I Saved This For A Rainy Day

May 30

Considering that it is snowing I decided to post this blog that I was saving for a rainy day. It is from the middle of January and was written about a very special place in Western Australia that I discovered, and got the biggest surprise of the trip. Here is the tale of my surprise enjoy.


January 15, 2010

Well, we have spent the last couple of days in a little place called Boyup Brook, a little town of about 800 people. And I would like to say somethings about this place. It is incredibly cool, and here is why. First off we came into town and hit the tourist information center that is run by local volunteers. The first person we meet is Jaquie Chambers (More about her in a minute). We asked if there was any work in the area, and she called up her granddaughter who sure enough needed some work done the next morning on her garden. So we killed part of the day walking around town and mostly just wondering. The town isn't big, but it has an overabundance of very cool sculptures. That night we camped down by the river at a place called Jays Bridge, free camping, where I got attacked and bitten by three very, very large ants called Bull Ants. These suckers are the most painful bites I have ever gotten. Two days later I still have welts from them. Anyway, we did some gardening for Lauren the next morning, Chris used a weed whacker, and I trimmed the hedge......with a chain saw. And yes mom, I was careful and it felt great to be doing some work for the first time in months, well, since we tore apart the car outside of Mundare. That afternoon, upon a recommendation by Lauren, we hit Harvey Dickson's Country Music Center. We were shown around the place by a guy named Tom (called Pom by his friends because he was originally from London) and shown the three different parts of the center. To be a bit more accurate I should mention what the three parts looked like from the outside. It looked like a old tin house, a pile of wood/rock/dirt, and lastly a rusting tin shed surrounded by junk. So first we entered the old house originally built 1884 by the first Dickson to come to the area. The house was surprisingly cool considering it was like 40 in the sun. We discovered a couple of old antiques from different time periods, and well, this. We found the room packed full of Elvis and Johnny Cash records as well as enough memorabilia to sink the Titianic. This room was full of records, memorabilia, and other stuff that was of Elvis. This guy loves Elvis, I was really surprised as I never expected this. We went across the road to the pile of stuff and discovered it was actually a rodeo arena complete with cool wood guitar men and eve a outdoor concert stage. I was becoming more and more impressed by the minute, and that was before the grand finally. While Chris and I went wondering around the rodeo area taking pictures of different stuff, our guide said he would meet us back at the front gate when we were ready to see the last shed. About 5 minutes later he met us at the gate, gave us a cold beer, and we entered into the indoor stage. This is where my jaw finally stopped hanging and bounced off the dirt floor. What we walked into was a true blue county stage, including dirt floor, made from true local bull shit. In fact one part of this stage area is called the Bullshit Pit. I love this place, old things are hanging from the celling, parts, hubcaps, bottles, sand sculptures of Johnny Cash and Elvis and old toys. I loved listening to the stories told by Tom, even though they were complete and utter bullshit, they were entertaining, and that was important. There were also these guys. (More about them later).We came back the next night and sat down with Tom, Hugo, and even Harvey himself joined us for a beer in the "Bullshit Pit". That night everyone took turn letting the bull fly, and when Huley pulled out the home brew, and the tales got taller. It was a good Friday night, and Harvey, who built all this, and who told me that he did this because he never grew up. He always had a good imagination, and he never let it go, and after I saw what he had built and created, I believe him, that, I think was one of the few things he said that night that wasn't bullshit. The rodeo grounds, the old house, the wood art, the character of the place and most importantly Harvey Dickson himself make this place a must see if you ever come to Western Australia. The night I sat down with Harvey, Tom the Pom, and Huley in the shadows of the stage within the bullshit pit, was one to remember. The morning before we got drunk in the bullshit pit we stopped by and saw Sandy and Jaquie Chambers. Jaquie was the lady we first met at the visitors center, but the reason we stopped in was that Lauren, their granddaughter who we did some yard work for, said that we should. Well Sandy it turns out is the artist in residence, and boy is he an artist. He did all of these for the town, and these two sand sculptures of Elvis and Johnny Cash that was given to his good friend Harvey Dickson. Sandy and his wife are originally from England, but moved to Australia with their 4 children 46 years ago. He originally started a building business to feed his family but transferred the business to his son so he could return to his passion to be an artist. They invited us into their home and they showed us around for a while, I kissed a camel, and we had a wonderful conversation for over 3 hours as Sandy showed us some pictures of his old work, he made some amazing sand sculptures that litter the town as well as 2 very special ones he made for his good friend Harvey Dickson of Elvis and Johnny Cash, (as seen earlier) and holograms (Nudes are his specialty). It was a really wonderful conversation we had, they had so many cool stories, Jacquie even made us some sandwiches for lunch, which was amazing. Sandy can do anything as an artist, when we showed up he was working on a 30m mural for the agricultural society, this guy does everything. We hit Boyup Brook with the expectation of staying for a couple of hours, and we stayed 3 wonderful days. I will remember Boyup Brook for the people I met Sandy, Jacquie, Harvey and the crew. The statues and works of art Sandy gave to the town will be nothing compared to what I will remember of the people who created them, I will remember the town for the people who called it home. I love this town, oh ya, this place also has a 5m diving board, one more thing that I love.

I'm not done yet

If you think I am done blogging, you are flat wrong. Here is why, I still have several posts to get up, and the reason these posts are late is
a) I have been really busy
b) I have been getting out more
c) I haven't had internet for a while, several weeks actually

but I do have several important blogs comming up, and I am hoping to have it up soon. No promises though, i would probably break it anyway. Well me go bed now, 2:30 in morning trying to get these suckers up.

night
Adam

Canadian Ground

April 28

I struck the Vancouver airport with the energy of a tired dog who saw a big stick and wanted to play with it, but didn't have the energy to do more than feel happy. I hung around the airport for three hours after clearing security as well as customs and waited for the flight to Edmonton. I got chatting with a guy from Montreal for a couple of hours before going and sitting by my plane. It was here that looking out my window at my last flying chariot home that I noticed something that looked oddly familiar. It was then that I realised I was watching my surf board was rolling up the ramp into the cargo hold, the same surf board I sent home 4 days earlier via air Canada freight. Small world hu? Well I caught my plane and on decent into Edmonton I started to notice the familiar landmarks and I could feel the combination of success and exhaustion. I had been up for 25 hours and I had a long time to go before I could hit the sack. I touched ground and got off the flight aiming my weary body towards the arrival gate where I found my excited mother hovering inches above the floor. I spotted her before she spotted me and this allowed me to hug the wall and only pop out mearly feet from her and watched the surprise and joy spread across her face. This joy pushed my exhaustion away for a moment as I received 6 months worth of hugs from an excited mother. My sister joined in the hug for a short moment and then the tank got a hold of me. The tank is my little brother, who weighs about 115kg (30kg more than me), stands a head taller than me, and is built like a Clydesdale horse, grabs me in a bear hug and lifts me like a rag doll into the air backpack and all before putting me back down. He did this to remind me that during my 6 month absence he hadn't gotten any weaker, or smaller. Dad sat and waited for everyone to finish fussing over me, or manhandling in my brothers case before giving me a hug. I picked up my gear from the luggage conveyor (giving the heaviest bag to my brother) and headed towards the car. We dropped by to see my grandmother but exhaustion was rolling over me in waves and I eventually called an end to the day and we headed home. I only made one stop, at the graveyard to see where my Aunt Mae who died just after Christmas now lay. It was hard, to stand there knowing that she is gone and I had missed her funeral. My mother gave me another hug as she knew what was going through my head, even if I couldn't say so out loud. Leaving town heading towards the farm I felt relief at seeing the familiar sights that guard the return home like the gateposts to an estate. I slept for about an hour before supper and then had a very good meal courtesy of my dad. I haven't done a whole lot the last couple of days since I have been home, mostly going through my mail, making some phone calls, and getting my car re-insured so that I can drive again and regain some independence. It is weird being home again, some of the old habits I thought I lost seemed to start to re-emerge. I am not sure what it means, and I am not sure if I think they are bad. I cannot say that I am surprised that I have reverted a bit to my old ways, you are partially a creature of your surroundings. I think that is all for now, more still to come, as there is more to say, will try to spread it out.

Adam

Top and not so top places

April 27

Well I am now on the plane, a plane packed full of old ladies about to go on a 1 month tour of BC. I caught the 7:00 shuttle to the airport (No easy task) checked in, got through security, and then spent the next 2 hours twiddling my thumbs. It feels good to be leaving Sydney, I am ready to go home. I thought it would be weird to leave Australia only 2 months ago, now it feels right. I came to Australia and the best thing to do now would be go through the list and hit my favorit spots, and my not so favorite spots.


Favorite natural features
-ninggaloo reef
-Karinjini
-sunsets on the Nulabour
-The stars in

Top Cultural features
-Boyup Brook (but you don't know about that one do you, but it is comming)
-Wood statues in Tasmania
-ANZAC day
-Didgeree doo shops in darwin and Cairns
-Hutt River

Favorite moments
-time spent with everyone in Margret River
-Dancing in Cairns
-Pulling into Jane and Gerards Driveway
-Christmas in Adelaide
-Playing my didge with Mark and Nico out on the road
-Beach Volleyball in the Prongrup
-breaking down the barriers I had built over the last several years

Places I would rather get hit in the head in Broome again than go here again
-Tasmania
-Areys Rock
-Chris's empty bank account

Top Surprises
-Boyup Brook
-Ninggalo
-Chainsaw wood Carvings
-Jane and Gerards house
-Ninggaloo (yes I know this is on twice)
-Karinjini


Well I know there is more, but I am tired now, will edit and add stuff later, maybe

Packing

April 26

Well I just finished the act that signals the end of the journey. I packed, something that is incredibly difficult to do at the end as you suddenly realize how much junk I have collected over the last 6 months. Then it comes time to separate the junk that goes and the junk that goes home, which sounds way harder than you think. This is about the same time you realize your bag is way too small. So you realize that your initial pile of stuff to go home has to be sorted through again until it fits in the bag. Or in my case pull out a second bag and fill it, or to be more precise I shrunk my air mattress down to as small as it goes and then shoved the rest of my leftover stuff into it. I love being resourceful. Thus I finished packing and sat stunned realizing that in 15 hours I am going home, and in a bit over 35 I will be home. I hung around the hostel, checked my flight as I hadn't looked to see if it was still flying since I got my ticket over 6 months ago. I sat down and chatted with a couple other people in the hostel finishing off the last of my beer as it would go bad if I left it here anyway, and I wasn't going to bring that home. I stayed up until 1:30 chatting with Steve before I packed it in, and that is the end of my last day in Australia. I have to be up in 5 hours, so that is all from Bondi, next blog will probably be up in the air. I just checked the last time I put up a blog and went WHOOPS. I am kind of embarrassed that I am over a month behind on my blogs, which means I will be home a long time before I get my final blogs up. When I do finally get them up it is like going back in time. My last blog from OZ feels kind of weak, but I will probably have a better blog on the plane.
That’s all

Adam

Footy in Sydney

April 25

Well yesterday Steve, Olivia Chris and myself went to go see one of the truly Australian games Aussie Rules Football, or just "Footy" as the Australians call it. It is a cross between Rugby, football, and ultimate fighting all played on a cricket field. This has led to a very strange combination of rules for the game. The rules are as follows, there are no real rules. The only one I found was that head tackling was not considered proper and often a guy in a yellow jersey would stop play momentarily to allow the guy to get back up again. The goal was to kick the ball in between the 2 center posts for 6 points and if you missed and still got it between the 2 outside posts you got a point for trying (how considerate of them). Well there is one thing I have to admit this game is fast, the whistle never stops, and subs come and go on the fly. Even injured players get hauled off while game play continues, and water is run out to players at appropriate times when play is well away from that part of the field. The body contact is intense as well, but they take the hit and keep on pushing, there is none of this stupid diving that has become prominent in soccer. The game was a riot to watch and the special as it was the day before ANZAC day, the Australian national holiday celebrating the armed forces, the wins, the losses and the most importantly one of the biggest blunders of the fist world war, Gallipoli. Anzac day marks the day the Australians landed at Gallipoli in WW1 and got slaughtered because of British stupidity. It became know as the battle where "It was commonwealth men that landed at Gallipoli, but Australian blood that stained the sand". The game was special for another reason though it commemorates the loss of the battleship HMAS Sydney in WW2, it was sunk off the West Coast of Australia by a German torpedo boat, and all men were lost. So every year the Sydney Swans play the West coast Eagles for the Sydney memorial cup around ANZAC day. The game represents the meeting of east and west as the ship belonged to Sydney, but it was sunk off the west coast near Geraldton (We went to the memorial there). The trophy was delivered by the Navy helicopter from one of the ships sitting in harbor, and as it left it flew low over the stadium (something that was really cool) before heading off back towards the harbor. The game was as I mentioned before, and I wonder why other games aren't as fast as I was never bored, even though I didn't understand the rules. After the game we hung around and did jump shots, which when we looked at later look absolutely hilarious. This morning we ran downtown to watch the ANZAC day parade in the rain, but had to meet up with Steve and Olivia later as they had both slept in. The parade was cool, but I was disappointed that they never had any air force fly by's as it was after all a parade to honor past war veterans and the current arms forces. I do like though that they didn't pull out the tanks, or any equipment, they only had the men marching by, as indeed it was all about the men and women, not the equipment. After the parade we headed over to kings Cross where we had lunch and then hit the boomerang shop, which was unfortunately closed before heading over to the market and getting supper. We mostly just hung around for the day and had a good time. At one point we walked into Hyde Park and found some soldiers doing whip cracking and that was a riot as we spent the next hour trying to get them to crack. It was really fun, but even funner to watch as Steve kept hitting himself with the end of the whip. The key to making the whip snap is to make it change direction very fast, because when you do that the end of the whip actually breaks the speed barrier, making the crack sound. This is one of the reasons why it is so hard to whip that thing around as it scares the crap out of you. That and kept on getting pictures of Steve hopping around on one leg as you saw the whip leave a small welt on his legs. We all had fun and at the end sat in their old army jeep wearing ANZAC hats, really fun. We got back to the hostel and started celebrating ANZAC day and watching the Australians playing 2 up, which is a cool ANZAC tradition in which you gamble in the bars. This is how it works I call heads, and put 5 bucks down on the table, another guy across the room calls tales and puts his 5 bucks down. A third party flips a coin and winner gets the cash. I don't know the history behind this tradition, and nobody could tell me it's history, but it is the only time that you are allowed to gamble in the bar. We cooked supper to celebrate Olivia's last day here as she is leaving tomorrow morning and we had Kangaroo as kind of a joke to remember the last time she cooked. Anyway we are starting a drinking fest now, so I need to go now. Talk later.

Days left in Australia 1.5
Days tell I get home 2.5

Car Sold and Vomiting iin Sydney

April 24 2010

Sydney

Returning to Sydney is a really weird feeling. It is the place the journey started and it will now be the place the journey ends, well sort of. Today I sold my car, for a thousand dollars, a monumental 5500 dollar loss as the backpackers just stopped coming. I sold it to a local who was a kind of hard ass, so I decided not to tell him about the fact that the drop down motor is just about shot, and the way I was bypassing it was to use the choke while driving in town, and that there are several short circuits appearing suddenly, and that it used to have power locks, but I decided since he was screwing me on the deal I wouldn't tell him about those facts. He also said he didn't want to pay for any of the camp gear so I gave it away to some people in the hostel. When I showed up without it he looked really surprised as he expected he would still get it for free. I also gave away the spare belts, and sent everything that would fit on my surf board back to Canada via Air Canada freight. The main issue it turns out is that there is a bit of rust around the windshield that when I saw it I didn't really care about as the engine was my main concern. Apparently the mechanic will not give it a "Pink Slip" (roadworthy ticket for registration that has to be done every year in NSW) because of this rust and it has to be cut out and new metal welded in to fix it. The mechanic said everything else was fine, but that had to be fixed in order to renew the registration. This really annoyed me as that there should have been no way that the vehicle should have gotten registered last year if this rust was there 2 months before we bought it (Which it most definitely was) and second the mechanic never even fired up the engine when he said this. The engine could have had a blown piston, and leaked gallons of oil, but they don't care about that, they only care if it looks good. What a load of Australian Bullshit. This has actually been a really frustrating week with not being able to sell the car for a decent price, which is really unfortunate that this has overshadowed the fact that I am having an otherwise really nice time in Bondi. Anyway, it is sold and gone, so I can muse about the huge loss on the car later. I went surfing a couple of times as well as sea kayaking again with Steve (a computer networked from England) and Olivia (A Calgarian). The kayaking was really nice as we were in a quiet part of the city in a small harbor. Anyway I went roaring around just having fun when Olive started feeling sick. I didn't hear this and decided to race the personal trainer (Rob) to the beach to see how good my kayaking skills were. So we went roaring off towards the beach leaving Steve, Olive and our intrepid guide to follow in our spray of high speed departure. Well the race was close, very close, until I ran a tight shortcut of sharp rocks and shallow water emerging ahead of my rival who took the safe route. I stuck the sand first and looked out over the harbor with pride which is when I noticed that the three stragglers were not moving. We waited several minutes before they finally arrived when I noticed something very strange, Olive wasn't paddling and the guide was towing her. Which was strange as we didn't bring any rope with us. That is when I noticed the rope was actually a bikini top, and the Guide was actually wearing a shirt suddenly. The guide was using her bikini top to tow the sick Olive back to shore. It wasn't until later I got the full story from Steve of what transpired in the stands during my epic race for the beach. Olive was feeling sea sick and she was able to hold it in until a big boat went by and sent her projectile vomiting up breakfast. I can only imagine the spray of toast, orange juice and half digested kangaroo meat arcing high in the air mimicking the harbor bridge that sat in the background. The second spray erupted out in the direction of the opera house, and the third and final eruption of mount Olivia covered the harbor mouth. Fish as far away as 40 yards flocked to this free feast and none went away hungry. It was described as "Gag able" and the guide said it would have made excellent photos had she pulled out her camera instead of concentrating on dodging the acidic spray that was raining down around her. It was then that the guide pulled the bikini off and tossed on a shirt so she could tow mount Olive to the beach. After a few minutes on land Olive was feeling better and we started doing jump shots (taking pictures of you jumping in the air) with Sydney's landmarks in the background. I got a couple of good ones, and it is rather fun looking at the different poses you can do in mid air. We returned to the beach and I stumbled upon a gold mine. There were all these really old bottles piled on the beach that these people had just pulled out of the water. They had been coming here for years, but this is the first time they have ever found them here. Some of them looked really old; some even had dates on them that said 1945, the year the war ended. They said if I wanted any I could have them, so I rinsed them off and took the ones I thought were special, and wrapped some of them with the surf board, putting the rest in my bag. Soon a rescue boat arrived to take Olivia back to the docks, Kayak and all and we followed in our little boats. I have been hanging around a lot lately with Steve and Olivia, they are really cool people we have even been cooking together lately and the meals are greatly improved with the aid of better food. We have been spending a lot of time on the beach, and then watching Olivia eat (I should mention this girl eats more than me, she has like 5 meals a day, and steak for breakfast); we actually bug her a lot about how she is always eating. She in turn gave me a new nickname FB (farm boy). It is nice to have some people to spend some time with. Steve was actually supposed to leave 3 days ago, but his flight got cancelled due to that volcano in Iceland, so he stayed here instead. A couple days ago I hit the boomerang shop in Kings Cross and found another one of those cool shop keepers that I run into when you go looking for cool stuff. I chatted with her for a long while before buying a really cool boomerang that is rarer than finding an American backpacker in the outback. It is really weird walking around downtown Sydney when I venture down there. I recognize so many places and get that strange feeling of coming back to a familiar place after a long time, but I can't say I am happy to be back here. I didn't really enjoy the center of Sydney when I stayed there, and I didn't really enjoy walking around there the other day, but it felt familiar, and therefore almost comforting. Maybe because I knew that I was coming to the end of my trip and I knew that I was ready to go home, this familiarity signaled the return to home, the return to the pace of life I left 6 months ago. It also signaled a sudden remembrance that I am about to go home and I hadn't bought gifts for several members in my family and I missed Christmas, my mothers birthday, and my brothers graduation of University, and that if I don't get them something special I will be so screwed. Luckily I have ideas for them and am implementing a plan to purchase such gifts as soon as possible. I just realized that I bought some boomerangs, and they are made of wood, and that they resemble sticks, sticks that my dog loves to retrieve and chew.................this could be a problem.

Going home in 3 days,

Adam

For Jane

I wrote this on the way up to see Gerard and Jane the second time before we headed North.

Back-story

I had bought Gerard these nice bottles of wine as I know he loves them, but I couldn't think of anything to find for Jane. So I started writing this note to leave with the wine for her as they weren't going to be there when we dropped by on our way North originally. But due to circumstances we stopped in Perth that night and then dropped by their house the next morning when they were indeed home. So I never gave them the letter, but after reading it almost a month later I couldn't help myself from putting this up. So here we go.

The Note
Even though I rang the bell and could just tell you hiding behind the door hoping we would not stay like before. So in the absence of your presence I leave for you these 2 bottles of wine, for I hear they are quite fine. And when you click your heals as you see our rear view mirror pass you by, toast to the health of the Canadian boys who are heading to Broome and won't see you soon.

For Jane I did rack my brain against many a road train in hopes to find a gift to give you an emotional lift, but I could think of none to redeem the sum of my fun. So in appreciation of our deviation to your allocation I write for you this poem in a last minute ditch to catch the hitch and pull you along to show you our appreciation from your salutation. I wish you well in hopes you'll tell us why you stole our trunks from our bunks, for if you wanted the boys to show off their toys I would have booked an appointment for an ointment as I hear you are an expert of such things. Well I am running out of time and rhyme so I must bring a close to this hose. I hope you had fun on this run and got a laugh from my gaff. But take me seriously when I say thank you for our stay the other day.

Well that is all from this blast I hope you enjoyed it Jane, and thanks again for everything you did for us backpackers, especially eat our bad cooking, but I would like to announce that we are getting better.

Horseshoe Dust

April 19 2010

Mood, dismal.

Well we have run into a very, very big problem. It started with the fact that we are trying to sell our car in what is considered the Low season. I knew that was going to happen, but I bought my car for a good enough deal that I figured that I should be able to counteract this by selling the car cheap enough that I would get some buyers. I had also planned to come back in a couple of days earlier so to possibly help our chances for selling the car. Well we buggered the timeline, for reasons you all know about, and then lightning started striking, and our horseshoes ran so dry out of luck that they crumbled in our hands and fell to pieces to the floor. This is when a conversation me and my travel companion came back to kick him in the groin, and me as well. Chris made an argument that there was no reason to watch the news because it doesn't really affect you I disagreed. Well some of you who watch the news know about a certain volcano that erupted in Iceland. And this is how the world news can affect you. First the volcano eruption has forced all the airports, and I mean ALL the airports in Europe to close. This has stopped all the European backpackers coming to Australia, which is the big buyer of backpacker cars in Australia. This has dropped the already tight backpacker market to nothing. But of course when it rains ash it pours, and I was about to get kicked in the groin again. I am starting to look for another market for the car, the problem is this is definitely a backpacker car as it is kind of old, but mostly it looks a bit rough, with a bit of rust. This car is mechanically sound, low km's, but it just kind of looks bad, the perfect backpacker car, not the perfect Australian citizen car. Thus another kick in the pants. I walked down and talked to some of the people sitting in their cars on Victoria Street (this is where a lot of backpackers sell their cars. They just sit in them all day waiting for someone to come and buy them) and they haven't sold anything in the last 4 days, and the number of 4X4's on the street went from 1 to 8 in the last 4 days. I also discovered that 2 days before we arrived the 4X4's were still selling for around 6000 dollars, now you can have your pick from 8 for about 4000 each, problem is still know one is buying. Of course the kicks to my privates just keep on coming. We had 2 escape plans as Chris's old room mate lives outside of Sydney, and we thought that we could maybe drop the car off at her place and maybe she could sell it for us. But that fell apart as Chris didn't get her phone number months ago when I asked him to, and when he did do it last week she hasn't checked her e-mail yet. Gerard knows someone in Sydney that he said that we could talk to hold onto it for us, unfortunately Gerard is in Bhutan hiking and thus I can't get a hold of him (not his fault, but you can see how this is starting to build up). We were thinking about transferring the car over to Chris's name on Monday before I leave on Tuesday and extending his ticket for a bit longer, but that just fell out as Monday is a public holiday here and the registration office will be closed and I won't be able to transfer it, meaning we might have to do everything Friday, meaning I have 4 days left to make the sale. We are still debating whether or not we should extend Chris's ticket until May and the Volcano situation to clear in Europe (something there is no set timeline on as it is a volcano and is not controlled by the airline industry) which isn't making this decision any easier. Another kick to the groin came in the form of the Euro dropping like a stone to being almost par with the Australian dollar, which means the Europeans are going to be forking out twice as much coin for a car as they expected. To add to the trouble Chris and I have been arguing more lately about what to do, as Chris keeps suggesting these stupid ideas, currently they include:

-Parking the car somewhere and then Chris should be back in 6 months and he could sell it then, problem is car rego (like insurance) expires in July and it would be sitting down here for 4 months unregistered, and if something does happen it is in my name and I get in trouble. Chris says nothing will happen from it, I reply that if he knows everything that will happen why didn't he warn me about that Icelandic volcano screwing us over weeks ago. If it is in my name, I don't want a possible axe hanging over my head when I am 6000miles away, as I will be worrying about it the whole time.

-Park it out by his friends place and have her sell it for us (something I don't like doing until we talk to her first)

I think tomorrow we will stop by the used car dealers and see what they would give us for cash. I am also looking up some of the other ways of selling it including car auctions. Will let everyone know what happens later.

The Steve Irwin Zoo

April 14

Well for the last several days we have been heading South towards Sydney and we are now about 350km North of the major center. We put for sale signs up on the windows, and will put some up in the hostels as soon as we arrive. We also put it up on the internet, and have had 8 views online, but no phone calls yet, so I am not holding my breath yet. We drove through Brisbane, but didn't stop as we were short on time, and it felt like another city. We crossed the river though and got tagged for a road toll, so I spent almost an hour the next dya trying to talk to a computer to spell out my license plate so I could pay it. Took nearly an hour and they just could not get it, finally I yelled out in frustration "NO YOU STUPID COMPUTER" and the computer took a second before it said "You have requested to talk to a representative, transferring you now", at which point I talked to a human being got it paid and cleared up in under 2 minutes. We stopped that night in Byron Bay, which is a nice little town, with lots of backpackers. We didn't stay there long, as the next day we were gone. We continued South and headed inland off the coast into the part of NSW called "New England", which is a really cool part of Australia. Armindale is a city of 25,000 people, but it has the feel of an old English university town with lots of brick buildings, and surrounded by rolling hillside. It is a lot warmer and has less rain than England, but it felt a lot like it. I would like to spend some more time here, but time waits for know one, and I really want to get my car sold so I can get some of my freedom back. I am thinking about taking off to somewhere once I get it sold, because as long as I have it, I am kind of tied to it. Anyway New England is a really cool part of Australia, and is better than the Coast so far. Should be in Sydney tonight, talk to everyone later. I just forgot about one of the biggest things I saw this week was the Australian Zoo. This is what used to be and still is the Steve Irwin Zoo. The zoo was cool mostly because I loved the story of Steve and his family, but I think 50 bucks may have been a bit much for the price to see the zoo, but I have to admit the animals are cared for amazingly well. The crocodiles, the stars of the show were unfortunately disappointing as that the ones in the croc farm in Broom were a bit more intimidating, and maybe the shock factor was no longer a factor anymore. It also seemed a bit more tourist central as there is a huge stadium. I have to admit through that the most interesting animals were the snakes, and the fact that they have a lot of very poisonous ones. Of course then I look at where they come from in Australia and I wonder how I never ran into any of them in the wild, not that I am complaining. I have to admit though, that what Steve and his family did was astounding, and he left a legacy that will last for generations to come.

Adam

The Sugar Cane Train

April 10

Well for the last 2 days we have been seeing a lot of asphalt. We started in Cairns (where we discovered the radio had stopped working) and headed inland and had a look at the sugar cane fields of Queensland. They are really cool, but the best part by far is the sugar cane train. Up here there are all these miniature railway lines running along the edges of the fields and beside the roads. If you follow these rails they will eventually lead to the sugar factory. Some of these rails even run down the center of the road as it passes through some of the towns, something I found really cool. When they harvest the sugar cane they load it onto these small rails and push them to the factory. I thought this was really cool, the southern part of Queensland has abandoned the miniature rail lines for trucks, but in the North they are still used and maintained. Unfortunately they weren't harvesting the sugar cane right now, so we didn't get to witness any of it, something I would have loved to see. We continued on to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday Islands is an amazing island formation within the Great Barrier Reef. Usually you go sailing and then go snorkeling and diving on the reef all at the same time, but the west coast has kind of ruined us. Let me explain the west coast had all the features that the East coast is offering, but cheaper. Ningaloo was free, shark bay had similar beaches to the Whitsunday’s, but the Whitsunday’s have massive resorts on the islands, ruining their natural splendor, and we have already been diving for the last 3 days, so I need a little rest from that. The sailing sounds fun, until I heard that they shove 22 people plus 8 crew onto a little sailing boat for 2 days, with nothing to do but sit on a crowded boat. I really want to sail, but not like this, and I am not sure how excited I would be to sit on another beach, or snorkel some more on the reef. I can honestly say I am ready to go home now, I am thinking about simply selling the car as soon as I can and then sitting down in a small hostel and having a nice relaxing time until my plane leaves. Maybe make some friends while I wait. Am thinking of huddling down in Byron Bay for a couple of weeks if I can sell the car early. Anyway earlier today we found Sarina in Queensland and I took some pictures to prove it. It feels so weird to be back on the East Coast, back in traffic, and towns, and well people. We haven't had this since we left Adelaide, 3 months ago. Cairns was still really small and now that we are heading south into the major population zone it feels weird. I have seen more cars in 3 minutes than we saw all day driving to Exmouth, I feel like the lost sheep in the woods. Well not much else to say right now, heading south down the East coast, and that is about all for now. Well except for these cool signs on the road.There was also one that asked "Are we there yet?", but I couldn't get a picture of it.

Adam

The Dive, Part 2

April 8 Part deuce

Warning, if you haven't read part 1 first go down to the blog below and read it first.

So I left you guys hanging at the part where we prepared for our night dive. But before I get into this I need to tell everyone the rules of the dive boat.

Rule #1 don’t go deeper than your certified depth (for me 18 meters)

Rule #2 if this is your second dive of the day, don't go deeper than your deepest depth on your last dive

Rule #3 do not allow your air pressure to drop bellow 50 Bar

Night Dive Rules

Number 1 Do not drop bellow 10 meters

Number 2 Dive times do not exceed 30 minutes, return to surface before 30 minutes

Number 3 If one person's torch (Flashlight) goes out, dive is abandoned and everyone returns to boat.

Punishment for breaking any of these rules: Vegemite.

Now if none of you have ever had vegemite let me explain to you what you are missing out on. Vegemite is made from mushrooms, beats, rotten eggs, tree bark, and mud. You mix it all together and then let it rot for 2 weeks in the hot humid weather. It is then compacted down using people who have just finished a 3 month jungle trek through the rainforest and forgot to wash their feet, they then stomp the concoction for 48 hours squeezing all the water and good flavor out of it. Then add about 1 ton of salt for every 100kg of other stuff. Now that you understand the fine taste of vegemite, you will understand my reluctance to break a whole lot of rules. So if you get caught breaking any of these fine rules you get a table spoon of vegemite, if you beak 3 you get the whole jar, and if you break all the rules on one dive, you eat the 5 liter bucket, and trust me the plastic casing is the best part. Now that you understand these simple things let me get back to the night dive. Jayne guided Chris and myself along with 3 other people for the night dive (which was now free as we were certified divers). We all carried underwater torches, and knowing the rules set off in a group towards the reef. We started our decent and within 2 minutes had broken our first nighttime rule, as I didn't notice my depth gauge reach 11.7m, until it was way to late. Cursing my mistake as I could already taste the horrid stuff but I decided that I would deal with the vegemite problem when I got back to the boat. Well we swam along the reef and I have to admit, the night dive is spectacular. It is so cool holding a flashlight and illuminating the darkness, seeing how the fish suddenly appear out of now are. The coral actually glows a different color, it is spectacular. Then there is the eyes, most crey fish have red eyes, so you see them glowing back at you. Then there are the green eyes, these are the most spectacular things to see, because these green eyes are actually shark eyes. And sure enough I saw 6 of these that night, one right when I jumped in the water, I shone my torch down and saw a grey nurse shark right bellow my feet. The other 2 sharks were hanging around the reef, but the guy who stole the show was a 1.2m barracuda. Barracuda are long, narrow, fish, but they are incredibly inquisitive and smart. They freak many new divers out because they love to stalk and follow you around. At night though they get way smarter, and way creepier. When they encounter a dive team at night they start to follow you around purposefully, and here is why. I was swimming along about 15min into the dive session when I do a spin maneuver to shine the light behind me to see if there are any reef sharks or stuff hanging around. I had done it like 20 times before with no luck, but then well my light came to be pointing into the face of a 1.2m barracuda. I will readily admit my heart may have skipped a couple of beats, and my eyes popped out of my dive masks with all the force of an atomic bomb, but other than that I was fine. Well we looked at each other for a few minutes, before I decide to pretend like he wasn't there, as he wasn't being aggressive at all. I continued on swimming for a few seconds and just got comfortable with my new dive buddy when my torch found a small little fish swimming in the dark. For just a brief second my torch blinded the little fish, which is when the hand of death came tearing over my left shoulder with the speed of an angry tornado and grabbed the little fish. I will once again admit that my heart may have been bouncing around my rib cage like a bouncy ball. When I got back on board later I found out that this was a regular occurrence with the barracuda, something that I would have loved to know earlier. For the rest of the dive I hung close to the rest of the group, which is when we broke night dive rule number 3. I went to count torches, as there should be 5 plus mine, and I could only count 4. This is when Jayne tapped me on the shoulder and showed me her dead torch, so I took lead of the group for the remainder of the dive, with Jayne’s wonderful guidance as nobody wanted to cut the dive short. I have to admit I liked leading the group and when we surfaced it was I who had to signal to the boat with my torch that everything was good. On the swim back to the boat Jayne asked me how deep I had gone. "10 meters I replied" she nodded her head, "I am glad to hear that as my depth gauge read 10 and you were way below me, my depth gauge must be out." I, sensing danger replied "Ya, you should really get that checked when we get back to the boat." She leaned closer to me and replied "You don't tell anyone on the dive deck about my dead torch, and I will confirm your 10 meter depth." and just like that I avoided getting vegemite for that dive. Well the next morning we moved to a reef called the 3 Sisters (see below) and I got ready for my last three dives before 1:00 when I board the Upchuck Express and head back to Cairns. The fist dive I was up bright and early for again at 5:30 for the briefing on the 6:00 dive. We hit the water and swam out to sister number 1 (due north of the boat) and descended down to 17.9m. Well it was a really cool dive seeing all of the amazing coral formations and all of the really cool fish that swam around it, even saw Nemo. Well we had a good time, but when our oxygen hit 80 bars we headed back to the boat. We swam for quite a long while until we hit the mooring line of the boat and then came to the surface. This is when I got the surprise of the dive. I came up and discovered it was the wrong boat. Now something all dive boats have is looks outs, these look outs have 2 purposes for existing, 1 is that if you get into trouble you can get their attention and they will get you help. However they also act as the people who report to the dive boss who sucks at navigating and had to swim 100m on the surface back to his dive boat because he was an idiot and went to the wrong boat. Well I came up looking at a very confused look out on this boat when he signaled me asking if everything was ok. I signaled back yes, before turning to look back at my boat 100m NW, and at my look out standing on the bow. Luckily he was looking the other way, as he was probably thinking the same thing I was, only an idiot would swim past the boat without noticing. I immediately dropped back bellow the surface and started swimming hard back towards my own boat. I looked at my air gauge, I only had 51bar, but there was no way that I was going to swim back that far on the surface. I was dancing a fine line between pride and vegemite. I hit 48bar and popped up only 10 meters from the dive deck, now my only problem was how would I pass off 48 bar as 50, because if I got busted my pride would look like my face when I swallow that horrific stuff. Luckily the dive boss just asked for my pressure and didn't personally read my gauge, so I avoided vegemite again. Breakfast was once again baked beans, tinned spaghetti, oatmeal and for once eggs, but I just had fruit again. During breakfast I told Brisbane (an experienced diver I met on the boat ride out) about my botched dive that morning and he burst out laughing and he mentioned that he was planning on hitting the first sister at 8:00. So at 8:00 we were back in the water and this time we aimed for sister 3 strait west of the boat, but there was one heck of a current on the surface so we descended and started swimming for the reef, or should I say into the dark gloom where we thought the reef was. After several minutes of swimming I was starting to get worried, which is when I looked at my depth gauge. It read 19.7m, not only had I gone deeper than my last dive, but I was nearly 2 meters deeper than my certified depth, I just broke 2 rules at once. This also meant that I was using a lot more air than usual at shallower depth. As I came up to 17 meters I looked out and just spotted the reef. We swam around it in a corkscrew manner, circling our way up and at the top I knew that we should find a buoy line. That is when I realized I wasn't on sister number 3, because there wasn't a buoy line. I surfaced as I didn't want a repeat of this morning blunder when I discovered we had actually been swimming on the middle sister (number 2). How we got to that one I still am trying to work out. We swam back to the boat and I was able to pass off my dive depth at 17m and avoided a double helping of vegemite. My dive time however was a dismal 18 minutes, compared to the usual 30 I can pull off. I went up to the sun deck to grab my towel and dry off when I looked towards the other dive boat and saw a familiar white haired head bobbing in front of it. Then the face turned and started swimming towards my boat. As it got closer I started to laugh as it was Brisbane, he had made the exact same navigational error I had made in the morning. I couldn't help but bugging him when he got on deck, as he had laughed at me for doing the exact same thing. At 9:30 we moved dive sites for the last time, and in preparation for my last dive. On the way over we were served lunch which was pasta, and then later the Tuna that was caught the night before. Now I have had a lot of tuna while I have been over here(mostly of the canned variety), but this tuna, fresh off the fish and cooked to perfection was one of the best things I have eaten in Australia. It was mouth watering enough for me to forgive the chef for his earlier failures at breakfast. The fish flew off the buffet much to fast though, as I was only able to squeeze out three helping of it before it was gone. I can't right remember what else was for lunch, but the fish was by far the highlight of lunch. We then went for our last dive, where we circled a reef and were able to swim into one of the caves where I came face to face with a very large and angry lobster, and his bunk mate a sting ray who I had nearly swam over. Actually I swam over him on the way in, then over him again on the way out (maybe about a foot above him, as I couldn't see him buried in the sand) but this must have made him angry as he then stuck his stinger in the air in a threatening manner at Chris who was right behind me......whoops. Swimming through the underwater caves was really cool, the fish swimming around you, really cool. The dive ended way to early, but as a bonus we successfully navigated back to the boat under water without getting lost this time, a very fine way to end the day. We boarded the day boat back to Cairns and said goodbye to all the wonderful people we had met there, and hung on to our packs as well as lunch for the return trip to Cairns. We returned to the hostel where we checked in and ran into one of the girls who had worked on the boat and had gotten off yesterday. I sat down with her and we chatted over a couple of beers and then she played the ukulele for a few minutes. Something she was very good at, that or I have been listening to Christian and his guitar way to much. She was from Michigan and she had one of those cool personalities that had me laughing all night long. Quote of the night "My last boyfriend and I just didn't get along, he was just to normal". Well everyone that is all from Cairns for now, will leave tomorrow and head south towards Sydney, not sure where we are going to stop next, will see.

Adam,

Diving on the Geat Barrier Reef

April 8 2010

Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

Well for the last 3 days I have been spending my time on a boat. Now before we get to far ahead of myself I should tell you that I signed up for a dive course in which we spend 2 days in a pool and then 3 days out on the ocean diving on the great barrier reef. I was looking at doing this ever since I went diving at Busselton. Anyway we did the 2 days playing around in a pool and learning how not to kill ourselves in the open ocean, then we headed out on a boat (aptly nicknamed the "Upchuck Express" for reasons I shouldn't have to explain) we then transferred onto the bigger, nicer 3 story boat where we would be staying. Anyway we went for 2 dives that day and I have to admit my first day on the great barrier wasn't a glowing start. I suited up, checked all of my gear (as the last thing you need is to realize that you forgot to fill up the air tank before you jumped into the water, it is really embarrassing to have to climb back out after jumping in for only 12 seconds) well after I jumped in and swam over to my instructor I felt a stinging sensation across my knuckles. I started to look for the jelly fish and when I spun around I got another sting on my knuckles, but I still couldn't see it, that is when I spotted 1 thin blue strip cross my facemask and I realized it must be tangled in my gear. I asked the instructor (Jayne) to have a look for it. Originally she couldn't see it, but then she spotted it, said an appropriate word to mirror my feelings and directed me back to the boat. I should mention that we wear "Stinger suites" which are like wet suits but built to protect us from jelly fish, which is why when it was tangled around me, I only got stung on my hands where the suit wasn't covering my skin. I should also mention that jelly fish stings don't burn as long as the stings are covered in salt water. Which is why when I hit the boat and brought my hands out of the ocean into the rain where they were hit by the cold fresh water I actually shuddered as my hands felt like they were suddenly on fire. The people on the dive deck got the stinger off of me (it turned out to be a blue bottle jelly fish) and sprayed my hands with vinegar to neutralize the stinging sensation. I then continued the dive where we dove, and swam around on the bottom for a while. The objective of the fist dive in the ocean is to just get you used to breathing under water, and swimming with all of the gear. The second dive we started doing some of the skills we learned about in the pool 2 days earlier. After we finished the skills we continued on just swimming around on the coral where we spotted a big barracuda (fish) a moray eel, and 3 sea turtles. At the surface we practiced taking off the scuba gear and then putting it back on (where we disappointed Jayne by having no floundering, panicking or even splashing, something that always happens on this part of the course, she made a comment about missing out on her required entertainment for the day) which is actually a lot easier than it sounds. We called an end to the day where we returned to the boat and had supper. We didn't go out on the night dive that night as it would have costed us 60 bucks (For a certified guide to go with us as we were not yet certified divers). That night we got put into our rooms (we got a room each, with a double bed. Oh what a wonderful room, but there was a catch we were on the main floor and that night was refueling night. What happened on refueling night is that once every four weeks the boat drives back into Cairns in the middle of the night, refuels, and re-stocks with all non perishable foods that will be required over the next month. This is usually done around 1 in the morning, and the boat has to be back at the dive site by 5:30 for the 6:00 o’clock dive. Well our floor is where they pile all of the stuff before unpacking it on the return trip out. Well that is why throughout the night I heard "Peas", "Corn", "Sugar", along with a whole assortment of other items including frozen chickens. I was still awake on the trip in as I wanted to see the lights of Cairns from the ocean, but I had to admit I wasn't completely able to tune out all of the noise from the loading, but I was only asleep for a little while before I was shook wide awake by a quite voice asking "Where is the beer?" As it would later turn out, it didn't come in on the order and our dive party boat had just become a dry dive boat. Well the next morning at 6 I woke up on my own (the boat was still moving, which meant we were running late). The crew looked exhausted, none of them really slept at all, some had about 2 hours of sleep, including our dive instructor Jayne. This is when we started the, well, acting part. They film you early in the morning, waking up, having a cup of tea, suiting up and jumping in the water. The camera guy asks you how you feel, if you are excited for the dive and that kind of crap. Chris was able to muster enough energy and fake enthusiasm, I who got about 3 hours of sleep that night couldn't muster anything more than a week lipped hi. I could only look at my tea and hope that once I hit the water the cold would blast some feeling back into my sleeping head. We suited up, jumped in (I doing a front flip into the water, which is easier to do than you would think) where we did some more dive skills before returning to breakfast. I came in with a desperate need for a good meal and discovered a very depressing and disappointing breakfast. It consisted of baked beans in tomato sauce, canned spaghetti and oatmeal. I looked at this meal in disbelief recalling the fine supper that was cooked the night before and wondering if I was just having a bad dream. The chef seeing me standing there with a look of shock said that due to the fact he got on board 5 hours ago and had spent most of the night packing stuff away, therefore breakfast was a bit weaker than usual. I nearly cried, and started making my way to the fruit where I loaded up as I couldn't make myself eat tinned spaghetti for breakfast. I had to eat fast as we had to be back in the water by 8 for our last training dive and where the camera man comes with us and issues us our cards under water. Well we suited up, got in the water went for a swim, they issued us our cards and we had to show a lot of enthusiasm and do underwater summersaults, pretend to drink a can of beer, put on sunglasses, and a whole bunch of other crap in order to make the movie better. We also made up these slates and wrote something smart on them. I put down "Ok, who stole my submarine?" along with something philosophical. We swam around a bit more, saw a lion fish (very poisonous) along wit a very big barracuda (over a meter long) before coming back up. We took the 11:00 dive off to relax a bit, had lunch (A great improvement over breakfast) before we met the movie guy at 12:30 so he could show us the movie he had made. We watched it, and it was a good movie, and I was planning on buying it before he showed me the price. What happens is that he sends the movie off to get put onto a DVD and copy write it. They then mails you the DVD in the mail 3 weeks later. The DVD costs 75 bucks a copy, and you can't make any copies of it. I said 75 was way to much for it and I made a note of writing down as much about what happened on this trip so that I wouldn't need a DVD in the future. The camera guy actually looked shocked when we said we weren't going to buy one. Even when I looked at it later, it felt real gimmicky for the amount of money they asked. I am glad I held onto that slate for a couple of hours after the dive so I could take some pictures of it with me on the boat for free. Anyway at 3:00 we moved dive sites, and what the dive crew do during these moves is toss in their fishing lines to see if they can troll for some fish while we move, and one of them caught a yellow fin tuna, a rather big on to. Upon arrival we got ready for the 4:00 dive, our first dive as certified divers, and our first dive without a guide. We geared up, dived in and gave it a go. We went to the reef, swam around, and with the biggest shock of the day, successfully navigated back to the boat under water and popped up just beside the dive deck. But that wasn't all, I finally got my reef shark, my first solo dive and I saw the reef shark that I so desperately wanted on Ningaloo. I even did an underwater dance of true sheer enjoyment. We had supper (a very fine meal full of vegetables and many other fine foods). We then prepared for the highlight of the day, the night dive. Now the night dive is a completely different world when compared to the day, now the nocturnal animals come out, including the reef sharks. But that is another blog for another day, as I don't want to kill you guys with one huge blog. See everyone next time.