This is week 1 of starting out as a digital nomad. I’m not going to glorify it at all, just telling it like it is… Two weeks ago I finished working for Southern Cross University as their Website Officer. It was a good job, working with a great little team. But some personal circumstances meant … Read more
So, I’m now a biker person. After getting my learners license in Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia, I bought a KTM Duke 390 2014 model from the KTM dealership in town. Here I’ll post about any add-ons or modifications I do to the bike. First thing to sort out was storage bags… ViaTerra Velox Saddlebags I … Read more
Here’s some recent work I’ve done for Southern Cross University… DiscoverSCU DiscoverSCU is a website featuring news about Southern Cross University, authored by the media team within Communications and Publications. News is released monthly, and an email newsletter distributed to subscribers, staff and students. The website runs on WordPress, and the email content is dynamically … Read more
Updated 12 July 2015. Last year I finished up a new PC build and just got around to taking photos. Here is my latest custom PC build in all its glowing red glory. Contents of this post: Keyboard: Ducky Shine 3 TKL (Ten Key-less) Mechanical Keyboard Red LED Cherry Brown Switches Mouse: Thermaltake Level 10 … Read more
Since buying my first kayak a couple of years ago, I’ve always wanted to go kayak camping. During the Australia Day long weekend of 2015 I made my way to Wooli NSW. My current kayak is a Barracuda Beachcomber Ultralight. It’s a great kayak for both ocean and rivers. Compared to my old Mantra Palani kayak, … Read more
Most WordPress website hosting reviews are written by authors (often with little or no technical knowledge) with one objective: to earn a commission based on referring you to a website host. This article reviews two Australian hosting companies – two companies that I trust and actually use as a web designer and developer. Yes, I’ll receive a … Read more
Since 2010 I’ve been a happy customer of Host Geek. I run many WordPress installations and refer all my web design clients to them. Take a look at all their website hosting plans. In this detailed review I’ll share my experience with Host Geek using their shared website hosting (what they call business website hosting, … Read more
I’ve been doing web design and development since the late 1990’s. I’ve gone through a lot of different website hosting providers. Recently I needed to find a rock solid Australian WordPress cloud website hosting provider. One key lesson I’ve learnt over the years… When it comes to website hosting: you get what you pay for. … Read more
Visiting family in Fremantle and had to take the opportunity of continuing the 30d30m project with a photo of the sun setting on the ocean – something I don’t get to see on the east coast. The sun seems to set quicker when watching it disappear into the ocean.
Last year I spent a few months in Fremantle. It was a very unique situation with a few very good mates. It was my first time in Western Australia and I loved the Fremantle area. It was good to be back.
Weekday’s are always hectic: work; yoga; gym; personal projects; special events; and visiting a beach for 30 minutes every day. 30 minutes is only 2.5% of a day, and I’m glad each day that I’ve made the effort to take some time out and visit…
Muttonbird Island is accessed via the jetty at Coffs Harbour. Not exactly a beach visit. Just behind where I took this photo is the tiny (150m long) Gallow’s Beach and then the north end of Boambee Beach. I still need to visit Boambee Beach…
Being the weekend, I had time to explore beaches a little further from the usual. On Sunday I took a 15 minute drive south to Urunga. A boardwalk follows the breakwater from the caravan park in town all the way to the beach.
It was a warm day, but the sand on the beach was clogged with piles of driftwood – probably from the recent weeks of storms – and didn’t look very swimmer friendly.
Accessed via the highway directly opposite the Big Banana is the small Digger’s Beach. It’s in the resort area to the north of Coffs Harbour and is a very picturesque little beach.
This photo was taken from a lookout installed by Rotary along the pathway that extends along most of the beaches in the Coffs Harbour area.
I spotted an interesting headland to the north and went for a walk to try and climb it. After climbing some rocks to the north of Digger’s Beach, I realised I was now on a nudist beach (lots of oldies with their junk out) so promptly turned around and headed back to Digger’s Beach.
Today’s beach visit was later than usual. This meant I was in time for the sunset and some colourful clouds.
Click on the photos below to view the hi-res versions on Flickr. I really like the first one, capturing the motion of the waves breaking and the seagull strolling along.
I’m not happy with the result of this panorama, but it gives you a glimpse of the effect the sunset had on the sky late this afternoon…
I love the sound of the waves washing over the pebbles strewn across the shoreline. Adds to the meditative state that spending 2.5% of my day at the beach brings.
Today it didn’t rain… there was even a spattering of blue sky to be seen. I thoroughly enjoyed just being at the beach today, didn’t stroll more than a few hundred metres, just relished the good weather.
Rain, heavy at times. That was the forecast for today and that was what we got.
Today I drove towards North Boambee Beach which is accessed via the jetty area, but the Coffs Triathlon was on and the roads at the jetty were diverted.
So that’s day 2 of the 30 days / 30 minutes at the beach project.
This is 5th week of grey skies and there is only more to come. It started with 3 days of torrential downpour on Australia day long weekend, with multiple severe weather occurrences since.
Sawtell Island at Bonville Head.
Headed to the south end of Sawtell Beach, to the start of the coral outcrop area known as Sawtell Island. The rain made a comeback at 7PM… time to head home.
After doing a van trip in North Queensland a couple of years ago, I’d always wanted to drive and camp across the great Nullabor desert of south-central and south-western Australia. Leaving Fremantle (near Perth) in mid May, my good friend Dave and I piled ourselves and possessions into a Lancer sedan for one of our most unprepared and unique camping trips yet.
Here’s what you’d see if you were driving from Perth to Sydney.
The 5,000km trip was a very indirect way of getting to Newcastle. Opting to drive an extra 1,000km for a bit of tourist action, from Fremantle we drove the: Eyre Highway to Port Augusta SA (route A1 – along Highway 1, the longest national highway in the world); Princes Highway to Adelaide (A1); Western Highway to Melbourne (A8/M8); Princes Highway (A1) to Bega NSW; Princes Highway (A1) to Sydney NSW; and finally the F3 Sydney to Newcastle Freeway.
Even though this was one of our most unprepared camping trips – we’d camped for months before and were on a whole different level of preparedness – we had a reasonably comfy time camping with little more than a tent/swag each, portable gas cooker and one huge esky.
One note on preparedness – bring your own water, about 4 litres per day was enough for us. Roadhouses along the Nullabor won’t allow you to fill up water.
Being late autumn and coming into winter, the days were crisp (around 20 degrees celsius) but the nights were very cold. We both had 5 degree rated sleeping bags, and needed very warm clothes and extra blankets to stay warm through the night.
We lit a fire every night, however with the sparseness of trees and their small size, it took much longer than usual to collect the necessary fuel for fire. I can’t confirm if it’s legal or not – but we basically camped anywhere. Most nights we would find a rest area – usually we looked for one that at least had a picnic table – and camped about 100m from the highway.
In South Australia the Eyre Highway touches the coastline and the days of endless desert are broken with some amazing views. A lookout at The Great Australian Bight Marine Park is the first place to visit the coast when heading from west to east.
Of all the views of the coast – the Bunda Cliffs are the most impressive. Jutting out along the Bight – for what seems an eternity – catch the best glimpse at the most westerly lookout along the highway. If you want to see it, plan ahead or get a map as the sign posts can be easy to miss.
After 3 days of desert camping, we stayed at a caravan park in Ceduna SA (the first real town you’ll encounter since Norseman – 1200km back towards Perth).
On the 4th day we reached Adelaide. It was a Tuesday night and the first time either of us had visited – we attempted some shenanigans until the doldrum of a cold country-city night moved us to rest.
Terry kept his tantalising tenue tightly targeted at bigger things…
After 5 days of driving we enjoyed a placid night with Dave’s friends in Melbourne. I used to live in Melbourne and it felt great to get back to my favourite Australian city – even for one night.
On the way to Sydney from Melbourne, we stayed a night at my Dad’s place – an old butter factory – just outside of Bega on the NSW South Coast.
After Bega we arrived in Sydney to really relax. We spent a few days here, visiting friends and generally enjoying the comforts that come with living under a roof. It took 7 days of driving to get to Sydney, driving between 500 and 800km per day.
Not to degrade the enjoyability of the journey, I’d love to do it again and take twice the amount of time to visit some of the amazing places along the way.