How many abodiginals do you see modelling? February 26, 2008

Well Mike, I can safely say that no, I didn’t see any aboriginals modeling as many do believe it takes a piece of their soul, but many don’t care for traditions when they get drunk enough which, as we’ve seen, is depressingly often. We thought their drinking habits were simply many Australians being racist, but it is instead quite true and very sad aspect of a culture that is currently having issues adapting after being treated like trash by the English for so long. Our time in Northern territory has taught us a lot about the natives and their problems, though some we’ve talked to have been extremely nice, many others are barely understandable through the intense slur from a brain floating in alcohol or petrol fumes (this is at least in larger cities, we’ve been told that their culture is much different in the outback and in their own communities away from the westernized Australia). Anyway I just wanted to mention all that because it has been a topic of long debate with many Australians we have been spending time with in Broome and Darwin, but this blog isn’t meant to depress, so lets get on to more cheery issues! If you want to discuss more about the state of the aborigines, I’d love to have a chat about it in person.

20.02.08

After using the internet we drove to a local brewery for some beers and food. We got a sampler of beers which had a fantastic berry beer, a mango beer, and a wild chili beer (very spicy). We usually avoid fruity beers, but these weren’t too sweet, but had a nice kick; very tasty. We met these two guys who were up from Perth to teach cricket to school kids in this small town for a week. We all started chatting and they invited us to another place for dinner (which in hindsight did not seem to have better food than the place we met at). It was a fun local bar with pool, good beer, and decent portions for a reasonable price. We all talked and laughed and made fun of US and Australian culture and politics (a typical topic of conversation; there’s just so much that is so easy to make fun of). We ended the night after the boys lost a game of pool as we cheered them on.

21.02.08

We did very little today, mainly bummed around the campervan park, reading and chatting; just killing time until our flight tomorrow. In the afternoon near low tide we drove to an absolutely stunning spot of beach that had the largest and most active and diverse tide pools I have ever been to! I’m talking massive crabs with all sorts of bright colors, starfish, sea slugs, and octopuses, YES, TONS of octopuses! (I keep wanting to type octopi, but it says octopuses is correct, sounds funny though). The octopuses were opaque (see through white) and when they saw you they’d instantly turn into a dark brown and hide under a rock, or spray ink out at you and swim away. They were absolutely stunning; I got some great photos for you all to check out I’ll put them up on Flickr soon. The rock formations around this area were simply surreal and the whole area is teeming with dinosaur footprints, though they are very difficult to detect and what we thought were, might have just been random crevices. I found myself regretting we hadn’t discovered this place sooner, as it got dark and we had to go home. I would have loved to spend more time exploring!

We got back to the camper park, cooked what was left of our food, shared our last bottle of beautifully buttery and oaky chardonnay and slept this night with a fan that a German couple gave us since they were turning in their campervan and didn’t need it anymore. If felt great NOT to sweat the entirety of the night!

22.02.08

We woke up very early to turn in our campervan. Had to pay a few hundred in repairs for the broken windshield. Since I realize I didn’t tell the story of the broken windshield earlier, here I go now. Well, when driving such long distances you get a bit bored and annoyed with the flies that buzz around your face in the cabin so you find ways to kill them as they lay against a window. One landed on the windshield in front of me and a was trying to tap it with the fleshy part of my fist and just as I caught it; CRACK, I made a huge spider web in the windshield. I was devastated, and I didn’t hit hard I promise, but apparently windshields, like arches, can take hits against the outer concave not under it. Oh well, it was later sort of justified when a bird full on smacked the windshield and probably would have cracked it had it not already been, but the crack never impeded vision, it was just a nuisance, and not fun to pay for repair.

We dropped off the van, took a taxi to the airport and lined up to board our flight. We were getting nervous as word of a second cyclone was on its way, and the weather was not pretty, all we wanted to do was GET TO DARWIN. If either of us had any kind of diety, now is when we’d probably pray; much good that would do! Then of course maybe I spoke too soon; as we were in line to board we were turned back from the plain to return to the terminal! Oh no, buddah, vishnu, muhammed, mother mary, or sweet naked baby jesus, please it can’t be so; the flight is canceled due to cyclone? A bomb was found in the luggage? The pilot is drunk? Armageddon is finally upon us? Zombies? Barbara Streisand is in town? No, instead some tall Yao Min, or Shaq wannabe passenger hit their head on the top of the plane while entering and dropped crumpled and unconscious to the ground. The EMT’s helped him and after just 5 minutes or so we were on the plane, FINALLY bound for Darwin!

The flight was short and sweet and we took a bus downtown where we had some terrific beer battered Barramundi and chips with a pint of Kirin. Our couchsurfing host Jack picked us up still dressed in his military camos and took us to his awesome 3 bedroom apartment overlooking the city (military pays well, and subsidizes housing up in the North Territory. I guess they want as many up there as they can in case of a “likely” attack from Bali or Singapore). Jack took us out to the bars with his military friends (they are civil engineers) who loved the fact that any tourists actually ventured up here in the middle of nowhere! That fact and they were super drunk and we got TONS of free drinks. It was a great night! We got back to meet the third couchsurfer April and slept on our nice bed with a fan keeping us cool for once.

23.02.08

We woke up and hung around the house a bit then headed out with Jack and some of his military buddies to a Saturday market. It was a huge Asian market with tons of wonderful smelling food. We ate some Indonesian food and some chicken Satay sticks with a fresh fruit smoothie to go down. Jess and I wandered around enjoying the shops and art and an belligerently drunk aboriginal man tried getting $10 from April, when she said she had no cash, he tried to show her how a nearby ATM worked. It was sad, but kind of funny and he didn’t get money from us because sadly it would only buy him more liquor.

Jack later drove Jess, April, and I to the Esplanade to do a walk along the beach and gardens. It was a fun walk interspersed with pouring rain that cleared up quickly. We found our way to a Wharf where we met a bunch of Aprils friends who have been driving all throughout Australia to Aboriginal towns to help in their communities. We ate a massive variety of fresh caught fish, squid, prawns, and crocodile meat, with some great white wine. The conversation was terrific as the whole group was lively and very knowledgeable about Australian politics and indigenous affairs. Later we went to a bar for more drinks and more lively conversation then went home and slept well.

24.02.08

Today we said bye to April and Jess and I went to a regional museum. The aboriginal art was beautiful and the exhibit on native species was simply awesome. They had very lifelike animal statues on display in all their natural habitats. There was an exhibit on Cyclone Tracy which completely flattened Darwin in the 70’s which was quite interesting considering our near cyclone experiences!

We headed to the market to get dinner ingredients and went back to Jack’s to cook us all my favorite quesodilla recipe. It was better than we’d ever cooked it, we made the tortilla from scratch and had to improvise on some ingredients we didn’t find, but it all cooked very well!

We watched cricket and tried to learn the rules better (I think i get it now) and then at 11pm we caught a taxi to the airport to get on our 1am flight to Singapore!

25.02.08

Our flight was decent, we slept well and arrived in Singapore at 3:30am. Our couchsurfer hosts wouldn’t be awake for some hours so we found a spot in the airport to sleep, ate a quick noodle and sushi dish, and rested our heads on our bags until 7am. We got a hold of our host, hopped on a train then bus and were at our new digs in no time. We learned right away how nicely priced the public transport is, as well as super efficient. We settled in and headed out with one of our hosts David to lunch with his girlfriend at a wild food market in the business district. Jess and I could not decide what to eat; there were hundreds of booths of all tasty looking cheap food. I got a some great roast duck and noodles, and Jess got a vegetarian noodle dish with the local Tiger beer.

Then we headed to Little India to shop for cheap electronics (new iPods, camera, etc). Turns out iPods are the same price anywhere you go, unless you want a crappy knockoff, so we went away empty handed, but the experience wandering through packed alley shops with fun Indian and Chinese music playing was terrific. We stepped barefoot into a massive Hindu temple just in time for one of the multi-daily prayer sessions. This was no, quiet boring prayer, or some uptight preacher with a monotone voice droning from outdated books, this was fire, colors, pounding music, bright light, insane images, statues of the most vivid depictions of the thousands of Hindu Gods, from vicious demons eating human intestine, to the divine vishnu, rama, lakshmi, and ganesh, all given their own ceremony by bald monks with white and red paint decorating their bodies who would light tons of stuff on fire. THIS is what all religion should be! People laying on the floor praying, putting hands and face in flames to purify their soul, dotting their heads with red and white ash to mark their piety. It was a wild experience, but it was only but a small taste before we go to India where it all gets multiplied by 10!!!

We headed home exhausted and fell fast asleep on our floor mattresses.

26.02.08

Today we had some tasty noodles for breakfast and headed to the nearby pool for some laps. Now we are hanging around the house, writing the blog, uploading pictures, and researching the next part of the trip to Malaysia and Thailand to begin in a couple days. This country so far is really neat. It is by far the cleanest city I have every been to. I have seen one piece of trash and not a drop of spraypaint. There are a lot of fines for breaking laws here and stuff like chewing gum is illegal, and not flushing the toilet gets a fine. Singapore has strict laws, but there is never the feeling of corrupt or fascist government, and the people seem happy and very nice. They have lots of censorship supposedly, but none at all with showing the most disgustingly brutal images of cancer, gangrene, and bloody gaping wounds on their cigarette packages. While on the train a video sits on loop depicting trains getting bombed and reminding citizens to stay vigilant and be on the lookout for suspicious people or bags. Sometimes feels a bit like 1984. Anyway, it’s a bit of a culture shock, but still quite westernized, we are told it is nothing like whats ahead where things really get different, but it’s a good city to make the transition.

Pictures coming up very soon, check them out. Hope you enjoyed the blog, they might start getting even longer and not as constant as we’ll be traveling all through smaller cities in Malaysia and Thailand so when I do write I’ll be catching up to many days without.

(We thought this add was on of the funniest things we’ve ever seen).

All’s Quiet on the Western Front… February 20, 2008

…of Australia! Okay Jess and I have averted disaster…of sorts. A minor inconvenience really. Now we are in Broome just hanging out for a couple days until our flight to Darwin on the 22nd. Since there is not much to do here I figured I’d use this time to upload some photos and write another epic blog.

12.02.08

Today we drove about 600km from Denham to Coral Bay. We passed through the city of Carnarvon which was a cute, quaint little town. We cooked up a quick lunch in Carnarvon and headed to the plantations on the outskirts where we got really cheap and tasty mangoes and bananas which are in season.

We got to Coral Bay which is a teeny little beach town great for snorkeling along its reef. We tried a snorkel nearing dusk, but conditions were no good. We parked in a caravan park, cooked dinner, talked politics with some Israelis, watched the beautiful electrical storm in the distance and slept.

13.02.08

We awoke in Coral Bay to some decent snorkeling. We saw a cool stingray and some pretty fish, then headed up to Exmouth and Cape Range National Park. What is bright red, Bright blue, bright white, with Emus ALL OVER? EXMOUTH!!! When we first hit up the Info Center there was a cute adolescent Emu right outside. These big birds thought they owned the place and were all over the streets. The info center was the opposite of helpful, a trend we find annoying, but we got an info sheet they kept telling us to look at for…info.

 

We drove through Exmouth to Cape Range National park where we spent all day snorkeling and hiking in the most exquisite waters, rocks, and sands. We saw a lot of similar fish to the Great Barrier Reef on the East Coast, except these reefs were even clearer and directly off the beach. Got to hang out with more stingrays and a white tip shark, as well as tons of big colorful fish and not a jellyfish in sight, goodbye stinger suits! Had a great hike along a gorge/river and parked in a camp spot where we met an Aussie and a Frenchy whom we drank a bit with and hung out while the kangaroos bounced around us.

14.02.08

Woke up from our pretty spot on the beach and headed slowly out the National Park, stopping at pretty things like a huge sand dune that we played in. We drove almost 700km today, but the scenery was simply breathtaking! Not too much more to say about it, as the pictures of the scenery will speak better. Simply a lot of driving and seeing the city of Port Headland which is so ugly and industrial that it’s almost pretty in some odd way. We camped at a free rest area outside the city which was by a river and had a great sunset. We cooked our own dinner as usual, read, and slept.

15.02.08 Headed from our spot to Broome. We learned at the info center that we had JUST barely missed a big cyclone heading south of Broome where we just came from. Whew! We spent some happy and relieved hours in Broome seeing a Japanese/Chinese cemetery (it became a very diverse city from the pearl farming done there, apparently the Japanese love pearl diving), the wharf, some pretty rocks and a nice beach.

Broome is the first city we have been to that has a large Aboriginal population. So far they seem really relaxed and super social; hanging out in big groups of friends and family around the city. It’s definitely a different feel up here, we like it so far. Anyway, we headed out of Broome to another 24hr free camp spot along the highway, cooked, read, fought the mossies with spray and smoke, and slept.

Alright I will be picking up where Dave left off….he is loading pictures

16.2.2008

We woke up in the middle of the night to pounding and this made us nervous having heard how quickly things flood at this time of year, so we panicked a bit and moved the car to higher ground (we were parked in a giant puddle). In the morning we continued to drive up north for the better part of the day for fear of being flooded out and not being able to make it to Darwin in time….

We stopped periodically to fill our gas tank, take pictures, and eat lunch. On the bright side the landscape was beautiful, red dirt, eucalyptus and tons of small dirt termite mounds that Dave dubbed the graveyard, because all of the termite hills looked like gravestones, cheery isn’t he?

The two towns we stopped in to fill gas were Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. Both were tiny towns with little more then a couple of gas stations and a grocery store. While stopping there, we saw huge groups of aboriginals hanging out in the shade, walking around, which was quite a bizarre picture, for the single fact that I have never seen so many people hanging out in public spaces…very different feeling. Passing through these towns we saw almost no white people, aside from the gas pump attendants, not sure whether they don’t live out there or their all busy doing stuff.

 

In Halls Creek the gas attendant took mercy on our smelly asses and let us take free showers in their facilities (usually costs money)…that was such a welcome relief.

On our way out of Halls Crossing and on our way to our 24 hour rest area we got to a couple of floodways that were flooded, the first time we were freaked out, luckily there were other people there, including a car full of local aboriginals who went right through, so we decided we could do it too and we successfully forded the river! Very exhilarating!

We got to our rest area around 7 ish and hung out and hoped the rain would stop so the road would be drivable….we were definitely nervous!

17.2.2007

In the morning we drove straight to Kunnunara, which wasn’t too far, a couple of hours of driving. We stopped to use the internet and charge our iPods for the drive and were ready to leave soon enough. Not much to the city and it was pretty quiet considering it was Sunday. One the way out we stopped at Mirima National Park (about a km outside of the city) where we did a short hike in the boiling heat. There were beautiful bright red cliffs and a variety of different trees growing in the canyons (small canyons), like a mini, mini desert scene in Utah, but quite enjoyable nonetheless. We then jumped back in the car and headed towards Darwin, but on the way out we saw a sign saying the Victoria River was impassable, but we didn’t give it much attention we were having to good of luck to take it seriously.

On our way out to Timber Creek we notice that there are very few people on the road and this begins to worry us but we decide we will find out what is happening when we get to Timber Creek can’t do anything now without phone reception. We ended up camping a little outside of Timber Creek at a campsite, all to ourselves, and we see the Victoria River, which passes right at the back of the campsite and is sure enough very full!

18.2.2007

We woke up to a crazy thunder and lightening storm, the strange thing is it is still pitch black outside, we look at the clock and it is already 8am. Very creepy, why hasn’t the sun risen yet? Soon enough, it rises and we take showers with our camp shower outside in the mud puddle and storm raging around us, a very memorable bathing experience!

We then drive to Timber Creek with our fingers crossed…but this does us no good, we fill our tank and learn that the bridge we need to cross to get to the other side of the river is under 3 meters of rain and in best conditions will clear in 3 days (would be a miracle) at worst 5 weeks. Sounds like it happens every year, why don’t they build a bigger bridge we ask, the locals tell us the government keeps saying they will but it hasn’t materialized yet….this is awful news to get 400 km away from our destination.

We call the campervan rental company to get advice, they tell us we can return it in Broome because of the circumstances…which doesn’t sound all that appealing right now because it’s about 900km from where we want to be. We decide to drive back to Kunnunara to game plan because if we don’t leave soon we may not be able to get back due to flooded roads (it is dumping rain the whole time).

 

When we get in to Kunnunara we go to the internet and do some research and decide our best bet is to go back to Broome and fly from there to Darwin. We buy plane tickets and call the rental company to confirm our decision….this sucks

We then begin our shameful drive back and when in Halls Creek learn that 8 km outside of Fitzroy Crossing the road is impassable due to a floodway…we may not make it back to even make our back-up solution…ready to give up there, but instead we drive ahead and continue to hope for the best or at least try not to break down and hide in the back of the campervan. We decide to sleep at a 24 hour sleeping area 100kms outside of Halls Creek and drive to the flooded area in the morning and wait if it was flooded. (It kind of felt like the old Oregon Trail game we played in elementary school, to ford the river or to wait? Does anyone get that reference?)

It is raining the whole way there and there are rain clouds everywhere you can look. It begins to clear up as we get near our stopping place, which was hopeful but we were still a bit nervous. We meet up with a German couple we had met at the gas station in Halls Creek and share a couple of bottles of wine and chat till it starts to rain…..things are not looking good

19.2.2008

In the morning the sun is shining and the sky is clear in all directions, things are looking good after all. We say good bye to our new friends and head towards Fitzroy crossing hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

We make it, the flood way has cleared and reduced to a smallish puddle on half the road! Looks like we are going to make it, or at least for now. We stop in the town of Derby to the Boad Prison Tree, a big tree that was hollowed out in the middle and used to keep aboriginal prison slaves by the European settlers, not such a happy story but a gorgeous tree! We snap a few photos and head to town, which is just as the guide book described it sleepy, not much to do from a tourists perspective. We stop for lunch at the jetty, cook up some grilled cheese….yum. We then drive along the jetty over the chocolaty brown water and make our way to Broome

We had plenty of time to drive into Broome but decided against it to avoid paying for a caravan park and stay at another 24 hour rest area and spend the afternoon hanging out and reading and watching the wild life around. There were tons of different birds flying around and making lots of noise, as well as countless types of bugs doing their best to show us a good time, flying in the back and terrorizing us, well more me then Dave…

At night the mozzies went crazy and even though we had all the doors shut, they were trying there best to get into the screened windows, which made Dave a little crazy, they don’t seem to like biting me as much. We ended up sticking paper in the holes they were getting through and that worked pretty well, though Dave still managed to get eaten alive. Another hot night in the campervan as well!

20.2.2008

Woke up early this morning and saw the sunrise, a rare but welcome occurrence! We ate a little breakfast, found a bug in our cereal box…extra protein right? We then headed into town and got to the Information Center with some questions. We checked into the Roebuck Bay Caravan park and take some much needed showers. We run into our German friends again, funny how that happens….we are now in town doing errands including laundry and updating the blog…traveling is tough, but well worth it!

Cheers.

Jessica and Dave

(I added some but not all photos to Flickr. More to come soon.)

 

(Typical Outback petrol station).

Worse things could happen…worse things could happen!!! February 18, 2008

Worse things COULD and HAVE happened.  At least that’s what we keep telling ourselves! 

Okay so it’s not THAT bad, I’m being melodramatic, but still, our situation SUCKS.  We are about 400km from our final destination, Darwin, on a road trip where we have driven around 6,000+ km and now a massive and ugly poo-brown river (the Victoria; ironically named after a queen) blocks our ONLY access route through to our destination.  The bridge going over the river is completely flooded 3 meters deep.  Of course a new, bigger bridge is “being built” of couse that doesn’t help us now, and the military conveniently has a bridge going WELL over the same river about 100km back, but that goes nowhere but a stupid base and isn’t available to the public; gotta love the military!  Locals say this flood happens at least once a year, and the road flooded last week (no one told us or we would have turned back then).  This delightful phenomenon could last anywhere from 5 days to 5 weeks depending on the rains and we need to turn in our van in to Darwin in three days and fly from Darwin to Singapore in six days.  So our plan now is to turn back to Broome some 800km back to drop our vehicle off there and then fly from Broome to Darwin.  Not fun, and not cheap (plus the expense of our broken windshield that needs replacing; I’ll explain later). 

So this sucks, BUT the good news is that every moment up until today has been absolutely awesome, and we have some truly phenomenal photos as well to put up.  However, as my time is limited right now, the internet quite slow, and I am not in the best mood to write about “the good ol’ days” I will write one massive long blog to get up to date, and post all the pics as soon as I can, probably by the 24th when we’re in Darwin and we have a few days to just chill and NOT drive average 600km per day for once (The last 4 days have we been driving that much or more). 

So for those of you thinking “golly gee wiz; Dave and Jess have been having too much fun, it’s just not fair” (and I know you’re out there thinking that), this can be your moment of Schadenfreude, but not for long as in just 6 days we’ll be in SOUTH EAST ASIA and all the money wasted here on expensive stuff will be saved there where it’s crazy cheap, and hopefully not plagued with monsoon and cyclones!  Funny cyclone story; we barely missed a one hitting us by about a day; we considered ourselves lucky then, what happened to that luck now?!)

Anyway…as the greatest road trip song in the world from the greatest road trip movie ever goes… ‘On the road again…’

The great insect massacre of 2008!!! February 11, 2008

I am reffering of course to the endless supply of dead insect carcasses on our windshield, and the swarms on our bodies and in our car cabin that we have been mercilessly slaughtering! Anywho, onto the blog from where I left it, once again it will be quick as it is expensive and rare in the OZ outback, and I am dripping sweat onto the rubber keyboard.

06.02.08 (again)

We ended up taking a tour of a beautiful cave called Jewel cave, and deciding we must stay one more night before heading to Albany to checkout Lake cave in the morning and the Leeuwin lighthouse “where two oceans meet” (Indian and Southern I think). So we did all that and at night parked in a sketchy empty lot surrounded by lots of animal skeletons.

07.02.08

We woke up early and did a tour of another absolutely gorgeous cave. This one was called lake cave and was even more enormous and beautiful than the last. We headed east towards Albany and along the way came across Dave Evan’s Bicentenial Tree in a massive and beautiful forrest. The tree was 75 meters tall and the best part was…we got to climb it! There was a series of somewhat sketchy bars of steel sticking at that you climb like a diagonal ladder that lead to enclosed section where we climbed actual metal ladders. This was NOT for those with any fear of heights, even we were terrified the whole time as a simple slip of a foot meant a long fall down. It was however VERY worth the climb for the view from the top!!!

We made our way to Albany and drove south to a National parkwhere we camped the night by a massive rock structure in the ocean called “the gap.” It was great to sleep to the pounding of the vicious surf.

08.02.08

Today was mostly uneventful. We drove all the way from Albany to Perth all day, got our fan belt checked out cause it made weird noise, and met with our german/kiwi friends again Sylvia and Glenn in Perth for a great night of chatting and picture sharing.

09.02.08

We started our LONG journey north today and drove to the stunning and unique Pinnacles in Nambung Natl. Park. The beaches along the drive are gorgeous and we slept at a lookout point between a couple teeny villages.

10.02.08

Another long day of driving and killing flies, checking out beaches and exploring historical villages (Greenough). We made it to our first major destination; Sharks Bay. On one beach we checked out some Stromalotites (Cyanobacteria). They are an ancient 3.5 billion year old strain of single celled organisms that makes large black rock-like towers in the pristine, highly acidic, bright blue waters where it has no predators and one of the only places in the world it thrives. The beaches are covered in a sea of tiny white shells that thrive in the hot acid water (that burns eyes, ears, nose, and mouth to swim in, but feels like a hot tub). We camped off the road some with a polish couple sharing the lot who we spoke at length with.

11.02.08

We spent our morning in Monkey Mia with dolphins swimming around our ankles. We both got to feed them, but not pet them unfortunatly. We took a small sail where we saw tons more dolphins in the glass clear waters, as well as dugongs (small manatees), sting rays, sea snakes, flying fish, and turtles. Now we are in the small city of Denham which is like a tiny ghost town, but with pretty water.

Jessie wanted me to say that we LOVE all your comments. Everyone’s feedback is great, and all are welcome to write as often as they want, it is really great to hear from everyone. We very much appreciate our regulars as well (yeah you dad), and if anyone has any questions about the trip, or the blog, or requests for writing about something more specific, etc, feel free to ask in comment on this blog and I’ll answer in the next. I added some pictures awhile ago onto Flickr, but no recent ones as the internet is primitive and rare here in the Outback.

Thanks for reading!!!

Baby blue waters and baby butt-white sand… February 6, 2008

…lest I mention the fine wines, cheese, beer, and chocolates that we have spent the last few days vigorously tasting, interspersed with some skin diving, socializing, driving in our new campervan, and spraying more than enough bugspray. We are in SouthWest Australia at last!!! I’ll give a quick rundown because I have little time.

01.02.08 – 02.02.08

We flew into Perth, spent two days with an awesome Kiwi/German couple that have travelled the globe and gave us great advice. Those two days were filled with lots of beer and a terrific farmers market in Fremantle.

03.02.08

Then we got our kickass Campervan which has been our home the last 3 nights. We slept the first night along a gorgeous inlet where I went Crabbing (wadding in water trying to catch crabs before they pinched my ankles off). We had a sweet thunderstorm and met some neighbors with cute dogs.

04.02.08

Next day we checked out some beaches, a MASSIVE pier (one of the longest in the world), skin dived around a swarm of jellyfish (that didn’t last long), saw a big lighthouse and camped in a parking lot along a beautiful beach!

05.02.08

Then yesterday we went on a wine tour of 5 luscious winery’s and a chocolate factory, met some Aussie friends, cooked some veggies on the barbie, and sprayed lots of bugspray to keep the swarming insects off.

06.02.08

Today we tasted some more wines, some beer, and some cheese, saw some beautiful beaches and rocks in the bright blue warm water, and next we head to Albany, stopping at more beaches, national forests, and caves along the way!

Cheers!!!

Boat to Plane to Boat to Taxi…to Taxi to Boat to Plane to Boat! January 31, 2008

I know the title doesn’t make any sense…YET!

29.01.08

(I decided to pick up the tradition Jess started last blog and write in “proper” date format).

Today was again full of excitement. We woke up to the usual incredible breakfast in the lobby, and after some time hanging around chatting we caught a Ferry at the Circular Quays to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. We got a Gold Tour of the zoo in which we were taken around by two volunteer guides to see “behind the scenes” of the Australian exhibits. It was a very fun tour and we got up close and personal with Echidnas, Koalas, Possums, Kangas, Quakas, Turtles, Snakes, Emus, Birds, and other native species. We even got a tour of the kitchens where they prepare all their meals. The tour was fun, although I thought we’d get more touchy-feely with some of the animals (our fingers were crossed to let us play with koalas!), but we only got to handle a select few of the animals (possum, kanga, snake, quaka, and that’s about it). My favorite animal being the Quaka which is like a TINY kangaroo just bigger than a rat (you’ll see in the pics). After the tour we meandered around the zoo. We didn’t have much time left, but we saw the highlights; a brand new baby gorilla, and a MASSIVE komodo dragon!

We got back via ferry, had a couple drinks, and headed to the botanical gardens for some more adventure. Here we saw all the Lorikeets, Bats, and Cockatoos come to life as the sun set and showed Mom and Marc all the gorgeous plants. We had a tasty meal at a wonderful hidden Thai restaurant and went to our hotel rooms for sleepy.

30.01.08

Ate the usual awesome breakfast buffet in the lobby and had a seaplane booked for the day. We hopped on a water taxi that took us to the plane and jumped on with our pilot for an over-sydney adventure to a quaint ritzy little beach town on the outskirts! The flight was short but SWEET, and we took some great pics. Once landed we took a boat to a land taxi that took us up to a magnificent restaurant on a hill overlooking a stunning beach and ocean view. We sucked on some fine wines, whiskeys, and bloody mary’s, enjoyed the view from the patio, took some pictures and headed in to our lunch table. The entire meal was absolutely unforgettable!!! Appetizers with fresh crab, eel, scallops, delightful chardonnay, and mains of crumbling veal, succulent duck, and the best steak any of us had every touched our lips too. It was followed by creme brulees, peach stacks, blackberry ice cream, and a tasty mushy white thing that looked like a pointy silicon boob…all accompanied by two absolutely to die for dessert wines that were like sucking the sweetest nectar straight out of a flower.

After our simply scrumtrulescent dining experience we got word that a storm was a-brewin’ and hopped back on the taxi to the boat to the plane to to boat and back to the hotel (get the title yet?) We were all too stuffed and tipsy to muster anything else so we all just hung around the rooms relaxing, bathing, watching films, uploading pictures, and later fell fast asleep…eating can take a lot out of you.

So all our pictures so far are up on-line at Flickr.com. Check out the link again to the right and view the set “Sydney w/mom.” I also put up a small set of pics from Brisbane.

Enjoy!

(WE finally got our Indian Visas!!!)

Our first visit from the U.S. and A! January 29, 2008

26.1.2008 Australia Day

Today we said goodbye to the Mulgrew’s and flew from Brisbane to Sydney, a relatively stress free flight. We stayed at Eva’s Backpackers in Kings Cross, an area full of strip clubs, clubs, backpackers and sloppy drunks…. basically we fit right in. The hostel was great, super clean with free Internet (which didn’t really work) and a balcony with an amazing view of the city. We saw some fireworks, but were in the wrong part of the city, so only saw a sliver of them between the tall buildings, still enjoyable though…we walked around the Darlinghurst St (main street), saw an amazing looking hooker, fit the bill to the tee, tall clear plastic heals, fishnet stockings, long crimped and dyed hair, painted eyebrows (just a bit too high), lips as colorful as a parrotfish, large fake ta-tas, wearing little more than her birthday suit…in a word hilarious; wish we had gotten a picture, but she will live on in my thoughts.

27.1.2008

Today we woke up early, packed up and schlepped ourselves and our stuff over to the Rocks to meet Linda and Marc at the Park Hyatt….definitely felt a bit out of place as we walked in sweaty with giant backpacks on, but the staff was gracious and offered to take our bags. We met Linda and Marc in their room, hung around for a bit, opened a bottle of Marsanne to celebrate their arrival and being on vacation and then headed out into the city to explore a bit. Went to the Sydney Aquarium, which was packed because it was Australia Day weekend, but saw some big sharks and lots of other pretty fish….we then walked around Darling Harbour for a bit and stopped for a snack and drink at a cafe along the harbour, Blue Fish, got a bucket of prawns that turned out to be a mission and a half to eat, because we had to take off their heads and skin and pretty much everything! We then meandered our way through the city to Hyde Park, saw the War Memorial and walked through the park to the end where we caught a cab back to the hotel…. went to bed early for our long day tomorrow.

28.1.07

Up early to catch breakfast before our driver came to give us the grand tour of the city….the breakie buffet was delicious with a little bit of everything, the best being mango that melted in your mouth. At 9am we jumped into the car with Ian, our guide for the first half of the day, we drove all over the city starting at The Rocks and winding our way all the way to the Ocean through all kinds of neighborhoods and then finally dropped us off at the Fish Markets for lunch. Ian was a wealth of information and good thing because we had a lot of questions for him and some extra strange ones coming from Dave, of course…. For lunch we ate at Doyles and all had fish and chips, so tasty and fresh! We walked around the market for a bit and saw some strange looking fish and smelled a whole lot more, then taxied our way back to the city centre, where much to Dave’s chagrin we did a bit of shopping at the Queen Victoria Building for a couple of hours. Walked back to the hotel and took a much needed break, but 45 minutes later we were back out the door and walking to the Royal Botanical Gardens for dusk to see the bats come a live and also to see the Cockatoos and Lorikeets; noisy little birds! We walked around there for a while and Linda was continuously dive bombed by Cockatoos and other crazy birds, but we all made it out alive….we stopped for drinks near Circular Quay and then made our way back to the hotel and stopped for a light dinner at Wolfie’s, where the food was less than exciting, but on the bright side there was a pretty amusing drunk girl who by the end of our meal had her hands in her meat pie and was snatching food from her embarrassed friends plates. A long day to say the least!

-Jessica

The fantastic barrier reef! January 25, 2008

01.19.08

After the last post I gave on this day we hopped on our boat and were introduced to the 21 other travellers we would be staying with on Pacific Star.  The crew seemed nice so far; we had a kiwi dive instructor, a kiwi deckhand, an Aussie cook, and an Aussie skipper.  Our room was more spacious than I’d imagined, and we shared with a British girl.  Our bed was quite large and her bed was a smaller one tucked up above ours.  We had little floor space though, and though we had our own bathroom to share it was quite small and you had to crouch down really low to sit on the can.  All much better than we’d anticipated however. 

Everyone met on the bow of the boat and got to know one another.  Everyone was around the same age range from 20 – 30, and even the crew was young.  Jess and I instantly schmoozed it up with the only German couple who became our instant friends, and we also discovered we weren’t the only Americans for once!  One guy from Washington, and his girlfriend from California.  Some canucks aboard as well, an Irish couple, and the rest all English. 

Quickly after departure from the dock people started getting seasick left and right; especially the Brits, many who had never been on a boat before.  Jess and I were fine and were lulled to sleep by the sway of the boat.

01.20.08

The first day on board was great fun.  We hit up Whitehaven beach, which is supposed to be a lot more beautiful, but it was high tide and cloudy.  We bushwalked through the island to the beach and donned our stinger suits for the first times.  (They protect us from the massive amounts of Jellyfish, including the dreaded Irukandji whose sting can sometimes kill and is only the size of a fingernail).  The water was beautiful and warm and we saw tons of brightly colored stingrays darting past us.  The gorgeous white sand on the beach was something like 97% silica so it was super fine, and the same sand used to make the glass in the hubble telescope.  The only downside of this paradise were the massive amount of people on the beach, and the equally annoying blood flies that bit hard and swarmed like mad. 

Once back aboard the boat we headed to the outer reef where we jumped in the water as quick as possible.  It was a quick swim through a void of deep black to the reef itself which snuck up on us as a glorious underwater monolith.  I can’t even describe how gorgeous it is, and the pictures do it NO justice.  Huge brightly colored clams, fish, starfish, many pretty jellyfish, and a wonderful variety of anenome, coral, and rock of all vivid colors.  I got a little freaked out after I thought I saw an Irukandji; the idea of hallucinating, vomiting, and diarreah from a jelly sting to my face did not excite me so I went in after only a couple hours, with Jessica grudgingly following and laughing at how much of a sissy I am.  The cook made a tasty dinner; we ate, socialized, and slept. 

01.21.08

Woke to breakfast and ate some toast with butter and Vegemite (weird tangy, black, bitter, yeast extract the Aussies and Kiwis eat all the time), which I am getting used to and quite enjoying by this point.  Today I completely got over my Irukandji fear (nothing to fear anyway, only 2 people per season get stung) and Jess and I spent around 6 hours in the water throughout the day exploring all the different spots of the reef surrounding us.  One excellent spot were the “stepping stones;” a collection of circular pillars of reef all separated by a few feet and bunched into a large area.  The highlights of the day were spotting a moray eel, following a beautiful white tip shark who got mere feet from us, spotting a cuddle fish (squid like fish that looks really unique; I got a pic of it), swimming through millions of little bright blue and silver sardine-like fish, and similar schools of neon blue, and dark blue fish, hanging around a Buffalohead Parrotfish (which is a massive tank of a fish with a huge flat forehead who chomps on the coral like a cow making loud crunching sounds), finding Nemo (or rather all variety’s of clown fish EXCEPT for the true clownfish which is Nemo, but we got close enough), and generally enjoying the incredible variety of coral and super bright fish.  It was mainly Jess, me, and another couple all hanging out snorkeling all day, while some took turns scuba diving (we didn’t partake because our ears are bad) and others were just lazy/scared and layed around on the deck getting skin cancer all day.

Three of the crew members got really sick with some stomach bug yesterday and today, but by the end of the day they were all better.  Some more experienced divers did a terrifying night dive and everyone cheered them on.  Dinner was great as usual, and since it is the last night on board, everyone whipped out the liquor; drank and listened to bad, cheesy house music.  The Irish kept the night alive with their dancing though Jess, me and the other “boring” people hung out and chatted outside enjoying the beautiful sunset and bright moon cascading its white light over the black sea. 

01.22.08

Today we started our return to Airlee, but stopped by an island beach for some more snorkeling.  The snorkeling here was quite good, though we didn’t get as close to the coral and creatures as at the outer reef.  We did however see a magnificent sea turtle which we followed for a long time.  There were lots of bigger fish here, and tons of jellyfish that were so elegant and fun to watch as the little cleaner fish ate the bacteria off their backs.  By far the highlight of the day was seeing a group of three leopard colored fish getting a cleaning by “cleaner” fish.  The three just sat very still and dormant with their gills wide open as these little bright neon blue fish swam in and out of their mouths, gills, and all over their bodies, cleaning them of all bacteria. 

We got back on the boat, took some group pictures, chatted it up and made our way back to shore.  I searched the whole way for whales and dolphins, but to our dismay, saw none.  When we finally got to Airlee beach we had an awful time finding a hostel as they were all booked.  We found one out of the way and headed back downtown to meet the whole boat for some farewell drinks at a local bar.  We definitely felt quite sick stumbling around with wobbly legs used to the sway of the boat, and at the bar Jess had a nice puke session in the bathroom.  Apparently she wasn’t the only sick one however, as only one more member of the boat came to the bar…the irish girl.  The crew had given nearly everyone the stomach bug we heard, and almost everyone was throwing up.  I was lucky enough to not get it, but Jess puked a few more times in the night, but wasn’t as bad off as the crew had been.  We fell asleep REALLY early and slept 12 hours.  We were exhausted from the cruise adventures.

01.23.08

Today was mostly uneventful.  We took some pics around Airlee “beach” (it’s really more of a strand of rocks along a harbor) and headed tot eh airport for our flight to Brisbane.  It was delayed an hour, but we waited and read.  After a quick flight we were in Brisbane, and after a quick romp through the city we were at the doorstep of the Mulgrew’s apartment building at Kangaroo Point.  They treated us to a great BBQ dinner and a luxurious couch to sleep on and wanted to hear all about our trip.  We slept well, and long again.

01.24.08

Jess and I explored the art/museum scene of Brisbane today.  The walk along the river was probably the best part, and the water taxis quickly became my favorite part of the city.  The art was fun, accompanied by an unexpected drag show.  We walked through the main city streets, got some groceries, and went back to the Mulgrews where we made Skorthalia for them and Viv made spaghetti.  We talked a bunch, we showed them pictures, and went to bed. 

01.25.08

Today we’ve done more Brisbane exploring, and shopping for some minor things, but I’ve spent what feels like most of the day here at the Internet center writing this blog, but finally I am done!!!

Check out the pictures on the link I put on the top right in the green box under ”Blogroll” it says “All Flickr photos” click it, and check out the set ”Whitsundays.”

Why won’t the screen stop swaying? January 22, 2008

A few hours ago we touched land again for the first time in three days, however it certainly feels like everything is still swaying back and forth…side to side…the lamb vindaloo we just ate hasn’t helped that either… 

So the trip was absolutely phenomenal!!!  Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef was definitely a must do in a lifetime, and an experience I will certainly never forget (unless I get a strong slam to my brain and suffer from amnesia one day; knock on wood…oh shit NO WOOD, what do I do now, does plastic work!?).  Anyway, all jokes aside; a concussion is no laughing matter, unless you hit the part of your brain that makes you laugh a lot I suppose, though I doubt that is common.  So…I’m just babbling, and the only reason I am writing this is because I am killing time before we go out to the bar across the street to meet with the folks on our boat for a farewell drink.  I’ll write about the trip in great detail tomorrow, and add the hopefully not to crappy pictures from my disposable underwater camera too!

Just cruisin’ January 19, 2008

01.17.08

Somewhat uneventful day. Got a lot of planning done however, and headed out to bars/clubs at night with Nat, Errol, and Sina. The bar was packed with freshmeat university students at Bond, and was just the typical bar hangout. Took a trip to a crappy club called The Bedroom in downtown Surfers Paradise (yes thats the name of a city). Though there were beds throughout the club they wouldn’t let me sleep on any of them! Very trashy downtown area with filthy humans leaving their trash and cigarette butts everywhere; not my favorite aspect of the human species.

01.18.08

Took a train to Brisbane and a cheap flight to Whitsunday’s coast in the morning. It is crazy humid here, and VERY tropical feeling. Jessie accidently stepped on a pair of cane toads having sex in the dark, and in our wild hostel area we nearly stumbled upon what we believed to be a king brown (among the most poisonous snakes in the world). Later that night we saw the same snake in a tree devouring a bird right outside our room. Other than that exciting stuff, the city is mainly about partying and drinking; not our scene, though some brits did drag us out for an hour to a pub.

01.19.08

Just killing time until the big event tonight when we board our boat, Pacific Star, and head out for our 3 day/3 night journey snorkling the Whitsunday islands and the Great Barrier Reef. We’ll be completely out of touch so when aliens and zombies flood the earth and slaughter all humans in a massive bloodbath…we won’t find out about it until tuesday about 4pm, so you can use your parasite infected, zombie slush, or brainwashed alien brain to call us then.  See ya!