nice, lots of laughing, lots of questions, like: "what did the Family say when we told them about our trip?"

You see, our Family always come in when the situation gets a bit hot and brenzlig (for us) even though we have NOTHING in the aircraft that could get us into trouble. But maybe I am wrong!? Herr Mueller, our friendly AMO (Authorized Maintanance Organisation) from Hildesheim maintains right throughout, "wir landen im Knast." Irgend etwas finden die immer... :-)

To come back to the Family Stickers. Whenever the situation gets a bit tense, we introduce our Family sticker, the girls, the sister, the partners, the parrot, the horse and the three cats, than the sad story: one cat was put to sleep while we are gone, the cat was ill, yes, we are very sad. "Yes, they are all sad now, very sorry..." "But now they are finished and they have to go...." ...in most cases. This morning all went well with the ramp check. They did not lock us up, we were allowed to depart.

A pity we could not get to know this country and its various Islands longer and better, both of us would have liked to stay on a bit.

We have a 05:h00 flight in front of us to Brisbane.

A downtown Hotel was booked this morning, and we also looked up a Photographic Equipment / Camera Shop in Town. The camera, the one I thought I lost in Vanimo has been defect since over a week now. We want to replace it and once we are back in CT we will see if we can have the old one repaired. Once we are clear at the airport we could even look up a shop at the airport!

Noumea is positioned just above or north of the Tropic Of Capricorn. Brisbane has about the same Latitude as Johannesburg. Right now we have a true airspeed of 181knots. Groundspeed 163knots, makes 18knots headwind. The wind is against us. Only once on the whole tour we saw a tail-wind. But we knew before we started, thats the price we pay going westward. But the advantage: we gain time. Today, right now, we adjust our watch, one hour earlier. Ha, sweet revenche! All of a sudden, it is not 10h30 anymore, but only 09h30!

Next time we will try and install a small Espresso machine... the capsule one might work, I wonder if they have a battery version or one for 28volts. Instead of taking the Immersion suits we take the Espresso machine ;-)

We are above sea, nothing but water. We are above the Coral Sea part of the South Pacific Ocean.

Now we can hear Noumea approach  talk to one of our faster Group Aircraft, they are halfway between Fiji and Noumea. We can't hear or contact them on the company frequence as they are too far away. We assume they will re-fuel in Noumea, (we know they are not allowed to park before 15h00) and carry on to Brisbane, also chucking the fancy hotel booking in Noumea and like us stay in Brisbane for the night. Another crew booked the same Hotel (to avoid the different transfers to the fancy Hotel) we stayed in last night, we warned them not to accept Room 42 (ours) as there is no hot water in the shower and the Aircon is not functional. Food was very good, wine also good. I forgot to take pictures of the place.

We have 01h44 to go. It is very lonely up here, no land in sight, no ships, we hear no-one on any frequency, nothing. I do not want to say it is boring... just now something might happen which is not boring at all, I rather stay bored, long time since I have been bored. We eat our remaining food, the Australians will not allow us to bring food onto their continent anyway.

Approaching Brisbane now.

We are on our way again - 3 days of continous flying

Good Bye Fiji!

If it would not be for a loooong way out and incurring high cost we would come back but it is propably not going to happen, ever. With a very professional handling at departure on part of our handling agent (after 3days of long disputes, arguments, mails, threats from our side of going to the police, to  goverment etc etc see seperate report) now we leave the place on long hand shakes and promises to keep in touch on our and THE OTHER side, very jovial Good Bye' s, now we are friends ...

It surprises me again and again: we are not shy to stand up for ourselves in a foreign country. We are not shy to actually tell a local person in a country, Sorry Sir, but we feel done in and we will not hesitate to approach your government and point fingers at you. Sorry Sir, we will let the world know how we were ripped off and that cannot be in the interest of your government, your country and your people. please re-think.

(Report follows)

10h01, local time, Tuesday 01.10.2013, SA/D 00h01 20131001, midnight

Today a flight from NADI (one says Nandi), Fiji to Noumea, New Caledonia

ETA 13h36 local time, today we gain one hour, tomorrow again one hour, that fact will also relax the days a bit. It makes an amazing difference. We adjust our watch. 

The remainder of the group stays one day longer at the Resort, we want / need to take the biggest strain out of 2 "very intense" days and now we have 3 "intense" days in front of us. But as always it depends on the wind, the wind makes it or breaks it. The routing for the coming days: Nadi, Fiji - Noumea, New Caledonia - Brisbane, Australia - Cairns, Australia.

Tonight we were due to stay in a very fancy Hotel on an Island alongside Noumea. Planned was: arrival at International airport, Customs & Immigration, Bus transfer to Harbour, Hotel Transfer-Boat to Hotel Island, than rest for the night.

We actually could not face it: by the time we arrive we don't want go through the whole speel for one night, the same speel the following morning. It does not make sense to us, therefore we booked ourselves in a Hotel next to the airport, a 2* dump, pity about the luxury huts above water but that's what it is. One other crew has made same decision for tomorrow night. 

12h05, we are flying next to an island which is recorded no-where! On none of the GPS's we have on board, we think it is an Island which has never been discovered. ;-) Now that we have seen it we might want to claim it! We take a photo and we record the location. It is covered by a big cloud and has a good size.

Our Island.

Arrivial in New Caledonia @13h30 local time

This Country is like Little France, we can not believe what we see, as if we are in Europe!

Some Facts regarding "our Island":

Aneityum Island

Aneityum is the southernmost inhabited island in the Vanuatu archipelago. As with all the major islands throughout Vanuatu, it's origins are volcanic and the landscape mountainous. Rich volcanic soils and a slightly more temperate climate encouraged the growth of magnificent stands of sandalwood trees.

Prized in the Orient for its aroma, sandalwood traders ravaged the island in the previous century. Its population was also ravaged by disease and slaving (black birding) and today stands at around 550, down from an estimated 12,000 prior to Europeans arrival in 1793. The island was the first centre of the Presbyterian Church and the haunting remains of the once largest missionary church in the Southern Hemisphere now stand in ruins.

The modern Aneityum has few buildings and no cars apart from the few vehicles of the kauri replanting forestry project. It is ideal for the keen bush walker, offering many well defined tracks and paths through vegetation that is quite different from the hotter and more humid northern islands.

Over 80 species of magnificent, delicate orchids adorn the forest. Several waterfalls and hot springs can also be visited. The island is surrounded by live coral reefs offering excellent snorkeling.

The only airport is not on the island itself, but on the much smaller nearby Inyeug (or Mystery) Island. Air Vanuatu services the island twice weekly from Port Vila and Tanna. Inyeug is periodically visited by several hundred tourists arriving on cruise ships, reached by launch from cruise ships anchoring inside the magnificent turquoise waters between Inyeug and the mainland.

The only accommodation on Aneityum is at Mystery Island Guesthouse. It is an exceptionally peaceful place to stay with basic rooms and outside bathrooms.

A visit to Anetityum Island is not to be missed.