CENTRAL COAST KAYAK - AVOCA LAGOON - 29 JULY 2015 - 'TRAIL BLAZING'

Sunrise at the ruins at Terrigal Beach. A mono bank but clean and glassy.



Off to Avoca lagoon for a kayak. The video shows a lot of trail blazing through the reeds and water bounded trees. Such a fun kayak! :)

It was a brilliant morning but so cold. I really need gloves with a grip as my hands were frozen. I had to stop every so often to warm them up.

The reflections in the water amazing especially in the cover of the trees. This area above is dry land when the water level of the lagoon is lower.

I played with the go pro camera on the photo setting. The photos were clear with that slight side bend that comes with the go pro. I also had to crop them to wide angle as I prefer looking at photos in that setting.

There were some birds around. The black swan above slowly paddled away from me as I approached. They are so graceful in the water.

 

The heron was roosting at the top of the tree on the edge of the lagoon. It let me approach very close before it decided I was close enough.

 

A great 2.4km kayak on Avoca Lagoon full to the brim with water on a very cold morning :)

 

 

CENTRAL COAST - WAMBERAL LAGOON - 28 JULY 2015

 

The mornings are icy cold at the moment but as the morning progresses the weather becomes warmer. Get out of the wind and it is mini summer... well almost :):):)

Kara and Miss Xena - scaly breasted lorikeet - enjoyed the mid morning view and sunshine.

CENTRAL COAST - WAMBERAL BEACH, NORTH AVOCA BEACH, KINCUMBA MOUNTAIN, TERRIGAL HAVEN - 27 JULY 2015

 A glorious day. first stop Wamberal Beach for a surf check. The surf not so good but the sunrise :)

 

Next stop, North Avoca. There was a random wave but not encouraging enough.

A short drive up to Kincumba mountain and a bike ride. A good, fun ride. The tracks were so dry.

Afternoon outing with Kara and Mr Archibald - dusky lorikeet - at TerrigaL Haven.

 

Great day :):):):)

 

INDONESIA - BALI - BALI BIRD PARK - JULY 2015

Arranged car 250 000R for bird park  return.

 

Arranged wheel chair for Kara 110 000R. 60 000R per day 50 000R for delivery and pick up.

 

The bird park was great. It is wheel chair friendly but still by the end of the day I had arm muscles like the Hulk.

The shows were great and very entertaining.

 

Kara and Chloe were so good at handling the large birds,l you would have thought they worked in the park. Kara's knowledge of birds was astounding too - an informative guide.

 

The birds were amazing. So colourful, so well looked after!

We all had a real good time :)

 

INDONESIA - BALI - SANUR - JULY 2015 - CYCLE, MOTORBIKE RELAX

We left Kuta and drove to Sanur to the Adi Putri Hotel.

Though I'd been to Sanur a number of times, this was my first time staying there.

Generally, we hung around the hotel, ate at different restaurants, had massages, facials (not me) and in addition I rode the motorbike and cycled around.

Quiet area not far from beach, lots of eats, massages nearby

Adi Putri Hotel

The hotel was nice. The entrance was wide and decorated with Balinese items and clocks.

The desk service was great. they helped with transport, directions and getting a wheel chair for Kara.

The food service personal were either pleasant or on the verge of rudeness. I tend to treat rudeness with indifference which probably aggravates them more.

The pool was nice with an enclosing hedge.

The beach

The beach near the hotel was down a street or lane and was long but short. swimming was best at high tide. There were lots of good eats along the beach and heaps of activity in the water.

 

Restaurants

The restaurants were good with a variety of food and most had music playing at night.
Beach but only awhile as Kara wasn't well. 40 000R for two chairs for the day.

 

Motorbike

Kara needed to be driven to various places by motorbike. The riding in Sanur was quiet and respectful.

A few times, I drove around on my own 'looking for a highway with adventure'. well it was a pleasant ride.



Cycle

I hired a bicycle and drove around the streets and along the beach in the early morning and afternoon. It was heaps of fun though I did wish I had my mountain bike as the hired bikes were too fragile for any rough stuff. Still, I had a good time pushing the bike beyond its intended use.

The end

On the final day, we did as much as we could while taking it easy.

Transport to the airport was 150 000R.

Departure tax was included in the ticket. We were flying business class so check in was quick as we had no long queues. Kara had a wheelchair waiting and the flight left on time.

Reflection Sanur

A laid back place. traffic light, paths on beach cool, beach ok, restaurants good and plenty, hotel great and quiet. Next time, see about windsurfing there.

INDONESIA - BALI - KUTA - JULY 2015

Nyoman and I left for Kuta from Balian at pick up at 2pm - 400 000R. We chatted along the way, mainly about his future aspirations.

I settled into Bali Sandy Resort and had a wander around the streets, beach and dinner.

I arranged a van for airport - pickup, wait, return - for 300 000R.

Meanwhile, the shuttle bus pick up the family and were on their way to the airport. the girls flew business class Jetstar Sydney to Bali 7:20 to 21:35. they loved the flight and the extra room. the plane arrived an hour late with the girls exiting at 11 pm.

 

Jacinta and I had an early walk down to the beach then breakfast and spent the day around pool.

I hired a motorbike @ 60 000R for 5 days = 300 000R as Kara needed transport to get to various venues because of chronic fatigue. It was fun and challenging to blend in with the Kuta traffic. Despite all the chaos people are very courteous.

Bali Sandy Resort

The rooms were nice, the pool nice, the gardens nice and the staff indifferent. On the first night the noise from bands kept me awake. this continued for the length of the stay. So I even though all was okay with the okay, I could never recommend it.

 

The food was very good and surprisingly it was the cheapest eat around the area.

Kuta

The beach - well, when I'm on my own it is pretty quiet but with the girls it was hawker heaven ... massage, bracelet, sarong, pineapple, etc. Still, we enjoyed the beach, the chairs, the sunset and the hawkers were entertaining.



Restaurants

We did a little shopping but outings were centred around food and different places to eat. We ate at ritzy looking places, warungs and bars to get a variety of experiences. The food was okay to good everywhere and their didn't seem to be a great difference in the price of meals.

 

I arranged transport  to Sanur and we checked out at12 noon.

Reflection Kuta

It was all good for an urban area - shops, food, amenities. Generally, I felt it was better at the northern end of Kuta as it was too noisy at noight at this end. We check out Hotel Lusa if we ever decide to stay in Kuta again.

INDONESIA - BALI - BALIAN - JULY 2015 - SURF AND VOLCANOES

Back to Balian from Pemuteran about 100 km or 4 hours. It was an interesting bike ride back with quiet country roads, friendly people and great views of the north then the west coast of Bali. At one point, I drove through a tree that the road passed through. It was my intention to exit the quiet roads near Balian but I actually exited at Medewi.

I settled back into my room and started the routine of eat, sleep, surf.

SURF

The waves were even better on return. A friend from home, Brett, came up for a few days and we had some fun surfs together. The waves over the next week were fun and over head height.

 

PEOPLE

Met lots of people - one or two were a bit strange. At breakfast one morning, there was an expat from Kuta there. to shorten the story, I could tell he didn't want to talk but we did unfortunately. I asked him was living in Kuta good. He asked me to define 'good'. This continue for a few minutes with question answered by a question. Finally, I just turned around and looked at  the view and all in the world was right again.

Lucas a teacher from SA

Jack the Canadian

Ben - did heaps of interesting things like protesting, engineer and worked at heaps of places in Oz and overseas.

Steve, Doug and ? - nice friendly guys.

 

OTHER

I had a haircut and hair wash at the local market area  - 50 000R - maybe a bit too short.
 

THE VOLCANO SAGA

Well this was on the news and I was there in the thick of it and the complications it caused.

Firstly, my family was coming over in a week and all the flights were cancelled for quite a number of days. people in Balian, were told they could rebook or wait for a flight. There were a lot of calls between me and home regarding back up plans.

Of course, a few days before there arrival I ran out of phone credit - no problems - but shops closed in village so had to wait a day. All is well! Nah! My phone died on the most crucial day so I had to go buy a new phone. All is well! Yah! My family's flight was running to schedule.

The day the flights stopped, I had never seen the air so clear in Bali. From Balian I could clearly see the Bukit and Java.

 

THE END

On my last day in Balian the surf was excellent and glassy (the best day yet). After two surfs, I was totally stuffed. I laid down on my balcony bench and relaxed peacefully with a cool tropical breeze wafting over me.

Nyoman arrived and we were on our way to Kuta and my family.

Reflection Balian

Always it is a different mental trip here. This time, I was very surf focused. I surfed two and sometimes three times a day in great waves. By the time I left, I was surf exhausted and relaxed. 
 
 
 
 

INDONESIA - BALI - MENJANGAN ISLAND - JULY 2015

I was sick from food poisoning two days ago and still not the best but decided to do the Menjangan Island snorkel.

I was picked up in a car at my hotel and then picked up four more people - two Italian girls from Milan who worked in Melbourne for a year and a French couple from Bordeaux living in Paris. 

 

We drove to the small boat port ( heaps of boats there). the road was good till the last section which was atrocious for some unknown reason. We boarded the boat and set off to the island. Along the way we picked up a family from Belgium who staying in resort at the exit of the bay. A nice place to stay.

 

The snorkel was a great. We drifted along with the current with good coral and fish. I had a swim to shore during the lunch break.  After lunch we drifted some more.

 

A massive school of large fish was the finality of the dive.

The cost was 550 000R but the others had paid 450 000R.