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[podcast]http://audioboo.fm/boos/32709-swimming-boo[/podcast]
and the AudioBoo way..
Back in 2009 during the Best Job in the World I flew from Hamilton Island to the centre of Queensland’s Outback and a fascinating town called Longreach. I was there to take part in a charity drive known as Angel Flight’s Outback Trailblazer. I had such a good time I swore I’d return.
My Afritrex expedition in 2008 saw me travel overland circumnavigating Africa in my trusty Land Rover, Colonel Mustard. Since then I’ve brought him out to join me in Brisbane so it was about he time he stretched his legs again on the open road.
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We hit the road together at 4am winding our way out of the city confines. The motorway to Toowoomba was beautifully quiet as we climbed over the Great Dividing Range that lifts us 700m above sea level. I’d never driven this way before and as the road passed across the Darling Downs the sun was just starting to show its head across the fog-lined valleys. It reminded me of those cool autumnal mornings back in the UK.
The drive out to Barcaldine, my destination for the night, tracks for over a 1000kms through Queensland’s Outback. I love driving huge distances, watching the landscape and agriculture change, stopping off to chat with the locals and counting down the distance to the finish line. 14 hours and 1,123 kms later the sun dropped behind the horizon, I pulled into the Iron Bark Pub car park to be greeted by a gaggle of Trailblazers already enjoying ‘a cold one’.
Ten days of Outback adventures lay ahead for around 40 vehicles, decked out in the sponsors’ livery and all on a mission to drive around 2,500kms on the “twelve river run” around Queensland’s outback. With 100 people from all walks of life taking part it was set to be a great fundraiser with a whole load of laughs along the way. Angel Flights Patron is Tanya Kernahan, one of Australia’s famous country singers. She launched this year’s event in Barcaldine with the cars all lined up outside the Tree of Knowledge
Over the next seven days we headed through some of the most stunning Outback scenery. Long open stretches of dust-funnelling dirt road, vast expanses of low bush trailing off into the distance, the occasional mud track and lots of tarmac extending to infinity. No two days were the same.
Since the official end to the Big Dry, Australia’s ten year drought, the Outback has transformed from a red dust bowl into a succulent green landscape severed by creeks and rivers. The wildlife has come out to play too with Emus and Kangaroos bounding along the edge of roads, racing for cover at the last minute. It’s only when you get up high you see the distances and the scale of this space. Life is everywhere.
The daily format for the Trailblazer involves early starts, a short drive before a filling breakfast, another drive to our location for lunch and an afternoon drive in time for dinner! Drive, eat, drive, eat. Each of the towns we stop at have something very unique about them. Some are famous for their opals, some for their cattle, some for the most recent flood and some like Toompine, for their population of 4. Yes 4 people!
We meet some of the most hospitable people I’ve met in Queensland on the trip. School groups turn out to feed us, the local lawn bowls club to host competitions and the police even get involved with an impromptue road block. You see these communities don’t have a huge amount of traffic passing through them, apart from the occasional road train (at up to 56 metres long). So when 100 people arrive enmasse it becomes a pretty major event. The highlight of all this fun and frivolity has to be a performance from the children at Quilpie school who one evening sing, dance and tap their way through an entire repertoire of songs after only three hours practice…and they rocked the place.
The Outback is famous for its watering holes. Not the ones the wildlife need to stay alive in the dry season, more the pubs that attract locals from far and wide after a hard day’s work. We stop off at a few along the way and each has its own personality and characters propping up the bar.
Along the way we stop at some iconic Outback tourist attractions, some of them wacky, some of them plain weird! The Cosmos Centre in Charleville has to be one of the best though. With clear outback skies and no light pollution their telescope can spy stars and planets way off in the distance and they operate sessions at 7:30pm on most nights. Well worth stopping in for.
Palm Grove Date Farm is another gem of a place. They grow figs, dates and have some amazing mud baths too utilising the artesian clay that lines the creeks here. It’s all good for the skin apparently! Ian and Nan Pike run their little shop and sell some true delicacies including their Sticky Date liqueur – have a shot! I walk out with dried figs, fig jam and of course a mud pack!
After a week on the road the convoy pulls into St George having visited some cracking locations, met some charismatic people and experienced some real Aussie hospitality. The event last year raised over $250,000 for Angel Flight and this year looks like it could surpass it with more vehicles and much more generosity all round.
Next year the event will take place in October and head north from Barcaldine exploring another area of this beautiful land.
Time to wash down the Colonel, clean the dust from my ears and dream about the next Outback drive.
Ben 
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When I go for a run at sparrows-fart-early there’s already loads of people hitting the tarmac along the river. As I ride to work I’m overtaken by lycra-clad cyclists on their way to the local coffee-shop. When I jump in the pool at 6am there’s already swimmers churning up the surface of the water.
The climate here is perfect for outdoor training all year round, daylight hours are consistent throughout the year and there really is no reason to stay inside and play computer games or watch TV. I love it!
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On New Year’s Day I set myself five New Year’s Challenges for 2012:
I headed north to the stunning location of Magnetic Island a couple of weeks ago for the first of these, the Adventurethon, a multisport adrenaline-filled tough man’s challenge.
On the same weekend Tough Mudder was happening in Melbourne, supposedly “THE Toughest Event on the Planet” – 20kms of obstacles and challenges! Oh how I laughed, Adventurethoners would eat Tough Mudders for breakfast as fuel for the day!
Try this on for size:
In November when I first heard of the event, I looked at the different disciplines and thought “Sure thing I can do that, I’ve just paddled 1600kms in a kayak for goodness sake!”. Training didn’t happen as it was supposed to. If I’m honest the last time I had a paddle before the event was February, we’ll just have to see what happens!
The big day arrived and the weather looked great, almost too good. Clear blue skies, no wind and blazing sunshine throwing down 32 degrees of heat onto the course and my fellow competitors. As I wandered down the beach to my surf ski the pros were already in the water waiting for the gun. Balanced on pencil-thin skis designed for speed, not buoyancy. I’d chosen the safer option – a wide floaty craft that I could at least stay on top of. And then we were off, a rush into the ocean, a splash of paddles and the lead pack simply disappeared. It’d be a long day for me.
Although I’m a pretty competitive person my life doesn’t revolve around training like most of these guys. There were army dudes, fitness trainers, lifeguards and ultra-marathoners all taking part and they ALL wanted to win.
As I arrived at the beach for the end of Leg 1, the leader was already leaving on the return leg. He’d just smashed out a 5km run and had a good 30 minute lead already. Maybe I spent too long taking in the stunning views instead of concentrating on paddling hard, but when a turtle pops up next to you it’s hard not to stop and take it in!
The theme of the day for me was decided pretty early on. Pain was to be my escort for the rest of the race. I rolled my ankle running too fast down the rocky course and straight away felt the pain shoot up my leg, reminiscent of an identical injury a few year ago. Suck it up Southall this was never going to be easy!
I arrived at the transition area at the end of the second paddle leg, swap shoes, fill my face with bananas (from Queensland of course), slap on the zinc, grab my bike and attempted to ride down the beach. Bikes and sand don’t mix however, my tyre digs in and I almost go over the handlebars…maybe some off-road riding would have been good before entering this event Ben?
The MTB course is pretty extreme to say the least, any up hill usually involves carrying the bike as the rocks are huge and impossible to ride over. But the downhills are amazing, flat out fast, hair-raising drops down gravel tracks and through gullies. Magnetic Island is perfect for thrill-seekers!
I catch my friend and adversary Pat Kinsella during the bike leg. We came and scoped out this event a few weeks back together in the most torrential rain. With the sun shining and our bodies sore it only seems right that we stick together and pull each other through the mentally tough sections.
As we head out on the final leg, an 18.5km trail run around the island, my ankle was just about impossible to run on. Swollen, blue and the source of many a grumble, “Southall get on with it, we’ve got a race to finish” comes Pat’s supportive response.
This is where I had to dig in, grit my teeth and take each kilometre as it comes. We made our way up the same course we carried our bikes up a couple of hours before. Halfway up I felt a cramp taking hold of the leg - just able to walk on, i thought this is going to be hell!! As I lifted my head the sign says just that ‘Welcome to Hell”
An hour later we made it to the summit of the final hill. Pat and I snap a photo and prepare for the descent and final sprit along the finish straight. After 9hrs and 10mins we crossed the line thoroughly exhausted but SO happy. We completed the Adventurethon!
Not a bad time considering I hobbled for 3/4 of the race…until you compare it to the winner who finished in 5hrs 40 mins. Oh well, next year with some real training I may get a little closer.
Still beats the hell out of not-so-Tough Mudder
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Next week I’m heading south to relax, recoup and recover with a few days off at Gwinganna Health Retreat. No internet, no tv, no sugar, no salt. Just me, Sophee and a few good books….
Ben
Living in Brisbane most people think a decent dive trip away requires an entire weekend to make it worthwhile. Oh no it doesn’t I say!!
To prove my point, last weekend I set off on an 18 hour adventure to North Stradbroke Island, on the other side of Moreton Bay from the city.
It was a weekend of well overdue reunions…
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On September 12th 2008, I qualified as a PADI SCUBA diver whilst travelling around Africa during my Afritrex expedition. Nkhata Bay was the location on the banks of Lake Malawi, a crystal clear freshwater lake in the warm heart of Africa.
My dive buddy at the time was another traveller, Craig Letham, a Kiwi on the road for his own adventure. We went through three days together, got our dive certification, shook hands and thought we’d never see each other again.
On May 9th 2009, three days after being announced as the successful candidate for the Best Job in the World, I enjoyed two days rest and recuperation at Manta Dive Lodge on North Stradbroke Island. Finally after snorkelling and flying over the Great Barrier Reef, I’d have the chance to actually dive in Australian waters for the first time! Read about my first ever Aussie dive here.
My dive master for the day was (as I described him at the time) “a funny little man” named Dave Biddulph. In reality a fantastic man, a superb photographer and a bloody nice chap. We got on like a house on fire but again, thought we’d never see each other again.
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FAST FORWARD THREE YEARS – Craig has moved to Brisbane from New Zealand, Dave is still at Manta Lodge and I’ve decided to stay in Queensland. Personally I can’t think of a better reason to have a reunion!
Time is precious in everyone’s lives. Finding a free weekend is close to impossible. But old friends living on your doorstep should never become strangers so I organised a speedy weekend away to reunite those friendships.
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Brisbanites (that’s people from Brisbane and surrounding areas!) try this on for size …
Finish work at 5pm on a Friday
A whistlestop tour? Yes. But if you’re looking for an opportunity to get underwater and blow bubbles with some amazing marine life and only have a day to spare, then this is the way to do it.
Manta Lodge YHA offers a real island style retreat so the pace of life is that much slower – we’re on island time baby! Evenings are spent meeting new friends, checking out the huge array of dive photos and hearing tales from below the surface. They live and breathe the ocean and have been diving the waters around North Stradbroke for years so know where to take you to find their local heroes. Dave takes some amazing photos too, here’s some from our dives together:
There is absolutely loads to keep even the most experienced diver happy from the bigger stuff like Tasselled Wobbegongs to stunning Harlequin shrimps. We had gone there optimistically hoping for Manta Rays but were too early in the season – they love the cooler winter water.
It really is a simple trip to do, head out of work at 5pm for the island and be back in the city by the Saturday afternoon. There are no more excuses!
Making the most of every opportunity,
Ben
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What a week it’s been! I’ve travelled the length of the state taking part in some ridiculously adventurous activities and ended it off with a trip to Sydney for a very special occasion, the launch of a new BBC series here in Australia.
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Skypoint Climb at Q1
Heights have NEVER been my thing. Not aged 16 for my first ever parachute jump, not last week walking around the top of Q1 or this week for the AJ Hackett Minjin swing in Cairns! NEVER.
Q1 is the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere and last month their latest vertigo-inducing activity was opened – the SkyPoint Climb. At 270 metres above the ground my mind was already getting the better of me as we stepped outside for the first time dressed in our gorgeous jumpsuits.
Strapped securely into our harness and suits we clipped onto the safety rail that runs around the entire building. This ensures if you lean right over the edge (which I reluctantly did) you don’t end up on the street below!
We’d chosen to do the sunset climb, leaving at 5pm (dependant on the time of year you do it) and it was well worth it for the views at sunset alone. This unique view high above the Gold Coast gives a vast panorama from Brisbane in the north, through the Hinterland and Springbrook National Park to Tweed Heads in the south.
The sun dips behind the horizon, colour leaves the evening sky and the neon strip of this famous location comes to life. Twinkling lights, the sound of life below and the crash of the ocean all a distant interaction as the wind and rawness of life at 270 metres takes over. This is one heck of a rush.
Now I can say that I’ve done it. Another vertigo-experience is ticked off my list and I don’t have to do it again. I can however highly recommend it to anyone who feels more comfortable than me at altitude.
Walks happen from 9am but if you really want a unique adventure head there for sundown.
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The Great Barrier Reef documentary
From the top of Q1 to the very depths of the ocean on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef, my life this week has gone from pure fear to pure unadulterated joy at the vision that appears in the new Great Barrier Reef documentary, airing this weekend on Channel 9 here in Australia.
Over the last 8 years Richard Fitzpatrick and the BBC have been capturing all aspects of life on the largest living organism on the world – Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
The series has already gone to air in the UK with over 4 million people tuning in to learn more about life under the ocean, and this weekend Australia gets to see it.
You’ll get the chance to glimpse the world floating by from a turtle-cam, discover sharks that walk on land, corals that fight each other, the most venomous creatures known to science and the largest green turtle gathering on the planet!
To give you a little taster of what to expect have a look at the movie below:
Have a great weekend and see you next week
Ben
It’s almost 18 months ago since I sat down with the teams from Google Australia and Underwater Earth (UE) to discuss the concept of taking Google’s Streetview underwater on the Great Barrier Reef.
Since then I’ve completed the Best Expedition in the World, my five month kayaking marathon from Lady Elliot Island to Cooktown. During that time on the water I worked extensively with Richard and Christophe from UE to capture stunning images and video of the marine life on the Great Barrier Reef which we’ve brought to you through www.islandreefjob.com.
A major sponsor for the concept, Catlin Insurance, have come onboard to allow this to happen. The project will focus on three parts:
Everyone knows how good it is to explore the world using Google’s Streetview. Well they’ve taken the same technology, waterproofed of course, donned their wetsuits and headed to some of the most spectacular locations on the Great Barrier Reef. Click on the images below to explore for yourself.
So far the 360 images are just mock-ups of what will be produced but can you imagine virtual-swimming around a huge coral bommie, feeling the vertigo of a reef wall drop-off or tracking along the edge of Raine Island – turtle nesting heaven!
I’ll be getting involved with the team later this year to bring this technology to the Queensland Holidays website so you can check out our amazing dive sites before you book a holiday here to explore them yourself for real.
For now have fun swimming around the place I’m lucky enough to call my office.
Ben
Welcome to my blog if you’re visiting for the first time from Nuffnang. You’re probably here because we’ve dangled a lucrative carrot in front of you offering a $5000 dream holiday to Queensland and now you want to find out more.
**If you’re here as a regular visitor and have no idea what I’m talking about, then head over to the Nuffnang website.
What’s the deal you ask? Well the deal is this. Last year Tourism Queensland launched a new campaign called Vitamin Me. No idea what this is?
Well it can be found in all forms, but is best attained by experiencing exciting adventures, soaking up some arts and culture, consuming delicious food and wine, or enjoying some beautiful scenery and wildlife. Not surprisingly, the richest sources are found in Queensland.
All you have to do is compose a post on your blog explaining how you would boost your Vitamin Me levels if you won a $5,000 dream holiday to Queensland.
The competition opens today (24 January) and runs until 3pm (AEST) 10 February 2012, so get your posts in quick on the Nuffnang competition entry page.
Check out my video below to get inspired. And remember that we’re looking for originality and creativity, in the form of photos, video or words (however your blog readers prefer).
Happy blogging!
Back in August during the Best Expedition in the World the team from Underwater Earth and I headed out with one of Australia’s best dive operators, Pro Dive Cairns, for a live-aboard experience.
I had visions of cramped quarters, ships tack and over-visited dive sites prior to leaving having had that experience in other parts of the world. But after three days living, sleeping, eating and diving with 20 other people I have to say it was simply ‘bloody brilliant’!
Our skipper Warren took us out to some of the best coral reefs I’ve seen. Visibility was excellent, the marine life abundant and the coral was bright, colourful and extensive. Over the three days we visited numerous dive sites, had close encounters with turtles, sharks and bump-headed Parrotfish and went home smiling.
If you want a real Great Barrier Reef experience and love your diving then do yourself a favour, book a place, grab a camera and prepare to be blown away by this adventure.
Richard, Christophe and I were there to film as much of the underwater world as we could. I wanted to produce a YouTube movie about life on a single reef. What would we find? Would there be enough to create an exciting piece? What would turn up to the party?
Here’s the results of a single day filmed at Flynn Reef just off Cairns:
To find out more about this region of the Great Barrier Reef visit here
To read the blog post I wrote about Bump-Headed Parrotfish (possibly the ugliest fish in the world?) click here or to see the photo album from the trip click here
Pro Dive are a PADI 5-Star dive training school operating out of Cairns. Visit their website here
Personally it’d be a crime if the Great Barrier Reef wasn’t one of the Natural 7 Wonders of the World…but then I am a little biased of course!
On November 11th public voting closes to decide the New 7 Wonders of the World from 28 finalists. Australia has two of them, Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef.
There are some incredible places that we’re up against including Table Mountain, The Amazon and the Maldives. All of which are pretty special places to visit and will get masses of support from voters…but we need your help to keep the Great Barrier Reef in the top rank.
To show how important every vote is, this week I headed out to Vlasoff Cay on the Great Barrier Reef with a polling booth, seven snorkellers, Tourism Australia and a film crew…to set up what could be the most remote polling station in the world!
Andrew Ridley, the co-founder of Earth Hour was there too. His work literally plunges the planet into darkness for one hour every March as companies and individuals turn off all their lights to to take a stand against climate change. As one of the Reef’s Ambassador’s his vote is well and truly behind the reef.
We got great coverage from the Australian media with channel 7,9 and 10 all running news pieces about the stunt. This morning I had to don my indigenously-painted wetsuit for a live cross to the Channel Ten news room in Sydney…all in the name of promotion of course!
So how can you help?
In order to cast your vote visit the New 7 Wonders of the World website by clicking here, choose your top seven (making sure the GBR is one of them) or alternatively you can visit their Facebook page and cast your vote here
As I draft this and continue to move north along the Queensland coast, I have reflected on the minor speed bump the expedition experienced during the past two weeks. While it has been a challenging time the light is glaring at me very brightly from the end of the tunnel – we’re back on the water and picking up the pace!
Since Sunshine took a battering from some wild weather during our stay at Lady Eliot Island, I have been working furiously to get the Best Expedition in the World back on track.
The BIG4 Cane Village here in Bundaberg has been our home for the last fortnight and I have to say a massive thank you to John and the team here for looking after us. The guys at the Bundaberg Slipway have become our co-workers and friends and yacht Sunshine is almost ready to become Operation HQ once again from where I’ll report as often as I can to bring you a snapshot of life on the Great Barrier Reef.
Since then I’ve been up to Heron Island and shot some incredible images with the crew from Underwater Earth, interviewed some of the great scientific minds working at the research station, been interviewed by radio and television stations from around the world and tried to keep fit by running the streets here.
Mum and Dad have continued their Queensland Road Trip along the coast and have been furiously blogging to bring you their story of life on the road as they explore the state in their Apollo Motorhome and document here on the blog.
Finally the Yellowbrick tracker will be moving in the right direction (north) and as we take photos, post videos and create blogs they’ll appear on the track exactly where they were taken – keep watching this page for the latest updates.
Being able to get back onto the kayak is something I’ve been itching to do and once we make up some of the lost ground I’ll be cutting my paddle through the waves hopefully alongside the migrating Humpback Whales that have already started to appear along the Queensland coast.
So my sincere apologies for a temporary break in transmission…rest assured we are eager to go and working twice as hard to create a wake and bring to life more reef adventures to inspire you all!!
Yours Expeditionally
Ben
Breathe in, breathe out, and exert a massive, “Pheeeew!” I’ve finally made it to 1770 – the launchpad for the Best Expedition in the World!!!
It’s merely a cricket’s lifetime away now. Next Saturday, while the Captain Cook Festival is in full swing, the crew and I will be kicking-starting our epic voyage of discovery. We can hardly wait!
But, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. I might have escaped my CBD office, but there’s still a bit to get through while I’m ‘waiting in the stalls’.
International and domestic media are travelling to 1770 over the coming days to investigate, write up, and film Best Expedition related stories.
The similarities between Captain Cook and myself have been particularly enticing for the media. Click here to read the Courier Mail article.
Not only will I be following Cook’s route up the Queensland coast, I’m just as much of an adventure-hungry Pom as he was! I just happened to swap his HMB Endeavour for a state of the art Hobie Kayak, and his telescope for an ocean of modern marine technology.
Just to make sure I can pull this 21st Century challenge off, I’ll be doing some serious Hobie and ‘tech training’ this week. I want to make sure I know what I’m doing and have contingencies in place before I hit the open water.
I’m fairly sure I’ve packed everything the crew and I will need (and stuff we really don’t need). Solar showers, board games, expedition mascots, DVDs, Saya skincare, laptops, 4-months worth of clothing and enough dive gear to sink a ship – I’ve brought the lot…and then some. This is not back packing, this is not flash packing, this is the Best Expedition in the World!
Fingers crossed, everything will fit on the Sunsail support vessel, “Sunshine “, which is currently passing Yeppoon and on it’s way south. I visited Sunshine in the Whitsundays several days ago and kitted her out with a complex interweb of technology – slightly overwhelming stuff, but vital in order for me to run bestexpeditionintheworld.com from the middle of the Great Barrier Reef.
Mum and Dad have also been learning how to master new media technologies. They arrived in Brisbane last week to kick off their ‘Queensland Road Trip‘, which they have started photo-documenting and blogging about on the Best Expedition website. These ‘Grey Nomads’ will undoubtedly get up to some serious fun and mischief over the next few months. I look forward to catching up with them at different points along the coast and hearing ALL of the goss.
Between catch up points, my folks will be able to follow my progress (from May 21st) by taking the odd peak at the live tracking page of this website, courtesy of Yellowbrick. It will update my position every 15 minutes on a Google Map, and feature photo videos, photos, 360° panoramas, and blogs in exactly the same place they were created. Check it out here and join me on the adventure of a lifetime – the Best Expedition in the World!
Yours Expeditionally,
Ben