Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

The Wildlife in Borneo . . .

The jungles in Borneo are really dense, dark and humid.

You will find that some of the photos look as though they have been over-exposed, but in reality, it is just the humidity in the air.






I have a photo of this at home - Glen enlarged it for me, and framed it!

Don't ask me why - I think I look rather wasted there.

Glen and I tried to race through the jungle.

The climb to the top of the mountain is rated as a 1.5 hour climb... Glen and I have done it in 26 minutes... actually I was confident that I could do it in less than 20 and so I did!

I held the record of taking 17 minutes to race to the top of Mt Silam, covering a distance of approx 4 kilometres through the jungle, up a mountain.

I was getting really fit (My girlfriend was proud of me).



This photo shows how dense and dark the jungle can be. It was so humid there... no, not because I hadn't cleaned my lenses.



You can see how muddy it is in the jungle - I became quite dirty after many trips into the jungle.



I think these trees are just as big as the Californian Redwoods. They might not be as old, but definitely just as big.



This was taken with a 300mm lens, from 1.5 metres.

The most amazing thing about them, is when they are scared, the curl up into little "marbles".

It looks like a small bug, but it is actually at least 7cm long, which is actually quite big.




I noticed in Borneo, most of the insects there were huge.

The wingspan of the brown moth was about 15cm wide - huge!

They are mostly active at night, which is quite common for creatures in the jungle.

A couple of the girls stationed in the jungles, was stationed here. Not a wise decision, considering these girls were paranoid about the insects.

(Note: in the photo below, I still had conjunctivitis) I had the red eyes for most of the trip.


Big and beautiful, don't you think? You can see how big the black moth is compared to the size of the telephone.





These plants were kind of special because each branch split into two, so by the end of it, they formed a hexagonal pattern.

Below, are plants known as the "pitcher" plant.

The pitcher plants are meat-eating plants - you have watch out not to fall into them because they will swallow you whole.



If you just believed that, you are very gullible! *laugh*

The pitcher plant, like other carnivorous plants, feed on insects.

They have sweet-smelling nectar that attract the unsuspecting insect to it.

When the insect lands, it finds the surface slippery and fall straight into the “pitcher”, where the plants juices drowns it and is digested by the plant.

You may have heard of other type of carnivorous plants such as the Venus Fly Trap, and the Sundew plants.



Yes, you see me holding the snake with a leaf.

It was a poisonous snake, and I was worried about it's venom getting on my skin.

For example a puff adder, contact with the venom numbs the skin.

I was not familiar with the snakes in Borneo, and was not about to risk it.


The tarantella was sitting inside the catering tent hunting.

Everyone was looking at it and admiring it, which was pretty amazing, considering I know many people who would willingly kill a spider in sight.

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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

Repeater Stations . . .



Here, you see Paul and I transporting some of the repeater stations by air.

From Silam, we flew down to DFVC. We stayed there for three days before going back to Silam.



I am at one of the repeater sites. Here, the top of one of the mountains was cleared, so we could safely land a helicopter there.

Oh... did I forget to mention that I almost chopped one of my fingers in half at the repeater site?

On top of my infected eye, I had another thing for the medical team to look at. The fingernail had been chopped in half and there was not much I could do about it except clean it up and try to avoid infections. The medical team was great there... they were extremely good.




We had a few problems with some of the communications gear.

Paul and Glen were handling it, and at times I tried to assist.

The first few days had been really tough.


The top of Silam is covered in clouds for most of the afternoons, so the solar panels are quite useless. A survey of the conditions made prior to the race was useless.

If you ask any of the locals, they would have told us that the peak is always covered in clouds... but apparently no-one asked them!!!




We had problems keeping the generators running - they were using more power than predicted and there was no sun on the top of Silam to recharge the batteries.

The generator itself was a re-built petrol engine with a car alternator on it.

We basically tried to use a system where we used a jerry can, cut holes into it, and relied on the force of gravity to transport the fuel to the generator.

This design ended up working best for us.


Our helicopter pilot sitting on the side there, just grinning...

On the third day of the race, I hiked up the mountain three times. I was really tired and all I could think of was getting a bit of a rest and some food. I managed to get a bit once I got to Danum. In Danum I managed to get 6 hours sleep before someone woke me up and told me that the repeater had died in Silam... again all the cars had to leave in a convoy... so rush, rush to find my driver and managed (just) to get into the convoy!

The road to Danum closes at 6.30pm and all the cars had to go in the convoy.


The helicopter flew all of us to the top of the mountain, and waited there for us till we were finished. Glen quite often told the pilot, "You don't have to shut down, because we'll only be here for 5 minutes." Well... quite often, we were there for as long as an hour and half! (Don't worry, the pilot was sensible enough to shut down immediately... he got to know Glen very well.)

I went up there often make sure that it was still running. It is much better getting a helicopter to fly me up there so that I can bring some fuel with me !



Glen has mostly been on top of the mountain getting the generator back online.
We have to keep the generator running 24 hours per day until the end of the race.




On the third night after the race started, one of the repeaters went dead.

I had to hike up the mountain on the previous day as the generator had died.

I did not leave the mountain until it was dark, so I had to climb down through the jungle in the dark!

Fortunately I had my torch with me!




Paul later gave me strict instructions to make sure that I leave the mountain so that I could be back at HQ while there was still light!

I found out that I did not have any problems navigating at night... I even offered Paul to go back up when the repeater died!

Anyhow, we ended up having to send the airborne repeater up!





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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

The Competitors . . .

The competitors did not rest... three of the teams were half way through the 600 kilometre course after only three days... pretty amazing!

Two of the teams were Australian. 18 teams were out of the race. At least 10 of these were due to medical problems.

Hardly any people around here get enough sleep... the place is active 24 hours per day because there are always competitors coming in!

I was keen to find out how the Danish team would turn out. At the beginning of the race, they were not very sociable. But by the end of the race, I think the tension of the race had gone, and I managed to have a chat with them. By the third day, the Danes are doing pretty well... they had a 22nd place!



This was the mountain-bike leg of the race.

The guy you see being transported to hospital in the helicopter (photos below), was doing this part of the race. He was rounding a corner on his bike and rode straight into a large branch.



We had a lot of medical urgencies... we almost lost a guy with a punctured lung !
I got some great photos and helped getting the guy into the mobile hospital. There was a lot publicity on the website and through the media about it.

Fortunately, he was only 15 minutes away from HQ, so it was possible for us to get him to the helicopter very quickly, and to the nearest hospital.



Another leg of the race involved rowing in these “sampans”, a Malay term for “boat”. At some point, the teams in the race had to also split up - some of them swimming, some of them rowing, to complete the water leg of the race.

Below, the competitors had to use a flying fox to cross the canyons. I managed to have a go at it - compared to rock-climbing... well, I found it pretty boring *smile*. I imagine most people would find it quite fun though.



There are no places to climb here.

I had hoped to take one of the helicopters to Madai Caves to check out the 200 metre abseil. The road to the Madai Caves lead directly through the tiny village of Gua Madai - a small cluster of homes, their wood bleached grey.

The town’s main sources of income are tourism and birds’ nests. The nests are found high up the walls of the cave, tucked away in cracks and crevasses, and can command thousands of dollars. They are harvested about three times a year.

My girlfriend mentioned trying "bird's nest soup" whilst I was there. She said normally the bird's nest they use belong to the swallow. It is a delicacy to many Asians, and similar to shark's fin soup - that is if you have tried it. Normally the nests are made out of the birds' saliva.



There was so much rain at Silam that HQ was often flooded.

Many of the competitors took the opportunity to get some sleep and the slept on whatever they could find.


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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

Silam and Jungle Ops . . .
It is so bloody hot in Silam! It must have been at least 40 degrees and 100% humidity!

Silam was the overall headquarters, and Danum Valley Field Centre (DVFC) was referred to as Jungle Ops. Jungle Ops controlled all radio communications and conducted the race through the the jungle.

From Kota Kinabalu, we flew to Lahad Datu and drove the rest of the way to Silam. Silam was the site of one of the repeater stations. We had to set up a HQ a few kilometres from this station... heaps of opportunities for a few walks in the jungle.

The operation at Silam was huge!... I had never seen such a busy place before. The place was crawling with energy. It was bigger than any military operation I had ever seen! You would be amazed to see the logistics involved in this project ! At the time I did not have the time to take a lot of photos.

We had many army trucks transporting the competitors' equipment - very good cooperation from the military. They helped out with the preparation and set-up of HQ, and with the transportation of fuel.





This is the headquarters on the left.

The whole Ecochallenge race is governed from this office.

The map in the background contains the position of all the checkpoints at which the competitors have to go through.




Both of the above photos are aerial shots of HQ and were taken from a helicopter.


I managed to get a nice aerial shot of Silam HQ. The big white patch in the middle is where the competitors stored all their equipment. Just to the left are the containers from where the race is controlled. The 4 'finger-like' white pads on the right are the heli-pads. The long rectangle to the left is the eating area, and just above it is the hospital.




Approaching DVFC in helicopter.

This is actually a research centre in the middle of the jungle - commonly known as DVFC (Danum Valley Field Centre).

DVFC is not normally accessible the tourists and the general public, only to researchers.

DVFC is concerned about contamination into the jungle.



Outside Jungle Ops HQ.

The green boxes contain bottled drinking water.

By the time the race was over, most of this had been consumed - quite amazing really, considering there were really only 10 people at Jungle Ops.

During the competitors were not allowed any help from us, and that included the provision of drinking water.




Paul with some of the radio equipment at Silam.

He is standing next to the HQ matrix, which contained all the communications equipment for headquarters.

Paul is also standing next to the only 2 beds in the HQ building. These were used by the radio operators to nap in between shifts.


Below, you see me sitting in the catering tent at Silam.

I think it must have been a good day, to have been sitting there, smiling... I am just guessing here, because obviously I did not take the photo, and I cannot remerber the place.





Bad hair day?

I did not have a shower for a very long time, and to hold my hair in place, I adopted various techniques, such as the sunglasses-hairband...

This place is a breathing ground for tropical diseases!

As you can see, my right eye is really red. I somehow managed to get conjunctivitis and did not know it was contagious. I did not want to trouble the medics as they were pretty tied up with the competitors. When my vision on the left eye was getting blurry and I had problems seeing what was in front of me, I was ordered to get it checked. Just as well I did!

In Kota Kinabalu, I had the same problem on the other eye... at one point both my eyes were infected. It started on my left eye on the way to Kota Kinabalu in the plane ! It then spread to my right eye. The nurse at Silam told me that I should be careful because it could re-infect to my left eye. It started to look and feel a lot better after using the eyedrops that they gave me.

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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

Preparations at the Magellan Hotel
( Kota Kinabalu ) . . .


All the Ecochallenge teams gathered together at the Magellan Hotel in anticipation of the race, which was due to start on 20th August.

During our stay at Kota Kinabalu, we were staying at the most extravagant hotel - as pictured on the right. It is huge! It has 3 swimming pools, and takes us an hour to walk around the perimeter.

The radio communications team had to arrive a few days before the start of the race because we had to hand out over 2,000 pieces of radio equipment. We had problems getting the necessary approvals for helicopters so I ended up having to hand out most of the equipment whilst Glen and Paul sorted out the issue of the helicopters. We had to get all the equipment and our team to Silam before the the race started.



Glen and Paul checking all the equipment and re-programming some of the radios.



Behind me are all the radio equipment, ready to be handed out. I am standing here waiting for the competitors to arrive as I have to sign out the equipment as I give them out.

We had to improvise a lot of the furniture, using old crates to set up tables.





After the race, Glen and I decided to make most of the luxury and just veg... aaahhh... bliss!














Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

Ecochallenge in 2000 was held on the east coast of Borneo, in the jungles of Sabah. It was an extreme race where the competitors taking part have to endure 10 days of running through the jungles; kayaking and swimming many kilometres offshore; and mountain-biking for 150km on dirt roads. All in all, the fastest competitors travelled 600km in a space of just over 5 days!

I had the privilege of being there, being the developer of software that was used by the radio communications team. I also helped out with the setting up of all equipment and made many trips to the repeater stations.

Being in the jungles of Sabah, let alone part of the Ecochallenge preparations, has proved to be a challenge and an experience worth remembering, and hope to be part of any future Ecochallenge events.

As shown in the map, the red trails are where most of the competitors either ran or walked. The purple trail was the kayaking/canoeing leg. The orange trail was the mountain-bike leg and the blue trail was where the competitors had to swim with all their equipment.

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Created: 7 Dec 2001

On this particular Saturday, I drove to Terrigal to see the Mexican Chilli Festival... it was excellent. I shot two rolls of film up there. Some of these pictures have turned out beautifully!

A couple of my Mexican friends were doing the entertainment there. Victor is very good at playing the mexican harp. His wife, Shiraz, is an excellent dancer.

I took a series of shots in colour and a series in black & white. I shall first show you the ones in colour and then in b&w, as the b&w ones are very artistic!







Victor plays the harp like a dream!

I was once at Lance's place - Lance was helping Victor record his music onto CD. The harp does not look like your ordinary orchestral harp. It was ornate and somehow different. It is was a very beautiful instrument.









As you can see, these women are gorgeous! Something about silk stockings, I think...

Shiraz is the photo in the middle. She did quite a few numbers, and this was one of them. All 3 girls danced in a colourful combination!









Here you see Shiraz dancing in a duet.

I have seen her do this dance at a similiar concert May last year, here in Lindfield. Victor and a couple of guitarists provided accompaniment to the dancing. Shiraz moved so fast that at times, all you could see was this colourful wave of skirts.

Her partner's costume reminded me of the costumes the Spanish toledos wore (except without the cape).









As you can see, Shiraz danced a number of dances that day.

It takes a lot of energy to do those dances!

My gallery of black & white photos of the Chilli Festival!

Whilst we were in Morocco, our whole family went riding on donkeys.

That included my grandparents! They needed a bit of support to keep their balance, but otherwise they were doing all right.

You can see my grandmother, my brother Claus and my mother in succession behind by grandfather.





Here is my father! Do you not think that he looks so much like his brother in one of the photos on the 80th birthday page?






Here is my brother on the donkey. It is quite amazing how much these small animals can carry.





My mum on her donkey. Not quite as elegant (maybe relaxing a bit would have helped) as the rest of the family, but at least she didn’t fall off!

This is one of the few pictures I have of her where she is not smoking! (oh, and the other one at my grandmother's 80th, of course! It was a very nice picture of her smiling!



Finally, someone got a photo of me on my donkey!

Our main reason for the trip to Morocco, was to come together as a family and attend my grandmother's 80th birthday. We also managed to explore Morocco, and even had a fun day riding donkeys - yes, the whole family - my grandparents, parents and brother!

We met different people and there were some really beautiful women in this country. There were some interesting buildings and we even found some strange goats!

The Women of Morocco . . .







People in the city tend to be more extremist/fundamentalist when it comes to religion, then those who come from the country areas.

One reason could be that the people living in the cities are mainly Arabic, and those living in the countryside are Berbers.

Berber women are less dressed up than in the cities.

Some of them are extremely beautiful.

Also, I noticed that those in the city tend to be more self-conscious of photos being taken than those in the country.People are naturally a bit shy, but by showing friendliness, it a makes it a lot easier to take good photos.

Hmmm... Do you know that I was actually offered to buy this girl on the right for two camels? I do not know why they wanted to get rid of her. Maybe she was making too much trouble in the village?

Anyway…I refused the offer.






The girls decorate themselves with what is called henna. It is a dye that stains there hands for a long time. They paint different patterns onto their hands and it actually looks very pretty. Much nicer than tattoos - which are permanent!





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Goats . . .



We came across a couple of trees full of goats. They were climbing around the tree to reach all the green leaves. Our first though was that someone put them there, but they were too much out of reach for that idea.

Last night Kim and I went to the Ronan Keating concert in State Theatre in Sydney.



Kim is a long time fan of Ronan and really wanted to see him live. I am to be honest not really familiar with his music but had a good evening nonetheless.

The warming up band was Sharon Corr (from The Corrs) and I really enjoyed her both playing and singing...she is pretty talented on the violin.

Chong brought his Tinny (Australian slang for boat) to Tomakin and every morning the guys went out fishing for a few hours (I only went out one morning because 1. I had to look after Aiden and 2. I am not a morning person).





We caught lots of fish, but none of them were worth keeping as they were too small.



Just as well we didn't keep any, because on one of the days the fishing inspection gave us a visit.




In fact the only thing we caught that was above the size limit was this blue swimmer crab (and he was allowed to live another day).




We also had a visit from two massive sting rays (about 1 meter in diameter).

The house we stayed at had a table tennis table in the garage. We had enough people to form three double teams and we spent quite a few hours playing each other.





Kims dad is 78 years old and is still going strong...he loves playing games.

On the last couple of evenings we went to the beach to do some nice sunset photos. Tomaking is very onique in that it has some beaches that are facing west so you can use the nice light in the evening.

We did some family photos (some of which are on the previous blog post) as well as some of just Kim, Aiden and I. Kim still looks as beautiful as the day I met her.











I also did a rush job taking some long exposure shots of the ocean and the cliffs (not sure if I like the post processing...may have to come back to it some other day).

This years christmas family trip went to Tomakin on the NSW south coast (about 5 hours drive south of Sydney).



We rented a house with four bedrooms (for 9 adults and 5 kids) very close to the beach and fishing in the river. Fun with this large a group of people.





As usual we spent some time at the beach and I was showing Aiden how to build sand castles again.



He is still not walking so we had to hold his hands walking on the beach and in the water.





Right next to the house there was a nice litte organic coffee shop serving really good coffee and scones.



One morning we went to Mogo to have a look at the shops. There was a lot of art and crafts shop that Kim was interested in. The town had very conveniently created facilities for husbands as well.

Christmas day we spent at Bondi Beach with Sacha and Mavis and their daughter. We met up at the kids pool at the end of the beach to let our kids have a splash in the water.



Aiden couldn't get enough of walking around in the water with myself and Kim holding his hands (he still can't walk by himself), he is very fond of water.



Sammi, Sacha and Mavis' daughter was wearing a flotation suit which was causing her a few problems as this photo series testifies.

Christmas Eve this year was celebrated with Kims family. Normally we do this on the 25th like all other Australians, but this year we decided to do it the day before like in Denmark to avoid a lot of leftover food before going down south on out family trip to Tomakin.



Later in the day Santa Claus arrived to hand out presents for the kids.



For the lunch I roasted two ducks and Kim baked a chocolate ganache and made a salad.





Aiden was very excited and played with all Ethand and Kaylas toys.

Christmas is now approaching and to keep up traditions I have created some family photos as well as some photos of Aiden.

Recently Dao's husband moved to Australia to join her. One of the visa requirements are that they must enter a legally binding marriage (The marriage from Vietnam is not recognised here) for him to stay here, so today we went to the registry office to have them married.

On the weekend we went with the family to Darling Harbour where they have a big water playground.

This gave Aiden a chance to play in the water...which he loves.







I also took a couple of photos of Aiden with grandad and auntie.

I realised that I hadn't posted anything from Aidens birthday.

On the weekend we had a bowling birthday party with all the kids (and mum and dad) dressed up as super heroes.

















We also had a family dinner where we celebrated both his, Kayla's and Adams (his cousins) birthdays.

Although we have had a beautiful winter with lots of sunny days and mild daytime temperatures, we have also had some cold mornings.



One morning the car had frost on it and it was only 5 degrees outside (most winter mornings it is 8-10 degrees with 18-22 degree daytime temps).

Last weekend Aiden graduated in his swim class from being a Crab to being a turtle.



He's been in the swim class for a couple of years now and never graduated. He would swim fine with me, but would cry and be scared with the swim teacher.

After our trip to Thailand in June he gained a lot of confidence and was very happy to swim by himself, but the swim teacher was too careful so he was unable to show what a good swimmer he really is. So, last weekend I asked the swim teacher to let him swim with the result that she by the end of the lesson graduated him and moved him to the next class.

He was so proud (and so was his dad).

In the spirit of trying to keep the boys active Kim and I took them of a coastal walk from Coogee to Clovelly on a beautiful winters day.



The water in the little bays were calm and clear.






Half way we sat down and had a snack.



Kim braved it with the aerial yoga.



And the boys were being themselves...best mates.






















They loved being outside and they managed to walk the whole way (bribed by ice cream) even though Lucas on the last stretch was asking to be picked up.

This Sunday we took the boys to Thirlmere trainworks. This is a large train museum with lots of old steam trains.

Here we learned that steam trains in NSW were running up until 1973 which means that we were born in the era of steam trains...makes me feel really old.



We went for a ride on one of the old steam trains (I think I was more excited than the kids).
























As usual Aiden and Lucas were monkeying around being best mates. This is a bus on rails.






This is an instruction carriage used to teach how to operate the brakes on a steam train.

On the day we were flying out it was Kims birthday.

I had arranged a cake for her in the morning ordered through one of the local cafes a couple of days earlier.





The hotel provided a fairly average cream and jam pile that no one ate.

To celebrate Kims birthday she organised for the family to go and see a show called Siam Niramit.

This show was about a 45 minutes drive from the hotel but transport was as usual included (as it is in pretty much all activities you organise).





Unfortunately Kims dad couldn't join us as he had been severely dehydrated from not drinking enough water and wearing too many clothes in the heat.

We were greeted at the show by actors in their beautiful costumes.









We then proceeded into the venue where we had a large buffet style dinner. KC organised for the staff to come and sign birthday song for Kim.







After dinner there were some pre-show activities such as kick boxing, tug of war with elephants as well as an elephant parade. More actors were dressed in their costumes.

































After this was the show. The staging and props were absolutely amazing. Everything was big, and very well made. They even had a small river flowing through the stage in which actors rowed their canoos and swam in. They also had a massive monsoon rainfall in one of the acts.

The various acts despicted important historical chapters of the Thai history and mythology.

The had fabled creatures and real elephants, water buffaloes as part of the acting. Actors went flying across the stage with more that 100 actors as part of the show.

Below are some of the photos I could find to 'borrow' as I didn't take any photos during the show itself (not allowed).

 

One evening I went to see Thai boxing or Muay Thai as it is called locally.

I asked the rest of the family if anyone wanted to join me, but they all said no (it is the national sport of Thailand).



I had been once before long time ago in Bangkok and wanted to experience it again.

I decided to pay the bit extra and get a VIP seat right next to the ring and that was definitely worth the extra money.

There were 8 fights that evening. The first fight was between two kids around 11 years old. Especially the kid in black shorts was very strong and was dominating the fight throughout.













The second fight was between two older teenagers. Again the kid in black was dominating the match.






The third fight was between to women, a Canadian and a Thai. The canadian girl looked very relaxed and was definitely ready to fight. The Thai girl had no chance against her and the match ended in knockout.

Before each fight they go through this unique dance ritual.









I was privileged to sit next to one of the judges who has happy to talk, so between each round I could ask him questions about the scoring system which is rather confusing.

The 4th match was between a French and a Thai. The foreigners are really dominating this sport now and the Thai's were generally struggling.

















As with all the fights wit foreigners this fight also ended in a knockout.



The 5th fight was back to two Thais fighting.





















One of the last fights was between a brazilian and a Thai. When walking into the ring you could tell that the brazil was very strong.




He started by kicking the Thai in the chest and then punched him in the face.

The fight lasted less than a minute before a knockout.








The last fight was more in the heavyweight class, again between a brazilian and a Thai.

This fight was full of power and again it ended up in knockout.





































After the fights I happened see the winners lining up out the back. I managed to get a photo with a couple of them.




...yeah, I look really convincing there.








This evening was definitely one of my highlights from the trip and if we were going back then I would probably go again. The atmosphere is amazing and if the fighters are good then the experience is phenomenal.

One morning Kim booked a trip out to some of the smaller islands of Phuket.

The trip was in a large speed boat and initially the family didn't want to go because they were worried about getting seasick, but eventually they changed their minds.



The boys loved the experience and were very proud wearing their life jackets.








On the island we could feed the fish from the beach.
















And there was time to play in the water for the boys (and a bit of snorkeling for me).



















It is also good to see that they are still using their long tail boats for traditional fishing.

After visiting the big Buddha we stopped to feed a baby elephant.

The kids were a little overwhelmed by its trunk, but fun nevertheless.

During Easter Kims Family had borrowed a house at Mackarel Beach, so we went up there the whole family, Kim and her three sisters, her brother in law, her dad and two nephews and one niece.

The only access to the beach is by boat from Palm beach one hours drive north of Sydney. There are no roads or shops on the beach. The ferry only leaves once an hour and only between 9am and 6pm. The beach is on the opposite side of Pittwater from Palm Beach and it has got a community of about 50 houses.




Most of the two days we were up there it rained, so we spend the time indoor eating, playing games and sleeping. The TV and VCR was out of order and the place didn't have a DVD player. At least it did have a CD player so we could listen to music.

We cooked dinner on the BBQ and the Kookaburras came to get fed. They were really tame, so you could touch them which is exceptionally rare.

I was on breakfast duty both days, so the first morning I made Bacon and Eggs for everyone and the second day I made pancakes. Sometimes it was a little stressful with that many people in the kitchen while trying to make breakfast, but it went alright! I am coming from a fairly small family,so I am not used to have that many people around.


Easter Monday Kim and I played golf at Mona Vale golf course which is one of my favourite courses to play on.



It is right next to the coast and the course is normally in a great condition. Even though the course is long it is not that difficult.

I was playing pretty average on the first nine holes but improved my game significantly on the second nine and managed to play a number of the holes at par. On one of the holes a Currawong (big black bird) flew down and stole Kims golf ball. I had to chase after the bird for 200 meters until it eventually landed in a tree and then dropped the ball.

This weekend we rented a house at Lake Macquarie in a place called Overnight Reflections at Fishing Point near Newcastle.


The place is an easy 1.5 hours drive north of Sydney assuming that there is light traffic.

It was a fantastic and very relaxing weekend. The house was right at the water, so we could hear the water and see the full moon (almost) reflect in the water at night.



Saturday afternoon we went playing golf at Toronto Golf and Country club. This was quite an experience. The course itself is nice enough although it needs some maintenance (especially the bumpy greens)...but some of the people playing there should not be allowed onto a golf course.

One of the players stole Kims golf ball and on several occasions started bashing up his own golf bag while shouting Fu...k!!! Fu...k!!! Fu...k!!! Obviously it wasn't a great idea confronting him regarding the ball. We were planning to complain to some of the members of the club...but there was no-one else around and eventually we lost track of the guy (fortunately...because he was quite scary).

In the evening we went to a very expensive restaurant (even by Sydney standards) at Warners Bay...it was ok, but not a place I'd recommend. Kim and I wanted a bit of a special night out to celebrate and this seemed to be the best we could find outside of Newcastle itself. From living in the Newcastle area years ago I know that it is hard to find a decent restaurant up there...most people regard fish'n'chips as a romantic night out!


Anyway...the place we stayed at was very nice although it troubled the owner of the place that we didn't want to have breakfast until after 10.30 in the morning...what IS WRONG with these Sydney people!!! Kim and I enjoyed catching up on some sleep and just relax without having to rush around for set meal times, be a tourist etc.


Especially Sunday troubled her at we didn't want to check out until 2pm because we wanted a snooze. She even sent down her grandchildren to make a bit of noise to wake us up.


Anyway...it was actually quite amusing and Kim and I didn't mind, the woman running the place was actually quite sweet....and $300 for the two nights in a lake front cottage was good value. It is definitely a place I'd go back to.

This Saturday Kim and I went to Hunter Valley with a couple of her Colleagues from Epicor. They had one of her colleagues visiting from the US office.

I was invited along as Joanne was the driver and kim doesn't drink, so I was the only person who could drink with the visitor (I didn't mind :-) ).

Normally I go for all the red wines, but I decided on this trip to dry some of the white wines, especially try and find a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio...which I eventually did at the Bimbadgen Vineyard.

Kim also bought a couple of really nice desert wines that I'm sure I will be allowed to share.

Saturday Kim and I want to see La Traviata in Sydney Operahouse.

For Christmas I got a couple of tickets for the opera from Kim. It was an opera I hadn't see before and the stage setup was really good and the performance was excellent. Kim had gotten us really good seats...we had front row seats in the dress circle upstairs.

During the performance they were broadcasting the show to the steps in front of the operahouse as well as to one of the parks in Melbourne. They wanted to show what Opera is like to a wider audience.


Afterwards we had dinner at Circular Quay close to the Opera House.





Sunday we drove down to Catherine Fields to Camden Lakeside Country Club to play a round of golf. Sasha and one of his friends dad visiting from Canada also came along.

It was really hot, so for the first time I was actually glad that we were driving a kart rather than walking the course. The guy from Canada was almost dead by the time we got back to the club house.

I played a really good round (43 points stableford, HCP 13) and Kim played almost at her handicap.

It is obvious that there is a drought on. Most of the lakes were dried out, I was looking for a photo online to post here, but the course is totally unrecognisable because of the missing lakes.

This year Kim met her targets at work. This meant the she got invited to Hawaii (with a partner...me) as part of the Chairmans club.

We got back two weeks ago and had a fantastic trip. The first few days we spent in Honolulu at Waikiki Beach...we got to see all of Oahu, went snorkeling and Kim went shopping. One night we all went to a shooting range in Honolulu.


After this we went to Kauai where we were staying at a big resort. Here we went snorkeling, sailing and played golf.

There was parties every night and we also managed to find a bit of time to ourselves.






See the rest of the photos from our trip here: Hawai Photos/Slideshow

In Mid 2006 I went to a work meeting in Krabi in Thailand.

This happens to be a few kilometers away from one of the best rock climbing destinations in the world. So, after the meeting I took a few days off to go rock climbing.

Kim happened to be travelling in the Northern part of Thailand with some friends who had to leave on the same day my meeting ended. Kim flew down to Krabi where I picked her up at the airport.

Unfortunately it was rainy season, so most of the time in Railay it was raining, but we did manage to get one day of climbing done and the rest of the time we spend in the restaurants and playing cards.


Click here to see more photos from: Thailand/Slideshow

I have now started adding photos from 2005. For this I have created a new blog just for 2005, the plan is that I will add blogs for the remaining years as well.

Click here to see what happened in 2005

I have now added photos from 2004. The highlights from this year was a trip to the United States and Canada as well as a family trip to Egypt. This was also the year that Australia entered the war in Iraq, so there are a couple of photos from the anti war demonstrations.

Click here to read about 2004

In Mid 2006 I was in Portugal for our International Partner Conference with the company.

It was a week of being busy setting up for the conference, socialising but also a lot of fun and partying.


Click here to see more photos from:Portugal/Slideshow

I quite regularly head up to the Blue Mountains to go Rock Climbing.

We normally camp overnight and then depending on the weather and temperature decide on the day what walls we are going climbing on. The photos in the gallery are a selection of some of the photos I've taken in 2006, but there will be more to come in 2007.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of photos of me climbing as I tend to forget to pass my camera to someone else.

Most of the time I go with my friend Sarah, but she has now moved to Canberra so she doesn't come up there as often as she used to.


Click here to see more photos from: Climbing in the Blue Mountains/Slideshow