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

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

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

As with The Best Job in in the World the idea of the expedition is to take the story of the Great Barrier Reef to the rest of the planet; to educate about the life there, to expose some of the incredible locations and to make people just that little bit jealous so they’ll come out and experience it for themselves! My ultimate goal would be to have another television series shot documenting the adventure telling the story of the expedition, the characters we meet along the way and the people who research and protect one of the Natural Wonders of the World. As a bit of a prelude to this TPD Media (who film programs here in Australia such as Queensland Weekender, Great South East and Creek to Coast) and I decided to head out to Lady Elliot Island to film a short pilot episode for a possible series. This meant getting everything I’d expect to have on the expedition…including the kayak out onto the Great Barrier Reef! At extremely short notice the owner of Lady Elliot island and Seair (the small airline who fly to the island itself) Peter Gash managed to find a plane, strip out enough seats to take the 4m kayak and fly us out for a couple of days of filming.

We took with us an old friend and kayaking guru, Eddie Safarik, to shoot some still images and Richard Vevers from Underwater Earth; the company we’ll be working with throughout the expedition to bring you the most incredible images and film footage we can so you can live the adventure from right where you are now – sat at your computer. A really early morning start in Brisbane saw Sophee and I drive down to the Gold Coast and our flight headed straight up into the dark clouds and rain, our light plane being buffeted around by the squally conditions. We’d managed to load the four metre kayak into the plane along with the camera gear and people we’d need to make this event happen; some first time visitors to the island, others have been before and fallen in love with the place. Peter brought the plane to a halt on the rough coral runway after 90 minutes of flying and it was straight into the action – off to the Coral Gardens to have some still shots taken that will be used on the new website, launched later this year. Eddie really had me working it I can tell you; on the beach, in the water, sailing, paddling and even some really cool underwater ones too.

Next stop was the filming of an episode of Queensland Weekender (the show goes to air on Saturday 26th March on Ch7 here in Aus). Dean Miller the host wanted to know all about the Best Expedition so I took him diving, had a walk along the beach and out on the water to demonstrate how I’ll be moving up the coastline from May through September using my Hobie.

We then headed out onto the dive boats, donned our dive gear and into the water with Richard and Christophe from Underwater Earth. They’ll be coming along at key times during the expedition to help us film THE most amazing underwater sequences that will bring to life what happens on the Great Barrier Reef. The underwater scooters we used have been developed as prototypes to see how the footage looks before the real things are built in the next few weeks. This part of the project is particularly exciting and we hope to bring you a world first very soon. Watch this space…

Mother Nature gave us the complete run down of what to expect from the weather whilst out there with strong winds, driving rain and then an hour later totally blue skies and sunshine, something I have to be very prepared for, come May 21st. Next stop, a two-day test voyage to Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island onboard the Hobie kayak. We intend sailing the 42kms in a day, stopping overnight to film the dolphin feeding and sailing back the next day. It’s all starting to get a little real now!!

Yours expeditionally Ben

In May 2011 I will set off on a 1600km expedition along the Great Barrier Reef from the Town of 1770 all the way north to Cooktown winding my way through the islands and along the reef. My ‘Voyage of Discovery’ will retrace the route taken by the original English adventurer and seafarer Captain James Cook who navigated and charted the waters of the Coral Sea back in 1770.

He took just over three weeks to travel the length of the Queensland coastline. I will be taking just over three months.

I’m not trying to set any records for endurance, distance or speed but instead embarking on the journey to investigate the care-taking of this incredibly beautiful underwater environment I’ve been lucky enough to witness first hand during the six months of the Best job in the World.

This is the about bringing the encounters and experiences that I witness to you through my new website, as well as the usual Facebook and Twitter channels. You’ll be able to track my progress in real-time and see where we are on Google Maps, watch movies and video-blogs of the adventure as it happens both above and below the water.

Originally I was going to paddle the entire way in a sea kayak but have now settled on a much better way of going about things. I’ll be using a Hobie Adventure Island that can be paddled, peddled or sailed meaning I can travel between locations much quicker and if heaven forbid I became injured, I’d still be able to continue on the journey using a different means of propulsion. SunState Hobie have been kind enough to supply me with the vessel and my training can now start in earnest as I learn to handle it in all waters. Mal Gray from SunState Hobie has come on-board by supplying the vessel and I can’t thank him enough for the support.

Keith Roberts of Whitsunday Catamarans has been kind and brave enough to offer one of his fleet, a 40ft Lagoon Catamaran named ‘Whitsunday Blue’, as the support vessel and to come along on the adventure as the skipper. The project needs someone with Keith’s knowledge, experience and adventurous attitude to ensure that is works and I’m indebted to him for the commitment.

To run a website that’s as up-to-date and informative as I’m planning will require a pretty impressive office setup in order to create, edit and update all of the information we’ll be collating. The support vessel will be exactly that, a base where I will work every day to provide an online story of the adventure with blogs, photos and videos.

In order to understand the Great Barrier Reef a little better and to help see how human-kind is changing such a sensitive eco-system I will be working closely with GBRMPA (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) and Reef Check, a research charity who study and help look after coral reefs around the world. We will dive in lots of different locations as we go, researching and recording everything that we find. This data is then used by the clever people, scientists and boffins who can make sense it and educate people and ultimately protect one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

The project was launched on Wednesday and we’re already getting some good media coverage with clips on Channel 9, 10 and the Today Show (see below) along with the print media really getting behind the project. My friend Alice Tsou from Taiwan was straight onto it with a blog post too!

But this is now where the really hard work starts. We need to organise logistics, itineraries and expedition partners to help fund the expedition, so if you are a company or individual who’d like to get involved please contact me at Tourism Queensland via the link on this page – I look forward to hearing from you!

Stay tuned as things develop, I’ll be updating the website as often as I can.

Ben

My kayaking partner and good friend Eddie Safarik recently completed the first crossing from Fraser Island to Lady Elliot Island in the Capricornia group, 95kms away, with two friends Gaz and Paul.

The guys are an inspiration when it comes to the idea of out-there adventure and a great source of motivation towards my ‘next big idea’ that will be happening in 2011.

Have a listen to the interview here:

Eddie’s interview

Been out on the water again training and getting used to some heavier water conditions around Moreton Bay. the wind was pumping at 20 knots and the waves were pretty damn big!

Here’s the route I took:

There was no way I could head home early from South Africa back to Queensland without taking in a World Cup football match, I mean the atmosphere here has been totally electric!!

Firstly I was down in Cape Town to visit a good friend of mine Jason Cummings whose family I’ve known for years as they own the Beaver Creek Coffee Farm in port Edward where I lived. Jason left for Cape Town years ago and is now the Business Director of a cutting edge digital marketing company called Big Wednesday who operate from a pretty sexy office setup right in the centre of South Africa’s mother city.

As the Best Job in the World campaign was right up there street he asked me ages ago to talk to their staff and clients all about the project, the digital side of it and why on earth I won. I flew down to CT for a few days, explored the city again, soaked up the pre-World Cup atmosphere, made a presentation and had a night out on the town with hundreds of over people on Long Street. It truly was an international festival of fun!

I flew back to Durban ready to take in one last activity before flying back to Queensland – a World Cup game! Having worked whilst on holiday for Emirates and the KZN Government I was able to get a pretty decent ticket for the opening game at the Moses Mabida Stadium in Durban.

After a fantastic welcome party at uShaka complete with Zulu dancers Ina Cronje the Finance Minister who has very kindly been looking after me whilst here in SA, and I headed in convoy through the streets of Durban past waves of gold and green Australia supporters to the stadium. Where were the German fans??

It looked absolutely stunning with lines of people entering from the Fan Parks, lights beaming up into the sky and a buzz I’ve never really felt before from a sports match. We made our way to our seats which happened to be about three rows away from the South African President Jacob Zuma and settled in for a good game…..at least I hoped so!

Germany v Australia could have been a well-fought match I thought, ok on paper Germany should easily beat the Socceroos but I saw the Aussies play a few months ago and they looked pretty effective – although it was against Indonesia.

The sound of the vuvuzela’s was deafening, they’re an African horn which everyone is using here and the sounds goes around the neighbourhoods from 5am until 1am – literally ALL day and here was no different.

As soon as the whistle went the German team looked typically efficient, well organised and methodical – exactly as we’ve come to expect. Within 10 minutes the first goal had tugged at the back of the net – a blasting drive from Podolski, and the Germans never looked back.

By half time the scoreline had been doubled with Klose heading in from close range and the halftime whistle couldn’t have come early enough for the disillusioned Australians – something was missing – virtually any resistance or midfield!

To be fair they did return to the pitch with renewed vigour and drive; finding men, completing passes and generally offering some determination that just hadn’t been seen in the first half….until Tim Cahill was shown a totally unjustified straight red card reducing the team down to 10 men for the remainder of the game.

And the Germans took full advantage – it was backs to the walls for the Socceroos and two more goals were to follow in what turned out to be a complete walkover – GERMANY 4 AUSTRALIA 0

A comprehensive message sent out to the other teams who think they stand a chance in this World Cup. They were good….very good.

COME ON ENGLAND – YOU HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO TO BEAT THIS LOT!!!

Not a bad place to be hey?

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