MEMORIES
and STORIES
from the past - when we were young
Memories,
adventures,
incidents, events and happenings
Doreen and I have had an amazing life together. We have
visited
over 60
countries, walked, hiked, climbed, dived, jumped, motor-homed and
cruised . We lived in the Caribbean for about 7 years and visited most
of the islands there. We went on a Round
the World Trip (RTWT) for a year.
Some of the events have been seen, or will be seen, on This Week's
Picture on my home page. This page is a general reference to our
memories, activities and experiences, together and separate. The source
of the item is in green.
Below are some of
our memorable experiences.
If not
otherwise noted quotes are from Doreen's chronicles of many of our
adventures.
2002 - DOREEN CLIMBS A 75 METER
TREE.
RTWT - Western Australia
"We stopped at Warren National Park and drove through virgin karri
forest to the centennial tree. There are a number of trees in the
area that can be climbed and this one is the highest. It has pegs
circling the living tree to the top. I climbed about 5 meters for a
photograph then looked down and decided that I really didn't want to do
this and climbed back down. While we sat and agreed that it was
ridiculous to do it, I looked again and decided that actually I could
do it. I would not have done it if it were objectively dangerous, like
raining or wet or windy. But when the fear is only in the mind I like
to challenge that fear and try to overcome it. Although the rungs that
are vertical look quite forbidding it is the spaced rungs that are
harder to negotiate. Seventy five meters up a tree is very high and in
all directions the treetops were below the platform. There is no
photograph from up there, as I didn’t want my camera to get entangled
in the spokes. My thighs ached for days afterwards." [link for more details]
1990
- DIVING TO SEE SLEEPING SHARKS
Diving log
We have dived in many places in the world - including Sinai, Great
Barrier
Reef, Belize, Fiji, Mocambique, Caribbean, New Zealand and Eilat. We
dived
usually to see fish and coral reefs, but in Mexico off the island of
Isla Mujeres near Cancun, we dived to see the sleeping shark caves.
Sharks normally need to keep constantly swimming to breath but in a few
places the phenomenon of stationary "sleeping" sharks have been
observed. See more
here.
From my Diving Log: "Saw a beautiful nurse shark sleeping (about
2.5
m)
with as ray right
next to the slits. Also another bottom <shark> half the
same size.
Dived with Mecca Divers - a lousy operation. Also 3 pain in the neck
Americans (father + son + daughter).
2002 - FISH and FISHING
Fish and fishing have played a big part in our lives, whether fishing,
eating or viewing. Raising tropical fish was an important hobby, I did
a year's course in Ichthyology at University and of course I was
associated with the Coral World Organization (underwater viewing
towers and aquariums) for over 20 years.
We have reported on more informal fishing stories over the years
including the following.
RTWT - South Australia and the
Great Ocean road:
"A
few days later we reached Apollo Bay and checked in at a caravan park.
Next to us a family was also unpacking. Eitan went off to do the
washing when I heard a knock on our door. A young girl, about 12, stood
there with a bucket and a small fish inside. “Your husband asked me to
catch a fish,” she said as I stood looking at her. Eitan had jokingly
told her to catch a fish for him for supper. There were only 3 rods and
4 family members but she insisted that she get a rod and was delighted
to be the first to catch a fish. While Eitan was barbecuing the meat
and her tiny fish at the communal barbecue there was another knock and
she brought another fish, a bigger mullet this time!"
RTWT - SE Victoria
"At Eagle Point we stopped at the Silt Jetties. Although it looks
as
if the river has carved a path through the valley, in actual fact the
river has been appreciably narrowed by the build up of silt flowing
through it. Eitan went fishing. When he caught only one bream that was
too small for a meal Eitan reluctantly filleted his fish which we added
to our seafood medley with generous splashes of Pernod and enjoyed a
delicious marinara spaghetti."
"The fish festival continued when we arrived
at Lakes Entrance, which has the largest commercial fishing fleet in
Australia. Early Monday morning, which was a long weekend, we bicycled
along the pier and stopped to watch a crane with a large net scooping
out little fish from the hull of a fishing vessel. The fish were then
packed and stacked high on a waiting truck. The people were friendly
and didn't mind chatting. The fish were pilchards, for bait and cat
food. But I remembered eating canned pilchards many years ago in South
Africa and I thought that because they were so fresh, we could eat them
like sardines. The foreman said if we would wait he would get us a
plastic bag and sell us a kilo of pilchards, or as many tons as we
wanted. They were unloading 50 tons of fish that day and did it as
often as there were fish. After some time the foreman came and said
that since we were so poor that we didn’t have a car (we were on our
bicycles) he would charge us $2.00! Half we fried and ate. They
were like the best sardines. The other half we salted and then
put in oil and they were like plump and not so salty anchovies.
Oh what a life, living off the fat of the land."
RTWT- Sydney
"We
did some entertaining in our caravan when David and Sheryl Levy,
Eitan’s cousins, came for lunch. It was with pride that we were able to
serve up a very nice meal around a tuna and apple salad, homemade
pilchard-anchovies (from our visit to Lake's
Entrance) with potatoes and yogurt and a delicious cheesecake that they
brought.
It was nice seeing David again and getting to know Sheryl. We sat and
talked for hours until it was time for us to go to the opera again."
EITAN'S GRANDFATHER
An account of a very young me falling out of Oupa's car without
him noticing.
This Week's Picture 20 Dec 2025 Link
