Waht was taht?

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt

A&A's Auzzy Adventure - Day 15

On Day 14 I'd managed to convince Ang that it would be a good idea to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier reef, so we had all of Day 15 planned for our trip. Waking up early and munching on a breakfast bar for much needed energy, we were picked up by a mini-bus and driven down to the beach. Once on the beach the group of 30 were taken 5 at a time in a little boat out to the main single hull diving boat.

The journey out to the reef took about 40 mins, and once we were there we all got kitted out in wet suits (2 for Ang as she was so COLD!!), and then put on our masks and snorkels. I jumped in straight away, having learnt to snorkel as a young boy in the Philippines, and got to work swimming around the coral. Ang wasn't far behind, with her buoyancy bar keeping her afloat!!

After an initial 1hr snorkel we came back on the boat for some fresh lunch, and then a 45 min history and science lesson for the reef (above). That was really good and we both learnt quite a lot.

After lunch the sun came out, and suddenly the colours of the coral and fish really came to life! The coral and fish were absolutely amazing - giant clams, sting rays, squid, parrot fish and my favourite the butterfly fish.... Just as we thought it couldn't get any better I noticed a sea turtle!!! I spent about 30 minutes following it around the coral reef, watching it swim and eat some coral!! What an experience...

Heading back to Australia we noticed that there were still clouds over the mainland - apparently they had had rain all day, while we were only a few miles off the coast in glorious sunshine!! Even with the clouds, it was still a sight to see the rainforest come right down to the white sandy beaches.

After going back to the Round House to get cleaned up and wash the salt water out of our hair, we headed back to the beach to play a bit of Frisbee.

Despite it being overcast - we still managed to see a decent sunset - with red clouds appearing over the top of the rainforest hills. After sitting and watching the sunlight disappear, we headed to the local YHA for a really nice meal.

Auzzy Adventure - The Roundhouse

I can't have pictures of my Australian holiday without having a whole section dedicated to the Rainforest Hideaway. It was certainly an experience to stay in a place that allowed us to get so close to nature.

Situated about 1km up the mountain away from the coast, the hand built, naturally made cottages were set back from the road. The site was very secluded, and you could really hear all the jungle birds and insects.

Ang had rung up a few days earlier to try and stay in one of the normaly cottages but they were all booked up. Instead, they offered us somthing called the Roundhouse, a special "room" that wasn't advertised on their website - the only way we could find out about it was to go to a special link.

Seeing the pictures on the internet, did not quite prepare us for how secluded we would be. The glorified tree house was approx 150m away from the other two cottages, and we had to walk through the dense forrest to get there.

Once up the stairs we were very impressed by the Roundhouse - it was immaculately created by hand by the guy who owned the resort. We really felt in the middle of the jungle.

There were no mosquito nets, or windows to close - instead the Roundhouse was open plan, with views across the jungle canopy.

We had basic cooking facilities and a few lights. Trouble was - if you kept the lights on after dark, it attracted all the local insects!! Needless to say, we weren't reading in bed with the torch!! We even had the occasional bat flying through the round house to catch one of those tasty moths.

Even when going to the toilet there was no escaping the fact that we were in the jungle - with giants leaves trying to invade the space. There were even green bottomed giant ants climbing along the "window" ledge!

The sleeping area was up a ladder to the 2nd floor of the roundhouse - up in the ceiling. Again, we had a window - but no way to shut out the insects - or the noise!! For the 2 nights we we stayed at the round house, Angela was absolutely petrified of the insects and slept with her socks pulled up over her jeans, and with a long sleeved jumper on.... in the tropics!!! She must have been so hot!

We had a great time at the Roundhouse - but it wasn't quite as relaxing as we'd expected. The noise at night was so LOUD!! All those insects trying to compete to see how noisy they could be! There was also the fear of spiders - we saw a giant on up in the roof, and there were webs everywhere - a little scary considering that 9 out of the 10 world's most poisenous spiders live in Australia!! I was especially scared of the Cassowary that was said to rome around the resort - 2 of them! - I didn't see one, but did see fresh droppings. Freaky birds!!

It was a great experience, but we were quite glad when we left for the comfort of our hotel in Cairns...

A&A's Auzzy Adventure - Day 14

Again we woke up in our little chalet in the mountain, but today we were going to head down the mountain, along the coast and up the dirt track to Cape Tribulation!! As we'd been on a plateau for the last few days, the only way to the coast was to head DOWN the mountain.

Again the road were windy, but the odd glimpse we got of the coast were quite stunning (above). Once we were down the mountain we drove along straight roads through sugar cane to a Mango farm where we stopped to sample some Mango wine!! Yummy. We even bought some for the family. The scenery, sugar cane, and roadside railtrack really reminded me of where I used to live in the Philippines when I was a little boy.

After the wine, we continued along the road to Mareeba where we turned off and went up the road to some river rapids (well they would be if it was raining!). Although the picture below doesn't show it, the whole area was full of tourists and day trippers! We even got stuck in a traffic jam on the way back to the main road!

Leaving Mareeba behind, we head up the road towards Daintree, where we had to cue for a hour to catch the ferry across the river to continue heading north along the "main road". Apparently up until 5 years ago, it was only passable by 4x4 - it had been much improved but still was quite twisty and windy - at least the road was covered in tarmac.

We were now well into the the tropical rainforest, and this time in the the Cape Tribulation National Park. The area is world famous for being the only place in the world where the tropical rainforest meets another world heritage site --- the Great Barrier Reef!!

Unfortunately, by this time the weather was starting to turn - what could we expect - for the last 2 weeks we had had glorious weather - it couldn't last for ever! Anyway - we continued along the coast until we finally arrived at Cape Tribulation - a really really really small village with 2 shops and a number of touristy hotels (hidden in the jungle). It really wasn't what we'd expected - but still rather groovy.

Again, we popped down to the beach to catch the last few glimpses of sunshine before we went to find the place we were staying - The Rainforest Hideaway.

Basically we stayed in a glorified tree house - with spiders, ants and bats enjoying the comfort too!! I won't go into too much here about the place we stayed - but I certainly enjoyed it!! Anyway - that night we cooked our own food (pasta with a sauce) and had some of the mango wine we'd bought earlier in the day.

Ang is Famous Again

Only a day after Ang's research was plastered over the general press (BBC & Independent), she has just noticed that another one of her papers was published.... in JULY!!! Here is the message from Ang:

I just got another paper published!!!!! It's in the clinical trials journal - I have a copy here with me. Have a look at the website;

HERE

woops - just realsed it was published in july. A bit of a late celebration then!!

A&A's Auzzy Adventure - Day 13

On Day 13 I decided that I wanted to travel to Undara National park, a 3 hour drive away. About 20 miles into our trip, the single lane each way "highway" suddenly turned into just a single lane!! The idea is that you fly down the road at about 60 mph, and when you see a lorry coming towards you, also at 60 mph, you both move across to the dirt track on either side, and then carry on as normal!! The skill of driving like this is to keep your speed up when you are on the dirt track as if it was tarmac!! Off road at 60mph!! Woo hooo!!

Having arrived at the Undara National Park I was terribly dissapointed to find out that the tour of the underground lava tubes (caves) was fully booked up for the day :( We soon recovered and decided that we would go for a trek in the Australian Bush instead - in the 30C temperatures.

Ang and I got a map and logged in at the tourist information (just incase we got lost and never returned), and then headed off up the mini-hills which we later found out were ex-volcanoes. From the top of the vantage points we could some of the old volcanic cones in the distance (above) and also some of the collapsed caves.

Although we weren't out for more than 3 hours - it was so tiring!! We'd run out of water by the time we'd got back to the carpark.

On the way back to our cottage, we stopped to take in the sights. The picture above shows one of the thousands of giant turmite mounds that we saw. They were just everywhere!

The picture below, is bizarely, one of my favourite photos from the trip. I am not sure why - it just is. Anyway, it is a bunch of cows on a windfarm.

We also stopped at a scenic viewpoint where we were able to see the amazing rolling hills and mountains in the distance. This picture really doesn't capture the scene - the light was amazing as the shadows were cast in the rolling mounds.

Just before we got back to our cottage, Ang suggested that we attempted a waterfall tour that would normally take half a day - in 45 mins!! The sun was starting to set, so we didn't have much time and raced from fall to fall.

The waterfall above was my favourite - but it was a shame that I didn't catch it in the sun. Same with the photo below, it would have been nice to see this in some sunlight. It was still great that we managed to see all 3 waterfalls - and well worth the 45 min race!

This was the last pic of the day - a lovely sunset spoilt by an electricity pylon!! Oh well, can't have everything!! It was a very busy day - but thoroughly enjoyable :)

As always - this is just a summary of the day - I will be putting up more pictures and more details in the future on my main website. Check back here for more details in the future.

Ang is Famous!!

Recently Ang has been helping out with research on SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and has had an academic paper accepted in the New England Journal of Medicine. She co-wrote the paper with Prof. Smith, a gynaecologist at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge and the general news agencies have just picked up on the story.

Ang first spotted the story in the Independent newspaper this morning, but I have also seen an article on the BBC online news web site. Ang is very excited that her work has helped to generate so much attention!! We'll see if its on the TV news tonight!!