Almost home

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Today is my last full day in Sydney, and Im wasting it inside typing... No I have been out all morning and will be outside again soon and tonight I plan to have a feast. So for my last couple of days I thought it would be nice to stay in that famous hostel of theirs the Sydney Harbour YHA which I have to add is pretty damn nice, I even have an en-suite, posh hostel or what! Tonight I think I want to eat dinner on the roof overlooking the harbour, I'll have friends with me and I will stuff my face! I'll add an update tomorrow just to say a final goodbye to Australia, its been magical and weird and an adventure to tell everyone about, which is probably all I'll be doing when I get back, I'm sure I shall be sick of talking about it.

Thank you Australia, It's been Wild :D

Spear Fishing!

When I got to Sydney I was met by Bobby, who I knew from Tasmania. We got to Bobby’s and then he said, “Right so tomorrow were going to go spear fishing, did you need to do anything in town before that.” hmm spear fishing you say, well now that was an unexpected turn of events, what better way to round off my trip and forget about leaving Charlotte than a weekend of spearing fish in tropical waters. So after he revealed the plans for the weekend he announced we were also going to a comedy show that night, I invited Kate along and off we went to a club in North Melbourne. We had dinner there and played pool whilst we waited for it to begin and then went up to hear some rather different comedy from Eddie Ifft about all the things he really shouldn’t have done. The style of comedy I think was a bit much for a few members of the crowd and his constant insulting of various peoples and total honesty about the way he thinks seemed to hit a few prudish nerves but also generated plenty of laughs. He had an Aussie following him who was one of those people who you just can’t help but laugh at; he actually had one of the guys I was with screaming with laughter at one gag, I thought he might just pop.

So the next day we got ready to leave, I got a sleeping bag from Kate and then hung around with her for a little while before heading back to the house and waiting for Bobby to get back so we could leave. He brought a cute Chinese girl with him who I really couldn’t see being a part of the underwater rugby team that was the group we were meeting up there however I stood corrected. We got there after dark and it started raining, great start! After a cold wet night we awoke to find that ours was not the only tent that had leaked so we felt a bit better about the whole thing. We crammed in some brekky and then off to the beach. The first person to catch a fish was James, who I would also call the Machine; he is literally a walking mountain of muscle. We then gutted his fish and cut it into little strips and ate it with some lime juice, rather lovely it was. After that Bonnie, (Bobby’s cute little Chinese friend) let me use her spear, Jacky lent me his flippers and I had a go at hunting. I went out with the others and after about half an hour I found a fish that looked big enough to spear, which seemed to ignore me, so I speared it, then thought ‘Oh my god, I just speared it, wow.’

That night we had fish for dinner, a lot of fish. Everyone cooked their fish in their own way and so we were all walking around with plates trying each other’s food and having foodgasms over it all, I normally don’t eat fish but this was just too good, even the sashimi earlier was great, it was a feast of fish and I just pigged out on it. The next day the weather was better but we caught less, in fact lots of us caught nothing, but naturally James came out carrying about 6 massive fish, which he had found in a bay none of us had reached and on the way back he suggested we go to his for a feast. I have never enjoyed fish like that before, and coupled with the millet and veggies and yummy salad he made it was a meal like no other. I now know the reason I don’t like fish so much, it turns out that some of the fish we hadn’t eaten on the first day developed that nasty fishy smell that I’m used to all fish smelling like, however the stuff we ate that was caught that day smelled great and tasted even better. So really what I don’t like is rotten fish, and that’s what all you people back in England are eating, I just had the best fish in the world, caught by us and cooked straight away and it was wonderful!

Charlotte

Monday, May 3, 2010

My flight was back to Melbourne and there I went, to discover that I suddenly had an almost empty bank account. Now when I say almost empty I mean I got there at the start of April, and I had $1.33 in my account. Which after printing out 2 statements just to check if that could possibly be correct ended up as just $0.33, unfortunately not enough to buy dinner with. The reason I mention it being the start of April is that happened to be the long Easter weekend where nothing is open, it was Friday, nothing opened till Tuesday, meaning the bank wouldn’t talk to me about why my account was empty. It was by far my worst Easter, I got no chocolate, I had no family to hang out with, I had no money to spend on nonsense or food and everywhere were annoying people saying the apocalypse is coming trust Jesus. I got by through raiding the free food section and using my accommodation vouchers, and eventually on Tuesday I could access some western union money my dad sent over for me.

Now at this point my luck changed direction, I had held my faith that everything would be cool and I got a call from the brother of a friend in Tassie, who gave me directions to his place and said he might have some work if I wanted it. Now there wasn’t much I wanted more than to have some work considering my financial situation, the only thing I wanted more was a girlfriend. So I hung out with Kent and Jo at their house in the suburbs west of Melbourne, Kent got me a job working for a furniture shop in Fitzroy that used recycled wood, I worked with a guy who handled the de-nailing of the wood before it was sent to the factory to be turned into beds and tables and things. The work was pretty tough but it was cash in my hand and just what I needed at the time.

The other great thing that happened occurred at a Pirate Party on a boat, Kent had a friend who was doing the PA and so we went along to help out and get a free ticket that way, so on went the big shirt and eye patch, along with the fake earring and the silly hat and off we went. As soon as the party got going my eye caught that of a pretty girl wearing the same hat as me, so naturally that acted as an opening for conversation and me spending the entire night talking to her. We both agreed that we couldn’t wait to see each other again and so I got her no and 2 days later I rocked up at her place. I got to see her for about 3 weeks, and in 3 weeks I fell totally in love with her. Charlotte has a mad passion for baking, and we spent most of our time together eating different things and watching films, occasionally we agreed on something but that was rare, one night we actually managed to go out and eat the same thing at a Japanese restaurant which was a miracle but despite all the blatant incompatibility I really didn’t care. My last few weeks in Melbourne were ones of complete bliss and a memory that will stick with me for a bloody long time.

On our last day we did the great ocean road, I thought it would be a nice change if we went out for the day instead of sleeping in late and doing nothing all day long. After the day of fun it was back to hers to pack up my stuff and head back to the suburbs to get ready for my flight the next morning. I have said many times I didn’t want to leave places, and I had my reasons, sometimes I thought there was more to do or I just liked being there but I knew I had to move on, this is the only time I had to convince myself it was time to go, and even then I still wasn’t convinced. I came very close to saying screw England, this is my home and I’m not leaving, however somehow I let the momentum take me and the flight got booked, I did my best not to feel utterly lost when I left Charlotte, all the way wondering what was leading me.

Family Life

Ok here’s a summary of what happened next, as I don’t have time to tell it all. We went up Mount Wellington intending to do some walks then watch sunset and sunrise, we went up saw it and got bored, so we called Ryan and asked if he wanted to go to the beach, he invited us to lunch. At lunch we met the rest of the tribe and including Maria Jessie’s mum who invited us to stay with her in a woofing style deal. So Rosanna, Molly and I end up down in Cygnet staying in a house by the beach and becoming part of this massive family that seems to have conquered the town. I stayed there for a month, with the girls doing such jobs as cooking and cleaning and I taking on the more appropriate jobs of cleaning the gutters and pruning trees. All the while I felt more a part of the family and would end up doing all sorts of random stuff with them, we spent St. Patrick’s day in Hobart, Jess came out with us and we met friends of hers and ran around the town in green nonsense and ridiculous hats, fantastically fun. One day we took out the boat, the boat is a 2 person affair, so naturally when 5 of us climbed in and tried to row to the island nearby it failed rather spectacularly, in fact it was only moving when someone jumped out and pulled it along. The rest of the stay was similar such nonsensical things coupled with plenty of fun and I was very sad to leave in the end, but end it must and so it did.

Gig Night

Monday, April 26, 2010

A couple of days later, Ryan was playing at an open mic night and the girls had said they would come along, so naturally I jumped in the van too and off we went. Turned out we had the name of the town that the gig was at, but not the name of the building. Great I thought, a night of driving around lost and confused, luckily not to be as we did actually find the place in the end without too much trouble. We sat down and ate, had a drink and waited for someone else to appear. Our luck held out when Ryan and his partner in crime Jack strolled in complete with guitar cases confirming that we had in fact found the right place. The evening progressed with some very skilled musicians playing and Ryan and Jack getting more and more worried, the went into an unused room to practice and simply ended up messing about. When it was their turn they weren’t looking forward to it, and I soon figured out why when I discovered they weren’t lying about not having practiced for weeks, however as unpolished as they were they ended up playing more songs just because we liked them so much, after the gig we all congratulated the pair or the Flatstacks as their band is named and our compliments were genuine. That night we got to see Annie again and meet Des and Tanya Ryan’s parents, the family gets bigger!

Snorers!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

I spent last night drowning out the snoring from across the room with my iPod.

For all those people who snore loudly, don't bloody stay in a shared room, it's annoying and I need my sleep!

Meeting Cygnet's Ruling Family

Several days of sitting on my arse, waiting for something to happen, wondering what I was going to spend the next 2 months doing and then a pair of English backpackers arrived, Molly and Rosanna. Still wondering what I was going to do the girls planned to go down for a little day trip with Bobby, a Chinese born Aussie I had been talking to at the hostel, down in the region of Cygnet, a small, sparsely populated place in the south west of Tasmania. Bobby had a friend called Annie from Sydney, who was visiting her friends down in cygnet, and when Bobby called to ask if she was busy we got invited to lunch. Alan and Kay welcomed us into their home and fed us a delicious lunch that even I being one of the fussiest people on earth enjoyed thoroughly. We met their granddaughter Jessica, the 2 resident dogs and then Jessica’s sisters Mary and Adele, I did some reiki on Annie’s shoulder which had been destroyed in a skiing accident, (or perhaps several skiing accidents one after the other) and then we all went to the beach. On the way to the beach we stopped off where Annie was actually staying and picked up swimmers and Ryan (Jessica’s Cousin) and had a tour of the house and garden before heading off to the beach and getting lost on the way!

The water in Tasmania is cold, and I say that having swum in England, Wales and even Scotland. Even Annie went in as well although she didn’t swim, the rest of us swum out to a boat which Bobby proceeded to climb and jump off and I proceeded to be defeated by but that was only because I was so damn cold at that point my fingers were going numb and weren’t much use for gripping. The only person to really squeal and take forever getting into the water was Ryan, sissy! After the swim we went hunting for a certain beach, to hunt for mussels, which resulted in us getting lost and confused again which I discovered was due to cousins trying to direct each other, eventually we found the right beach though. So off we went clambering over rocks and cutting our feet on oysters all to get a bag full of mussels and I don’t even like seafood! I must admit collecting the mussels was fun though, someone even ate raw oyster, that made me feel a little queasy. The last stop was the chippy to complete the meal at which Annie treated us all to fish and chips so we returned to Alan and Kay’s for an evening feast before finally departing and heading back to Hobart.

Cradle Mountain

Friday, April 23, 2010

The last thing I really wanted to do in Tassie was to see Cradle Mountain, only I had no money, whilst I was waiting out this conundrum I was back in Hobart with Mick and a bunch of others including a cute French girl Emmanuelle who took Mandy’s place as my travel buddy. Then one day I was on Skype and chatting to an old friend of mine back in England who after hearing of my deteriorating money situation offered to help, his offer of 150 squid was exactly what I needed to keep me going although I felt quite bad not being sure when I would be able to pay him back, he insisted saying I should accept it as sponsorship, so I did. The Money from Ant meant I could go up to Launceston and see Cradle Mountain and still be ok when I came back down and was hunting for a job again.

We went for a walk when we got to Launceston and this revealed the beautiful Cataract Gorge where I climbed rocks, stuck my feet in the water and was instructed not to climb over the edge of the cliff and kill myself by Manu. The walk back was a killer, so much so that when we reached a service station I bought a spirulina smoothie! Later at the hostel we curled up and watched Enduring Love, which we borrowed from the hostel. The next day was Cradle Mountain day where we had apparently the clearest day possible, our guide informed us that the weather there was so changeable they often have anything from snow to rain or mist and its very rare to be able to spot the peak of Cradle Mountain, so for us to be able to see it clearly and have a clear sky with only a hint of cloud made us pretty lucky. What didn’t make us lucky was that the route had been shut whilst they did repairs meaning we got to walk around the lake and almost got to the route leading up the mountainside. On the way back we made up for the lack of adventure by stopping at a chocolate factory!

A bit of tassie bush

Saturday, April 17, 2010

I left the farm to explore the wider world of Van Diemen’s Land starting in Hobart, yes I had already explored it but never mind. Now I thought being in Tasmania would automatically render me friendless, seeing as no other backpackers seemed to be going there, and for the first few days in Hobart this was pretty much so. However little Mandy from the scandal back in Adelaide was about to visit, so after being in Hobart alone for a couple of days I had a friend.

Mandy, a Dutch girl named Analise, a Belgian guy called Michael and I set off on a 2-day trip of Mount Field and the Southwest national parks, we plugged in the iPod and took it in turns to complain about each other’s music choice and soon we were into the hills leaving the city behind. Our first aim to find the hostel proved a little confusing but when we did find it we felt a little silly as it was ‘bleedin obvious’ as the building with the blue roof that we were told to look out for, in hindsight we over thought it a bit. Anyway we got in and found it to be a delightful little house, which actually was the owner’s house, his kitchen etc. and he slept in the shed up the top but used the house in the daytime. After getting ourselves sorted and dumping stuff and eating lunch we finally went out and took a hike up at Mount Field.

The next day was to be our Southwest national park day; although Mount Field has infinitely more to explore the Southwest was where we planned to do a big hike. Today was not one of my best days, the day before at mount field was beautiful, we climbed waterfalls and took funny photos and generally messed about, then at night we had a Barbie at the hostel and the owner sat with us as well, we cooked up a delicious feast and chatted about karma and the point of being vegetarian, stayed up late listening to music and feeling very peaceful. So today I wasn’t feeling too energetic, my legs had half calcified and were refusing to move properly and I was pissed off at Mandy. It turned out I must have got the wrong end of the stick; I thought she was leaving her boyfriend in Germany, but 2 months later and she still hadn’t informed him of this. So halfway up the hill at the end of the day I voiced my complaints and then we didn’t talk much, we almost made it to the summit and then we staggered down, I got some lovely photos from the day and the morning was good but the end feeling wasn’t too good, and that night when we returned to Hobart Mandy and I went separate ways.

Van Diemen's Land

Thursday, April 15, 2010

My grandparents have a friend who is related to someone who lives in Australia, and they gave me her no, she in turn gave me the no of her daughter in Tasmania and when I called up Kelly not quite sure what to expect she offered me a bed straight away. So off I went to Tassie early one morning to be picked up by Kelly and taken off to the farm to meet Leigh and the Kids, told to help myself to anything and given a room with a huge bed, Wahay the luck still stands! So for the next 2 weeks I walked around a field carrying big irrigation pipes, chased sheep, went fishing for flathead and caught a mountain of them, got fed more food than even I could cram into my black hole of a belly and got several guided tours of the surroundings courtesy of Kelly and Leigh.

I got to see a bit of Hobart, which is a small town even though it is the capital in a space almost as big as England. Hobart is quiet and pretty, the harbour is lovely with plenty of cool looking fishing vessels as well as the large sailing ships now used for making money from tourists and often there is even a massive cruise ship sitting there looking as if it could easily accommodate everyone in Hobart. The state library is about the size of most YHA hostels and there is a massive chess set in Franklin Square, the museum is filled with random stuffed animals and odd paintings and then at the back there is a whole section on Antarctica that told me all about the expeditions that I never knew set off from Tasmania, but of course that’s obvious that they would. My first impression of Hobart was of an odd little fun city and I loved it, even some of the old Georgian buildings still remain, all in all it is a lovely little place.

Richmond also still has most of its Georgian buildings and is extremely proud of its history, being very old (only by Australian standards obviously) it boasts the oldest Gaol in Australia (yes they spelled Jail like that back then) the oldest Bridge in Australia and the oldest church in Australia. It’s amusing that there are three pubs in Sydney that all claim to be the oldest, so who knows how accurate Richmond’s claims are, I certainly don’t plan to argue with them. What’s even funnier is how Australia always likes to tell everyone how old their buildings are even though they are all recent history and none of them actually count as old, Europe has towns and buildings 100 times the age of the oldest Aussie settlements. That aside Richmond is very pretty and very English for that matter, it looks just like most English country villages.

Melbourne, the Rival

Sunday, April 4, 2010

My aunt and uncle had a couple of friends who played the music for their wedding, and then moved to Australia, Nicky and Stuart were still living there when I arrived and had offered me a bed for when I got to Melbourne. When I turned up it turned out to be a double bed in a lovely house and food as well, it seemed my luck was still working. So with so much time on my hands I went ahead and discovered only a very small amount of Melbourne, as always seems to be the way; if you have a time schedule to keep to you get things done and when you have all the time in the world you somehow never get round to doing anything. Not to say that I wasted my time in Melbourne though, I enjoyed watching Andy Murray power his way through to the finals of the Australian Open, I enjoyed watching Federa smite him like a bug, I had Australia day in Melbourne and I ended up at the party next door and didn’t return till the next morning. Jesse (that I met in Sydney) was here also so I hung out with him in my spare time (not that I had anything but spare time) and we visited the zoo together seeing all kinds of odd things such as signs that said Hati-Hati, a room with a billion butterflies and giraffes, naturally Melbourne zoo had some Australian wildlife but most of it seemed to have been shipped in from the rest of the world such as the bears, lions and hyena which are clearly not native animals.

Something strange happened, I met Nora again, I was hanging out with Jesse at the YHA Metro and as I was leaving I saw Nora by the door, I arranged to meet her the next day and off I went back home to sleep. So the next day I wandered into town and we met up to go for lunch at a local Indian, meanwhile talking about this and that but for some reason the conversation just didn’t seem to work, everything we talked about ended up as an argument. I had noticed the night before that Nora seemed a little wary of me as if she didn’t like me as soon as she set eyes on me, but I figured I was just imagining things and ignored it. Now for some reason we just couldn’t get on, we got onto the subject of politics and then it resulted in an argument, even though I’m sure we had pretty similar views, like two people yelling at each other and when you listen they’re both saying exactly the same thing but they aren’t listening to each other so they don’t notice. Eventually she informed me I had changed and was clearly not the person she thought I was, I had become much harsher and seemed as if I was really tired and grumpy and if this had happened when we first met she would have just walked away and not bothered with me. To be honest I still haven’t a clue what happened and what I said wrong, how I met up with a friend and suddenly we became enemies, it was confusing and a little hurtful and I’m sure totally unnecessary, perhaps I just shouldn’t talk politics with anyone.

Canberra, a capital with a difference

Thursday, April 1, 2010

After all this time travelling around Australia I still hadn’t seen the capital. Now in somewhere such as Italy that would be a heinous crime, however in Oz the situation is slightly different; the capital city is boring. This is not just me being rude, everyone on the planet who has travelled Australia or lives there will agree with me. Canberra was built because Sydney and Melbourne fought for ages like spoilt children over who got to be the capital city, and eventually some genius had enough and built a city between them to settle the dispute. The only problem with this new city Canberra, is that it had been built purely for the purpose of ruling, which meant that it was boring and totally un-distracting to office workers, except if you count the confusing circles everywhere or the porn industry; the ACT is a territory and not a state meaning that while pornography is illegal to sell in all Australian states, their capital isn’t in a state and so the administrative capital is also the porn capital, another gold star for Australia!

I only stayed for 1 day in Canberra, which was enough, however that does not mean I was bored. I have a habit of wandering into the right place at the right time, this habit led me to walk to the National Portrait Gallery and open the door for a lady who immediately afterwards exclaimed at my chivalry and offered me a ticket to the French masters that was currently showing there (her daughter couldn’t make it) this then lead to me having someone to talk to about the paintings which is always nice, and then to being able to see a game of Footsall, which is indoor football with an Australian name at the local stadium just outside the city. Maree also drove me to the new parliament house to show me the line up with the memorial, Canberra was a totally planned city so the layout allows one to stand on the steps of Parliament house and look over Old Parliament house to see the War Memorial which is a cool idea, but overshadowed by a mountain right behind it. In the evening I met some amusing friends, which explain some of the odder pictures from Canberra.

Festivities

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Kate invited me to go down to Wollongong with her and so I was due to go the evening of the Sydney festival. During the day I met up with the lovely Franzi, who came out around the festival with me, unfortunately it was only for about 2 hours so we didn’t see a lot of the fest. What we did see was a man in a dinosaur suit running about scaring little kids and a man dressed as an ATM, various bands playing different easy going music and an acrobatic show where a couple of fools were fooling about on stage pretending to hit each other. I bought some sandals and a hat (finally) from Paddy’s Market, enjoyed the random festivities and then ended up at a Barbie on the roof, courtesy of Polotoni who worked at the YHA, (please forgive me Poli if I have spelled it wrong) I chatted to him in the morning and my good mood and smile got me into a Barbie and free luggage storage whilst I was checking out. I bought my new GBF along to it and we ate loads and then I found a welsh girl and spent about an hour trying to convince her to come with me to the festival which was going on without us, in the end it worked but Jesse (GBF) was scolding me like a disappointed school teacher for taking so long and not just walking away, I would have but she was cute and I wanted her to come with us, so I made sure she did.

So off we ran with Anharrad (Welsh girl) in tow and spent ages trying to find Kate who was enjoying some awesome jazz music, which I can attest to be awesome as we did find her in time to catch the end of it and had a good jive, they even played “I wanna be like you.” (Some of us might remember that song from the jungle book.) Kate showed us all up and Jesse swept me off my feet, odd to not be the lead in a Jive but then an ex girlfriend back in England was also my dance teacher so I’m not totally unused to it. We twirled and spun, got very dizzy drunk gallons of water (which we promptly sweated out again), grabbed strangers and danced with them and finally the band sung their last song and we realized we were late for our train. So off we ran, knowing full well that we wouldn’t catch our train, I also had to pick up the bags I had left in storage at the YHA, but we ran anyway, and after a little while Kate said “Give me your bag and run, go get your stuff” so I sprinted, for the first time in a long time I ran flat out, through the obstacle course of human traffic littering the street, I ran so fast that I began to ignite, then I got to the hostel and had to describe in intimate detail the contents of the bags I wanted to pick up having lost the tags for the bags, naturally I missed the train.

So Kate and I caught the next train, we jumped on and sat there chatting to each other and the guards about all sorts of nonsense and she told me all about the place we were to go to, but not before a ridiculously painful walk carrying my 24 kg bag and a 10 kg carrier bag which felt heavier due to its awkward shape and crappy handles. When we did get to the house I was pretty pleased though, it was a cosy little place, very clean and Kate had set out a surprise for me that she had been hinting at on the train, we have a running joke about tea that started in Darwin and now results in even our nicknames for each other being tea related, the surprise was several ornate tea cups and pots laid out all over the house, from elegant bone china to oversized brightly, multi-coloured mugs. I was so tired it took me about half an hour to even notice it, however once I did I was suitably impressed.

So I spent a few days there, making combined meals of my spice filled cooking with Kate’s bizarre but delicious salad to make veritable feasts, arguing over everything from what to put in the food to the meaning of life to whether red is a good colour, swimming at the local beach and experimenting with metaphysics. We even ended up fighting when I bought a minuscule piece of ginger to use for the food, I maintain that I was right; although I’m sure Kate would differ. I would like to add that whilst not arguing we drank tea and got on like a house on fire, Kate and I do actually get on quite well.

Presents!!!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ok so for the last little while I have been travelling and doing tons of random stuff, I am also now in Tasmania which for those of you that don’t know means I have a lot more time in the bush and the bush doesn’t have wi-fi. So I shall do my best to finish this story of mine and try to get up the rest of my photos etc. maybe even another bit of film footage, but don’t expect anything too regularly.

My return to Sydney was quite nice; it rounded off the trip and sort of marked it as the end of my frantic travelling. Since then I have travelled very little and instead enjoyed my time getting to know people in one area, sleeping a lot and generally just mucking about, unfortunately this does also mean less pictures. Whilst I was back in Sydney I got to see Sydney festival, hang out with Nic before she left for NZ and see Kate.

Now this would be a while after Christmas, I couldn’t get to Sydney any earlier, but there were presents waiting for me in Sydney. My mum had informed me that she had sent over a present to a friend who was visiting her son near Manly, and that I was to retrieve it from her at Christmas, something I was pretty excited about as it doesn’t really matter how old you are its always great to get a present! I met Andrea coming off the ferry, I had no idea what she looked like having met her once before in England a fair while ago and not being the best at remembering names I was looking about hoping that I might know one of the many faces around me. Eventually she found me, my facial recognition obviously isn’t quite up to scratch at the moment.

After saying hello she plonked a large bag in my arms and said merry Christmas, there was I thinking my mother had sent over perhaps a pair of socks or something else small and easily transported. It turns out that she hadn’t in fact used the postal service to sent over a small parcel but given a big bag of presents to Andrea back in England, which she then took over in her luggage and had been holding for me for about 2 months. The evening with them went like this: sit in a café and open presents (list to follow), walk over a big hill, meet Lee and have a swim, go get takeaway for dinner (cringing at this point, I’m fussy), go back to Lee’s and meet the dog, chat and eat dinner (delicious), chat to Andrea on the way home. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet Lee’s wife Darleen or the new baby, which is a shame, but I might get to meet them on my next visit to Sydney before I catch my flight home.

New Years

Monday, March 1, 2010

New Years was a slightly sad affair as Nic would be leaving on New Years Day, upon a train that had no more seats available (naturally this was a blatant lie as Nic later informed me her carriage was nowhere near full) according to Great Southern Rail, however we made it a nice ending. Earlier in the day we went out to the market and selected some nice food: olive bread, vintage cheese, more olives, some dips and snacks and then a bottle of wine finished our picnic. We took the food out and went to the river (No alcohol zone so the wine was hidden), where most of the people had congregated but handily left a nice little spot for us with plenty of space to spread out and eat whilst we waited for the awful band to stop playing, luckily they promptly did just that and we got to sit enjoy whilst watching fireworks go off and everyone cheer for the new year. The food was fantastic, I was with my new best friend with a picnic and a bottle of wine on New Years Eve watching the moon instead of the fireworks and stuffing my face, my best new years yet and I didn’t even get a kiss.

Sadly though Nic was of course just about to leave, she promised to come and see me on my 21^st when I got back home, if I managed to get on a train soon I might even get to see her in Sydney for a couple of days but either way, she was leaving. She hopped on the train and off she went, half way they discovered the tracks had been flooded, so she came back to Adelaide, then set off again, this time on a replacement bus which, just like the replacement bus service back home, took twice as long as the train would have done. I didn’t envy her trip one little bit.

Christmas, yes I know that was ages ago

Monday, February 22, 2010

So I spent my Christmas in Adelaide with Nic. The lovely Angelica came back from Kangaroo Island for one day before heading off for good and on that day we went out into the Barossa Valley to sample some wine. Geli did the driving which worked out well seeing as alcohol has no effect on her, and we dragged Nic along too, luckily she didn’t mind being a third wheel. We toured around visiting first a little town and trying some cheese then off to try the wine including Wolf Blass, Seppeltsfield and several others! It was a beautiful day and good to see my gorgeous German again before she disappeared, her plans would take her to Sydney for Christmas and New Years then to New Zealand before home.

For Christmas the Adelaide Central YHA or Jackie to be precise arranged a feast! Nic and I met up and went to hers for lunch, it was free after all and they didn’t know I wasn’t from their hostel. We had meat, cheese and bread followed by fruit and ice cream and goon which is appalling Australian wine in a box. It was a good lunch and we hadn’t much else planned so we gradually drifted back to mine, presuming we had missed the Christmas lunch happening there. We were wrong, and what a nice thing to be wrong about, Jackie ushered us in and told us to grab plates and tuck in, whilst Shon one of the fanatical staff members interrogated us about our tickets, which we didn’t have seeing as Jackie let us in for free. So to all people who say ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch!’ I just had two of them.

We helped ourselves to a lot; we had potatoes, chicken, salads, pasta, bread, good wine and then dessert; cakes and custard and chocolate! Half way through Jackie asked me if I wanted to help, I said “sure” and ended upstairs pouring out the custard and delivering the cakes downstairs, each time having to shoe away greedy guests who couldn’t wait. Then finally we got it all there, arranged it nicely, took a picture and demolished it!

I had gotten into the spirit of the joining in thing so when Jackie said “I want some volunteers, a group 1 and group 2.” I immediately put up my hand to discover it was a trick to find people to clear away glasses and wash up, although after washing up seeing as I had shouted “I’ll be both!” I got to learn from Jackie how to make Irish Coffees. Which meant getting given a bottle of whiskey and lots of whipped cream to play with, so it was fun, and that’s how I had my first coffee, with extra whiskey. Then with a little help from the whiskey the singing began, Jackie insisted that we perform various songs, and so we did. Rudolph was tributed, a Canadian pulled out a song about tying down a kangaroo, an Aussie had a poem no one got and then I got to sing “Im gonna be (500 miles)” solo because no one else could do the accent. Like all days the sun goes down and eventually people get tired and go to bed, the magic of Christmas lingered just long enough to send me to sleep feeling happy and contented and nowhere near as homesick as I had earlier.

The rest of the time went by in a blur of random stuff, mostly more sleeping, plenty of wandering about, and I also went out shopping to spend my Christmas money from home, on shoes, no I haven’t had a large dose of estrogen, I had just reached the point where my shoes were carving holes in my feet with their deformed and deteriorating selves. Also a friend of Nic or rather to be precise Nic’s boyfriend by the name of Conrad was coming to Australia, he arrived white as chalk and soon became pink as Barbie in the sun. He joined us for our random little expeditions including going to the botanic gardens and hunting round the market, which in Adelaide is awesome and well worth doing all food shopping in if you happen to go.

The best day out was to the polish festival, didn’t make much sense to me at the time, I had no idea any poles had made it as far as Australia, however it turns out they had, we even met one (or a half one rather, some of his ancestors were polish), at the hay throwing competition; this involves sticking a pitchfork into a bale of hay and lobbing it as far as you can, amazingly good fun. I took the lead on my first throw but was then outdone by our polish friend who was in turn outdone by Conrad, who was overtaken again by the Polish Guy and then Conrad finished it off by hurling it almost to the fence on the other side, I was only slightly put out by being beaten seeing as Conrad is at least twice my size and therefore it would be just silly if I was stronger, and the prize was beer, 1 for each of us.

So far I had not stayed anywhere longer than a few days so this for me was a very long break, and a very needed one. I discovered something about staying in one place, and that is I met more people, and got to spend more time with them proving that my previous speed of light travelling method was not only draining but also crazy as I missed out on loads. The high from Christmas had me in a good mood, so when a new staff member arrived I spoke to her straight away, Deniz who was so funny I was usually cackling like a madman around her, is “Turkish, German!” as she proudly announces anytime someone forgets the Turkish part. She would do funny things like wear wetsuit boots to her night job when they requested black footwear because she didn’t want to buy new shoes. Then there was Mandy and Iris; two friends who I promptly broke up, one of them liked me, then the other one did, then I failed to avoid the obvious trap. And all through I had Nic, keeping me company in the scorching Christmas heat, take that englanders! My Christmas was sunny and warm!!!

The End of the Nullarbor

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Our last day was a fairly quiet one, stopping only for a trip down the longest still standing jetty and at a museum. The museum included all sorts of things from evolution of the country from its Gondwana origins to the history of the town as a stop for all trains heading in all directions, it was actually a lot more interesting than I was prepared for being rather sleepy that day, and I would have liked more time to explore, but when I realised I couldn’t see anyone I knew I figured it was time I left and rejoined the group that was probably waiting just for me. The jetty isn’t actually the record holder for longest jetty in the southern hemisphere, that belongs to Busselton, however that jetty has fallen down so is now shorter than the jetty we visited this day until it gets rebuilt.

The other members to our group were great and even included one extremely odd old Frenchman, who wore earplugs at all times. I think this might have been to block out all the random noises he made, which were many and totally bizarre; he would grunt and mutter, be silent for a moment and then start chatting to himself in French, only he had earplugs in so he clearly couldn’t actually hear any of what he was saying. He would appear out of the blue and talk to us in French and then walk off leaving us startled for a moment and then just cracking up, we tried not to laugh but really the comedy of it all was too much and we simply didn’t know how to react not having a clue what he was on about. He was a nice guy, but a little confusing.

Finally the time came for us all to depart, we arranged to meet up later and get some drinks and then Lachie dropped us off one by one at our abodes. It was odd to have spent so much time with them and then be going off our separate ways. I settled in at Adelaide Central YHA and relaxed so much I almost fell asleep then and there. Hoisting myself up I got showered and changed then headed out to enjoy our last night as a group. The journey was finally over, an end to camping and travelling so far, I had seen a hell of a lot in a hell of a lot of nothing and now the time came to do a hell of a lot of nothing in the city.

Sharks for some

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The next day was the shark day for those that had paid extra, and the surf day for those that hadn’t. Well I’m a broke backpacker so naturally I opted to surf, which I did. The instructor gave me the shorter fibreglass board instead of the huge heavy foam ones and I attempted to make good use of it by taking on bigger waves, sadly they were too big and I just ended up falling face first into the waves as I tried to stand up, although when I switched back to the big board I found it so easy it was almost laughable, at least it was proof I had improved even if I couldn’t surf big waves yet.

After surfing we visited some more dramatic cliffs, then a sinkhole, that looked like it had dried out about 13,000 years ago and was full of sand. Then we went to the animal farm, yay! It was basically a small zoo; you got a load of seeds and grain in a bag, then went around the farm seeing the various animals and feeding them. They had Kangaroos, dingo’s (we didn’t feed them), birds that landed on you and ate from the hand, ostriches, donkeys, turtles, parrots that aimed for the fingers rather than the seeds, camels, cows and more.

We went to a café to await the return of the girls from their day with the sharks, and then it was off to the pub, where we would get beds again! We got some drinks, I sat down with my laptop and used the cafés Internet, and we waited. And we waited. Some of group wandered off to do some shopping etc. and we waited some more. An hour after they usually turn up Lachie called to find out what was happening, which was that they still wouldn’t be back for another hour, “Sorry guys, we wont be staying in the pub after all, I’ll go get us some food and then well head back to the campsite.” He then made a call back to base to mention the catastrophe and see if anything could be done, “Its ok guys were going to the pub.” And off he walked back to the bus. A lift had been arranged for the girls later, whilst we would drive to the pub straight away and get some pizza.

We were the only guests and as such we had our choice of rooms, the pub owner gave us a pile of keys and off we went to pick the best ones first. I managed to grab me a big bed and dumped everything then jumped into a much needed shower before heading down for dinner and then meeting the local drunks. One Lebanese guy who was absolutely hilarious kept buying me and Nic drinks and then showing us how to beat the arcade machines that dispense DVD’s and Nintendo’s, which was by this point almost empty having already been cleaned out by him during the day. Poor Nic was light headed on the first glass of wine (probably because she is so tiny), but our Lebanese friend wouldn’t hear no, everyone else was outside having a great time and at midnight we all shouted happy birthday out to Lachie who was then bought more drinks by our Lebanese friend.

Eventually we moved the party upstairs to our lounge area, got some music and people gradually drifted off to bed as we carried on drunken conversation, I was tipsy but the only one not drunk seemed to be Geli, her German blood I reckon. So far I had been in the tent with Nic every night so I jokingly apologised that I wouldn’t be able to keep her warm that night as I had been taken but she was welcome to join us if she wished, being totally hammered she almost accepted but luckily for her boyfriend back home, she ended up in her bed and not with Geli and me.

Bread, Fish and Bear

So our wonderful but brief rest ended as we set off again for a little more fun. We stopped at colton a town of 2 buildings, to get breakfast at the bakery. No one was there, this rather confused us as there was a very limited selection of hiding places, we searched what little there was to search but we weren’t very productive and eventually gave up with no bread. So we got brekky elsewhere and moved on to the next hotspot, a coastal tour of some bizarre sculptures. Each one individual, and I mean that, there was a melon shaped man on a bike, a row of square heads and a pair of thongs to name a few.

In the afternoon we went swimming with tuna. You could feed them as well, giving the big fish little fish but you had to be wary of the seagulls who like to snatch anything and everything, especially fish away from people, oh and they also crapped on me, luckily I was wearing Angelicas hat at the time. Then they crapped on my arm and my leg. ‘Bugger this!’ I thought and promptly stripped off and dived in aiming for the nearest fish to take it out on. Unfortunately my attempts to catch the tuna were about as successful as my attempts to avoid bird crap. The big fish swim around like children given a double espresso, half sugar with some caffeine pills thrown in, only without the inevitable come-down.

That evening we pulled into another campsite, but this time with a monumental difference, this campsite had bears! And obviously by bears I do mean Koalas, big bears are not native to Australia, in fact the only large predator on land in Oz is the croc, and most of the time they aren’t on land. So I decided to head out and try to hunt down one of the drop bears not so dangerous cousins and attempt to make friends, Geli (Angelica) came with me.

The first grunting beast; (for those that don’t know Koala bears grunt, we discovered this while setting up our tents and hearing a noise like a large angry boar in the bushes which scared the crap out of everyone) was just plain grumpy. Some were asleep, some were defensive, some were just confused and then we found one that was only half asleep, confused enough to not have a clue what was happening but too tired to care, and this fella we named Bob. I of course had no idea whether Bob was male or female but this was no hindrance, if Bob was female than it should simply be short for Kate, a joke that only people who know Blackadder will get, so sorry to those who are just confused now, go watch Blackadder. Anyway I wanted to hug a Koala, or at least touch one, and this I got to do even though I was told I shouldn’t touch them, I couldn’t help it though they’re just so cute and cuddly!

Sand and Sealions

Monday, February 8, 2010

Up early again for what promised to be the best day yet. A start of sand boarding and then a swim with Sea lions! Oh yes it was awesome! We actually started by visiting some cliffs with a cave and generally a very scenic look to it, which we spent ages at, I was in no hurry being a little tired from staying up with Angelica so I didn’t object but eventually we were dragged away to hurl ourselves down sand dunes.

Ok so for those that didn’t guess, sand boarding is hurling yourself off a sand dune with a board underneath you. It was great fun; I managed to take a little chunk out of my finger somehow, which prompted amusement and patronising comments from Angelica when I complained. Most of us had a go and much screaming ensued so at least I wasn’t being the most girly. I had as many goes as I could and at the end raced with an English chappie who was Woofing at Coodlie Park. He won.

Shaking sand out of every possible hiding place we then headed off to do the most amazing thing I have done yet. The guy who runs the Sea lion and dolphin swim has been friends with those critters for 18 years, a huge amount of time (to me) in which he has probably had the perfect life, nothing quite compares to the feeling of wonder, being in the water with those Sea lions and 18 years of it, what a thing to do.

It was freezing on the boat; I think the general feeling about getting in the water was one of dread, however when we jumped in we were shocked by how warm it was. In fact much warmer than being on the boat and we were swimming for an hour in the water, only getting out when we were thoroughly wrinkly. Half way through the guy who owns the company jumped in, and then we got to see the magic happen. Ok so I said it was warm, by that I meant warm in comparison to an ice cube, or the wind up on that boat, so I found it very surprising to see him swimming about in just his bathers. He just floated down there underwater for ages, with the Sea lions right next to him. Not only did he seem to be able to hold his breath for about half an hour, he also was so comfortable with the Sea lions and they with him, it was like they were his kids. Nic damn her, discovered the secret to getting a Sea lion to kiss her, and me with my wonder photography managed to get a very crappy photo of what was an epic sight! The way the Sea lions swam around us, showing off by swimming circles around us land beings and the way they were so cute and funny looking made the whole experience totally magical. Nic and I just sat there on the boat after, shivering and grinning at each other like we’d just won the lottery and learned how to fly at the same time!

Unfortunately we didn’t find any dolphins, we looked, and were poured hot chocolate and tea whilst we searched as so many of us looked as though we might be hypothermic, we had after all been in the water for and hour when normally groups only spend about 15 minutes in. It got so bad I tried to sunbath by hanging off the side of the boat, then going to the front and eventually just using Angelica for warmth and I think at one point we both sandwiched Nic as she was turning blue. The last thing on the agenda was to visit some rocks that were supposedly millions of years old, though I always do wonder how exactly people know this. They were good climbing anyway, and I ended up taking my top of in the sun, seeing as it was wet it was actually keeping me cold.

I said last thing on the agenda however Hassie had one more in store for us; a wildlife tour of his land, I went on the later one with my 2 favourite girls and Nic was so cold I had to keep an arm round her the whole way. We saw a lot of Kangaroos, one of them hopped a fence whilst Hassie chased it in the car, and there were also wombats. Hassie led the way whilst we wandered over some of the empty wombat holes and we were told to tread carefully else we might end up in a wombats house, then later we drove up to one with 2 wombats that were out and about, they were smaller than I had imagined. Small and solid, dark brown and almost like newborn puppies, they have a hilarious defence mechanism, which utilizes their ‘butts of steel’, and they are nocturnal like so much of Australia’s wildlife.

That night we had beds! Man the excitement was overwhelming, not only showers and toilets of a civilized standard but beds too! They were dorm beds however so I presumed sharing with Angelica would have been out of the question. Although the French guy in my room did use earplugs...