swimming with turtles/ Blue Mountain additions

So swimming with the turtles wasn't as grand as I thought it was going to be.. the waves were rather large and I am still (5 hours later) feeling like I am floating up and down in the water... My stomach couldn't handle it after 40 minutes and I fed the fishes some of my ingested food.. hope they like me for it!

So I did see a turtle (well maybe two but they both looked alike) one was at the bottom, so 4-5 meters away and the other was only about 3-4 meters away, but in some of the crashing waves, so I didn't get a great pic.. (Yup, I bought an underwater camera). I guess it is the same turtle as Nemo's friend in "finding Nemo". I also could say I swam with a shark! A leopard shark.. and he was much closer than the turtle got... a little scary, but they don't bother humans if humans don't bother them... and they may not even have teeth... hmmmm...

I will get the underwater photos on another day. I still had 10 shots left I will use at the Great Barrier reef in a couple of weeks...

That is about all I did all day.. Waited to go, went, felt crappy, had a shower and a nap.. and now I type.. I think I will catch a movie in a bit... went out for a bit last night an realized I am 15 years older than many of the girls I am traveling with... seriously I am old.. I have been seriously thinking this may be the last back packer tour I do, but we shall see when it is all done.

So to give some updates for the blue mountains: on the way there we stopped at a kangaroo sanctuary. That is where the Kangaroo pictures came from. there are 8/10 most poisonous spiders in Australia and our guide was nice enough to tell us ALL about them.. scary, they have vipers and stuff. their webs are hard core, like thick pieces of string and they build them one after another so if someone runs or bikes through one likely he will run through 4 or 5 and then they attack! They create these little holes to hide out in during the day and come out at night or when they are bothered.. I was really freaked out.

The Blue Mountains are called the Blue Mountains because of the haze that is created by the gas release by the Eucalyptus plants.. there is a haze in the photos and they are not clouds! There is also wild lemon, sandalwood and another kind of tea tree oil plants. We got to smell them and the more they are rubbed into the hands the stronger the scent. Pretty neat.

Ohh yes, the Blue Mountains are not 250 metres as I previously stated... they are closer to 1100 metres and I read somewhere they are more defined as rolling hills than actual Mountains.. either way they were very pretty.

that was that I think...

So tomorrow I head off to Brisbane and spend 3 nights with a girl I met when I went through Ireland a few years ago. She is married and has a 2 year old, so it should be a relaxing time.

I hope you are all doing well and miss me terribly! JK. Miss y'all and thanks for the updates from home. I feel like I have already been gone for months!