nicolaoutdoors

Solomon Islands Diving from nicolaoutdoors on Vimeo.

UNDERWATER GALLERY

ABOVE WATER GALLERY

Right now, I’m suffering a bit of reverse culture shock after returning from the Solomon Islands. It’s pretty hard to integrate back into the city with the cars, people and the general pace of life and I’ve had many ‘what am I doing here?’ moments …

We stayed on the island of Uepi, a barrier island of the Mavoro Lagoon in the Western Provinces. The Mavoro Lagoon is reputedly the largest saltwater lagoon in the world. It’s a double barrier–enclosed lagoon, bordered by the volcanic New Georgia and Vangunu Islands on one side and a double line of long barrier islands, of which Uepi is one, on the other. The lagoon contains hundreds of tiny islands all covered by coconut palms and rainforest and fringed with mangroves or coral reef. Most of the islands’ villages are dotted along the coast of New Georgia, with Seghe being the main settlement and location of the airstrip (a mown strip of grassy land on which chickens roam).

Mavoro Lagoon

Uepi is uninhabited except for Uepi Island Diving. On one side is the lagoon, where baby sharks cruise the shallows, chasing large schools of juvenile fish and sea cucumbers and mantis shrimps bury in the sand. On the seaward side is a deep marine abyss, “The Slot”, reaching  the oceanic depths of 6000ft/2000m. The lagoon and The Slot are linked by a passage between Uepi and the Chrapoana Island. The passage is deeper than most other entrances to the lagoon and large quantities sharks and pelagic fish can be seen riding the current.

Cabin on Uepi

A typical day at Uepi might start with a pre-breakfast swim with manta rays, who regularly visit a cleaning station in the lagoon. After breakfast you might swim alongside a coral-covered wall that drops away to the oceanic abyss and cruise along with hammerheads and eagle rays. Afternoon might be a dive into the passage where you’ll almost have to part the fish to see the water and grey whaler sharks are never out of view. We also dived a World War II plane wreck, a tuna boat wreck (My camera wouldn’t work on this spectacular dive but there is a great shot HERE), a sinkhole with a tunnel through to the sea, sea caves and caverns, swimthroughs and endless vertical walls as well as the beautiful Penguin Reef, which is reputedly used as an example of pristine reef by the BBC film unit.

grey whaler

We took a huge number of photographs and video…. It’s hard to choose a few that capture the beauty either above or below the surface. Highlights were pygmy seahorses (even smaller than I expected!), nudibranchs, manta rays, heaps and heaps of sharks, crocodile fish, basket stars …

Clown anemone fish

Nicola at Lake Mountain

After years of snowboarding, I first tried skiing at Lake Mountain about a year ago. It was very gratifying to be able to woosh around the whole place a year later :) The snow gums are shooting well since the 2009 bushfires, but the bare branches make it feel as if you are somewhere in the Northern hemisphere instead of Australia.  Other tree species growing further down the valley and around Marysville are sprouting fast and the town finally seems green again. When we got home we looked at Google Earth to measure how far we had skied (about 17km). The images are from 2003 and it was eerie to see the township and giant trees where now there are mostly building sites. But building sites are better than abandoned lots.

Burned snow gums, sprouting from the base

I have new skis, which is very exciting after being a slightly disappointed snowboarder for the last few years.  Last year I decided enough was enough and I’d have to learn to ski in order to get more snow days in. This year I purchased a backcountry nordic setup, which makes it much easier to get out in the hills closer to Melbourne and possible to have fun even when conditions are less than wonderful, which is great for extending the season.

The first snowfall of the season is definitely one of those marginal days… although it was much, much better out there that the snow report had had me believe…

We drove up to Mt St Gwinear and then after a short walk to better snow cover skied up to the Mt St Gwinear summit and then onto the Australian Alps Track up to Mt. Phillack and down towards the Baw Baw Alpine Resort.

Mt St Gwinear

Snow Gums

King Parrot Cottages and Retreat, Pennyroyal, VIC

Over Easter, we spent four nights at the idyllic King Parrot Cottages at Pennyroyal, in the Otways. Apart from lounging in or hot tub, out on the deck of or gorgeous little cottage,  we …

• Rode our bikes on the trails at Forrest

• Rode the Old Beechy Rail Trail

• Walked through the forests to see waterfalls and rivers

• Played in the surf at Lorne

• Caught yabbys in the dam and cooked ‘em up for supper

• Fed an alpaca.. or tried to (apparently they don’t like capsicums)

• Scrumped apples

• Drank lots of wine

• Had interesting conversations about growing ginseng

I can’t describe how good it all was :)

Yabbies

Tortoise Head Lodge, French Island

Sometime in mid-summer, sick of days too hot to climb and even too hot to go to the beach, we decided to take our bikes on the ferry across to French Island. We planned to cycle around the island and stay at Tortoise Head Lodge, which is only a few hundred metres from where the ferry docks. The location is idyllic – the beaches are deserted and this quiet, together with the fact that mangroves still exist, lend the impression that you are days from the city, rather than an hours drive and a ten minute ferry ride.

We didn’t manage to ride around the island as the roads are really bad (deep – 10-15cm – corrugations interspaced with sand) but we rode far enough to find new views. There were also narrow, flowing paths though the trees behind the sand  that were fun to ride.

Tortoise Head Lodge was pretty fun too  – much more of a homestay than a hotel. But good food and heaps of local knowledge.

By the time we came home, it felt like we’d been away for a week, which is as much as you can ask of a weekend!

Riding the trails on French Island

Finally, we saw it!

Tassled Angler-Fish, Blairgowrie, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria

View from Mt Pegasus, Western Arthurs (click for more)

The Western Arthurs are like this:

You drive to Scott’s Peak Dam. You walk over several low ridges of beautiful temperate rainforest interspersed by rocky plains until you are low enough to reach the endless boggy marsh. You then squelch across semi-solid ground until every supposedly waterproof seam and your spirit have virtually given out. At this point you reach a moraine and ascend a vertical kilometre.

The following days you will work your way along the range making increasingly sketchy and increasingly improbable ascents and descents with which you link breathtaking summits to steep saddles and impossibly beautiful lakes. At some point the weather, your nerve or your food supplies will most likely determine that it is time to find a moraine to descend. You then cross back over the endless bog (which now is at least three times more endless) and forested hills until you are back at the trail-head.

Western Arthurs from the Port Davey Track

click image for more

The weather forecast said:

Saturday, showers turning to rain and Sunday, rain turning to showers.

But sometimes you have to take the chance so we drove up on Friday night. Saturday was perrrrfect for climbing: 23/24C and overcast. A few teeeny showers came through but nothing to speak of. They became more frequent as we camped on Saturday night and at about 1am the rain came. And it kept coming. We woke up fater not much sleep to find we were camped on a sheet of moving water. The rock was never going to dry out even if it stopped within the hour so we packed up and drove out to Stawell, where we found a roadhouse and stuffed ourselves with coffee and eggs to fuel us up for the drive home. It is a pretty long drive for one day, but Saturday was such a rad day that it was totally worth it :)

It seemed like forever since our last dive. A winter of snowplay and a spring of climbing had somehow almost erased the memory how wonderfully relaxing floating underwater looking at fish can be. We had a nice, leisurely dive at Flinders on Saturday. We only had half a tank of air left from last season, but it was plenty. Later, we dropped our tanks in for a service, ready for a summer of diving adventures :) Being ‘tankless’ on Sunday but still beside the beautiful, still and warm ocean, we kayaked from Sorrento to Portsea, peeking in at the millionaires bayside houses and snorkeled. My cuts and abrasions from climbing all healed up in the salt water and I remembered how special the ocean is. Sadly, while having lunch close to Point Franklin, we saw a group of people spear a medium sized ray and drag it ashore, still alive, to taunt it with their spear tips and throw rocks at it until it finally gave up thrashing around and lay black and glistening on the bright, wet sand.