Since my computer broke before the end of January I've not really been able to put a good effort into my blog. I do want to let everyone know that I'm doing okay, other then the occasional bouts of loneliness, apathy, or the random scars and scratches I always seem to acquire on my tramps and rambles.
As my time here in New Zealand wraps up, though, I thought I'd make the effort to put in a wee post here to update you on what I've been doing.
I believe Ieft off just before Christmas in Australia, so let's begin there. I'll try to keep it brief, but knowing me, I'll be rambling uncontrollably within two paragraphs...
December 23-28: Maroochydore, Queensland, AU: My goal was to go surfing and have a barbecue on Christmas. Mission accomplished! The backpackers that Meps and I stayed at here in Maroochydore was small and fun, especially since there were actually Aussies staying there, too. A good mix of fun people!
December 29-January 3: Sydney, New South Wales, AU: After a harrowing drive to the airport in Brisbane where we nearly (intentionally) ran out of petrol we flew down to Australia's biggest city. We met up with lots of people here from past episodes of my travels and got to see the spectacular fireworks shows at New Years. It was kind of a bummer, though, that my phone got stolen and I caught some stipud fever (assuming it was leprosy).
January 4: Our last day in Australia! Today Meps and I hopped the Tasman over to Auckland, New Zealand.
January 5-6: Whangerei, NZ: Meps got to go snorkeling and scuba diving at the Poor Knights Islands, which is supposed to be brilliant, but I wouldn't really know since I was still suffering from my stupid fever and went to the doctor instead.
January 7-10: Taupo, NZ: Nestled beside the largest lake in New Zealand high on the volcanic plateaus of the North Island, we did lots of stuff in Taupo. Started with a little mountain biking, then did the mighty Tongariro Crossing (19 km walk around volcanoes), and finished off with a 43 m bungy jump over (and into) the Waikato River. My fever had finally gone, yay!
January 11-14: Rotorua, NZ: Prolly the most touristy place on the North Island, and we acted like total tourists here! The area is a hotspot for geothermal activity and Maori culture and we saw lots of both, along with some kiwis at an animal sanctuary.
January 15-16: Auckland, NZ: Back to New Zealand's biggest city. Meps and I went to Kelly Tarlton's aquarium to see penguins and other sea creatures before Meps flew back to Canada (*sniff sniff* :( ). I also got to see Edouard and Barry (from the legendary bus tour in Western Australia and again in Sydney). Auckland is kinda boring so I didn't spend much time there.
January 17-18: Waitomo and Hamilton, NZ: Did a wicked awesome abseiling and caving trip in Waitomo. Saw constellations of glowworms in the cave.
January 19-21: Palmerston North: I visited Kerstin Meinecke, whom I had met in Tonga last August. Not much happened here, just got lots of stuff done, chilled out, socialised, and mailed my computer home after it broke :(
January 22-24: Wellington, NZ: I spent three days in New Zealand's capital, at the southern tip of the North Island. I did some minor sightseeing here (Cable car, Royal Botanic Gardens, government buildings, the Weta Studios (the studios that produced The Lord of the Rings movies)). Met up with Stefan (whom I had met in Fiji) for drinks, and met Blaise and Carly (friends of Justine Saccomanno) whom were living here now; and hosted a vicious game of Settlers of Catan at their place.
January 25-26: So I had breezed through some of the major sights on the North Island (but missed a bunch, too) in only three weeks, but I wanted to reserve more time for the South Island, which I assumed would be more interesting (assumption was correct). I took a ferry across the Cook Straight to Picton. Some triangle-masked Canadians that I met on the ferry gave me a ride the rest of the way to Nelson.
January 27-30: My goal for the South Island was to go on lots of cross-country overnight hikes (called "tramps" by the Kiwis). My first one was the five-day Abel Tasman Coastal Track. I mixed it up a bit by sea kayaking the first days portion (11 km) and walking the last four days (45 km). I had to carry all my stuff with me in my pack, but didn't need a tent since I got to sleep in huts instead (not quite as luxurious as it sounds, believe me). I got to see a penguins, some seals, a bunch of birds and WAY TOO MANY tourists. Bah. The scenery was fabulous, though: rocky coastlines, beaches, islands, forests, turquoise sea, and tidal estuaries.
January 31-February 1: Finished up the track and returned to Nelson where I ate a glorious huge meal and went dancing to 3 AM to celebrate one year since the start of my big trip. Also decided to spend NZ$700 (CA$450) on hiking boots. Tramping was fun, and I needed proper footwear!
February 2-3: Hokitika, NZ: Bussed past Ernest Rutherford's birthplace to this small town on the West Coast. Didn't do much here, to be honest.
February 4-5: Fox Glacier, NZ: Also on the West Coast, this busy tourist hub surrounded by mountains features one of the very few advancing glaciers in the world. Broke in the new boots with an extended glacier walk. Actually ran into three nurses from London, Ontario; one of them was from Woodstock! A rowdy night of drinking
followed, along with a few Americans, a Japanese girl, and a very rowdy Chilean girl.
February 6: Got a ride with the Americans (Kevin, Jen, and Kristin) south all the way to Queenstown.
February 7-9: Next tramp! This time it was the slightly more challenging Routeburn Track (3 days, 32 km). This trek was in the mountains, and included a long portion over an alpine saddle above the tree line and an emerald treasure of a forest where every surface, except the track itself, was covered in a verdant and luxurious layer of ferns and mosses. One day the sky was mostly yellow because of the big bushfires in Australia. Most of the glorious views were obscured by clouds, fog, and rain, which I did not enjoy.
February 10-11: Queenstown, NZ: Chilled out for a couple days in this tourist hub. I generally dislike places that are extremely touristy, but I actually enjoyed Queenstown quite a lot. I stayed at an excellent backpackers hostel, The Last Resort. This wee and cozy hostel is probably my favourite in all New Zealand. The presence of a fantastic burger place, Fergburger, helped a lot, too. My most noteworthy activity in Queenstown was some bone-jarring mountain bike rides down Skipper's Canyon. Edouard was here so we had some drinks.
February 12-13: Wanaka, NZ: Wanaka is sorta like Queenstown, but smaller and quieter. I went on a fantastic canyoning trip there (lots of waterfalls, abseiling, jumps, and pools of ice cold water) and watched "The Band's Visit" at the excellent Cinema Paradiso.
February 14: Lake Tekapo: A long bus ride and a night in the tiny village at picturesque Lake Tekapo.
February 15-17: Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park: Spent one night in the backpackers hostel in the village, then hiked up Mt Ollivier to spend the next night in the remote Mueller Hut (also called "the fridge on the ridge"). This hike was probably the most difficult of the ones I've done in NZ. The path was steep -- a real knee-bender and I could still feel it in my thighs for a few days after. The views at sunrise from that hut hugh above the skyline were unforgettable, though. Easily one of the best highlights in my whole one year of travel.
February 18: Christchurch, NZ: I got some amazing birthday cards in the mail here. Thanks to everyone who contributed. I was so stunned that tears began to flow and I nearly walked into traffic. I went for birthday drinks that night with Stefan and Inna (from the legendary Whitesnake bus in WA and later Sydney).
February 19: Greymouth, NZ: Inna and I took the scenic Transalpine train across the Southern Alps over to Greymouth, back on the West Coast. It was my birthday (happy 31st!) so the afternoon was spent on a patio drinking beer and eating chocolate with Inna. Went out that night to see a local band sing songs about macroeconomics and watching TV.
February 20-21: Met up with Joe and Ron Clancy (who were in NZ only for a few days). We went to several hot springs then ended up in Christchurch again.
February 22-24: Queenstown, NZ: Back to a great chill-out town to chill out for a few days. Most people cone here to bungy jump or whitewater raft or other excessively expensive things like that. I was having none of that, though. Inna was here and we hung out lots.
February 25-26: Te Anau, NZ: I decided to shun the overly-touristy Milford Sound in favour of the less visited, but still excellent, Doubtful Sound in Fiordland National Park. Wow... Just wait until you see pictures
February 27-March 2: I did my last big tramp here: the Kepler Track (4 days, 62 km). There was a marvelous day above the treeline on peaks and ridges. Although the scenery was really great and the weather was generally good, this trek took a lot out of me. By the end, travel fatigue and apathy were hitting me hard. I wanted to go home...
March 3-6: Went to little Stewart Island, off the south coast. This island is the southernmost place I've ever been. In fact, the only inhabited places in the wotld that are farther south are the Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and Antarctica. I originally planned to do another 3-day tramp here, the Rakiura Track, but I wasn't up for it, so I ended up doing only a day hike and a bit of sea kayaking instead. I spent a lot of time at my tiny backpackers and a café instead.
March 7-8: Balclutha, NZ: Met up with a friend from high school, Ben Crawford, who was now teaching in this quiet southern town. We went driving around the scenic Catlins and saw some penguins and sea lions.
March 9-11: Dunedin, NZ: Dunedin is a pretty nice town (about 100 000 people), but the weather was crap: cold, windy, and rainy. It definitely felt like summer was over here in New Zealand. I went on the great Speight's brewery tour and finally did a lot of souvenir shopping. I managed to lighten my load significatly by mailing home 10 kg worth of clothes and souvenirs. My bag is so light now!! On the 11th, I took a six hour bus ride to Christchurch, my last destination in New Zealand.
March 11 (evening), 12: Christchurch, NZ: I started off by going back to Dux de Lux pub for Stefan's birthday party. He had starting working in Christchurch doing some coding and had some coworkers, former travel acquantances (like me!), and squash partners for drinks. It was a lot of fun, since I didn't have to talk about the boring standard tourist stuff. The 12th (today!) was a laundry, cafe, shopping (had to buy a new towel since I left mine behind in Dunedin, oops).
And now, here I am, at an internet cafe in Christchurch. I need to catch a bus at 6:30 AM tomorrow morning (bleck) to the airport for my flight to the Cook Islands (yay!). It's my 30th country, and I'm very excited to be going to a place that's actually hot and sunny. Since summer is over in New Zealand, I feel it's definitely the right time to be flying outta here.
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Christchurch, NZ
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Cleaning Out Broome
Editor’s Note: This is a big update! Let’s try and catch up a bit, shall we? Also, as I write this, I want you to know that I’m currently wearing a sticker on my forehead that says “Special”. Yes, I’m special.
December 13, 2008
...continued
So we were out of Karijini National Park, but we were still a long way from Broome. We still had almost two full days of driving to go. We continued to drive through the remote stretches of The Pilbara back towards the coast of the Indian Ocean. The next town we passed through was Port Hedland.
Yes! Civilization! I had reception for my mobile phone! Cold beverages! Air conditioning! Fresh bread!
We stopped at the shopping mall in Port Hedland for a short while. I needed to buy new flip flops... I only had this cheapo AU$8 (CA$6.70) for two weeks and they were already wrecked. This time I bought a proper pair (AU$30 ~ CA$25) that had a comfy mushy layer and had a kangaroo on them! They were my skippy flippies (since Aussies call kangaroos “skippies”)! They’re still going strong a month later!
I think, at this point, I was the dirtiest I’ve ever been. I hadn’t had a proper shower or shave in like three or four days. I had been wearing the same clothes (my “Karijini Dirties”) the same length of time. My boardshorts, which used to be two-toned white and beige, were now a uniform ruddy red colour from the dust. They would never be the same again. I actually felt somewhat self conscious while walking around that shopping mall!
Port Hedland is somewhat interesting since it’s the port that all of the iron ore that’s mined in The Pilbara heads to on long trains to get loaded onto ships. The trains are very long. We drove past one train for like ten minutes before we got past it! They are reputedly the longest trains in the world. The raw unprocessed iron ore is loaded onto ships to be taken to China for refining.
We continued driving on the way towards Broome. In the evening, we didn’t even reach a town... there aren’t any at all between Port Hedland and Broome (at least 500 km). Our stopping point that night was a little camping area on the Pardoo Cattle Station. At least they had hot showers! And a swimming pool! LUXURY!
That night we got to sleep under the stars again in our swags while wallabies hopped around the campground around us.
December 14, 2008
This was the last day of the tour. It was still a lot of driving to get to Broome. We stopped briefly at Eighty Mile Beach, which isn’t actually eighty miles long. Like many of the beaches in Australia and New Zealand with similar names, it got its name when some early explorers said something like, “Crikey! Look at that beach! I reckon it’s got to be eighty miles long!” Silly Aussies.
After driving for a bunch more hours, we finally reached Broome in the early afternoon! What a relief! We drove briefly through the town and onwards towards neighbouring Cable Beach. We stopped for photos and celebratory martinis at a beach bar. We had done it!!!
Everyone else was staying in backpacker’s hostels near Cable Beach. I was the only one who was silly enough to book myself into a hostel in Broome itself (about 8 km away). Tammy was going to give me a drive to drop me off at my place, but the bus wouldn’t start. Silly Turbo Charlie had a loose connection. After unhitching the trailer, me, Sasha, and Tok (Tammy’s boyfriend, who traveled with us through Karijini NP) managed to push the whole bus and get it started again. I guess Turbo Charlie wasn’t so turbo after all.
I went back to my hostel in the afternoon, but took the city bus back to Cable Beach in the evening. I watched the sunset on the Indian Ocean as a caravan of camels walked down Cable Beach.
After sunset, I heard singing and music. What was going on? Upon investigation, I discovered that Cable Beach was having a Christmas Concert. I got to see SANTA CLAUS!!!
Aussie Santa was kinda funny. He had a funny accent, his jacket wasn’t closed properly, and I think he was an aboriginal.
After hearing some Christmas carols in the lavish production, I met with the tour group again for a nice dinner at a restaurant at Cable Beach. Many beers were had, of course!
December 15, 2008
Today was a sightseeing day in Broome for me. It’s actually a pretty small place, and is famous for glorious Cable Beach and it’s pearl industry. Before the war, there was a rough-and-tumble pearl diving industry here. After the war, with the introduction of cultured pearls, the nature of the pearl industry changed, but Broome remained a centre of pearl production. Since it was the Japanese that brought the cultured pearl industry here, there is a heavy Japanese influence in the town.
I didn’t actually do much that day in Broome. I just walked around, took photos, and returned to the hostel to do laundry before catching my flight out of there. My Karijini Dirties got somewhat cleaned. The boardshorts were still ruddy red, but my olive Billabong t-shirt seemed to have escaped somewhat unscathed.
That evening I flew back to Perth (covering the distance, by air, in a couple hours, that took ten days overland -- though we didn’t go in a straight line!). At midnight, I caught another flight from Perth back to Brisbane. My time in Western Australia was finished.
So, Broome itself was kind of boring to me. It’s really just a beach resort town, much like any other, except very far from anywhere. You can really say, that in my trip to Broome, the real adventure was the journey itself, not the destination.
December 16, 2008
I landed in Brisbane about 5:30 AM. I collected my bag, found a bench to lie on, and promptly fell asleep for a few hours. I had not slept on my overnight flight.
Why would I stick around the airport for so long? I was waiting for Meps (AKA Melissa Johnson)! She was coming from Canada for a vacation and had somehow suckered me into planning her trip being her tour guide! I don’t mind planning someone else’s trip, as long as I get to go on it, too.
Around 10 AM, Meps emerged from her transpacific flight ordeal. We hopped into our rented car, a tiny blue Toyota Yaris and we thundered off (as only a tiny Yaris can). It was my first experience driving a stick shift car in a right-hand-side-drive car on the left side of the road. Yes, you have to operate the gear shift with your left hand. No, the pedals are in the same order. Yes, there is a clutch. No, I did just fine!!! I was quite impressed with myself.
We needed a name for our car. We’d have it for two weeks and it would take us lots of places. Meps called it “Little Larry,” but I decided to call it “Wee Lawrence” in a terrible Irish accent. Try saying it: “Weeeeeeee Law-rence!” Hilarious!
I drove us to Surfers Paradise, about one hour south of Brisbane. It’s probably the single most touristy place in the whole continent of Australia, being all condominiums, shopping malls, restaurants, beaches, and gimmicky tourist attractions. Normally I avoid these places (since I don’t consider myself a “tourist”), but Meps was on vacation, and it was a good place to start it off for her (besides, I hadn’t been here yet!).
That afternoon, I introduced Meps to the pleasures of goone (cheap boxed wine). Okay, by “pleasures” I mean, “a cheap way to get drunk”, but, now *I* was on vacation, too! Getting drunk is something that you’re supposed to do on vacation! So there!
Our hostel (the Islander Resort) was really more of a hotel than a hostel, sadly. The common areas and kitchen were extremely disappointing. It was challenging to find people to hang out with, so mostly Meps and I hung out with each other (drinking lots of goone), and enjoying the hot tub. We went in there a few days in a row, before discovering, in the light, that it was scummy and filled with bugs. Yuck.
December 17, 2008
Today, Meps and I took Wee Lawrence out for a spin and hung out in Brisbane for the day. We walked around the city centre where I bought myself some sweet new board shorts. They were kind of expensive (AU$79 ~ CA$66), but they looked really good. They weren’t the standard Billabong, Quicksilver, Ripcurl, or generic hibiscus-print boardshorts you see everyone else wearing. I gotta be different (even if it costs money)! I wonder if my backpacker-budget ideals are beginning to crack.
Walking around the Brisbane city centre was fun, because, of course, the city was decked out in Christmas decorations (only one week left!). There were buskers performing and there was a band playing Christmas music. Even though it was like 30 degrees and there was no snow whatsoever, I was totally getting into the Christmas spirit... just an upside-down version of it.
We stopped by the Brisbane South Bank park, across the river, too. It was a huge park and very swanky. There was an artificial beach and lagoon. Since Brisbane isn’t actually located on the sea, I guess the city planners decided to bring the beach into the city.
Meps said that she “still didn’t feel like she was in Australia yet”. We had to fix that. So, after a couple of ice creams (yay Rainbow Paddle Pops!), we drove to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to see some real Australian animals. There were plenty of koalas, kangaroos, sheep, lizards, birds, and snakes. We watched a fascinating sheep dog demonstration. The Aussie farm dude showed us how one man and two well-trained dogs can move an entire herd of sheep. It was funny watching the dogs run in fast orbits around the sheep, who, acted like sheep... That’s the only way I can say it. They herded close together and moved in a big wooly mob. The two little dogs pushed the whole rabble of woolies into a pen and then proceeded to jump ONTO the sheep and run around on TOP of the herd. I thought this was the best part of the show.
After the animal sanctuary, Meps confirmed that, yes, she finally felt like she really was in Australia. Mission accomplished.
The next destination was the lookout on top of Mt Coot-tha. The road curved up and up steeply and poor Wee Lawrence really struggled to get up there. The view from the top was pretty fantastic as the whole city of Brisbane stretched out before us.
December 18, 2008
I hadn’t been on any roller coasters since my first trip to Japan back in September 2004. That’s more than four years, and that’s officially much too long.
Thankfully, being the tourist hub that Surfers Paradise is, there are several amusement parks nearby. Though none of these are as big as Canada’s Wonderland (which I’ve decided is actually quite a large amusement park), Meps and I still got to enjoy a couple roller coasters and a whole lot of water slides today at Dream World! The roller coasters were fairly tame by my standards, but the water park was very very fun. It was a typical, glorious, sunny, hot, pre-Christmas day in Australia and the water park was highly appreciated.
Since Meps went on roller coasters with me, that makes her an official better travel buddy than Will Chau, who didn’t want to go on roller coasters when we went to Japan in April 2006. :P
December 19, 2008
Today was the third road trip in a row. We took Wee Lawrence one hour south, across the state border into New South Wales, and went to Byron Bay. I had spent six days there back in February, but today we were just here for the afternoon. Meps bought a book. I bought some Thai fisherman pants. It’s been a regret of mine that I didn’t buy more when I was in Thailand, so when I saw some for sale in one of the hippie stores in Byron Bay, I went for it. Fisherman pants are really light, baggy and comfortable pants that lots of people (especially backpackers) in Thailand wear. We also went to the lighthouse on Cape Byron (the easternmost point in Australia), had lunch at an organic cafe, and went to the beach (with huge waves!).
December 20, 2008
Today was a quiet day for me. We went to a shopping mall for some groceries, coffee, and to buy more goone. Meps went for a surfing lesson in the afternoon. I didn’t do much at all. I think I worked on my blog.
December 21, 2008
Nothing-day! We’re on vacation! We’re not obliged to do anything if we don’t want to. Normally, I usually take more nothing-days when traveling, but I was trying to be a good tour guide for Meps on her big vacation.
December 22, 2008
After two rest days (which I needed, deserved, and enjoyed, of course), it was time to do stuff again. It was our last day in Surfers Paradise, so it was finally time to go for a drive to one of the several national parks in the mountains outside of the city. Just 30 km from the coast, there was a plethora of parks and mountains to visit.
The one I chose to go to was Springbrook National Park, located on the edge of an old volcanic caldera from millions of years ago. It doesn’t really look like a volcano anymore, just a collection of pretty hills, cliffs, and plateaus. We took a short walk through a forest that had so many insects buzzing in the trees it was actually hard to hear each other talk. I had never been in a forest that was so noisy before. It was truly summer here in Australia (even though Christmas was only a few days away!).
We drove to a lookout with the very boastful name of “Best of All Lookout”. From there we could see all the way across the caldera, including to Mount Warning (the central peak) and all the way to Cape Byron on the coast with all the bumpy land in between. That’s a pretty good distance. It was a good lookout, but I’ve been to better :)
We had lunch at a picnic area near Purling Brook Falls. There was a hiking trail around the base of the falls, so we went for a little walk. At the start of the trail, we saw two rainbow lorikeets in a tree. Cool! Colourful birds! I had to try and take their pictures, of course.
It was kind of dark under the trees, though. My pictures weren’t turning out very well. I decided that I should break my own rule and use the camera’s flash while taking pictures of animals. One of the birds objected strongly to being flashed and actually flew up and attacked my camera!!! There was no damage, but I was certainly surprised. I guess I shouldn’t break my own rules. Stupid birds.
The waterfalls were pretty, at least:
You can see the hiking trail winding behind the cascade part way down. We got to walk behind the waterfall, of course!
From the bottom of the waterfall, there was a side path to a rock pool. There were some very-refreshed looking people coming up from there who had gone swimming. I had brought my swimmers, so we went down to check it out. When we got there, I found a ledge to jump into the water from. The water looked VERY VERY cold and I was reluctant to do it. After seeing some kids jump in I remembered how much I love jumping off of shit into shit and how much I live for this kind of stuff (yes, this really was my thought process), so I had to go for it.
Indeed, the water was very very cold. As an added bonus, I had to jump three times before we got a picture that turned out. The sacrifices I go through for my art...
The drive back was fun. Wee Lawrence was nearly out of petrol. It was a good thing though that most of the way back was downhill on a very twisty road. Usually, I threw the little guy into neutral and rolled most of the way down at speeds only vaguely acknowledging the posted speed limits. The road wasn’t very busy, so, remembering the lessons I learned from the crazy bus drivers in Southeast Asia, I cut all the corners on the hairpin turns and switchbacks that I could. Surprisingly, I didn’t terrify Meps too much. She’s a trooper!
December 23, 2008
Goodbye Surfers Paradise. We drove north two hours (putting us one hour north of Brisbane) to Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast. I had spent one week on the Sunshine Coast back in February with my father and sister. At that time it rained six of the seven days, making a mockery of the name “Sunshine Coast”. I still enjoyed the place, and I thought it would be a nice place to spend Christmas. Originally, I had wanted to spend the week in Byron Bay for some excellent Christmas partying, but the town seemed to be booked solid, so I thought the Sunshine Coast would make a suitable replacement. This time, however, instead of staying in Noosa, we stayed 30 km south in Maroochydore, which is somewhat less touristy.
In Maroochydore, we stayed at Cotton Tree Backpackers, located across the street from a park and a beach (an excellent setting). The backpackers was a proper one: a cozy house with only a couple dozen guests. Many of them seemed to be long-termers: transients (like me) who had settled in one place for a while to work (unlike me). Many backpackers in Australia stay for a year and spend most of it working. I, however, didn’t really feel the motivation to work, and I’m sure that I’ve seen much more of Australia in my four months here than many have in their year. Long-termers seem to be very cliquey and it’s hard to make friends with them, but the ones at Cotton Tree were very friendly and we had no problems being social (unlike in Surfers Paradise).
It was a Sunday night and it was hard to find a place in town to have dinner. Australia is really bad for restaurants on Sundays. Many are closed, and the ones that are open charge you an extra 10% for the privilege of being able to eat there on Sunday. Lots of other stuff is closed on Sunday, too. Sometimes it’s hard to remember how progressive Canada is in this regard.
I had a craving for fish and chips and I had some that night. The fish was snapper, which is definitely classified as “tastyfish.” Meps even tried some of my fish. It was the first time she had fish in like fifteen years. She survived the encounter and even said the fish was pretty good. Maybe the walls of her vegetarianism are starting to crack?
That night was a fun one. Cotton Tree Backpackers has a few picnic tables out front and we drank a lot of goone with the other people there. Mostly we chatted with Amanda, from New Zealand. Around midnight, she tried to call her friend who worked at a pizza to try and score us some free pizza. He didn’t answer the phone, but Amanda passed the phone around and we left silly messages on the voice mail. Silly us. We also hung out with Aemon, from Canada. There were actually a lot of Canadian backpackers at Cotton Tree. That just continues the trend of there being far more Canadian backpackers than Americans (though the numbers of Canadians are still dwarfed by English and Germans).
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! But I’ll write about that in the next update, mmm’kay?
--
Rob Sz
Auckland, New Zealand
December 13, 2008
...continued
So we were out of Karijini National Park, but we were still a long way from Broome. We still had almost two full days of driving to go. We continued to drive through the remote stretches of The Pilbara back towards the coast of the Indian Ocean. The next town we passed through was Port Hedland.
Yes! Civilization! I had reception for my mobile phone! Cold beverages! Air conditioning! Fresh bread!
We stopped at the shopping mall in Port Hedland for a short while. I needed to buy new flip flops... I only had this cheapo AU$8 (CA$6.70) for two weeks and they were already wrecked. This time I bought a proper pair (AU$30 ~ CA$25) that had a comfy mushy layer and had a kangaroo on them! They were my skippy flippies (since Aussies call kangaroos “skippies”)! They’re still going strong a month later!
I think, at this point, I was the dirtiest I’ve ever been. I hadn’t had a proper shower or shave in like three or four days. I had been wearing the same clothes (my “Karijini Dirties”) the same length of time. My boardshorts, which used to be two-toned white and beige, were now a uniform ruddy red colour from the dust. They would never be the same again. I actually felt somewhat self conscious while walking around that shopping mall!
Port Hedland is somewhat interesting since it’s the port that all of the iron ore that’s mined in The Pilbara heads to on long trains to get loaded onto ships. The trains are very long. We drove past one train for like ten minutes before we got past it! They are reputedly the longest trains in the world. The raw unprocessed iron ore is loaded onto ships to be taken to China for refining.
We continued driving on the way towards Broome. In the evening, we didn’t even reach a town... there aren’t any at all between Port Hedland and Broome (at least 500 km). Our stopping point that night was a little camping area on the Pardoo Cattle Station. At least they had hot showers! And a swimming pool! LUXURY!
That night we got to sleep under the stars again in our swags while wallabies hopped around the campground around us.
December 14, 2008
This was the last day of the tour. It was still a lot of driving to get to Broome. We stopped briefly at Eighty Mile Beach, which isn’t actually eighty miles long. Like many of the beaches in Australia and New Zealand with similar names, it got its name when some early explorers said something like, “Crikey! Look at that beach! I reckon it’s got to be eighty miles long!” Silly Aussies.
After driving for a bunch more hours, we finally reached Broome in the early afternoon! What a relief! We drove briefly through the town and onwards towards neighbouring Cable Beach. We stopped for photos and celebratory martinis at a beach bar. We had done it!!!
Everyone else was staying in backpacker’s hostels near Cable Beach. I was the only one who was silly enough to book myself into a hostel in Broome itself (about 8 km away). Tammy was going to give me a drive to drop me off at my place, but the bus wouldn’t start. Silly Turbo Charlie had a loose connection. After unhitching the trailer, me, Sasha, and Tok (Tammy’s boyfriend, who traveled with us through Karijini NP) managed to push the whole bus and get it started again. I guess Turbo Charlie wasn’t so turbo after all.
I went back to my hostel in the afternoon, but took the city bus back to Cable Beach in the evening. I watched the sunset on the Indian Ocean as a caravan of camels walked down Cable Beach.
After sunset, I heard singing and music. What was going on? Upon investigation, I discovered that Cable Beach was having a Christmas Concert. I got to see SANTA CLAUS!!!
Aussie Santa was kinda funny. He had a funny accent, his jacket wasn’t closed properly, and I think he was an aboriginal.
After hearing some Christmas carols in the lavish production, I met with the tour group again for a nice dinner at a restaurant at Cable Beach. Many beers were had, of course!
December 15, 2008
Today was a sightseeing day in Broome for me. It’s actually a pretty small place, and is famous for glorious Cable Beach and it’s pearl industry. Before the war, there was a rough-and-tumble pearl diving industry here. After the war, with the introduction of cultured pearls, the nature of the pearl industry changed, but Broome remained a centre of pearl production. Since it was the Japanese that brought the cultured pearl industry here, there is a heavy Japanese influence in the town.
I didn’t actually do much that day in Broome. I just walked around, took photos, and returned to the hostel to do laundry before catching my flight out of there. My Karijini Dirties got somewhat cleaned. The boardshorts were still ruddy red, but my olive Billabong t-shirt seemed to have escaped somewhat unscathed.
That evening I flew back to Perth (covering the distance, by air, in a couple hours, that took ten days overland -- though we didn’t go in a straight line!). At midnight, I caught another flight from Perth back to Brisbane. My time in Western Australia was finished.
So, Broome itself was kind of boring to me. It’s really just a beach resort town, much like any other, except very far from anywhere. You can really say, that in my trip to Broome, the real adventure was the journey itself, not the destination.
December 16, 2008
I landed in Brisbane about 5:30 AM. I collected my bag, found a bench to lie on, and promptly fell asleep for a few hours. I had not slept on my overnight flight.
Why would I stick around the airport for so long? I was waiting for Meps (AKA Melissa Johnson)! She was coming from Canada for a vacation and had somehow suckered me into planning her trip being her tour guide! I don’t mind planning someone else’s trip, as long as I get to go on it, too.
Around 10 AM, Meps emerged from her transpacific flight ordeal. We hopped into our rented car, a tiny blue Toyota Yaris and we thundered off (as only a tiny Yaris can). It was my first experience driving a stick shift car in a right-hand-side-drive car on the left side of the road. Yes, you have to operate the gear shift with your left hand. No, the pedals are in the same order. Yes, there is a clutch. No, I did just fine!!! I was quite impressed with myself.
We needed a name for our car. We’d have it for two weeks and it would take us lots of places. Meps called it “Little Larry,” but I decided to call it “Wee Lawrence” in a terrible Irish accent. Try saying it: “Weeeeeeee Law-rence!” Hilarious!
I drove us to Surfers Paradise, about one hour south of Brisbane. It’s probably the single most touristy place in the whole continent of Australia, being all condominiums, shopping malls, restaurants, beaches, and gimmicky tourist attractions. Normally I avoid these places (since I don’t consider myself a “tourist”), but Meps was on vacation, and it was a good place to start it off for her (besides, I hadn’t been here yet!).
That afternoon, I introduced Meps to the pleasures of goone (cheap boxed wine). Okay, by “pleasures” I mean, “a cheap way to get drunk”, but, now *I* was on vacation, too! Getting drunk is something that you’re supposed to do on vacation! So there!
Our hostel (the Islander Resort) was really more of a hotel than a hostel, sadly. The common areas and kitchen were extremely disappointing. It was challenging to find people to hang out with, so mostly Meps and I hung out with each other (drinking lots of goone), and enjoying the hot tub. We went in there a few days in a row, before discovering, in the light, that it was scummy and filled with bugs. Yuck.
December 17, 2008
Today, Meps and I took Wee Lawrence out for a spin and hung out in Brisbane for the day. We walked around the city centre where I bought myself some sweet new board shorts. They were kind of expensive (AU$79 ~ CA$66), but they looked really good. They weren’t the standard Billabong, Quicksilver, Ripcurl, or generic hibiscus-print boardshorts you see everyone else wearing. I gotta be different (even if it costs money)! I wonder if my backpacker-budget ideals are beginning to crack.
Walking around the Brisbane city centre was fun, because, of course, the city was decked out in Christmas decorations (only one week left!). There were buskers performing and there was a band playing Christmas music. Even though it was like 30 degrees and there was no snow whatsoever, I was totally getting into the Christmas spirit... just an upside-down version of it.
We stopped by the Brisbane South Bank park, across the river, too. It was a huge park and very swanky. There was an artificial beach and lagoon. Since Brisbane isn’t actually located on the sea, I guess the city planners decided to bring the beach into the city.
Meps said that she “still didn’t feel like she was in Australia yet”. We had to fix that. So, after a couple of ice creams (yay Rainbow Paddle Pops!), we drove to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to see some real Australian animals. There were plenty of koalas, kangaroos, sheep, lizards, birds, and snakes. We watched a fascinating sheep dog demonstration. The Aussie farm dude showed us how one man and two well-trained dogs can move an entire herd of sheep. It was funny watching the dogs run in fast orbits around the sheep, who, acted like sheep... That’s the only way I can say it. They herded close together and moved in a big wooly mob. The two little dogs pushed the whole rabble of woolies into a pen and then proceeded to jump ONTO the sheep and run around on TOP of the herd. I thought this was the best part of the show.
After the animal sanctuary, Meps confirmed that, yes, she finally felt like she really was in Australia. Mission accomplished.
The next destination was the lookout on top of Mt Coot-tha. The road curved up and up steeply and poor Wee Lawrence really struggled to get up there. The view from the top was pretty fantastic as the whole city of Brisbane stretched out before us.
December 18, 2008
I hadn’t been on any roller coasters since my first trip to Japan back in September 2004. That’s more than four years, and that’s officially much too long.
Thankfully, being the tourist hub that Surfers Paradise is, there are several amusement parks nearby. Though none of these are as big as Canada’s Wonderland (which I’ve decided is actually quite a large amusement park), Meps and I still got to enjoy a couple roller coasters and a whole lot of water slides today at Dream World! The roller coasters were fairly tame by my standards, but the water park was very very fun. It was a typical, glorious, sunny, hot, pre-Christmas day in Australia and the water park was highly appreciated.
Since Meps went on roller coasters with me, that makes her an official better travel buddy than Will Chau, who didn’t want to go on roller coasters when we went to Japan in April 2006. :P
December 19, 2008
Today was the third road trip in a row. We took Wee Lawrence one hour south, across the state border into New South Wales, and went to Byron Bay. I had spent six days there back in February, but today we were just here for the afternoon. Meps bought a book. I bought some Thai fisherman pants. It’s been a regret of mine that I didn’t buy more when I was in Thailand, so when I saw some for sale in one of the hippie stores in Byron Bay, I went for it. Fisherman pants are really light, baggy and comfortable pants that lots of people (especially backpackers) in Thailand wear. We also went to the lighthouse on Cape Byron (the easternmost point in Australia), had lunch at an organic cafe, and went to the beach (with huge waves!).
December 20, 2008
Today was a quiet day for me. We went to a shopping mall for some groceries, coffee, and to buy more goone. Meps went for a surfing lesson in the afternoon. I didn’t do much at all. I think I worked on my blog.
December 21, 2008
Nothing-day! We’re on vacation! We’re not obliged to do anything if we don’t want to. Normally, I usually take more nothing-days when traveling, but I was trying to be a good tour guide for Meps on her big vacation.
December 22, 2008
After two rest days (which I needed, deserved, and enjoyed, of course), it was time to do stuff again. It was our last day in Surfers Paradise, so it was finally time to go for a drive to one of the several national parks in the mountains outside of the city. Just 30 km from the coast, there was a plethora of parks and mountains to visit.
The one I chose to go to was Springbrook National Park, located on the edge of an old volcanic caldera from millions of years ago. It doesn’t really look like a volcano anymore, just a collection of pretty hills, cliffs, and plateaus. We took a short walk through a forest that had so many insects buzzing in the trees it was actually hard to hear each other talk. I had never been in a forest that was so noisy before. It was truly summer here in Australia (even though Christmas was only a few days away!).
We drove to a lookout with the very boastful name of “Best of All Lookout”. From there we could see all the way across the caldera, including to Mount Warning (the central peak) and all the way to Cape Byron on the coast with all the bumpy land in between. That’s a pretty good distance. It was a good lookout, but I’ve been to better :)
We had lunch at a picnic area near Purling Brook Falls. There was a hiking trail around the base of the falls, so we went for a little walk. At the start of the trail, we saw two rainbow lorikeets in a tree. Cool! Colourful birds! I had to try and take their pictures, of course.
It was kind of dark under the trees, though. My pictures weren’t turning out very well. I decided that I should break my own rule and use the camera’s flash while taking pictures of animals. One of the birds objected strongly to being flashed and actually flew up and attacked my camera!!! There was no damage, but I was certainly surprised. I guess I shouldn’t break my own rules. Stupid birds.
The waterfalls were pretty, at least:
You can see the hiking trail winding behind the cascade part way down. We got to walk behind the waterfall, of course!
From the bottom of the waterfall, there was a side path to a rock pool. There were some very-refreshed looking people coming up from there who had gone swimming. I had brought my swimmers, so we went down to check it out. When we got there, I found a ledge to jump into the water from. The water looked VERY VERY cold and I was reluctant to do it. After seeing some kids jump in I remembered how much I love jumping off of shit into shit and how much I live for this kind of stuff (yes, this really was my thought process), so I had to go for it.
Indeed, the water was very very cold. As an added bonus, I had to jump three times before we got a picture that turned out. The sacrifices I go through for my art...
The drive back was fun. Wee Lawrence was nearly out of petrol. It was a good thing though that most of the way back was downhill on a very twisty road. Usually, I threw the little guy into neutral and rolled most of the way down at speeds only vaguely acknowledging the posted speed limits. The road wasn’t very busy, so, remembering the lessons I learned from the crazy bus drivers in Southeast Asia, I cut all the corners on the hairpin turns and switchbacks that I could. Surprisingly, I didn’t terrify Meps too much. She’s a trooper!
December 23, 2008
Goodbye Surfers Paradise. We drove north two hours (putting us one hour north of Brisbane) to Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast. I had spent one week on the Sunshine Coast back in February with my father and sister. At that time it rained six of the seven days, making a mockery of the name “Sunshine Coast”. I still enjoyed the place, and I thought it would be a nice place to spend Christmas. Originally, I had wanted to spend the week in Byron Bay for some excellent Christmas partying, but the town seemed to be booked solid, so I thought the Sunshine Coast would make a suitable replacement. This time, however, instead of staying in Noosa, we stayed 30 km south in Maroochydore, which is somewhat less touristy.
In Maroochydore, we stayed at Cotton Tree Backpackers, located across the street from a park and a beach (an excellent setting). The backpackers was a proper one: a cozy house with only a couple dozen guests. Many of them seemed to be long-termers: transients (like me) who had settled in one place for a while to work (unlike me). Many backpackers in Australia stay for a year and spend most of it working. I, however, didn’t really feel the motivation to work, and I’m sure that I’ve seen much more of Australia in my four months here than many have in their year. Long-termers seem to be very cliquey and it’s hard to make friends with them, but the ones at Cotton Tree were very friendly and we had no problems being social (unlike in Surfers Paradise).
It was a Sunday night and it was hard to find a place in town to have dinner. Australia is really bad for restaurants on Sundays. Many are closed, and the ones that are open charge you an extra 10% for the privilege of being able to eat there on Sunday. Lots of other stuff is closed on Sunday, too. Sometimes it’s hard to remember how progressive Canada is in this regard.
I had a craving for fish and chips and I had some that night. The fish was snapper, which is definitely classified as “tastyfish.” Meps even tried some of my fish. It was the first time she had fish in like fifteen years. She survived the encounter and even said the fish was pretty good. Maybe the walls of her vegetarianism are starting to crack?
That night was a fun one. Cotton Tree Backpackers has a few picnic tables out front and we drank a lot of goone with the other people there. Mostly we chatted with Amanda, from New Zealand. Around midnight, she tried to call her friend who worked at a pizza to try and score us some free pizza. He didn’t answer the phone, but Amanda passed the phone around and we left silly messages on the voice mail. Silly us. We also hung out with Aemon, from Canada. There were actually a lot of Canadian backpackers at Cotton Tree. That just continues the trend of there being far more Canadian backpackers than Americans (though the numbers of Canadians are still dwarfed by English and Germans).
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! But I’ll write about that in the next update, mmm’kay?
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Rob Sz
Auckland, New Zealand
Saturday, January 10, 2009
New Photos Posted: Australian Christmas Holiday
Hi! I've posted photos from my last three weeks in Australia... two weeks in Queensland and one in Sydney, where I spent Christmas and New Years! Meps came all the way from Canada to hang out (and force me to be her tour guide). Enjoy the pictures!
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Rob Sz
Taupo, New Zealand
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Rob Sz
Taupo, New Zealand
Karijini Dirties
Editor’s Note: I now seem to be writing about events that happened more than one month ago. I know I’m woefully behind. It’s hard for me, however, to find the time and MOTIVATION to work on this blog. I know it’s for a good cause, but it feels like a huge chore for me. I took a few stabs at it over the past couple weeks to pound out an update, but I ended up puttering around on my computer or making some excuses and making no progress. It is VERY HARD. Wish me luck this time.
December 9, 2008
We resume this distinguished journal in the town of Exmouth near the tip of a peninsula in Western Australia, sticking out into the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean. The nearest city with over fifty thousand people is Perth, some 1200 km to the south. In the other direction, there are NO cities with over fifty thousand people on the north coast of Australia anywhere. There are very few people that live in the distant reaches of this far flung continent.
The land is generally inhabited and used, but sparsely. Huge iron and aluminum (and probably other minerals), mines can be found in the stretches of emptiness. Much of the land is given over to huge cattle stations where real modern-day cowboys still go on regular round-ups. We actually had to stop several times on the road to Exmouth yesterday to wait for dim-witted cattle to clear the highway while Tammy blared Turbo Charlie’s (our tourbus) horn at them.
Anyways, back to the present. We had the special luxury today of NOT having to pack up our stuff in the morning today since we were spending two nights in a row at the same place in Exmouth. Yay!
We still had some driving to do today, though. We would be spending the day enjoying some of available activities in Cape Range National Park, outside of Exmouth. The first stop was a bush walk along Yardie Creek where Tammie showed us several forms of bush tucker (food that you could find growing in the wilderness) and bush medicine. We had some bush plums (actually a kind of fig). We saw some rock wallabies hopping around some rocks in a gorge, and saw big sting rays gliding slowly in the creek water far below us.
After Yardie Creek we got to spend the rest of the day at THE BEACH! And what a beach! We were at Turquoise Bay, where the water was turquoise... and blue, and green, and all sorts of shades in between. It was easily one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen.
We were far from the city and there weren’t too many people here. There was great snorkeling off shore (more of the Ningaloo Reef), but I had forgot to put in my contact lenses and my visibility was limited, so I took a couple of tries at it (the water magnifies the scenery to some degree, but my eyes are so terrible that it’s not enough), but spent most of the rest of the time soaking up the sun. The sand was white, powdery (and stuck everywhere, of course). I didn’t really have a beach towel, so I just laid on the sand. Back to basics, for me!
That night, we cooked up some BBQ at the campground in Exmouth. Barry and I drank the rest of our Emu Bitter beers. He was staying behind to do some scuba diving in Exmouth, which is said to be among the best in the world. Edouard was staying behind, too. He was returning back to Coral Bay to do the manta ray diving. Emails, phone numbers, and Facebook names were exchanged and plans were made to meet up again in Sydney.
December 10, 2008
Early start today. We had a LOT of driving. For most of the trip so far, we had been vaguely following the Indian Ocean coast northwards. Today we would head away from the coast farther into the interior of the continent, into a region of the Outback known as “The Pilbara” towards Karijini National Park.
We picked up a second guide, too: Sasha. It was his first time as a tour guide through Karijini NP and up to Broome, and he was along to learn the ropes from Tammy.
The vegetation was sparse. The soil was a rich red colour. This region was iron mining country. The ground was literally made from rusty sand. Tammy told us that drinking and cleaning water out here was limited and the dust stuck to EVERYTHING. It was her advice that we picked out one set of clothes to wear for the next three days. That one set of clothes would probably never recover, so don’t pick anything nice. I designated my crappy old Billabong board shorts and t-shirt to be the sacrificial clothing. I called them my “Karijini Dirties”.
After many hours of driving, we reached the town of Tom Price, a hub town for the mining industry. It was our last chance to buy beer, snacks, and any other necessary items for three days. After a picnic lunch and our shopping expedition, we pulled out of town, and drove the rest of the way to Karijini National Park.
The earth was red, but the vegetation was green. I remarked that the earth was decorated in Christmas colours. I felt festive.
There is a chain of mountains running through Karijini NP, the Hamersley Range. The chief attraction to the park, however, other than the stunning landscape, vegetation, and scenery, was the gorges. There were numerous gorges cut in the sand- and ironstone rock over the millenia etching their way across the landscape of the park. Lots of waterfalls, lots of rock pools, lots of jumping! I was going to love this place.
The first gorge was Hamersley Gorge. We went for a little swim and did some little jumping here. There was a cute little waterfall at one end of a rockpool. For a while near the end, I sat in the water slowly collecting and piling the rust-red pebbles and laying them in patterns on my feet. My movements were slow and deliberate and after a while, it seems the local fish accommodated themselves to my presence and stared swimming in orbits around me. After a while, I counted them: one, two, three, four, FIVE FISH! MUAHAHA! I think lightning flashed around me.
Our campsite was branded as an “eco-retreat”, whatever that means. We would be camped there for a total of three nights. We would be sleeping in “swags”, just as I had back in Australia’s Red Centre back in June. Swags, if you don’t remember, are human-sized canvas sacks with thin mattresses sewn into the bottom. You can roll them up and close them with snaps and straps. With a sleeping bag inside, you had the perfect mobile bed for the Outback.
That night, I made the realization that I didn’t have a sleeping bag for me. Well, I knew I didn’t have a sleeping bag, but since when I booked my tour on the phone I had assumed they would ask me if I needed one or not, where I would have said, “Yes”. They didn’t ask, so I sort of assumed things would work out and promptly forgot about it.
Now I was here and had no sleeping bag. Tammy was super busy and obviously stressy, so I decided not to bug her too much. It wasn’t too cold here (yet!), I could sleep in my swag without my sleeping bag, right? We had the option of sleeping in our swags in a big permanent tent, or on the ground under the stars. Since I didn’t have the sleeping bag to keep me warm, I bunkered down in the tent in my swag. If I got too cold, I would put on my hoodie. Suddenly, some of my tourmates (I think it was Jonathan and Ellen), brought me a sleeping bag! Tammy had extras. They cost AU$50, which is a bit much for the thin bags, but I was happy to take it.
Later, talking to Tammy, it turned out, due to a booking error and some miscalculations, I was able to get my sleeping back for free! Thank for Western Xposure! I hope to be able to put it to good use in New Zealand!
Snore!
December 11, 2008
Today would be a very very good day for a little rock crawler, cliff jumper, gadabout like me, oh yes.
After breaky, we went on a little drive to Weano Gorge. The vegetation at the surface was scraggly and sparse. At the bottom, there was a stream of water feeding a lush eden. It was a beautiful place.
We hiked along the bottom for a while before reaching a point where the shear rock walls narrowed to a path about one meter wide with the stream continuing as a trickle inside. Shoes off! We kept going through. We reached a point where a handrail and rope aided us down a waterfall before we found a rock pool. We got to walk a little farther before reaching a point where the gorge got so steep that Tammy said we would require abseiling equipment before getting out without calling the Search and Rescue people.
The water in the rock pool was cool and refreshing. We took some attempts at climbing the rock walls (with just hands and feet), but I wasn’t very good at it and didn’t get very high before pushing off and making a big splash in the water. There was a place where you could easily climb up to about eight meters and get a good jump into the water. Eight meters doesn’t sound like very high, but it does when you’re standing there at the top looking down. It took me a few three-counts before I decided to jump.
SO FUN. I’ve officially decided that jumping off stuff into stuff is very fun stuff and I need to do it more. This was pure play. Life is good.
After retracing our steps to exit the canyon we drove to another one, Hancock Gorge. This one was a bit harder to get into. We had to climb down some steep steps, down a ladder, and through the gorge a while before reaching a part where the rock walls descended straight into the water. Tammy gave us two choices here. We could try and climb along the sides and get through to the other side (about fifty meters). There were enough places to step on and hold on that even an inexperienced rock climber could go the whole distance if they kept their wits about them. The problem was, Tammy said that you had to do it without shoes since you needed the tactile feedback of your bare feet on the rock if you wanted to make it safely. There were too many places where the foot holds were only a few centimeters across. This wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact that the rock had been baking in the sun for hours and was unpleasant to stand on with your bare feet for even a few seconds.
Everyone chose the second choice: give your packed lunch, books, and cameras to Sasha who would carry it across in his backpack. Then you would swim down the gorge while pushing your water bottle ahead of you (or just let it go and let the current carry it downstream).
After running the gauntlet, we ended up in a magical place: Kermit’s Pool. Another rockpool with some jumping (only about three meters), a little waterfall, and lots of places to lay out and relax. Not many other people came through here (it was hard to reach after all), and we were nearly alone for a few hours. We ate our packed sandwiches for lunch and relaxed for hours. Some people read books, swam, jumped, chatted, or slept. I jumped a few times, swam a bit, crawled into a rock crevasse pretending to be a lizard (or a naughty child, as Kerstin said). At first, the sun was still nearly overhead and baking the rocks directly. But since the gorge walls were so steep, it wasn’t very long before the shadows overtook the rocks. Rock surfaces that were too hot to stand on an hour ago were now sweetly warm and perfect to lie on and take naps.
I think Kermit’s Pool was probably my favourite place in Karijini National Park.
The way back was much easier since the sun no longer baked the rocks. We were able to walk (or at least scramble along the rock face) the whole way.
That night, armed with my sleeping bag and swag, I slept on the ground under the stars. It got cool at night, but not nearly as bad as it was when I was sleeping in swags back in July.
Camping here was amazing, though. The moon was full and lit up the entire landscape with an ethereal silvery glow. It was possible to walk around without a flashlight, using only the light of the moon. It’s astonishing to see how much light the moon really sheds when there are NO other light sources to interfere with it.
December 12, 2008
There was an optional gorge this morning: Joffre Gorge. It was in walking range of our campsite, but we had wake up very early to get there. Tammy warned us that it was a demanding climb to get down, but we would be rewarded with the opportunity to do very very high cliff jumps into the water. Sweet. I was ALL IN. Jumping off of shit into other shit was fun, after all! Only about five people from the tour ended up going the whole way. The other half continued sleeping in their swags.
Steep climb down, yeah, used to this now. There was a place where there would be waterfall if there was more water, but this morning it was bone dry. We continued in the other direction. To reach the end, we would have to swim through about two hundred meters of water. We were warned that the water would be VERY COLD, but it wasn’t so bad after all.
My problem, however, was my wishy-washy swimming skills. I can do fine in short distances, but two hundred meters is much to far for me to go in one attempt. I’m too weak. I had to stop and rest by clinging to the walls on the side many times. It’s a good thing that there were lots of places to stop. I don’t think I’m strong enough to swim that whole distance and probably would have drowned if I was forced to. Although I was one of the first people in the water (ever so enthusiastic!), I was the last to come out.
No cameras came for the ride, of course, sigh. Not worth the risk.
On the other side, we got to lay on some rocks in the sun for a while before examining the cliff diving possibilities. Oh, my god. There was a place where you could jump twenty meters into the water. No way I could that one. No one else did it, either. There were a few other places you could jump from lower though. There was one from about ten meters, and another from about twelve. A couple guys did the twelve meter one. Me and a couple other guys did the ten meter one. It wasn’t easy. I was very intimidated by the height. I actually walked to the edge, looked over, took some deep breaths, did some three counts, and chickened out. I didn’t go until I saw everyone else go. Wuss. If any of the girls from the tour were watching though (instead of back at the camp sleeping or sunning on the rocks out of sight), then I probably would have put on a better show...
On the way back to camp, we had to do that two hundred meter swim again. It was even harder the second time.
At camp, we had a proper brunch, we boasted of our jumping prowess to the slackers and headed off to Dale’s Gorge, where we would spend the whole afternoon. This gorge was HUGE and filled with a lush garden of trees, shrubs, flowers, boulders, pools, insects, and amazing scenery.
The weather in the bottom of the gorges is warm and pleasant. The heat and the sun at the top of the gorges was scorchy and oppressive. The sun beat down mercilessly. The air was generally dry and there were little, if any, clouds in the sky. Yes, it can rain here in torrents, but the wet season was still a few weeks away... To escape the heat, it was simple... enter the gorges and play in the water!
We spent several hours enjoying the scenery and serenity at Fern Pool (also called Jubura by the local Aboriginal people, who consider it to be a sacred place), truly a place that staggered me by its beauty.
There were a bunch of drunken local miners who were performing all sorts of horseplay in the water and making a lot of noise, disturbing the tranquility of the place. Why do people have to be so brash and insensitive in places where you it just feels wrong to? I’ve seen both local people and tourist people, Westerners and Easterners alike in lots of places just acting like jackasses and ruining the experience for other people. Every culture has its idiots. Ugh.
We walked through the gorge for a long time before reaching another pool at the other end, Circular Pool. This was our last chance for swimming for the day. We didn’t spend as long here as we did at any of the other pools, but we still got some good jumping in here. There was a place on a rock ledge where warm water dripped steadily from above. It was definitely warmer water that the water in the pool. It was really nice to stand under!
That night, back at the camp, it was the last night together for many of the people on the tour. Only five people were heading north the rest of the way to Broome. The other half would catch a southbound tour bus in the morning for a two day haul back to Perth. Ugh... that’s a LONG way... I was glad I was going all the way up to Broome... In Karijini, we were probably about three-quarters of the way there by now.
We played an amusing game in the campsite, called “Box Munching”. Tammy put an empty cereal box on ground. The lid was taken from the box. The goal was to pick up the box with your mouth without any part of your body touching the ground except for your two feet. After each round of play, part of the box would be ripped away, making it shorter and more difficult to pick up. Many interesting positions and body contortions were attempted. Surprisingly, I was very good at Box Munching, and I was able to pick it up from the flat ground when only about two millimeters of box remained above the bottom flat panel. I did not get removed from the game for touching the ground. We did not finish the game, however. Since as much of the box as possible was removed, we would have to continue by playing on a staircase and putting the box on a lower step. The campsite had no steps, so the game resulted in a draw!
December 13, 2008
I had slept under the stars again. It was hard to sleep in. The sun started to rise around five AM and shortly after the flies started to buzz around your head. You could get a small reprieve by pulling the flap of the swag over your head, but soon it would be hot and a few flies always managed to get inside anyways to interrupt your snooze.
The flies in Karijini were insidious. The flies were ubiquitious. The flies were a pestilence. They were everywhere at any time during daylight. They’d crawl on your face looking for stray bits of sweat and salt. They’d crawl on your lips. On the inside surface of your glasses. You could swat them away, but they’d return within half a minute. There’d be at least a dozen on the picnic table as you had your breakfast. There was a reprieve while in the gorges, thankfully. This was our last morning in Karijini and even though I was sad to leave such an amazing place, I would not miss the flies.
There was one more gorge: Kalamina Gorge. The climb down this one was easy. We had a quick morning dip to freshen up before heading out of Karijini National Park. After a couple hours of driving, we reached a roadhouse on the main north-south highway between Port Hedland (to the north of Karijini on the coast, but still south of Broome) and Perth. We met the other tour bus and said our big goodbyes. I would miss Dave, Inna and Julia. We made promises to meet up again soon!
With the tour group split in twain, we continued north to Broome...
To be continued...
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Taupo, New Zealand
December 9, 2008
We resume this distinguished journal in the town of Exmouth near the tip of a peninsula in Western Australia, sticking out into the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean. The nearest city with over fifty thousand people is Perth, some 1200 km to the south. In the other direction, there are NO cities with over fifty thousand people on the north coast of Australia anywhere. There are very few people that live in the distant reaches of this far flung continent.
The land is generally inhabited and used, but sparsely. Huge iron and aluminum (and probably other minerals), mines can be found in the stretches of emptiness. Much of the land is given over to huge cattle stations where real modern-day cowboys still go on regular round-ups. We actually had to stop several times on the road to Exmouth yesterday to wait for dim-witted cattle to clear the highway while Tammy blared Turbo Charlie’s (our tourbus) horn at them.
Anyways, back to the present. We had the special luxury today of NOT having to pack up our stuff in the morning today since we were spending two nights in a row at the same place in Exmouth. Yay!
We still had some driving to do today, though. We would be spending the day enjoying some of available activities in Cape Range National Park, outside of Exmouth. The first stop was a bush walk along Yardie Creek where Tammie showed us several forms of bush tucker (food that you could find growing in the wilderness) and bush medicine. We had some bush plums (actually a kind of fig). We saw some rock wallabies hopping around some rocks in a gorge, and saw big sting rays gliding slowly in the creek water far below us.
After Yardie Creek we got to spend the rest of the day at THE BEACH! And what a beach! We were at Turquoise Bay, where the water was turquoise... and blue, and green, and all sorts of shades in between. It was easily one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen.
We were far from the city and there weren’t too many people here. There was great snorkeling off shore (more of the Ningaloo Reef), but I had forgot to put in my contact lenses and my visibility was limited, so I took a couple of tries at it (the water magnifies the scenery to some degree, but my eyes are so terrible that it’s not enough), but spent most of the rest of the time soaking up the sun. The sand was white, powdery (and stuck everywhere, of course). I didn’t really have a beach towel, so I just laid on the sand. Back to basics, for me!
That night, we cooked up some BBQ at the campground in Exmouth. Barry and I drank the rest of our Emu Bitter beers. He was staying behind to do some scuba diving in Exmouth, which is said to be among the best in the world. Edouard was staying behind, too. He was returning back to Coral Bay to do the manta ray diving. Emails, phone numbers, and Facebook names were exchanged and plans were made to meet up again in Sydney.
December 10, 2008
Early start today. We had a LOT of driving. For most of the trip so far, we had been vaguely following the Indian Ocean coast northwards. Today we would head away from the coast farther into the interior of the continent, into a region of the Outback known as “The Pilbara” towards Karijini National Park.
We picked up a second guide, too: Sasha. It was his first time as a tour guide through Karijini NP and up to Broome, and he was along to learn the ropes from Tammy.
The vegetation was sparse. The soil was a rich red colour. This region was iron mining country. The ground was literally made from rusty sand. Tammy told us that drinking and cleaning water out here was limited and the dust stuck to EVERYTHING. It was her advice that we picked out one set of clothes to wear for the next three days. That one set of clothes would probably never recover, so don’t pick anything nice. I designated my crappy old Billabong board shorts and t-shirt to be the sacrificial clothing. I called them my “Karijini Dirties”.
After many hours of driving, we reached the town of Tom Price, a hub town for the mining industry. It was our last chance to buy beer, snacks, and any other necessary items for three days. After a picnic lunch and our shopping expedition, we pulled out of town, and drove the rest of the way to Karijini National Park.
The earth was red, but the vegetation was green. I remarked that the earth was decorated in Christmas colours. I felt festive.
There is a chain of mountains running through Karijini NP, the Hamersley Range. The chief attraction to the park, however, other than the stunning landscape, vegetation, and scenery, was the gorges. There were numerous gorges cut in the sand- and ironstone rock over the millenia etching their way across the landscape of the park. Lots of waterfalls, lots of rock pools, lots of jumping! I was going to love this place.
The first gorge was Hamersley Gorge. We went for a little swim and did some little jumping here. There was a cute little waterfall at one end of a rockpool. For a while near the end, I sat in the water slowly collecting and piling the rust-red pebbles and laying them in patterns on my feet. My movements were slow and deliberate and after a while, it seems the local fish accommodated themselves to my presence and stared swimming in orbits around me. After a while, I counted them: one, two, three, four, FIVE FISH! MUAHAHA! I think lightning flashed around me.
Our campsite was branded as an “eco-retreat”, whatever that means. We would be camped there for a total of three nights. We would be sleeping in “swags”, just as I had back in Australia’s Red Centre back in June. Swags, if you don’t remember, are human-sized canvas sacks with thin mattresses sewn into the bottom. You can roll them up and close them with snaps and straps. With a sleeping bag inside, you had the perfect mobile bed for the Outback.
That night, I made the realization that I didn’t have a sleeping bag for me. Well, I knew I didn’t have a sleeping bag, but since when I booked my tour on the phone I had assumed they would ask me if I needed one or not, where I would have said, “Yes”. They didn’t ask, so I sort of assumed things would work out and promptly forgot about it.
Now I was here and had no sleeping bag. Tammy was super busy and obviously stressy, so I decided not to bug her too much. It wasn’t too cold here (yet!), I could sleep in my swag without my sleeping bag, right? We had the option of sleeping in our swags in a big permanent tent, or on the ground under the stars. Since I didn’t have the sleeping bag to keep me warm, I bunkered down in the tent in my swag. If I got too cold, I would put on my hoodie. Suddenly, some of my tourmates (I think it was Jonathan and Ellen), brought me a sleeping bag! Tammy had extras. They cost AU$50, which is a bit much for the thin bags, but I was happy to take it.
Later, talking to Tammy, it turned out, due to a booking error and some miscalculations, I was able to get my sleeping back for free! Thank for Western Xposure! I hope to be able to put it to good use in New Zealand!
Snore!
December 11, 2008
Today would be a very very good day for a little rock crawler, cliff jumper, gadabout like me, oh yes.
After breaky, we went on a little drive to Weano Gorge. The vegetation at the surface was scraggly and sparse. At the bottom, there was a stream of water feeding a lush eden. It was a beautiful place.
We hiked along the bottom for a while before reaching a point where the shear rock walls narrowed to a path about one meter wide with the stream continuing as a trickle inside. Shoes off! We kept going through. We reached a point where a handrail and rope aided us down a waterfall before we found a rock pool. We got to walk a little farther before reaching a point where the gorge got so steep that Tammy said we would require abseiling equipment before getting out without calling the Search and Rescue people.
The water in the rock pool was cool and refreshing. We took some attempts at climbing the rock walls (with just hands and feet), but I wasn’t very good at it and didn’t get very high before pushing off and making a big splash in the water. There was a place where you could easily climb up to about eight meters and get a good jump into the water. Eight meters doesn’t sound like very high, but it does when you’re standing there at the top looking down. It took me a few three-counts before I decided to jump.
SO FUN. I’ve officially decided that jumping off stuff into stuff is very fun stuff and I need to do it more. This was pure play. Life is good.
After retracing our steps to exit the canyon we drove to another one, Hancock Gorge. This one was a bit harder to get into. We had to climb down some steep steps, down a ladder, and through the gorge a while before reaching a part where the rock walls descended straight into the water. Tammy gave us two choices here. We could try and climb along the sides and get through to the other side (about fifty meters). There were enough places to step on and hold on that even an inexperienced rock climber could go the whole distance if they kept their wits about them. The problem was, Tammy said that you had to do it without shoes since you needed the tactile feedback of your bare feet on the rock if you wanted to make it safely. There were too many places where the foot holds were only a few centimeters across. This wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact that the rock had been baking in the sun for hours and was unpleasant to stand on with your bare feet for even a few seconds.
Everyone chose the second choice: give your packed lunch, books, and cameras to Sasha who would carry it across in his backpack. Then you would swim down the gorge while pushing your water bottle ahead of you (or just let it go and let the current carry it downstream).
After running the gauntlet, we ended up in a magical place: Kermit’s Pool. Another rockpool with some jumping (only about three meters), a little waterfall, and lots of places to lay out and relax. Not many other people came through here (it was hard to reach after all), and we were nearly alone for a few hours. We ate our packed sandwiches for lunch and relaxed for hours. Some people read books, swam, jumped, chatted, or slept. I jumped a few times, swam a bit, crawled into a rock crevasse pretending to be a lizard (or a naughty child, as Kerstin said). At first, the sun was still nearly overhead and baking the rocks directly. But since the gorge walls were so steep, it wasn’t very long before the shadows overtook the rocks. Rock surfaces that were too hot to stand on an hour ago were now sweetly warm and perfect to lie on and take naps.
I think Kermit’s Pool was probably my favourite place in Karijini National Park.
The way back was much easier since the sun no longer baked the rocks. We were able to walk (or at least scramble along the rock face) the whole way.
That night, armed with my sleeping bag and swag, I slept on the ground under the stars. It got cool at night, but not nearly as bad as it was when I was sleeping in swags back in July.
Camping here was amazing, though. The moon was full and lit up the entire landscape with an ethereal silvery glow. It was possible to walk around without a flashlight, using only the light of the moon. It’s astonishing to see how much light the moon really sheds when there are NO other light sources to interfere with it.
December 12, 2008
There was an optional gorge this morning: Joffre Gorge. It was in walking range of our campsite, but we had wake up very early to get there. Tammy warned us that it was a demanding climb to get down, but we would be rewarded with the opportunity to do very very high cliff jumps into the water. Sweet. I was ALL IN. Jumping off of shit into other shit was fun, after all! Only about five people from the tour ended up going the whole way. The other half continued sleeping in their swags.
Steep climb down, yeah, used to this now. There was a place where there would be waterfall if there was more water, but this morning it was bone dry. We continued in the other direction. To reach the end, we would have to swim through about two hundred meters of water. We were warned that the water would be VERY COLD, but it wasn’t so bad after all.
My problem, however, was my wishy-washy swimming skills. I can do fine in short distances, but two hundred meters is much to far for me to go in one attempt. I’m too weak. I had to stop and rest by clinging to the walls on the side many times. It’s a good thing that there were lots of places to stop. I don’t think I’m strong enough to swim that whole distance and probably would have drowned if I was forced to. Although I was one of the first people in the water (ever so enthusiastic!), I was the last to come out.
No cameras came for the ride, of course, sigh. Not worth the risk.
On the other side, we got to lay on some rocks in the sun for a while before examining the cliff diving possibilities. Oh, my god. There was a place where you could jump twenty meters into the water. No way I could that one. No one else did it, either. There were a few other places you could jump from lower though. There was one from about ten meters, and another from about twelve. A couple guys did the twelve meter one. Me and a couple other guys did the ten meter one. It wasn’t easy. I was very intimidated by the height. I actually walked to the edge, looked over, took some deep breaths, did some three counts, and chickened out. I didn’t go until I saw everyone else go. Wuss. If any of the girls from the tour were watching though (instead of back at the camp sleeping or sunning on the rocks out of sight), then I probably would have put on a better show...
On the way back to camp, we had to do that two hundred meter swim again. It was even harder the second time.
At camp, we had a proper brunch, we boasted of our jumping prowess to the slackers and headed off to Dale’s Gorge, where we would spend the whole afternoon. This gorge was HUGE and filled with a lush garden of trees, shrubs, flowers, boulders, pools, insects, and amazing scenery.
The weather in the bottom of the gorges is warm and pleasant. The heat and the sun at the top of the gorges was scorchy and oppressive. The sun beat down mercilessly. The air was generally dry and there were little, if any, clouds in the sky. Yes, it can rain here in torrents, but the wet season was still a few weeks away... To escape the heat, it was simple... enter the gorges and play in the water!
We spent several hours enjoying the scenery and serenity at Fern Pool (also called Jubura by the local Aboriginal people, who consider it to be a sacred place), truly a place that staggered me by its beauty.
There were a bunch of drunken local miners who were performing all sorts of horseplay in the water and making a lot of noise, disturbing the tranquility of the place. Why do people have to be so brash and insensitive in places where you it just feels wrong to? I’ve seen both local people and tourist people, Westerners and Easterners alike in lots of places just acting like jackasses and ruining the experience for other people. Every culture has its idiots. Ugh.
We walked through the gorge for a long time before reaching another pool at the other end, Circular Pool. This was our last chance for swimming for the day. We didn’t spend as long here as we did at any of the other pools, but we still got some good jumping in here. There was a place on a rock ledge where warm water dripped steadily from above. It was definitely warmer water that the water in the pool. It was really nice to stand under!
That night, back at the camp, it was the last night together for many of the people on the tour. Only five people were heading north the rest of the way to Broome. The other half would catch a southbound tour bus in the morning for a two day haul back to Perth. Ugh... that’s a LONG way... I was glad I was going all the way up to Broome... In Karijini, we were probably about three-quarters of the way there by now.
We played an amusing game in the campsite, called “Box Munching”. Tammy put an empty cereal box on ground. The lid was taken from the box. The goal was to pick up the box with your mouth without any part of your body touching the ground except for your two feet. After each round of play, part of the box would be ripped away, making it shorter and more difficult to pick up. Many interesting positions and body contortions were attempted. Surprisingly, I was very good at Box Munching, and I was able to pick it up from the flat ground when only about two millimeters of box remained above the bottom flat panel. I did not get removed from the game for touching the ground. We did not finish the game, however. Since as much of the box as possible was removed, we would have to continue by playing on a staircase and putting the box on a lower step. The campsite had no steps, so the game resulted in a draw!
December 13, 2008
I had slept under the stars again. It was hard to sleep in. The sun started to rise around five AM and shortly after the flies started to buzz around your head. You could get a small reprieve by pulling the flap of the swag over your head, but soon it would be hot and a few flies always managed to get inside anyways to interrupt your snooze.
The flies in Karijini were insidious. The flies were ubiquitious. The flies were a pestilence. They were everywhere at any time during daylight. They’d crawl on your face looking for stray bits of sweat and salt. They’d crawl on your lips. On the inside surface of your glasses. You could swat them away, but they’d return within half a minute. There’d be at least a dozen on the picnic table as you had your breakfast. There was a reprieve while in the gorges, thankfully. This was our last morning in Karijini and even though I was sad to leave such an amazing place, I would not miss the flies.
There was one more gorge: Kalamina Gorge. The climb down this one was easy. We had a quick morning dip to freshen up before heading out of Karijini National Park. After a couple hours of driving, we reached a roadhouse on the main north-south highway between Port Hedland (to the north of Karijini on the coast, but still south of Broome) and Perth. We met the other tour bus and said our big goodbyes. I would miss Dave, Inna and Julia. We made promises to meet up again soon!
With the tour group split in twain, we continued north to Broome...
To be continued...
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Taupo, New Zealand
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
New Photos Posted: Western Australia
It's hard work to catch up, but I'm making progress. Here's photos from my two weeks in Western Australia in the first part of December.
Happy New Years!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
North Sydney, Australia
Happy New Years!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
North Sydney, Australia
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Welcome to the Wild West
December 2, 2008
...continued
So, yeah, even though my passport was in Fiji, I was in Australia. Oh well. My plan was to get the last resort that I stayed at there to mail it to my friend Bendegúz who lives in Sydney. Bendegúz is the same guy that I met in Cairns back in June and I played Axis and Allies and saw some theatre with in Sydney back in August. Assuming that they would mail the passport soon, it would have more than one month to get to Sydney before I took off for New Zealand. My plan is to usually hope for things to just work out. *crossing fingers* It’s a good strategy... it’s gotten me this far, after all, hasn’t it?
So, after waiting around in the airport in Brisbane for a while, I took a flight on Virgin Blue to Perth. Being a five and a half hour flight, it’s probably the single longest possible domestic flight in Australia. Brisbane is almost as east as you can get in Australia and Perth is almost as west as you can get. I landed in Perth just after midnight, got a bus into the city, checked into my hostel (the Emperor’s Crown), and passed out in a top bunk in a four bed dorm room.
December 3, 2008
I was up early, though not because people in my room were noisy (that doesn’t really happen super often, probably usually because I often opt for smaller dorms). It was probably jet lag or nervousness from the whole passport fiasco yesterday. Anyways, today was sort of an errands, laundry, catch up, and sightseeing day for the city of Perth. I had destroyed my cheap flip flops from Fiji and picked up another pair on sale for AU$8 (CA$6.50). I had some good coffee (a long black, please!). I bought a new t-shirt at the Salvation Army (or “Salvo’s” as the Aussies call it).
The most important thing I did today, though, was decide on how to spend my two weeks in the state of Western Australia (or just “WA” as most Aussies call it). I wanted to go south from Perth to sea the coastline, Margaret River, national parks with huge trees and rooftop forest walks, and possibly do some scuba diving (maybe get my certification!). I also wanted to go north from Perth to see the Outback one more time. After some indecisive humming and hawwing I finally made the impulsive decision to book myself onto a ten day overland trip from Perth to Broome on a Western Xposure tour bus, over 3000 km north from Perth. The tour was not inexpensive, at AU$1395 (CA$1150), but it sounded realllly good. The timing was good, too, since it would consume most of my two weeks in WA, and give me exactly enough time to get fly back to Perth to catch my flight back to the east coast. Perfect!
Most of the people in the hostel seemed to be long termers -- backpackers who came to Perth to work for a handful of weeks or months and were basically living in the hostel. There were a few other kinds of people, too. One of the people in my room was Simon, from Napier, New Zealand. He was working in the food services of a mine somewhere in the wilderness of WA and was visiting Perth for his week off. This scenario is actually a common one in Perth. There are MANY mines in WA and Perth is the place people go to unwind on their time off. Also in my room was Jonathan, a Swiss law student who was studying in Sydney. He was going on the same tour as me. We were leaving in two days.
So anyways, I look like this and so does Perth:
December 3, 2008
Perth is the capital of WA and the most isolated capital city in the world, being over 3000 km from its nearest neighbour, Adelaide (capital of the state of South Australia). It’s a financial centre, but more laid back than your busy busy centres in the eastern part of Australia. Sightseeing wise, I had walked around the city centre yesterday. Today I was heading to its famous suburb, Fremantle (or “Freo” as the Aussies call it). Fremantle is the main port for WA and is actually a slightly older city than Perth itself. It’s a very scenic place, and contains the brewery for one of my favourite Aussie beers, Little Creatures. I walked around a bit with Jonathan, did some sightseeing, took some pictures, and met Simon for some fantastic gourmet pizza and microbrew beers at the Little Creatures brewpub.
One fun thing that I got to do in Fremantle happened while we were walking around the old Round House building beside the port. There was a cannon and time ball set up there. In the past, the cannon would fire and the time ball would drop at exactly 1 PM so that the local people in town and the ships in port could set their clocks accurately. This tradition is still continued, even though it’s original purpose is no longer required. Anyways, the volunteers who fired the gun chose me to be the one who fired it that day. They set up the cannon and gave me a remote with a big red button to press. FUN!
One thing that was very exciting about Perth and Fremantle was that they were decorated for CHRISTMAS! Christmas trees, wreaths, and tinsel stars were in abundance in both places. Christmas is super fanstastic and I was going to experience it Aussie style!
Another great thing about Fremantle was the Indian Ocean. I had sort of swam in the edges of the Indian Ocean while I was in Thailand. But that was really the Andaman Sea, not the proper ocean. Here in Fremantle, I could look over over an ocean where there were NO obstacles until the southwest coast of Africa, almost 8000 km away!
That night at the hostel, I took at look at the book exchange shelf. I encountered a disturbing sight. I SWEAR TO GOD that a book I left on the book exchange shelf at The Beachouse in Fiji was here in Perth! The book was “The Day After Tomorrow” (no relation to the movie of the same name). I had carried it around since a Danish couple gave it to me in Samoa, but I wasn’t really that interested in reading it. I unloaded it in Fiji not three days before, and now it was here in Perth. It looked the same... same ratty pages, same faded cover. I discussed this disturbing phenomenon with two of the people who were sitting in the hostel kitchen near the book shelf. They didn’t seem to believe my story... tsk. By coincidence, one of the people was Luca -- an Italian guy who would be on the same tour to Broome.
December 4, 2008
Up at 6 AM in order to get picked up at 7 AM in front of my hostel on my tour. I was excited. There were about fifteen passengers on the bus. Our guide was Tamantha (though everyone called her “Tammy”). Our bus’ name was “Turbo Charlie”. As always, I was the only person on the bus from North America. Most of the people were European (as always). There were also two people from Hong Kong, but they didn’t associate with the other people that much. Otherwise, we were a great and social group. I had so much fun...
So we had something like 700 km to drive today. So, mostly, we sat around on the bus, but there were some interesting stops on the way. The first big stop today was at The Pinnacles, a natural rock formation in some bushland with bright yellow sand. It was pretty cool. There were hundreds and hundreds of eroded limestone pillars scattered around. Tammy pointed out some kangaroo and emu tracks.
On the way out of The Pinnacles, we were driving along when Tammy suddenly pulled over and said “Get out of the bus! Get out of the bus!”. She leaped out and began running towards something back on the side of the road. We had NO IDEA what was going on, but poured out of the bus and started going back towards her. Was there a car accident? Was someone hurt at the side of the road?
She reached something we couldn’t see and called back “Get the first aid kit from the bus!” Our confusion was mounting. What the flip was going on?
When I reached Tammy, it was clear what was going on. She had seen a shingleback lizard (about two feet long) on the side of the road. It was infested with ticks and Tammy needed the tweezers to pull them out. Wow... this was a lot of drama over a lizard, but it was still pretty cool. Tammy had really good eyes to be able to see that little thing beside the road as we were hurtling up it at 100 km/h. She really loved animals (reptiles especially), and really wanted to help the poor guy!
The next stop was the big sand dunes at Geraldton where we got to partake in some sandboarding. Get a skateboard with no wheels, spread wax on the bottom with a candle, have a seat, and slide down a big hill. Fun! I wasn’t very good at it... I kept wiping out...
The farther north we got from Perth, the drier the landscape got. The trees got smaller, and the earth got redder. There was still farmland, but it was getting more scraggly the farther we got from Perth. There were wheat fields here, but the wheat was so short compared to the tall flowing wheat fields in Canada. Tammy told us that the farmers here only expected to have one good harvest of wheat every four years, but that was still enough to live on given the current cost of wheat. Wow... life was tough here. And this was just the beginning.
We spent the night in a little beachouse in the tiny town of Horrock’s Bay. We stopped along the way to pick up beers. I got a whole box (30 beers) of Emu Bitter brew... a cheap Western Australia brew. I hoped that the box would last me most of the way to Broome. Heh heh... given how much the people on my tour were drinking at Horrock’s Bay that night, there was little chance of that!
December 5, 2008
Had to get up VERY EARLY today... like 5 AM I think? I’ve recently discussed how early morning wake ups are very hard on me. Something usually goes awry. This time I lost my 4 GB 2nd generation iPod Nano. Ooops. I was building a playlist of music to put onto it last night, but I guess I had not managed to repack it today. Well, crap.
Anyways, it’s just an iPod. Life goes on. And NORTH!
The first big stop today was the fantastic Murchison Gorge in Kalbarri National Park. This would be the first of many gorges I’d see in my trip up north.
I got to try abseiling down a 23 meter rock wall here. Abseiling (also called “rappelling”) is descending down rock walls using ropes. You get to jump off the walls a long and swing and bounce around. I was nervous at first, but it was really fun after all. The hardest part was the very beginning, when I had to edge over the top backwards and just trust the rope to keep me from plummeting to my death as I crept over the edge.
I’m pretty sure I’ll give abseiling another go when I get to New Zealand!
Driving north from Murchison Gorge, we got to see a thorny devil lizard (another emergency stop!). This one was pregnant and apparently you could feel its eggs in your belly.
The second emergency stop this day was different from the others. As we pulled to the side of the road, Tammy shouted, “STAY IN THE BUS! STAY IN THE BUS!” I looked out the window and saw a huge brown snake slide across the road, under the bus, and into the bushes. It was a King Brown snake (also called a Mulga snake), one of the most venomous snakes in the world. The last time I had seen one of these guys was in the Australia Zoo back in February.
The next actual scheduled stop was Shell Beach along Shark Bay. The unique saline conditions in Shark Bay produce an environment where cockle shells grow in abundance. When the little shellfish die, their shells accumulate on the land and produce a HUGE beach with NO SAND... only shells, each pure white and less than one centimeter big. We swam a bit, but the tide was low and the wind was pretty crazy strong so we kept it pretty short.
The wind! The wind on the west coast was strong and persistent. Perth is one of the windiest cities in the world and wind farms are plentiful. For us, it meant that the hot days weren’t so hot, but the warm nights could be kinda chilly... especially when on the beach!
We spent the night at the YHA in Denham, the westernmost city in Australia. There was more drinking, of course. We also had lots of waterfights. Kerstin, one of the German girls on the bus, had a watergun and was relentless with it. She even used it on the bus! But it was okay. The weather was warm (especially after going on treks in the scorching hot gorges) and the gun was a good relief.
December 6, 2008
Up at 6 AM and onto the bus. It was a short drive to Monkey Mia, a cute little resort town on Shark Bay where wild dolphins came every day at 7:30 AM to be fed by hand by people. We got to line up along the beach, standing ankle deep in water, as wild dolphins swam up towards us and played around before getting fed. Only a few people get selected to actually feed the dolphins, and I was one of the lucky people! I thank my awesome Mos Burger t-shirt from Hong Kong, thank you!
After Monkey Mia, we started to drive away from Shark Bay. Along the way, we stopped at a bluff by the shore where we could look down and actually see reef sharks swimming in the shallows.
At the very south end of Shark Bay, we stopped at Hamelin Pool where stromatolites live near the shore line. Stromatolites are one of the first forms of life on Earth: bacteria-like life that lives in the water. They create oxygen and excrete layers of sediment which build up into rock formations. They don’t look like much, but they’re responsible for producing much of the free oxygen in our atmosphere. If it wasn’t for the stromatolites, we wouldn’t be here today.
More driving. More driving...
The next stop was at the Tropic of Capricorn, the line of latitude at 23°26′ south of the equator. The last time I had crossed this line on land was on the road towards Alice Springs back in July.
There were actually two tour buses from Western Xposure traveling up from Perth at the time same. My bus was going all the way to Perth, but the other one was only going as far as Exmouth. We managed to get to the tropic a few minutes ahead of the other bus. As we were getting ready to get on our way, the other bus started pulling in. Tammy said, “Quick everyone! One thing we do in Australia is moon people! Quick! Moon the other bus!” Good times. For revenge, the other bus gave us a vicious soaking with water guns when we got to our to our backpackers in Coral Bay.
Our resting place that night was, indeed, at a backpackers in Coral Bay, near the south end of the fantastic Ningaloo Reef. Coral Bay was a tiny town... seeming to exist only to support tourism on the reef.
There was much drinking, that night, of course. The entertainment that evening was a game of giant Jenga... our bus versus the other bus. They beat us two-to-one after Edouard (or “Frenchy” as we called him) made the big tower collapse. Even though Edouard sucked at Jenga, he was still a really cool guy. He sat beside me on the bus and we talked alot. Man, that guy could drink wine!
December 7, 2008
We had to wake up somewhat early today, too (around 7 AM, I think), but it wasn’t to go for another long drive. Today I was going on an extra special snorkeling trip to the Ningaloo Reef. This reef extends for several hundred kilometers along the western coast of Australia. Unlike the Great Barrier Reef (which is technically classified as a “barrier reef”), which is separated from the coastline by a huge barrier of water that takes one or two hours to cross on boat, the Ningaloo Reef is a “fringing reef” that lies very close to the shoreline. You could put on a snorkel, mask, fins, step into the water from the beach, swim for five minutes, and be surrounded by a wealth of corals, fish, and other aquatic life.
My snorkeling trip today consisted of a boat ride to three sites on the reef. The first one was just a shallow area to swim between corals. As always, there was an enormous amount of fish. Some people were able to see turtles and reef sharks hiding beneath the rocks, but I didn’t spot anything like that.
The second and third snorkeling excursions were the real special ones. The boat departed the first reef area and sped out into the lagoon in search of manta rays. Along the way we saw a huge tiger shark swimming around in the water. Unlike the harmless reef sharks, the tiger shark was a monster that was dangerous to humans, so we didn’t go into the water there!
Aided by spotter planes and other boats, we eventually tracked down one of the graceful and huge manta rays. They’re not really related to other rays, but are closer to sharks. Unlike rays and (some) sharks, though, manta rays are completely harmless. They lack the stinger that rays have and they don’t have teeth. Instead, they have huge mouths that could swallow human whole! They don’t feed on people, though, since they only eat tiny organisms en masse.
The manta ray that we encountered was probably about three or four meters wide, from wing-tip to wing-tip, and swimming probably about three meters below us. It was swimming in huge barrel rolls, with its gaping mouth wide open in an attempt to feed. There must have been a LOT of food for it there since it kept feeding for a long time. The water was a little cloudy, too (which was the food, I think).
I had a disposable underwater camera and tried to take some pictures. I haven’t developed them yet. Hopefully they turn out!
On the way to the third snorkeling site, we saw lots of sea turtles swimming in the water. The third dive site was just corals and lots of fish again. On the way back, I was very VERY cold since it was windy and I was wet from coming out of the water. I tried to lie in the sun at the top of the boat to get warm. Who though my teeth would be chattering from the cold when I was in the tropics?
In the afternoon, the bus packed up and left for Exmouth, where we would spend the next two nights at a camp ground in town (though we still got to sleep in dorms). For dinner, we picked up pizza and we went to the lighthouse for sunset. There were lots of shenanigans here.
Here’s a picture of me at the lighthouse after having a bit too much sun, wind, and wine:
Oh, I guess the lighthouse and sunset are kind of pretty, too, eh?
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Maroochydore, AU
...continued
So, yeah, even though my passport was in Fiji, I was in Australia. Oh well. My plan was to get the last resort that I stayed at there to mail it to my friend Bendegúz who lives in Sydney. Bendegúz is the same guy that I met in Cairns back in June and I played Axis and Allies and saw some theatre with in Sydney back in August. Assuming that they would mail the passport soon, it would have more than one month to get to Sydney before I took off for New Zealand. My plan is to usually hope for things to just work out. *crossing fingers* It’s a good strategy... it’s gotten me this far, after all, hasn’t it?
So, after waiting around in the airport in Brisbane for a while, I took a flight on Virgin Blue to Perth. Being a five and a half hour flight, it’s probably the single longest possible domestic flight in Australia. Brisbane is almost as east as you can get in Australia and Perth is almost as west as you can get. I landed in Perth just after midnight, got a bus into the city, checked into my hostel (the Emperor’s Crown), and passed out in a top bunk in a four bed dorm room.
December 3, 2008
I was up early, though not because people in my room were noisy (that doesn’t really happen super often, probably usually because I often opt for smaller dorms). It was probably jet lag or nervousness from the whole passport fiasco yesterday. Anyways, today was sort of an errands, laundry, catch up, and sightseeing day for the city of Perth. I had destroyed my cheap flip flops from Fiji and picked up another pair on sale for AU$8 (CA$6.50). I had some good coffee (a long black, please!). I bought a new t-shirt at the Salvation Army (or “Salvo’s” as the Aussies call it).
The most important thing I did today, though, was decide on how to spend my two weeks in the state of Western Australia (or just “WA” as most Aussies call it). I wanted to go south from Perth to sea the coastline, Margaret River, national parks with huge trees and rooftop forest walks, and possibly do some scuba diving (maybe get my certification!). I also wanted to go north from Perth to see the Outback one more time. After some indecisive humming and hawwing I finally made the impulsive decision to book myself onto a ten day overland trip from Perth to Broome on a Western Xposure tour bus, over 3000 km north from Perth. The tour was not inexpensive, at AU$1395 (CA$1150), but it sounded realllly good. The timing was good, too, since it would consume most of my two weeks in WA, and give me exactly enough time to get fly back to Perth to catch my flight back to the east coast. Perfect!
Most of the people in the hostel seemed to be long termers -- backpackers who came to Perth to work for a handful of weeks or months and were basically living in the hostel. There were a few other kinds of people, too. One of the people in my room was Simon, from Napier, New Zealand. He was working in the food services of a mine somewhere in the wilderness of WA and was visiting Perth for his week off. This scenario is actually a common one in Perth. There are MANY mines in WA and Perth is the place people go to unwind on their time off. Also in my room was Jonathan, a Swiss law student who was studying in Sydney. He was going on the same tour as me. We were leaving in two days.
So anyways, I look like this and so does Perth:
December 3, 2008
Perth is the capital of WA and the most isolated capital city in the world, being over 3000 km from its nearest neighbour, Adelaide (capital of the state of South Australia). It’s a financial centre, but more laid back than your busy busy centres in the eastern part of Australia. Sightseeing wise, I had walked around the city centre yesterday. Today I was heading to its famous suburb, Fremantle (or “Freo” as the Aussies call it). Fremantle is the main port for WA and is actually a slightly older city than Perth itself. It’s a very scenic place, and contains the brewery for one of my favourite Aussie beers, Little Creatures. I walked around a bit with Jonathan, did some sightseeing, took some pictures, and met Simon for some fantastic gourmet pizza and microbrew beers at the Little Creatures brewpub.
One fun thing that I got to do in Fremantle happened while we were walking around the old Round House building beside the port. There was a cannon and time ball set up there. In the past, the cannon would fire and the time ball would drop at exactly 1 PM so that the local people in town and the ships in port could set their clocks accurately. This tradition is still continued, even though it’s original purpose is no longer required. Anyways, the volunteers who fired the gun chose me to be the one who fired it that day. They set up the cannon and gave me a remote with a big red button to press. FUN!
One thing that was very exciting about Perth and Fremantle was that they were decorated for CHRISTMAS! Christmas trees, wreaths, and tinsel stars were in abundance in both places. Christmas is super fanstastic and I was going to experience it Aussie style!
Another great thing about Fremantle was the Indian Ocean. I had sort of swam in the edges of the Indian Ocean while I was in Thailand. But that was really the Andaman Sea, not the proper ocean. Here in Fremantle, I could look over over an ocean where there were NO obstacles until the southwest coast of Africa, almost 8000 km away!
That night at the hostel, I took at look at the book exchange shelf. I encountered a disturbing sight. I SWEAR TO GOD that a book I left on the book exchange shelf at The Beachouse in Fiji was here in Perth! The book was “The Day After Tomorrow” (no relation to the movie of the same name). I had carried it around since a Danish couple gave it to me in Samoa, but I wasn’t really that interested in reading it. I unloaded it in Fiji not three days before, and now it was here in Perth. It looked the same... same ratty pages, same faded cover. I discussed this disturbing phenomenon with two of the people who were sitting in the hostel kitchen near the book shelf. They didn’t seem to believe my story... tsk. By coincidence, one of the people was Luca -- an Italian guy who would be on the same tour to Broome.
December 4, 2008
Up at 6 AM in order to get picked up at 7 AM in front of my hostel on my tour. I was excited. There were about fifteen passengers on the bus. Our guide was Tamantha (though everyone called her “Tammy”). Our bus’ name was “Turbo Charlie”. As always, I was the only person on the bus from North America. Most of the people were European (as always). There were also two people from Hong Kong, but they didn’t associate with the other people that much. Otherwise, we were a great and social group. I had so much fun...
So we had something like 700 km to drive today. So, mostly, we sat around on the bus, but there were some interesting stops on the way. The first big stop today was at The Pinnacles, a natural rock formation in some bushland with bright yellow sand. It was pretty cool. There were hundreds and hundreds of eroded limestone pillars scattered around. Tammy pointed out some kangaroo and emu tracks.
On the way out of The Pinnacles, we were driving along when Tammy suddenly pulled over and said “Get out of the bus! Get out of the bus!”. She leaped out and began running towards something back on the side of the road. We had NO IDEA what was going on, but poured out of the bus and started going back towards her. Was there a car accident? Was someone hurt at the side of the road?
She reached something we couldn’t see and called back “Get the first aid kit from the bus!” Our confusion was mounting. What the flip was going on?
When I reached Tammy, it was clear what was going on. She had seen a shingleback lizard (about two feet long) on the side of the road. It was infested with ticks and Tammy needed the tweezers to pull them out. Wow... this was a lot of drama over a lizard, but it was still pretty cool. Tammy had really good eyes to be able to see that little thing beside the road as we were hurtling up it at 100 km/h. She really loved animals (reptiles especially), and really wanted to help the poor guy!
The next stop was the big sand dunes at Geraldton where we got to partake in some sandboarding. Get a skateboard with no wheels, spread wax on the bottom with a candle, have a seat, and slide down a big hill. Fun! I wasn’t very good at it... I kept wiping out...
The farther north we got from Perth, the drier the landscape got. The trees got smaller, and the earth got redder. There was still farmland, but it was getting more scraggly the farther we got from Perth. There were wheat fields here, but the wheat was so short compared to the tall flowing wheat fields in Canada. Tammy told us that the farmers here only expected to have one good harvest of wheat every four years, but that was still enough to live on given the current cost of wheat. Wow... life was tough here. And this was just the beginning.
We spent the night in a little beachouse in the tiny town of Horrock’s Bay. We stopped along the way to pick up beers. I got a whole box (30 beers) of Emu Bitter brew... a cheap Western Australia brew. I hoped that the box would last me most of the way to Broome. Heh heh... given how much the people on my tour were drinking at Horrock’s Bay that night, there was little chance of that!
December 5, 2008
Had to get up VERY EARLY today... like 5 AM I think? I’ve recently discussed how early morning wake ups are very hard on me. Something usually goes awry. This time I lost my 4 GB 2nd generation iPod Nano. Ooops. I was building a playlist of music to put onto it last night, but I guess I had not managed to repack it today. Well, crap.
Anyways, it’s just an iPod. Life goes on. And NORTH!
The first big stop today was the fantastic Murchison Gorge in Kalbarri National Park. This would be the first of many gorges I’d see in my trip up north.
I got to try abseiling down a 23 meter rock wall here. Abseiling (also called “rappelling”) is descending down rock walls using ropes. You get to jump off the walls a long and swing and bounce around. I was nervous at first, but it was really fun after all. The hardest part was the very beginning, when I had to edge over the top backwards and just trust the rope to keep me from plummeting to my death as I crept over the edge.
I’m pretty sure I’ll give abseiling another go when I get to New Zealand!
Driving north from Murchison Gorge, we got to see a thorny devil lizard (another emergency stop!). This one was pregnant and apparently you could feel its eggs in your belly.
The second emergency stop this day was different from the others. As we pulled to the side of the road, Tammy shouted, “STAY IN THE BUS! STAY IN THE BUS!” I looked out the window and saw a huge brown snake slide across the road, under the bus, and into the bushes. It was a King Brown snake (also called a Mulga snake), one of the most venomous snakes in the world. The last time I had seen one of these guys was in the Australia Zoo back in February.
The next actual scheduled stop was Shell Beach along Shark Bay. The unique saline conditions in Shark Bay produce an environment where cockle shells grow in abundance. When the little shellfish die, their shells accumulate on the land and produce a HUGE beach with NO SAND... only shells, each pure white and less than one centimeter big. We swam a bit, but the tide was low and the wind was pretty crazy strong so we kept it pretty short.
The wind! The wind on the west coast was strong and persistent. Perth is one of the windiest cities in the world and wind farms are plentiful. For us, it meant that the hot days weren’t so hot, but the warm nights could be kinda chilly... especially when on the beach!
We spent the night at the YHA in Denham, the westernmost city in Australia. There was more drinking, of course. We also had lots of waterfights. Kerstin, one of the German girls on the bus, had a watergun and was relentless with it. She even used it on the bus! But it was okay. The weather was warm (especially after going on treks in the scorching hot gorges) and the gun was a good relief.
December 6, 2008
Up at 6 AM and onto the bus. It was a short drive to Monkey Mia, a cute little resort town on Shark Bay where wild dolphins came every day at 7:30 AM to be fed by hand by people. We got to line up along the beach, standing ankle deep in water, as wild dolphins swam up towards us and played around before getting fed. Only a few people get selected to actually feed the dolphins, and I was one of the lucky people! I thank my awesome Mos Burger t-shirt from Hong Kong, thank you!
After Monkey Mia, we started to drive away from Shark Bay. Along the way, we stopped at a bluff by the shore where we could look down and actually see reef sharks swimming in the shallows.
At the very south end of Shark Bay, we stopped at Hamelin Pool where stromatolites live near the shore line. Stromatolites are one of the first forms of life on Earth: bacteria-like life that lives in the water. They create oxygen and excrete layers of sediment which build up into rock formations. They don’t look like much, but they’re responsible for producing much of the free oxygen in our atmosphere. If it wasn’t for the stromatolites, we wouldn’t be here today.
More driving. More driving...
The next stop was at the Tropic of Capricorn, the line of latitude at 23°26′ south of the equator. The last time I had crossed this line on land was on the road towards Alice Springs back in July.
There were actually two tour buses from Western Xposure traveling up from Perth at the time same. My bus was going all the way to Perth, but the other one was only going as far as Exmouth. We managed to get to the tropic a few minutes ahead of the other bus. As we were getting ready to get on our way, the other bus started pulling in. Tammy said, “Quick everyone! One thing we do in Australia is moon people! Quick! Moon the other bus!” Good times. For revenge, the other bus gave us a vicious soaking with water guns when we got to our to our backpackers in Coral Bay.
Our resting place that night was, indeed, at a backpackers in Coral Bay, near the south end of the fantastic Ningaloo Reef. Coral Bay was a tiny town... seeming to exist only to support tourism on the reef.
There was much drinking, that night, of course. The entertainment that evening was a game of giant Jenga... our bus versus the other bus. They beat us two-to-one after Edouard (or “Frenchy” as we called him) made the big tower collapse. Even though Edouard sucked at Jenga, he was still a really cool guy. He sat beside me on the bus and we talked alot. Man, that guy could drink wine!
December 7, 2008
We had to wake up somewhat early today, too (around 7 AM, I think), but it wasn’t to go for another long drive. Today I was going on an extra special snorkeling trip to the Ningaloo Reef. This reef extends for several hundred kilometers along the western coast of Australia. Unlike the Great Barrier Reef (which is technically classified as a “barrier reef”), which is separated from the coastline by a huge barrier of water that takes one or two hours to cross on boat, the Ningaloo Reef is a “fringing reef” that lies very close to the shoreline. You could put on a snorkel, mask, fins, step into the water from the beach, swim for five minutes, and be surrounded by a wealth of corals, fish, and other aquatic life.
My snorkeling trip today consisted of a boat ride to three sites on the reef. The first one was just a shallow area to swim between corals. As always, there was an enormous amount of fish. Some people were able to see turtles and reef sharks hiding beneath the rocks, but I didn’t spot anything like that.
The second and third snorkeling excursions were the real special ones. The boat departed the first reef area and sped out into the lagoon in search of manta rays. Along the way we saw a huge tiger shark swimming around in the water. Unlike the harmless reef sharks, the tiger shark was a monster that was dangerous to humans, so we didn’t go into the water there!
Aided by spotter planes and other boats, we eventually tracked down one of the graceful and huge manta rays. They’re not really related to other rays, but are closer to sharks. Unlike rays and (some) sharks, though, manta rays are completely harmless. They lack the stinger that rays have and they don’t have teeth. Instead, they have huge mouths that could swallow human whole! They don’t feed on people, though, since they only eat tiny organisms en masse.
The manta ray that we encountered was probably about three or four meters wide, from wing-tip to wing-tip, and swimming probably about three meters below us. It was swimming in huge barrel rolls, with its gaping mouth wide open in an attempt to feed. There must have been a LOT of food for it there since it kept feeding for a long time. The water was a little cloudy, too (which was the food, I think).
I had a disposable underwater camera and tried to take some pictures. I haven’t developed them yet. Hopefully they turn out!
On the way to the third snorkeling site, we saw lots of sea turtles swimming in the water. The third dive site was just corals and lots of fish again. On the way back, I was very VERY cold since it was windy and I was wet from coming out of the water. I tried to lie in the sun at the top of the boat to get warm. Who though my teeth would be chattering from the cold when I was in the tropics?
In the afternoon, the bus packed up and left for Exmouth, where we would spend the next two nights at a camp ground in town (though we still got to sleep in dorms). For dinner, we picked up pizza and we went to the lighthouse for sunset. There were lots of shenanigans here.
Here’s a picture of me at the lighthouse after having a bit too much sun, wind, and wine:
Oh, I guess the lighthouse and sunset are kind of pretty, too, eh?
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Maroochydore, AU
Friday, September 5, 2008
New Photos Posted: Australia End Chapter
My final two weeks in Australia were very prolific for photographs and I'd like you to enjoy the photos that I have just finished posting.
--
Rob Sz
Toronto
--
Rob Sz
Toronto
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Australian End Chapter
August 14, 2008
So it was my third time in Sydney. I had six full days in the city to appreciate it once more and round up my time in the southern hemisphere before flying back to that hemisphere farther north.
Tracy (the girl from Richmond Hill that I had met in Katoomba) had told me about the Biennale Art Festival in Sydney: a festival that occurs every two years with venues in prominent art galleries, and a few other places, all over the city. All of the venues offered free admission for the festival, so I decided to make it a high priority to visit many of the art galleries during my time in Sydney.
My first destination today was the Museum of Contemporary Art near The Rocks and Circular Quay in Sydney. My last time in Sydney I had really learned the way around so I decided to walk along the beautiful harbourfront and through the pretty Royal Botanic Gardens to the museum. Along the way I took many really nice pictures, but most of them are on (or soon should be) on Picasa, as always. I think this picture is pretty fun, though, so I’ll put it on here. I found a group of people playing soccer in the Royal Botanic Gardens, right near the harbour, and captured this shot:
The Museum was pretty cool. I didn’t take many photographs there, though. Like many museums, they don’t like you taking photos, and had people standing in each room to shoo you away if you try. So annoying.
The real highlight of the day was a short ferry ride away, however. I caught the free ferry from the steps in front of the museum to Cockatoo Island. This island was a prison in the 19th century and a shipyard for much of the 20th century. The shipyard closed many years ago, but many of the warehouses, metal shops, cranes, barracks, and docks remain on the island, gradually rusting and falling apart. For fans of urban exploration, Cockatoo Island is a true gem. I didn’t know about it at all until Tracy told me how she went there and didn’t have enough time to explore the whole place before she had to leave. I intended to go there for only about two hours, but I ended up getting completely sucked in by the place and was there for closer to five hours.
I wandered around the derelict machinery for so long. Since the island was officially one of the venues for the Biennale (hence, the free ferry ride and admission!) many of the abandoned metal shops and warehouses were host to art exhibits. All of the art pieces were contemporary pieces, and I think were created especially for the festival.
My favourite piece was this one in a darkened upper room of a warehouse with boarded-over windows. Six or seven projectors were displaying filmed scenes on the walls. All of the scenes were strictly black and white and showed silhouettes of some sort of action. One of them was of a man in a Russian military uniform dancing. One was of various people, robots, animals, and strange assemblages of beings gradually marching down a road holding revolutionary banners and placards. One showed meetings minutes from a meeting of a Soviet committee from the 1920s. Most of the meeting involved one Comrade Bukharin telling everyone else in the meeting how stupid he thought they were. All of the action was synchronized to a single rousing soundtrack of a Russian march. The piece was so well done and different from anything I had ever seen I had a difficult time leaving so I could see more fantastic art.
The theme of the Biennale was “Revolution” -- in any of its possible meanings: political, rotational, whatever. Different art pieces explored “revolution” in different ways. The communist themed artwork on Cockatoo Island was just one of really cool and engaging artworks I saw there.
August 15, 2008
My main destination today was another venue for the Biennale: the Art Gallery of New South Wales. This art gallery was in a grand Neoclassical building just outside the Royal Botanic Gardens. The collection of artwork was a range of Australian artists (19th century to present day), Aboriginal artists (present day), Torres Strait Islander artists (present day), and European artists (15th century to present day).
The front of the building was graffitied in clever ways, befitting the art festival. Particularly cute was the flying boomerang announcing that “I will be back”!
After the art gallery, I wandered through the central business district through to Chinatown where I had a really spicy korean kimchee and tofu soup for lunch. Yum!
From there, I went to Paddy’s Markets to look around for a didgeridoo. I shopped around for a while before picking up a really pretty one. I’ve tried to play it a bit since getting it, but not when I was still in Australia. The shop vendor packed my didgeridoo with bubble wrap for the big plane ride(s) home, and I wanted to leave it on since he really struggled to get it on. I’m not very good at playing it yet, though. I think I need to learn how to correctly do circular breathing (breathing out through the mouth and in through the nose at the same time) before I can make any musical breakthroughs. The vendor who sold me the didgeridoo also gave me a small book that explains how to do it. Wish me luck!
There was lots of food available to sell at the market, too. I was reminded of how used I had gotten to the Aussies using different words for things. Check out the “capsicums!”
Yeah, capsicum is just pepper. Crazy Aussies.
While the mornings and evenings were chilly in Sydney (it was early spring there), the afternoons were warm and delightful (around 16 degrees). However, just like the Melbournians, the Sydneysiders were bundled up against the weather. Since it really wasn’t that cold in the afternoon, I made the conclusion that the Australians just like to play dress up during their “winter.”
That night I went for dinner and drinks with Ann, the Australian girl that I had met on my last day in Tonga. She lived nearby and she took me around Newtown to get a look around the cool neighbourhood (reminds me of The Annex in Toronto). We went to a bookstore that was packed to packed to the rafters with a bizarre and eclectic selection of second-hand books. If you needed a nook about Criminal Law of Queensland, photography, or the Secret World of the Irish Male (maybe I should have picked this up for Patrick, but I didn’t think about it at the time), then this is the place. The books were sorted haphazardly and only by exhaustive searches and literally poring through the stacks could you find anything.
Ann bought a book about how to use artistic words to be able to quickly make it appear that you were the master of any subject. I hope she uses the book to good effect!
After a couple beers and a really nice dinner at a West African restaurant, we made plans to meet up again before I left again. She also said that her sister was visiting Australia for a year in a few months and Ann wanted to buy an old van and drive around Australia. If they end up doing it, and I’m back in Australia in a few months, maybe I should join them! Wouldn’t that be a great way to see a country?
That’s Ann and I. GO SIDEBURN POWER!
Here is a photograph of the African restaurant with a great full moon behind it.
August 16, 2008
After checking out the little weekend market set up in Kings Cross, I walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens again to see a tour of the world famous Sydney Opera House. If you read my blog many many months ago, you might have seen pictures of the opera house from outside. Now you can see some pictures from inside!
Since I took a tour early in the morning (because it was cheaper!) one of the concert halls was vacant of any workers or sets so I was allowed to take pictures inside it.
If there was anyone working there or any sets or props, then they would not have allowed me to take a picture (and most tour guides are too zealous in enforcing annoying rules like this, from my experience). I got to see inside the main opera hall itself, but I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures from inside of it since people were working on the sets for the performance of Othello that afternoon. Oh well, the concert hall was pretty, wasn’t it?
The walk continued from there. I wanted to take a tour of the nearby Government House, but it was closed for an official government function. I would have to return the next day.
Walk walk walk. Next stop: St. Mary’s Cathedral. It was a grand neogothic structure beside tree-filled Hyde Park. I had stopped in briefly the day before around lunch since I wanted to take pictures. They were in the middle of a mass and the church was absolutely packed with people taking breaks during their busy lunch hours to attend mass. There was a mass today, too, but I arrived much closer to the beginning, so I waited for the mass to finish before taking pictures. Since it was the weekend, there were far fewer people there.
Walkity walkity walk. More walking. Next stop was Chinatown for lunch followed by a snack and hot chocolate at the delicious Lindt Cafe beside Darling Harbour. It was my third time visiting the same cafe. I had made sure to stop in there at least once in each of my visits to Sydney.
I had not really explored Darling Harbour very much though -- usually I had just passed through here on my way to somewhere else (or specifically to the yummy Lindt cafe). This time I walked around a bit more to see people meditating, children playing, and tourists touring (just like me!)
There was more walking to do, though. Oh yes, it was a big walking day! I wanted to return to Newtown since I had enjoyed it much the night before. I hoped to check out some second-hand or vintage clothing shops. After walking like an hour and a half to get there, however, I saw an arty movie house and watched the movie “Persepolis” instead. It’s a French animated movie about the life of a Iranian girl that lives through the 1979 revolution and then moves to Europe to get away from the increasingly oppressive theocratic government. Excellent movie!
I had one more destination planned on my big walk. I walked from Newtown to Glebe (maybe about 45 minutes to the north, past a big university and Victoria Park). I had passed through Glebe back in March and discovered a Polish restaurant. The restaurant was only open for dinner, so was closed when I discovered it the first time. This time, I came during dinner time so I could feast.
Alas, it was not to be. When I got there, the restaurant was indeed open. However, all of the seats were booked that night and there was no space for little old me. I made reservations for Monday night.
The walk was not for nought, though. Walking past that big park, I got a lot of really beautiful photographs of trees, the full moon, and lots of clouds.
My big walk was wearing down on me, though. From Glebe, I hoofed it over to Central Station so I could take a train back to Kings Cross. I checked it out the next day and apparently I had walked over 20 km today... all on hard pavement! Good work, me!
In Central Station, I took this picture. It amuses me, so I’ll share it with you here.
Translation for the non-Aussies:
“Hungry Jack’s” means “Burger King”
“Brekky” means “Breakfast”
“6am” means “way too early, suckas!”
August 17, 2008
I headed over to Government House early on to catch one of the free tours. The stately mansion in the Royal Botanic Garden is the official residence of the Governor of New South Wales. The current governor, however, still lives in her own residence in Sydney. The house was very ornate inside, but, of course, no one would let me take pictures. Bastards.
The afternoon would be an interesting one! When I was in Cairns at the beginning of July, I had met a couple people from Sydney who shared my love of board games: Angus and Bendeguz. We had made plans to meet up again during my final pass through Sydney for some board gaming action. Bendeguz had created his own modified rules and map for the World War II war game Axis and Allies. Angus couldn’t make it, but Bendeguz rounded up three more of his friends and we met up to play.
We randomly drew countries. I was Germany. Bendeguz was Japan. We were teamed up against the three other guys playing the UK, the USSR, and the USA. It took many, many hours, but after a lot of candy, soda pop and pizza, Germany and Japan crushed the communist Russian forces and the German tanks rolled across Moscow and ground it into dust before the British and Americans could get their collective acts together and successfully use their naval superiority to launch a successful invasion of Western Europe!
Yay! We win!
Bendeguz gave me a ride back in his cool old VW Beetle. As we lurched through the busy nighttime streets of the Sydney CBD, we made plans to meet up again on Tuesday to see some amateur theatre.
August 18, 2008
Today was a quiet day. I mostly hung around the hostel, even though I didn’t enjoy the place much. Most of the people there were staying there long term, drank a lot at night, and smoked a lot of cigarettes and marijuana at any time of day. It was a pretty stinky place to hang out, and I generally avoided it. The past few days were pretty busy, though, so it was nice to chill out.
At night, I walked back to Glebe for my appointed meal at the “Na Zdrowie” Polish restaurant. “Na Zdrowie” is a very useful phrase in Polish. It means, literally “To Your Health.” You can say it after someone sneezes or when making a toast.
When I arrived at the restaurant, I asked the waiter, “Please tell me that you have Polish beers!” The restaurant did not stock any, but he recommended an excellent nearby bottle shop where they supplied Zywiec and Warka beers. They also stocked some Leffe Radieuse ales that I picked up for later. They also, surprisingly carried my favourite liquor in the world, the magnificent Licor 42 from Spain. I wanted to buy it, but there wasn’t enough time left for me to consume it while I was still in Australia and I knew the Americans would probably take it away from me when I flew through Los Angeles in two days. My backpack was too full for me to pack the big bottle into, so I’m sure they would consider my carried-on hazelnut liquor to be a dangerous weapon and would confiscate it so they could drink it themselves. Bastards. I lamented my poor fortune to the shopkeeper and he gave me a free single-serving bottle of Licor 42 to tide me over. What a nice guy!
(subliminal message: LCBO SUX)
Oh yeah, dinner was awesome. It was an expensive meal since I went all out... barley soup (zurek), mixed pierogie in tomato and roasted red capsicum (PEPPER!) sauce, and a proper piece of Polish cheesecake (sernik) for desert. I had to pay some corkage fees for my beers, but I don’t care. That was good food, suckas.
August 19, 2008
MY LAST DAY IN AUSTRALIA
It was really here. It was really hard to believe. My big trip was getting really close to the end. Emotions were mixed up in my head. Its hard to describe how I really felt that crisp spring day in Sydney. I won’t fuss over such weirdness now. Now its like two weeks later, and I can’t remember it all anyways.
I did a load of laundry in the morning before heading out for lunch with Ann on the Wooloomooloo waterfront near Kings Cross. I like that word: Wooloomooloo. It’s fun to say it. Try it.
We walked past Russell Crowe’s swanky waterfront condo and swish (and ‘spensive) restaurants before settling down at the less ‘spensive Wooloomooloo Hotel restaurant for risotto, chicken parma and beers.
That night Bendeguz and Rubin, both from the board game action on Sunday, met with me at the nearby SBW Stables Theatre to see an amateur theatrical production. I got a discount on my ticket price because I was under 30 years old. Curse my youthful good looks, heh heh heh. The show was called “Arabian Night” and was really cool. There were only five actors and very few props. The theatre was tiny and we sat in the front row, only feet away from the show. It was very engaging, engrossing and encompassing. The ending of the show was very memorable as a glass bottle fell from the ceiling, smashed on the floor of centre stage, and the lights went out.
After dinner we sat around at the nearby Oporto’s chicken place to drink hot chocolate and chat. It was a nice last night in Sydney. I’m glad that I’ve made friends here. I hope I can visit them again, someday.
--
Rob Sz
Toronto, Canada
So it was my third time in Sydney. I had six full days in the city to appreciate it once more and round up my time in the southern hemisphere before flying back to that hemisphere farther north.
Tracy (the girl from Richmond Hill that I had met in Katoomba) had told me about the Biennale Art Festival in Sydney: a festival that occurs every two years with venues in prominent art galleries, and a few other places, all over the city. All of the venues offered free admission for the festival, so I decided to make it a high priority to visit many of the art galleries during my time in Sydney.
My first destination today was the Museum of Contemporary Art near The Rocks and Circular Quay in Sydney. My last time in Sydney I had really learned the way around so I decided to walk along the beautiful harbourfront and through the pretty Royal Botanic Gardens to the museum. Along the way I took many really nice pictures, but most of them are on (or soon should be) on Picasa, as always. I think this picture is pretty fun, though, so I’ll put it on here. I found a group of people playing soccer in the Royal Botanic Gardens, right near the harbour, and captured this shot:
The Museum was pretty cool. I didn’t take many photographs there, though. Like many museums, they don’t like you taking photos, and had people standing in each room to shoo you away if you try. So annoying.
The real highlight of the day was a short ferry ride away, however. I caught the free ferry from the steps in front of the museum to Cockatoo Island. This island was a prison in the 19th century and a shipyard for much of the 20th century. The shipyard closed many years ago, but many of the warehouses, metal shops, cranes, barracks, and docks remain on the island, gradually rusting and falling apart. For fans of urban exploration, Cockatoo Island is a true gem. I didn’t know about it at all until Tracy told me how she went there and didn’t have enough time to explore the whole place before she had to leave. I intended to go there for only about two hours, but I ended up getting completely sucked in by the place and was there for closer to five hours.
I wandered around the derelict machinery for so long. Since the island was officially one of the venues for the Biennale (hence, the free ferry ride and admission!) many of the abandoned metal shops and warehouses were host to art exhibits. All of the art pieces were contemporary pieces, and I think were created especially for the festival.
My favourite piece was this one in a darkened upper room of a warehouse with boarded-over windows. Six or seven projectors were displaying filmed scenes on the walls. All of the scenes were strictly black and white and showed silhouettes of some sort of action. One of them was of a man in a Russian military uniform dancing. One was of various people, robots, animals, and strange assemblages of beings gradually marching down a road holding revolutionary banners and placards. One showed meetings minutes from a meeting of a Soviet committee from the 1920s. Most of the meeting involved one Comrade Bukharin telling everyone else in the meeting how stupid he thought they were. All of the action was synchronized to a single rousing soundtrack of a Russian march. The piece was so well done and different from anything I had ever seen I had a difficult time leaving so I could see more fantastic art.
The theme of the Biennale was “Revolution” -- in any of its possible meanings: political, rotational, whatever. Different art pieces explored “revolution” in different ways. The communist themed artwork on Cockatoo Island was just one of really cool and engaging artworks I saw there.
August 15, 2008
My main destination today was another venue for the Biennale: the Art Gallery of New South Wales. This art gallery was in a grand Neoclassical building just outside the Royal Botanic Gardens. The collection of artwork was a range of Australian artists (19th century to present day), Aboriginal artists (present day), Torres Strait Islander artists (present day), and European artists (15th century to present day).
The front of the building was graffitied in clever ways, befitting the art festival. Particularly cute was the flying boomerang announcing that “I will be back”!
After the art gallery, I wandered through the central business district through to Chinatown where I had a really spicy korean kimchee and tofu soup for lunch. Yum!
From there, I went to Paddy’s Markets to look around for a didgeridoo. I shopped around for a while before picking up a really pretty one. I’ve tried to play it a bit since getting it, but not when I was still in Australia. The shop vendor packed my didgeridoo with bubble wrap for the big plane ride(s) home, and I wanted to leave it on since he really struggled to get it on. I’m not very good at playing it yet, though. I think I need to learn how to correctly do circular breathing (breathing out through the mouth and in through the nose at the same time) before I can make any musical breakthroughs. The vendor who sold me the didgeridoo also gave me a small book that explains how to do it. Wish me luck!
There was lots of food available to sell at the market, too. I was reminded of how used I had gotten to the Aussies using different words for things. Check out the “capsicums!”
Yeah, capsicum is just pepper. Crazy Aussies.
While the mornings and evenings were chilly in Sydney (it was early spring there), the afternoons were warm and delightful (around 16 degrees). However, just like the Melbournians, the Sydneysiders were bundled up against the weather. Since it really wasn’t that cold in the afternoon, I made the conclusion that the Australians just like to play dress up during their “winter.”
That night I went for dinner and drinks with Ann, the Australian girl that I had met on my last day in Tonga. She lived nearby and she took me around Newtown to get a look around the cool neighbourhood (reminds me of The Annex in Toronto). We went to a bookstore that was packed to packed to the rafters with a bizarre and eclectic selection of second-hand books. If you needed a nook about Criminal Law of Queensland, photography, or the Secret World of the Irish Male (maybe I should have picked this up for Patrick, but I didn’t think about it at the time), then this is the place. The books were sorted haphazardly and only by exhaustive searches and literally poring through the stacks could you find anything.
Ann bought a book about how to use artistic words to be able to quickly make it appear that you were the master of any subject. I hope she uses the book to good effect!
After a couple beers and a really nice dinner at a West African restaurant, we made plans to meet up again before I left again. She also said that her sister was visiting Australia for a year in a few months and Ann wanted to buy an old van and drive around Australia. If they end up doing it, and I’m back in Australia in a few months, maybe I should join them! Wouldn’t that be a great way to see a country?
That’s Ann and I. GO SIDEBURN POWER!
Here is a photograph of the African restaurant with a great full moon behind it.
August 16, 2008
After checking out the little weekend market set up in Kings Cross, I walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens again to see a tour of the world famous Sydney Opera House. If you read my blog many many months ago, you might have seen pictures of the opera house from outside. Now you can see some pictures from inside!
Since I took a tour early in the morning (because it was cheaper!) one of the concert halls was vacant of any workers or sets so I was allowed to take pictures inside it.
If there was anyone working there or any sets or props, then they would not have allowed me to take a picture (and most tour guides are too zealous in enforcing annoying rules like this, from my experience). I got to see inside the main opera hall itself, but I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures from inside of it since people were working on the sets for the performance of Othello that afternoon. Oh well, the concert hall was pretty, wasn’t it?
The walk continued from there. I wanted to take a tour of the nearby Government House, but it was closed for an official government function. I would have to return the next day.
Walk walk walk. Next stop: St. Mary’s Cathedral. It was a grand neogothic structure beside tree-filled Hyde Park. I had stopped in briefly the day before around lunch since I wanted to take pictures. They were in the middle of a mass and the church was absolutely packed with people taking breaks during their busy lunch hours to attend mass. There was a mass today, too, but I arrived much closer to the beginning, so I waited for the mass to finish before taking pictures. Since it was the weekend, there were far fewer people there.
Walkity walkity walk. More walking. Next stop was Chinatown for lunch followed by a snack and hot chocolate at the delicious Lindt Cafe beside Darling Harbour. It was my third time visiting the same cafe. I had made sure to stop in there at least once in each of my visits to Sydney.
I had not really explored Darling Harbour very much though -- usually I had just passed through here on my way to somewhere else (or specifically to the yummy Lindt cafe). This time I walked around a bit more to see people meditating, children playing, and tourists touring (just like me!)
There was more walking to do, though. Oh yes, it was a big walking day! I wanted to return to Newtown since I had enjoyed it much the night before. I hoped to check out some second-hand or vintage clothing shops. After walking like an hour and a half to get there, however, I saw an arty movie house and watched the movie “Persepolis” instead. It’s a French animated movie about the life of a Iranian girl that lives through the 1979 revolution and then moves to Europe to get away from the increasingly oppressive theocratic government. Excellent movie!
I had one more destination planned on my big walk. I walked from Newtown to Glebe (maybe about 45 minutes to the north, past a big university and Victoria Park). I had passed through Glebe back in March and discovered a Polish restaurant. The restaurant was only open for dinner, so was closed when I discovered it the first time. This time, I came during dinner time so I could feast.
Alas, it was not to be. When I got there, the restaurant was indeed open. However, all of the seats were booked that night and there was no space for little old me. I made reservations for Monday night.
The walk was not for nought, though. Walking past that big park, I got a lot of really beautiful photographs of trees, the full moon, and lots of clouds.
My big walk was wearing down on me, though. From Glebe, I hoofed it over to Central Station so I could take a train back to Kings Cross. I checked it out the next day and apparently I had walked over 20 km today... all on hard pavement! Good work, me!
In Central Station, I took this picture. It amuses me, so I’ll share it with you here.
Translation for the non-Aussies:
“Hungry Jack’s” means “Burger King”
“Brekky” means “Breakfast”
“6am” means “way too early, suckas!”
August 17, 2008
I headed over to Government House early on to catch one of the free tours. The stately mansion in the Royal Botanic Garden is the official residence of the Governor of New South Wales. The current governor, however, still lives in her own residence in Sydney. The house was very ornate inside, but, of course, no one would let me take pictures. Bastards.
The afternoon would be an interesting one! When I was in Cairns at the beginning of July, I had met a couple people from Sydney who shared my love of board games: Angus and Bendeguz. We had made plans to meet up again during my final pass through Sydney for some board gaming action. Bendeguz had created his own modified rules and map for the World War II war game Axis and Allies. Angus couldn’t make it, but Bendeguz rounded up three more of his friends and we met up to play.
We randomly drew countries. I was Germany. Bendeguz was Japan. We were teamed up against the three other guys playing the UK, the USSR, and the USA. It took many, many hours, but after a lot of candy, soda pop and pizza, Germany and Japan crushed the communist Russian forces and the German tanks rolled across Moscow and ground it into dust before the British and Americans could get their collective acts together and successfully use their naval superiority to launch a successful invasion of Western Europe!
Yay! We win!
Bendeguz gave me a ride back in his cool old VW Beetle. As we lurched through the busy nighttime streets of the Sydney CBD, we made plans to meet up again on Tuesday to see some amateur theatre.
August 18, 2008
Today was a quiet day. I mostly hung around the hostel, even though I didn’t enjoy the place much. Most of the people there were staying there long term, drank a lot at night, and smoked a lot of cigarettes and marijuana at any time of day. It was a pretty stinky place to hang out, and I generally avoided it. The past few days were pretty busy, though, so it was nice to chill out.
At night, I walked back to Glebe for my appointed meal at the “Na Zdrowie” Polish restaurant. “Na Zdrowie” is a very useful phrase in Polish. It means, literally “To Your Health.” You can say it after someone sneezes or when making a toast.
When I arrived at the restaurant, I asked the waiter, “Please tell me that you have Polish beers!” The restaurant did not stock any, but he recommended an excellent nearby bottle shop where they supplied Zywiec and Warka beers. They also stocked some Leffe Radieuse ales that I picked up for later. They also, surprisingly carried my favourite liquor in the world, the magnificent Licor 42 from Spain. I wanted to buy it, but there wasn’t enough time left for me to consume it while I was still in Australia and I knew the Americans would probably take it away from me when I flew through Los Angeles in two days. My backpack was too full for me to pack the big bottle into, so I’m sure they would consider my carried-on hazelnut liquor to be a dangerous weapon and would confiscate it so they could drink it themselves. Bastards. I lamented my poor fortune to the shopkeeper and he gave me a free single-serving bottle of Licor 42 to tide me over. What a nice guy!
(subliminal message: LCBO SUX)
Oh yeah, dinner was awesome. It was an expensive meal since I went all out... barley soup (zurek), mixed pierogie in tomato and roasted red capsicum (PEPPER!) sauce, and a proper piece of Polish cheesecake (sernik) for desert. I had to pay some corkage fees for my beers, but I don’t care. That was good food, suckas.
August 19, 2008
MY LAST DAY IN AUSTRALIA
It was really here. It was really hard to believe. My big trip was getting really close to the end. Emotions were mixed up in my head. Its hard to describe how I really felt that crisp spring day in Sydney. I won’t fuss over such weirdness now. Now its like two weeks later, and I can’t remember it all anyways.
I did a load of laundry in the morning before heading out for lunch with Ann on the Wooloomooloo waterfront near Kings Cross. I like that word: Wooloomooloo. It’s fun to say it. Try it.
We walked past Russell Crowe’s swanky waterfront condo and swish (and ‘spensive) restaurants before settling down at the less ‘spensive Wooloomooloo Hotel restaurant for risotto, chicken parma and beers.
That night Bendeguz and Rubin, both from the board game action on Sunday, met with me at the nearby SBW Stables Theatre to see an amateur theatrical production. I got a discount on my ticket price because I was under 30 years old. Curse my youthful good looks, heh heh heh. The show was called “Arabian Night” and was really cool. There were only five actors and very few props. The theatre was tiny and we sat in the front row, only feet away from the show. It was very engaging, engrossing and encompassing. The ending of the show was very memorable as a glass bottle fell from the ceiling, smashed on the floor of centre stage, and the lights went out.
After dinner we sat around at the nearby Oporto’s chicken place to drink hot chocolate and chat. It was a nice last night in Sydney. I’m glad that I’ve made friends here. I hope I can visit them again, someday.
--
Rob Sz
Toronto, Canada
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