We’re off (the four of us)

Yay! Holiday!
Emma, Yrjan and I are off to West Australia. It’s a 5 and a half hour flight west and then a 25 hour drive north to get to where we want to go... yes Australia is big!
The four of us are going to be swimming with the Whale Sharks in Exmouth. The four of us? I hear you say? Who’s the fourth one? Well, Emmanuelle is pregnant with our first son! Woohooo! If we count back he’s made in New Zealand. As far as we can tell he will leave the mother-ship in the first week of September. We do not yet know what we’ll call this new and improved version of the Emma-Bas alliance but we know it’s a little rippa. He kicks mum so hard she wakes up.

Only in Queensland!

This week we are experiencing what the Aussies call a 'Major Rain event'. Which basically means it's raining for 3 days on end. To give you an idea of how much rain fell: The dams here grew by a good 10% which gives us about a year and a half worth of water.
Only in Queensland will you have Hail storms that'll do more damage to your car then driving it off a cliff, and only in Queensland can you have a 20.000 litre water tank in the back garden and fill it up in a single night.Only in Queensland can you have a 10 year draught and catch up in a single week!

Da Sista

My sister made it to Australia! Yay!
We made her tourist proof within 1 hour of her arrival. Explained the city, gave her the keys, a public transport pass, a local mobile phone, internet access and. Ready to go!
We went to Moreton Island and to Byron bay. We fished with hand lines and caught a dozen fish. Nice weekend.

Lady Musgrave

Lady Musgrave is a small Island on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. We took the boat there for a short break.

Sailing

The Easter whether isn't too great. Torrential rains hit the inner lands of Queensland and some of it makes it to the coast. While sailing out we see the main land disappear in a gray mass of clouds. The island we're sailing to is impossible to see as well and our inexperienced captain is looking nervous. He keeps repeating he's never seen this before. Hmmm... not very reassuring.We anchor at one of the inhabited Keppel islands to go swimming, fishing and exploring.The Keppels are great. Not many people go there because the touristy Whitsundays are just a bit further up the coast, so they are basically forgotten islands.