Off to the land down under :D: 2013

3 months from today, only 3 months, and my time here in Australia comes to an end and I must return home. It will have been nearly 3 years since I last saw the majority of my family and friends! Albeit being very excited to get home and see everyone, what to do with the remainder of my time over here. Well I am still truck driving, with the roster typically being 10 on 4 off, it does give me long weekends to go away and have fun to do what I want.

Lightning in Mungindi

Not much to report on work really, still going really well doing the same old stuff. But we have changed towns now, so thankful to be away from the glorious town of Mungindi, with all of its friendly locals, clean streets and low crime....... Much. Mind you though, there was an amazing lightning storm not long a go, you've not experienced lightning until you've seen it in the outback! So we've moved to a much nicer town further north, which I expect we will be here for the remainder of my time in Australia. Just got to keep trucking!

Katie and Dan's House

So recently on my time off I have been going to the sunshine coast, now that is a great place to live. Some friends of mine that I worked with in Cairns moved to the Sunshine Coast and manage a dive centre there, and are so great, they let me stay in their river side palace. The best part of the sunny coast is the diving, especially the ex-HMAS Brisbane wreck, that is mad! At 28M deep, this 133M long battleship is an amazing dive, as it was intended to become a dive site the inners of the ship is freely accessible, and it is brilliant to explore the inside of a battleship filled with many species of fish and corals in warm clear water. Trust me, I will be spending as much time as I can visiting this amazing place!

Another good day on Koh Tao

My plan now is to return at the end of July, probably on or around the 25th, and I really can not wait, its going to be amazing. Now I know in the past I have given plans to return home and they never came true, but this time is different. My best mate Tom is getting married and wants me there as his best man, and my grandparents anniversary, plus I am mega home sick now. The big question is how long I will be back for, thats the biggest question in my mind. Whether I am home for a month or two or forever is something that will have to be played by ear, but I do want to return to Thailand for a few months again soon. Koh Tao thailand is one my most favourite places ever, and with friends still over there, I want to go back and dive. So maybe this time home will just be a break from the madness of travelling, a time to rest and prepare for my next journey, who knows!

Doing a bit of shooting

Kenwork 904 with 2x40ft grain trailers

Katie and Dan before they bought this puppie's little sister

Looking up on the ex-HMAS Brisbane

Turret gun on the ex-HMAS Brisbane

Swear there was a road here

Last time I left you, wow, it was christmas. I had forgotten when my last blog was published, and after having a quick look through it, it has been a while. So where is Ryan now, sitting in a donga which is smaller than most peoples bathrooms with all my stuff packed in to a corner. The house I normally live in, is currently cut off from the rest of the world by flood water. Infact, most of the town I am in at the moment is either currently under water or inaccessible. But enough of the scene setting, lets get in to the meat of the blog.

My Kenworth truck with
the single water trailer

Now that my work at the feed lot is finished, me and Tim took the truck south to a very small town on the New South Wales border. A town so small, that its claim to fame is of an excessively heaving fencing post, no lie, oh and two police stations, both of which are in houses older and more worn down than Baloos. So initially the job was meant to be driving the truck as a road train (2+ trailers) carting water around, but soon that was changed to one trailer which was more suited to the job. And now, we work with a construction crew building roads. Now not like the tarmac roads that your used too, dirt roads, but extremely well built dirt roads. My job is to fill up with water, then spread my water over the road that is being made. Simple? Yes at times, complicated other times, and a down right nightmare the rest. Driving a road truck across unmade dirt roads and banks will always end in tears, and although the thing hasnt rolled over yet, it hash't been a walk in the park. A simple yet repetitive and frustrating task is tire changing, not fun in 45*c+ heat.

In Gilligans after a long day with
Matt (far left) then Jeremy (Next
to Matt) , and a few other mates

But I'm happy and things are going real well. The house I normally live in is great, especially seeing as all the food and accommodation is included free. Signal is a bit sparse, but hey, can't have everything. So after 2 weeks of work, was time for a bit of a break. Back to Cairns I go :D Start work at 3am, finish work at noon, arrive in Brisbane at 6, fly to Cairns at 7, in Gilligans by 10, Project Jeremy (obvious code for those in the know) ready to finish back at Matt's (mate who I was staying with) by 2am. I was in Cairns for 6 days, in which I spent a whole lot of my savings and having one hell of a time. Jet skiing, go karting, drinking, shopping, scuba diving and of course, and whole lot of Call of Duty on the xBox. I had my Go Pro's with me the whole way and my new underwater camera system, took some amazing photos and videos, which i'll stick together over the next few weeks.

An old photo of me n Matt

As I had all my stuff in Cairns, it was time to take it with me down south. Now, I knew I had a lots of stuff, but 58kgs of baggage was a lot more than I expected, oops. I have a large suitcase which only has dive gear and cameras in, not including my PADI manuals, which have their own backpack, and not even thinking about my casual clothes and electronics and laptops and just general Sh?t !!! So anyway, after a week of fun, back to work I go, back to the desert and its heat, and 3am starts :(

I love Jet skiing!!

The roster for this job is 2 weeks on 1 week off. Not great for the man who wants to save save save and leave, but thankfully theres always work to be done somewhere else. Just today, the man I worked for at the feedlot has asked me to come back for better money and more hours. Although a fun job, truck driving is a whole lot better. But as of Sunday I will have a week off, so going back to Roma to work the feedlot for 5 or 6 days, got to find something to keep me busy. Saving money, my biggest priority in life, something that changed dramatically in my life since I have been in Australia. I have a target, a target which will pay any outstanding loans (sigh, I still have a UK loan to pay), pay for a diving holiday/working holiday in Thailand, and have a substantial amount of money saved for my return to the UK, and I mean substantial. A target I aim to achieve my May, so I can be in Thailand when Matt gets there.

So I leave you here, although I am hoping to put together a video of stuff that i've been up to over the past fest weeks, so WATCH THIS SPACE :D

Some photos take on my last trip to the Great Barrier Reef with my new camera :D