Kakadu National Park and Darwin were two of the areas that Brian had missed on his previous trips and he was looking forward to seeing them this time around. Kakadu is an diverse mix of monsoonal rain forests, mangrove forests, billabongs, cliffs and escarpements, ancient and modern aboriginal art, waterfalls, plunge pools and wildlife. Oh...and lots and lots of crocodiles.
As we mentioned in an earlier entry we were a little nervous about this trip with Kakadu Dreams because the company seemed overly geared towards the early-20's party crowd. As we were to find out, this fear was both justified and overblown.
Certainly the eco-tour marketed trip started off poorly when not 35 minutes into the journey we ran straight over a small kangaroo going 60 mph. Ker-thud. Ker-thud. Shocked silence in the back followed by "Steaks tonight, anyone?".
We were even more dismayed to discover a peculiar habit of Chris, our trip leader. He seemed constitutionally incapable of holding a conversation without maintaining eye contact. While that might be viewed as a positive result of a good upbringing, it was a disconcerting (if not downright dangerous) trait while driving a truck down a highway. Not only was he looking sideways at the passenger in the front seat next to him, but he would also frequently turn himself all the way around to talk to the folks in the back. There's nothing like the experience of speeding down a highway with your driver facing backwards to have everyone scrambling for the seatbelts.
Kakadu is a world heritage-listed site not only for its natural beauty, but for its cultural treasures as well. One of our first stops in the park was the Ubirr art site, an area where Aboriginal people have been making rock art for more than a thousand years. While most of the paintings have been dated at less than 1500 years, there is one of a thylacine (or Tasmanian Tiger), an animal that has been extinct on the mainland for 2000 -3000 years. My favorite painting was one of the Mimi spirit figures, but we were equally impressed by the x-ray images of the fish and animals used to teach the children how to hunt and fish.
We enjoyed a couple of other scenic stops and mini-hikes including yet another gorgeous northern territory sunset before heading off to the JimJim campground. After being able to just bush camp in the Outback it was a bit of a bummer to have to be back in a campground. Due to the emergence of large numbers of biting bugs however, we did gratefully accept a tent despite our allegiance to swags. Actually our gratefulness might just have been residual thankfulness at being in one piece. Hurrying to beat the other Kakadu Dreams truck back to the campground in the post-sunset darkness, our fearless leader didn't see that he was approaching a T-junction and the truck and trailer carved a nice skidding arc in the intersection as he turned the corner, occasioning yet another mad rush for seatbelts in the back.
After dinner we did a brief nature walk. Chris showed us how spiders' eyes reflect back blue light and allow you to find them in the dark. It was actually pretty disturbing to see how many lights were out there shining back at us, and Brian and I were glad we'd changed from our sandals to shoes. After that, we went in search of something a little bigger. Walking over to the billabong next to our campground he started systematically moving his big flashlights back and forth across the water surface. Eventually our patience was rewarded when two much larger red dots reflected back at us. Crocodile! It was a little creepy to watch it silently glide across the water's surface and then submerge. And even creepier thinking how close this was to our campsite. (That tent was looking better and better by the minute).
This wasn't our first encounter with crocs on the trip though. We actually started out the weekend by going on an AMAZING JUMPING CROC CRUISE [sounds better said with the monster truck announcer guy's voice]. This involved getting in a boat and cruising up and down the East Alligator River (the early explorers had their reptile taxonomy a little confused...) and watching the scarily numerous crocs sunning themselves on the bank or floating in the river while listening to painfully inane commentary.
From time to time a croc (recognizing that this was the snack-mobile) would approach the boat and a crewmember would dangle a hunk of buffalo meat over the side. The idea was to lift the meat just as the croc lunged, causing it to jump out of the water for better photo ops and tourist viewing. While cheesy, it was also very impressive. One of the crocs in particular was huge and gave a great menancing eye as he floated next to our water-level seats. (Let's just say that this was one river you would NOT want to fall into). All in all, the experience left us with a greater respect for (not to mention fear of) the animals, though I have to agree with a lady we met later who said she wouldn't patronize those tours as she "didn't believe it was a good idea to train crocodiles to jump".
More adventures to come from Kakadu as our internet time allows...
Becca
Monday, August 14, 2006
Kakadu Part 1: Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
No more complaining here....
Over the past few weeks both on the site and in emails to various friends and family, we'd be complaining about our lot in life. You know, world travel is so rough, we're ready to be home, we're really tired, etc. Although we garnered zero sympathy from the peanut gallery (all usually responding from their cubicles) it was getting tough; we were just running out of gas and being on the more touristy East Coast of Australia were having a difficult time just finding a place to relax and recharge our batteries.
Thankfully in our final two weeks in Australia, we found that place. (Thanks SO much to Karla and Darren for the recommendation!) We contemplated actually not mentioning it because we were amazed a place could be so close to the mainland and easy to get to, and yet be so underdeveloped and scarcely populated. But in the end, it's really worth mentioning...
Come closer so that we can at least whisper it: Great Keppel Island.
Didn't catch that? Okay, we'll repeat it; we just don't want the place to get too crowded and popular: Great Keppel Island
We spent the last four plus days here. Had we not already had a plane reservation for Brisbane it would have been more. It quickly became one of our favorite places on the trip if only for the reason that we were able to actually achieve that elusive total relaxation, spending our time walking the beach, sea-kayaking, throwing a disc on the beach, reading a book or playing cards on the deck of our tent and generally doing nothing. Pretty much everything we hope our pit stop in Fiji provides us; it will be interesting to see if it can compare.
So finally we found some relaxation in the busy homestretch of this trip. In short, we're recharged and ready to try our hands at tackling the surf of Byron Bay.
Brian
East Coast Swing...
For many people, traveling through Australia means doing the backpacker circuit on the East Coast, usually starting in either Melbourne or Sydney and going up through to Cairns with maybe a trip to the Outback as part of the trip. Nine years ago, I did just that. In doing this, you take in three major highlights along the Queensland coast: Fraser Island, The Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsundays. For us, the East Coast was actually a bit of an afterthought in our planning of Australia: we'd really focused on getting a chance to reconnect with my friends in Melbourne and Sydney as well as have the opportunity to really embrace the middle, both the red (Outback) and green (Darwin and Kakadu) parts. In fact, our East Coast portion of the trip was going to have the least amount of time out of all the areas we were to visit.
As a result, we had to make some decisions. In short, goodbye Whitsundays (too expensive and too far up the coast) a brief visit to Fraser Island and a proper day trip out to the reef.
First stop was the town of Hervey Bay, the launching point for Fraser Island. Most budget travelers do the self-guided tour where between 7-9 backpackers get thrown together, are given a 4wd and a map and let loose on the Island for three days. Due to a number of factors, we elected to bypass that option and do the more touristy but far less stressful one day trip to the island. It would still allow us to see the highlights and not worry about having someone else's driving send a major dent into our credit card.
We set off for the Island with our tour guide Sally and 38 of our closest friends in a styling 4wd bus. Fraser Island (click on the link for lots more info on the island) is the world's largest sand island, stretching 123km north to south and averaging 15km wide. It's also listed as a world heritage location for both the geological history of the island (the vegetation and the ongoing changes associated with the sand) as well as for the numerous lake systems that are plentiful on Fraser.
Unfortunately, following us to the island was the torrential downpour that had been going on throughout the night. Thankfully though it elected to play nice with what would be the highlight of the day, Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is a type of perched dune lake. These lakes form in the sand dunes when a depression in the sand fills with decaying organic material. The organic material forms a type of cemented sand that does not allow the water to flow through. Subsequent rain fills these depressions leading to fresh water lakes that are crystal clear. (amazing what you can learn from a handout, eh?)
I'd remembered Lake McKenzie from my previous visit to Fraser; the white sand beaches and crystal blue waters are hard to forget. On this day though the water was a bit more green-grey due to the clouds and occasional drizzle. Sadly enough it was the nicest weather we'd have all day. As you can see though, the crystal clear beauty of the lakes even make our travel worn feet look good. Becca braved the elements to wade in. Once that didn't prove too painful she elected to keep herself dry (and warm) on top with shirt and raincoat but enjoy the lake on bottom with bathing suit. Last time I saw she was headed out across the lake.
The rest of the day was as good as it could be given the conditions. It POURED buckets the rest of the day and despite that we pretty dry (when we weren't walking in and out of the water, wading down Eli Creek, etc.). We enjoyed driving down the main 'highway' on the island: Seventy-Five Mile beach and we even got to see one of the famous Fraser Island dingos. Our pit stops at Pile Valley (putting the rain in rain forest), the Coloured Sands, Maheno Wreck and Eli Creek (where walking down the creek was warmer than being on land) were great viewing though tempered by the conditions.
Not so great viewing was Becca and I being subjected to a massively obese Aussie couple and their two kids. Their kids were absolute prats, and we were subjected to Dad's non-underwear wearing... space while eating lunch (and going for seconds and thirds) -- not the type of natural scenery we had planned. Overall though even with the conditions it was just about the right amount of time at Fraser for us. The weather gods even had a bit of fun with us as when we were taking the ferry back over to Hervey Bay we were treated to our first clear sky of the day...
We had dinner that night with our friend Thorsten aka The Merc and shared our travel adventures post Outback. He was headed back to Melbourne pretty much straightaway, leading to the health concerns and mental sanity issues that arise when being on the bus for something like 30-40 hours. During our dinner though, he offered to let us borrow his swank mask and snorkel for our trip to the reef. This ended up being a huge gift that we were quite thankful for down the road.
Our next stop were the tiny towns of Agnes Waters and 1770, our launching point to Lady Musgrave Island and the Great Barrier Reef. We had chose this location due to the fact that it was off the major tourist track and gave us a chance to see the reef in a closer in location. As with most of our trips in Australia, it involved another tour (because really are YOU going to rent your own boat, snorkel equipment, etc.?) but one that had us confident that we'd get a good experience.
Our boat ride out was a bit... dodgy. The captain had promised a smooth ride out to the snorkel site but instead we got a two hour ride that was very choppy at best. We had double digit people using their barf bags downstairs (the Chinese tour group being the majority of the victims) and Becca and I wishing we hadn't had our muesli bars and yogurt for breakfast.
We got out to the tour's designated pontoon and over the next five hours did a few different stints in the water snorkeling amongst the reef, took in a tasty lunch (including another shot at prawn sandwiches), did a 30 minute tour of the island itself (named after the wife of the Queensland governor whose claim to immortality was that she gave good tea parties for politicians at the capital) and just generally soaked in the beautiful surroundings and views.
The one disappointment was the reef itself. From the locations where we snorkeled, the reef looked a bit... tired. There's no other good way to describe it. We'll have pictures up from here and Fiji when we get back to the States but it just lacked some of the striking colors you expect from the famous Barrier reef. In talking to people though it sounds like part of that may be due to our decision to snorkel; evidently the sharp colors are in the outer reef where only the divers go.
For me that was just fine; I'm not the strongest swimmer in the best of times but thanks to Thorsten's nice equipment I had one less thing to worry about as I floated along the water trying my best to a) enjoy the scenery and b) convince myself that having my head face down in the water was ok. (Since Becca was more comfortable in the water she got to deal with the leaky rental masks and snorkel.) Again, I'm no Ian Thorpe. And putting me in a diving suit is going to happen about the same time I convince my brother to run a marathon.
In all though it was worth the trip. The ride back was a lot smoother and both of us enjoyed the experience enough that we'll try to snorkel a bit more when we get to Fiji. For us though the trip out to the reef was a major milestone. It was truly the last "tourist" place to go/thing to do on the trip. The rest of the way we are just... being. To finish up on the Reef and Fraser Island though was a great experience. Just enough of the backpacker route to see the highlights but not too much as to get burned out/tired of the life. Less than two weeks to go until we hit American soil...
Brian
Friday, August 11, 2006
Things overheard in the Outback...
"My name is Sebastian. Like the happy crab in Little Mermaid"
-Sebastian introducing himself
"It's Brokeback Mountain!"
-Wei Leng in response to a picture taken of Thorsten and Sebastian and their matching bush ranger hats.
"Look, it's Dr. Who!"
-Our friendly, less-than-sober Queenslander at first sight of Sebastian in the William Creek Pub. All three of us who'd heard of Dr. Who were in disbelief that we hadn't made the connection first.
"Oohh! Oohh! I take video!"
-Seh Leng after catching Drew taking a bathroom break on the side of the road by the Dingo Fence.
"I have good news and bad news"
-Brian to Becca after losing my wedding ring in the hot springs.
"I got it! This was easy!"
-Wei Leng after getting a math sequence that made the rounds in the truck. To be fair, she got it without a hint but it did take her three days to do it, making the easy part a little less believable.
"Big Rock"
-Thorsten upon seeing Uluru.
"Dancing and drinking"
-Chu in response to Brian's inquiry as to what she liked best about South Korea
"Mind weak, body strong"
-Seh Leng's reasoning for not walking quicker to catch sunset at Uluru.
"Michelle"
-Seh Leng, Wei Leng, Jenny and Becca's answer to Chu's query as to the definition of scatterbrained.
"We are the champions... we are the champions"
-The back of the bus singing along to Queen on our way to the Western MacDonnell ranges.
"I'm too full to dance" -Seh Leng
"You're too full! I'm the one who ate two meals!" -Chu
-Exchange overheard on the dance floor the final night after Che had eaten a plate of lamb shanks and a big bowl of Laksa, hit the dance floor and didn't stop until 2:30 am and only then when the place closed down.
"Do brown and blue go together?"
-Elena's fashion question to the group about halfway through the trip. The question did actually involve a brown shirt, not just any other random piece of clothing which had turned brown by this point.
and finally...
"Germans DO NOT like The Hoff"
-Thorsten's impassioned defense of German culture when David Hasselhoff came up. Sorry Thorsten but by referring to him as "The Hoff" me thinks you might be hiding something...
Brian & Becca
Outback Part 5: Canyons, Big Macs and too much techno
(In order to keep the Outback story from becoming an opus of Cervantes-esque length, we've elected to split the up the ten day adventure into five two day stories for your reading pleasure. Here is the final installment. Hope you've enjoyed it!)
The penultimate day of the journey meant our hardest hike of the trip: doing the hike around Kings Canyon. The hike was supposed to take three and a half hours. Not surprisingly our photo-happy group finished up in about four hours.
The Canyon itself was formed as an after effect of an inland sea that existed 200-400 million years ago. There are still pieces of the sea's existence visible, the best example being the Garden of Eden. In it is a variety of plants and trees, including a fern that is 150-200 million years old. Beautiful stuff and one of the true quality resting places on the trip. Especially so for Becca who'd finally reached her fill of watching people crawl and walk out to the edges of the canyon (despite the fact that she gave it a go herself). I'd give her more grief about it except for the fact that I spent a good half an hour making sure Chu didn't walk her way off a particularly dicey edge.
Our trip towards the Western MacDonnell ranges suited our collective mood. Smooth with the occasional bump here and there. For the most part though the mood was one of a group that was just about done. We gotten through the rough parts and were on the home stretch. Hence behaviour like group singing at full bore in the back as we rattled our way to our campsite. Who says life in the outback is so rough after all?
The final morning of the trip started the way any camping day should: a full cooked breakfast, complete with eggs, bacon and hash browns on toast. I was in heaven since breakfast in Commonwealth countries usually involved baked beans, a definite non-starter for this traveler. I'd rather have the damn deep fried spider I tried in Cambodia again...
Actually, the food on the trip has been fantastic. A little too fantastic as all of us ended gaining a few kilos. Expecting your basic bland campfire food, we instead were pigging out on Indian (Butter Chicken), Thai (green curry), Southwestern (burritos), midwestern comfort food (tuna cassorole), Aussie fusion (Kangaroo goulash, or 'roolash') and more. Drew was a master of campfire technique, and secret ingredients and we all took turns stirring the sautes and the sauces. (In addition to being a required chore, it was a good way to stay warm on cold nights!)
A pit stop at Gosse Bluff gave folks a chance to see what sort of formation results from a meteorite hitting 200-300 million years ago. From there we found finally found sealed road again and the Glen Helen Gorge. Part of the group took flights over the Finke River (the oldest river in Australia) while the rest of us tested out our rock skipping skills in the river itself. A nice relaxing venture while the other folks were flying around the gorge.
After folks got done playing Junior Birdman, we made our final stop of the trip: Ormiston Gorge and Pound. Just beautiful views, a nice hour or so walk and a swimming hole that on a warmer day would have been tempting. Today though it was filled with kids on school holiday and dead fish. Yep, dead fish. Evidently in this area the fish stress out over the rise in water temperature, allowing a bacteria to grow in their gills that eventually leads to their death. They were also present in the Finke River as well, making for an extra degree of difficulty while skipping the rocks.
After lunch and the obligatory filling out of trip ratings, Drew drove like a man who knew he had a rum and coke waiting for him in Alice, prompting a few of us to heckle him about changing his safety rating.
With that though we arrived in Alice Springs and the end point of our trip. With the end point came a glorious, glorious shower (especially important for me as I'd failed to take advantage of the two available on the trip and had reached a particularly high stank saturation point) and a night out on the town. After over 3000 kilometers on the road and being half way around the world we arrived in the center of the Australian Outback to...
...have dinner at a US country-western themed bar, complete with peanut shells on the floor and live web-broadcasts. We were disappointed to realize that the time difference meant that no one would be awake at home to a) see us on the web cam or b) buy us drinks via the internet. (We did get to watch Jenny and Michelle receive song dedications and messages from friends and families in England and Holland.) We still had a great time though as the group had one last outing together, complete with peanut shell fights, huge plates of food (with Chu blowing us all away by putting away two full meals), plenty of drinks and a even a bit of nightclub dancing, complete with WAY too much techno. I mean unhealthy amounts of techno with the occasional DRINK MORE and GET DRUNK signs popping up on the video screens. Well, most people danced; anyone that saw me at our wedding knows I stayed FAR clear of the dance floor.
Overall the trip was an amazing experience. We were certainly worried at the start whether ten days would be too long. In fact it was just about the max we could do as part of a group. But thanks to Sebastian, Seh Ling, Wei Leng, Thorsten, Michelle, Jenny, Chu, Drew and Elena it went heaps better than we could have ever imagined. To get to see parts of the Outback that most people never even dream about with a great group made this one of the highlights of the trip. For us the defining image of this trip will be waking up in the mornings that we camped in the wilderness. Nothing around but the sunrise starting another amazing day in the Outback.
Brian
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Outback Part 4: The Rock
(In order to keep the Outback story from becoming an opus of Cervantes-esque length, we've elected to split the up the ten day adventure into five two day stories for your reading pleasure. Here is part four. Enjoy!)
The big rock. One of the most anticipated sights (for me at least) of the trip. Waiting was the hardest part though as we had to pass Mt. Conner (aka Fooluru), visit the shops and have lunch at the Cultural Center before visiting the big rock itself.
Just under nine years ago I came to visit Uluru and this area. I remember it for its other worldly feel and what a profound impact it had on me as a person. It is a spot that in my mind makes one appreciate one's spot in the world. That you are just a part of a much, much larger thing. What that larger thing is is in the eye of the beholder.
It turns out all of that time away hasn't diminished those feelings at all. It still for me remains an emotionally important place. For that I'm terribly thankful.
I just wish I could feel the same way about the situation of the Aborigines. Drew's stories of the pressures they are under to keep Uluru open (in some cases in open defiance of their laws and traditions) so that money-bringing tourists can climb the rock and how much of their culture has been pillaged is both depressing and disgusting. They do have ownership of the land once again but the cost seems very, very extreme.
Our experience was (hopefully) a good balance of curious tourism and respect. Shunning the thrill-seeking (and in my mind, selfish and thoughtless) folks heading up the rock, we set off on a nine kilometer hike around the base. Drew led us for the first kilometer or so, providing us with information on some of the sacred sites and on the geology, and then peeled off to have some quality time with his dune buggy mags while we hoofed it the rest of the way around the hot, dry track. It was a photographer's dream (or nightmare!). Every corner, every next view brought more cools sights that we all burned up our memory cards (though as usual Thorsten was taking pics at a 10-1 ratio). So many different colors, shapes, textures and pictures give you a sense of a million little pieces making up the greater being. In fact, we took so long taking pictures that we almost didn't get back around in time to head off to catch sunset from the viewpoint.
Sunset was what sunset always is at Uluru: an unique experience. Watching the colors of Uluru change as the sun departed reminded me of what a special place this is. And sipping champagne (even in plastic mugs) with new friends just added to the experience. It's a difficult place to get to (Uluru is 400 km from Alice Springs though you can now evidently fly into the resort of Yulara as well) but well worth it for anyone making the trip to Oz. It really meant a lot to me to show this to Becca and have her experience such an amazing place and I'm just glad I had the opportunity to experience it again.
Day eight started very, very early for us: a 5:30 am wake up call to catch sunrise at a location that gave us both views of Kata Tjuta (aka the Olgas) as well as Uluru one last time. Our lack of sleep was rewarded with a plethora of colors. Of course the same lack of sleep caught up with us later as we hiked the Valley of the Winds. I hadn't remembered whether I'd actually done this hike on my previous trip until I saw this view and then it all came back. This time around though I was happy to be hiking it in 20-25 degree Celsius temps vs. the 45 degrees it was last time around. Becca especially liked this hike. Something about the views kept a smile permanently on her face (that is when she wasn't mother henning Chu for not bringing any water).
One thing struck me the most about our hike through the Valley of the Winds: the contrasts inherent in the Outback. These massive large imposing dry rock formations set off by the very green eucalyptus trees and other bush surviving at their base, all working together to create a striking color balance. This was especially the case at Kata Tjuta and was all the more impressive given the lack of a permanent water source in the area. The Aborigines were truly impressive to have lived (and in some cases continue to do so) in such a harsh environment. We think we have it rough living out of the back of a 4WD for ten days...
We left the area happy to have seen the All-Stars of the Outback. Despite my strong feelings towards Uluru however, we found ourselves already missing the deep bush with its big empty spaces, little human interaction and just pure emptiness. Two more days left in the voyage: Kings Canyon and the West MacDonnell ranges separate us from Alice Springs. In many ways we're disappointed to be so close to the end but we're both also looking forward to a proper shower and clean clothes. :-)
Brian
btw... I'm convinced Seh Ling and Wei Leng are standing on something in that picture. No way they're that tall. :-)
Monday, August 07, 2006
Outback Part 3: Hot water and pink roadhouses
(In order to keep the Outback story from becoming an opus of Cervantes-esque length, we've elected to split the up the ten day adventure into five two day stories for your reading pleasure. Here is part three. Enjoy!)
First things first: Becca absolutely bailed my behind out at Dalhousie Hot Springs, our halfway point of the trip. I was already enjoying the warm waters of the hot springs and went to place Becca's beer (yes, we know this is a rough life) in a safe place on the shore. Right before the edge I slipped and put my left hand down in the water to catch myself. As I pulled it back out of the water, I felt a yoink!. I promptly looked at Thorsten and had the following exchange:
Me: "Crap."
Thorsten: "What?"
Me: "I just lost my wedding ring in the water"
Thorsten: "Oh..." (stealthily swims away to join the rest of the group)
After a few minutes of frantic searching on my part and Drew trying to convince me to put off the search until nighttime when the ring would show up better via flashlight, Becca arrived, allowing me to have the following conversation:
Me: "I have good news and bad news. Good news is the water is great and here's your beer."
Becca: "Can you wait a sec until I'm in the water?"
Me: "Bad news is I just lost my wedding ring."
Becca: "Okay....well.... let me come help look."
No riot act, no nothing. In fact she did more than just help. As I thrashed around the area more than likely burying it further, she ran back to the truck, got a flashlight and plunged in in search of the missing ring.
After about five minutes of feeling around blindly in the muck and in what could only be described as a Gollum-like moment, she stuck her hand again into the mud and amazingly pulled it out of the water with the ring around her finger. Yes, she had bulls-eyed the ring. Crisis amazing averted and I safely put the ring on my other (bigger) ring finger until we got out of the pool. As if my wife didn't have enough talents, I guess treasure hunter can now be added to the list.
The springs were really nice, otherwise. A fantastic place to watch sunset and (even better) sunrise, as long as you didn't mind small fish nibbling on various parts of your body. The really gung-ho members of the group also added a late night star-gazing dip, but we were happy to be old cold fogies and hang out by the fire and snuggle into our wam swags.
The hot springs in the end were a welcome relief and a good respite between two very long days. Day five started with our first real hike of the trip: a little steep hike that gave us views of the Painted Desert. The physical exertion gave a quality reward: views that were quite colorful in the morning light (due to the having been created over millions of years into today's combination of sandstone, siltstone, clay stone and silcrete) and made the hills stand out from the desert in the distance.
From there we rattled into Oodnadatta, visiting the two hot spots: the Pink Roadhouse and the Oodnadatta Medical Clinic, which serves as a Flying Doctors Clinic outpost. The Pink Roadhouse (and yes, despite the picture it was all pink) is an icon and bit of an institution: a gas station/mechanic/post office/supply shop/canoe rental/restaurant/hotel. In short what any place you find in the Outback has to be. Everything for everyone.
The Medical Clinic in many ways serves the same role. The work they do up here dealing with everything from Aboriginal health issues to wayward travelers to education on how to avoid accidents on the Outback roads is truly yeoman's work. In fact, the English nurse that gave us the tour recommends that younger folks only work up here for no more than two years at a time, fearing burnout otherwise. An interesting issue to have in a quiet town like Oodnadatta.
On the way to the hot springs we hit the ruins of the Dalhousie settlements, which made us rub our eyes a couple of time to be sure we weren't seeing things. Fed by the same aquifers that power the nearby hotsprings, this farmstead was like the stereotypical desert oasis, with date palms, reeds, and pools. The rich green colors were quite a change after all the reds of the Outback.
Day six was the big ugly. 500km plus of travel with almost all of it being on unsealed roads. Conversation was a bit more at a premium today; instead people find peace more in their books and sudoku puzzles or gave up and napped. The only real highlight of the day was having lunch at the geographical center of Australia. The mark is commemorated by a funky flag pole and a guest book that everyone signed. Plus a few of us took advantage of the location to run 'around' Australia. For such a herculean effort I felt surprisingly spry. :-)
Today was our official introduction into the Northern Territory. Tomorrow brings Uluru. The big rock. The part of the trip that everyone in so many ways has been waiting for. Hope that like Melbourne previously it lives us to the impressions it made on me nine years ago.
Brian
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Outback Part 2: Crazy people in the outback
(In order to keep the Outback story from becoming an opus of Cervantes-esque length, we've elected to split the up the ten day adventure into five two day stories for your reading pleasure. Here is part two. Enjoy!)
The theme of day three was what happens when you spend too much time by yourself in the Outback.
First stop: the new Federation of Australia populated by Cornelius (aka Talc Alf) and Mr. Bojangles. Cornelius pontificated for quite a while on his theories regarding the alphabet, and all the meanings inherent in their shapes and history. As Drew mentioned/warned us before he started his spiel, the guy has some crazy and interesting ideas on languages. Certainly an eccentric fellow but to some members of our group he was even more important: he had the 2-0 score line that sent our German contingent into a funk and Germany out of the World Cup.
Lunch was in Maree and was only of note because we crossed paths with the Groovy Grape bus (a bus tour of the Outback). They had a small group (two Swiss women and three US college women's lacrosse players who put the nox in obnoxious) who were already getting on the nerves of the guide to the point of him threatening to leave them in the desert. We'd see them a few more times over the next few days. We also met a man who was walking his camels across the desert. Why? No reason why really just because. Again, a little too much sun goes a long way.
We had a warning about what kind of country we were entering though as we left Maree. This kind of a sign definitely gives off a "don't mess with me" vibe.
Right, back to the crazy people. Our next stop was a sculpture park in the middle of the Outback, near Alberrie Creek. Evidently a group of locals and an artist from Melbourne use the sculptures as a protest towards the Uranium mining in the area as well as at one point a spot for a rave. Odd sculptures (airplanes on their tail, a funky dream catcher, etc.) but impressive when we found out from Drew that they were all built by the one sculpture without any help. As you can tell by the pictures, to do that takes a lot of time and some serious focus. Or to be slightly off-kilter.
The one semi-normal stop of the day was lower Lake Eyre (or Lake Eyre South). At 1250 square kilometers and 12 meters below sea level, it's an impressive example of a salt lake (or salt flat, currently). Well, it would be except for the fact that upper Lake Eyre checks in at 8500 square kilometers and 16 meters below sea level. Leaving the truck perched high on a dune over looking the lake (Drew subsequently gave us all heart failure careening down off said dune.) we headed out crunchily across the lake. It was a cool feeling to walk across the crispy salt encrusted top. Now try to imagine that that underneath the salt and mud are fish that hatch and reproduce when the lake fills up every 12-18 months. As Becca says, "Science is cool."
Off-kilter continued as a theme for the evening as we took in a few drinks at the William Creek Hotel. We all took in a few pints as we mixed with various groups passing through (including the Groovy Grapers who were getting even closer to being dumped by their guide...can a leader mutiny on his troops??). My own personal lowlights were getting punked telling a joke to a 10 year old (him giving the punch line three words in... little brat) and nearly getting chased out of the bar for putting on Johnny Cash (but not so for putting on Gorillaz). Oh and a drunk Queenslander pointed out Sebastian's similarity to Dr. Who, causing those of us who knew of Dr. Who to be kicking ourselves for not thinking of it first.
We're not sure if it was the beer or the slightly warmer temps (nighttime clocked in at a balmy four degrees Celsius) but day four started with a solid night's sleep and waking up to beautiful purple and yellow hues brightening up the flat outback skyline.
After a lazy morning (involving SHOWERS!!! One of only two opportunities and very exciting to most of the crew) we headed off for a solid morning of driving on the flat red roads of the Central Outback. Our one brief stop was at the Dingo Fence (a 9300 km fence protecting the cattle of South Australia) which provided some entertainment not only in photo ops but also in the antics of our own energizer bunny twins: Wei Leng and Seh Ling. In this instance the hilarity ensued in part from the fact that their feet were so small they couldn't actually get across the cattle grate (and was helped along by Seh Ling's efforts to capture Drew's nature break with her video camera).
Photo ops taken, we plugged ahead to the mostly underground town of Cooper Pedy. Cooper Pedy is the Opal capital of the world and in terms of a wild west feel and hazards makes Phnom Penh look like a small town Americana. Their active use of dynamite seems to be now limited to their claims though we did hear stories of it being used on competitors' claims, rival restaurants, police cars and even the competitors themselves.
Our visit was quite a bit more peaceful. We had some time to explore town (we checked out the underground bookstore and the only underground pokies in the world) before meeting up with the group again to take a tour of the Umoona Opal Mine and the model of the town's unique underground homes. (It's so hot you can't really (or wouldn't want to) live on the surface).
Mining in Cooper Pedy is best described as gambling. There is no way to scientifically find Opal so it's mainly just people digging in random places trying to get rich. A result of this is that people are not allowed to drill for Opal in town. Instead people file for "housing extensions" and hope for the best. One house in Cooper Pedy has 21 rooms and has evidently found enough Opal to pay for it.
Impressive but I'm fully expecting the town to collapse upon itself any day now. In the meantime, the coolest part of the town (and the tour) has to be the rooms they showed us. The walls were treated in a way that meant there was no work to be done on it. I like the low maintenance houses. Of course to change wiring looked like it would take a jackhammer to do so. Not so good. Never mind thinking what might happened if your roof caved in...
With those claustrophobic images in my mind, we headed off into a glorious sunset to spend the night under the stars in the Simpson Desert. I'd much rather take my chances with the scorpions and snakes than a rouge Opal trader who's spent a bit too much time in the scorching sun of the Outback...
Brian
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
out of touch..
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Outback Part 1: Isn't the Outback supposed to be warm?
(In order to keep the Outback story from becoming an opus of Cervantes-esque length, we've elected to split the up the ten day adventure into five two day stories for your reading pleasure. Here is part one. Enjoy!)
The day started early. Too early for Becca and me as we were packed and waiting inside our hostel waiting area in Adelaide at 6:30am in anticipation for the trip to start. We still weren't quite sure if the trip was such a good idea (10 days with 9 other people can be a LONG time) but we were jumping in feet first. Waiting with us outside was someone in a ranger hat and full backpack chowing away at Subway tuna sub. This was Thorsten, the first of our fellow trip mates we were to meet.
Here's a brief description of our fellow travelers for the next ten days:
Thorsten: (26) German doing a brief working stint in Geelong before heading back to Germany for his PhD. Also a budding photographer and fan of the footy.
Seh Ling: (21) From Singapore and currently studying speech pathology in Melbourne. Razor sharp wit and not afraid to use it.
Wei Leng: (21) Also from Singapore and currently studying speech pathology in Melbourne. Equally sharp wit but a bit kinder in her use of it. Pathologically (and hysterically funnily) afraid of dogs, from rottweilers to chihuahuas
Chu: (21) South Korean currently in Adelaide studying English for ten weeks before heading home
Elena: (17) Swiss-German spending part of her senior year of HS studying in Australia.
Sebastian: (24) German studying Computer Science in Australia
Michelle: (21) Dutch girl who'd just finished up a work program with a travel agency in Sydney before heading back to the Netherlands to finish university.
Jenny: (27) Our token Pom (UK) who'd just finished up teaching math in Sydney and was coming close to finishing her year in Australia with an eye towards sticking around.
Drew: (35) Our fearless leader was a native Australian, Adelaide born and bred. Been doing the route for about 4 years now. Had a wicked sense of humor and his own sense of fashion.
In short, four men and seven women encompassing eight countries thrown together to spend the next ten days and 3,150 kms together in the back of a 4WD. Sound like fun?
After signing all the necessary paperwork and picking up our sleeping bags and swags, we were off. Day one involved a fair amount of driving as we were doing our best to put Adelaide behind us and get into the Flinders Ranges, with our final stop for the night being Warren Gorge. We got to the Gorge in time to do a short (but steep!) walk to the rock pinnacle above our camp. In addition to the exercise and nice views, we got to see a number of rare yellow footed rock wallabies and some emus.
When we set up camp Drew warned us to fold over our swags for two reasons: 1) it was supposed to get cold (three to four below Celsius) the next two nights (see picture above) and 2) it made it more difficult for scorpions, spiders and the like to climb into our swags to stay warm. With those two comforting thoughts in mind, we tucked into dinner and then our swags for a nice night of sleep out in the stars.
Morning came with me quickly realizing I'd lost the swag lottery. Evidently there were two small-sized swags and despite the fact that I was the second tallest person in the group (excluding Drew who has his own king sized swag) I ended up in a midget swag, leaving my sleeping bag, swag and part of my face frosted as well as short on sleep after trying to sleep at a 45 degree angle most of the night. Needless to say during the day I was able to switch with Seh Ling (who checks in under five feet) and get a proper sized swag for the remainder of the trip. This was important, as proper swag technique in this sort of weather involves zipping it all the way up above your head and then flipping the flap over the open end to fully tuck yourself in at night.
Our second day brought visits to the town of Hawker, Wilpena Pound and more of the Flinders Ranges. All of these places gave us a great feel as to some of the varying terrains of the Outback. Wilpena Pound especially was an amazing site as the current formations are the remains (the outside edge/circumferance) of mountains that had been as high as 15km (over nine miles) high long, long ago. Just amazing stuff when you think about it from an ecological perspective. For a little more info on the area, check out this site.
Two days in, we were settling into the day to day life on the road. Dinners were getting cooked quicker (and were DELICIOUS), the cheese toasties at breakfast weren't ending up looking quite so cajun, the swags were getting folded a little neater (despite the bone chilling frost that made rolling them up a dicey prospect) and everyone was looking forward to getting into the "true" outback where hopefully the sub zero temps were a thing of the past. Our next stop? William Creek, population 3. Or 5; depending on how much seasonal help they get.
Brian
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Cricket redux
So... a bit of a retraction is necessary. Yesterday I couldn't suppress a snore as I said I was heading off to watch cricket with Brian for the day. Well, it still wouldn't be my first choice for an every weekend activity, but I actually quite enjoyed myself and learned a ton.
This was greatly helped by being taken under the wings of Pete and Paula, some of the team parents of the Waratah cricket club. Their sons are playing on the highest (A) level team, and they were happy to share their knowledge (and behind the scenes gossip) with some interested Americans. We watched 6.5 hours of cricket on Saturday (yes, I love my husband that much) and I was treated to quite a show. Though it wasn't top-level cricket (like Test level matches between various countries) it was pretty decent, and I actually got to see all kinds of cool cricket moments (while of course eating the obligatory meat pie). For those who actually know the game and/or care, those included someone scoring a century, a bowler taking 6 wickets, someone getting bowled out for a golden duck, a team going all out for 319 runs, and in total almost 400 runs and 11 wickets in a day. (ed. that's a lot of runs for a day's play) And yes, I did have trouble keeping a straight face while writing that last sentence.
We enjoyed ourselves enough that this morning we headed over to another Oval to watch the Waratah under-17's finish up the first half of their match. Pete and Paula's youngest son (who at 15 already has made the A-level team) also plays for the young guys. When we got there he was just pushing towards a double century. Unfortunately, at 195 he was bowled out by an LBW. (Leg before wicket). And yes, I actually know what I'm talking about.
We got into the team enough to plan on following their results this season on the internet and we left as honorary Waratah Cricket Club fans, complete with official caps.
While it's not exactly a sport to take the unconverted by storm, it is a nice relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon. I'm glad I tried it.
Becca
Friday, July 21, 2006
Reason 139 Why We Like Australia
When asking at the hostel desk whether or not it was allowed to bring alcohol to a beach popular for sunset viewing we were told:
"Actually, i highly recommend it."
Off to see a local cricket match today (Brian has made sure that I've seen footy (Aussie rules), rugby union, and cricket live. Add in all the saltwater crocs we ran into in Kakadu and I'm feeling like a real Aussie). For those of you who don't know cricket, think baseball with less action. Zzzzzzzzzzz. At least it'll give me an opportunity to work on writing some of the blog entries and other to-dos).
We've been chilling in Darwin for a few days after our Kakadu trip (and yes, hopefully we will get entries on that and the Outback posted soon). We highly recommend the Darwin museum. It's free and has lots of great and informative exhibits on natural history, wildlife, and aboriginal art. We don't recommend going to see a movie here. It's extortionate highway robbery. The Mindil Beach Markets are pretty cool too.Tomorrow night we take the red eye to Brisbane and head north up the coast on Monday. Once we've figured out our plans we'll let you know.
Hopefully more soon.
Becca
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Putting the TOUR in Tourist
(And see entry below for hot camel cup action!)
One of the things we're having a hard time adjusting to in the latter part of our Australia visit is having to become Tourists (with a capital T-O-U-R). For most of the past 13 months we have been traveling and sightseeing fairly independently. We would take a bus or train or other form of public transportation to get to a place and then we'd explore it on our own time. There have only been a very few times (2 in Laos, 2 in Vietnam, 1 in China, 1 in New Zealand) where we have done a tour in order to get to places that either a) we couldn't connect by public transportation, b) weren't allowed to go into by ourselves, or c) didn't have the technical skills or social/language contacts to visit by ourselves.
Our most recent travel experience in New Zealand was as independent as we've been: it was just us and our car going where we chose when we chose and doing what we chose. Central/Northern/Eastern Australia, on the other hand has been, and will continue to be, a very different experience. Whether because you need certain permits to access protected or Aboriginal-held lands, advanced 4-WD handling skills, knowledge of how/where to avoid being eaten by crocodiles, lots of camping equipment, or access to a boat, almost everything we want to do/see here is requiring a tour.
Check it out:
- Adelaide to Alice Springs camping in the middle of nowhere outback: TOUR
- Hiking/swimming in Kakadu Park (and avoiding crocs): TOUR
- 4WDing/camping on Fraser Island: TOUR
- Heading out to the Great Barrier Reef to dive/snorkel: TOUR
- Sailing around the Whitsunday Islands: TOUR
This bums us out for many reasons. The most obvious is that it is so hideously more expensive that way and pretty much makes it impossible to keep to our budget. (It'll also probably mean that we will have to trim the above list). But also because in general we are wary of being thrown together with lots of other not-necessarily like-minded folks and being marched along according to someone else's schedule.
Actually, that being said we've been incredibly fortunate with the tours we've gone on. We've actually really enjoyed them all both for the experience, what we've seen and learned, and the interactions with our fellow travelers. But we've also been really really careful and picky looking for trips and have only selected ones that have very small group sizes, and are geared toward the sort of eco-touring we like to do. We'll obviously write more about it later, but our Outback tour turned out great and our group of 10 really bonded (despite 7 different nationalities and a 17 year age gap between oldest and youngest)
I think that's why we're so nervous about the upcoming trips. The groups will tend to be bigger, and they are definitely geared toward a more touristy cookie cutter type experience then we like. Plus we've noticed a definite lack of targeting of our demographic (are we that abnormal?). Our choices for tours in the north and on the east coast seem to either be trips that are active and roughing it and adventurous but that emphasize partying and craziness for young 20's crowd or they are sedate comfortable trips in coaches for the well-to-do. What about active tours for the late 20's - early 40's crowd who still want to get out there and rough it and experience things? I guess we're just doing this trip 10 years too late. Who am I kidding? I'm actually much less uptight now and able to enjoy the party crowd now than I was 10 years ago. Oh well.
We leave for the first of our being-nervous about trips tomorrow morning. The good news is that there will be at most 9 of us so size-wise it'll be good. But it looks like we may be the oldest by 10 years or more! Wish us luck (or earplugs). :-)
More from the Outback soon!
Becca
(Picture just a teaser from the Painted Desert during the Outback trip)
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Camel Cup Report
The Lions Club, the working girls of Minnie Made (this link isn't for kids or work for that matter) and camels. What do these three things have in common? All three have played a major role in one of Alice Springs' biggest controversies in one of their annual biggest events, the Imparja Camel Cup.
Becca and I hadn't realized there was so much controversy surrounding our choice of things to do on a Saturday afternoon. After we'd read about the fact that there was local Camel races, we elected to jerryrig our schedule a bit so we could hang around for the event itself. So what was the controversy that had everyone in such a stir?
There were veiled references to "pressure being applied", "a few narrow minded people", and "controversy emerge as well as a new major sponsor and committee" in the Presidents' Messages but the Phlegmington Cup message really says it all. It's a bit long and there will be a brief recap after it but it's well worth the read:
The citizens of Alice Springs are exhorted to fight like lions for the honour of the Camel Cup - and some working girls.
By god, I hope those lion-hearted Lions poohbahs in Alice Springs stick to their guns during this whole Camel Cup rumpy-pumpy brouhaha. It was bad enough when the last American ambassador felt his status as overlord of Dubya's most loyal satrapy entitled him to interfere with the doin's and goings-on of the ALP (Australia Labor Party). Now every toothless gimp from across the Pacific feels entitled to play sheriff every time they get a sniff of some't they don't rightly hold with a-happenin' and a-transpirin' down on the big ponderosa at the bottom of the globe. Somebody should tell these know-nuthin' know it alls that just because they can play banjo with their toes and surge half-a-dozen carrier battle groups into Sylvania Waters on 30 minutes notice, that doesn't give them the right to go fiddling with our Lions, our camels or our licensed knocking shops.
Because, somehow, some of them awoke recently labouring under just that delusion.
Every year the Lions Club of Alice Springs runs the Camel Cup, a charity event attracting thousands of punters, one Afghan ambassador and dozens of grumpy, foul-smelling dromedaries. The punters drink heavily, the ambassador grins maniacally and the camels hawk glistening wads of green phlegm on all comers without fear or favour.
Later in the day, some of them run off in all directions while being whipped by untrained idiots covered in beer and camel snot. This is the Imparja Camel Cup and is considered to be a highlight of the red centre's tourist calendar. It raises a pile of money which goes to local charities.
For the last four years, one of the sponsors of the cup has been an escort agency with the perplexing handle of Minnie Made. (You've gotta wonder, given those poor literacy standards we're always hearing about, whether a lot of blokes, who are just looking for a house cleaner, end up with some unexpected lovin' into the bargain.) Until this year, the camels and the hookers had lived in a comfortable symbiosis, but the registration in protest of race announcer Chris Tangey has thrown a spanner into that happy arrangement.
Mr. Tangey apparently objected to a family event being associated with a takeaway bordello and his concerns, rejected by Lions Club organizers, found a sympathetic hearing in the US.
A wind-up mouthpiece by the name of Dane LaJoye from the Lions Club International HQ and Deathstar in Oak Brook, Illinois wrote to his upstart colonial outpost complaining that Minnie's sponsorship was an outrage.
"I have spoken with our legal department [and]... the use of the Lions logo in association with something that undermines the moral values of a given community is not in keeping with the high standards of Lions Club International," he puffed.
To their credit, the Alice Springs Lions reacted with some measured outrage of their own, with big cat Keith McEwen roaring that if murderers can go to church and put money in the plate, Minnie's can sponsor their bloody camel. He also pointed out that all the newspapers fulminating about this issue took advertising from escort agencies, which isn't actually true, yet, but I'll be having a word with the ad guys later this week, so here's hoping.
It's hard to know who to blame for all this but... Actually, no it's not.
It's all John Howard's (ed. Current Australia Prime Minister) fault.
Perhaps if the PM had not gone to such lengths to create the impression in the American mind that Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Texas Incorporated, we might not have come to this juncture.
The camels would be running free. Minnie Made would be flat out. And a legion of morbidly obese mid-westerners in tasselled loafers, checkered rayon pants, and ill-fitting body shirts would not be heading our way in a fleet of wood-walled station wagons. Bibles in hand and dudgeon hight, to tell us how to run our camel races.
To the Lions of Alice Springs I say hold fast and prepare to receive the brutish foe. Do it for the hard-working girls of the legitimate small business that is Minnie Made. Do it for Australia. And most of all, do it for those noble ships in the desert, who are the innocent camel-meat in the giant novelty sandwich in this transpacific crisis.
Well-dressed Aussie women who've obviously just showed up: "Is this the Camel Cup? Where are all the camels?"Local standing next to us: "They'll run past us during the race"WDAW: "But wherre are they now? We came here to see camels"LSNTU: "Here, there and everywhere"
Friday, July 14, 2006
Shaking the red dust out of our boots
Just a quick note to let everybody know we made it through the Outback without being eaten by dingos or bitten by snakes. It was an absolutely amazing experience and we are overwhelmed by the number of pictures (though we only took 1/100th as many as Thorsten did!) and stories we have collected. Hopefully as we sift through them over the next week we'll be able to start sharing them with you.
We leave tomorrow night for Darwin where we'll soon be leaving on another (much shorter) 4wd camping trip to Kakadu National Park.
Until then, we just have one word for you: Camels!
Becca
Sunday, July 02, 2006
New Posts! Get your new posts here!
Just a quick check-in before we go off wine-tasting around Adelaide. We've spent a wonderfully relaxing couple of days hanging out with Darren and Karla, Aussies that we met in Vernazza (in the Cinque Terre) last October. It's amazing how well you can bond over Italian pastries, and they invited us to visit them when we got to this phase of the trip. It's been great getting to know them and we're looking forward to hopefully hosting them in the Pacific NW in a couple of years.
We've been busy putting up new posts and getting caught up on pictures. This was important because as of tomorrow we will be out of touch for the next 10 days. As Brian mentioned earlier we're going on an Outback expedition: using a 4wd vehicle (and knowledgeable guides) to get way out in the middle of nowhere in the red desert. It's cool to think we'll be places that most Australians will never see, and we're looking forward to the combination of harshness, beauty and strangeness that makes up the Outback. Hopefully we won't freeze too much at night and we'll be able to keep the spiders, snakes, and scorpions out of our bedding, and we will emerge again in Alice Springs with some great stories and pictures to share.
So until then, get caught up on the posts, peruse the pictures, and get out and enjoy July. See you on the 13th!
Becca
we'd love to come back to an inbox full of emails hint hint hint :-)
Going "home" again
Nine years ago I came to Melbourne for my first foray abroad. For three months Melbourne was my home; I lived and worked here and despite the foolishness of youth I felt like I'd gotten to know the city and in my later travels more of the country at large.
In looking back now I realize that I'd gained only a small tidbit of insight into this town. Thankfully age and more travel experience has taught me that that's ok. Our visit this time has enabled me to gain a little additional knowledge of the city and what it has to offer. Sure it's just a little but it's knowledge that is built upon and continues to transform my impressions of this wonderful city.
So much of the city is the same from my previous visit; the shadow of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) looming large, the various bustling stalls at the Queen Victoria Market, the clocks informing passengers of the trains leaving Flinders Street station and the night lights and night life along the Yarra River. With continuity comes change though: Federation Square and its funky architecture both stand out and somehow fit into the downtown landscape while the new Docklands development stands alone, desperately wanting to be included in the vibrant energy of the city but just not quite knowing how.
In the end though the city just continued to feel like home. I wish I could tell folks about the museums and art exhibits that make Melbourne the cultural capital of Australia. Instead all I can point to is the warm spot in my gut whenever I'm walking the Melbourne streets or even just thinking about my favorite city in the world. It doesn't have the tourist selling points like a Sydney or Paris. Instead its calling card is in its livability. Fantastic public transportation; high levels of culture and sport and a multicultural population that allows the city to continue to grow with the times. It's a metropolis that doesn't take itself too seriously and is widely regarded as the cultural and sporting capital of Australia.
All of this makes for a great quotes in a tourism brochure I'm sure. What really truly makes it my second home is the people; my "extended" family so to speak. Having the opportunity to reconnect with the Greens (Michael & Rita as well as Sarah, Catherine and the always entertaining Father Mikey) whom I lived with for my time in Melbourne and with my old boss Phil and his wife Margaret has made me again appreciate how lucky I am to have such friends halfway around the globe. It's also given me the opportunity to introduce them to Becca and show I suppose that I'm no longer the raw, inexperienced 22-year-old they got to know nine years ago. It was a great visit albeit too short. It's very tough to fit nine years worth of catching up into a week. Hopefully the time between visits won't be so long the next time around.
I always wondered whether I could go back "home" again. In some ways this was one of my most anticipated visits of the trip. I was both excited and anxious at the same time. Would the city hold up to my previous memories? Would Becca enjoy it given how endlessly I'd talked about it over the past 5 years? And most importantly, would having the chance to reconnect with everyone go well?
Thankfully after a week in my favorite metropolis in the world the answer is yes, you can go home again.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Musings on the third phase of the trip
Looking back we see that our trip divides very cleanly into three phases, corresponding to the three continents/areas that we have travelled in. Phase one was Europe. This was a time of learning about how we travelled together and what sort of things we needed to do to stay within our budget. It was characterized by many visits to close friends, lots of sightseeing of old buildings and art of historic/cultural value and hours and hours of walking through the streets of the European cities. Despite the fact that Ireland was the only official English speaking country we visited, language and communication were rarely an issue (not only because English is so widely understood but because we either spoke or quickly picked up a number of the languages). It was a relatively easy way to start travelling: low culture shock, high budget shock, low discomfort level and many familiar faces.
Phase two was Asia. This was different in almost every way. Nothing was familiar, the potential for discomfort was much greater, the budget pressures were much much lower, and though we did see famous "things" (monuments/buildings/temples/art), much more of the experience was just seeing the people and the way they lived and trying to interact and learn from them. Though it wasn't always fun, we always had the sense that this was 'really travelling' and it changed us in innumerable ways. Easily the most memorable part of the trip.
Phase three is Australiasia and the South Pacific: Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Especially after China it was such a change (and a bit of a relief) to arrive somewhere uncrowded, clean, full of natural beauty, and English speaking. If Europe was about seeing history and Asia was about seeing people/culture, then this phase of the trip is about seeing nature. And what glorious nature it has been and continues to be...
Surprisingly though, we're finding this to be the most difficult phase of the trip mentally. I think we sort of expected it to be smooth sailing once we left Asia and made it down here, but we're actually struggling quite a bit. A number of factors have led to that. The primary one is probably the fact that two weeks ago we hit the one year mark. It's funny, we didn't expect that to be that big of a deal but psychologically it appears to have taken quite a toll on us.
The second factor is the fact that we are starting to get a little more organized about and focused on life post-trip. So we are starting to work on our resumes, do research on potential employers, and start looking into neighborhoods and housing prices, and that means that we spend a lot more time thinking about home than we did earlier. Plus once you start making plans about how to approach things like selling and buying houses or job searching you start getting impatient to start implementing those plans.
The third factor was one we hadn't expected at all. But it turns out that after the extreme culture shock that is SE Asia and the sort of surroundings that you get used to (farm animals wandering across the road, cars driving every direction on the road, bargaining for everything, colorful markets, different languages, strange foods, etc. etc.) it just seems very ordinary travelling here. Combine that with scenery in NZ/OZ that looks remarkably like Oregon/NoCal and in some ways it doesn't really feel like we're world travelling anymore. We could just be in a really beautiful part of home. (Hopefully that feeling will change a bit when we head out into the Outback next week) So that also makes it seem like we should be home.
The end result of all of this is that we are really tired...mentally and physically...and it shows in everything we do: going for hikes, trying to plan trip logistics (transportation, lodging, etc.) for coming weeks, maintaining the blog. We are really, truly ready to come home. At the same time, we love this part of the world, are enjoying our visits, and are looking forward to all the parts yet to see. So maybe I should say instead that we will be really ready to come home.
Until then, here's to more adventures.
Becca
btw...to all those who knew me before the trip, yes that is me drinking beer. who woulda thunk?