a chip off the old block ...

Heading inland from the Bruce we decided to make an overnight stop at the former gold mining settlement of Mount Morgan, just South of Rockport.

Climbing switchback roads to reach the pine-clad plateau at the summit, we found a town of traditional wooden buildings and eerily deserted streets. After driving around for some time, we finally found an equally empty looking caravan site so we parked up in for the night and I went to check in at reception.

"Oh yeaah!" said the busy-bearded woodsman type on reception as I enquired whether they had a BBQ. After I'd payed our camp fees, he looked at me doubtfully and asked "Have you got an axe?", confused I replied "Um, no ..." but he told me not to worry, I could borrow his.

I stared blankly for few seconds before the penny finally dropped; I would be on wood chopping detail if we wanted to eat that night.



Chopping firewood is most definitely about technique rather than brute strength, as I found when my first few swings of the axe missed the wood entirely and buried the axe-head deep in the chopping block. You get the hang of it after a while though.

We had a great (if ever so slightly sinister) evening in Mount Morgan, but I'll never forget what he said when he brough the axe over "Make sure you bring it back to the office when you're done - we don't want anyone getting hold of it and going crazy" with a wild gleam in his eye.

My thoughts entirely.

headin' south ...

After the rather inauspicious start to our Australasian leg of our trip we started the long trip South. By heading North.

Our logic being that you haven't really done the East Coast unless you start where the tarmac runs out - so we made the 150km trip north to Cape Tribulation* where we had a pleasant afternoon exploring the beaches and rainforest of Daintree National Park.

We awoke early next morning in our beachfront caravan park gently poaching in the morning sun as we listened to the waves lapping against the shore. The soaring temperature in the van helped us make an early start and we returned to Cairns in time to make the day trip to the outer barrier reef.

While I had an excellent dive, including a close encounter with a shark, let's just say it may take a couple more attempts for Mel to earn her scuba flippers ...

Over the next few days we took in Mission Beach, Airlie Beach, The Whitsunday Islands and Eungella National Park where we were lucky enough to catch (not literally) a Duck-Billed Platypus in the wild.

But most of all we spent lots of time getting to know our new friend Bruce. Or Bruce Highway to give him his full title, the East Coast route that will take on our 4500km trip South.

Already living in a campervan seems to be having a strange effect on us. Perhaps it's the heat, but we've started noticing other caravans and campers with a worryingly heightened level of interest. Finding ourselves discussing the relative merits of features like overhead sleeping areas and chemical toilets can only be a worrying development ...

I've added a few photos from Singapore to flickr - just click here

* Cape Tribulation was where Captain James Cook (the famous Yorkshire-born explorer) ran aground on the barrier reef, hence the name.

Naked in Cairns ...

I've always laughed heartily when hearing stories of people getting locked out of hotel rooms naked. Not so funny now I can tell you.

I don't know which I'll remember most, the sinking feeling hearing the door click lock shut behind me to the sight of no porcelain, or my increasingly frantic knocking on the door as I tried to get Mel to wake up and rescue me from the public corridor.

Personally, I blame Quantas for the most uncomfortable flight imaginable from Singapore, it's sole purpose seemed to be denial of sleep. On the upside, my naked adventure seemed to have passed unnoticed by the other residents. It's an experience I'll be making very sure I don't repeat in the future (if I can ever get a good nights sleep in a hotel again).

After luxuriating in Asia (well sort of), our budget now dictates we live in the back of a van. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

We'll be spending the next 3 weeks on the ultimate roadtrip - driving a camper from Cairns to Melbourne. I look forward to telling you all about how we get on ...

beware of the swing flapper ...

When you arrive at immigration in most countries you get a nice welcome sign, and often it let's you know something about the place you're about to enter. For example, when entering Thailand it's "Welcome to the Land of Smile".

As we crossed the causeway linking Johor Bahru in Malaysia to Singapore, we were greeted with "Beware of the Swing Flapper". It was the only sign in sight, but very prominently referred to a piece of glass that swings back and forth to ensure only 1 person at a time can approach the immigration officer. You get the idea.

It's the only place in all our travels I've seen anything quite like it, so being uniquely Singaporean they obviously had to invent their own name for it. Sadly I can't provide a photo for this unique innovation as apparently customs get a bit touchy about that sort of thing these days.

We spent a very pleasant 2 days in Singapore, our final destination in Asia. Thanks to facebook I got chance to catch up with Jacqui, an old friend from school who lives out there - it was great to catch up - at least until all the alcohol caught up with us the next morning.

We spent the rest of our time in Singapore taking in the excellent Night Safari, before signing out of Asia after four and a half months with a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel.

Now at least they made a better job of naming their cocktails ...

If you're on facebook and I'm not linked to you already then look me up! - for now at least I'm the only Mark Fretwell with a furry hood.

Finally I can add Tiger to the beer league ... we've been drinking it in just about every country since Mongolia and now I've drunk it in it's country of origin it finally qualifies for the league - 3rd place - well done!!

Going wild in Borneo ...

Time to go feral again.

We were headed for Kuching, the capital of Malaysian Borneo to look for wildife in the jungle.

Our two day trip to Bako National Park started out as it meant to go on. After taking the incredibly cheap (but even bumpier) local bus to Bako, we transferred to a small motor launch. Setting off we looked back at the jetty and saw the signpost asking us to "beware of crocodiles" quite clearly. Yikes.

After 20 minutes heading down the river estuary and into the South China Sea, we reached our destination. Well almost. The tide was out, so our launch couldn't get any closer than 50m from the shoreline. As we waded to shore I reflected that now would probably be a good time to beware of the crocodiles ...

Trekking in the jungle was hot, hot, hot. In fact so was sitting in the room, eating in the park canteen or even taking a cold shower. But the amazing wildlife we saw really made up for any discomfort we experienced. We saw snakes, a bearded pig and loads of macaques - one of the highlights being able to track troops of the bizzare looking proboscis monkey's through the jungle and mangrove's along the coastline.


They generally kept their distance from us, but as we headed back to camp we came across a juvenile proboscis (above) scampering along the man-made walkway through the mangroves. We followed him and after a while he got quite used to our presence, enabling us to get within a couple of metres as he munched on mangrove leaves for half an hour.

If we'd doubted the crocodile threat beforehand, we didn't after seeing this one on the boat journey back just a few hundred metres down the coast from our drop-off point the day beforehand.

Our last day in Borneo we headed out to Semmenggoh Wildlife Centre hoping to catch Borneo's most famous forest dweller - the Orang Utan. Due to some inclement weather only one turned up for feeding (apparently they like a lie in now and again too) - fortunately for us it was the largest in the reserve.

This was our last stop in Malaysia ... 2 weeks wasn't nearly long enough to experience everything this country has to offer. Still, we'll be happy enough to come back here another time ...

Malaysia is the only country so far where I won't be adding a local beer to the league table - they just didn't sell one in any of the bars we visited (it most certainly wasn't for lack of trying) - so I guess I'll just have to try extra hard in our next country. You can see all the photos from Malaysia by clicking through on the flickr graphic on the sidebar.