Another beautiful sunrise here in Oz :)

Lake Morris Hike

G'day everyone :)

I went for a bushwalk on Sunday up around Lake Morris with my friends Megan, Jeff and Ben. Ben is also a patient and I had the distinct pleasure of removing a wart from his butt on fine tropical afternon ;) It was a good hike... a little more difficult than the "moderate"rating in the trail guide - but we did get to see a few Strangling Fig trees (bottom pic) that grow around other trees for support until they're strong enough to stand on their own... then, they kill the host tree by choking it to death. Ouch!

We were planning on comng back another time to paddle the lake, but alas it's not allowed since a reservoir for drinking water. Oh well... on to other places.

I hope all is well and I'll post more soon. Miss you all :)

Cheers, Matt

Lake Morris Pics

A view from my beach

G'day to everyone :)

"Life is good, life is fine, life is truly as good as it can be..." (Albert Finney: Scrooge)

I thought I'd post a couple more pics of Trinity Beach - just a moments walk from my apartment. It's a bit ironic that I was a camp counselor at Trinity House Camp there in Atkinson down by the river and now here I am, back at Trinity again... the circle of life, ay :)

The first pic is looking to the north at Double Island (the one Jeff and I tried to paddle to a couple of weeks ago) and the other is to the south. The reason there's so many folks on the beach this time of year is because it's cold as heck down south and they come up north to enjoy the winter sunshine.

I hope all is well with you and yours. Cheers, Matt

A view from my beach pics

Just a coupla bad pics :)

Here's Jeff and I about to set out on kyaks for Double Island. After we launched, we managed to to get our way about 500 yards out before the wind began to pic up and spilled us from our boats one at a time. Getting back to paddle position on a sit-on-top is pretty easy when there's ground to stand on, but it took us a bit of effort to do it without a thing to stand on in the Coral Sea... so with the sea picking up, we decided to head in and had a ball doing so. Like I've said before, everything always looks amazing from the water.

It was only 4 days later when I was told the trawlers settle in the calmer waters off Double Island to clean their catch and the tiger sharks come around to feed on their discards. Next time we try to paddle out to find the cave, we'll be sure there's no trawlers around :)

I wish you all the best... Cheers, Matt :)

Coral Sea Paddle Pics

Carnival Day in Cairns

G'day to all my friends and family :)

I went into Cairns today with my friends Jeff and Megan (the 3rd pic) to visit one of the carnivals that is part of The Cairns Festival. It was a lot like an extravegant flea market with live bands, food and fun. It was near the Botanical Gardens so we took a small board walk through the rainforest to wind thing s up before going to see The Bourne Ultimatum - an awsome action packed film I highly recommend.

Everything is going great over here. Work is a ball, as usual; but one of our doctors and our finest nurse are leaving soon to chase other career goals and once the ocean settles down enough, Jeff and I will be paddling out to Double Island in search of a cave that's rumored to be on the other side. I'm also told we'll see a lot of marine life; including green sea turtles... Yay!!

I hope all is well with you and yours.

Cheers, Matt :)

Some Carnival pics