Boris likes to host backpackers at his house from time to time and we've spent the last two weekends travelling up to Bundaberg and Baffle creek to meet up with some really friendly and outgoing Belgian girls (One of whom is Boris' girlfriend). We've also been hanging out with some Irish backpackers who Boris has kept at his house as well.
It's a good mix of people and we've been having a great time.
It's also offered a few chances to go diving a couple of hours drive away from the largest sand island in the world (Fraser Island) and all the sand it's left around the Hervey Bay region.
Here's a picture of a turtle off some rock's near Bundaberg
Last weekend we stayed in the Belgian's "Cabin" at Baffle creek which was a tiny demountable set up by a macadamia farm in the region to house it's workers. It was pretty cosy but we had a great time. We went out to Agnes water's on Saturday and then Boris, Rachael, Sara and I went spearfishing/Snorkelling off the headland at 1770.
Before we left we had to get some gear for Sara and the dive shop lady warned us that there was a big Tiger shark hanging around the headland. We went in anyway like we always do, usually when fishermen or locals tell you there is a shark hanging around they've either seen something from the shore and assumed it's a shark or they are just trying to scare you away from their favourite spot.
Well anyway, it was pretty murky water out there because we were diving at low tide, but it was looking promising, there was a bit of depth to the water there and I saw some spanish mackeral or something similat shoot past in the murk. I thought we had the headland to ourselves but following them I swam straight into some line fishermen fishing off a rock cliff.
Boris and the Girls had swam out to sea to get around their lines so I swam out to them and then Boris said he'd seen a Huge Tiger shark or Bull shark.
He had dived to the bottom after he had swam a fair way out from the rocks avoiding the fishermen's lines, and when he was on the bottom peering out he decided to look behind him (away from the ocean side) and there was a Huge shark about a meter behind him swimming up on him.
This shocked him and he jumped in fright. This spooked the shark a bit and it swam off into the murk. Boris then went up for air and then it came back and started swimming up at him!! He kept his gun on it for a while and then it swam off into the murk.
When I got over to Boris it was only just after it had happened and Rachael was there swimming next to him and Sara was swimming for the rocks. Apparently Boris had yelled out to the girls that there was a huge shark and they thought he was motioning for them to come out and check something out and they swam out to him. It's pretty funny now but it could have turned out badly. Just after Boris had started to pass the fishermen they had yelled out that there was a huge shark and then a minute later it arrived.
We still kept snorkelling after the shark went for Boris but kept to the shallows. I speared a nice sized fish at the end of the day for our lunch but after checking what it was with some of the locals (All the fish are different up north) they called it the mother-in-law fish (A Slatey Bream) which is a relative of the morwong. I haven't shot a morwong since my days as a greenhorn spearfisherman.
I've been becoming a bit of a fish snob so we decided to use it as burley for when we went out on the boat the next day (With one of the macadamia farmers the Belgian girls knew, who was a really nice down to earth guy). He was pretty amused at the slatey bream, the boat trip didn't go so well though. I've never had a good fishing trip yet line fishing on a boat.
Here's a photo of Agnes water's beach (the beach south of the shark encounter) with Boris and Sara in the pic on the right
As far as the lemon is concerned it has broken down a few times while we've been here, the plan is to get it fixed up before we leave. Which means we probably won't be leaving for about 6 months. We've been working pretty steadily on it, but there's always new issues popping up. Tomorrow we'll be getting the wiring fixed by George the auto-electrician, if he turns up (he is a bit hopeless, but a funny guy and very good at his job), he was pretty surprised when he saw how it was wired when he turned up last time the bus broke down (Which was a fried ignition module in the distributor). At the moment heaps of wires are being taken straight off the power supply to the coil, bleeding the voltage to it... On Wednesday we are getting the left king pin replaced ($$$) new bushings on the gear shaft and new gas lines and water line to the gas evaporator (Which routes hot water through to stop the gas from freezing the pipeline up when it evaporates). Hopefully after this the bus will be functioning ok. It's probably gonna cut our holiday funds down a fair bit so I'll have to look for a job sometime soon.
At the moment it is bogging out if you push the accelerator in past an inch, this is happening on gas and petrol so it's probably either an air leak somewhere (Which is unlikely because it works fine at low revs), Or an electrical problem.
At the moment we have to drive around town at 10Km an hour maximum or the engine cuts out. This is OK because Hervey Bay is made up mainly of old people, but it makes a few people angry and we get into trouble if we hit a hill because it is essentially just idling along with no acceleration at all.
Italian George will hopefully fix this up tomorrow so we can get the bus in for repairs on wednesday.
You know you're in trouble when you need to call out a mechanic to get you car to a different mechanic...
Anyway I'll update on that problem later. Rego is up soon and we can't register this thing in QLD without proof of a QLD address. That's the next problem..
I'll also put up some pics of diving under Hervey Bay pier. We gave it a crack earlier, we got sneered at by all the line fishermen on the pier, they were shocked we were trying to scuba dive off the pier and ALL the bogans had to make a comment about it.
BUT, after swimming out it was INCREDIBLE. I was sure it was gonna be crap but there was so much life under the pier it was amazing. Of course my camera ran out of battery, so no photo's yet. It was a bit dangerous too, I almost got caught by one of the fishermen when I brushed their line they jagged it up to try and catch me, there were so many fishermen there it was astonishing. A lot of dead fish too and fish with lines coming off them. It's a really bad misconception that catching a fish on a line and throwing it back is OK. In fact most fish have around a 70-80% chance of dieing after being pulled in on a fishing line, with some having a 99% death rate after catch and release. The dead fish under the pier were testament to this.
Just one more reason why spear fishing is so good. There is no by-catch and you can select which size of fish you want to catch. I think it is a more humane way to catch the fish too.
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