The Movie - Part 3

This is the third and final instalment of our trip - four and a half months in Africa. The video is embedded below (it's from facebook, but you don't have to be a member watch it). To switch to full screen, hit the white square in the bottom right, after you've hit play.




If the facebook version fails, use the lower quality video below.



Part 2 is below, and part 1 is here

The Movie - Part 2

This is part 2 of our movie covering the 16 weeks spent in New Zealand and Australia. The video is embedded below (it's from facebook, but you don't have to be a member watch it). To switch to full screen, hit the white square in the bottom right, after you've hit play.



If that fails, a lower quality version is embedded below.



Part 1 of the movie can be found here, and part 3 will be posted as soon as Kirsten makes it.

The SS Yongala

The SS Yoangala, along with its 122 passengers and crew, sank without trace in a cyclone around the 23rd March 1911 on its way from Birsbane to Townsville. It lay on its starboard side in 30m of water on the sandy bottom, undisturbed until its discovery by divers in 1958 (it was picked up on the sonar of a US navy minesweeper in 1943 and marked down as a reef).















Over the 98 years since its sinking it has become an almost ideal artificial reef – being the only reef structure in the immediate area, it has become home to a huge range of marine life, from schools of small colourful fish, to turtles and sharks.















Cyclone Hamish had blown through, but another tropical low was forming, and the sea was choppy – the boats weren't leaving from Townsville due to the swell. Our dive boat was a large inflatable (10 divers) which launched from the beach. After we'd cleared the breakers (which took some time), the skipper opened up the twin engines and things really got bumpy.















Only one bloke actually threw up on the 30 minute theme park ride out to the dive site (although a few others looked like they'd join him soon enough). Kitting up in a 2 metre swell was no fun at all, so it was a relief to get into the water and down the mooring line.















At 16m you reach the top of the wreak (at this depth it's all calm) and it becomes clear why this is such a highly rated site. The destiny and diversity of the marine life is incredible, and even though the crappy weather meant the light was poor, I can imagine that on a sunny day the display of colours will match any of the natural reefs.















The surface interval was one of the more unpleasant hours I've spent – the bloke from the way out spent the time with his head in a bucket, while one of the dive masters threw up over the back. Back in the water, we saw turtles and a nurse shark, while the other group spotted a Bull Shark :-(















The return trip was comedy of errors as the skipper managed to beach the boat near the shore, and the ten of us ended up waist deep in the water trying to heave-ho the boat over a sand bank.

The Movie - Part 1

Kirsten spent ages cutting together this video of the first six months of our travels. Enjoy! Note: If this doesn't work, use the lower quality version embedded below.

Diving Video

As we've become complete scuba junkies (45 dives in two months), we've put together a short dive video. The footage was taken over three days in Palau and Sipadan. Enjoy.

The video is on YouTube here, unfortunately they've removed the audio track (Porpoise Song by the Monkees), but the small embedded video below still has it.