FIJI SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND

South Pacific Polynesian Island have always fascinated me and a place which I always wanted to visit. The intention was to visit a number of island in the South Pacific like Samoa , Tonga and a few others but apparently they all look similar to one another.
Fiji islands comprises of 300 palm fringed beaches and corals with exotic sea life. Also the islands just happen to be a place where I knew a friend with whom I played cricket about 40 years ago. Fiji is also a country of great cultural diversity in which Indians, Chinese and local Fijians have created a distinct South Pacific flavour. Fiji became a British colony in the mid 1800 and thousands of Indian labourers were brought to work in sugar plantations. Not sure but the local Fijians at the time were cannibals who preferred to eat the British rather than work for them.
Nadi is the second largest town where we landed in the island of Viti Levu, which has the popular resorts and also where my friend lives. Meeting him and spending some time with him after all these years was a great pleasure and good fun to talk about the old times.
The resort we stayed was a fantastic place with a private beach and huge tropical gardens, very much in the style of the Kenyan and other S.E Asian resorts. Visiting other island which were completely uninhabited is also very strange. The interior of the islands are very much rain forest mountains and water falls. Towns and villages are very much like the African towns that we are used too.One of the island we went to , South Sea Island , had about 20 people living there and was so Small that one could walk from one end to the other in less than 2 minutes and can go round the island in less than 10 minutes. If you get into trouble there is no where to run. All one does in such a place is rest and relax and drink beer. The temperature is 33 degrees and there is cool sea breeze blowing across.
Returning and leaving the island is exactly like you see in the old movies, where the islanders turn out in their grass skirts, as you board the canoes, and sing the local songs . Except now they are not in grass skirts but in the uniform of the tour company.

singing goodby songs

queen of the island

castaway island

south sea island

my little island

catch of the day

gewar drums ship approching

my own little island (king Taank)

sun setting on the island

SYDNEY.

After 7 days of driving along the coast and 5 different motels, we are now in Sydney at my friend Mahendra`s house in Castle cove, a suburb of Sydney. A hugh house overlooking the inlet and the marina and very comfortable for a good rest.

We met up with my old mate Ellis David , still looking very good, and went for short tours with him around Sydney.

The life style of what we have observed so far, here is great. Everyone seems so relaxed and cheerful and all have a smile on their faces. I guess the weather has something to do with this. Also there are not many people around in this hugh country. I think they could do with 30 million more people.

In the evening and weekends almost the whole of Sydney is either on the beach swimming and surfing or playing outdoor sports. Good weather always helps and I thing the good weather here has a lot to do with the attitude and friendly nature of the people.

Old favourite the opera house


Would have loved to climb, but was told to act my age.

with Ellis David

HUNTER VALLEY.

Hunter Valley is Australia`s oldest wine producing region and is set in a beautiful lush green surroundings with characteristic landscape. Along the way through the valley you visit the various vineyards and taste the wines produced by them, at no charge . In our case the tasting had to be restricted as we were driving and did not want fall foul of the law.

As it turned out one of the very beautiful vine yards we visited was owned by and Englishman who had emigrated from the UK 35 years ago and happened to live in Pinner , not too far from us. He was very keen to know about Harrow and Pinner and talked quite a lot about what he did in the area. He spent over an hour explaining to us the different types of grapes and the different processes of making different wines. A very interesting couple of hours.

Also interestingly along the Wine trail, in the vineyards there are various sculptures in contemporary style dotted in the vineyards and one can simply wander through the vineyards and observe the sculptures set up in specific places along the picturesque valley. There are quite a few pictures posted on the blog.

Also many of the buildings in the region were built well before 1900. The general store where we had coffee was built in 1860 during the construction of the road in the valley by convicts shipped from the UK.

a cottage in the vineyard for the night stay

with the man from Harrow

more statues,found them interesting

tell the difference

Hunter valley

statues in the vineyard

BRISBANE & THE GOLD COAST

South of Brisbane, a stretch of coast line , know as the Gold Coast is very much like any other sea side resort except the coast line, the beaches and off course the weather makes for a completely new experience.

Driving down from Brisbane along the coastal road we spent a week at different resorts. Most Gold Coast beaches are great for a dip. The area has the best selection of surfing beaches with huge waves. One can spend hours on the beach watching people surfing.

Whilst we were there Australia`s equivalent of O level exams had just finished and about 20,000 teenagers ,what they called the schoolies, descended on the area. Every hotel and motel rooms were fully booked. At night time , the area known as the Surfers paradise became a no go area and some people advised us to be careful and be on the guard. There is lot of drunkenness, fighting and vandalism. We off course quickly moved on.

Australia`s most easterly point is called the Byron Bay with beautiful beaches and high cliff coast line. Perched right at the top is Byron Bay Light house. The walk along the coast line to the light house and back through the rain forest, about 3 hours, is spectacular with great views. In the evening , to avoid the hot sun , the walk should be attempted anti clockwise so that you can see the sun set in the sea, we off course not knowing did it clockwise, which seemed the logical thing to do and ended up in the forest after sunset and got lost along the way with no one in site. It was a little scary in the dark and all alone, so we were so glad to hear the car noise in the distance that we literally ran across the forest toward the car noise and were very very relieved to be on the road.

beach along the gold coast

along the coast line

most easterly point of Australia

Byron bay coast line

BRISBANE.

Like any other city, nice shopping malls and sea side walks. Nothing special.

a lovely Church in the middle of the city

Statues in Brisbane street

Brisbane sea front

Brisbane`s big balls

Brisbane city centre

KUKADU & LITCHFIELD NATIONAL PARK & KATHERINE

The four day safari given the conditions was very tough and tiring considering the conditions we managed it and feel all the better for it. The group of people, two German couples, one French couple, Dutch girl and us got on very well and became friends at the end of the tour.

The water holes with clear water and the vegetation and the landscape surrounding it were very beautiful and great fun for swimmers.

Lunch some where along the trail

Greenant falls-being brave here(water not too deep)

a series of water falls-Buley Rockhoe

along the trail

Florence falls- very steep

crocks lurking in this area

part of Litchfield national park

creek along the bush trail

The other major attraction in Litchfield Park are the many gigantic termite mounds. They are enormous in size. The mounds up to 2-3 meters in height are all constructed in one direction, a north to south position. This configuration acts as a kind of a temperature control mechanism so that the queen termite is not exposed to the heat of the sun. (All this information from our knowledgeable guide).

termite mounds everywhere quite a site

one of the largest termite mound

filling up on the water supply

part of the touring party

somehow not frightened of the emu

emu taking a rest from the sun

touring bus

walk along the gorge in the sun 40 degree

The Nitmiluk Kathrine gorge can best be appreciated if one goes in a canoe to really see the scale and the sheer high cliffs of the gorge. The mid day sun and another day of 35 degree heat made that impossible and instead opted for a two hour cruise by boat.

Given time and good weather conditions one can walk along the trail above the gorge which wind's up and down through ever changing environment and landscape. May be 30 years ago would have been possible.

two hour cruise is stunning

the gorge is huge and steep

Kathrine gorge

Litchfield National Park , the next day was the favourite with thundering waterfalls, scenic water holes for swimming and forest treks with exotic bird life and various different reptiles. The young Australian tour guide very good and was very knowledgeable young chap who knew the region very well. This national park is also home to aboriginal people and the various shelters containing stone tools , grinding stones etc indicate that they have lived here for thousands of years.

Some of the water holes would have crocodiles in the wet season and in the dry season the water holes are surveyed and cleared of crocodiles before they are opened to the public. Some of us decided not to take any chances and not even dipped our toe in the water despite the guides assurances.

wish i could remember all the names

bird life in the park

wallabies having fun

small water fall with a large plunging pool

too deep for me

one of the many water holes

Ubirr escarpments

one of the many reptiles we came across

Darwin & The Kakadu National Park.

When you arrive in Darwin , early in the morning the first thing you notice is the heat and sometimes the humidity that early in the morning. We thought Asia was hot but this heat after a while is unbearable.

The town is full of young people wanting to tour the "outback" so thought we would do the same and perhaps escape the heat of the city.

The hottest month is November, as our luck would have it, and is just before the onset of the rainy season and Darwin also happens to be one of the most lightning prone areas in the world so we thought we would escape from the area as soon as we can.

Decided that a camping safari would be an adventure and were promised fixed tent site with all the facilities and also got tempted by two for one offer. The national park is in the far N.E corner of the Northern territory and has a huge number of aboriginal rock site some of them over twenty thousand years old like the famous Nourlangie and Ubirr. These sites show the day to day living in the form of rock art paintings of fish , bird and mammals in an X ray style showing the bone structure. Unfortunately the aborigines now live in designated areas known as the reservations and suffer from various social problems, without much government assistance whilst their land is being exploited by big mining companies.

During the first day of the tour the heat (40 degrees) was unbearable and it was an open land with no shade except sometimes there was some shade along the sides of the mountains and the steep rocks. The area is full aboriginal cultural sites, towering escarpments which when you climb right to the top presents you with a 360 degree scenic views.

After a long hot day the whole touring party were very much looking forward to a good nights rest but when we saw the camp site in the middle of the bush and the tents were very small with just two single beds, the thought in every ones mind was when will we see the morning. The tents were so small and very hot, with no power or water supply and I had to check it very thoroughly to make sure there were no lizards or anything else lurking under the beds. The guide also turned out to be our cook and with the help of everyone produced a meal of Thai green curry and pastas washed with plenty of cheap Australian wine.

Bedtime was early at 9.00PM but 35 degrees in the tent and the sounds of animals and ruffling leaves, made any sleep impossible. Besides Rekha kept on hearing other noises and kept on asking me to check out to see if there was anything or anybody outside. No way was I going step outside the tent in pitch dark.I told Rekha to take it easy on the water and just prayed that she was not going to ask me to accompany her to the bathroom during the night which were about 50 meters away.

similar tent but a different site

our sleeping quarters for the night

near the aboriginal burial site

a view after a long walk in the heat

real time views look great

a view from the escarpment

flashfloods too dangerous to cross

ignore one of them

entrance to the park

The boat trip in the Mary river to see the crocodiles was not as productive as we had hoped. Saw very few crocodiles as it was to hot for them to come out and sun themselves on the banks. The ideal temperature for them is 30-33 degrees. Apparently there are 5000 crocodiles in that stretch of water but as luck would have it we saw 7 to 8 of them. The monsoon forest in the river was intersting where the whole river is covered with water lilys with bright colour flowers and they were stretched in the river as far as one could see.

plucked from the river

rainforest in the river

bird life along the river (forgot the name of this one)

mary river ,crocks lerking underneath