Monday, October 8, 2007

The Hogwarts Express is now departing...

Hey Everyone, How is everything going? I hope everyone is ok and not missing us too much. i know me and Joely are missing you guys back home!! This is hopefully going to be a long post with lots of photos, so much to tell! Firstly i hate the weather in the UK, it sux! Alhough we have had some sunshine in the last couple of days, its nothing compared with Aus, but anywho there is nothing i can do about it until i finish building the weather changer 5000 but thats another story...

Ok where to start, work is crap and i am over it. I don't like management and i dont like being a waitor. I can't wait to get out of here and start our contiki tour around europe which looks as though it is booked for the 10th of November, woohoo! The light at the end of the tunnell! I have been homesick lately but thats mainly due to the lack of travelling i think! Also i am going to stay over here until next year some time, which means i am not coming back with Joely! Come on guys put those tissues away ill be home soon :P

Last week we hired a car with three other guys, Andy, Joanna and Moy and travelled to a place called the Isle of Skye. At first i thought we wern't going to make it 10miles down the road, Andy our driver hadn't driven for over a year and had never drive on the left hand side of the road before. So just coming out of the Hotel we almost had an accident at the round about and about 20mins down the road we hit the gutted and lost our hubcap! But apart from that the rest of the trip went reasonably smooth driving wise, i even got to have a crack at driving our Fiat Punto! The first day at Skye we had awesome weather!! The sun was shining and it was magical. The senery was amazing! We ended up climbing not one, but two mountains that day! The first mountain was just shy of 1000m and the second was about 700m. The veiws from the top were spectacular. Some of the most beautiful views i have ever seen! Although by the time we got to the bottom of the first mountain we were buggered, and then we drove to the second mountain and had to go again!

Now the second mountain is where it got interesting...We didn't start the trek until about 4pm (The sun doesn't go down until around 7pm) and as it was a smaller mountain it was goiong to be a bit quicker, weeeelllllll we ended up losin the track, so instead of turning around we decided to keep going and try to link up with the track...First mistake. The Second Mistake was that we were still on top of the mountain when the sun went down (although i got some great sunset piccies) and the third mistake was that we tried to scale a cliff face! This was one of the scariest things i have ever done in my life. We were walking along the top of a sheer vertical cliff, that had a rocky drop of about 100m along a narrow sheep track on slippery rocks/grass with our back packs!!!! There was also limited light, but if we bactracked it would mean that we would be on the mountain for at least another hour or more. SO as we scalled along the cliff face it got to a point where it became impossible to keep on going, so we had to turn around. It was at this stage becoming increasingly darker and me Joel and Joanna decided to backtrack, because we at least knew the way, However Andy and Moy were adament they could keep pressing foward on a different track and it would be quicker. Mistake number 4, we split up! As the three of us back track on the path it turend to darkness, and we found ourselves joggin along the path to make up time, and i know the only thing keeping me going was adrenaline. It was getting cold and everynow and then we would stray off the path due to darkness and we had to find our bearings again and dind the track! By some miracle we made it down the mountain and arrived at the car at Exactly the same time as Moy and Andy, it was unbelievable. Cold and Hungry we high tailed it to the supermarket and stocked up on food and alcohol, relieved we were in the warm! Looking back on it it was a great adventure and a great story!! The next couple of days we drove around Skye which was great, soo good to get away from work!!

Also lately the Warner Bros team has been staying in Our hotel as they are filming Some parts of the new Harry Potter movie which is cool! Its pretty much just a small division shooting parts of the film, no stars or anything BUT Fort William is the Home of the Hogwarts Express!! Its not open to the public, However one of the Guys we work with, Sterling, also works at the local railway station. So at 11pm one night, me, Joel Sterling and the two drivers of the Hogwarts Express went down to the train yard...Sterling sweet talked the security gaurd and we were let in. There in front of us was the HOGWARTS EXPRESS!! Still steaming from the days filming! It was awesome!!! We even got let into the drivers cabin!! The train was huuuuge aswell! Looks so much bigger in real life!! But yeh was awesome!!!

Anyways thats really all that has been happening, the next week we are going to be very busy at work which im not looking foward to... Well thats enough rambling from me, so here are the photos, hope everyone is good back home! Missing you all!!


Ontop of one of the mountains


Starting the trek and already stopping for a drink ;)

Me Photographibg something ot other

Joely @ Skye

Hogwarts Express!

In The Hogwarts Expressssssss

And again...

And again..

And again...

Hogwarts Express @ night

Extreme Jenga!

oo wants a cuppa tea n a bikkie

Outside a passenger car of the hogwarts Express

And another shot

And again...

ha!


Somewhere in Skye







Sunset on a mountain - Isle of Skye

Ontop of the world...


Coming down the mountain

Awesome!

base of one of the mountains

The airforce does alot of testing around the mountain. Two planes flew so close to the ground over us, and it was extremely loud! Lucky i had the camera out cause they were cracking!!!


The Road ahead


me..

Joanna and Andy

Joel, me and Joanna


Sunrise from our bunkhouse - Isle of Skye












Loch Ness












7 comments:

>>>Rachel>Karen>Des>>> said...

Brad the photo's are amazing, you both look well. Not long to wait for the Contiki, hang in there. Rach & I loved reading this and what's with you Joel and the choc coated licorice up the nose YUK. Hogwarts Express WOW how fanatastic to see it is real not CGI and living in Fort William. Miss you guys love the Whelans

nathy said...

hahaha jooooeeelll taht photo with the cohollate things up ya nose iss haaaallaaaarrious!!! hahaha im putting it on my myspace. brad, your the greatest photographer ive ever seen :-P you should send some of those into national geographics, there awsome :-D far out brussel sprout.
tomoro night beau, joe and ben and beau freind emmily are comin over for a bbq and me and joe are gettin pissed lol.
wat are you guys upto? wanna come round haha....i wish :( ttys, love nathy

Anonymous said...

Brad the photo's are awesome - you are making me change my mind about travelling. It is good to see you both look well - although Jooel looks like he has a bit of a mental problem with those chocolate stick things up his nose - Hogwarts Express - I am jealous - Christopher will be amazed. Hang in there - you will lose the homesickness thing once you start travelling again - hang in on the jobs - it is a means to the end (or at least to the payment of the COntiki Tour) Miss you heaps - love to both of you xx

Anonymous said...

wow those fotos are great!
and it sounds like u guys are having an awesome time.
luv bree

Dave.Abbott said...

That tree looks awesome.

Some of the others a really nice too. Keep it up, you's get some awesome shots.

I met a Whelan the other day too, one of Alex's RAs. Forget the first name.

>>>Rachel>Karen>Des>>> said...

joely i miss u..
come home sooon !!!

Unknown said...

you guys are so lucky! the hogwarts express? THE Hogwarts Express? The HOGWARTS EXPRESS? man alive that is awesome! my life has been so boring ever since my spectacular 2 months of traveling ended. so I'm living through you two now so keep the blogs a'coming!