Yippy yi okay! Having free internet at the library in Melbourne makes it easy to catch up on my photo journal. Please enjoy this photo album from the second part of my trip through the Outback.
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Melbourne, AU
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
New Photos Posted: Darwin to Alice Springs
Hi hi hi! New photos posted from my time in Darwin and my road trip from there to Alice Springs. Enjoy!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Melbourne, AU
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Melbourne, AU
Outback Adventures 2: The Red Centre
July 10, 2008
Up at 5 AM. My room in the hostel was not heated and I only had my silk sleeping bag liner and one thin bed sheet to sleep under. I was astonishingly cold. I was warmer sleeping in my sleeping bag in the tent on the horse farm. I think it was only 4 degrees. I checked out of my room and waited for my pick up for my next tour.
I expected Nicole (the Australian girl) and Jan (the Czech guy) from my previous tour to be on my bus for the second one. It was not to be, however. They ended up on another bus. My new group was not nearly as fun as the group I had before. It was five French kids who traveled together and mostly chattered away in French to each other, two Swiss girls who smoked like chimneys and mostly kept to themselves, three more sociable German girls, and a friendlier English girl named Laura (though not as friendly as Claire was).
Our tour guides were Aaron (also known as “Azza”) and Brett. Azza was an experienced guide and Brett was the assistant who was still learning the ropes. Their music tastes were similar to mine and all three of us sat at the front of the bus blasting and rocking out to music. The self centred French kids kept asking us to turn it down so they could sleep, but Azza said he couldn’t since he didn’t want to fall asleep while driving.
Oh yes, this tour would involve a lot of driving, too... about 1400 km over three days. The land was even more rugged and barren that it was on the road to Alice Springs. The landscape was dominated by sand dunes, salt lakes, mountains, and huge areas of brilliant red sand and dust. The dust got on everything. I think my shoes will be permanently stained red now. I spent time starting out of the bus watching the desert-like landscape pass by, but after a few hours it got repetitive and boring.
We stopped at a few roadhouses on the way to our day’s actual destination, Yulara -- the town nearest to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. We stopped there for lunch before heading out to Kata-Tjuta (also known as “The Olgas” or “Mount Olga”) itself. The area consisted of a large area of many rock mounds that towering hundreds of metres above the landscape. They weren’t really mountains, but a large conglomerate of boulders and other smaller rocky material eroded off of older mountain ranges. From the distance, it looks like a huge pile of boulders huddling together on the horizon. Once you get up close, though, those huge boulders look like mountains looming above you.
We were constantly pestered with black flies while hiking through the valleys between the individual rock formations. These flies wanted our moisture and were constantly buzzing around your ears and face trying to get a lick of sweat off of you. They would even fly underneath my glasses and try to land near my eyes. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of the starving children in Africa with flies all over their faces, constantly buzzing around? I kind of felt like that (though I doubt I had THAT many flies on me).
After Kata Tjuta, we moved onto the real star of the show, the enigmatic Uluru (also known as “Ayer’s Rock”) We didn’t visit the Rock itself that night, but went to the official sunset viewing area. The area was loaded with tourists drinking champagne watching the Rock change colours during the setting of the sun. We didn’t have champagne, our tour wasn’t so fancy. The Rock sure was pretty, though!
The visit to Uluru itself would have to wait until the next morning. We went back to campsite at Yulara for dinner. Our guides said we were having “Aussie Style Stir Fry.” Since they cooked it on the barbecue, I asked if that’s what made it “Aussie Style”, since none of the ingredients seemed particularly out of the ordinary to me. Azza said, yes, because of the barby, but also because an Aussie was cooking it! Ha ha. What a joker.
After the sunset, it started to get very chilly again. The campfire and alcohol kept us warm. I had a very expensive ($32) bottle of Amarula fruit cream to drink. I had enough of freezing during my other nights of camping and remembered how wonderful Bailey’s or another cream liqueur can be while camping, especially when poured into hot chocolate. We didn’t drink that much though. We had to wake up very early the next morning, so at 10 PM we got into our swags and went to bed under the stars.
What’s a swag? It’s the traditional Aussie bushman’s outdoor sleeping gear: a canvas bag with a padded bottom. You’d put a sleeping bag inside the swag and pull the flap of the swag over your head while sleeping. No sleeping bag. No tent. Even though it was approaching freezing temperatures outside, inside a sleeping bag in a swag with the flap pulled over your head, you could sleep in perfect comfort under the stars. What an experience!
July 11, 2008
Again, up early. This time at 5:30 AM: before the sunrise. That was the whole point, of course. We wanted to be back at Uluru during the sunrise. Totally worth it.
Our tour guides had done this before. As we drove up to The Rock with the sun barely above the horizon in the East, the guides played songs from the Delerium “Karma” on the bus stereo. First they played “Silence” (featuring Sarah McLachlan). They thought, though, that the song was called “Sunrise”! That’s why they played it. I’d been listening to the same CD for ten years, so I knew the real name. Ha ha. After Silence, they played “Enchanted” and “Duende” from the same album. Why do I remember the music so well? It was such a powerful experience. It was the perfect choice of songs, with tribal rhythms and chanting. I felt very moved. The moments would be burned into my memory forever.
Similar songs have the same effect with me. I associate Björk’s song “Isobel” with mountains, especially the Carpathian mountains in southern Poland. Everytime I listen to that song, I remember the day that we drove from the amazing city Kraków to the mountain town of Zakopane, far up in the southern Polish mountains. Why do I have this memory? I don’t know. I was listening to it on my sister’s CD player that one day while staring at the mountains passing while sitting in my uncle’s car. That moment, with the accompanying soundtrack, has been burned into my memory forever, too... just like now I will probably forever associate the songs Enchanted and Duende with that morning on the red dusty plains deep in the Australian Outback.
I wanted to climb Uluru (even though the Aboriginal people discourage it), but due to the high winds, the summit was closed. Instead, I went on the ten kilometre walk around the base of the giant walk. The wind off of the plains was cold and biting. I was wearing four layers of clothing: a t-shirt, a thin long sleeved cotton shirt, my hoodie, and my windbreaker jacket. I was still cold. The wind blew at my face so hard that tears were forced from my eyes. It didn’t matter. The sun was coming up and illuminated the clouds with a kaleidoscope of colours.
At the same time, Uluru itself was changing before my eyes. As the sun climbed above the horizon and peeked past the different layers of clouds, the massive monolith literally changed colours before my eyes. It started black, of course, before the sun came up, but then went through rusty and dark shades of red, brilliant fluorescent oranges, and ruddy browns. Later in the day as we drove away, it looked blue. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? No, this miracle happens here every day.
I was enraptured and overstimulated. The wind whipped around me as I took photos of the blinding sun, the silhouetted trees, the feather wispy clouds, and the monolith that dominated everything and everyone around it.
The walk was supposed to take two or three hours, but I was the slowest. The rest of the group got ahead of me. I was the last person back to the bus. Everyone had been waiting about twenty minutes for me. Ooops. I guess I got caught up in the moment.
The walk around Uluru was self-guided, but our guides took us on a shorter walk around a few of the special parts. The whole area was sacred to the Aboriginal people and was bound up in history. Many of the stories are kept secret by the local tribes, but some of their children’s stories and legends are public knowledge. Our guides showed us where the local tribes believed that their ancestors were bound up in rock formations and caves. No wonder the Aboriginals believe that Uluru is sacred -- they can see their own ancestors in the very living rock.
Unlike Kata-Tjuta (which is a conglomeration of many rocks fused together over time), Uluru is one giant rock, formed millions of years ago as sand from eroded mountains collected and pressed together into one giant mass of sandstone. Only a few hundred metres of this rock protrude above the surface of the earth. Scientists believe that the rock extends six kilometres deeper down. It’s believed to be the second largest single rock in the world (after a somewhat larger rock in Western Australia -- though less of that rock protrudes above the Earth’s surface, and it is not as steeped in legend and history as Uluru is).
I started the day with four layers of clothing since it was so cold. As the sun climbed higher into the sky, it got hotter and hotter and I had to start removing layers. First, the windbreaker, then long-sleeved shirt. Once it got to noon, it was hot enough that the hoodie had to go, too. The funny thing was, as the sun started to go down, the layers had to go back on, too, in reverse order. The temperature changed that much during one day. I always knew deserts (or “semi-arid areas”) were supposed to be like this, but it was the first time I had really experienced it myself. I hope I was up for eight straight days of it during the Burning Man Festival. I was going to need more clothes before I got to Nevada at the end of August.
After a stop at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre (basically a museum and cafe), we went back to Yulara for lunch. When we got there, I eagerly went to the refrigerator to get my Amarula to put into my cocoa. It was gone. Our guides neglected to tell us that its not legal to leave alcohol lying around where the aboriginals can find it. The owner of the campsite was notorious for taking the law into his own hands and confiscating any alcohol that he finds lying around. Shit. I wish I had known. Even though the aboriginals are notorious for not being able to handle alcohol and starting fights, I certainly can!!!
It really was sad. Many of them were uprooted from their traditional cultures and lives only a few scant generations ago. The aboriginal people in Australia really hadn’t adapted to Western civilization very well. The evidence was everywhere. I had seen many of them walking the streets (or more often, sitting around the streets) looking grumpy, frumpy, dirty and disheveled. Many of them didn’t have the proper upbringing to teach them which foods are nutritious in Western civilization and which ones, though easy to get and delicious, are terrible (i.e.: many fast foods). They hadn’t had generations of alcohol drinkers to give them the tolerance, practice, or know-how to handle alcohol and abused the stuff. There were many restrictions to buying or keeping alcohol in the Northern Territory towns I had passed through in the previous days. It was more expensive than other places and you always had to show your ID. It was illegal for anyone to buy alcohol and give it to an aboriginal. Many areas were completely dry. Alice Springs was known as the most dangerous cities in Australia, where the aboriginals often got in fights with each other and kids ran amok while their parents weren’t watching them. I saw more shopping carts on the streets of Alice Springs than I did anywhere else. Kids went for joyrides in them all the time.
So, my Amarula was gone. Oh well, I had already lost lots of things on this trip. Head phones, t-shirts, socks, books, whatever. I had given up on being too materialistic. It wasn’t worth fussing over in the end... even though it was a nice (and expensive) bottle of liquor. Oh well...
After lunch, we packed up and made the long drive from Yulara to King’s Canyon (about a four or five hour drive). We set up camp again. This camp didn’t have a barby, so we had dinner cooked right on the campfire itself: spaghetti bolognese. Oh yes, we were definitely having gourmet meals there in The Outback.
After dinner, we played some campfire games. Laura had an inflatable boxing kangaroo named “Skippy.” We passed the kangaroo around and took turns saying, “Skippy, we are leaving tomorrow. I love you and want to say goodbye by kissing you on the kangaroo part.” We would then each kiss Skippy in a different part. No one could kiss Skippy in the same place as anyone else. The game seemed very easy: a simple repetition game.
After we had passed Skippy around twice, Laura told us about the rest of the rules! We then had to pass our marsupial companion, say the lines again, but kiss the PERSON TO OUR LEFT in the same place we had kissed Skippy before. Oh, how risqué! The French kids protested! They should have been told before! Pfeh, then the game would have been boring... didn’t they understand? Sadly, no one picked any “interesting” places to kiss Skippy... if you know what I mean.
Again, we got to sleep in our swags. This time, however, our guides told us that we had to be very sure to put our shoes under the swags. They made useful pillows, but it also prevented dingoes from running off with them in the night. We were told that there were many dingoes in the area and they liked to prowl through the camps at night. Many times people woke up in the morning with a dingo staring at them in the face. They were harmless to humans, but they like to drag away your shoes for their own enjoyment!
July 12, 2008
Another 5:30 AM wake up. I didn’t see any dingoes, but I heard them howling from somewhere in the nearby hills. It was a lonely, mournful sound.
This morning, our destination was King’s Canyon, which was stunning. We clambered up “Heart Attack Hill (I didn’t have any problems getting to the top, but the Swiss Smoking Girls were definitely lagging behind. I wonder why?) to get to the canyon rim, then hiked around the rim for three hours. It was hard to take good photos here. It was way too large, and the lighting was difficult. Parts of the canyon were deep in shadow while the sky was brightly illuminated. My poor little camera.
It was stunning and pretty and spectacular and all that.. but for me, the magic was still all at Uluru. I was tired, dusty, and dirty. I felt so grubby. My jeans were covered with red dirt and dust. I had been wearing them constantly outdoors for six days (except when sleeping). My hoodie smelled pretty rank, too. I didn’t take a shower the night before since I don’t think it would have helped much since I would have to put the same stinky clothes back on again. Having exactly one set of warm weather clothes was definitely a hassle. I was eager to return to warmer climes again.
It was a LONG ride back to Alice Springs. We drove all afternoon. On the way, we spotted wild horses crossing the road, kicking up huge clouds of red dust into the air as the galloped into the bush.
We made plans to meet up that night at the bar of Toddy’s Resort (my hostel) for dinner and drinks (after getting cleaned up, of course). The French kids didn’t show up. They claimed they didn’t have enough money for a night out. I think they just didn’t like us. While we sat on the outside patio drinking beers under the radiators, a live band consisting of a didgeridoo player (with a kick-drum) and a guitar player played tunes for us under the stars. After getting us all psyched up, they had an amateur didgeridoo playing competition. I had missed the sign up sheet (I was talking on the phone with my parents), so I didn’t really expect to get a turn. I watched about thirty people try their hands and playing the didj. Many of them struggled, and could produce the characteristic droning sound, instead emitting a series of fart-like noises. When some people made a bit of progress, the professional player accompanied them with in song, kick-drum, and tambourine. Most people didn’t do well enough to get the professional accompinant, though.
As I watched people sputter or succeed, I watched closely. Playing the didj was something I was willing to try. As the last person played, I asked if I could try to, even though I missed the sign-up sheet. I was astonished! I actually did pretty good, for a newb! I got it to make the drone and some other cool sounds, too. I produced a good rhythm and tapped my feet as I got into it. The pro sprang into action with the kick-drum and tambourine. Yippee! I was doing it! I played a didgeridoo!
I didn’t win any prizes that night. Some of the other amateurs were pretty good (I’m sure they had played before!). But I did win a feeling of self-satisfication. I didn’t know how to play any musical instruments, which is pretty sad considering how much I’m into music. Now, I showed potential at one. I bet, if I had my own, I could get better at it! Maybe I’ll have to buy one...
Most of the group went to another bar to continue the party. I didn’t go, though. I truly was tired from seven straight days of bus travel and sightseeing. I was already at my hostel, so I let them go. They attempted to use heavy peer pressure to get me to go, but I wasn’t into it. Snore! When had I gotten so boring?! As I fell asleep in my bed, though, I could still here the didgeridoo music emanating from the bar and I felt that even though I didn’t go dancing on the tables at some bar, I still did something genuinely cool and unique that night.
Up at 5 AM. My room in the hostel was not heated and I only had my silk sleeping bag liner and one thin bed sheet to sleep under. I was astonishingly cold. I was warmer sleeping in my sleeping bag in the tent on the horse farm. I think it was only 4 degrees. I checked out of my room and waited for my pick up for my next tour.
I expected Nicole (the Australian girl) and Jan (the Czech guy) from my previous tour to be on my bus for the second one. It was not to be, however. They ended up on another bus. My new group was not nearly as fun as the group I had before. It was five French kids who traveled together and mostly chattered away in French to each other, two Swiss girls who smoked like chimneys and mostly kept to themselves, three more sociable German girls, and a friendlier English girl named Laura (though not as friendly as Claire was).
Our tour guides were Aaron (also known as “Azza”) and Brett. Azza was an experienced guide and Brett was the assistant who was still learning the ropes. Their music tastes were similar to mine and all three of us sat at the front of the bus blasting and rocking out to music. The self centred French kids kept asking us to turn it down so they could sleep, but Azza said he couldn’t since he didn’t want to fall asleep while driving.
Oh yes, this tour would involve a lot of driving, too... about 1400 km over three days. The land was even more rugged and barren that it was on the road to Alice Springs. The landscape was dominated by sand dunes, salt lakes, mountains, and huge areas of brilliant red sand and dust. The dust got on everything. I think my shoes will be permanently stained red now. I spent time starting out of the bus watching the desert-like landscape pass by, but after a few hours it got repetitive and boring.
We stopped at a few roadhouses on the way to our day’s actual destination, Yulara -- the town nearest to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. We stopped there for lunch before heading out to Kata-Tjuta (also known as “The Olgas” or “Mount Olga”) itself. The area consisted of a large area of many rock mounds that towering hundreds of metres above the landscape. They weren’t really mountains, but a large conglomerate of boulders and other smaller rocky material eroded off of older mountain ranges. From the distance, it looks like a huge pile of boulders huddling together on the horizon. Once you get up close, though, those huge boulders look like mountains looming above you.
We were constantly pestered with black flies while hiking through the valleys between the individual rock formations. These flies wanted our moisture and were constantly buzzing around your ears and face trying to get a lick of sweat off of you. They would even fly underneath my glasses and try to land near my eyes. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of the starving children in Africa with flies all over their faces, constantly buzzing around? I kind of felt like that (though I doubt I had THAT many flies on me).
After Kata Tjuta, we moved onto the real star of the show, the enigmatic Uluru (also known as “Ayer’s Rock”) We didn’t visit the Rock itself that night, but went to the official sunset viewing area. The area was loaded with tourists drinking champagne watching the Rock change colours during the setting of the sun. We didn’t have champagne, our tour wasn’t so fancy. The Rock sure was pretty, though!
The visit to Uluru itself would have to wait until the next morning. We went back to campsite at Yulara for dinner. Our guides said we were having “Aussie Style Stir Fry.” Since they cooked it on the barbecue, I asked if that’s what made it “Aussie Style”, since none of the ingredients seemed particularly out of the ordinary to me. Azza said, yes, because of the barby, but also because an Aussie was cooking it! Ha ha. What a joker.
After the sunset, it started to get very chilly again. The campfire and alcohol kept us warm. I had a very expensive ($32) bottle of Amarula fruit cream to drink. I had enough of freezing during my other nights of camping and remembered how wonderful Bailey’s or another cream liqueur can be while camping, especially when poured into hot chocolate. We didn’t drink that much though. We had to wake up very early the next morning, so at 10 PM we got into our swags and went to bed under the stars.
What’s a swag? It’s the traditional Aussie bushman’s outdoor sleeping gear: a canvas bag with a padded bottom. You’d put a sleeping bag inside the swag and pull the flap of the swag over your head while sleeping. No sleeping bag. No tent. Even though it was approaching freezing temperatures outside, inside a sleeping bag in a swag with the flap pulled over your head, you could sleep in perfect comfort under the stars. What an experience!
July 11, 2008
Again, up early. This time at 5:30 AM: before the sunrise. That was the whole point, of course. We wanted to be back at Uluru during the sunrise. Totally worth it.
Our tour guides had done this before. As we drove up to The Rock with the sun barely above the horizon in the East, the guides played songs from the Delerium “Karma” on the bus stereo. First they played “Silence” (featuring Sarah McLachlan). They thought, though, that the song was called “Sunrise”! That’s why they played it. I’d been listening to the same CD for ten years, so I knew the real name. Ha ha. After Silence, they played “Enchanted” and “Duende” from the same album. Why do I remember the music so well? It was such a powerful experience. It was the perfect choice of songs, with tribal rhythms and chanting. I felt very moved. The moments would be burned into my memory forever.
Similar songs have the same effect with me. I associate Björk’s song “Isobel” with mountains, especially the Carpathian mountains in southern Poland. Everytime I listen to that song, I remember the day that we drove from the amazing city Kraków to the mountain town of Zakopane, far up in the southern Polish mountains. Why do I have this memory? I don’t know. I was listening to it on my sister’s CD player that one day while staring at the mountains passing while sitting in my uncle’s car. That moment, with the accompanying soundtrack, has been burned into my memory forever, too... just like now I will probably forever associate the songs Enchanted and Duende with that morning on the red dusty plains deep in the Australian Outback.
I wanted to climb Uluru (even though the Aboriginal people discourage it), but due to the high winds, the summit was closed. Instead, I went on the ten kilometre walk around the base of the giant walk. The wind off of the plains was cold and biting. I was wearing four layers of clothing: a t-shirt, a thin long sleeved cotton shirt, my hoodie, and my windbreaker jacket. I was still cold. The wind blew at my face so hard that tears were forced from my eyes. It didn’t matter. The sun was coming up and illuminated the clouds with a kaleidoscope of colours.
At the same time, Uluru itself was changing before my eyes. As the sun climbed above the horizon and peeked past the different layers of clouds, the massive monolith literally changed colours before my eyes. It started black, of course, before the sun came up, but then went through rusty and dark shades of red, brilliant fluorescent oranges, and ruddy browns. Later in the day as we drove away, it looked blue. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? No, this miracle happens here every day.
I was enraptured and overstimulated. The wind whipped around me as I took photos of the blinding sun, the silhouetted trees, the feather wispy clouds, and the monolith that dominated everything and everyone around it.
The walk was supposed to take two or three hours, but I was the slowest. The rest of the group got ahead of me. I was the last person back to the bus. Everyone had been waiting about twenty minutes for me. Ooops. I guess I got caught up in the moment.
The walk around Uluru was self-guided, but our guides took us on a shorter walk around a few of the special parts. The whole area was sacred to the Aboriginal people and was bound up in history. Many of the stories are kept secret by the local tribes, but some of their children’s stories and legends are public knowledge. Our guides showed us where the local tribes believed that their ancestors were bound up in rock formations and caves. No wonder the Aboriginals believe that Uluru is sacred -- they can see their own ancestors in the very living rock.
Unlike Kata-Tjuta (which is a conglomeration of many rocks fused together over time), Uluru is one giant rock, formed millions of years ago as sand from eroded mountains collected and pressed together into one giant mass of sandstone. Only a few hundred metres of this rock protrude above the surface of the earth. Scientists believe that the rock extends six kilometres deeper down. It’s believed to be the second largest single rock in the world (after a somewhat larger rock in Western Australia -- though less of that rock protrudes above the Earth’s surface, and it is not as steeped in legend and history as Uluru is).
I started the day with four layers of clothing since it was so cold. As the sun climbed higher into the sky, it got hotter and hotter and I had to start removing layers. First, the windbreaker, then long-sleeved shirt. Once it got to noon, it was hot enough that the hoodie had to go, too. The funny thing was, as the sun started to go down, the layers had to go back on, too, in reverse order. The temperature changed that much during one day. I always knew deserts (or “semi-arid areas”) were supposed to be like this, but it was the first time I had really experienced it myself. I hope I was up for eight straight days of it during the Burning Man Festival. I was going to need more clothes before I got to Nevada at the end of August.
After a stop at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre (basically a museum and cafe), we went back to Yulara for lunch. When we got there, I eagerly went to the refrigerator to get my Amarula to put into my cocoa. It was gone. Our guides neglected to tell us that its not legal to leave alcohol lying around where the aboriginals can find it. The owner of the campsite was notorious for taking the law into his own hands and confiscating any alcohol that he finds lying around. Shit. I wish I had known. Even though the aboriginals are notorious for not being able to handle alcohol and starting fights, I certainly can!!!
It really was sad. Many of them were uprooted from their traditional cultures and lives only a few scant generations ago. The aboriginal people in Australia really hadn’t adapted to Western civilization very well. The evidence was everywhere. I had seen many of them walking the streets (or more often, sitting around the streets) looking grumpy, frumpy, dirty and disheveled. Many of them didn’t have the proper upbringing to teach them which foods are nutritious in Western civilization and which ones, though easy to get and delicious, are terrible (i.e.: many fast foods). They hadn’t had generations of alcohol drinkers to give them the tolerance, practice, or know-how to handle alcohol and abused the stuff. There were many restrictions to buying or keeping alcohol in the Northern Territory towns I had passed through in the previous days. It was more expensive than other places and you always had to show your ID. It was illegal for anyone to buy alcohol and give it to an aboriginal. Many areas were completely dry. Alice Springs was known as the most dangerous cities in Australia, where the aboriginals often got in fights with each other and kids ran amok while their parents weren’t watching them. I saw more shopping carts on the streets of Alice Springs than I did anywhere else. Kids went for joyrides in them all the time.
So, my Amarula was gone. Oh well, I had already lost lots of things on this trip. Head phones, t-shirts, socks, books, whatever. I had given up on being too materialistic. It wasn’t worth fussing over in the end... even though it was a nice (and expensive) bottle of liquor. Oh well...
After lunch, we packed up and made the long drive from Yulara to King’s Canyon (about a four or five hour drive). We set up camp again. This camp didn’t have a barby, so we had dinner cooked right on the campfire itself: spaghetti bolognese. Oh yes, we were definitely having gourmet meals there in The Outback.
After dinner, we played some campfire games. Laura had an inflatable boxing kangaroo named “Skippy.” We passed the kangaroo around and took turns saying, “Skippy, we are leaving tomorrow. I love you and want to say goodbye by kissing you on the kangaroo part.” We would then each kiss Skippy in a different part. No one could kiss Skippy in the same place as anyone else. The game seemed very easy: a simple repetition game.
After we had passed Skippy around twice, Laura told us about the rest of the rules! We then had to pass our marsupial companion, say the lines again, but kiss the PERSON TO OUR LEFT in the same place we had kissed Skippy before. Oh, how risqué! The French kids protested! They should have been told before! Pfeh, then the game would have been boring... didn’t they understand? Sadly, no one picked any “interesting” places to kiss Skippy... if you know what I mean.
Again, we got to sleep in our swags. This time, however, our guides told us that we had to be very sure to put our shoes under the swags. They made useful pillows, but it also prevented dingoes from running off with them in the night. We were told that there were many dingoes in the area and they liked to prowl through the camps at night. Many times people woke up in the morning with a dingo staring at them in the face. They were harmless to humans, but they like to drag away your shoes for their own enjoyment!
July 12, 2008
Another 5:30 AM wake up. I didn’t see any dingoes, but I heard them howling from somewhere in the nearby hills. It was a lonely, mournful sound.
This morning, our destination was King’s Canyon, which was stunning. We clambered up “Heart Attack Hill (I didn’t have any problems getting to the top, but the Swiss Smoking Girls were definitely lagging behind. I wonder why?) to get to the canyon rim, then hiked around the rim for three hours. It was hard to take good photos here. It was way too large, and the lighting was difficult. Parts of the canyon were deep in shadow while the sky was brightly illuminated. My poor little camera.
It was stunning and pretty and spectacular and all that.. but for me, the magic was still all at Uluru. I was tired, dusty, and dirty. I felt so grubby. My jeans were covered with red dirt and dust. I had been wearing them constantly outdoors for six days (except when sleeping). My hoodie smelled pretty rank, too. I didn’t take a shower the night before since I don’t think it would have helped much since I would have to put the same stinky clothes back on again. Having exactly one set of warm weather clothes was definitely a hassle. I was eager to return to warmer climes again.
It was a LONG ride back to Alice Springs. We drove all afternoon. On the way, we spotted wild horses crossing the road, kicking up huge clouds of red dust into the air as the galloped into the bush.
We made plans to meet up that night at the bar of Toddy’s Resort (my hostel) for dinner and drinks (after getting cleaned up, of course). The French kids didn’t show up. They claimed they didn’t have enough money for a night out. I think they just didn’t like us. While we sat on the outside patio drinking beers under the radiators, a live band consisting of a didgeridoo player (with a kick-drum) and a guitar player played tunes for us under the stars. After getting us all psyched up, they had an amateur didgeridoo playing competition. I had missed the sign up sheet (I was talking on the phone with my parents), so I didn’t really expect to get a turn. I watched about thirty people try their hands and playing the didj. Many of them struggled, and could produce the characteristic droning sound, instead emitting a series of fart-like noises. When some people made a bit of progress, the professional player accompanied them with in song, kick-drum, and tambourine. Most people didn’t do well enough to get the professional accompinant, though.
As I watched people sputter or succeed, I watched closely. Playing the didj was something I was willing to try. As the last person played, I asked if I could try to, even though I missed the sign-up sheet. I was astonished! I actually did pretty good, for a newb! I got it to make the drone and some other cool sounds, too. I produced a good rhythm and tapped my feet as I got into it. The pro sprang into action with the kick-drum and tambourine. Yippee! I was doing it! I played a didgeridoo!
I didn’t win any prizes that night. Some of the other amateurs were pretty good (I’m sure they had played before!). But I did win a feeling of self-satisfication. I didn’t know how to play any musical instruments, which is pretty sad considering how much I’m into music. Now, I showed potential at one. I bet, if I had my own, I could get better at it! Maybe I’ll have to buy one...
Most of the group went to another bar to continue the party. I didn’t go, though. I truly was tired from seven straight days of bus travel and sightseeing. I was already at my hostel, so I let them go. They attempted to use heavy peer pressure to get me to go, but I wasn’t into it. Snore! When had I gotten so boring?! As I fell asleep in my bed, though, I could still here the didgeridoo music emanating from the bar and I felt that even though I didn’t go dancing on the tables at some bar, I still did something genuinely cool and unique that night.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Outback Adventures 1: Darwin up to Alice Springs
July 5, 2008
My roommates in the hostel were slobs. Their garbage, clothes, stuff, and filth was scattered all over the room. When they came into my room at 4 AM, they made a huge racket. The bed sheets in the hostel were made from plastic (I presume to make them easier to clean). I could already tell that my hostel was one of those “party hostels” -- the kind I generally avoid since I generally prefer to sleep at night when I want to, rather than get completely wasted every single night. I decided that I didn’t like my hostel, right away.
So, in the morning, I got out of there. I needed to find breakfast. My hostel did not provide any. Later, talking to other people, I learned that other hostels in Darwin were cheaper AND provided breakfast. I guess, by bad luck (or bad planning), I ended up in the stupidest hostel in Darwin. I guess that’s what I get for booking it at the last minute.
Anyways, I wandered around the quiet streets of Darwin in the morning. The weather was good -- warm, humid, and sunny -- just how I like it. Cairns was a bit too chilly in the morning for me. I eventually found a little diner with a little Asian man behind the counter. I ordered myself some eggs, sausage, toast, and coffee for breakfast (I had been eating muesli and milk for breakfast for at least a week now, and needed a change!), and sat down to eat. The owner was friendly and we chatted a bit, but it was a bit hard since his English wasn’t that great and his accent was strong. At one point, he asked if I had a girlfriend (which is actually a fairly common question from Asian people). I said, “no”. After he asked, I also told him that I was traveling alone.
After paying for my food and was about to leave, the owner said something like, “You come back 1 PM for 150?” I was confused. I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly. 150 what? At first I thought he wanted to sell me drugs. I asked him what he meant. He opened a newspaper, turned to the classified ads, and showed me picture of a girl on an ad for an escort agency. Woah! This restaurant owner was also a pimp and he wanted to cut a deal with me! I guess he assumed since I was traveling alone and didn’t have a girlfriend that I wanted to buy the services of prostitutes! I’m not kidding! Once I figured out what the man wanted, I smiled, said, “No thank you,” and got out of there. Sheesh.
The rest of the day wasn’t as interesting. I walked around the beach and streets of Darwin to stretch my legs and look at the sights. There weren’t many. Darwin is a small place. I walked past the beach, the park, the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Building (also called the “Wedding Cake” because of its appearance). My Lonely Planet said that I could find free Internet at the Northern Territory Library, but when I got there, I found out that it was closed for refurbishment. Bah!
I went to the travel agencies near my hostel and booked myself onto a tour for Litchfield Park the next day and booked some buses the next week to take me from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy, Adelaide, and Melbourne. All of my travel (and there was a LOT of it) for the next two weeks was booked and paid for. My plans were quite aggressive:
July 6: Wake up 6 AM for an all day tour of Litchfield National Park near Darwin. Return to Darwin that night to sleep in hostel.
July 7: Wake up 5 AM to start a three day bus tour from Darwin to Alice Springs. The distance between the two cities was about 1700 km. The night would be spent camping in a tent near Katherine.
July 8: Wake up 6 AM for day two of the tour. The night would be spent camping near Tennant Creek.
July 9: Wake up 6 AM for day three of the tour. The night would be spent in a hostel in Alice Springs.
July 10: Wake up 5 AM to start a three day bus tour of The Red Centre of Australia. The total distance covered in the bus tour would be about 1400 km. The night would be spent camping in Yulara.
July 11: Wake up 5 AM for day two of the tour. The night would be spent camping near Kings Canyon.
July 12: Wake up 5 AM for day three of the tour. The night would be spent in a hostel in Alice Springs.
July 13: A much needed rest day in Alice Springs.
July 14: Take a 9 AM bus for ten hours from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy and stay there overnight.
July 15: Sightseeing in Coober Pedy during the day. Take the overnight bus (about ten hours) from Coober Pedy to Adelaide.
July 16: Arrive in Adelaide about 6 AM. Sightseeing in the city during the day. Take the overnight bus (about twelve hours) from Adelaide to Melbourne.
July 17: Arrive in Melbourne about 8 AM. Essentially a rest day since I’ve already “done” Melbourne. Staying in some hostel somewhere overnight.
July 18: Leave from Melbourne Airport on flights to Samoa. It should take most of July 18 to get there.
July 18 (AGAIN): Since I have to cross the International Date Line to get to Samoa, I will arrive there early on my second iteration of July 18.
That’s some kind of travel for 12 out of 13 days in a row. I don’t think I’ve ever covered that much ground in such a short amount of time ever (excluding airplane flights). Oh well. There was a lot I wanted to see and I spent too much time sitting around in Melbourne and Cairns. Now I had to catch up! I’ll write more about these sections of the trip after I actually execute them, of course!
The rest of my day in Darwin wasn’t so exciting. I had a voucher for a free “backpacker meal” at the Vic Hotel in Darwin, so I had free fried rice and stir fry pork for dinner. I got the voucher (and a bunch of others) after I booked my tour package at the Peter Pan travel agency in Cairns. I intended to use my free meal vouchers as much as I could over my remaining stay in Australia.
Even though I had to wake up early the next morning (6 AM), I decided that I had a few hours to kill before going to bed that night so I went to my party hostel’s bar to have a couple drinks and do some socialization. I saw a table full of guys playing cards so I sat down to join them. It turns out they were a bunch of technicians in the US Navy on leave in Darwin. These guys had already spent time in Japan and Korea and were now stationed somewhere in The Outback to the south of Darwin. The guys were pretty hilarious. The card game they were playing was an old card game I had been playing since I was in high school (at least), Asshole. However, these guys had a drinking version of the game. I know I’ve played lots of variations of Asshole before, but never as a drinking game! The President got to make his own rules. The same guy got to be President so many times that he basically controlled all the action in the game. After a while, you had to take a drink if you made eye contact with him, but had to ask him permission to drink first. Needless to say, he abused his power a lot. Oi. I got sucked out to another bar with the guys, too. I didn’t get to bed until 1 AM (about two or three hours after I originally wanted), but that’s okay. I had fun!
July 6, 2008
It was the first day of my hectic tour schedule. The target today was Litchfield National Park, about 150 km south of Darwin. I had to wake up at 6 AM so I wouldn’t miss my tour pickup.
There are two famous national parks near Darwin, Kakadu and Litchfield. Kakadu is the more spectacular and famous one. I really really wanted to go there, but I didn’t have time. It was located farther from the city and really required two or three days to enjoy. Since I really only had one day to see national parks from Darwin, I had to choose Litchfield. Nevertheless, Litchfield Park was still really good and I don’t regret my decision.
The first stop was the Jumping Crocodile Cruise on the Adelaide River. While waiting for our boat ride, we got to take turns holding pythons. I know that I had already had the chance to hold snakes in Australia (back when I was in Byron Bay), but I had to try it again.
The cruise was really good. I enjoyed it more than my crocodile cruise on the Daintree River from the week before. On this cruise, we weren’t restricted from approaching the crocs. The cruise operators were able to induce the crocs to jump out of the water by teasing (and eventually feeding) them with big pieces of buffalo meat.
We saw about four crocs. Since they knew that they would get free food, many of them swam right up to the boat expecting food. These same crocs have been being fed this way for years, so they all knew the drill.
I also saw many birds: mostly kites. The boat operators fed the birds by hand, so big flocks of them followed the boat and swooped down to get their nibbles.
After the cruise, we continued to our first stop in Litchfield Park (after a short stop under a banyan tree for lunch): the termite mounds. These mounds were huge! Check it out!
There were two kinds of mounds that we saw. The bigger ones were the “buttress mounds,” named for the buttress-like protrusions. The buttresses were cooling structures for the mounds. Our tour guide told us that the termites made the mounds from a combination of cellulose, saliva, and feces. They grow about one metre every ten years.
The other kind of mounds were made my magnetic termites. Instead of tall buttress-shaped structures, these mounds were flat, rectangular structures. The skinny dimension of the rectangle always faced north-south and the wide dimension always faced east-west. The termites were born with compasses in their tiny brains and were able to tell the direction. That was their form of temperature regulation for their mounds. In the mornings and evenings the wide sides of the mounds would catch more sun in order to warm the mound. In the afternoon, the skinny side of the mound would face the sun, to avoid overheating the mound.
The rest of the trip involved visiting various waterfalls and swimming holes. The weather was warm and sunny and the water was brisk and refreshing. At the Wangi Waterfall, I tried to swim right up under the falling water itself, but the current was too strong, so I settled for sitting right beside the water. At the Buley Rockholes, the water fell between a series of connected rockholes. It was great for swimming and diving. I got to sit right under a small cascade and let the water pummel my back and shoulders. It was like a natural jacuzzi!
That night, our tour guide dropped us off on Mindil Beach in Darwin. It was Sunday night, and there was an open air market set up with lots of food and souvenirs to buy. The beach, itself, was the main attraction there. There were hundreds of people set up there watching the sunset. Many of them brought lawn chairs and picnics. The sunset itself was spectacular. I captured many beautiful pictures there, especially since sailboats, yachts, children, and other people kept placing themselves in the frame just for me!
July 7, 2007
Another early wake up: 5 AM. It was the first day of my three day tour to Alice Springs on Outback Safaris. We had about 1700 km to cover. Most of the tour was spent sitting on a bus. The ride was occasionally punctuated by stops at various points of interest. Since this was The Outback, these points of interest were far and few in between. As we rode further and further south from Darwin, the landscape became more and more barren. At first, there were lots of green trees. As we got farther and farther from the tropical monsoon zone near Darwin, the trees for smaller and further apart. The dirt got redder and redder. We weren’t technically driving through a desert, but were going through a semi-arid zone. By the geographer’s definitions, it got slightly more rain than a real desert. That didn’t matter to me. It felt like a desert to me.
My tour guide was Jason. He was a cool guy with a soft voice and a funny laugh. He listened to music loudly on the bus to stay awake during the long drive. Most of his music was hip-hop, cheesy 80s pop, dance and the occasional alternative classic. He used to be in the army, and it was funny that he would sing along to even to the cheesiest and girliest songs.
There were 14 tourists on the bus. Three kids from the German part of Switzerland (Ramona, Denise, David), a Czech guy (Jan), a Polish couple (Marta and Piotr), and Australian girl (Nicole), a girl from Taiwan (Yuan), and some girls from England (Allison, Claire, and some others). We made a good mix of people. We immediately got along. Claire kept flashing me these cute smiles. I had to keep my eye on her!
After about four hours of driving, we ended up at our stop for the day, Katherine Gorge. We had our choice of activities: a cruise, a hike, or canoeing. I chose to do the canoeing. I shared a canoe with Allison, the 19 year old English girl. Marta and Piotr (Peter) shared a canoe, too. They were the first people I met on my travels from Poland (other than a couple girls I talked to for about five minutes in Melbourne). We got along. Piotr called me Roberczik. I called him Piotrek. We called the Czech guy, Jan, Janiczku. If you knew Polish or Czech, you’d find these names funny, take my word for it.
Here’s a picture of Marta, Piotr and their canoe (more like a kayak, in my opinion):
That night we built a big campfire at our campsite. We played campfire games, told ghost stories, drank goon and beer! Goon is essentially really cheap wine in a box. It’s dodgy stuff. The box says that it may contain egg, fish, and nut products. Why would wine contain these things? We also joked around that it contains fishheads, sawdust, and cigarette butts. The wine itself was packaged in a plastic bag inside the box. It was necessary to pull the bag out of the box to squeeze the last wine out of it. Before pouring out the last of the wine, it was backpacker tradition to take turns slapping the bag. Allison even had a t-shirt that said “Slap that goon!” Jason admitted that Aussies didn’t slap the goon... it was a tradition invented by backpackers. Slap that goon!
Our campsite was pretty high class: hot showers and toilets, a kitchen with cooker and fridge, and permanent two-person tents with mats to sleep in. My tent-mate was Jan (not Claire, sorry... though that would have been interesting). I had rented a sleeping bag and slept well.
July 8, 2008
It was a bit chilly in the morning, but not so bad yet. Katherine, even though it was the winter, still had a fairly tropical climate. As I learned a few days later, it was going to get a lot worse.
We were supposed to wake up at 6:00 AM for a 7:30 AM departure. I, however, had been sleep deprived lately, and slept in until about 7:10 AM. I really quickly downed some breakfast, threw my stuff in the trailer and hopped on the bus. Everyone was waiting for me... oops.
The first stop was the thermal springs at Mataranka. Warm water (about 30 degrees) bubbles out of the ground at flows into pools. Given that we were chilly that morning, it was really nice to take a dip in the warm water. We were there for about forty minutes and didn’t want to leave.
We continued down the Stuart Highway to the tiny settlement of Larrimah. It was typical of many of the tiny roadhouses we passed in The Outback... mostly a pub, a caravan park, some fields, and ruins of bygone days of glory. Larrimah had rusting railway tracks and water tanks out back. I quickly fell in love with the scenery. It was a photographic bonanza.
The second photograph quickly became one of the favourite photographs I made on the trip.
We stopped at a few more roadhouses and desolate places before arriving that night in Tennant Creek at the Juno Horse Stud. The weather grew markedly colder the farther south we traveled. That night we huddled around the roaring campfire trying to keep warm. After roasting some marshmallows, people went to bed. We didn’t drink any goon or stay up late that night. We were all tired and it was just too cold.
July 9, 2008
It was not a restful night for anyone. Even though we originally thought it was cool to spend the night camping on a horse ranch, there were many complications... many noisy complications. Dogs barked all night long. The wind howled and rattled the metal walls of the shed. Something spooked one of the horses in the middle of the night and it whinnied longingly for many hours. We all met in the cookhouse for breakfast at 6 AM, weary and shivering. I was awake at about 4 AM, though. I had laid in bed for about an hour before giving up on sleep and listening to my iPod for an hour. Sometimes I manage to fall back asleep after switching on my iPod, but this time I did not.
It was only a few more stops before we reached Alice Springs. The first was a scenic rock formation called The Devil’s Marbles. Piles of rounded, eroded, boulders were scattered across the desolate plains south of Tennant Creek. It was a really cool place.
We arrived in Alice Springs around 3:30 PM. Yes, we had covered 1700 km in three days. We all made plans to meet up again that night at Annie’s Place (a bar and restaurant) for dinner and drinks. Everyone in our group was eager to hang out in a place together that wasn’t freezing cold.
After a few hours to rest and clean up, most of us met up again at Annie’s. The dinners there were really cheap ($5), but the food portions were small. As always, you get what you pay for! That didn’t matter. We lubricated ourselves with beer and wine (not goon!) and had fun. After a few hours we were dancing to the music on the table tops. After a while, I pushed Claire and David partway home in a shopping cart we found on the Stuart Highway.
Did anything ever happen between Claire and me? Except for a lot of flirting, not really. I did like her, though! It seems like I always fall for the girls who flirt and tease, but that’s all. It’s the story of my life!
My roommates in the hostel were slobs. Their garbage, clothes, stuff, and filth was scattered all over the room. When they came into my room at 4 AM, they made a huge racket. The bed sheets in the hostel were made from plastic (I presume to make them easier to clean). I could already tell that my hostel was one of those “party hostels” -- the kind I generally avoid since I generally prefer to sleep at night when I want to, rather than get completely wasted every single night. I decided that I didn’t like my hostel, right away.
So, in the morning, I got out of there. I needed to find breakfast. My hostel did not provide any. Later, talking to other people, I learned that other hostels in Darwin were cheaper AND provided breakfast. I guess, by bad luck (or bad planning), I ended up in the stupidest hostel in Darwin. I guess that’s what I get for booking it at the last minute.
Anyways, I wandered around the quiet streets of Darwin in the morning. The weather was good -- warm, humid, and sunny -- just how I like it. Cairns was a bit too chilly in the morning for me. I eventually found a little diner with a little Asian man behind the counter. I ordered myself some eggs, sausage, toast, and coffee for breakfast (I had been eating muesli and milk for breakfast for at least a week now, and needed a change!), and sat down to eat. The owner was friendly and we chatted a bit, but it was a bit hard since his English wasn’t that great and his accent was strong. At one point, he asked if I had a girlfriend (which is actually a fairly common question from Asian people). I said, “no”. After he asked, I also told him that I was traveling alone.
After paying for my food and was about to leave, the owner said something like, “You come back 1 PM for 150?” I was confused. I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly. 150 what? At first I thought he wanted to sell me drugs. I asked him what he meant. He opened a newspaper, turned to the classified ads, and showed me picture of a girl on an ad for an escort agency. Woah! This restaurant owner was also a pimp and he wanted to cut a deal with me! I guess he assumed since I was traveling alone and didn’t have a girlfriend that I wanted to buy the services of prostitutes! I’m not kidding! Once I figured out what the man wanted, I smiled, said, “No thank you,” and got out of there. Sheesh.
The rest of the day wasn’t as interesting. I walked around the beach and streets of Darwin to stretch my legs and look at the sights. There weren’t many. Darwin is a small place. I walked past the beach, the park, the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Building (also called the “Wedding Cake” because of its appearance). My Lonely Planet said that I could find free Internet at the Northern Territory Library, but when I got there, I found out that it was closed for refurbishment. Bah!
I went to the travel agencies near my hostel and booked myself onto a tour for Litchfield Park the next day and booked some buses the next week to take me from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy, Adelaide, and Melbourne. All of my travel (and there was a LOT of it) for the next two weeks was booked and paid for. My plans were quite aggressive:
July 6: Wake up 6 AM for an all day tour of Litchfield National Park near Darwin. Return to Darwin that night to sleep in hostel.
July 7: Wake up 5 AM to start a three day bus tour from Darwin to Alice Springs. The distance between the two cities was about 1700 km. The night would be spent camping in a tent near Katherine.
July 8: Wake up 6 AM for day two of the tour. The night would be spent camping near Tennant Creek.
July 9: Wake up 6 AM for day three of the tour. The night would be spent in a hostel in Alice Springs.
July 10: Wake up 5 AM to start a three day bus tour of The Red Centre of Australia. The total distance covered in the bus tour would be about 1400 km. The night would be spent camping in Yulara.
July 11: Wake up 5 AM for day two of the tour. The night would be spent camping near Kings Canyon.
July 12: Wake up 5 AM for day three of the tour. The night would be spent in a hostel in Alice Springs.
July 13: A much needed rest day in Alice Springs.
July 14: Take a 9 AM bus for ten hours from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy and stay there overnight.
July 15: Sightseeing in Coober Pedy during the day. Take the overnight bus (about ten hours) from Coober Pedy to Adelaide.
July 16: Arrive in Adelaide about 6 AM. Sightseeing in the city during the day. Take the overnight bus (about twelve hours) from Adelaide to Melbourne.
July 17: Arrive in Melbourne about 8 AM. Essentially a rest day since I’ve already “done” Melbourne. Staying in some hostel somewhere overnight.
July 18: Leave from Melbourne Airport on flights to Samoa. It should take most of July 18 to get there.
July 18 (AGAIN): Since I have to cross the International Date Line to get to Samoa, I will arrive there early on my second iteration of July 18.
That’s some kind of travel for 12 out of 13 days in a row. I don’t think I’ve ever covered that much ground in such a short amount of time ever (excluding airplane flights). Oh well. There was a lot I wanted to see and I spent too much time sitting around in Melbourne and Cairns. Now I had to catch up! I’ll write more about these sections of the trip after I actually execute them, of course!
The rest of my day in Darwin wasn’t so exciting. I had a voucher for a free “backpacker meal” at the Vic Hotel in Darwin, so I had free fried rice and stir fry pork for dinner. I got the voucher (and a bunch of others) after I booked my tour package at the Peter Pan travel agency in Cairns. I intended to use my free meal vouchers as much as I could over my remaining stay in Australia.
Even though I had to wake up early the next morning (6 AM), I decided that I had a few hours to kill before going to bed that night so I went to my party hostel’s bar to have a couple drinks and do some socialization. I saw a table full of guys playing cards so I sat down to join them. It turns out they were a bunch of technicians in the US Navy on leave in Darwin. These guys had already spent time in Japan and Korea and were now stationed somewhere in The Outback to the south of Darwin. The guys were pretty hilarious. The card game they were playing was an old card game I had been playing since I was in high school (at least), Asshole. However, these guys had a drinking version of the game. I know I’ve played lots of variations of Asshole before, but never as a drinking game! The President got to make his own rules. The same guy got to be President so many times that he basically controlled all the action in the game. After a while, you had to take a drink if you made eye contact with him, but had to ask him permission to drink first. Needless to say, he abused his power a lot. Oi. I got sucked out to another bar with the guys, too. I didn’t get to bed until 1 AM (about two or three hours after I originally wanted), but that’s okay. I had fun!
July 6, 2008
It was the first day of my hectic tour schedule. The target today was Litchfield National Park, about 150 km south of Darwin. I had to wake up at 6 AM so I wouldn’t miss my tour pickup.
There are two famous national parks near Darwin, Kakadu and Litchfield. Kakadu is the more spectacular and famous one. I really really wanted to go there, but I didn’t have time. It was located farther from the city and really required two or three days to enjoy. Since I really only had one day to see national parks from Darwin, I had to choose Litchfield. Nevertheless, Litchfield Park was still really good and I don’t regret my decision.
The first stop was the Jumping Crocodile Cruise on the Adelaide River. While waiting for our boat ride, we got to take turns holding pythons. I know that I had already had the chance to hold snakes in Australia (back when I was in Byron Bay), but I had to try it again.
The cruise was really good. I enjoyed it more than my crocodile cruise on the Daintree River from the week before. On this cruise, we weren’t restricted from approaching the crocs. The cruise operators were able to induce the crocs to jump out of the water by teasing (and eventually feeding) them with big pieces of buffalo meat.
We saw about four crocs. Since they knew that they would get free food, many of them swam right up to the boat expecting food. These same crocs have been being fed this way for years, so they all knew the drill.
I also saw many birds: mostly kites. The boat operators fed the birds by hand, so big flocks of them followed the boat and swooped down to get their nibbles.
After the cruise, we continued to our first stop in Litchfield Park (after a short stop under a banyan tree for lunch): the termite mounds. These mounds were huge! Check it out!
There were two kinds of mounds that we saw. The bigger ones were the “buttress mounds,” named for the buttress-like protrusions. The buttresses were cooling structures for the mounds. Our tour guide told us that the termites made the mounds from a combination of cellulose, saliva, and feces. They grow about one metre every ten years.
The other kind of mounds were made my magnetic termites. Instead of tall buttress-shaped structures, these mounds were flat, rectangular structures. The skinny dimension of the rectangle always faced north-south and the wide dimension always faced east-west. The termites were born with compasses in their tiny brains and were able to tell the direction. That was their form of temperature regulation for their mounds. In the mornings and evenings the wide sides of the mounds would catch more sun in order to warm the mound. In the afternoon, the skinny side of the mound would face the sun, to avoid overheating the mound.
The rest of the trip involved visiting various waterfalls and swimming holes. The weather was warm and sunny and the water was brisk and refreshing. At the Wangi Waterfall, I tried to swim right up under the falling water itself, but the current was too strong, so I settled for sitting right beside the water. At the Buley Rockholes, the water fell between a series of connected rockholes. It was great for swimming and diving. I got to sit right under a small cascade and let the water pummel my back and shoulders. It was like a natural jacuzzi!
That night, our tour guide dropped us off on Mindil Beach in Darwin. It was Sunday night, and there was an open air market set up with lots of food and souvenirs to buy. The beach, itself, was the main attraction there. There were hundreds of people set up there watching the sunset. Many of them brought lawn chairs and picnics. The sunset itself was spectacular. I captured many beautiful pictures there, especially since sailboats, yachts, children, and other people kept placing themselves in the frame just for me!
July 7, 2007
Another early wake up: 5 AM. It was the first day of my three day tour to Alice Springs on Outback Safaris. We had about 1700 km to cover. Most of the tour was spent sitting on a bus. The ride was occasionally punctuated by stops at various points of interest. Since this was The Outback, these points of interest were far and few in between. As we rode further and further south from Darwin, the landscape became more and more barren. At first, there were lots of green trees. As we got farther and farther from the tropical monsoon zone near Darwin, the trees for smaller and further apart. The dirt got redder and redder. We weren’t technically driving through a desert, but were going through a semi-arid zone. By the geographer’s definitions, it got slightly more rain than a real desert. That didn’t matter to me. It felt like a desert to me.
My tour guide was Jason. He was a cool guy with a soft voice and a funny laugh. He listened to music loudly on the bus to stay awake during the long drive. Most of his music was hip-hop, cheesy 80s pop, dance and the occasional alternative classic. He used to be in the army, and it was funny that he would sing along to even to the cheesiest and girliest songs.
There were 14 tourists on the bus. Three kids from the German part of Switzerland (Ramona, Denise, David), a Czech guy (Jan), a Polish couple (Marta and Piotr), and Australian girl (Nicole), a girl from Taiwan (Yuan), and some girls from England (Allison, Claire, and some others). We made a good mix of people. We immediately got along. Claire kept flashing me these cute smiles. I had to keep my eye on her!
After about four hours of driving, we ended up at our stop for the day, Katherine Gorge. We had our choice of activities: a cruise, a hike, or canoeing. I chose to do the canoeing. I shared a canoe with Allison, the 19 year old English girl. Marta and Piotr (Peter) shared a canoe, too. They were the first people I met on my travels from Poland (other than a couple girls I talked to for about five minutes in Melbourne). We got along. Piotr called me Roberczik. I called him Piotrek. We called the Czech guy, Jan, Janiczku. If you knew Polish or Czech, you’d find these names funny, take my word for it.
Here’s a picture of Marta, Piotr and their canoe (more like a kayak, in my opinion):
That night we built a big campfire at our campsite. We played campfire games, told ghost stories, drank goon and beer! Goon is essentially really cheap wine in a box. It’s dodgy stuff. The box says that it may contain egg, fish, and nut products. Why would wine contain these things? We also joked around that it contains fishheads, sawdust, and cigarette butts. The wine itself was packaged in a plastic bag inside the box. It was necessary to pull the bag out of the box to squeeze the last wine out of it. Before pouring out the last of the wine, it was backpacker tradition to take turns slapping the bag. Allison even had a t-shirt that said “Slap that goon!” Jason admitted that Aussies didn’t slap the goon... it was a tradition invented by backpackers. Slap that goon!
Our campsite was pretty high class: hot showers and toilets, a kitchen with cooker and fridge, and permanent two-person tents with mats to sleep in. My tent-mate was Jan (not Claire, sorry... though that would have been interesting). I had rented a sleeping bag and slept well.
July 8, 2008
It was a bit chilly in the morning, but not so bad yet. Katherine, even though it was the winter, still had a fairly tropical climate. As I learned a few days later, it was going to get a lot worse.
We were supposed to wake up at 6:00 AM for a 7:30 AM departure. I, however, had been sleep deprived lately, and slept in until about 7:10 AM. I really quickly downed some breakfast, threw my stuff in the trailer and hopped on the bus. Everyone was waiting for me... oops.
The first stop was the thermal springs at Mataranka. Warm water (about 30 degrees) bubbles out of the ground at flows into pools. Given that we were chilly that morning, it was really nice to take a dip in the warm water. We were there for about forty minutes and didn’t want to leave.
We continued down the Stuart Highway to the tiny settlement of Larrimah. It was typical of many of the tiny roadhouses we passed in The Outback... mostly a pub, a caravan park, some fields, and ruins of bygone days of glory. Larrimah had rusting railway tracks and water tanks out back. I quickly fell in love with the scenery. It was a photographic bonanza.
The second photograph quickly became one of the favourite photographs I made on the trip.
We stopped at a few more roadhouses and desolate places before arriving that night in Tennant Creek at the Juno Horse Stud. The weather grew markedly colder the farther south we traveled. That night we huddled around the roaring campfire trying to keep warm. After roasting some marshmallows, people went to bed. We didn’t drink any goon or stay up late that night. We were all tired and it was just too cold.
July 9, 2008
It was not a restful night for anyone. Even though we originally thought it was cool to spend the night camping on a horse ranch, there were many complications... many noisy complications. Dogs barked all night long. The wind howled and rattled the metal walls of the shed. Something spooked one of the horses in the middle of the night and it whinnied longingly for many hours. We all met in the cookhouse for breakfast at 6 AM, weary and shivering. I was awake at about 4 AM, though. I had laid in bed for about an hour before giving up on sleep and listening to my iPod for an hour. Sometimes I manage to fall back asleep after switching on my iPod, but this time I did not.
It was only a few more stops before we reached Alice Springs. The first was a scenic rock formation called The Devil’s Marbles. Piles of rounded, eroded, boulders were scattered across the desolate plains south of Tennant Creek. It was a really cool place.
We arrived in Alice Springs around 3:30 PM. Yes, we had covered 1700 km in three days. We all made plans to meet up again that night at Annie’s Place (a bar and restaurant) for dinner and drinks. Everyone in our group was eager to hang out in a place together that wasn’t freezing cold.
After a few hours to rest and clean up, most of us met up again at Annie’s. The dinners there were really cheap ($5), but the food portions were small. As always, you get what you pay for! That didn’t matter. We lubricated ourselves with beer and wine (not goon!) and had fun. After a few hours we were dancing to the music on the table tops. After a while, I pushed Claire and David partway home in a shopping cart we found on the Stuart Highway.
Did anything ever happen between Claire and me? Except for a lot of flirting, not really. I did like her, though! It seems like I always fall for the girls who flirt and tease, but that’s all. It’s the story of my life!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
New Photos Posted: Cairns and Cape Trib
Hi! I've posted photos from my stay in tropical north Queensland, Australia. I stayed in Cairns and Cape Tribulation for about a week and a half. Enjoy!
Here's the exciting news! I've put in a lot of hard work lately, and I've actually CAUGHT UP with my blog. I haven't been caught up in a really long time. Three cheers for me! I'm definitely going to start falling behind again soon since I'm about to start touring The Outback for a week solid. It's gonna be go go go for a seven days straight. Wish me luck!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Darwin, Australia
Here's the exciting news! I've put in a lot of hard work lately, and I've actually CAUGHT UP with my blog. I haven't been caught up in a really long time. Three cheers for me! I'm definitely going to start falling behind again soon since I'm about to start touring The Outback for a week solid. It's gonna be go go go for a seven days straight. Wish me luck!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Darwin, Australia
More Cairns
June 29, 2008
...continued
I checked myself into the Bohemian Central Hostel. Caroline went for dinner with some other people, but we agreed to meet up later for drinkies. Meanwhile, I had made plans with Tim for dinner. We were both interested in trying kangaroo steak! Yes, I had heard that the soft fuzzy skippy critters were delicious, and we both wanted to try it. There was supposed to be a good place in town that served it, along with “100 beers from around the world.” I was sold. They knew my weak spot... fancy beers!
The girls Tim was traveling with ended up finding a hotel but Tim wanted to stay in a hostel. He didn’t want to spent $25 sleeping on the floor in the hotel room when he could instead spend $25 sleeping in a bed in a hostel. He ended up staying at Bohemian Central, too, and by coincidence got put into my room (being that it was the last room left). It was time for steak!
When we got to the restaurant, Paddywhack’s, I investigated the beer menu. Tim confessed that he was interested in quality beers, too, but didn’t know as many as I did. I promised to show him something good. Paddywhack’s, did indeed, have a nice beer selection. They had exactly one bottle of The Forbidden Fruit left. I told Tim that the single bottle of Forbidden Fruit that I drank in Amsterdam three years prior had changed my taste of beers forever. He decided to try it out. Meanwhile, I got myself a James Squire Amber Ale, a nice Australian ale which they had on draft. We both ordered the kangaroo steak for dinner. Oh wow, was it ever good.
Sure it was expensive (AU$30), but it was so worth it. Kangaroo meat can apparently get tough and chewy if it’s cooked too much. That’s why the restaurant only served it medium-rare. It was a little gamey, too, but that didn’t detract from the really nice flavour. Now you know the truth about kangaroos: cute AND delicious.
After demonstrating our skills as carnivores, Tim and I met up with Caroline and her friends for drinks. We went to The Wool Shed, which is one of the popular bars for tourists in Cairns. Cairns doesn’t have many sights of its own, but it’s got a lot of bars and places to party (if you’re into that thing). That night I was! Caroline’s friends were Dee (from England), and Bendy and Angus from Sydney.
The Wool Shed had cheap drinks (two low-quality beers for AU$6), so we partook of a few. After a short time, the night’s entertainment begun. It was pretty redonkulous! GOLDFISH RACING.
There were two tanks, er, tracks. There were eight fish, each from a different nation (including Mister X, from parts unknown). The crowd was able to bid on the rights to be the aqua jockey for one fish that night. I briefly bid on the Canadian Fish, but once the price reached about AU$15, I let someone else take over. The fish would race each other one at a time. The aqua jockey was not allowed to touch the fish or the water, but was equipped with a straw that they could use to induce the fish to swim towards the finish line. After several rounds of fierce competition, Nemo, the fish from Australia claimed victory.
After the aqua jockeys parted the field, much drinking and dancing ensued. Fun was had by all. The Wool Shed was much like Cheeky Monkey’s in Byron Bay. The place played cheesy music, was filled with tourists, and people danced on the tables.
Eventually, everyone left except for Tim and two of the four girls he was traveling with. It was getting late and they were hungry, so we decided to go to the Esplanade for kebab. While we were sitting there on the patio waiting for our kebabs to be prepared, the Australia girls at the table beside us started singing. Oh my god, they were singing songs from Flight of the Conchords. I am not kidding. The one girl knew the song “Brett, you got it going on” from heart. I told them that I was also a FotC fan and I found it funny how I saw going for kebab with girls after a night of partying. The exact same thing happened in FotC episode 1! After that, they started singing lines from “Part Time Model.”
The three American kids hadn’t seen the show or the band, so they didn’t understand why I thought the situation was so awesome and why I couldn’t stop laughing.
June 30, 2008
Tim checked out of the hostel and went with his girls back to Sydney. They were taking classes there to further their education. He was taking a wine tasting class for credit at university! The things the Americans call “education,” heh heh.
I didn’t do much else this day. I spent some time on the internet uploading blog entries that I had written while I was slacking off at Cape Trib. I booked myself a very expensive one way airline ticket (AU$480) from Cairns to Darwin for later that week.
That night, Caroline came back from her day trip. She was very excited! She had gone whitewater rafting on the Tully River. She said it was really really good. I wanted to go rafting, too. I was originally reluctant to do it because of the cost (AU$185) and because I doubted it would be anywhere nearly as good as the rafting I did on the Ottawa River the year before. She said it was really good, so I impulsively decided to book it for the very next day.
For dinner, we had the cheapo hostel meal: AU$8 for spaghetti bolognaise and one cheapo beer. It was a good deal. Soon, Angus, Bendy, and Dee joined us and we played a game of Monopoly. They wanted to use all of those lame optional rules that make the game longer (like getting money for landing on Free Parking), but I held my ground and disallowed them, arguing that the game would go too long (that’s the Keizo and Greg influence on me!). The game ended up running to midnight anyways. I came in second!
July 1, 2008
Gaak, while I was trying to sleep, my three drunken roommates came back at 4:30 AM and made a huge racket. They chatted for about fifteen minutes and even turned the lights on! One of the problems of sleeping in hostels is that sometimes you end up with rude and inconsiderate roommates. I got my revenge, though, at 6 AM when I had to wake up for my rafting trip. I turned on the light and clanked around to grab my dishes so I could have my muesli, banana, and soy milk breakfast. That would show them!
It was a two hour bus ride to the Tully River. On the way, the bus driver told us that Tully high school had some very famous students in its history, including Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue, and Heath Ledger. Well laa tee dah.
The rafting was good. My tour company was Raging Thunder. There was eight people in a raft, including the guide. The guide, Hah Kee, was from South Korea and confessed that it was his first time rafting (ha ha!). Other than our joker of a guide, I was the only one who had rafted before. I made sure that I sat at the front of the raft. I wanted the full experience! I wanted all the water HEAD ON!
I had rented a wet-suit top for the day (cost was AU$6). Good thing, too. Even though the sun was warm, the water was chilly and there were lots of shady sections. I was still shivering at times. My tolerance for cold really had gone down hill.
Nevertheless, the Tully River was a different animal than the Ottawa River. The rapids weren’t as big (most on the Tully were rated three or four, but the ones on the Ottawa were fours and fives), but there were more of them, and many many more rocks to contend with. There were fewer sections of normal river between the rapids. There was more action, more often. I highly approved of it.
I accidentally fell into the water in the rapids twice. I bounced off a few rocks. I scratched my bottom. I lost one of my aqua socks (not that that really bothers me). We got to bodysurf for one set of rapids (bodysurfing is when you jump in the river and traverse a set of rapids without the aid of the boat -- it’s easy to do since you’re wearing a lifejacket -- and extremely fun). I went swimming a few times, too -- once when the guide from another boat tricked me (“Hey! Look at the koala nest!”) and pushed me in with his paddle. I think he was getting revenge for all the water fights that I started.
After we returned to the Raging Thunder cafe in the quiet town of Tully, we had the opportunity to buy photographs. They were extremely expensive (AU$26 for only two photos on a CD), but had the proofs sitting on the table. I took a picture of the proofs with my camera. My photos of the photos didn’t end up looking that great, but you get what you pay for!
Here’s a photo of me coming very close to falling out of the boat. I didn’t end up falling out (that time!), though. My legs flew up in the air and I managed to right before myself before tumbling out into the water.
I got back into Cairns about 6:30 PM. I showered so that I didn’t have to smell like a river anymore and met up with Caroline, Dee, and Angus for dinner at The Wool Shed. It was CANADA DAY! Rumour had it that there were drunken Canadians had been wandering around the streets of Cairns that afternoon (it wasn’t me! I had an alibi! I was rafting). I had to find a way to express my Canadianness. Caroline (the other Canadian in my crew) was wearing her Great Big Sea t-shirt, complete with maple leaf. I didn’t have any Canadian t-shirts. I did, however, have my maple leaf Joe Boxers! They even had the word CANADA written on them. I originally thought about wearing them on my head as a bandana (don’t worry, they were clean!), but I decided it would be more fun to wear them on top of my pants.
The Wool Shed was minimally decked out to celebrate Canada Day. There were a few small posters with mounties, beavers, or Bullwinkle J. Moose (who wasn’t even Canadian -- he was from Frostbite Falls, Minnesota!), and a few red and white balloons. To be honest, I expected better decorations since The Wool Shed is a bar for tourists and there are a LOT of Canadian tourists in Australia. We stayed there for dinner and a couple drinks and went back to Angus’ hostel to play some Monopoly. It was time for a rematch!
Caroline had bought herself some premixed cans of Canadian Club and cola. I didn’t find any Canadian beer at the bottle shop, so I settled for some Coopers Sparkling Ale (which I do like -- and does have a red and white label!). This time I didn’t fare so well in Monopoly. I started off with the most properties, but after buying them all, I had very little money left to develop them. I quickly went bankrupt and Caroline ran away with the game.
From left to right: Bendy, Dee, and Angus.
Bendy was quite the character. Except for this day, he always wore a safari uniform, complete with pith helmet. He was a sore loser and kept calling people “peasants” when he had to pay them money. He was the banker the first time we played Monopoly, but he always gave us the wrong change and we think he was slipping himself money (he lost anyways, though). He was a good guy, though. He was really into board games. He had created his own Axis and Allies board, with optional rules (including different technologies for the different nations). Angus admitted that the custom Axis and Allies version was “quite good and worked really well.” It sounded fun, so we made plans for us to play when I got to Sydney in August, prior to flying to the USA.
July 2, 2008
Quiet day today. Caroline, Angus, and Bendy had left Cairns. Dee went snorkeling that day. I didn’t end up doing much of anything. I read my book (currently reading “Valley of the Dolls” by Jacqueline Susan), listened to some CBC Radio 3 podcasts and used the internet.
July 3, 2008
My last full day in Cairns. I went to the lagoon on The Esplanade for sun and swimming. It was too cold for swimming, though. I just lay on the grass for two hours and read my book. That night, I went back to The Esplanade with Dee for dinner. In honour of Canada Day, I tried to get this one place to make poutine. That went badly. I said “put cheese and gravy on chips.” The cheese wasn’t shredded. It was one square of foul processed cheese. Yuck. I also had fish and chips. I think the fish was bad. I immediately started to feel nauseous. I spent the rest of the night in bed feeling wonky. Bleck.
July 4, 2008
I woke up feeling fine. The wonky food aftereffects were gone.
I was flying out of Cairns that night, but still had a full morning and afternoon to kill in Cairns. I was here too long. I should have left a couple days ago. Oh well. I wanted to give enough time for Haley to show up so we could go snorkeling together and have some drinks, but her credit cards never showed up in the mail so she was still stuck in Melbourne. I talked with Dee for a while about her upcoming trip to Sydney and Melbourne and gave her ideas about what to do and where to stay. We went to Cafe Melt for a while for coffee, lunch, and internet. I then went to Peter Pan Adventure Tours to book myself some tours in The Outback for the next week. I ended up spending AU$700 for two three-days tours of The Outback between Darwin and Alice Springs and The Red Centre. My upcoming week was going to be really busy -- but hopefully excellent. Stay tuned to this channel to see how it turns out!
After booking my tours, it was off to the airport to fly to Darwin. Goodbye Cairns!
...continued
I checked myself into the Bohemian Central Hostel. Caroline went for dinner with some other people, but we agreed to meet up later for drinkies. Meanwhile, I had made plans with Tim for dinner. We were both interested in trying kangaroo steak! Yes, I had heard that the soft fuzzy skippy critters were delicious, and we both wanted to try it. There was supposed to be a good place in town that served it, along with “100 beers from around the world.” I was sold. They knew my weak spot... fancy beers!
The girls Tim was traveling with ended up finding a hotel but Tim wanted to stay in a hostel. He didn’t want to spent $25 sleeping on the floor in the hotel room when he could instead spend $25 sleeping in a bed in a hostel. He ended up staying at Bohemian Central, too, and by coincidence got put into my room (being that it was the last room left). It was time for steak!
When we got to the restaurant, Paddywhack’s, I investigated the beer menu. Tim confessed that he was interested in quality beers, too, but didn’t know as many as I did. I promised to show him something good. Paddywhack’s, did indeed, have a nice beer selection. They had exactly one bottle of The Forbidden Fruit left. I told Tim that the single bottle of Forbidden Fruit that I drank in Amsterdam three years prior had changed my taste of beers forever. He decided to try it out. Meanwhile, I got myself a James Squire Amber Ale, a nice Australian ale which they had on draft. We both ordered the kangaroo steak for dinner. Oh wow, was it ever good.
Sure it was expensive (AU$30), but it was so worth it. Kangaroo meat can apparently get tough and chewy if it’s cooked too much. That’s why the restaurant only served it medium-rare. It was a little gamey, too, but that didn’t detract from the really nice flavour. Now you know the truth about kangaroos: cute AND delicious.
After demonstrating our skills as carnivores, Tim and I met up with Caroline and her friends for drinks. We went to The Wool Shed, which is one of the popular bars for tourists in Cairns. Cairns doesn’t have many sights of its own, but it’s got a lot of bars and places to party (if you’re into that thing). That night I was! Caroline’s friends were Dee (from England), and Bendy and Angus from Sydney.
The Wool Shed had cheap drinks (two low-quality beers for AU$6), so we partook of a few. After a short time, the night’s entertainment begun. It was pretty redonkulous! GOLDFISH RACING.
There were two tanks, er, tracks. There were eight fish, each from a different nation (including Mister X, from parts unknown). The crowd was able to bid on the rights to be the aqua jockey for one fish that night. I briefly bid on the Canadian Fish, but once the price reached about AU$15, I let someone else take over. The fish would race each other one at a time. The aqua jockey was not allowed to touch the fish or the water, but was equipped with a straw that they could use to induce the fish to swim towards the finish line. After several rounds of fierce competition, Nemo, the fish from Australia claimed victory.
After the aqua jockeys parted the field, much drinking and dancing ensued. Fun was had by all. The Wool Shed was much like Cheeky Monkey’s in Byron Bay. The place played cheesy music, was filled with tourists, and people danced on the tables.
Eventually, everyone left except for Tim and two of the four girls he was traveling with. It was getting late and they were hungry, so we decided to go to the Esplanade for kebab. While we were sitting there on the patio waiting for our kebabs to be prepared, the Australia girls at the table beside us started singing. Oh my god, they were singing songs from Flight of the Conchords. I am not kidding. The one girl knew the song “Brett, you got it going on” from heart. I told them that I was also a FotC fan and I found it funny how I saw going for kebab with girls after a night of partying. The exact same thing happened in FotC episode 1! After that, they started singing lines from “Part Time Model.”
The three American kids hadn’t seen the show or the band, so they didn’t understand why I thought the situation was so awesome and why I couldn’t stop laughing.
June 30, 2008
Tim checked out of the hostel and went with his girls back to Sydney. They were taking classes there to further their education. He was taking a wine tasting class for credit at university! The things the Americans call “education,” heh heh.
I didn’t do much else this day. I spent some time on the internet uploading blog entries that I had written while I was slacking off at Cape Trib. I booked myself a very expensive one way airline ticket (AU$480) from Cairns to Darwin for later that week.
That night, Caroline came back from her day trip. She was very excited! She had gone whitewater rafting on the Tully River. She said it was really really good. I wanted to go rafting, too. I was originally reluctant to do it because of the cost (AU$185) and because I doubted it would be anywhere nearly as good as the rafting I did on the Ottawa River the year before. She said it was really good, so I impulsively decided to book it for the very next day.
For dinner, we had the cheapo hostel meal: AU$8 for spaghetti bolognaise and one cheapo beer. It was a good deal. Soon, Angus, Bendy, and Dee joined us and we played a game of Monopoly. They wanted to use all of those lame optional rules that make the game longer (like getting money for landing on Free Parking), but I held my ground and disallowed them, arguing that the game would go too long (that’s the Keizo and Greg influence on me!). The game ended up running to midnight anyways. I came in second!
July 1, 2008
Gaak, while I was trying to sleep, my three drunken roommates came back at 4:30 AM and made a huge racket. They chatted for about fifteen minutes and even turned the lights on! One of the problems of sleeping in hostels is that sometimes you end up with rude and inconsiderate roommates. I got my revenge, though, at 6 AM when I had to wake up for my rafting trip. I turned on the light and clanked around to grab my dishes so I could have my muesli, banana, and soy milk breakfast. That would show them!
It was a two hour bus ride to the Tully River. On the way, the bus driver told us that Tully high school had some very famous students in its history, including Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue, and Heath Ledger. Well laa tee dah.
The rafting was good. My tour company was Raging Thunder. There was eight people in a raft, including the guide. The guide, Hah Kee, was from South Korea and confessed that it was his first time rafting (ha ha!). Other than our joker of a guide, I was the only one who had rafted before. I made sure that I sat at the front of the raft. I wanted the full experience! I wanted all the water HEAD ON!
I had rented a wet-suit top for the day (cost was AU$6). Good thing, too. Even though the sun was warm, the water was chilly and there were lots of shady sections. I was still shivering at times. My tolerance for cold really had gone down hill.
Nevertheless, the Tully River was a different animal than the Ottawa River. The rapids weren’t as big (most on the Tully were rated three or four, but the ones on the Ottawa were fours and fives), but there were more of them, and many many more rocks to contend with. There were fewer sections of normal river between the rapids. There was more action, more often. I highly approved of it.
I accidentally fell into the water in the rapids twice. I bounced off a few rocks. I scratched my bottom. I lost one of my aqua socks (not that that really bothers me). We got to bodysurf for one set of rapids (bodysurfing is when you jump in the river and traverse a set of rapids without the aid of the boat -- it’s easy to do since you’re wearing a lifejacket -- and extremely fun). I went swimming a few times, too -- once when the guide from another boat tricked me (“Hey! Look at the koala nest!”) and pushed me in with his paddle. I think he was getting revenge for all the water fights that I started.
After we returned to the Raging Thunder cafe in the quiet town of Tully, we had the opportunity to buy photographs. They were extremely expensive (AU$26 for only two photos on a CD), but had the proofs sitting on the table. I took a picture of the proofs with my camera. My photos of the photos didn’t end up looking that great, but you get what you pay for!
Here’s a photo of me coming very close to falling out of the boat. I didn’t end up falling out (that time!), though. My legs flew up in the air and I managed to right before myself before tumbling out into the water.
I got back into Cairns about 6:30 PM. I showered so that I didn’t have to smell like a river anymore and met up with Caroline, Dee, and Angus for dinner at The Wool Shed. It was CANADA DAY! Rumour had it that there were drunken Canadians had been wandering around the streets of Cairns that afternoon (it wasn’t me! I had an alibi! I was rafting). I had to find a way to express my Canadianness. Caroline (the other Canadian in my crew) was wearing her Great Big Sea t-shirt, complete with maple leaf. I didn’t have any Canadian t-shirts. I did, however, have my maple leaf Joe Boxers! They even had the word CANADA written on them. I originally thought about wearing them on my head as a bandana (don’t worry, they were clean!), but I decided it would be more fun to wear them on top of my pants.
The Wool Shed was minimally decked out to celebrate Canada Day. There were a few small posters with mounties, beavers, or Bullwinkle J. Moose (who wasn’t even Canadian -- he was from Frostbite Falls, Minnesota!), and a few red and white balloons. To be honest, I expected better decorations since The Wool Shed is a bar for tourists and there are a LOT of Canadian tourists in Australia. We stayed there for dinner and a couple drinks and went back to Angus’ hostel to play some Monopoly. It was time for a rematch!
Caroline had bought herself some premixed cans of Canadian Club and cola. I didn’t find any Canadian beer at the bottle shop, so I settled for some Coopers Sparkling Ale (which I do like -- and does have a red and white label!). This time I didn’t fare so well in Monopoly. I started off with the most properties, but after buying them all, I had very little money left to develop them. I quickly went bankrupt and Caroline ran away with the game.
From left to right: Bendy, Dee, and Angus.
Bendy was quite the character. Except for this day, he always wore a safari uniform, complete with pith helmet. He was a sore loser and kept calling people “peasants” when he had to pay them money. He was the banker the first time we played Monopoly, but he always gave us the wrong change and we think he was slipping himself money (he lost anyways, though). He was a good guy, though. He was really into board games. He had created his own Axis and Allies board, with optional rules (including different technologies for the different nations). Angus admitted that the custom Axis and Allies version was “quite good and worked really well.” It sounded fun, so we made plans for us to play when I got to Sydney in August, prior to flying to the USA.
July 2, 2008
Quiet day today. Caroline, Angus, and Bendy had left Cairns. Dee went snorkeling that day. I didn’t end up doing much of anything. I read my book (currently reading “Valley of the Dolls” by Jacqueline Susan), listened to some CBC Radio 3 podcasts and used the internet.
July 3, 2008
My last full day in Cairns. I went to the lagoon on The Esplanade for sun and swimming. It was too cold for swimming, though. I just lay on the grass for two hours and read my book. That night, I went back to The Esplanade with Dee for dinner. In honour of Canada Day, I tried to get this one place to make poutine. That went badly. I said “put cheese and gravy on chips.” The cheese wasn’t shredded. It was one square of foul processed cheese. Yuck. I also had fish and chips. I think the fish was bad. I immediately started to feel nauseous. I spent the rest of the night in bed feeling wonky. Bleck.
July 4, 2008
I woke up feeling fine. The wonky food aftereffects were gone.
I was flying out of Cairns that night, but still had a full morning and afternoon to kill in Cairns. I was here too long. I should have left a couple days ago. Oh well. I wanted to give enough time for Haley to show up so we could go snorkeling together and have some drinks, but her credit cards never showed up in the mail so she was still stuck in Melbourne. I talked with Dee for a while about her upcoming trip to Sydney and Melbourne and gave her ideas about what to do and where to stay. We went to Cafe Melt for a while for coffee, lunch, and internet. I then went to Peter Pan Adventure Tours to book myself some tours in The Outback for the next week. I ended up spending AU$700 for two three-days tours of The Outback between Darwin and Alice Springs and The Red Centre. My upcoming week was going to be really busy -- but hopefully excellent. Stay tuned to this channel to see how it turns out!
After booking my tours, it was off to the airport to fly to Darwin. Goodbye Cairns!
The Trouble with Cape Tribulation
June 25, 2008
... continued
I shared a taxi into the city with the two guys who were sitting beside me on the plane. It was cheaper than paying a full fare on the shuttle bus. I was dropped off at my chosen hostel, the Dreamtime Traveler's Rest, just outside the city centre. It was a small place, really clean, quiet, and nice. I arrived after 10:30 PM, and the reception was closed. I found my key waiting for me in the designated spot beside the Coke machine. I said 'hi' to the two German girls (both named Jenny) sitting on the patio, had a shower, and went to bed. I was tired!
June 26,2008
I slept in again. After shaking off the cobwebs of sleep, I went to reception to pay for my accommodation. I asked if there were any buses or tour going north to Cape Tribulation that day. I really only wanted to stay in Cairns the one night and then head north to the beaches and jungles at Cape Trib. Unfortunately, all the buses for Cape Trib leave before 7 AM. I booked myself onto a two night tour for the next day.
I didn't end up doing much for the rest of the day. I did my laundry at the hostel (finally having a chance to clean to clean my hoodie and jeans after wearing them almost constantly for five or six days). Cairns was warm enough that I could walk around in t-shirt and shorts during the day. It was cool enough in the evening and night, though, that the hoodie and jeans needed to come out again. I predicted that they would get a lot more use in the near future.
I spent a few hours walking around the Cairns city centre and waterfront. Cairns is not a really big city (about 100,000 people) and seems mostly reliant on tourism to drive its economy. There are lots of foreign tourists, as many international flights come straight here. Many shops had storefronts and signs in Japanese, as evidence to the number of Japanese tourists that come here. Cairns is also a popular vacation spot for the Aussies, too. I ended up talking with a few Aussies who came to Cairns for even a few days to enjoy the sun and water.
Cairns has a marina, but no beach. Apparently they tried to dredge the harbour over a hundred years ago to create a deep water port, but all the only result was a buildup of mud flats along the short. Consequently, Cairns became a refuge for wild birds. If you wanted to go swimming in Cairns, you had to go to the manmade lagoon (which was closed for renovations that day), or head out of town.
The city centre was quiet and there wasn't much to see, other than the waterfront itself.
There was a mall, but shopping isn't my thing. I enjoyed some cheap fish and chips. It wasn't a food I ate very often back at home, but I had acquired a bit of a taste for it in Australia. Now I understand why my dad wanted to order it so much when he was in Australia back in February. As long as the fish is light and flaky, its quite tasty! Of course, I put l put lots of vinegar on the fries! Yum!
I headed back to the hostel, and used the internet for a few hours. I had to leave early in the morning for my trip to Cape Trib so I kept it a quiet night.
June 27, 2008
Woke up early to catch my bus to Port Trib. It was actually more of a tour than just a simple bus trip, so there were a few stops on the way. The first stop was Port Douglas, a popular and posh beach town about an hour north of Cairns along the picturesque sea-side Captain Cook Highway. Our bus driver warned us that food in Cape Trib can be expensive (since its somewhat isolated), so we should take advantage of the grocery store in Port Douglas while we could. I did just that. I hadn't had breakfast yet, so I grabbed a chocolate bar and went to snap some photos of the marina in the twenty minutes or so that I had left.
From Port Douglas, we drove further north along the Captain Cook Highway, past sugarcane fields, cane trains, and mountains to Mossman Gorge. We had about half an hour to walk around the pretty gorge and vegetation.
After Mossman Gorge, we continued further north, crossed the Daintree River on a ferry, and for lunch on a beach. There were some people on the tour who paid extra for the deluxe package and got to eat a buffet lunch sitting in a restaurant. I, instead, ate my AU$5 garden salad sitting on a log on the beach itself. I walked around the beach for a while to stretch my legs. The weather that day was overcast, and not that warm. Not really beach weather. I did see some cool things, though. I found this pair of coconuts on the beach that had already started to germinate and grow into new palm trees:
After about an hour on the beach, the bus picked us up and drove the rest of the way to Cape Trib. It wasn't that much farther. I was dropped off at PK's Jungle Village, my chosen accommodation, at about 1 PM. The bus driver said he would pick me up in two days at the same time.
I didn't do much else that day. The weather wasn't that great. That night I sat around the hostel bar and played cards with various people (mostly some Canadians from Alberta). Sadly, I spilled beer on their cards. How embarrassing. There were a few people there, but I wouldn't call it crowded. There was this attractive Dutch girl there named Marina who was flirting with me (I think). She was pretty annoying though and continually complained about how bad the weather was back in Holland. She wouldn't stop talking! She went to bed early, thankfully. After a few more drinks I went to bed, too. I was in a seven-bed dormitory, but there was only one other person sleeping there that night.
June 28,2008
As I lay in bed, I heard the rain on the metal roof of the dorm. Ugh. I shouldn't have been surprised, though. I was in a rain forest, after all. I stayed in bed as long as I could, watching anime on my MacBook. After a while, I had to pee, so it was time to go and face the world. At least the rain had stopped by then.
I spent the day wandering around the Cape Tribulation area. I had the option to go on several tours, but I declined all that stuff and went on several self-guided walking tours. Very close to the hostel was Myall Beach. The tide was low and lots of rocks were exposed in the sea. The sky was still overcast so pictures weren't so pretty. I walked north, forded a creek, and walked over the saddle of Cape Tribulation itself to see Tribulation Beach. I went to the lookout and looked out over the lot of it. It was prettier than Myall Beach... more more about that in tomorrow's section. From there, I walked back along the highway to the hostel for lunch.
After lunch (muesli, soy milk, and a banana), I explored the nearby jungle boardwalk. The jungle at Cape Tribulation is reputedly one of the oldest jungles in the world. Apparently its been there for literally tens of millions of years. It looked pretty primitive to me, given the number of giant ferns and crazy palm trees I saw there. I made a rare decision to walk through the jungle by listening to music on my iPod (I had been stuck on The Kills lately -- my favourite song right now is definitely "Last Day of Magic"). While strolling down the boardwalk I saw a gaggle of people up ahead looking at something. One of them saw me and held out his hand, signaling me to stop walking. I was bopping to the music and almost missed his signal. It was a good thing I saw it. Immediately beside the path, only six feet away from me, was a big cassowary grazing in the bushes. Oh man. Cassowaries are big birds; this one was probably about five feet tall. They had sharp talons (reminds me of Napolean Dynamite!) that can rip a person open. They're considered very unpredictable. I backed away slowly and gave the big bird plenty of space. After thirty seconds it wandered back into the jungle on its own. This encounter was definitely my closest brush with a dangerous animal in Australia. Oh man.
After the jungle boardwalk, and my close brush with nature, I walked down the highway to the store and the pretty swimming hole. From there, it was back along the beach back to the hostel where I had a quiet time for the rest of the afternoon.
That night, the hostel had a barbecue where I enjoyed steak, sausage, and a big pile of salads. There was a live band entertaining the guests. The band was two old guys on guitar backed by another old guy on drums belting out (mostly) reggae tunes. I sat around drinking wine with and playing cards with a guy from Edmonton and a girl from San Diego. We played a card game called "Thirty One," which I had never played before.
June 29, 2008
The weather was much nicer today. Blue, inviting blue skies, but stiff breezes from the sea. I wandered back to Myall Beach to take more photos. These turned out much nicer than the ones from the previous day's. This is a photograph of Myall Creek pouring itself across the beach toward the sea. I think all the cool, clear water running across the sand looks so fascinating.
I had my final meal at PK's Jungle Village and got picked up by the same bus and driver from two days before. It was time for the tour to continue! Out first stop was Tribulation Beach. Ha ha, I had walked there the day before by myself. Now, the weather was much warmer and I was there with other people. No worries. The beach was much prettier under blue skies.
There was a big lizard on the beach, too. The beastie was probably about 80 cm long.
On the bus back to Cairns, I met Caroline, from Ottawa. We chatted on the way back. I wasn't sure where I was staying in Cairns, yet. She told me about her hostel, the Bohemian Central. It had a dumb name, but it sounded good enough for me. I also made friends with Tim from Tennessee.
The next stop on the southbound leg of the tour was Marddja Boardwalk. This boardwalk was similar to the jungle boardwalk I walked to the day before, but the jungle itself had a different character. It had more swamps and mangroves, and fewer giant ferns and fan palms. Our tour guy showed a tree that we could stick our heads into. We all took turns sticking our heads into the tree while he stuck our cameras in there too and took our photos. I know it sounds ludicrous, but it worked out really well!
After the boardwalk we continued driving south through the jungle. We crossed the ferry over the Daintree River again. Right on the other side of the river we stopped to have a break of tea and biscuits before we boarded a boat for a cruise on the Daintree River. What was the big deal about the river? It was filled with crocs!
We saw a lot of wildlife along the river. Four crocs of various sizes, including a big male about four metres long, a brilliant blue kingfisher bird, a few snakes, and a swooping osprey. The tide was coming in quickly and our guide told us that the crocs had been sunning themselves all afternoon on the mudflats but would be slipping back into the water pretty soon. We were lucky to see even four crocs at the time. I guess I was lucky!
The river was our last stop on the tour. From there, our driver drove us all the way back to Cairns in one go (about two hours). The road was very windy and the driver drove very quickly. The bus swayed back and forth and I felt a little nauseous. Bleck. It was like Laos all over again... but only for an hour instead of eight!
To be continued...
... continued
I shared a taxi into the city with the two guys who were sitting beside me on the plane. It was cheaper than paying a full fare on the shuttle bus. I was dropped off at my chosen hostel, the Dreamtime Traveler's Rest, just outside the city centre. It was a small place, really clean, quiet, and nice. I arrived after 10:30 PM, and the reception was closed. I found my key waiting for me in the designated spot beside the Coke machine. I said 'hi' to the two German girls (both named Jenny) sitting on the patio, had a shower, and went to bed. I was tired!
June 26,2008
I slept in again. After shaking off the cobwebs of sleep, I went to reception to pay for my accommodation. I asked if there were any buses or tour going north to Cape Tribulation that day. I really only wanted to stay in Cairns the one night and then head north to the beaches and jungles at Cape Trib. Unfortunately, all the buses for Cape Trib leave before 7 AM. I booked myself onto a two night tour for the next day.
I didn't end up doing much for the rest of the day. I did my laundry at the hostel (finally having a chance to clean to clean my hoodie and jeans after wearing them almost constantly for five or six days). Cairns was warm enough that I could walk around in t-shirt and shorts during the day. It was cool enough in the evening and night, though, that the hoodie and jeans needed to come out again. I predicted that they would get a lot more use in the near future.
I spent a few hours walking around the Cairns city centre and waterfront. Cairns is not a really big city (about 100,000 people) and seems mostly reliant on tourism to drive its economy. There are lots of foreign tourists, as many international flights come straight here. Many shops had storefronts and signs in Japanese, as evidence to the number of Japanese tourists that come here. Cairns is also a popular vacation spot for the Aussies, too. I ended up talking with a few Aussies who came to Cairns for even a few days to enjoy the sun and water.
Cairns has a marina, but no beach. Apparently they tried to dredge the harbour over a hundred years ago to create a deep water port, but all the only result was a buildup of mud flats along the short. Consequently, Cairns became a refuge for wild birds. If you wanted to go swimming in Cairns, you had to go to the manmade lagoon (which was closed for renovations that day), or head out of town.
The city centre was quiet and there wasn't much to see, other than the waterfront itself.
There was a mall, but shopping isn't my thing. I enjoyed some cheap fish and chips. It wasn't a food I ate very often back at home, but I had acquired a bit of a taste for it in Australia. Now I understand why my dad wanted to order it so much when he was in Australia back in February. As long as the fish is light and flaky, its quite tasty! Of course, I put l put lots of vinegar on the fries! Yum!
I headed back to the hostel, and used the internet for a few hours. I had to leave early in the morning for my trip to Cape Trib so I kept it a quiet night.
June 27, 2008
Woke up early to catch my bus to Port Trib. It was actually more of a tour than just a simple bus trip, so there were a few stops on the way. The first stop was Port Douglas, a popular and posh beach town about an hour north of Cairns along the picturesque sea-side Captain Cook Highway. Our bus driver warned us that food in Cape Trib can be expensive (since its somewhat isolated), so we should take advantage of the grocery store in Port Douglas while we could. I did just that. I hadn't had breakfast yet, so I grabbed a chocolate bar and went to snap some photos of the marina in the twenty minutes or so that I had left.
From Port Douglas, we drove further north along the Captain Cook Highway, past sugarcane fields, cane trains, and mountains to Mossman Gorge. We had about half an hour to walk around the pretty gorge and vegetation.
After Mossman Gorge, we continued further north, crossed the Daintree River on a ferry, and for lunch on a beach. There were some people on the tour who paid extra for the deluxe package and got to eat a buffet lunch sitting in a restaurant. I, instead, ate my AU$5 garden salad sitting on a log on the beach itself. I walked around the beach for a while to stretch my legs. The weather that day was overcast, and not that warm. Not really beach weather. I did see some cool things, though. I found this pair of coconuts on the beach that had already started to germinate and grow into new palm trees:
After about an hour on the beach, the bus picked us up and drove the rest of the way to Cape Trib. It wasn't that much farther. I was dropped off at PK's Jungle Village, my chosen accommodation, at about 1 PM. The bus driver said he would pick me up in two days at the same time.
I didn't do much else that day. The weather wasn't that great. That night I sat around the hostel bar and played cards with various people (mostly some Canadians from Alberta). Sadly, I spilled beer on their cards. How embarrassing. There were a few people there, but I wouldn't call it crowded. There was this attractive Dutch girl there named Marina who was flirting with me (I think). She was pretty annoying though and continually complained about how bad the weather was back in Holland. She wouldn't stop talking! She went to bed early, thankfully. After a few more drinks I went to bed, too. I was in a seven-bed dormitory, but there was only one other person sleeping there that night.
June 28,2008
As I lay in bed, I heard the rain on the metal roof of the dorm. Ugh. I shouldn't have been surprised, though. I was in a rain forest, after all. I stayed in bed as long as I could, watching anime on my MacBook. After a while, I had to pee, so it was time to go and face the world. At least the rain had stopped by then.
I spent the day wandering around the Cape Tribulation area. I had the option to go on several tours, but I declined all that stuff and went on several self-guided walking tours. Very close to the hostel was Myall Beach. The tide was low and lots of rocks were exposed in the sea. The sky was still overcast so pictures weren't so pretty. I walked north, forded a creek, and walked over the saddle of Cape Tribulation itself to see Tribulation Beach. I went to the lookout and looked out over the lot of it. It was prettier than Myall Beach... more more about that in tomorrow's section. From there, I walked back along the highway to the hostel for lunch.
After lunch (muesli, soy milk, and a banana), I explored the nearby jungle boardwalk. The jungle at Cape Tribulation is reputedly one of the oldest jungles in the world. Apparently its been there for literally tens of millions of years. It looked pretty primitive to me, given the number of giant ferns and crazy palm trees I saw there. I made a rare decision to walk through the jungle by listening to music on my iPod (I had been stuck on The Kills lately -- my favourite song right now is definitely "Last Day of Magic"). While strolling down the boardwalk I saw a gaggle of people up ahead looking at something. One of them saw me and held out his hand, signaling me to stop walking. I was bopping to the music and almost missed his signal. It was a good thing I saw it. Immediately beside the path, only six feet away from me, was a big cassowary grazing in the bushes. Oh man. Cassowaries are big birds; this one was probably about five feet tall. They had sharp talons (reminds me of Napolean Dynamite!) that can rip a person open. They're considered very unpredictable. I backed away slowly and gave the big bird plenty of space. After thirty seconds it wandered back into the jungle on its own. This encounter was definitely my closest brush with a dangerous animal in Australia. Oh man.
After the jungle boardwalk, and my close brush with nature, I walked down the highway to the store and the pretty swimming hole. From there, it was back along the beach back to the hostel where I had a quiet time for the rest of the afternoon.
That night, the hostel had a barbecue where I enjoyed steak, sausage, and a big pile of salads. There was a live band entertaining the guests. The band was two old guys on guitar backed by another old guy on drums belting out (mostly) reggae tunes. I sat around drinking wine with and playing cards with a guy from Edmonton and a girl from San Diego. We played a card game called "Thirty One," which I had never played before.
June 29, 2008
The weather was much nicer today. Blue, inviting blue skies, but stiff breezes from the sea. I wandered back to Myall Beach to take more photos. These turned out much nicer than the ones from the previous day's. This is a photograph of Myall Creek pouring itself across the beach toward the sea. I think all the cool, clear water running across the sand looks so fascinating.
I had my final meal at PK's Jungle Village and got picked up by the same bus and driver from two days before. It was time for the tour to continue! Out first stop was Tribulation Beach. Ha ha, I had walked there the day before by myself. Now, the weather was much warmer and I was there with other people. No worries. The beach was much prettier under blue skies.
There was a big lizard on the beach, too. The beastie was probably about 80 cm long.
On the bus back to Cairns, I met Caroline, from Ottawa. We chatted on the way back. I wasn't sure where I was staying in Cairns, yet. She told me about her hostel, the Bohemian Central. It had a dumb name, but it sounded good enough for me. I also made friends with Tim from Tennessee.
The next stop on the southbound leg of the tour was Marddja Boardwalk. This boardwalk was similar to the jungle boardwalk I walked to the day before, but the jungle itself had a different character. It had more swamps and mangroves, and fewer giant ferns and fan palms. Our tour guy showed a tree that we could stick our heads into. We all took turns sticking our heads into the tree while he stuck our cameras in there too and took our photos. I know it sounds ludicrous, but it worked out really well!
After the boardwalk we continued driving south through the jungle. We crossed the ferry over the Daintree River again. Right on the other side of the river we stopped to have a break of tea and biscuits before we boarded a boat for a cruise on the Daintree River. What was the big deal about the river? It was filled with crocs!
We saw a lot of wildlife along the river. Four crocs of various sizes, including a big male about four metres long, a brilliant blue kingfisher bird, a few snakes, and a swooping osprey. The tide was coming in quickly and our guide told us that the crocs had been sunning themselves all afternoon on the mudflats but would be slipping back into the water pretty soon. We were lucky to see even four crocs at the time. I guess I was lucky!
The river was our last stop on the tour. From there, our driver drove us all the way back to Cairns in one go (about two hours). The road was very windy and the driver drove very quickly. The bus swayed back and forth and I felt a little nauseous. Bleck. It was like Laos all over again... but only for an hour instead of eight!
To be continued...
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Freezing Cold - Melbourne!
June 20, 2008
It's true! I was back in Australia! I took the bus from the airport to the city centre and walked to my nearby hostel, the Melbourne Traveler's Connection. It was a short walk, but it was enough to teach me an important lesson. Melbourne is a COLD city in winter! Sure it wasn't less than ten degrees, but I was shivering. I know that ten degrees is still t-shirt and shorts weather in Canada, but I had spent more than four months in the hottest places I've ever been. My tolerance for cold had definitely been diminished. Brrr! I didn't have a lot of warm weather clothing; just my jeans and hoodie. It was enough to ward off the cold, though. I still I think I was doing better than the native Melbournians! Most of them were dressed up in proper winter parkas, scarves, hats, and gloves. As a Canadian, I found it somewhat funny. I guess I did still have some of my cold tolerance, after all.
I was in Melbourne for several reasons. First, some of the cheapest flights to and from Asia were based from here. It made a good hub. Also, Joe Clancy lived here, and I left some of my stuff at his house (in particular, I wanted my MacBook back!).
My future plans weren't really established yet. I had almost one month in Australia on this leg of my trip. I had until July 18 (the date of my next booked flight: Melbourne to Samoa) to wander around. I still wasn't feeling very motivated to take on work in Australia. I just wanted to backpack around and enjoy the hostel scene for a while. I spent my time in Melbourne figuring out exactly where I wanted to go. In general, I knew that I wanted to go to Alice Springs (and nearby Uluru), Darwin (and nearby Kakadu), and Cairns. I was undecided about the order I was to visit those locations and the methods of travel, though. I wanted at least overland leg through The Outback to see the desolation and country, though.
Anyways, enough waxing of philosophy. I hadn't slept a lot on the plane and in the airport on the way from Hong Kong, but I didn't feel like sleeping right away in Melbourne. The weather was brisk and I went for a walk. I quickly visited a cash machine to get money. I stopped off at 7-11 to get a top-up for Australian Vodaphone. My Australian phone number was alive again! Anyone want to call me? +61450048780. Just don't call me when I'm sleeping.
Melbourne in June feels and looks much like Toronto in October or November. The leaves were gone from the trees, the air is brisk, and the people are bundled up. It was a nice feeling to experience, for a while at least. I really wanted to be in warm places rather than cold ones.
I hope these photos give you a bit of the feeling of the Melbourne Winter:
That night I got in touch with Joe. His girlfriend, Natalie Thompson was having a going-away party that night. She was leaving her job to go to Singapore for school for a while. I met up with Joe, Natalie, and a bunch of their friends at dumpling restaurant in Chinatown. I had just left Asia, and I was already eating Asian food again! Ha ha. After dinner, we went to the Eurotrash bar for drinks. Joe and I had tried to go to this bar back in March, but the night we wandered there it was Lesbian Night and they didn't really want us there. No problems this time around, though. Good night.
June 21, 2008
I slept in. Was I jet lagged, or just sleep-deprived? It doesn't matter. Sleep is good.
It was Saturday! Joe had the day off, so I took the train to his house after lunch. I was happily reunited with my MacBook (joy!) and a few other odds-and-ends I had left at his place for the past three months. Natalie shared some of her very-garlicky homemade hummus and we made peanut butter cookies. We chatted for a while and had some tea. Joe and Natalie had a date to see the new Indiana Jones movie that night. I had already seen it, so went back to the hostel.
I had spotted an advertisement in an entertainment newspaper in the hostel earlier that day for an album launch party for The Futureheads at a bar in Fitzroy. I tried to draft a few of the people from the hostel to go with me. Some of them initially said they would go, but later decided not to go (this was actually a recurring problem with people from this hostel). Instead, we bought beers and goone (it had been a while since I had seen that stuff, that's for sure) and stayed in the hostel TV room instead.
I found myself in a new little clique of people. It was me, Gio (a girl from Ottawa, Canada), Haley (a girl from England), Alex (a guy from England), Phil (a guy from England), and a few other people (English and Irish). All of us were traveling alone, but, by the virtue of association from staying in the hostel, we ended up forming a clique. Things like that happen pretty often in the backpacker world.
The primary activity of our group was being cheap and staying in the hostel TV room watching movies and TV. The English guys in particular liked to watch this car show called Top Gear. The girls weren't so interested in it. They frequently had discussions ("fights" is too harsh a word here) about who should be controlling the remote. I didn't really care so much about what was on the TV, so I just sat back and laughed.
There were other cliques in the hostel, too. There were some other Canadians, but they were from Western Canada and I don't think they liked us Eastern Canadians. Bah. There was also the clique of people that spent hours and hours in the DVD room in the basement. Bah! DVD people! We were the TV clique.
June 22, 2008
Didn't do much today. Reunited with my MacBook, I spent a lot of time in the State Library of Victoria taking advantage of their free wireless internet. Spent the night hanging out with the TV clique in our office (the hostel TV room).
There was talk between Gio, Haley, and I about going to Coober Pedy or Alice Springs together. I wanted to go to Alice Springs and Darwin next. Gio wanted to go to Coober Pedy, which was on the way to Alice Springs. No decisions were made, yet.
June 23, 2008
Joe had lent me his City Library Card so I spent some time there to find some books to borrow. I hoped to have more selection of reading material than the meagre hostel book exchange shelves or from opportunistic trades with other backpackers. Yes, there were many more books there, but most of the ones I wanted were lost or on loan. I hadn't borrowed books from any libraries in many years... was it always this hard to find books to read at the library?
I met up with Joe for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant near his office. We spent some time talking about my next steps in Australia. He gave me some ideas about things to do in Alice Springs and Darwin and how to get there. Joe is always a gold mine of travel information. I really enjoy meeting up with him.
After lunch, I met up with Haley and Gio at the State Library, again to take advantage of the free internet. Free is the best price. I did some research into the costs of renting a car or flying. Alice Springs, sadly, is a very expensive place to get to in Australia. Haley and Gio seemed to be traveling on an even tighter budget than I was (I quickly realized, on my trip, that my budget requirements were generally more generous than most backpackers' were), and said they wouldn't be able to make the trip. Haley, however, needed to go to Cairns, next, on her way to the USA afterwards. Since I wanted to go to Cairns, too, Haley and I decided to try to see the place together. Its not that I was unwilling to go somewhere by myself, but it is usually more fun to have a travel buddy.
However, no concrete plans were made yet. Haley had her credit card and cash swiped when she was in Adelaide. She was waiting for her new credit card to come soon. It should be just a few more days.
On the way back from the library, I stopped off at the Crumpler shop to buy myself a new manbag. The old one that I bought in Cambodia (for US$9) was falling apart after only two months of use. I was used to having a bag now, and it was convenient for carrying my laptop computer around, so I decided to buy a new one in Melbourne. Crumpler is a Melbourne-based company with a reputation of making excellent quality bags that look good, so I shelled out the cash. I picked out a cool messenger bag for AU$150. Hopefully this one last longer than two months.
That night Haley and I, along with some random English guys (yes, I was back in Australia where the overwhelming majority of backpackers seem to be English) from the hostel went to an Irish Pub for drinks. We were feeling a bit pent up in the hostel and needed to go out that night. The pub had cheap drinks at the start of the night (AU$4 of the crap beer), but the price escalated through the night (AU$5 when we left, but the menu showed that it reached AU$6 or AU$7 later). The place was crowded and lively. A cover band set up on the stage and played some tunes for us. I was amused that they played Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69". Cheesy Canadian Music!
June 24, 2008
I decided that I had been in Melbourne long enough. The cold was bothersome. I had been wearing the same hoodie and jeans for four days in a row. I wanted to wash them, but they I would be cold while they were being washed. I needed to go to Cairns where it would be warm again. Haley said that her credit card was still "a few days away," and I should go to Cairns anyway. She would catch up next week.
Gio and I met up at the library at 12 noon sharp. Virgin Blue sells tickets at a discount during happy hour (noon to 1 PM), so we looked for cheap flights. She was trying to find a cheap flight to Mackay so she could visit some people in Bowen who were going to give her free room and board. To my surprise, the cheapest flight I could find to Cairns was the very next day. Any other flights during the rest of the week were more expensive. I booked it. It was decided.
That evening, I met up with Joe for some drinks. After all, it was my last night in Melbourne. Was spent a few hours with a couple drinks at a bar overlooking Flinders Lane. The conversation that I remember the most was the one where he described to me, in detail, the services (and how I should take advantage of them) that Air New Zealand would offer to me on the day I flew business class to Samoa. It was gonna be good! It was gonna be amazing!
That night, the TV clique stayed up late switching it up and watching DVDs in the DVD room. Gio had copies of Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. It was Eddie Murphy night!
June 25, 2008
My flight today wasn't leaving until the late in the afternoon, so I had some time to kill after checking out from the hostel. Joe had recommended the National Gallery of Victoria to me. It was a free art gallery and there was a chandelier that he recommended that I see. After taking advantage of the free internet at the State Library again, I headed on down there. There was a cool wall of water in the gallery lobby. Click on the picture below for a larger version. The fuzzy silhouette behind the wall is a security guard. The clear silhouettes in front of the wall are statues.
Alas, the chandelier that Joe recommended wasn't there anymore. I wandered around the art gallery for a while and enjoyed the art. After a while, though, I got bored and left. I took a brisk walk in The Domain and Yarra Riverfront across the street. I did very little sightseeing in Melbourne this time around, so I took some photographs.
I got back at the hostel at 1:30 to eat the last of the food I had stashed there and to say goodbye to my friends there. Gio walked me to the bus station. We promised to try and stay in touch. Soon enough, the Skybus whisked me away to the airport.
I had to fly though Sydney to get to Cairns. Even though I had only booked the ticket the day before, I was given emergency exit row seats on both flights! Sweet! It seemed that I had been booking a lot of flights lately at nearly-the-last-minute and I got exit row seats fairly often. I wonder if there's a lesson to be learned there?
I landed in Cairns past sunset. It was warm though and it had recently rained. Hopefully I enjoy the weather here more than the weather in Melbourne!
It's true! I was back in Australia! I took the bus from the airport to the city centre and walked to my nearby hostel, the Melbourne Traveler's Connection. It was a short walk, but it was enough to teach me an important lesson. Melbourne is a COLD city in winter! Sure it wasn't less than ten degrees, but I was shivering. I know that ten degrees is still t-shirt and shorts weather in Canada, but I had spent more than four months in the hottest places I've ever been. My tolerance for cold had definitely been diminished. Brrr! I didn't have a lot of warm weather clothing; just my jeans and hoodie. It was enough to ward off the cold, though. I still I think I was doing better than the native Melbournians! Most of them were dressed up in proper winter parkas, scarves, hats, and gloves. As a Canadian, I found it somewhat funny. I guess I did still have some of my cold tolerance, after all.
I was in Melbourne for several reasons. First, some of the cheapest flights to and from Asia were based from here. It made a good hub. Also, Joe Clancy lived here, and I left some of my stuff at his house (in particular, I wanted my MacBook back!).
My future plans weren't really established yet. I had almost one month in Australia on this leg of my trip. I had until July 18 (the date of my next booked flight: Melbourne to Samoa) to wander around. I still wasn't feeling very motivated to take on work in Australia. I just wanted to backpack around and enjoy the hostel scene for a while. I spent my time in Melbourne figuring out exactly where I wanted to go. In general, I knew that I wanted to go to Alice Springs (and nearby Uluru), Darwin (and nearby Kakadu), and Cairns. I was undecided about the order I was to visit those locations and the methods of travel, though. I wanted at least overland leg through The Outback to see the desolation and country, though.
Anyways, enough waxing of philosophy. I hadn't slept a lot on the plane and in the airport on the way from Hong Kong, but I didn't feel like sleeping right away in Melbourne. The weather was brisk and I went for a walk. I quickly visited a cash machine to get money. I stopped off at 7-11 to get a top-up for Australian Vodaphone. My Australian phone number was alive again! Anyone want to call me? +61450048780. Just don't call me when I'm sleeping.
Melbourne in June feels and looks much like Toronto in October or November. The leaves were gone from the trees, the air is brisk, and the people are bundled up. It was a nice feeling to experience, for a while at least. I really wanted to be in warm places rather than cold ones.
I hope these photos give you a bit of the feeling of the Melbourne Winter:
That night I got in touch with Joe. His girlfriend, Natalie Thompson was having a going-away party that night. She was leaving her job to go to Singapore for school for a while. I met up with Joe, Natalie, and a bunch of their friends at dumpling restaurant in Chinatown. I had just left Asia, and I was already eating Asian food again! Ha ha. After dinner, we went to the Eurotrash bar for drinks. Joe and I had tried to go to this bar back in March, but the night we wandered there it was Lesbian Night and they didn't really want us there. No problems this time around, though. Good night.
June 21, 2008
I slept in. Was I jet lagged, or just sleep-deprived? It doesn't matter. Sleep is good.
It was Saturday! Joe had the day off, so I took the train to his house after lunch. I was happily reunited with my MacBook (joy!) and a few other odds-and-ends I had left at his place for the past three months. Natalie shared some of her very-garlicky homemade hummus and we made peanut butter cookies. We chatted for a while and had some tea. Joe and Natalie had a date to see the new Indiana Jones movie that night. I had already seen it, so went back to the hostel.
I had spotted an advertisement in an entertainment newspaper in the hostel earlier that day for an album launch party for The Futureheads at a bar in Fitzroy. I tried to draft a few of the people from the hostel to go with me. Some of them initially said they would go, but later decided not to go (this was actually a recurring problem with people from this hostel). Instead, we bought beers and goone (it had been a while since I had seen that stuff, that's for sure) and stayed in the hostel TV room instead.
I found myself in a new little clique of people. It was me, Gio (a girl from Ottawa, Canada), Haley (a girl from England), Alex (a guy from England), Phil (a guy from England), and a few other people (English and Irish). All of us were traveling alone, but, by the virtue of association from staying in the hostel, we ended up forming a clique. Things like that happen pretty often in the backpacker world.
The primary activity of our group was being cheap and staying in the hostel TV room watching movies and TV. The English guys in particular liked to watch this car show called Top Gear. The girls weren't so interested in it. They frequently had discussions ("fights" is too harsh a word here) about who should be controlling the remote. I didn't really care so much about what was on the TV, so I just sat back and laughed.
There were other cliques in the hostel, too. There were some other Canadians, but they were from Western Canada and I don't think they liked us Eastern Canadians. Bah. There was also the clique of people that spent hours and hours in the DVD room in the basement. Bah! DVD people! We were the TV clique.
June 22, 2008
Didn't do much today. Reunited with my MacBook, I spent a lot of time in the State Library of Victoria taking advantage of their free wireless internet. Spent the night hanging out with the TV clique in our office (the hostel TV room).
There was talk between Gio, Haley, and I about going to Coober Pedy or Alice Springs together. I wanted to go to Alice Springs and Darwin next. Gio wanted to go to Coober Pedy, which was on the way to Alice Springs. No decisions were made, yet.
June 23, 2008
Joe had lent me his City Library Card so I spent some time there to find some books to borrow. I hoped to have more selection of reading material than the meagre hostel book exchange shelves or from opportunistic trades with other backpackers. Yes, there were many more books there, but most of the ones I wanted were lost or on loan. I hadn't borrowed books from any libraries in many years... was it always this hard to find books to read at the library?
I met up with Joe for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant near his office. We spent some time talking about my next steps in Australia. He gave me some ideas about things to do in Alice Springs and Darwin and how to get there. Joe is always a gold mine of travel information. I really enjoy meeting up with him.
After lunch, I met up with Haley and Gio at the State Library, again to take advantage of the free internet. Free is the best price. I did some research into the costs of renting a car or flying. Alice Springs, sadly, is a very expensive place to get to in Australia. Haley and Gio seemed to be traveling on an even tighter budget than I was (I quickly realized, on my trip, that my budget requirements were generally more generous than most backpackers' were), and said they wouldn't be able to make the trip. Haley, however, needed to go to Cairns, next, on her way to the USA afterwards. Since I wanted to go to Cairns, too, Haley and I decided to try to see the place together. Its not that I was unwilling to go somewhere by myself, but it is usually more fun to have a travel buddy.
However, no concrete plans were made yet. Haley had her credit card and cash swiped when she was in Adelaide. She was waiting for her new credit card to come soon. It should be just a few more days.
On the way back from the library, I stopped off at the Crumpler shop to buy myself a new manbag. The old one that I bought in Cambodia (for US$9) was falling apart after only two months of use. I was used to having a bag now, and it was convenient for carrying my laptop computer around, so I decided to buy a new one in Melbourne. Crumpler is a Melbourne-based company with a reputation of making excellent quality bags that look good, so I shelled out the cash. I picked out a cool messenger bag for AU$150. Hopefully this one last longer than two months.
That night Haley and I, along with some random English guys (yes, I was back in Australia where the overwhelming majority of backpackers seem to be English) from the hostel went to an Irish Pub for drinks. We were feeling a bit pent up in the hostel and needed to go out that night. The pub had cheap drinks at the start of the night (AU$4 of the crap beer), but the price escalated through the night (AU$5 when we left, but the menu showed that it reached AU$6 or AU$7 later). The place was crowded and lively. A cover band set up on the stage and played some tunes for us. I was amused that they played Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69". Cheesy Canadian Music!
June 24, 2008
I decided that I had been in Melbourne long enough. The cold was bothersome. I had been wearing the same hoodie and jeans for four days in a row. I wanted to wash them, but they I would be cold while they were being washed. I needed to go to Cairns where it would be warm again. Haley said that her credit card was still "a few days away," and I should go to Cairns anyway. She would catch up next week.
Gio and I met up at the library at 12 noon sharp. Virgin Blue sells tickets at a discount during happy hour (noon to 1 PM), so we looked for cheap flights. She was trying to find a cheap flight to Mackay so she could visit some people in Bowen who were going to give her free room and board. To my surprise, the cheapest flight I could find to Cairns was the very next day. Any other flights during the rest of the week were more expensive. I booked it. It was decided.
That evening, I met up with Joe for some drinks. After all, it was my last night in Melbourne. Was spent a few hours with a couple drinks at a bar overlooking Flinders Lane. The conversation that I remember the most was the one where he described to me, in detail, the services (and how I should take advantage of them) that Air New Zealand would offer to me on the day I flew business class to Samoa. It was gonna be good! It was gonna be amazing!
That night, the TV clique stayed up late switching it up and watching DVDs in the DVD room. Gio had copies of Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. It was Eddie Murphy night!
June 25, 2008
My flight today wasn't leaving until the late in the afternoon, so I had some time to kill after checking out from the hostel. Joe had recommended the National Gallery of Victoria to me. It was a free art gallery and there was a chandelier that he recommended that I see. After taking advantage of the free internet at the State Library again, I headed on down there. There was a cool wall of water in the gallery lobby. Click on the picture below for a larger version. The fuzzy silhouette behind the wall is a security guard. The clear silhouettes in front of the wall are statues.
Alas, the chandelier that Joe recommended wasn't there anymore. I wandered around the art gallery for a while and enjoyed the art. After a while, though, I got bored and left. I took a brisk walk in The Domain and Yarra Riverfront across the street. I did very little sightseeing in Melbourne this time around, so I took some photographs.
I got back at the hostel at 1:30 to eat the last of the food I had stashed there and to say goodbye to my friends there. Gio walked me to the bus station. We promised to try and stay in touch. Soon enough, the Skybus whisked me away to the airport.
I had to fly though Sydney to get to Cairns. Even though I had only booked the ticket the day before, I was given emergency exit row seats on both flights! Sweet! It seemed that I had been booking a lot of flights lately at nearly-the-last-minute and I got exit row seats fairly often. I wonder if there's a lesson to be learned there?
I landed in Cairns past sunset. It was warm though and it had recently rained. Hopefully I enjoy the weather here more than the weather in Melbourne!
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