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At long last, new pics!
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| Chad playing golf on Mars (Coober Pedy) |
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| Janet at Hancock Gorge in Karijini National Park |
Sunday, September 5, 2004- OUR LAST DAY
After eleven months of travelling through Malaysia, Thailand and Australia our whirlwind adventure has come to and end.
It's surreal and completely unbelievable for us that our trip is over. Not many years in one's life offer as much excitement,
emotion, adventure, and learning as the one we have experienced.
The other day we were talking about how we had originally thought that our trip was only going to take about four months-
maybe six at the longest. Obviously we ended up extending that a little longer and we are extremely glad that we did
that. We are leaving OZ feeling like we've left no stone unturned as we've made it to all four corners. The truth
is that we've only seen a fraction of this massive country that has so much to offer and see not unlike our home of Canada.
Speaking of that we have realized that we have actually just about come to know more about the history, places, people and
sights of Australia than we have about our own country. That in itself is a lesson that we've taken with us- don't forget
about your own backyard!
We have found the country of Australia to be a somewhat familiar place. It has all of the amenities, modernization,
and wide open spaces to feel a bit like home but it also features a lifestyle and culture that, although young, is unique
and original. Perhaps the fact that there are throngs of tourists on all four corners of the country at any given time
fuels the need to ensure cultural development and recognition.
Shortly after we arrived we started to form an opinion that has stuck to the end of the trip. Australia, stop paying
attention to England so much!! And don't dip your toes in American waters because there's no going back after that.
I wish that one country could make a go of it on their own without looking over at what the big powers are doing.
Overall, the absolute best feature of OZ for us has been the people. By far our best and most memorable experiences
have been with the people that we met and became friends with. We have found Aussie's to be both generous and laid back
people and that is a great thing.
For both of us, this past year has been a bit of a trying experience. Spending 24/7 with someone over the course
of a year takes extreme patience and understanding. We've learned things about eachother that we never knew or probably
didn't want to know. Fortunately we have soldiered on, albeit sometimes keeping our mouths shut, and we're still talking
so that's a good thing. This trip has both taught us a million things about ourselves, life, people, money, values,
and nature. Sure it sounds a little dramatic but it's not often that people have the opportunity to pack up their lives
and disappear for a year. The best thing about that is that you have an opportunity to observe and reflect on how life
has gone thus far, and with our new added insights, we are able to make changes and enjoy a fresh slate when we go home.
As many other people that we know who have had similar travelling experiences have stated that we will catch the travelling
bug. Initially we thought that there was no way that we would but now reflecting back on the most amazing year that
we've had it's hard to imagine not getting out to see more of the world at some point in time. The world is a big place
but when you get out to explore it you realize that it isn't as big a deal to go globetrotting.
Well, no more rambling, we've gushed enough. We're excited about returning home but also feel a little apprehensive.
Perhaps the reality will really hit home after a couple of weeks at home when all of the fuss dies down. Oh well, just
more motivation to plan the next adventure- whether that has to do with travelling or not- we've realized that we can apply
"adventure" as a philosophy to life in general. We're looking forward to see how it turns out.........
Cheesy eh? G'day mates,
Chad and Janet
Friday, September 3, 2004
Today was a last day of drunken debauchery for us. Some friends from Janet's work came out with us to have a night
out. We started at the trendy area of Subiaco in a fairly posh bar sipping expensive wine and beer while feeling like
we were actually part of normal society again. Pretty soon we weren't going to be those people that live in a tent,
drive an old station wagon, and wear the same four pieces of clothing for an entire year.
Our night carried on as a few people left and we continued on to another suburb called Claremont where we found a few
more classy places to eat some pizza and have a few more drinks. We had a great night and felt that once again some
of our best experiences were with the Aussie's. Both of us felt that Janet was so lucky to have been able to work
with and befriend such fantastic people at both of her jobs in Brisbane and Perth. They will definitely be missed!
We finished out the night back at the hospital watching the antics of the other drunken backpackers. While entertaining,
that is something that we have certainly had our fill of.
Last big night out in OZ,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, August 21 to Thursday, Sept 2, 2004
Since we ended up selling the car we were forced to pare down all of our crap that we had (minus some of the camping
gear that was sold with the car) into a couple of big piles and stuffed backpacks. The day before we left Darwin we
ended up getting lucky and sold the remainder of our camping gear to a local that was friends with the girl working at the
campground reception.
Janet ended up getting a long flight back to Perth that stopped over through Sydney and Chad had to take a different
direct flight later the same day as he couldn't make it on the same flight that Janet had.
The first week back in Perth was rainy and the weather was absolute crap. Janet was back at her job with Becca
Cosmetics doing some training and some various tasks-even a bunch of paperwork dealing with Canadian imports. She was
happy to see her coworkers again and had a pretty decent week.
Chad ended up spending a lot of time getting to know the downtown core of Perth a lot more intimately. In an effort
to be a little adventurous during lunchtime he discovered a Hare Krishna restaurant that served some fantastic and ultra cheap
Indian food. It was a bit of an odd environment eating curry while reading books on elevating your spirit to the moon
to the beat of Indian music. A giant mural of some sort of swami graced the walls of the restaurant. Interesting
indeed!
The second week Janet had finished up work and we spent a lot of time shopping for new clothes. It was an absolute
treat as we hadn't worn new clothes in almost an entire year. The rest of the week we did a little more sight seeing
including the museum and art gallery.
Basically a fairly straightforward couple of weeks. We've been lucky to stay in a fairly clean and new hostel that
has been pretty comfortable to stay in. We've been looking forward to coming home all week but we find ourselves being
a little schizophrenic and jumping back and forth between wanting to stay and wanting to go home.
The end is drawing near- holy crap!
Chad and Janet
Friday, August 20, 2004
Today we woke up to a phone call about the car first thing in the morning. Apparently our effort had paid off so
we quickly prepared the car to get ready for the hard sell.
Eventually the buyer arrived. He was a trashy looking local who wanted a beater to get back and forth to work.
He seemed a bit seedy but we went out for a test drive. It broke our heart as he raced through the gears and drove like
a moron. We couldn't possibly sell our beloved auto to a trashbag like this- could we?
Unfortunately we were weak and he began to wave cash under our noses. We negotiated and finally settled on $1200.
Not the most amount of money in the world but we were actually prepared to take $500 if it came down to it so we felt like
we did well. As well, monsieur trashbag wasn't interested in most of our camping gear and ended up leaving us with our
tent and some of the gear. Chad shot eyeball dagger's at him as he drove away hoping that some sort of subliminal threats
to treat the car nicely would sink in.
We spent the rest of the day feeling like we had lost a member of the family but we had to move on.
Clifford, your drama queen parents miss you,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, August 19, 2004
The morning got off to a bit of a slow start as we got up around 9 and sat chatting and having coffee with various people
for the campsite. There seems to be a lot of people our age here which is nice.
Today is the day that we need to get Clifford shining so we took him to the local carlovers car wash for his third bath
in 10 months (just imagine how much red dust, bugs, bird bits and bird shit were on him). We cleaned him inside
and out and it took about 3 hours and $30 consumed in the vacuum cleaner and pressure washer. What a shiny looking
car and to think we could have been riding in style all this time.
After we took a few pictures of Clifford we were off to make an add for all the hostel notice boards. We were both
feeling a bit sad about selling the poor dog but a bit anxious about having to sell him in such a short period of time
as well. The ad came out good and we managed to have a bit of time left in the day to put about six of them
up around the city. Cross your fingers.
There were three Scotish girls at the campground whom we actuallly followed up the west coast, we seemed
to be just a day or two behind them all the time. They were also selling their car in Darwin and when we got back
to the camground we discovered theirs had sold today. That was quite promising for us cause their car was a peice compared
to our shiny dog. We were compelled to stay up all hours of the night celebrating with them.
Dog for sale,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
After trying to get some sleep with the constant buzzing of mozzies all night we got outta bed and did the usual ritual
of packing up the tent and having cereal in the car. We had planned to spend the whole day and the night in Kakadu again
but we were lacking the enthusiasm for it so we decided to hit a few spots on the way and carry onto Darwin.
The first stop was an aboriginal art site which was about an hour walk past various rock paintings. It was amazing
that some of the paintings were over 2000 years old.
Back on the rosd agian we remembers just how much you can sweat in an unairconditioned car when it is more than
30 degrees. Our thermometer actually exceeded 50 degrees sitting in the parked car and exploded a few
days ago so we really don't know just how hot it was.
On the way to Darwin we went through a town called Humpty Doo. The resident "big thing" was a boxing crocodile
which of corse we had to stop and take a photo of. When we pulled into Darwin this strange feeling of cizilization came
over us. After being in the middle of nowhere for two and a half weeks it was quite nice.
We ended up at a fairly nice campground and set up the tent for potentially the last time as we were going to put the
car and gear up for sale the next day. The weather in Darwin was beautiful.
We did take a drive into the city to check things out and find out where all the hostels were where we could put up signs
for the car as well as scope out the competition. For the evening it was beer and trash magazines.
Wanna buy a car??
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
We said goodbye to Katherine and drove North East toward the famous Kakadu National Park this morning. It was $32
to get into the park so we thought it had better be good!
We started our tour of the park at the Yellow Water Swamp which was supposed to be good saltwater croc spotting territory.
Unfortunately all we saw were birds and a few jumping fish but it was a pretty area nonetheless. As well, there was
a cool looking river cruise on this area but we couldn't afford to shell out $100 for the two of us to ride on a boat so we
opted to walk on a free boardwalk out onto the water instead. Good enough we figured although it was obvious that the
croc spotting likely happened when you were on the boat with trained professionals throwing chicken carcasses into the water.
Our next stop was an extremely hot and humid bushwalk up a hill to the Mirrai lookout. The view wasn't bad but
we were starting to wonder what it was that everybody raved about at Kakadu. What's the big deal? There weren't
any gorges or mountains and so far seemed to be full of marshy bushland that was flat and lush or dried out and burnt up.
We decided to carry on in our search for something interesting at Kakadu. We stopped at Anbangbang Billabong which
was supposed to be Kakadu's most beatiful billabong. It was OK, but the flies were unreal and ended up chasing us out
of there. Strike three.
Ok we thought, lets go to the info centre, surely they will point us to the good stuff. When we got there however
we were disappointed to learn that we had pretty much seen the best that we could get to without a 4WD- ah, the old 4WD limitation
again! Rats!
We decided to carry on however and make the best of it so we stopped at a small town called Jabiru that we could only
describe as eery (we don't really no why) and carried on to a bush campground right out in the middle of the trees.
It seemed like a nice enough place until the Fort Saskatchewan sized mosquitos came out in droves and forced us to hide
in the tent for the remainder of the night. There were so many huge mosquitos that we could hear them buzzing around
the tent all night- so loud in fact that it was hard to sleep because of the buzzing!!
Kakadu, we love you, NOT!
Chad and Janet
Monday, August 16, 2004
Today we went to Katherine Gorge that was a short drive just outside the town. We stopped in at the visitor centre
to get oriented and ended up booking a canoe rental for the afternoon so that we could paddle down the river which is the
ONLY way to see the gorge apparently.
After a couple hour bushwalk in the morning we headed down to the canoe rental spot to grab our double canoe and all
the gear. We started out paddling on the beautiful green river that was apparently clean and clear enough to drink.
It was a great temperature and begged to be swam in but we were informed that there were several fresh water crocodiles in
the river. They aren't lethal but we couldn't imagine that a nibble on the shin from a full grown adult would feel very
nice.
It took us around an hour and a half to get to the end of the first gorge section where we had to scout out a path to
get over a rocky break that couldn't be paddled through. We grabbed the heavy canoes and dragged them across sand and
rocks on the side of the river and eventually dumped it back in the water further upstream.
We paddled for another half hour or so until we made it to the end of the second gorge where we stopped to relax and
enjoy the great scenery. On either side of the river were near vertical rocky red striped gorge faces with various tropical
looking trees and ferns lining the riverbanks. In some spots there were small "beaches" that showed the telltale sliding
marks of crocs sliding down the sand to get into the water. We made a special effort not to dip our fingers too far
into the water.
We turned around after we had a long enough break and started paddling back to our starting point. Rather than
try to drag the canoe back across the beach and the rocks at the side of the river we thought it might be a much smarter idea
to try to negotiate the slippery rocks sticking out of the river at the bank crossing. We slid around in and out of
the water trying not to break our ankles on the slimy rocks underwater as we held the canoe with a rope and let it bash around
in the rocks. Who cares about the deposit anyways! Eventually we even got sick of trying to "walk" the canoe through
the rocks and thought it would be much more fun to just jump back in and play Whitewater Kayaking games to get through the
remainder of the rocks. At least the canoe didn't sink and was in one piece at the other side.
Later in the evening we cooled off in the pool back at the campground and relaxed after the big workout we'd had all
day.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Today we crossed over the border out of Western Australia and into the Northern Territory. The great thing about
that was the fact that the Northern Territory generally posts a speed limit of "whatever the hell you want as long as you
don't hurt yourself" out on the remote highways. The other sign that greeted us was a sign that said "we like our lizards
frilled, not grilled". Ok?
We drove to the first town, perhaps small city, that we had seen in a long time. It was called Katherine and was
certainly much hotter and more humid. The other feature was that not only the relatively safe fresh water crocodiles
lived here, but the deadly salt water crocs too.
We checked into a massive campground not far from a salt water croc infested river (they stay around the water....right?!)
and enjoyed the beautiful weather over a few beverages.
Chad and Janet
Saturday, August 14, 2004
In keeping with our recent tradition of having to drive monster 700km days through hot and dry scrubland we carried on
out of Fitzroy crossing further into the desolate and uninhabited Kimberley region.
The landscape consisted of mountainous bushland not unlike a lot of what you might have seen in the Crocodile Dundee
movies. The only major point of civilization for miles was a little, non-descript town called Halls Creek. Other
than that we saw very little sign of human development.
We had wanted to go to a famous national park called the Bungle Bungles but unfortunately it was accessed by yet another
4WD track and we didn't feel that our budget could handle a vehicle rental and an extra overnight stop. So we pressed
on passing by various diamond mines and past the massive Lake Argyle.
Eventually we arrived at a reasonably sized town called Kununnurra which was on the W.A./Northern Territory border.
WE chcked in at a campground called KimberleyLand and headed over to the local grocery store. Like most of the other
small towns that we'd seen in the north their were tons of aboriginals wandering around except that many of them in this town
appeared to be particularly troubled. Many were extremely drunk or high and were shouting at eachother, us, or at nothing
in particular. At one point we witnessed an old aboriginal drunk punch an aboriginal woman in the face. What
a lovely place we thought.
That night we met a hippie couple from the Netherlands who spent a good deal of time showing off their Didgery-Doo
playing skills (Didgery-Doo's are the hollow wooden tube that makes a kind of growling sound when played, it's a
trademark sound that everyone in the world recognizes when they hear any Aussie music). They also tried to
convince us that their station wagon that they had purchased and painted with their own crappy versions of various aboriginal
art pieces were going to net them an extra $1000 when they went to sell their car. They suggested that we might consider
a similar tactic on our car to increase it's saleability. Yeah right-go back to playing your digery-doo buddy.
Chad and Janet
Friday, August 13, 2004
Ooooh Friday the 13th!!
We went to Gieke gorge today that was just outside of town. We headed out onto a couple of walking trails with
hopes that we might see some of the fresh water crocs that were supposed to be lurking in the Fitzroy river.
Our walk was reasonably interesting but it wasn't the most spectacular national park we'd been to. We're kind of
spoiled at this point and have seen plenty of amazing things so it takes a little more to impress us when it comes to your
run of the mill bushwalk. Still, the scenery was pretty and although we didn't see any crocs we have good imaginations
so it didn't matter. It was however very hot and quite dusty with the usual swarms of flies that tried, at all costs,
to get into any available exposed orifice.
After we spent the morning in the park we headed back into town and stopped at the local store. The town was filled
with aboriginals that were sitting around in large groups wherever they pleased. They had a strange habit of simply
wandering around aimlessly and rather distracted. It was slightly unusual.
Later in the afternoon we returned to the campground to hit the swimming pool and relax a bit to escape the sweltering
dry heat.
Then later that night we hit the campground pub to take in "Aussie Night". We ordered a pie and chips (with sauce
of course) and had a variety of local beers. The night didn't exactly turn out like we had expected (we thought aussie
trivia, movies, music etc. would be the name of the game but it wasn't) but it was nice to enjoy a meal cooked by someone
else that didn't come from a fast food restaurant.
Chad and Janet
Thursday, August 12, 2004
To keep up with our itinerary we bid adieu to Broome after stocking up on a few groceries and booked a flight for Janet
to return to Perth out of Darwin. We were in for another monster stretch of remote nothingness as we were about to head
into what is known as Australia's last great frontier- The Kimberley region.
Our first stop about 300km East of Broome was a small town called Derby. We found a fairly run down town that was
full of unfortunate looking aboriginals wandering around. Our purpose for checking in was to inquire about getting to
a nearby spectacular gorge called Windjana gorge. We quickly discovered that the access point- being the Gibb River
Rd. was a treacherous and rough 4WD track and totally unsuitable for little beat up 2WD station wagons. We looked into
taking a tour or renting a 4WD drive but didn't feel that we could afford it after spending the last of our savings on
the car repair in Broome.
After a little bit of research we decided to keep going to a little village deep into the Kimberley region called
Fitzroy crossing. We thought we might be able to access Windjana gorge from there with a cheaper 4WD rental and if not
there was also nearby Gieke gorge that had sealed road access to it.
Once we arrived in Fitzroy Crossing after km's of bush land and termite mounds we were greeted by the local cops with
a breathalizer and a speed warning. At least we hadn't been drinking but they let us off on the speed warning- like
we would have paid it anyways. After a quick check of the town which turned out to be a very run down settlement that
was covered with many more unfortunate looking aboriginals we settled on nice campground just outside of campground.
That evening we hid out in the car as we discovered that the mosquitos are man eaters and carry such wonderful diseases
as Ross River fever and other lovely incurable infections.
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
This morning we spent most of our time waiting for the mechanic to call with the verdict on the car. A little after
lunch we finally heard from him and they picked us up to retrieve our wheels. Unfortunately it ended up costing us $450
but we were up and running again and ready for another couple thousand kilometers (fingers crossed).
We headed back out onto Cable Beach for another day in the sun. It wasn't as busy today because most of the women
around town were at Ladies Day for the horse races.
In the evening we ended up meeting and hanging out with an Irish couple at a campground sausage sizzle. Incidentally,
a sausage sizzle in Oz will have you receiving a sub-par quality sausage on a piece of buttered sandwich bread with grilled
onions and tomato sauce. They have no idea what a good hot dog is all about out here.
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
We awoke this morning to get up and explore Australia's true tropical getaway. It's a long way from anywhere just
to get to Broome so it had a bit of a unique flavor and look about it all to it's own. Broome's claim to fame in the
past and present has been pearling and seems to have a reasonable presence of Asians who came over in the past to get in on
the pearling rush.
We started with a tour of China Town which was a combination of old chinese/australian style buildings and pearl shops
that were built to withstand the relatively frequent cyclones that Broome gets hit with every few years or so. A lot
of the town has to be rebuilt everytime a cyclone comes through so even the trees are all relatively young as most of
them get uprooted during the storms but frequently are just replanted in the same spot. Wierd!
For a little while now we noticed the car was making a bit of a funny noise and it was now to the point where it was
causing a great deal of concern. We decided to take it to a mechanic just in case and it turned out that it was a smart
move to do so. Our car ended up needing a new timing belt and idler bearing. The old one was in such bad shape in
fact that we were lucky that it hadn't busted on us in the middle of one of the many isolated highways we were travelling
recently. So, we left the car with the mechanic who would end up needing it for the next couple of days to fix it so
we ended up having to plan around that.
We figured that it was high time to hit the beach now that the weather was good and hot. We wandered over to the
famous Cable Beach which enjoys a reputation of being one of the best in Australia-if not the world. It featured fine
white sand and warm aqua colored water. It was a beautiful spot and we enjoyed a few hours relaxing- although perhaps
not as relaxed as some of the other topless bathers in the nearby vicinity.
We went back to grab dinner and a little bit of beer as the whole town seemed to have a massive party atmosphere.
Part of the hub bub was the Broome Horse Races that were happening at the time we were there. Plenty of locals and tourists
were getting all done up in their fanciest threads to go wager on a few horses and then after that they played a little
two-up. Basically "two-up" was a popular local tradition that was simply wagers placed by drunken revellers on a heads
or tail coin toss. Not a bad way to make up a bit of dough that you might have lost at the races.
To finish off the night and take advantage of the still extremely mild and pleasant weather we headed out for a little
walk around the town.
Chad and Janet
Monday, August 9, 2004
A very boring and long drive was in store for us today. We plodded along with the increasing number of caravans
and other back packer mobiles on a isolated stretch of highway all the way to our next destination which was Broome.
With exception to a couple of roadhouses we didn't see anything else in the 600km stretch of road.
When we arrived in Broome we discovered a super busy, bustling,tropical town. It was choc-a-bloc as the locals
would put it and we found a little trouble getting a campsite. Luckily we came across one of the last spots in town and
got set up.
That evening we spent a bit of time getting some errands done as we were finally back in a relative piece of civilization-for
now.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, August 8, 2004
This morning we headed back out to Karijinni National Park and thankfully drove on a sealed road into another gorge called
Dales gorge.
At Dales Gorge we started a hike that took us to the bottom and over to the pretty and lush circular pool. We then
carried on through the overgrown jungle like bush path and observed the signs warning of freshwater crocodiles in some of
the billabongs (small pools). Eventually we arrived at the picturesque Fortescue Falls where we found a beautiful swimming
spot and a few other tourists hanging on the rocks near the falls to enjoy some lunch and a suntan.
We kept going further on into the gorge past the falls and finally arrived at our last destination that was called Fern
Pool. It was something similar to what you would class paradise to look like. It was a shady fern lined freshwater
pool with a couple of beautiful little waterfalls feeding into it. It was a quiet and peaceful place like no other
we had been to and we stopped for a while to take it all in.
After we had enough we hiked out of the gorge and headed back out onto the highway towards our next destination of Port
Hedland which was around 400km away. With exception to an "asbestos-free" roadhouse near Wittenoom (the asbestos death
town) we drove through ultra flat and boring terrain all the way to Port Hedland. We were finally thrilled to be back
in civilization and had turned a corner on the country to arrive at the north coast.
Our impression of Port Hedland wasn't exactly thrilling as we discovered an extremely industrial and very beat up town
that featured a bustling iron-ore industry. There were monstrous piles of iron ore complete with giant shovel cranes
and processing facilities all along the water front. We guessed that when it got windy the red iron ore from the giant
piles blew all over everything in the town. It became readily apparent that everything was absolutely covered in red
dust- even the pigeons were pink!
Rather than become further aquainted with the dusty red town we opted to hang out at the campground and read Aussie trash
magazines (a new favorite pastime).
Chad and Janet
Saturday, August 7, 2004
Our first stop today was the the little known Karijinni National Park. It's claims a reputation of being probably
the most spectacular national park in Western Australia and is probably one of the most significant attractions in all of
Australia for that matter.
We began our tour at the visitor centre to get oriented with some maps and a few ideas of where to start. We then
jumped in the car and started down a gravel road towards the first gorge. Unfortunately the gravel road was one of the
worst we've been on with corrugations and rocks all over the place our poor car had the suspension pounded right out of it.
We were glad we didn't wear dentures and it ended up taking us over an hour just to get 30km into the park. Eventually
we made it to the Joffre Falls lookout which was a pretty and enjoyable way to start our day.
It was a quick stop and we carried on down the unforgiving road another 14km into the park. We eventually reached
the Oxer and Junction Pool lookouts which were quite spectacular. It was a point where about four or five major gorges
met and all of the rivers that flowed through them combined into one large waterway. The sheer, rocky, orange and red
cliff faces fell almost vertically down to the bottom of the gorges.
Next we moved on to the a hike that took us down into the bottom of one of the gorges with our destination being handrail
pool. At the bottom of the gorge we found a lush oasis with small, clear pools and ferns lining much of the way.
It took a bit of rock hopping and a little manouvering around the various pools until we climbed through a narrow passage
way above a small stream until we eventually arrived at a metal handrail that had a rope at the end of it near the base of
a large pool. We had arrived at Handrail Pool and quickly discovered why they call it that as we gingerly climbed down
to the edge of the pool with the assistance of the rope and the handrail. After a quick break to take it all in we turned
around and made our way out of the gorge.
Next we went to nearby Hancock gorge to begin our descent to the bottom of it. It was a fairly steep and reasonably
treacherous climb down into the gorge that finished with a steep ladder at the bottom. We made our way on the rocks
on one side of the gorge above a small stream. The path wound it's way into the gorge with a fair amount of climbing
and some tricky manouvering to get to our final destination which was Kermits Pool. The pool was a shady and very cool
spot with rock walls all around that closed in above us and were colored in a streaky purple hue. We enjoyed the sight
for a bit and turned around to head back out.
Poor Clifford the car was banged and beaten back out on the roads as we made our way over to another gorge lookout called
Knox gorge. This gorge was by far the deepest and impressively wound it's way off into the distance. At this point
in time we had to complete our day so we headed back out. Unfortunately we didn't have as much patience for the
bumpy roads and drove much faster this time around which pounded the poor car even more. It broke our hearts to be so
hard on our trusty steed and it ended up covering the car inside and out with red dust. The dust got into absolutely
everything!
Back in Tom Price we headed into town after supper to try and find a magazine and stumbled across the Tom Price annual
Nameless Festival (named after Mt. Nameless) which was a smaller version of the Salmon Arm fair. They had live
music and a few rides along with various other typical carnival features. We hung around for a while for the closing
ceremonies which were a massive and pretty impressive fireworks display. It was a surreal moment as we stood in this
ultra remote outback town while we watched fireworks with the locals and listened to the quintessential Aussie band Midnight
Oil. The song that they played was fitting as "Blue Sky Mining" is all about nearby town Wittenoom which is a freaky
ghost town that used to mine blue asbestos in the 40's and 50's. The asbestos tailings were and still are
everywhere around the town and ended up causing cancer in many of the towns former residents. It was a little spooky
indeed.
Chad and Janet
Friday, August 6, 2004
We packed up and drove out of Coral Bay towards the main highway and started on another long, dull, and hot drive.
The thing with Western Australia (we're finding out) is that it is a long way between anything of interest. Everything
is getting to be so remote such that it's even as much as 400km in between gas stations and there literally is nothing in
between- no signs, no houses, no farms, no stores, or anything resembling human life. Of course who would bother?
The landscape is a giant scrubby desert!
Eventually we made it to a fork in the road that we had to turn off to get to our next stop which was the town of Tom
Price by Karijinni National Park. We stopped at the road house which turned out to be an attraction in itself.
You couldn't help but laugh as we were so far out in the middle of nowhere and we pulled up to this super busy roadhouse (there's
no where else to go so everyone stops here) and were greeted by this super tanned Greek guy that looked like a Greek version
of Sammy Davis Jr. and reeked of Aqua Velva aftershave. The whole place was set up with speakers that were blaring Elvis
music (not the hits- the old gospel stuff). We bought a bag of chips from the toothless wonder lady at the "kitchen"
for $5. They were crappy chips too!
Fortunately we turned off the highway and were greeted by some much more interesting landscape. There were purple
colored hills and strange rock formations and placements all around. It became even hotter and drier and we definitely
knew that we were going into a spot that was about as outback as you could get.
Finally after hours of driving we made it into a little mining town called Paraburdoo where we stopped to take an obligatory
picture of one of those massive mining dump trucks (where the tires are taller than you are) and kept on going to Tom Price.
We eventually arrived in Tom Price which is a mining town built at the base of Mt. Nameless (the 2nd highest mountain
in W.A. with vehicle access- what a feature!). The town itself was built entirely by the Hammersley Iron Ore company
in 1966 and had a bit of a freaky orderliness to it. Think of the town in Edward Scissorhands with the long straight
rows of houses that were all the same and perfectly spaced with little mailboxes all perfectly spaced in a straight row all
the way down the street.
Needless to say we read our books that night at the campground.
Chad and Janet
Thursday, August 5, 2004
After a bit of a late start we got on the road to head North to the tip of the Peninsula so that we could visit the town
of Exmouth and Cape Range National Park.
The drive was hot, flat, dull, dry, and extremely boring. The only highlights were a military base and a number
of monster sized communication towers to serve as entertainment. We eventually arrived in the town of Exmouth and we
grabbed some lunch while making a picture CD. We didn't find much to grab our attention in town so we made it to the
tip of the peninsula to view an old shipwreck just off the coast and then over to Turquiose Bay to relax on the beach.
When we arrived at Turqoise Bay we were greeted by a number of signs describing the various natural poisonous and dangerous
predators lurking in the waters. Friendly little creatures like the ultra poisonous stonefish, blue ringed octopus,
sharks and not to mention a few dangerous riptides that had a habit of sweeping unsuspecting snorkeller's out to sea.
That was enough to keep us from actually getting in the water but we opted to enjoy the spectacular postcard perfect blue
water and white sand beach. It was a great end to the day and we eventually had to pack up and head back to Coral Bay.
On the way back out of the park however we narrowly missed about 15 kangaroos who obviously don't care about oncoming
traffic! We did however hit our second bird unfortunately. The first was on the nullarbour where we hit a duck
(I think) and it ended up breaking our stone chip guard and left a perfectly cut duck steak wedged in by the radiator.
MMMM lovely!
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
After a bit of a windy night we made it out of bed and out to the beach to scope out a good place to snorkel. The
feature of Coral Bay is that you can actually walk out from the beach into the water and start snorkelling the Ningaloo Reef
right there. This was a little different from our experience at the Great Barrier Reef which had us taking a boat about
two hours off the coast the get into good snorkelling territory.
We eventually settled on a spot and went back into town to rent snorkel gear. After some breakfast we made it back
out onto the beach and hit the water. It was plenty warm enough out on the beach but we were shocked as soon as we hit
the water. It was freakin' cold! It was cold enough to take your breath away and we both swam around with mutant
sized goose bumps on us. Perhaps wetsuits might have been a good idea after all. Still, ever determined, we stuck
it out and managed to view some pretty cool reef. There were plenty of cute and colorful little (and big) tropical fish
along with some unusual looking coral that resembled giant heads of lettuce.
Eventually we were frozen and since it was still relatively early in the morning we decided that we'd work on our tans
for a bit and give the snorkelling another go later in the day when it warmed up some more.
Later in the afternoon it became down right hot and the water warmed up a bit to the point where it was a little more
comfortable. We made our way down the beach to a few different snorkelling spots for some variety and we even managed
to spy a few huge stingrays which was a little scary as they were only a few feet away.
That evening we had drinks with a couple of Perth battlers and showered up in the bore water showers at the campground.
Nothing like rinsing salt water off with slightly less salty water!
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, August 3, 2004
We checked out of the campground early this morning so that we could head over to the famed Monkey Mia which is a reputed
spot to feed the dolphins.
From 8am to 1pm most days a few dolphins show up about three times to catch a few free fish from awestruck tourists.
The place reminded us a lot of Tangalooma Dolphin Resort on the East Coast but it was nearly as well controlled or, in our
opinion, respectful of the dolphins. Anyhow, after a bit of waiting and some picture taking of the huge pelicans that
were putting on pre-dolphin show entertainment about six dolphins showed up. There were four adults and two calves that
appeared to grab some fish.
It was pretty neat as the curious dolphins swam on their side in the shallow water and moved up and down the row of people
that were standing knee deep in the water to have a look at us. The dolphins played and nudged the rangers to get their
portion of fish and finally they were treated to a few bites handed out by a couple of tourists.
After the dolphin show we headed back out onto the road and stopped at the another cockle shell beach where we spotted
a giant dead jellyfish on the shore. We then continued on to an extremely boring drive through outback scrubland.
It was rapidly becoming hotter and drier which was welcomed as we'd been living in the "relative cold" of the winter in OZ's
south for so long.
We ended up stopping in a little redneck country town called Carnarvon which boasted plenty of outback mullets (not nearly
as pretty as their Canadian hockey playing cousins) and lot's of fruit growing operations. It was a good place to stock
up on cheaper groceries and fuel and we decided that we needed a new airbed as our other one was covered in mold and had two
huge lumps in it that made sleeping a very unhealthy and uncomfortable experience.
Eventually we drove off the main highway again and onto the Ningaloo Peninsula where we made it, with just enough daylight
left, into a tiny little town (actually more like a giant tourist park) called Coral Bay. The place was absolutely heaving
with people and we managed to get the second last campsite in town. It was a bit of an unfamiliar experience to be in
such a packed campground as we were so used to things being fairly quiet when we were in the south. There were parties
going on everywhere and we happily busted out our shorts and tee-shirts comfortably for the first time in a long time.
Chad and Janet
Monday, August 2, 2004
This morning we packed up early and left Kalbarri, stopping at the Hawk's Head and Ross Graham lookout's on the way out
of town.
The countryside rapidly started to deteriorate from lush green farmland and rolling hills into flat and scrubby outback
terrain. The all too familiar red and orange soil dotted by little green bushes and gnarly looking trees was pretty
much all we had to entertain ourselves with exception to the odd, very smelly, piece of roadkill or a few wildflowers.
Eventually we turned off the main highway and headed out onto a peninsula that featured some of the limited amount of early
French explorer's influence with place names such as Henri Freycinet Harbour, Hamelin Pool, L'Haridon Bight, and Francois
Peron National Park.
The area that we were heading into was known as Shark Bay marine park which, by name, helped us to decide not to go swimming.
Our destination was a tiny little town called Denham and as we were starting to get into a fairly remote area we noticed three
windmill generators on the way into town that weren't turning. We laughed and said that the town is probably in a blackout
because the wind isn't blowing. Well, as we arrived into town we actually realized that the town was in a blackout because
the windmills weren't turning. That's what happens when you are too far away from the nearest chunk of state power grid.
We got setup in a campground in the fairly full town as it's now the high season for tourists in the north. We
then headed out to Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites. Stromatolites are basically primitive organisms that grow
like limestone deposits into these little blobs that sit in the super salty shallow water. How else can I explain that.
The ancient relatives of these little organisms are thought to be possibly one of the first signs of life on the planet back
in creation times. So we basically evolved from little moldy looking rocks in salt water. Go figure?!
On our way back we checked out the 1884 telegraph repeater station and the cockle shell beach that was entirely made
up of- you guessed it- cockle shells! These little white shells were so firmly compacted together that some of the town
buildings are built out of mined cockle shell blocks.
On the way home we managed to catch another Western Red Sunset at the town lookout and then went for another marathon
to explore the little town of Denham.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, August 1, 2004
Today we rolled out of Geraldton and headed north towards a town called Kalbarri. We opted to take a side road
that wound it's way through green and lush farmland with rolling hills and friggin' sheep everywhere you looked.
We eventually entered into Kalbarri National Park and started to spot some early blooming examples of the wildflowers
that Western Australia is famous for. At our first stop we went to check out a beautiful, red, rocky cliff face that
dropped into the aqua blue ocean. The whole area smelled of lavender and was covered in the small purple flowers.
As we made our way along the coast to various rocky features and small gorges on the coastline it eventually started to rain
so we scrambled into the town of Kalbarri and got sorted at the campground and visitor centre.
After the rain blew over we headed out to see some more natural features in the area. We pounded the car's suspension
as we drove about 40km down a side dirt road into the "Loop" which featured "Nature's Window" which was an unusual hunk of
red striped rock that featured a large hole in the centre which created the view of the gorge. It was very cool and
reminded us a lot of the country side that we saw when we were in the centre. As well, the increasing abundance of sticky
little flies reminded us of the centre as well.
Our next stop was another gorge/lookout called "Z-bend". We did a small bushwalk to get to the lookout over the
gorge and then made our way back out to the highway after we'd seen enough. On the way back into town we stopped at
the town lookout to catch the early stages of the incredible Western sunset and then made it back into town.
That evening we got out our walking shoes and checked out the touristy, yet sleepy, town.
Chad and Janet
August 1, 2004
Today we move out of the apartment and back into the tent. Could you imagine our excitement. We are very
excited for the trip but the tent isn't exactly our favorite form of accommodation for long periods of time. We packe
up all our stuff and in the process the landlord came over to get things ready for the next lucky backpackers. We had
lets say a bit of a tiff about the cleanliness of the place with the landlord. He wanted us to have the place sparkling
when we left and we had assumed that it need to be as clean as it was when we moved in, which was not great but ok.
Anyway some words were had and we ended up grudgingly scrubbing the place only because he was holding our damage deposit.
For all you renters out there did you know (according to our landlord) that toilet bowl cleaner isn't good enough to clean
a toilet with!!!!!!
Well this little fiasco held us up a coule of hours but we eventually got on the road and shrugged off the whole thing.
There wasn't much to see or do alond the way to our first stop and it was raining most of the time...typical Perth... so it
was a very dull drive. The landscape was quite interesting for the first three hours then became just repetitive.
We managed to pull into our destination of Geraldton at around 6:30 and set up the tent. The rain had stopped and it
was actually warm enough to sit outside without wearing all of the clothes you own. We are definately going to
enjoy the warmer weather up north.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, July 26 to Friday, July 31, 2004
We have been trying to decide what to do for our two weeks holidays (Janet's work is shutting down for two weeks for
everyone to take holidays). We have been thinking abour going up to Exmouth and then back down but what we really want
to do is go all the way to Darwin. Unfortunately that is a long way to go and two weeks just wouldn't be enough.
So Janet has asked for the extra week off work and it was no problem. So the plan is to go all the way up the coast
to Darwin then Janet will fly back to Perth to go back to work and Chad will stay in Darwin to sell the car then fly back
to Perth after. This way we only have two weeks in Perth before we fly home.
Other than planning and packing up everything again nothing much happened this week. Chad got to go to work at
the Viva Chip factory again except this time he was packaging Feta cheese and olives.
The weather in Perth stinks....can't wait for sunshine.....must go find sunshine!
Chad and Janet
Saturday, July 24 to Sunday, July 25, 2004
This weekend we decided to take a trip down south to try and explore a little of the South West part of Western Australia.
We started our trip down the coast and stopped in at a few small towns and cities like Mandurah and Bunbury along the way.
It was a pretty relaxing and chilled out drive that alternated between rainy and sunny.
Eventually the landscape started to convert into beatiful green rolling hills covered in vineyards. We had arrived
in the Margaret River Valley area that is world famous for many small boutique wineries and specialty distillers. We
got a cabin to stay overnight as we just weren't in the mood to stay in the tent (still sick of it from the last two months).
That evening in Margaret River we had dinner at the Goodfella's restaurant that was funded mainly by birthday money.
The next morning we started our touring with a walk throught the downtown of Margaret River and stopped in at a few lolly
(candy) shops. The town was much like Banff in a lot of ways (minus the mountains of course).
Our next stop was a small town called Cowaramup that featured another specialty candy store that we had to stop in at.
After that we continued on our way to another coastal town called Yallingup that had a massive surf that had a fair number
of surfers catching waves. We checked out the beach and the water for a few minutes and then continued on to the "Wicked
Ale Brewery". At the brewery we stopped in for a few sample middies (small glasses) of chilli beer, citrus beer, chocolate
beer, and ginger beer. It was a little odd but was a lot better than we thought it would be.
After the brewery we started on a drive that took us on a loop through some of the famous Jarrah and Karri trees that
are famous for their massive size (some over 60m tall) and several meters in diameter at the base.
We drove on winding roads through acres of trees passing small timber towns and farming plots. It was a nice drive
and we managed to stop to check out a small waterfall (good old waterfalls!-our favorite) at Beedelup national park.
We made it home late Sunday night and had a great weekend.
Chad and Janet
Monday, July 5, to Friday, July 23, 2004
Long time no talk. It's been fairly straightforward living in Perth for the last few weeks. Homesickness
has set in at full strength although we do realize that we have to remember to enjoy the remainder of our time here.
During the week Janet has been settling into her job at the cosmetics place downtown. She's enjoying it although
wishes it were a little more challenging. Fortunately, she is working with a bunch of great people that makes for a
better day at work. Chad has picked up the odd labour job a couple or three times a week. Some of the places include
an outdoor furniture factory, a commercial bakery, a solar water heater plant, and the Crystal and Co. company which makes
Viva Nacho chips and other salads and cheeses.
On the weekends we've managed to get out of the house a bit to try and see the surrounds of Perth when the weather has
been nice. We spent a day at King's Park near downtown that has a great tree top walk that borders along the river.
We also have taken a few drives around the city to check out some of the many beaches around the city as well as the famed
suburb of Fremantle. Fremantle was cool and had plenty of historic scenery along with some major Sunday markets that
were packed with people. The beaches were pretty nice although many of them had an annoying habit of having a port or
factory nearby that tended to spoil the view. Oh well, we'd take sunny ocean access any day back home in Canada.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, June 27, to Sunday, July 4, 2004
Well, we had an eventful and very productive week. Despite the fact that it's been raining for everyday and we
are feeling like we're in Vancouver, we both managed to find jobs and we rented an apartment in the inner city. A combination
of hard work, knowing where to look, and a healthy dose of luck contributed to our success.
Our new apartment is a two bedroom, fully furnished flat in an area called Glendalough. It isn't glamorous and
also houses the odd cockroach but it does the trick and it's cheap. As well, we've got the place to ourselves and are
cherishing every minute of having four walls and a roof that aren't made of tent fabric.
Janet managed to get a 4-6 week accounts contract with the "Becca" cosmetic company. She is pretty excited
as it is something new and different for her and obviously an industry that she is taking some interest in. Chad managed
to find a job with an outdoor furniture company in the warehouse. It is tough, grueling work but pays well and suits our
short term needs for cash.
So far we've only seen a little bit of Perth. It certainly appears to be a younger city than many of the cities
we've seen throughout OZ and it has a different feel all to it's own. One of our first impressions was that it is a
very clean and bright looking city. For once the buildings aren't covered in graffiti (a massive and common problem
in OZ) and it's fairly easy and well laid out with respect to getting around.
Unfortunately the next week's forecast is calling for more rain but that is fine as we've followed our plan and gone
into a sort of hibernation in order to pay off some of the debt we racked up in the last month.
So that's it. It isn't the most exciting although we recalled an entertaining story from the outback that we forgot
to mention. When we were on our way back from Alice Springs we stopped for gas at a busy roadhouse in a spot called
Erldunda. It was packed with traveller's getting fueled up for the long afternoon drive to Coober Pedy. As we
went to pull away we noticed an aboriginal "woman" dressed in a pink shirt, flowered skirt, and sun hat with little white
hospital shoes on. This "woman" certainly didn't have a flattering figure as "she" looked like a bowling ball with four
toothpicks sticking out of it. On closer inspection we noticed that the "woman" came complete with a thick moustache
and adam's apple! It was our first and hopefully last experience with an aborigine cross dresser! Oh, if we'd
only been able to get a picture.....
This weekend we plan to take a drive by some of the most likely empty beaches to see what we might be able to enjoy when
the sun comes out,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Back on the road for the last time this morning. We are both lacking a bit of sleep as we had to try and sleep
through 50's country music being played loudly by one of the caravans at 2am. Those old wrinklies kept us young folk
awake with their crazy weekend antics.
We were both really excited to get to Perth to settle for awhile after being on the road and in the tent for two
months now. But on the other hand we are a bit bummed that this is basically the end of our trip. We will do all
sorts of stuff around Perth but now we are limited to weekends. Pretty soon we will be getting on that plane to go back
to Canada.
After only a few hours on the road we arrived in Perth. It was still early in the day so we had a bit of time
to wander around downtown and check out a couple of hostels before deciding that we should go to the caravan park instead.
Perth is a really nice city. We both had a really good first impression and are looking forward to exploring.
We spent the evening at the caravan park reading the classified sections of all the newspapers we could find. Tomorrow
we will have to get to work on finding a job and a place to stay......sounds like great fun!
Chad and Janet
Friday, June 25, 2004
After more and more driving we finally arrived at the first real civilization in a long time. It was the town of
Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Basically it's a gold mining town that exports the highest amount of gold in Australia. It's
famous for it's tolerance of brothels and the rough mining workers that frequent them. We figured we couldn't miss it
so we stopped in for lunch.
We never did manage to find any brothels and instead found a bustling and nice little city in the middle of the red,
outback dust. We had some lunch and carried on our way.
Eventually we arrived in a town called Southern Cross where we checked into our last night on the road and our last night
of a junk food marathon that lasted all the way across the Nullarbour (now pronounced the Null-are-BORE). We started
to feel pretty sad and a little overwhelmed with the thought that we had effectively reached the end of our trip. For
the most part Perth is the last stop on our journey (with the exception of a few planned weekend trips in the area) and we
couldn't believe that we had made it so far, and been gone for almost nine months now. We never expected to be
gone as long as we have. As with most incredibly fun things they end up going by too fast and before you know it you're
almost done. It's getting a little surreal that's for sure.
Next stop Perth, after that Canada- holy crap!
Chad and Janet
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Our mission today was to cover another 700km or so and to see those damned Southern Right Whales. We headed out
of Fowlers Bay and out to a spot on an aboriginal reserve called Yalata. On the coast was the Great Australian Bight
and we paid the abo's our $16 entry fee onto their land to catch a glimpse of the whales.
Fortunately we finally got to see the whales. It was very cool and there was apparently something like 27 whales
out there. We were attacked relentlessly by flies as we tried to watch the giants in the water but it was all worth
it. At one point we were greeted by a curious whale that came right up to the shore and slowly drifted by to have a
look at us. In keeping with our tradition of naming absolutely everything we see we christened the whale "Betty".
They were very cool to watch and were extremely playful. Showing off their tails and poking their heads out
of water were a common sight.
After the whales had moved on down the coast we continued back down the highway towards Perth. We were officially
at the start of the Nullarbour Plain which is where the trees pretty much officially disappear in all directions. It
was a bit strange but only lasted for about 45km until the trees started to reappear.
So what did we do? We drove and drove and drove. Gas is incredibly high priced here and we saw prices as
high as $1.46/L which was criminal!
Finally we reached a place where we felt like stopping (at the beginning of Australia's longest continuous stretch
of STRAIGHT highway at 146km long). It was a roadhouse called Caiguna and we basically camped out in the lot behind
the gas station. It was really attractive (yeah right).
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Today we start the epic and much feared drive across the Nullarbour plain. It's basically supposed to be one of
Australia's greatest road journey that takes you 2300km from Port Augusta to Perth on the West Coast. Along the way
is supposed to be some of the most barren, remote, flat, and boring terrain in all of Australia. So you can bet we're
looking forward to it right?!
Basically the scenery along the way was as predicted- flat and barren. Of course there were a number of trees and
plenty of roadkill to entertain us but it was pretty plain.
We drove around 600km past the last point of civilization in the town of Ceduna where we decided that we would try to
get a look at some of the Southern Right Whales off the south coast (pretty much the only attraction to driving the Nullarbour).
We pulled off the main highway onto a sand track that led us to a tiny town called Fowler's Bay.
Fowler's Bay was a totally bizarre place that you would only find in the X-files. It was right on the coast
and surrounded by massive sand dunes. The town itself (or settlement might be more appropriate) completely resembled
the scientific research stations you see in the Arctic especially because there weren't any signs advertising anything anywhere
(except for three) and very few signs of the locals. As well, the rolling sand dunes were made up of white sand that,
on first glance, resembled snow! Perhaps this was a place that the locals captured innocent tourists and chopped them
up into little pieces to use for fishing bait?
To our dismay we discovered that the whales hadn't made it far enough East along the coast to where we were but we found
out that they had been spotted a little further West along the coast.
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
We left planet Mars today (Coober Pedy) and basically if you want to know how our day went just scroll down to the Monday,
June 14 entry and read it backwards. Except we didn't take the tour and it wasn't nearly as exciting.
Chad and Janet
Monday, June 21, 2004
After over 25,000km on rear tires that probably should have been replaced 25,000km ago we decided that we had better
get new ones. We stopped over at Bob Janes T-Mart for some new "tyres" (that's how they spell it- I don't know why).
After that we got an oil change and headed back down south out of Alice Springs towards Coober Pedy.
Fortunately the drive was relatively interesting at best on the way to Alice Springs simply because
it was new and refreshing landscape. Unfortunately the drive from Alice Springs back the way we came was a lot less
than interesting. It's kind of like travelling through Saskatchewan for the very first time with an open mind and saying
"That wasn't the most interesting but it was different. Please don't make me do that again". Well, we felt the
same way about the outback roads.
Anyway, around 700km later we arrived in good old Coober Pedy and checked into our trusty Reba's underground campground.
We were looking forward to a comfy nights sleep in the ultra quiet and temperate underground tent site. But, it was
significantly busier and the place was packed with tents. To boot there were at least three chainsaw snorer's that proved
the ability of the underground campground to echo noisily.
Oh well, We're fueled by excitement to get to Perth.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Today we made our way out to the West MacDonell ranges outside of Alice Springs after a pancake breakfast put on by the
campground that we stayed at. Our destination was Ormiston Gorge that is revered as the finest gorge in the ranges.
We drove about 160km along a quiet and hilly road until we discovered we had taken a wrong turn. Had we continued
straight we would have entered onto a dirt track that would've led us into the Simpson Desert all the way to the West Coast.
Ooops!
After we backtracked a ways we found ourselves on the right road and drove another 150km to Ormiston Gorge. We
started out on a beautiful bush walk that took us through a dried up stream and into some rolling hills and valleys that encircled
the gorge. It was very beautiful and surprisingly quite green considering we were in the outback. Of course the
trademark outback red soil and red rocky cliffs were all around but in the winter it's far more lush due to a higher
rainfall.
We continued for a couple of hours into the gorge which was fantastic. The rocky cliff faces on either
side of us were covered in semi rectangular boulders that ranged in all sorts of odd colors. We saw purple, teal
blue, orange, white, red and a lot of colors in between. It became a very challenging hike as we got
further into the gorge. The recent higher rainfall had created a lot of small pools and streams that forced us
to rock hop to get past. Finally we reached a turn in the gorge that was completely flooded in. We had travelled
in about 3 hours and were only about 1/2 hour away from the carpark- if we were able to get around the corner. Otherwise
we'd have to back track and it was starting to get dark. This definitely wasn't the place to get stuck in the dark!
We walked around and scratched our heads for about a half hour as we weren't sure we wanted to take off our shoes, roll up
our pants,and dive into the murky brown water. How deep was it? What's living in there? If there is
something living in there it's probably poisonous right?
So eventually Chad figured he was going to try to scale one of the cliff faces and climb over the gorge (what a stupid
idea that was). Janet decided to continue trying to find another way across. As we were trying every which
way but through the water, four hikers came along from behind us, nodded hello, proceeded to take off their shoes, and waded
into the water. They quickly made it across and carried on their way. What a couple of twits we were!
We sheepishly carried on and made our way through the painfully freezing water which ended up only being up past our
knees. We finished the hike just in time to beat sunset and it turned out to be a very fun and memorable day.
For most of the day and the rest of the drive home we had been toying with the idea of continuing North to Darwin and then
all the way down along the West coast to Perth in the South West. It was pretty enticing considering we were as
close as we were going to get to the top of Australia. Unfortunately we opted not to continue on as we knew it would
add an extra week at least and a lot of money would be spent on gas and expenses. So we are carrying on with the original
plan of heading back down south to Port Augusta and then directly West to Perth over the Nullarbour track.
Chad and Janet
Saturday, June 19, 2004
For once we were able to have a relatively short driving day and we made it into the city of Alice Springs by lunch time.
Alice Springs was a welcome sight as we hadn't been part of civilization for a few days and were looking forward to some modern
conveniences. It was a bit odd to find such a bustling and fairly nice little city (about 30,000 people) in the middle
of absolute nowhere and in such a inhospitable place to boot.
We spent a bit of time exploring the city and observed an odd mix of tourism and backpacker kitsch, a youthful cosmopolitan
downtown, outback hardiness/harshness, and several unfortunate aborigines hanging out in the streets.
Our afternoon was spent getting a few groceries and checking into a campground. We needed to clean up and organize
a few things before we were able to continue with our trip including getting some new back tires and an oil change for the
car. Unfortunately we had to wait until Monday morning to complete the car repairs so we had to plan our itinerary around
that.
Chad and Janet
Friday, June 18, 2004
Another day to trek even further into the middle of nowhere. Our next stop was King's Canyon which was about 300km
north of Uluru and definitely the only piece of civilization in the area.
It was a fairly quick drive though. One of the advantages that we discovered about the Northern Territory in the
outback is that there aren't any speed limits in some spots. The road we were on happened to be one of them so we didn't
waste any time and tried to set a few landspeed records in Clifford the supercar- which fortunately isn't that fast.
Finally we reached the canyon. At first glance from the bottom we were a little unimpressed. Unfortunately
at this point of the trip we'd been a little spoiled and having seen so many wonderful and impressive natural features we
were a little skeptical at the canyon. It looked cool enough but we were about to find out how cool it actually was.
The first part of our hike was a steep and arduous climb up a rocky cliff face that quickly reminded us how badly out
of shape we are. Eventually we arrived at the top in one piece and started out on the trail that navigated around the
top edge of the canyon. The trail rapidly turned into one of the most awesome landscapes we had ever seen. It
was like being on Mars as the red and rounded boulders littered the ground and the ground was actually a rusty color that
resembled petrified scales. We crawled up and down and through various rocks to several lookouts that had us able to
dangle our feet off the edge of the giant, near vertical rock face. The experience rapidly became one of our favorite
things in all of Australia and nudged Uluru out of the way to number one spot in our list of favorite outback experiences.
The trail was also equipped with steep stairs in some spots that took us up and down steep cliff faces and into a small
gorge that was called the Garden of Eden. It was a beautiful tropical oasis (literally in the desert) and we enjoyed
it immensely.
As we walked the trail we discovered that much of inland Australia where we were visiting was once an inland sea which
described the smoothed and odd rock formations that we were exploring. This phenomenon dated back to when Australia
had just split away from Antartica and was starting to begin it's rapid change in landscape.
After about 7.5km the walk came to a winding descent back into the parking lot. It was absolutely fantastic and
definitely one of the most beautiful and breathtaking experiences of our lives!
It was late in the afternoon but we decided to do some more driving so that we could take advantage of our day in Alice
Springs tomorrow which was still about 500km away. We made it about 300km back to the highway after stopping at a roadhouse
that offered camel rides and helicopter flights in its list of services. Yes, there were camels in quite a few spots
in the outback. Apparently they used to pull old trains in the past and were generally run by Afghani's. Go figure?
Betcha didn't know that!
We ended up stopping at a roadhouse called Erldunda on the highway and camped out for the night there.
Chad and Janet
Thursday, June 17, 2004
It was an early and chilly start to the day this morning. At around quarter to six we heard a ton of people
rustling out of their tents and making their way into their vehicles to get over to Uluru for sunrise. We wearily dragged
our butts out as well and got into the car. We headed out onto the highway and got to the entrance gates where we paid
our $25 (each!) fee to get into the park. At that time of the morning it was a little tough to swallow that type of
fee, especially when we were going to look at a rock, but it was still something we had travelled a LONG way to see so we
weren't going to be deterred.
Once we arrived at the sunset viewing area we crowded in with a ton of other sleepy looking tourists to grab a good spot
to take some pictures. As the sun rose we were treated to the same light and color show that we had seen last night
only in reverse. To be honest we actually thought that the sunset was a lot better but that wasn't a big deal.
It was still very cool.
After the sun was higher up we drove around to the base carpark where the majority of tourists head when visiting Uluru.
The base climb carpark was packed with people and some were already starting to make their long climb up the rock. It
looked like a steep and fairly scary climb with only a chain to hang onto for part of the way. Apparently several people
have died trying to climb the rock over the years and the local aborigines who own the land and run the park plead with people
not to climb the rock because of cultural and spiritual reasons. There were signs all over the place from the tribe
asking people not to climb and we decided that we would be respectful of this.
Instead, we decided to do the ten kilometer base walk. It turned into a beautiful warm sunny day that was perfect
for this. As well, most people were consumed with trying to complete the climb that we had the trail to ourselves most
of the time.
At first from far away we thought that Uluru was really just a neat looking rock but up close we discovered that it was
completely different than what we had thought. As we started the base walk we came upon tons of different rock features,
caves, holes, and formations. The surface of the rock actually appeared like it was covered with scales and there were
innumerable nooks and crannies. In some spots there were freshwater pools and waterfalls and the color changed as we
moved to different areas with different lighting. Without sounding cheesy it was hard not to feel a sort of energy coming
from the rock. It almost had an appearance like there was something going on inside it and as mentioned before it certainly
seemed to have an aura. It was an extremely pleasant experience to walk around it. We guessed that perhaps part
of it was that it had a similar hue to hospital pink which is supposed to be soothing! As well, in various spots there
were signs placed that forbid the taking of pictures due to the spiritual significance of the area for the aborigines.
The aborigines respect and reverence for this place only added to the mystique and the magic.
After the walk we were certainly tired but looked forward to more. We already felt that it was definitely the right
decision to come all this way to see Uluru. Our next stop was about 40km and was a cousin to Uluru called the Olgas.
Rather than one giant rock the Olgas were a collection of rocks that were similar in color and appearance to Uluru.
We started our tour by stopping at a couple of fly filled lookouts to see them on the horizon and then we made our way to
the base.
The first walk that we tackled was into the Olga gorge. It was a spectacular and rocky trail that led into the
pink and beige colored rock walls that towered on either side of us. As we got further into the gorge we discovered
various wildflowers that had almost pastel colors and were unlike anything we had seen before. At this point we were
so surprised that something like Uluru and the Olgas actually existed in such an inhospitable and barren place. It was
almost as if we were viewing a natural version of the Egyptian pyramids- something that had no earthly business being in such
an odd place. Finally at the end of the gorge we were treated to a lookout of a small stream and a tropical area that
only seemed to be able to grow because it was in a moist and shaded area between the two rock towers.
Finally, we made our way around to the far end of the collection of rocks (it's stupid to say rocks as they are actually
more like tiny, round mountains but rocks are what they are) to take in the Valley of the Winds walk. We started along
a trail that was laced with over friendly flies who sent us into a bit of a frenzy. We continued on along a rocky trail
that took us along the side of Mt. Olga which was the tallest rock in the area and led us around to a large valley that was
surrounded with the other rocks. It was fantastic and incredibly beautiful but we could handle no more walking, having
done around 16km at this point, and we headed back to the campground for a rest.
At the campground we did a little housekeeping and then headed back out to Uluru to catch another sunset. It turned
out to be as spectacular as the night before as the rock changed from orange, to fiery red, to brown, to purple, and every
shade in between. It was very cool to say the least.
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
We got up reasonably early so that we could pack up and get an early start as we had a pretty big day of driving ahead
of us today.
It was a tearful (not really) goodbye to Coober Pedy and we headed out on the highway. Basically the road was pretty
flat and pretty straight with little else besides these little scruffy green bushes, the odd dried up looking tree, and a
lot of roadkill- even a few cows that had met their maker and were being picked apart by giant birds on the side of the road.
There wasn't much in the way of civilization apart from a few roadhouses and aborigine settlements.
Eventually we new we were getting close to our destination of Yulara (the nearest town to Uluru) and we came around the
corner to discover what we mistakenly thought was Uluru on the horizon. It was an impressive rock that had a similar
look to the real thing but we found out that it was actually called Mount Conner.
Finally we arrived in Yulara which was a little bizarre as it was a modern (even slightly ritzy) town entirely devoted
to tourists wanting to explore Uluru and the other various natural features in the area. We checked into an ultra packed
campground where we were practically setting up our tents right next to eachother. It only took a few minutes for us
to set up (we're experts now) and we met up with the Melbourne girls (the lesbians from Coober Pedy- we'll call them the Melbourne
girls for short) and we made our way over to a nearby hill in time to catch a fantastic sunset with Uluru on the horizon.
This of course is one of the big rock's claims to fame. As the sun set the rock changed color and brightness with every
fifteen minutes or so. It almost exuded an aura of sorts and we were all very much looking forward to exploring it further.
That evening we hung around the busy campground and chatted with other traveller's. It was nice to be back in the
thick of things after travelling around in so many empty areas (because we were the idiots who decided to travel south in
the winter time while everyone else heads north!).
We decided to head to bed early as we were going to get up quite early to try to catch sunrise at Uluru (supposedly the
best).
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
This morning we headed over to the Coober Pedy golf course for a game. We paid our ten dollar "green" fees
and started out on hole number one of the 18 holes. The course had no grass on it whatsoever and the "greens" were actually
a mixture of dirt and black sand. The fairways were the same as the rest of the countryside- red, rocky, and covered
with the odd bush or tree. We were bombarded by flies and dust as we tried to make our way through the course in one
piece. The most odd part of the game was having to hit the ball off of small squares of astroturf that you carried around
with you on the fairways. Ultimately we only lasted 9 holes (we are lousy golfers on gravel as well) and decided that
we'd had enough fun for the day.
We spent the next part of the day checking out a couple opal shops (out of the 30 or so in the town) and ultimately decided
that although opals are kind of neat and sparkly we actually kind of found them tacky. Oh well, we kept our mouths shut.
In the evening we checked out the drive in (which ended up being closed) and the town lookout to catch a spectacular
fiery orange outback sunset. It was very cool and we retired back to the underground campground.
Back at the campground we befriended a quirky and friendly lesbian couple from Melbourne who were on an expedition to
create some pictures and art based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee in the outback. It was part of a University graphic arts
project that was partially funded by Jeep Australia. Those lucky girls got to ride around in a brand new Jeep Grand
Cherokee given to them by Jeep headquarters in exchange for a few lousy pics of the Jeep in front of Ayer's Rock?! What
a deal!
We decided to hit the sack early as we had another huge driving day to get to Ayer's Rock (about 700km away).
Chad and Janet
Monday, June 14, 2004
We got as early a start as we could this morning on our way to Coober Pedy in the outback. We had about a 700km
drive ahead of us so we were kind of dreading a horribly boring and long trip.
Instead we found that we actually really enjoyed the trip. Perhaps it was our excitement and heading into something
completely different from what we were very used to or maybe it was just the fact that we were moving towards one of Australia's
most recognizable and famous attractions.
The countryside rapidly mutated from lush farmland to dry and desolate outback scrubland. Well at least in most
spots. The soil turned to the infamous deep red and various bushes and scraggly looking trees lined the highway.
It was actually relatively busy on the roads however because this time of year is actually the high season for the "Red Centre"
as the flies and the temperatures are at their most tolerable. Generally in the summer temps can get to as bad as 52
degrees C. Fortunately it was around 20 degrees and made for a comfortable driving temp.
As we continued along the flat and barren countryside (no signs, one powerline, and NO houses) we finally arrived at
a roadhouse about 200km in. We paid about $1.20/L for gas and continued on.
Our next stop was another roadhouse further down the highway for a bit more gas (you have to take advantage of any roadhouse
you see because it might be too far to make it to the next fuel stop). The sign at the entrance to this tiny town proclaimed
the following: Welcome to (can't remember the name- insert here); Population: 123,000 Sheep; 2,000,000 Flies; 30 Humans.
We were gouged with $1.32/L for gas and continued on our way.
Finally in the late afternoon and about 700km later we arrived at Coober Pedy. This town is the opal mining capital
of the world and something like 90% of the world's opal is mined in the surrounding area. Over 45 different nationalities
made up the 2300 residents who lived and worked in the surrounding township.
Coober Pedy appeared at first glance like some sort of Mars colony. There were signs on the side of the highway
warning of several open mine shafts and the barren, rocky, red dirt fields all around were full of little dirt pyramids left
over from digging mine shafts. Throughout the town were these small hills that had various stores or houses dug into
the side of them. Tons of mining machinery and machinery scraps were strewn all around the town. Basically the
whole place looked like one giant unfinished construction site.
After a tour of the town we checked into Riba's campground. We got to set up our tent in the underground campground.
It was another one of the small hills that was excavated into a series of tunnels and small rooms that you could set up your
tent in. It was a little creepy at first but we quickly found that we were going to enjoy it very much. It was
extremely dark, the temperature was a pleasant and constant 15 degrees and it was quiet- I mean so quiet you can hear the
blood pumping through your head (Excuse me sir, the sound of your heartbeat is keeping me awake!)
In the evening we met with the owner of our campground (a retired miner named Rick- who referred to himself as Old Rick
in third person all the time) for a 1 1/2 tour of an old opal mine next to the campground that Old Rick used to mine.
He took us through the various mine shafts and explained the rather dangerous and ramshackle methods of extracting opal from
them der' hills. He laughed as he explained how to make dynamite out of fertilizer and diesel fuel and showed us how
they pick a spot to start mining. Basically they use divining rods (much like looking for water) and a little bit of
black magic voodoo business. It was a little too out there to take seriously but apparently there were a few millionaires
running around in Coober Pedy- although you'd never spot them.
Later that night Old Rick was telling us about his life in Coober Pedy. He said that most folks usually end up
staying a lot longer than they originally intended because they like it so much. Yeah Ok Rick, tell us who runs this
cult. Old Rick continued with a story about a Greek miner who's been mining for about thirty years in the town.
Apparently when he was about 60 he stumbled across a major find of opal and made himself around $250,000. Instead of
securing himself a nice retirement nest egg he immediately went back to Greece and spent lavishly on his friends and relatives
until he was so poor that he had to phone a friend back in Coober Pedy for a plane ticket home. And this wasn't the
first time that it had happened in his life. Old Rick proclaimed that the town was full of similar stories of fortunes
made and lost. We felt as if we arrived in a true to life Frontier town.
That night we had the best sleep we'd had in months underground- except for those annoying digestive juice sounds and
noisy heartbeats keeping us awake.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Today is a good day for another market. We decided to head out to a section of the city called Port Adelaide to
take in the Museum of Childhood. When we arrived however we discovered a dilapitated old building that had more dust
and cobwebs on it than signs saying it was still actually operating. Obviously we gave it a miss and since we were in
the area (which was actually a grubby industrial area) we figured we would head over to the Fisherman's Wharf Sunday markets.
Our time in the markets ended up being rather short as we discovered a ratty old flea market (albeit was huge) that was
mainly filled with the kind of junk that people get as bad gifts from relatives and try to pawn off at the flea market.
If we were after trashy romance novels from the seventies, doilies, flowered lampshades, or used garden tools this would have
been the spot.
We figured we had seen enough of Adelaide so we headed North on the highway towards the town of Port Augusta.
It was a pretty boring drive that wasn't particularly scenic or populated. In the late afternoon we arrived at Port
Augusta which is a busy junction point for traveller's who are heading West onto the Nullarbor plain highway towards Perth
or North to the Outback.
We checked into a campground and spent the evening trying to stock up on cheaper supplies and fuel as our last experience
in the outback was extremely expensive so we wanted to make sure we saved a bit of coin at our last stop in civilization.
Hot weather here we come,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, June 12, 2004
This morning we moved out of our "four walls" we were a bit sad to be leaving but were feeling refreshed and ready to
tackle anything. We had seen a commercial the day before advertising a huge CD sale at the Adelaide Show grounds
so that was going to be our first stop. There were a few things going on at the show grounds so it was a
good oportunity for Chad and Janet to spend the morning apart. Chad went into the CD sale and Janet into the huge
surf clothing liquidation sale.
Afterwards we went to the Haigh's Chocolate factory for some free samples. Unfortunately the place was
a bit hoity toity and the lady was quite a *&$(%$ so we left in protest without purchasing anything. Janet nearly
cried about not getting any samples but she soon got over it.
Our next stop was the Jamfactory which had a bunch of contemporary art and we watched someone moulding and melding glass
which was really cool. The place had tons of neat glass art peices which were all very expensive but very cool.
We both thought before arriving that it was actually a jam factory that had a bit of an art gallery........fortunately niether
of us asked where the jam is made cause that is just the name of the art gallery. All in all it was quite neat.
It seems like every city in Australia has a street mall so we decided to go and check out Adelaide's. We were actually
on a hunt for what the Lonley Planet calls the "Pie Floater". It is a meat pie in a bowl of pea soup. We were
intriged and since the book says that Adelaide is to be famous for them we went on a hunt. We did not find a "pie
floater" and came to the conclusion that it was only put in the Lonley Planet so that the cafe owners can have a good chuckle
when someone asks where they can get one. The downtown of Adelaide was pretty low key. There were a ton of people
around cause it was a Saturday but it felt like a country town that forgot to quit growing.
After we set up camp we headed back into town to find an internet cafe to do some catching up. We ended up at a
cafe that gave free capuchino with each hour of internet time purchased. After 2 capuchino's for Janet and 2 Tea for
Chad and 3 hours each on the internet we decided to call it a night...that is if we will ever get to sleep after all the caffine.
Chad and Janet
Friday, June 11, 2004
We enjoyed our day spent watching TV in our "four walls" so much that we decided to do it again today. We got
up to go to the grocery store and get some sausages and eggs for a nice breakfast then spent the remainder of the day doing
laundry, cleaning Clifford and other chores, during the commercials of course.
We had decided that we were going to go to the centre before we do all of our sightseeing in Adelaide. That way
we would do Adelaide on the way back from the centre and before doing the huge drive over to Perth but after looking at the
map we saw that would require backtracking about 300 km. Instead we decided that we would move out of the on-site van
and back into the tent and see Adelaide tomorrow and the next day and then head out to the centre.
After our two days of nothing we have a renewed interest in seeing everything and Chad is feeling a bit better which
is exactly what we were after.
Chad and Janet
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Since Chad woke up feeling pretty miserable we just did a bit of sight seeing mostly from the car and made our way over
to Adelaide which was only about an hours drive.
We were both needing a bit of a break from being professional tourists as we weren't enjoying things as much as we should
have been so we decided to get an on-site van at a caravan park in Adelaide. An on-site van for all you Canadians is
just a travel trailer that is permanent at a caravan park and you can rent it by the night.
After a quick driving tour of Adelaide we found a Caravan park and spent the rest of the day and night in our "four walls"
of the on-site van watching Dr. Phil and Opera and Janet listening to Chad whimper and whine about not feeling well.
It was actually a nice treat to have walls and a TV for the day.
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Well the thunder storm that was miles out to sea eventually made it to land, our caravan park at 4am to be exact.
The tent was practically caving in on us from the wind and Chad got up to put the tent pegs in that we didn't think that we
would need cause it was such a nice evening last night. A thunder storm with lots of rain is really loud when you are
in a tent and needless to say we didn't get much sleep.
The rain cleared away at around 8 am and after our morning ritual including cereal in the car we were off to photograph
Larry The Big Lobster. Just another one of Australia's "Big Things".
Since Kingston didn't really have much to offer (other than Larry) we just carried on up the coast to the Fleurieu Peninsula
which is where Victor Harbor, the whale watching place, is.
The peninsula was full of little towns of approx 600 people with Victor Harbor being the largest (7300 people).
We went straight to the beach to see what we could see. Unfortunately it had been raining off and on all day and you
couldn't really see much of anything. We are starting to wonder if this whole whale watching thing is just a ploy to
get the tourists to some of these smaller towns and they actually don't exsit. Okay, so we've only been looking for
2 days.
Chad wasn't really feeling up to anything major as he was coming down with a cold so we called it an early night and
retired to read books in Clifford......again.
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
This morning we discovered that we were in one of the southern coast's best places for whale watching. Apparently
the whales come up from the Antartica to have their babies in the warmer waters of Australia. In Warrnambool there is
a beach, nicknamed "the nursery", where the whales sick around with their babies until they are strong enough to make the
trip back to the Antartica. We were really excited about this cause we were actually in Warrnambool at the right
time to see them.
Off we went to "the nursery" expecting that as soon as we got to the veiwing platform we would be seeing the whales.
Well apparently it doesn't work like that, apparently whales aren't predictable or reliable. We got talking to an older
could who lived in the town and they were telling us that the whales come around 50 metres from the shore and you can watch
them play and lounge for most of the day but they haven't arrived yet. There had been a couple of sightings within
a few km's of the nursery but I guess it just wasn't our lucky day.
We went up on the bluff to stake watch for a while but no signs of them so we went to the information centre to see where
the whales routinely hit farther along the coast as we had planned to leave Warrnambool that day. They told us that
Victor Harbor, just outside of Adelaide, was a good spot to see them and since that was the direction we were heading we thought
that we were sure to see one.
But first one last stop up at the bluff for lunch just in case one decided to make it's way to the nursery. No
such luck. After that we were back on the road again aiming to spend the night in Kingston.
The caravan park that we stayed at was right on the water and it was actually warm enough to sit outside which
was a nice change. Chad kept on seeing a flash of light over the water and we realized it was actually a thunder storm
quite a ways out to sea. We went over to the beach and watched it for about an hour. It was really cool to see
the lightning so far away flash across the water and was a nice way to end the evening.
Chad and Janet
Monday, June 7, 2004
We left Melbourne this morning around our usually bright and early 10am and headed towards the Great Ocean Road.
It kinda feels like this is the next part of our trip and we are looking forward to it. The scenery leaving Melbourne
was nothing to write about so we wont. The Great Ocean Road on the other hand was fantastic. Janet got to enjoy
the most of it as Chad had to concentrate on keeping Clifford on the twisty curvy road.
Just before we reached the Great Ocean Road we stopped at Torquay to see the surf musem (we have a great interest now
that we're pros). It was crazy to see the 18 foot plywood boards that they used back in the day. After the surf
musem we went to Bells Beach, where they filmed the movie Point Break with Keanu Reeves, for lunch. Yet another wonderfull
place to eat peanut butter sangers.
It was getting late in the afternoon and we were just at the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. There were
several stop off points to look at the fabulous views and some unusual sights. The one that you see in all the
published photos is the Twelve Apostles which is twelve huge rock columns situated in the surf. By the time
we got there the sun was setting and the view was fantastic. One of our favorite spots in Oz. Further down
the road there was the arch and some other sights that we actually missed because it was dark. We carried on to Warrnambool
to spend the night.
We set up the tent and decided that all our hard work deserved a meal not cooked by us. We went downtown Warrnambool
which was actually quite neat and ate at Fishtales cafe. It was really good but then again anything is better than soup
or noodles at this point. Afterwards we headed back to the caravan park to sit in Clifford and read books before heading
off to sleepy time.
Chad and Janet
Sunday, June 6, 2004
This morning we headed to the Melbourne Gaol (jail). It was in a lot better shape than those in Tasmania
although it was a little bit newer. It was filled with "death masks" of various criminals who spent time there (death
masks were plaster casts made of the criminals who were hanged) and plenty of info and stories. The highlight was all
the info on the infamous bushranger (kind of like the Aussie version of Billy the Kid) Ned Kelly who was hanged in the gaol.
It was a bit of a creepy place with the hanging chamber and most of the criminals that spent time there were pretty tough
cookies.
After the gaol we headed over to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image which was a huge high tech sort of museum
dedicated to the film arts and media in OZ. It was pretty cool and we spent a bit of time checking out student animations.
Finally we spent the rest of the day walking around downtown and had supper at "Georgie Pie". Can't live without them
meat pies!
Overall Melbourne is a very multicultural city. It happens to have the second highest population of greeks in the
world- outside of Greece! And it shows. There are also a lot of Turkish, Lebanese, Italian, and Arab immigrants
that have really made a mark on the city. The downtown area that we spent a lot of time in definitely had a unique international
look unlike any other city that we had seen in OZ so far. We also noticed that fashion, protest, and art are extremely
important in Melbourne. Everybody seems to be wearing designer something and the chic snooty look seems to be in.
It's pretty fast paced but has a bit more of a retro vibe with all of the trams running around the downtown streets.
It's kind of like a working class San Francisco- if you can imagine that?
Saturday, June 5, 2004
Last night on the ferry was not exactly a joy. We didn't get too much sleep but everything was relatively uneventful.
We checked into a campground in the morning in Melbourne and then headed down to Brunswick street to catch some breakfast
at a place called Don Camillo's. We then took in a massive market to check out where everybody buys their fresh produce,
leather jackets, and anything else that you might or might not be looking for. Unfortunately that was the end of our
energy and we had to stick around the campsite to do "chores".
Tasmania Continued: Port Arthur to Hobart
The morning after the ghost tour we headed back to the Port Arthur historic site to finish touring the rest of the buildings
in the compound. We made our way through remnants of a church and a number of restored houses that belonged to priests
and officials that worked at the prisons. It was a different experience to be in the houses during the daylight after
seeing them at night on the ghost tour.
After lunch we left Port Arthur and drove towards Hobart. Along the way we stopped at a few breath taking natural
features that the ocean had carved into the coast line of the Peninsula that we were on. Our first stop was the "Remarkable
Cave" which was aptly named. It was a giant cave that had been eroded by the sea in a strange pattern to create a long
and narrow cave that would fill up with water and then drain as the tide washed in. After that we moved on to see a
few other cool features including "Devil's Kitchen" around EagleHawk neck.
Finally we made it into Hobart and after a little bit of research at the information centre we decided that we would
stay in Richmond again because we had planned to go to the Cadbury chocolate factory tour in the morning and it would be closer
to get to if we stayed there.
The next morning we arrived at the Cadbury chocolate factory in Hobart. They made us wear hairnets and Chad also
had to wear a cover on his face because he hadn't shaved (if you want to look really stupid, add the face cover when wearing
a hairnet!). We made our way through the factory where we got to sample a lot of chocolate. It was great and we
found out that the lucky bastards who work there get to eat as much chocolate as they like! We got to watch how they
make some of the Aussie favorites including Cherry Ripe, Turkish Delight, and the Dairymilk bar (that has about a hundred
variations). Janet was in heaven as she is a complete and total chocoholic. After the tour we were allowed to
go through the "offsales" which was a clearance area of low priced misfits and mispackaged chocolates that were all still
fine for eating but looked a little messed up. We ended up walking out with about $15 worth of chocolate which is quite
a lot when you are buying bulk, wholesale, clearance priced chocolate.
We then had a bit of lunch and made our way over to the Cascade brewery which is Tasmania's biggest and one of the oldest
breweries in OZ. We toured the brewery for about two hours and then stopped for a few free samples at the end.
It was decent enough beer but our verdict was that we prefer Boag's much better (the other Tasmanian beer).
The following day we toured around the downtown area of Hobart while we waited to get our car oil changed. It was
a busy and bustling area with endless streets of shops. Hobartians love to shop apparently! Later we picked up
the car and continued touring around Hobart. We explored the harbour and Salamanca place which was made up of a bunch
of nicely restored buildings from the late 1800's. Finally we made our way up Mt. Wellington which is right on the edge
of town. At the top it was absolutely freezing and we found the most snow we had ever seen in OZ. Not that much
of course but it was enough to make a snowball. Just like home! sniff...
Overall we really liked Hobart and thought it was one of the most lively and cool towns in OZ. Despite the fact
it was only around 150,000 or so in population it had the look, feel, and attitude of a much larger cosmopolitan city (without
all the accompanying bullshit). Being in Hobart is so much different than anywhere else in OZ- Tasmania might as
well be a different country altogether.
Southern Tasmania
Unfortunately we didn't do too much in Southern Tas. Our tour consisted of a drive out of Hobart through a number
of small and uninteresting towns while it rained almost non stop. We finally ended up in Dover, camped overnight and
then woke up to non stop rain again. Our plans to see the Taroona shot tower, Tahune Airwalk, and a couple of national
parks were abandoned in favor of heading West. Nice country side though.
The West
As we drove back through Hobart after coming up from the South we veered off onto a long and very deserted highway that
eventually started twisting it's way into mountainous terrain that was very reminiscent of home. This was the closest
that we had come to a place that looked like Western Canada (although the mountains were still a lot smaller). There
were endless rolling hills and about a billion sheep (hence all of the OZ mainlander's jokes about Tasmanians and their supposed
preference for mutton when horny). We even came across snow and hail in a few places.
Finally the terrain morphed into something between Drumheller and Golden. At first we were in awe of the tree less
hills that were covered with purpleish covered rocks and the strange barren look that the area had. Unfortunately we
were later to find out that our destination of Queenstown that was surrounded by these barren hills was home to a copper smelter
for years. A combination of choking pollution and rampant mining activity had actually stripped the once heavily forested
hills bare. We then arrived into the small, and very depressing, mining town of Queenstown. It was overcast and
with the combination of the environmental disaster surrounding the town and the dingy appearance of the houses
we weren't exactly overjoyed to stay there. But we had been on the road for quite a while and we definitely
figured out by now that if you want to save a small Aussie critter's life you don't want to drive at night.
The next morning we checked out of Queenstown and headed to the "rugged" West coast of Tasmania to a much nicer
town called Strahan. We stopped to eat breakfast at "Ocean beach" where the waves pummeled the coast so hard that there
was a thick foam all along the edge of the beach. Or was that pollution? We continued on our way up the West
coast with various stops along the way for photo opportunities. Finally we made it to the city of Burnie
on the North coast and then back into Devonport to catch the ferry back into Melbourne.
Overall our impression of Tasmania was good. But, perhaps we had too high expectations as a lot of people
had said that it was one of the best spots in OZ, which it is, but it's also the most like home with exception
of the coast. So, it might have been possible that we were expecting something completely different.
Oh well, is Don, is good as they say.
TASMANIA: Tuesday, May 24, to Friday, June 4, 2004
North East Tasmania
Sorry long time no write. The internet access in Tas was few and far between. When we did find it it was
either unbearably slow or really expensive.
Our night on the ferry from Melbourne was uncomfortable and neither of us ever really got much sleep. Never the
less at 5:45am we were woken up and then at around 7:00am we arrived in Devonport at the North Central coast of Tasmania.
We grabbed some breakfast and coffee at McDonald's, hit the information centre, and set out on the road.
The town of Devonport was very much like pictures we had seen of Novia Scotia and Newfoundland. Definitely a seaside
fishing and port town that was covered in fog. The weather was cool but not unbearable in the least. As we headed
out of Devonport the country side turned into rolling hills covered with extremely lush green grass, trees, and more fog.
It was quite pretty and we enjoyed the drive.
After we made it to a small town called Deloraine we turned off the main highway to head towards a small town called
Mole Creek. Along the way we stopped to do a hike at Alum Cliffs, went to a small honey factory for taste testing (we
walked out of there with a jar of cinnamon honey), and finally made it out to a small boardwalk on the top of a mountain to
view the "Devil's Gullet". It actually started to snow up there and almost brought tears to our eyes with homesickness.
The first time seeing snow since leaving Canada!
We retraced our path from Devil's Gullet back out onto the main highway towards the city of Launceston. Along the
way we went through a few small heritage towns and discovered that Tasmanians are in fact Tasmaniacs! They seem to like
to drive as if their cars have magnets attached to the front of their cars which enables them to stick like glue to cars in
front of them. It was quite frustrating!
Eventually we arrived in Launceston which is Australia's third oldest city. The vintage of several of the old buildings
in the downtown core were from the mid 1800's and a lot of them had been nicely restored. We ended up doing a few short
tours around the city before we checked in to tent out in the cold at a campground.
The next morning we thawed out in the showers from our chilly night and continued exploring Launceston. We did
a walk around the Cataract Gorge near the town centre which was absolutely beautiful. Chad discovered to his delight
an avenue called Batman Avenue on the way out of the gorge. On our way out of town around lunch time we stopped at the
Boag's brewery. Boag's is one of Tasmania's oldest breweries and we wanted to take a tour although we couldn't get in
due to lack of space on the tours.
Instead we decided to continue on towards our next destination which was a small seaside town on the North East coast
called St. Helen's. Along the way to St. Helen's the country side continued to convert into cool temperate rainforests,
rolling green hills with inumerable sheep, and small mountains. We ended up stopping at a tiny little village called
Pyengana to visit the Pyengana cheese factory. It had been raining all day so we decided to partake in the indoor activities.
We sampled a variety of cheeses and learned all about the historic methods of cloth cheese making (because every body wants
to know how to do that right?!).
Finally, we finished our drive and ended up in St. Helen's on the East Coast of Tas. It was a chilly and rainy
day so we checked into a campground quickly. Unfortunately we spent most of the night (well actually Chad the shitty
firemaker) trying to start a fire with wet firewood whilst sampling a few tasty Boag's brews. The beer was good but
the fire was not.
The next morning we got up to drive to the St. Colomba falls. It was a gorgeous spot to have breakfast and we discovered
one of the advantages of travelling in winter in Tasmania in that waterfalls and rivers are at their highest and most beautiful.
After that we were pleasantly treated to some clear and warm sunny weather so we headed out to the famous Binalong Bay and
a spot called the Bay of Fires (named by explorer Mathew Flinders after he saw aborigines having fires along the beach).
We did some exploring of the beautiful coast line and enjoyed the ultra white sand on the beach (almost whiter than Whitehaven
beach in the Whitsundays) and strange orange and yellow colored rocks along the shore line.
For lunch we stopped in at a little cafe in St. Helen's called "Something Fishy". Not the most appetizing name
but we did enjoy a fantastic curried scallop pie which is apparently a popular favorite along with some fish and chips.
East Coast Tasmania
We now started heading south along the East coast out of St. Helen's. The coast was rugged and beautiful but very
unpopulated and had a distinct feeling of remoteness. We passed through a few very small towns along the way including
a nice little spot called Bicheno where we got to see a natural blowhole. It was a spot on the beach where a giant rock
had been eroded away to create a shape that spewed water out high into the air everytime the tide washed in. We
were also on the lookout for fairy penguins which are allegedly popular in this spot but we failed to see any.
We continued on our way to another small seaside town called Swansea where we stopped for lunch at a local cafe.
Finally we moved on towards our final destination called Coles Bay. Fortunately the entire day was spectacularly clear
and sunny and it was a great drive. At dusk we pulled into the Freycinet peninsula and arrived into the village of Coles
Bay. Another setup of the tent and a quiet and rather chilly night was spent sitting in the car reading books.
The next morning we woke up to another clear and sunny day which seemed like quite a bonus as we were worried that we
would be faced with cold rainy weather the entire time. Our day started with a tough hike up a track to get to a lookout
of an incredible spot called Wineglass Bay. It was a picturesque white sand beach ring with aqua colored water that
was surrounded by massive sandstone boulder's. It felt a little like we had stepped into the town of Bedrock from the
Flintstone's as that is how cartoonish the landscape seemed.
Our itinerary carried us on to a few other great spots in the area including Honeymoon Bay and a great spot called Little
Gravelly Beach which had the most bizarre pink rocks that were similar to the rounded bedrock boulders only pink hues colored
the rocks.
Finally we drove up to the highest point of the national park to do a short walking track that gave us views of the sheer
rock faced cliffs that dropped into the ocean all along the coast line. It was a spectacular and unforgettable view
that we were glad that we had sought out.
After the hike we carried on our way down the coast to our next stop which was supposed to be Port Arthur but we ended
up getting mixed up on our way through a little town called Sorrell near to Hobart. We got lost and inevitably ended
up doing a big loop that took us all the way into Hobart, back to Sorrell, and then finally up to a small heritage town called
Richmond. It was a last minute decision to go there but it was starting to get dark and we've learned that Australian
roads are not the place to be on in the dark if you don't plan to hit an animal or drive off a cliff on the ultra twisty and
poorly signed roads of OZ.
It had become especially windy and noticeably colder in Richmond so we finally broke down and decided to abandon the
tent in favor of an on site caravan (camper trailer). We checked into our 1970's influenced trappings and thought it
was sheer heaven! Compared to an old station wagon and a tent we thought that we were living in luxury as we had a color
tv, fridge, bed, and four walls complete with a roof. Not to mention a heater as well! OK so our standards have
slipped drastically nevertheless we enjoyed our night of relaxation immensly.
Richmond and the Port Arthur Area
The next day we got up to explore the small town of Richmond. The weather had improved somewhat so we decided to
do a walking tour. Our first stop was Australia's oldest existing Gaol (prison) that was built in the early 1800's.
We toured around the premises that held stories of ex-cons and the officer's that worked there. We got to sit inside
a few of the isolation cells to imagine the feeling of the convicts and then we also got to view the ball and chains, and
the horrifying man-trap. The man trap was a device that was banned in the mid 1800's but was used up until then to trap
convicts. Basically it was like a giant bear trap!
Our next stop was through the downtown area to view the numerous heritage listed buildings and then on to the famous
Richmond bridge (built by convicts). It was also the oldest bridge in Australia. After that we visited a couple
of old churches and graveyards, chased some ducks, had a ginger beer, and continued our tour down the downtown strip.
After lunch we carried on our way back out to the East coast to Port Arthur that was a convict settlement on a peninsula
near Hobart. We loathed the idea of going back to the tent but the weather was favorable and our budget demanded that
we go back to the tent. That night we prepared our itinerary for the next couple of days to be spent at the historic
site of Port Arthur.
The next morning we headed into the "compound" which housed the remains of the original Port Arthur convict settlement
and penitentiary. Our pass that we bought was valid for two days and we realized quite quickly that given the area of
the site we would need all that time just to see it. We started with a tour through a recreated boat that had various
displays and interactive media to simulate the journey that the convicts endured from England to Port Arthur. Without
getting into too much detail we learned that the journey really sucked! As well, all of the convicts that were sent
to Port Arthur were repeat offenders and generally were the bad apples. Although, many of the sentences that they received
were for silly things like stealing handkerchief's, showing up for work drunk, or for using poor language around high ranking
officials.
Our next stop was a harbour cruise that took us around the settlement and the "Isle of the Dead" which was a small island
that contained over a thousand convict graves. As well there was the juvenile boy's prison and work camp called Point
Puer. After the cruise we went on a guided tour that gave us a bit of background of the area and a general overview
of the entire historic site.
Our afternoon was spent touring one half of the building remains in the grounds which included a prison (formerly a flour
mill), a hospital, various, officer's quarter's, the Admiral's cottage, the Canadian cottage (a mail order cottage obtained
from Canada), the Lunatic Asylum, and the creepiest place of them all which was the Separate Prison. In the separate
prison the convicts had to wear masks similar to KKK uniforms to prevent them from identifying other people. They were
forced to be silent 24 hours a day in their tiny cells and even the prison guard had to wear slipper's to keep the noise down.
The intent was thought that extreme silence would allow for contemplation of bad deeds on the part of the convicts.
Eventually after enough time and rigid forcing of Catholic religion into them the officials' thought the convicts would repent
and "be cured". A few years after the separate prison started they had to build the Lunatic asylum. Go figure!
The building was extremely creepy nonetheless and even the church was setup so that the cons couldn't actually see anyone
other than the priest (using a system of doors and cubicles).
In the evening we stopped for a greasy meal of seafood, fish, and chips. We then arrived back at the site for our
ghost tour. Our guide was a suitably creepy and pale individual that guided us by lantern light around various supposedly
haunted buildings on the settlement. It was creepy enough just being in these places in the dark let alone having someone
tell you all about the numerous ghost sightings and strange occurences. The tour lasted an hour and a half and was one
of the most fun and memorable experiences we've had although we weren't convinced that we saw anything "spirit like".
Monday, May 23, 2004
This morning we got ourselves booked on the Spirit of Tasmania II ferry leaving tonight. We packed up our campsite
this morning and headed off to kill the day in Melbourne until our ferry leaves tonight at 9:00.
We made it to one of the ginormous malls they have here and then took the train into the downtown core. We wandered
around in the information centre for a bit and then into a couple of the main streets to check it out. Basically Melbourne
seemed like Sydney's older and slightly scruffier brother. People are on the move just as fast as Sydney and the city
sprawls endlessly but it is a different vibe altogether from that of the entire East coast. It seems like a cool place
but certainly a bit rougher..........but that's all we could gather from a half day in the city so who knows?
We managed to make it to the ferry terminal quite early and made it onto the ferry without incident although security
checks resulted in Chad getting covered in gasoline trying to empty out the gerry can whilst filling it with water.
What they don't like home made bombs on the ship?
The ship was huge (11 stories) and was probably the closest thing to an actual cruise ship that we had been
on. We chilled out in the lounge and watched a movie until we decided to call it a night in our "cruise seats" aka.
the cheap seats. It was a bad nightmareish version of a plane ride. Our evening drifted off in an uncomfortable
slumber......
Sore backs for all tomorrow in Taz,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, May 22, 2004
Back on the road again for a bit of a long haul today. It was about a 600km drive from Eden to Melbourne and we
wanted to make it to Melbourne with a bit of time to find our way around.
The highway on the south east continued down into several national parks as the towns thinned out and we ended up in
some fairly desolate stretches of road. Most of the way it was pretty smoky as several small bushfires must have been
going in the area so it was a little tough to get any views along the way. Eventually the highway literally came to
a big right turn as we effectively reached the south east corner of the country. We did one big turn and were now travelling
West towards Melbourne.
Eventually the towns started to reappear and the scenery became a little more bland and flatter. We drove through
several small towns until we finally reached the outskirts of Melbourne in the late afternoon. Janet had her first shot
at driving on Aussie roads for about 20 minutes but figured that was enough of an introduction for her first time behind the
wheel on the opposite side of the road.........in a big station wagon.
Our way into Melbourne was pretty hectic and slow as we got stuck in the weekend traffic trying to get back into the
city. We ended up finally getting to a campground right on the outskirts of the city where we spent the evening in the
camp kitchen. Yet another deserted campground.
At this point we started to discuss our travel plans for the near future. Initially our plan was to see Tasmania
right away and then stop in Melbourne to work for a month or two. For some reason we figured that we didn't want to
stop in Melbourne to work based on the size, pace and expense of such a big city. We were going off of our experiences
in Sydney (although a positive experience it would have been a tough go to try and work there and actually save money- or
at least your sanity). Our newest proposed plan ended up with us travelling Tasmania as planned, spending a few days
in Melbourne, then off to Adelaide and the centre (on credit probably at this point) and then off to Perth where we would
try to work and make up some money there before we come home in September. We'll see how it pans out.........
Tasmania here we come,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, May 21, 2004
Oh yeah, by the way we managed to score yet another parking ticket. This one was a couple of nights ago in Canberra
at the Woolworth's grocery store parking lot. We ran in to the shop for about 1/2 hour and came out to find a $66 parking
ticket. Fortunately we have the magic ticket eating glove box so we decided to use that. Problem solved!
Last night in Canberra was either much warmer or we are starting to climatize to the colder weather. Anyhow we
carried on down the coast towards the south. Our first town that we went through in a long line of small and low key
"wrinkly" resort towns was Bateman's Bay. These places were pretty relaxed and fortunately the weather warmed up a lot.
For lunch we stopped at a tiny place off the highway called Mystery Bay. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere but
was a beautiful spot right on the ocean that featured tons of huge rocks in the bay that the aqua colored water smashed up
against. It was a pretty nice spot for peanut butter sandwiches and didn't cost a thing.
Further down the coast highway we ended up going through a dairy town called Bega. It's where a main brand
of Australian cheese is manufactured. We figured we deserved a little taste test at the factory so we stopped in and
in between samples learned all about the cheese making process and downed a little ice cream as well. Sounds tough eh?
Finally we reached our overnight destination which was a sleepy beachside town called Eden. We opted not to check
into the cheesily named "Garden of Eden" campground and settled for one down the road instead. We had a pretty chilled
out Saturday night watching movies by ourselves in the TV room at the campground. It was pretty much a ghost town around
there but we enjoyed the warm weather yet again and cherished being able to watch TV at all. You start to miss the stupid
little things of daily life when you are living out of a tent/car.
Next stop Melbourne,
Chad and Janet
Friday, May 20, 2004
We finally get to act like full blown tourists today. After two freezing nights we are actually starting to remember
the cold weather. It's part of our Canadian DNA and it's not so bad. Fortunately the days are still quite nice
and generally warm and sunny.
Our itinerary was to do a major walking tour of Canberra's downtown core. Canberra is an extremely unique city
in that the entire spot has been planned from it's creation. The founding father's basically found a patch of ground
and started building. The result is an incredibly organized and geometric design for the layout of the city. It's
really pretty and neat although it seems to lack the adventure or life that other chaotically planned cities have. Everything
seems to have a predetermined place in Canberra right down to the shops. As well, it looks like a giant target from
the sky.
We started our tour at an interpretive centre on Lake Burley Griffin (named after the American architect Walter Burley
Griffin who designed the city layout) we walked along the lake and across to the other side. We walked past embassy's
and international flag displays (including the Canadian flagpole donated by our government that was made out of BC Douglas
Fir) to the old parliament building. We took a tour of the inside and got to see the Prime Minister's old office and
all of the inside workings. We learned far more than we cared to about the creation of Australia and it's past political
figures. After the tour we carried on to the "new" parliament building where we toured that as well. In between
we walked all throught the parks and past various other monumental government structures. After we made it back to the
car we drove over to the Australian National museum for a whirlwind tour of the inside and outside of the building.
Our walk was enjoyable and the city is very well laid out but we have definitely had enough Australian culture, history,
and political crap to last a lifetime!
Tomorrow we move on down south to warmer climates (hopefully),
Chad and Janet
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Unfortunately another slightly dry and "cold" day. We found out firsthand that Canberra is in fact the coldest
place on average in Australia in winter time. We froze like brass monkeys in the tent last night but managed to soldier
through. One of the campground employees was sweeping up and looked at us strangely as we exited our tent. It's
a familiar look that we've seen more and more as we go further south. He commented that we might have taken a wrong
turn somewhere and that we should have been heading up north to the hot weather. It's kind of like everybody thinks
that all backpackers in OZ ride around on a big bus and they sort of act as if we missed the bus on it's way to warmer weather.
They get a look on their face that says: "What are you still doing here? The bus left weeks ago!".
After a thirty minute hot shower (screw the water restrictions) we had thawed sufficiently to start the day. We
had a bunch of chores to do and by the time we finished we only had time to make a brief visit to the Royal Australian Mint
after an unsucessful attempt to visit the police museum. At the mint we flew through as we were limited in time but
we did get a chance to mint our very own one dollar coins. It's the only place that we've ever been to where you put
in two fifty to get one dollar back. Go figure?!
Canberra is incredibly quiet at night,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
It was a bit of an uneventful and boring day. We drove through fairly dry and boring farmland along the way to
the nations capital called Canberra. We discovered that sheep are a huge part of the Aussie economy as we saw field
after field of sheep grazing.
We stopped in a couple of small towns for a break and arrived late in Canberra. Basically we got oriented and checked
into the campground where the reception notified us that it had been -6 degrees the other night and fortunately was only going
to be -1 tonight. Great!
It was a chilly one,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
We headed back into the Blue Mountains today. We drove past Katoomba where we were yesterday and drove through
the winding roads. We discovered why the Blue Mountains are called "blue" because we noticed the subtle blue haze that
covers the mountains. Apparently it's mist given off from all of the euclyptus trees.
The weather and air quality started to deteriorate as we drove past a small bushfire and off to a secondary road that
wound it's way down a mountain to our next stop which was the Jenolan Caves. We signed up for the "river tour" which
was to take two hours.
Our guide on the tour brought us through several caverns and up and down over 1300 steps. It was a definite workout
but we got to see some of the most amazing limestone and calcite rock formations we had ever seen. It's amazing how
nature can create some of the displays and can really only be described with a picture. Apparently the caves that we
explored were only around 1% of the 11% explored caves. That meant that there were literally miles of unexplored caverns
that they are still exploring today.
We moved on from the caves to a small mountain town called Lithgow. It was pretty unexciting and we checked into
a campground on a small lake. We were the only campers (along with two others) in the entire campground. Perhaps
a sign of things to come? It was a little bit eery being in such a deserted spot (not to mention the haze from the bush
fire) but we coped and had a fun night.
Off to Canberra tomorrow,
Chad and Janet
Monday, May 17, 2004
Off to the Blue Mountains today. Sydney is sprawling so far that it has practically become a suburb of the city.
We headed out on the highway and drove through town after town as we crept up the mountain to a place called Katoomba.
It was a beautiful and sunny day (in Australia terms it would be called "fine" or "sultry") and it quickly warmed up as the
morning wore on.
When we arrived in Katoomba we went directly to a spot called Echo point where we got to see a fantastic view of the
valley and the famous "three sisters" which are a collection of three huge granite towers that are sitting out on their own
beside the edge of a cliff. We got to climb down a perilous set of stairs that were at 80 degree angles (pretty much
ladders) to walk out onto a platform dug into one of the "sisters". Janet confirmed her fear of heights!
After Katoomba we moved on to a place called Scenic world just at the opposite end of the "three sisters". We got
to ride on the world's steepest train that took us down the mountain at a 60 degree angle (really friggin steep if you don't
know your angles) whilst playing the Indiana Jones theme song. At the bottom we walked along a giant boardwalk
through the rainforest that had interpretive displays and relics from the coal mining days of the past. Eventually we
came to the end of the walk and too the "Sceneiscender" which was basically a gondola. It brought us back up to the
top and gave us great views of the other side of the valley.
On the way back into Sydney we decided that we needed to take advantage of Harry and his pies so we stopped in at the
Cafe de Wheels for another Curry Tiger (the pie floater). We are positively addicted and unfortunately will never have
another Harry's pie again! Janet wants to marry Harry.
Tomorrow we bid adieu to the bustling metropolis of Sydney. Overall we enjoyed Sydney a lot more than we thought.
It is a very pretty and relatively clean city. The people are a lot more fast paced and generally don't seem to be as
friendly as Brisbane but there is still a good vibe overall. We both decided that we wouldn't want to live or work here
because it's just too much to get to where you want to go. Even a trip to the grocery store is a major outing and the
traffic would eventually drive you over the brink- if the pollution doesn't get you first!
Back to the Blue Mountains we go,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, May 16, 2004
We actually got up on the early side this morning to catch the bus but we forgot that the Sunday schedule is different
from the midweek times. Eventually we found our way downtown again to catch the ferry to Manly. The ferry was
relatively slow and relaxing and it gave us a good opportunity to see the sites from the harbour.
We arrived in Manly and discovered a much slower and casual pace than that of Sydney. It was a nice change and
seemed to agree with everybody's interpretation that Manly is a lot more chilled out than the rest of the city. We walked
through the main strip through a few Sunday markets and down to the beach. Despite the fact it was a little cooler there
were still a fair number of people and surfers hanging out on the beach. We decided not to go for a dip in the water
and turned around to catch the ferry back into Circular Quay.
Our next stop was the famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels for a pea floater meat pie. We caught a bus that dropped us
off at the front door of Harry's right beside the Australian Navy harbour in an area called Woolloomooloo (what a mouthful).
The pies were delicious and cheap. We had a curry beef pie with mashed potatoes on top, then smashed peas on top of
that and gravy all over it. It sounds nasty but was fantastic! And a true Aussie favorite for a lot of years.
After our pies we took the bus through the seedy/backpacker land of Kings Cross. Our feet were too sore to even
get off the bus to do a wander but from what we saw it didn't quite give Hastings street in Vancouver a run for its money.
Off to the Blue Mountains tomorrow,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Fortunately we behaved ourselves somewhat last night so that we were able to get on with our day in good form.
Our first stop was to Fox Studios Australia near Centennial Park. Unfortunately the studios didn't seem to have much
happening in them and it seemed that access to much of it had been closed off. We had heard that the Aussie movie industry
had been struggling as of late and wondered if this might be a consequence. Instead the grounds had a few childrens
activities set up as well as some markets and some shopping. We toured around for a bit but grew bored and moved on.
We had intentions of heading to the famous Bondi beach to check it out so we walked through Centennial Park which turned
out to be far larger than we realized. It was getting late and we finally caught a bus at the end of the park to the
Bondi junction train station. The sun was starting to set and we figured that the beach would be a dud at this time
so we had to give up and go home. Oh well, there's been no shortage of great beaches that we seen and been on in this
country.
We have just about exhausted the major highlights for a first time visitor to Sydney although we realize that ultimately
there are about another million places to explore but we just don't have the time. That has to definitely be one of
the attractions of living in this city although a good deal of them involve spending money and shopping- something that doesn't
really fit with the backpacker budget.
Pretty cool place, lot's of smog,
Chad and Janet
Friday, May 14, 2004
The tourist/sightseeing envelope can only be pushed so far and we decided to have a bit of a slower paced day.
We took our time to get ready and headed downtown in the afternoon to go to the Powerhouse Museum.
The museum is basically a massive rotating collection of anything oddball or quirky. It had everything from historical
scientific objects, fashions, computers, instruments, machinery, space shuttle suits, trains, cars, gambling equipment, slot
machines etc. It was far bigger than we had expected and turned out to be our favorite museum we had ever seen although
we ran out of time and weren't able to see all the exhibits in time.
We decided to cash in a $100 gift from our friend Amber back home (thanks Amber) for a rainy day activity. The
weather was actually fine but we decided that Friday night in Sydney (the self proclaimed greatest city in the world) would
be covered by this money. We went down to the harbourside and had supper at harbourside restaurant. It was great
as we have been eating out of cans and the back of the car for so long (ok, so we ate ok in Brisbane occasionally).
We moved on to the Rocks to enjoy one of the 100 year old pubs and then met up with some new friends that we made at our campground
back at the former Planet Hollywood- now called the Star Bar. It was a brilliant night and was finished off with a hilarious
escalator crash performed by our friend Kieran at the end of the night in the Chatswood train station(he had celebrated the
sale of his campervan in style!).
Back to the budget tomorrow,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Another mega tourist day.
We started off with a trip downtown to the Australia Museum where we got to observe (along with 9000 other elementary
school kids) the wonders of science, nature, and technology. Basically our favorite part was the giant bug displays
and the s of the human skeletons doing various activities such as riding a horse and reading the newspaper in an armchair.
We're so easy to please!
We moved on to Hyde Park which is a large and pretty park in the centre of downtown. Several office monkeys and
joggers (they are absolutely everywhere here) were packed into the park and we decided to join them for another elegant
lunch of cheese whiz sandwiches beside a waterfountain and a ton of atoos.
After lunch we went across the street from Hyde park to the enormous St.Mary's Cathedral. It is hands down and
by far the most enormous and beautiful building we have ever seen. It was a sandstone castle with millions of tiny details
etched and carved into it. Not to mention the ton of gold and the amazing marble floors. We were going to take
a tour of a crypt below the church but Janet was afraid she might burst into flames if she were in a church any longer.
Next was a trip to the Sydney tower (kind of like the Calgary tower times two). Unfortunately the entry fee wasn't
in our budget so we moved on to the State theatre which is a beautiful historical building. We couldn't do a full tour
and quickly moved on to the city botanical gardens down by the waterfront. Did we mention that we were walking all this
time. Our legs were begging for mercy at the beginning of the walk through the botanical gardens and they felt as if
they were on fire near the end.
The botanical gardens were huge and very pretty although as several signs in the park pointed out there has been an infestation
of giant fruit bats in several of the trees throughout the park. This is wrecking the trees and is a constant headache
for the city to deal with. Ever wonder where every single bat in all of Sydney (or perhaps New South Wales) goes to
sleep during the day? We figured it has to be in the Royal Botanical Gardens! There were literally thousands of
them and they were starting to wake up as we arrived in the park. Very scary!
We finished the park with a visit to the Royal Conservatory of Music and a peek at a few more historical buildings before
we gave up to head back home. We discovered how incredibly busy the trains and bus system here can get during rush hour.
It was unbelievable!
We have blisters growing on top of blisters,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
We made it out of bed bright and early this morning. That wasn't exactly an easy feat but Janet was pleased to
be able to get out of the tent without having to encounter any brushtail possums (we met several last night that were very
bold in wanting to come up to us for a potential snack). Although they were cute Janet reckons that she would like to
observe them from a distance.
Our first stop as we arrived downtown off the train at the Circular Quay station was the famous Opera house. Although
we had seen tons of pictures before it was still an amazing and beautiful building. We spent most of our time on the
outside as we didn't want to pay for a guided tour of the inside. Besides there were about a thousand school kids waiting
in the foyer for a show and that probably would have been a little more than we could take.
Our next stop was the famous Sydney harbour bridge. Again this is a famous and recognizable landmark of Sydney
but it was unbelievably huge and imposing. It took us forever just to walk to the one end so that we could get onto
the bridge. We made it about halfway to one of the massive sandstone pilons where we took a tour of the inside.
It was about two hundred steps all the way to the top but it was a great view of downtown Sydney and the top of the bridge.
There were piles of people doing the bridge climb which looked like fun but it was $155 each and a little too scary for Janet.
We ended up learning a lot about the construction of the bridge that was quite interesting and we carried on our way.
Next came the best part of our day. It's funny because you'd think that it would be some big tourist attraction
but in fact it was much simpler than that. We found a large park in a historical section of Sydney by the bridge called
the Rocks. We walked in the Sydney observatory park and sat down to Cheese Whiz sandwiches below a huge fig tree.
Beside us was an outdoor wedding that had a trio of violinists playing classical music. It was a simple and serene experience.
After lunch we headed into the Sydney observatory which was a classical sandstone house with telescope domes that had
been converted into a museum. We ended up watching a 3D presentation on the solar system and the latest Mars expeditions
where we got to see actual 3D pictures from the surface.
Finally, even though our legs and feet were screaming for mercy we carried on through the trendy historic area called
"The Rocks". There were tons of old houses, shops, and pubs that were built back in the early 1900's (sometimes even
older) and many had been restored. It looked like a great place to be on a Friday night and we are still considering
a ghost tour of the area as there are many creepy looking places that would be perfect haunts.
That evening Janet dodged more curious possums and we had an early night as we were bagged. So far, Sydney is pretty
cool and we are really appreciating the restoration of so many historic places.
Need foot transplant,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Sydney, the traveller's Mecca beckons. We got on the road early this morning to allow for plenty of time to get
organized and oriented in the big city. It was a relatively short drive that took us into a noticeably different climate
and forest that engulfs Sydney.
Just before lunch we arrived at the Lane Cove River Campground where we got set up (about three times because the stupid
managers kept moving us to different sites) and we caught a bus to head over to the Chatswood train station.
We caught a double decker subway train into the Circular Quay station downtown where all the ferry terminals are.
We got a little bit of information and bought some transit passes for the week for $40 each. They are unlimited for
the tourist areas so we will end up saving a lot of money and frustration by not having to try to park the car downtown.
In the afternoon we did a quick trip around the Quays which encompassed the Sydney Opera house and a huge botanical garden.
We walked around a bit in the downtown area as well but we tried to keep it short as we had a planned itinerary for the following
day that would cover the Opera house and a bunch of other stuff.
We headed back home just before the rush hour and tried to go for a quick trip to the grocery store. Unfortunately
one wrong turn outside of our campsite and we ended up on a massive toll freeway that eventually led us (in conjunction with
some creative navigating) on a two hour detour. Even worse we were stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic.
Our first days impression of Sydney is probably better than we had expected as a lot of people that we met typically
liked to trash the place although we also met just as many that loved it. Basically it is a beautiful place so far with
heaps of forest and many stately brick houses somewhat reminiscent of Ontario. Maybe this is what Toronto is like however
we haven't been there so we can't make the comparison.
Tomorrow we embark on a tourist day of epic proportions,
Chad and Janet
Monday, May 10, 2004
Normally when you arrive at a touristy sounding town like "Lake Macquarie" you figure that there would be lots to do.
Apparently not. It's not really a beach/lake kind of day so we decided to continue our planning for Sydney and get stocked
up on some cheaper groceries and supplies. We are already feeling the influence of Sydney's prices as gas prices have
been steadily rising as we get closer to the city. Around here they have been as high as $1.04/L which is pretty tough
on the old budget.
We were reminded again by another 35 people that we are going the wrong way in our travels and we are going to freeze
our asses off. No kidding!
Originally our plans were to drive along the southern part of Australia (with a quick trip into the centre to see Ayer's
rock) all the way to Perth at the Western side. We have now come up with the idea that we might drive all the way from
Adelaide at the southern/central tip of the country all the way through the middle to the very top at Darwin. We would
then continue over along the top of the West coast and all the way down to Perth. This idea would pretty much triple
the amount of kilometers that we have to drive. Can we afford it? Will Clifford the supercar make it? The
major draw of doing the trip like this would be that we could see a lot more of the country and the top and West coast
are fairly untouched and undeveloped by touristy stuff although many people claim that there are just as many cool things
as the mega touristy East coast.
Should we do it?
Chad and Janet
Sunday, May 9, 2004
Although we were sad to be leaving the thriving country music scene of Tamworth we headed back out onto the highway.
We were driving into an area known as the Hunter Valley wine region which is famous for several notable and micro vineyards
and wineries of which we stopped at none. (Come on, we only own 4 shirts each and we've worn them every day for seven
months- we don't exactly look like your upper crust material!).
The country side was a little bit dry and dull as we drove past several nuclear and coal power plant facilities, small
towns, and empty rolling hills. Eventually we arrived in a city called Newcastle which is Australia's second oldest
settlement and only an hour outside of Sydney.
Our first impression of Newcastle wasn't exactly spectacular as it is a heavy industrial town that greets visitors with
huge steel making factories, smokestacks, and shipping wharfs. We briefly checked out the downtown core and decided
to head to the more picteresque town of Lake Macquarie which is virtually a suburb of Newcastle.
We arrived in Lake Macquarie and camped out on a fantastic spot right on the lake. We had a chilled out night (literally-
it's actually starting to get a bit cold here especially when you're used to 35 degrees everyday). We spent the evening
in the car (out of the drizzling rain) with a few beers (no officer we weren't actually intending on driving-he he) and an
armful of Sydney brochures. We figured that it would be smart to come up with a very detailed plan of our week in ultra
expensive Sydney to save money and frustration.
We have been reminded constantly that we are the ONLY backpackers in all of Australia to go down south during winter-
and we're finding out why,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, May 8, 2004
What more can you ask for when you get to visit the giant golden guitar? We pulled up to the pride of the Australian
country music scene and after a few pictures beside a giant two storey high golden guitar we moved inside to have a look at
some of the wax figures, pictures, CD's, and memorabilia of every notable (and not so notable Aussie country artist) known
to the Tamworth country music scene.
Next we headed off to have a look at the "Hands of Fame" outdoor museum which was Tamworth's answer to the hollywood
walk of the stars except it was basically a bunch of no name Aussie country stars (with the exception of the notable Slim
Dusty) that made their hand prints in cement casts. After seeing this we decided to skip the "Noses of Fame" museum.
We finished out the day with a visit to the city outlooks, botanical garden and checked out the downtown strip and all
of the heritage stores and hotels. Overall our impression of Tamworth was that perhaps it was entertaining enough for
a senior citzen country fan it has only enough fun to fill half a day for your average backpacker.
We spent the night relaxing and getting ready to head back out on the road through the Hunter Valley wine region on our
way to Newcastle and Lake Macquarie about an hour and a half outside of Sydney.
If you are over 55 and enjoy country music- begin making your travel arrangements to Tamworth immediately,
Chad and Janet
Friday, May 7, 2004
We continued on our way this morning to head farther inland towards our final destination of Tamworth (the Country
Music Capital of OZ). Now that we are in New South Wales we are finding that the countryside resembles a cross between
Southern Alberta foothills and Vancouver Island. We had breakfast at the Dangar Falls outside of Dorrigo and hit a couple
more waterfalls along the way.
We stopped at another tiny little town called Ebor and went to see the Ebor falls. We began walking along the escarpment
when Janet froze and turned around to point out the large black snake sitting on the side of the pathway that we had just
walked past (within inches). We thought it was dead and went to get a picture when it raised its head and slithered
off into the long grass. Janet's heart actually beat out of her chest and fell out onto the side walk. Later we
ran into a local couple and asked them about the snake. They said that we were lucky to see one (as these type of snakes
like to hibernate this time of year) and it was called a red bellied black snake. And yes......it was poisonous!!
AHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHA HHHHHHA HAHAHHAAAAAAHHHHAH!!!!!!!!!!!
Eventually we collected ourselves and began back on our way. The country side seemed to constantly change appearance
as we headed into a territory called New England. We stopped at a place called Mollomombi gorge in Wild Oxley Rivers
national park. It was an incredible spot and we headed out on yet another short bushwalk to take in the great views.
We were a lot more wary of snakes this time around.
We continued along our way and headed into a larger town called Armidale to stop for something to eat. Armidale's
claim to fame is it's four distinct seasons similar to Canada that produce amazing fall foliage. It made us
feel a little homesick as the streets were lined with trees that sported all of the familiar- and not so familiar Autumn colors.
It kind of felt like we would be coming across Halloween trick or treaters at any minute......but it's only May! Wierd!
Finally after another couple of sightseeing stops (including the creepy guy in the station wagon- you had to be
there) we made it into Tamworth. Basically our impression of Tamworth at first glance was that it is Australia's answer
to Red Deer. We stopped in at the guitar shaped information centre and then grabbed a campsite in a park chock full
of wrinklies (Chad's favorite new Aussie name for aged citzens).
So far our impression of New South Wales is fairly refreshing. There are far fewer blatant tourist traps and the
face of the towns have a different look to that of the Queensland spots that we visited. It feels a little more honest
and down to earth. Perhaps even a little more like home as not everybody here seems to earn their paycheque from tourist
activities.
Tomorrow we conquer the world of Australian Country Music,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, May 6, 2004
On our way to Dorrigo National Park now. We left the hippie madness behind in Byron Bay and drove along the coast
until we reached a place called Coffs Harbour where we proudly got a picture of the Big Banana! It was right beside
an indoor winter playground that advertised tobogganing, snowball fights, and ice skating. Yeah right!
Along the way we decided to stop in a tiny little town off the highway to get a bottle of water out of the back of the
car when we spotted a sign advertising "Home made Apple Strudels". We have absolutely no will power and were sucked
into the small shop. $18 later we emerged with bellies full of coffee and apple strudel. We are such stupid tourists.
We figure the town was called Ulmara? or something?
After Coffs Harbour we turned inland and started up a steep mountain road that wound it's way up over a thousand meters
from sea level. We passed through a couple of small mountain towns and hit a few lookouts to take in the amazing
views. The highway was called the Waterfall Way and we were about to find out why.
We finally arrived in a tiny mountain town called Dorrigo where we headed out to Dorrigo National park which is Australia's
first National Park. Since it was still early we took in a 6km bushwalk to spot a few waterfalls and enjoyed a boardwalk
called the skywalk that offered great views of the country side. We took in a little picnic at the top of the trail
and then headed back into town.
We spent the evening at our campsite discovering that Australia in the mountains during May can get awfully cold.
Yes we are complete wimps now as we are used to over thirty degree weather most days but it actually was below ten degrees
for most of the night.
We are kind of kicking ourselves for leaving the majority of our trip to be completed in winter in the south- oh well,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, May 5, 2004
At around 8:30 we made it onto the beach in front of our campground to meet up with Byron Bay Sea Kayaks to collect our
gear and get ready for a morning of kayaking with dolphins. We were outfitted in our gear, stretched out a bit and launched
out onto the water. Unfortunately Chad was in a somewhat sour mood for some reason and Janet had forgotten part of her
brain so we were the worst two partners that could be paired up on a double sea kayak in the middle of the ocean. Janet
was about ready to push Chad overboard and he was ready to jump overboard.
Eventually we managed to relax a bit and enjoy ourselves. We spotted several dolphins that curiously played near
our kayaks as well as a giant sea turtle that bobbed his head up to take a look at us. His head was the size of a watermelon
and we thought that perhaps the Ogopogo might resemble this creature. We also saw a manta ray leap out of the water
and a couple of schools of fish.
We had a short break to have some tea and Tim Tams near the Byron Bay lighthouse. After our break we had some time
to practice surfing some waves on the kayaks with a bunch of the local surfers. We started off alright but we had trouble
keeping the boat straight when we were caught in the middle of the wave. This eventually led to us capsizing and drinking
a bit more sea water. All in all it was a good time though and we are still feeling the effects from the incredible
workout that it provided.
That afternoon we went for a hike around the Cape Byron headlands which was a beautiful area along the coast. We
made it to the most Easterly point in Australia and visited the old Byron Bay lighthouse. We spent a bit of time watching
some of the hang gliders and surfers until we could walk no more.
Our evening was pretty quiet and we made it to bed quite early.
Surfing and Kayaking makes sore Chads and Janets,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
This morning we made it over to the Black Dog surfing headquarters downtown to get fitted with wetsuits and catch the
van out to the beach. At around 10:00 we made it over to a place called Broken Head (yeah that's really the name- wonder
where that came from?) to begin our surf lessons.
After a half hour of stretching and learning the basics of surfing mechanics on the beach we made it out onto the water.
The moment had arrived- time to put our money where our mouths were. WE BOTH STOOD UP THE FIRST TIME! Whether
it was beginners luck or our fierce Candian skills and competitiveness we did manage to appear like we had half a clue what
we were doing.
The next couple of hours were spent in an exhausting repetition of paddling, surfing, crashing and swallowing sea water.
It's amazing there was any salt water left in the ocean after our group was done with the waves. We had an amazingly
fun time and we spent a bit of time kicking ourselves for not doing this sooner. That's ok though we've got five more
months of time to perfect our technique.
Later that afternoon after we finished surfing we did a little grocery and supply shopping and we signed ourselves up
for some Dolphin Kayaking for the following day......how fast can we spend our money? We'll see!
We can surf better than the Black Dog we figure,
Chad and Janet
Monday, May 3, 2004
It was a bit of a rough start this morning but we managed to make it out of bed and we finished packing up the car.
We bid adieu to our beloved Newmarket barracks and made it out onto the highway at a little after eleven.
Our first destination is Byron Bay and we took a slight detour to drive along the Gold Coast through Surfer's Paradise
and some of the other cheesy surfing/tourist spots. It was a beautiful drive scenery wise and we were looking forward
to seeing a bit of a different side of Australia. We arrived in Byron Bay by late avo and we took some time to cruise
around the downtown area.
Byron Bay is a small hippie/backpacker town that we expected to be a sleepy little place but we were totally taken
by surprise as this place was overrun with hippies and backpackers. The streets were positively heaving. We managed
to get oriented and found ourselves a campsite right on Clarke's Beach. It was a beautiful and shady spot that was a
little more reminiscent of the campgrounds back home. We booked ourselves onto a surf lesson with a company called "Black
Dog Surfing" for tommorrow. Their claim to fame was that if they could teach a small black dog to surf that they could
teach one of us clutzes.
After dinner we spent a little more time wandering through the streets of Byron and called it an earlier (and noticeably
chillier) night.
The local surfers won't know what hit them when we arrive (literally- they had better watch out so that they don't take
a surfboard in the head),
Chad and Janet
Friday, April 30 to Sunday, May 2, 2004
Our last weekend (FOREVER) in Brisbane. We have to admit that we're both a bit sad although we are looking forward
to going back out on the road again. We have really enjoyed Brisbane and all of the locals that we've met. There
are few places as friendly and laidback as here.
On Friday we went on the Tourism Queensland pubcrawl (Janet's work). There were at least 50 people or more and
they carted us around on a bus throughout the downtown nightspots including Tinbillie's, The Trans, The Caxton St. Pub, Normanby
Hotel, St.Paul's Terrace Saints Club, City Rower's Club, and then two more of which we didn't bother going to. It was
a good night of drunken debauchery for all and we had a good time with Janet's friends from work (Ngahuia, Wendy, Ben, Celeste,
Shawn, Sean- See we didn't forget to mention our favorite Brisbanites!). Janet and Chad are really going to miss all
of her work buddies. Stay in touch!
Saturday we dragged our butts out of bed to make it to the couch and then downtown for a little bit of cruising around
and some internet time.
Sunday we made it out for a little bit of shopping and spent a bunch of time packing and preparing for our trip out onto
the road the next day. We had originally planned to stay in for the night in order to have an early and fresh start
the next day but at the last minute Jason and Deirdre stopped by to inform us that there was a seafood festival on Caxton
Street downtown that was completely crazy. They managed to talk us into it and we went down to check out the area with
a couple of backpacks full of beer (the true definition of a backpacker). We enjoyed a seafood platter and partied for
a few hours. We had an extremely late finish to the evening and were already beginning to regret having to get up the
next day.
Bye Newmarket, Bye Brisbane, Bye TQ, Bye Queensland,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, April 13, to Sunday, April 25, 2004
Happy Anzac Day! Lest we forget. It's Australia's version of Memorial Day today so we found the one place
that's actually open in the city (updates on the website at the old internet cafe).
We've had another couple weeks of hermit like existence as we go to work and sit on the couch every other minute that
we aren't working. Our patience and discipline has paid off as we've managed to save a pretty good pile of money in
the month that we've been here. Anyway, we are still by ourselves in the apartment as no one has moved in although plenty
of people have had a look at the extra room for rent. Perhaps we smell?
We are geared up to get back on the road at the beginning of next week. Our tentative itinerary looks like the
following:
Week 1: Drive to Sydney with stops at a few spots on the coast and inland including Byron Bay for surf lessons
and Tamworth (OZ's version of Nashville) to visit the giant guitar and swim in a guitar shaped swimming pool (who wouldn't
want to do that?)
Week 2: Spend a week in Sydney to see the sites.
Week 3: Head out to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. Make our way through Canberra with a few stops
along the coast and then inland towards Melbourne. Arrive in Melbourne and catch ten hour ferry to Tasmania.
Week 3/4/5: See the sites of Tasmania. Unfortunately we managed to pick probably the worst time weather wise to
see Tas but that's pretty typical of our luck. It might actually be below 10 degrees- oh the horror!
Week 5/6: Hang out in Melbourne. If we have any money left we might try to make it to Adelaide otherwise we'll
probably try to find work. We'll see.
That's about it with us. The car is running well (still minus hubcaps) and we are refreshed and ready to start
travelling again although we do swear that we'll both miss Brisbane a lot as we really like it here.
Check out all the new pics and send us emails to let us know that you're all still alive and haven't forgotten about
us.
Travellin's cool,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, April 4, to Monday, April 12, 2004
Another week of normal life. Who wants to read about that?
On Sunday, Eve and another girl (who arrived on Saturday from a tomato picking stint in the country) moved out of the
apartment. We weren't sad to see them go as they hadn't bothered to clean up anything from the past week.
The rest of the week was pretty straightforward and we finished on Thursday due to Good Friday and the Easter long weekend
holidays. We spent most of the time plastered to the couch watching TV and a couple of movies on a borrowed DVD player
from Jason. It was a very quiet and uneventful weekend however some of the troublemakers in the building managed to
bring the cops by- again.
On Sunday we went for a 6km walk starting from New Farm park, along the river, to a new river boardwalk. The pathway
headed along the river through downtown and into the southbank park area where the swimming lagoon is. We caught a City
Cat ferry back to our car in New Farm park. It was a nice to get out of the house and off the couch.
Other than that that's about it,
Chad and Janet
Monday, March 29 to Saturday, April 3, 2004
We have pretty much walked right back into our old life in Brisbane. On Monday afternoon we managed to secure a
room in the same building that we were in in Newmarket although we are actually next door to the room that we had before.
As well, Chad fortunately called the job agency at the right time and got his old job back starting on Monday night (night
shift instead of afternoons) from 11pm till 7am.
Our new room mate is a German girl named Eve who is nice enough however is a complete and total slob, not to mention
slightly rude and inconsiderate. The landlord and Janet spent a good deal of time cleaning up the apartment and doing
a pile of leftover dishes. When you live with lots of different people (be it in hostels or whatever else) you begin
to hate people who don't clean up after themselves. Most of you who know us would say that we easily qualified as slobs
when we lived back in Canada however after our experiences here in OZ we have been completely cured. Chad has dishpan
hands everyday!
The week was quite quiet and uneventful as Chad worked through into the weekend and Janet resumed her position at Tourism
Queensland on Thursday. She was glad to see her friends that she had made at work again and we have settled into the
humdrum routine of daily life (on a supertight budget!).
The most interesting part of the week was that we finally have pushed our poor neighbor over the edge. A combination
of new party animals in the building and the existing problems from those of us living here before prompted the neighbor,
and actually most of the neighborhood, to sign a petition to shut down the building. They managed to gather a lot of
signatures and then the worst part was that two different newspapers showed up to do stories on our building in an effort
to expose us as the hooligans that we are. They sent a reporter and camera man around to interview various people in
the building and they took pictures. Ultimately the neighbor was quoted as saying "they are the worst backpackers in
Australia. They are a drunken, boozy, foul mouthed lot". He went on to claim abusive language, destruction of
property, trespassing, noise violations and a number of other infractions were committed. To date the cops have
shown up something like 30 times since Christmas and that hasn't quit since the articles came out. Now the cops are
called on the slightest issue- you can't cut a loud fart without four paddy wagons showing up to smell it.
We also managed to catch our debut on National Australian TV. Remember the "Big Arvo" that was filming us when
we were sand tobogganing on Moreton Island? Well, by fluke chance we happened to catch the actual episode with both
of us sailing down the hill on our sand boards. TV and newspaper stars. We certainly have made an impact on Australia
(I suppose maybe not the best- hee hee).
On Saturday, Janet got up to enjoy a day at Dreamworld with Jason, Dierdre, and new building mate, Linda. Janet
left poor Chad at home to slave through another night at work as she went to play for the day. Boo hoo. Janet
had a great time at Dreamworld as she got to pet alligators, ride rollercoasters, the Big Drop (a ride that drops 33 floors
while strapped into a kitchen chair), and watch giant Tigers perform tricks. All in all it was a great day.
If Chad has to see another styrofoam tray.......
Chad and Janet
Sunday, March 28, 2004
We briefly toyed with the idea of going to a place called Rainbow beach on the way home but our accounts and our patience
with eachother is wearing thin a little. If you spend this much time with someone you are bound to want to kill eachother
after a while. We figure we have done a pretty good job of getting along so far.
After some discussion we eventually opted to head straight back to Brisbane. It was only going to be a couple of
days earlier than we had originally scheduled but we figured that we could use the time to get settled again. Especially
in the event that Chad couldn't find work right away or a place to live.
We drove for about three hours (with a stop in Maryborough for breakfast at Macca's) before we came upon the Buderim
Ginger factory in a small town off of the highway. We though we could use a break so we stopped to see what they had.
It was an incredibly touristy area around a Ginger factory that had been set up for tours and had several shops and restaurants
amongst a giant tropical garden. It was a nice break and we cruised around for an hour or so. We left the place
with a Ginger Beer and some Ginger flavored Rocky Road candy.
Shortly after we made it back into good old Brizzy. We were pretty happy to see it and it felt the most like coming
home we had ever felt since we have started this trip. We went over to our old apartment building in Newmarket to visit
Jason and Dierdre. Unfortunately our old room had been rented out to someone else the week before but the next door
apartment had a vacancy as of the day we arrived. What luck! We talked to the landlord and agreed to make the
arrangements for moving in the next day.
We stayed in a campground (actually across the street from our apartment building) which we hoped will be our last campground
at least until we leave for the South. We are a little tired of camping and are looking forward to a normal bed and
shower.
It's good to be home,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, March 27, 2004
Off to the Bundaberg Rum distillery this morning. We slept in a bit and then headed out to the distillery
after breakfast.
Our tour began with a video about the history of the company and its products and we then went to tour the molasses
vats where they store something like 5 million litres of liquid molasses to be used in the fermenting process. It smelled
horrible (I hate molasses) and we moved on throughout the rest of the factory to see the various processes and machinery
involved in making the product. Finally at the end of the tour we were treated to two samples each of the various Rum
based products that they offered. Janet's favorite was called Bundaberg Royal Liquer and was a mixture of chocolate,
caramel, rum, and cream. Chad's favorite was called a Dark and Stormy which was a mix of Bundaberg Ginger Beer
and Rum. Although neither of us are particularly fond of Rum we enjoyed the tour anyway.
After the tour we came back for a quick lunch at the campground and we headed back out to tour the downtown which was
full of nicely restored Victorian style heritage buildings. After that we drove out to one of the local beaches to check
it out and then finished our night back at the campground with a couple of XXXX beers.
Almost time to go home,
Chad and Janet
Friday, March 26, 2004
Janet woke up this morning in a bit of trouble. Her knee had swollen to the size of a baseball from around 30 mosquito
bites. She also had broken out in hives on her chest, stomach, and back. She was in pretty rough shape so we decided
to go see a doctor. She went to a clinic downtown and got a prescription for some sort of allergic reaction (to what?
we never did find out). The doctor did however take the time to explain that we were in a foreign nation with a lot
of different parasites, bugs, allergens etc. and with all of the camping we were doing we were basically exposing ourselves
to untold amounts of these critters. Duh!
In light of Janet's ailments we also checked our bank accounts. It was a sorry and scary sight. We managed
to blow through around $3500 and we still have to make it home. Our original plan was to go back inland along a route
that had some wine country, heritage towns, and country flavored outback scenery (sounds like another brochure doesn't it?).
However it really wasn't going to be that exciting and would involve adding extra kilometers to our trip along with the fact
that prices for just about everything go up when you go either north or inland. We figured that we didn't have the budget,
the energy and patience for eachother, or the inclination to want to take this route. We decided to change our plans
a little and we headed south along the coast towards a town called Bundaberg (we had missed it on the way up- Backpackers
prefer to call this fruit picking, rum producing, sugar cane growing town Bundaturd).
It was around a four hour drive south along the Bruce highway off to the coast to make it into Budaturd. We arrived
around 5:00 in the afternoon and we checked into a cheap caravan park in the middle of town. We figure we managed to
pick the seediest area in all of Bundaturd but it was cheap and that's important right now.
Tomorrow we sample the famous Bundaberg Rum,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Time to go back down south. We were back on the road to make a marathon journey to Rockhampton. As this was
our last week to be out on the road we figured we had better make some serious time. Australia is a lot like Canada
in the fact that it's absolutely huge with long roads that have little in between cities.
We ended up driving around 750km to Rockhampton tracing the route along the coast that we took on the way up. We
were blessed with much better weather and the traffic was fairly light. We ended up arriving in Rockhampton around 7:30
and we ended up checking into a caravan park on the main highway.
How's that for an exciting update?
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
We made it over to the ferry terminal early this morning to make it onto the Sunferries catamaran for our Great Barrier
Reef trip. After a quick stop at Magnetic Island to pick up more passengers we sailed for around two hours to make it
to the John Brewer Reef which is known as a mid-shelf reef. Along the way we had morning tea and a presentation by one
of the biologists about some of the various creatures that we were about to see.
Eventually we made it to the reef. Unfortunately the sky was a little cloudy and the water was still a little stirred
up from the cyclone a few days ago but we still had reasonable conditions. We didn't have to wear the stylish stinger
suits that were required in the Whitsundays so it was our first time diving with just our swimsuits, which was a little bit
unnerving as we somehow felt a bit of protection when we wore our suits. Protected from what? We aren't quite
sure but we liked wearing them anyway.
We got our fins and masks on at the dive launch on the end of the boat at around 11:00am. The attendant tossed
some fish food into the water at the end of the boat and a feeding frenzy erupted. It was obvious that the fish were
well trained to head over to the boat when it arrived. We jumped into the water which was about 28 degrees C and we
started swimming. At first we were a little disappointed because much of the coral appeared to be dead and the fish
were few and far between around the boat. We had heard that a type of plant/fish/whatever type of creature was a parasite
to the coral and had ravaged and killed much of it in the reef that we were at. Eventually though the further we got
away from the boat the more the coral started to appear, and with it, a ton of fish and sea creatures.
Fortunately we had been to the Reef HQ in Townsville where we learned about all of the different creatures in the reef
so were far better able to identify things as we swam around. Some of the highlights of the day included seeing a giant
Buffalo Parrotfish (about a metre and a half long with an actual beak and a giant hump on his head), a couple of sea turtles,
a stingray, a small reef shark (never did actually see it but some nearby divers were trying to point it out to us) and plenty
of tropical fish (we actually saw Nemo and plenty of fish from the movie "Finding Nemo"). It was great to see that some
of the fish were extremely curious of us and in some spots we were engulfed in huge schools of fish. At one point all
we could see in any direction were these small minnow like fish (thousands of them) swimming in one direction all around us
in a circle. It was surreal and amazing. Halfway through our experience we jumped out to grab lunch and we were
back in the water as soon as possible. All told, we had around three hours of snorkelling. Once again we were
pretty much the last ones back in the boat at the end of the day. We definitely like to get our money's worth!
We rode the Catamaran back to shore in Townsville and made it back to the campground to chill out. Snorkelling
is such a relaxing experience and we were feeling pretty calm.
Nature is the best artist,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
After a restful sleep in Hitler's Oasis we were invited to feed the Barramundi by Hitler himself at his personal fish
pond. We hadn't ever seen a Barramundi before and were busy looking for a fish around six inches long. Well they
are a hell of a lot bigger than that. He dared us to put our fingers in the water to tempt the fish. Yeah right!
Seeing as how we missed our opportunity to see the Great Barrier Reef in Mission Beach we decided that we would take
a tour out of Townsville. It was only around 140km East of Charters Towers so we drove out to Townsville in the morning.
We checked back into the same campground we were in before and went out to book our trip with Sunferries for the next day
to the Reef.
We spent the rest of the day getting some errands done and taking advantage of the cheaper groceries and gas.
The outback is expensive!
Chad and Janet
Monday, March 22, 2004
Another day on the planet Mars. We headed out early in the morning to ensure that we had plenty of day light for
our trek onto the deserted Gulf Developmental highway.
We pulled out to the highway and it rapidly deteriorated into a bumpy and worn out single lane stretch of bitumen.
We encountered plenty of road trains and there wasn't a road sign or sign of any life for that matter for miles. Eventually
we came upon a fuel station where we filled up and discovered that we had lost yet another hubcap. Poor Clifford!
We laughed as we must have looked like something out of a Mad Max movie. Screaming around in a super dusty old red station
wagon with only two hubcaps. We didn't look much better either as we were both wearing the same clothes for the
third day in a row and the car was spilling over with piled up camping gear. Boy do we look sexy!
Eventually the road turned into a reasonable and recognizeable stretch of dual lane highway much further down south.
We were happy for that as our suspension had been pounded to bits. Eventually we rolled into a country town called Charters
Towers. It was a nice cattle farming heritage town who's claim to fame was that it was Queensland's tidiest town in
2003.
We checked into a caravan park that we would later refer to as Hitler's oasis. The owner was extremely anal about
absolutely every detail of the park and how we conducted ourselves. We weren't even allowed to set up our tent
until after five o'clock. Oh yeah, and by the way don't forget to park your car at an angle when you park it in the
middle of that empty field next to your tent!
We spent the rest of the day doing a touristy sightseeing tour of the heritage sites throughout Charters Towers.
It was fairly interesting although we decided that it was definitely a place that represented the saying-if you've seen one
you've seen them all.
That night we settled into Hitler's Oasis and chilled out for a while.
Siek tent!
Chad and Janet
Sunday, March 21, 2004
It seems funny that when you go to the outback it is kind of like stepping back in time. We made it out to meet
the tour group for our two hour tour of the Undara Lava tubes. The tour guide was around his mid sixties and resembled
a steretypical Yellowstone National park tour guide you might see on TV. The rest of the group seemed artificially enthusiastic
and even the kids seemed like they were directly out of "Leave it to Beaver". As you can guess most of the people in
the group were outback locals.
We took off in the 4WD bus over to the lava tubes. We hiked in a ways as we hit three of the lava tubes.
In one of them the guide mentioned that there might be a few bats in one of the tubes and we managed to confirm his theory.
We were swarmed by what seemed like a thousand tiny bentwing bats that scurried around our heads in the darkness. It
was quite the situation- especially when he mentioned that there were plenty of Huntsman spiders crawling around the area.
All in all the tubes were amazing. They were absolutely massive (you could fit small buildings in some of them) and
we were amazed by their colors and features.
After we returned from the tour we headed out on a few of the bushwalks that were suggested to us by the tour guide.
It was a hot and dusty walk through the desert scrub and we discovered exactly how persistent outback flies can be.
They want to get into every available orifice at any cost. We did see a few more kangaroos who proved to be about as
curious of us as we were of them. For about two hours we made our way around the area as we spotted a few of the ancient
volcanoes that generated the lava flow and rocks all around the area.
In the late afternoon we decided that we would take an alternate route to get back down south tommorrow. We weren't
sure that the highways on the coast would be reopened again so the only direction to go was further into the centre or down
a secondary developmental highway to the south. We opted for the southern route and decided that we needed to get some
supplies as we were going to be heading out to a very deserted area. We took a short trip to the nearest town from Undara
called Mt. Surprise. Well guess what? Surprise!! the prices there are horribly high for just about everything.
We ended up paying around $1.05/litre for gas and around $25 for a bottle of water, milk, bread, and a box of cookies.
That evening we hung out and headed to bed a little on the earlier side as we were quite worn out.
Red dust is everywhere,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Bugger this rain/cyclone crap! We talked to a guy at the information centre this morning as we were in the process
of checking the road reports for all of Northern Queensland. Basically all but two relatively major highways that headed
inland were closed due to flooding. We're trapped! So we talked to the information centre guy about our predicament
for a while and he suggested that we could go inland to a place called the Undara Lava tubes. We had heard about these
before from a guy that we met in Hervey Bay but we had looked it up on the map and decided that it was way to far out in the
middle of nowhere to go to. However after hearing the highway and weather report for today we realized that we would
be stuck in rainsoaked Mission Beach for at least three to four days and we didn't have that kind of time to waste.
We did some planning and conferred that we would take the only escape route and head inland to the Undara Lava tubes.
We headed out on a bit of a scary outback highway that was in an area called the Gulf Savannah (basically the rainforest version
of the outback). The highway was a scary mix of a single lane strip of bitumen on a red gravel road that occasionally
turned to two lane. We bumped along on this road and eventually met up with a few of the dreaded road trains.
These are fast moving semi trucks with up to four trailers that can be as much as 50 metres long. They are a little
intimidating to come up to on a one lane road at 120km/h (by the way there didn't appear to be any posted speed limits either).
We ended up losing a hubcap during one of the many times that we had to head off into the gravel part of the road in order
to avoid hitting an oncoming car.
Eventually we made it to an all gravel road that we ruined our suspension on until we came to Undara National Park.
We checked in at the campground which was a well equipped place that had old traincars for some of the upper class visitors
to stay in. Now that we were in the outback we also had a chance to discover some of the local creatures specific to
the area. We almost ran over a giant snake on the middle of the road on our way in and we were bombarded by giant grasshoppers
that were around 4-5 inches long. Fortunately there were lots of kangaroos around the campsite which was kind of cool.
That evening we just set everything up and relaxed in the red, dusty environment. It was quite hot but as the night
wore on we discovered that it can really cool down at night in the outback. That was a welcome change however and we
ended up sleeping well in the cool.
Absolutely in the middle of nowhere,
Chad and Janet
Friday, March 19, 2004
Put the tent up, take the tent down, pray it's not going to rain. It's getting to be a familiar routine for us
and fortunately it wasn't raining. We packed up and made our way downtown again.
We killed a few hours around the shops and then headed to the IMAX to catch "Extreme" which was a movie about extreme
sports. It was a nice way to spend an hour and it even showed a few snowy places in Canada which made us a little homesick.
After the IMAX show we were greeted by the good folks from the Townsville meter maid association. We had a
nice little $20 parking ticket that we put into our magic glove box that eats things like tickets. We are assuming that
if you lose the ticket to magic ticket eating glove boxes that you don't have to pay them. That will be our excuse from
now on.
In the late afternoon we headed off to Mission Beach which was about 140km away. Unfortunately the weather started
to rapidly deteriorate as we headed north and we heard the news off the radio that another potential cyclone was in the works
off the coast of Cairns up north. Not again! So, to drown our sorrows we were drawn to a magical place on the
highway (probably a result of the nineteen billboards along the way) called the Frosty Mango! Seeing as how this is
Mango and sugar cane country we figured that we had better support the local economy with a couple of ice creams. That
was pretty much our last taste of relatively dry weather!
As we got closer to Mission Beach the roads were covered in pools of water and in some places either side of the road
was flooded to within a foot of the asphalt. It was a little unnerving to say the least especially when we passed through
a town called Tully which is the wettest place in Australia (annual rainfall of 4000mm). Our car got to learn how to
swim a bit through some of the puddles but fortunately we made it through.
Just outside of Mission Beach we were informed that we were in Cassowary country. Cassowaries are goofy looking
crosses between an ostrich, emu, and a dinosaur. They look harmless enough although they have a reputation of scratching
the eyes out of innocent backpackers with their big clawed feet. Apparently they like to jump out in front of cars as
well because we laughed at crude sign after sign proclaiming "Cassowary country: Beware!".
Finally we made it into the small, sleepy, and extremely wet town of Mission Beach. We weren't in the mood at all
to try to set up the tent at a campground (especially with the impending cyclone) so we broke down and checked into the Mission
Beach Backpackers Lodge. This hostel was the kind of place that would have been extremely cool about ten years ago but
it had deteriorated a lot since then. We checked into our room with soggy mattresses, pillows, and thick green mold
growing all over the room. It was a health inspectors wet dream.
We didn't want to chance cooking anything at the hostel so we grabbed an expensive bite to eat at a place called Scotty's
and retired for the night.
We are now officially in the jungle,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Somedays you have to face the music and deal with some errands. We got up a little on the late side and headed
downtown. Chad had to pay a little $100 speeding ticket that he picked up back in Brizzy so we took care of that and
checked our bank balance at the same time (scared the crap out of us!).
After all the boring crap was out of the way we made it out to a place called Reef HQ. It was a reef discovery
centre that the town had put together to showcase a few of the creatures that lived in the barrier reef. Inside we found
an actual reef aquarium of sorts that was filled with tons of tropical fish, sharks, rays, and all sorts of coral- some of
which we had seen in the Whitsundays. It was cool to be able to put a name to some of the fish that we recognized and
we learned about a few more. Because we think we're rich we also ended up buying tickets for the next door IMAX theatre
for "Extreme" that's playing tommorrow.
In the evening we ended up making a somewhat fancy supper- considering we're staying at a campground and we are generally
living off of canned and instant food most of the time.
We found Nemo,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Ahhhh! Yet again it was raining as we got up this morning! Oh well, what do you want when you go travelling on
the East Coast of Australia during the wet season? We quickly packed up our stuff whilst shaking the cobwebs out of
our heads from the night before (that got a little out of hand).
We made it back out onto the road to head to Townsville. It was only a short 150km or so drive to Townsville so
we made it their in good time. Along the way we stopped at the Townsville information centre to talk to yet another
"aged" (their word for senior's) volunteer who had so many stories, so little time, and no clue how little people could endure
listening to them. Anyway, we made it out with a ton of brochures and some info on some of the local campgrounds.
We ended up picking a spot across from the beach (although the water was muddy brown and the beach didn't really exist).
We had a chilled out day as we spent some time cruising around the town to gain our impression of it. It is a nice
bustling little town that we thought had a cool downtown made up of some restored heritage buildings and trendy bars.
Sounds like we're writing a brochure doesn't it?,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Today is our last day at sea and it doesn't seem to be heading in the right direction. We had a very good sleep
as the rooms were much cooler than the previous night but were awoken by a large bang and a bit of a jolt followed by
the skipper frantically running up and down the deck. We both just fell back asleep and didn't really think much of
it. At breakfast someone had asked him what the noise had been and he said the other boat that had stayed in the same
bay as us had dragged its anchor. So in other words the boat's anchor had moved across the sea floor until the
boat gave us a gentle bump at about five in the morning. It was all very hush hush as I am sure they
were trying to avoid the paperwork that would follow such an incident. There wasn't any harm done which was good.
After breakfast we were ready to go and the skipper was having problems getting our anchor up. The electric crank
didn't appear to be working and the crew, plus Chad and a couple other guys, had to crank the anchor up manually. This
took up about an hour of time and we were afraid that we were going to miss our snorkelling again but the skipper came through.
Eventually we were off to our final snorkelling destination . This time insted of snorkelling from the beach (as
there was no beach at this location) we were going to go in the dinghy and be forced overboard.
The reef was awesome with so many different colours. Bright blue, green, purple, organge nearly every colour of
the rainbow lined the sea floor below us. The fish were a lot bigger in this location versus the last which was neat. We were
chasing them trying to get photographs like the poperatsy (sp?). We had about an hour and a half before the skipper
had to drag us out of the water and back to the dinghy. It is amazing that you can swim and float for that long
without even touching bottom. Some of the other people had seen a fish about 3ft5" long; we didn't unfortunately.
The only thing that was left for the day now was to sail back to Airlie Beach. I don't think anyone except
the crew was looking forward to getting off the boat. We were all going to meet up at a pub later that night
to enjoy the last night together.
Once back in port we got the shuttle back to Clifford (the car) and went back to the same camp ground where we had
been staying before the sailing trip. After a nice long shower and a couple of cold beer we headed out to
the pub.
Nearly everyone had showed up, which was cool, and we sat and drank and laughed and had a really good time. All
of us were a bit wobbly on our feet from being on the boat but thankfully the beer counter-acted that feeling and we were
all able to make it home without falling over (at least from being on the boat).
We have sea legs!
Chad and Janet
Monday, March 15, 2004
This morning we woke to the sound of Robin Williams filling the boat through the CD player shouting "GOOD MORNING
VEITNAM"! To tell you the truth most of us had just fallen asleep after a very long, HOT and restless night. The
rooms below deck were almost unbearably hot and hardly anyone got any sleep, but we were on a sail boat in the middle
of the Whitsunday Islands so we were all in good spirits. Chad thought that it was a great way to wake up and the
first sound out of his mouth was actually laughter (if anyone really knows Chad you would know he isn't much of
a morning person) so Janet is going to invest in the CD when we get back to Canada.
Breakfast at 7am and back sailing by 8am. The plan for the day is to go to Whitehaven Beach, Hamilton Island
for fuel, and another destination for some more great snorkelling......yahoo!
An hour or so into the mornings sailing the Skipper got a call from another boat to say that they had an ill crew
member who needed to get to shore and they would need a replacement as they had the minimum number of crew aboard.
Since we had an extra crew member we were nominated to meet up with this other boat at sea and pick up the sick guy (Kenny),
give him a ride back to Hamilton Island and pass off one of our crew. Unfortunately this was going to chew up all
of our available snorkelling time for the day:( Damn Kenny!
We had 20 mins at Hamilton Island to wander around while the boat was refuelling. The habour part of
the Island that we were at had a small street with different shops which was kinda cute but very manufactured.
The street wasn't really wide enough for cars but looked as if it was built for the golf carts that were cruising around
everywhere carrying their posh looking passengers. This really wasn't our kind of place and we couldn't wait to get
back onto the boat.
Off to Whitehaven Beach. It took us a bit of time to get to the beach but since we had such an early start
it was only around lunch time. The crew tossed in the anchor and we all set down for lunch before heading
to the shore. While we ate we could see huge turtles playing around the boat which was really cool. The beach
looked fantastic with the whitest sand and the clearest water. Everyone grabbed the attractive stinger suits
that were still damp and covered in sand and we piled into the dinghy to head to shore. On our way we managed to
see one of the turtles right up close and they are huge. We were given 2 hours to soak up the sun (not like any of us
really needed anymore sun) and play in the water. We have seen some beautiful pictures of this beach that had been taken
by other backpackers we have met and it just didn't look the same which was a bit disapointing. It was probably because
the sun wasn't really shining and it was a bit overcast.
Back on the boat we were off to our home for the night. Everyone has been plotting all day to sleep on the deck
tonight to beat the heat but the skipper keeps telling us it is going to rain a bit..... ah what does the skipper know about
weather on the sea anyway?
The skipper was one of these bull shit story tellers and you can never you tell when he was telling you the truth or
a line. He showed us a home on the bank of Hamilton Isalnd that belongs to Julia Roberts??? He told us that some fish
can change sex??? (we have since found out that this is true). He told us that at night the squid will climb up the
side of the boat and you have to throw them all overboard in the morning??? (fairly certain that's not true). So you
could imagine that we were kept entertained.
That night we sat on the deck and enjoyed the stars. The sky had really cleared up and the amount of stars you
could see was amazing. It was a bit erie however casue there was no moon. The only time you can see the moon there
is in the late afternoon.
The bunks below deck had really cooled off and we all decided that maybe skipper did know something about the weather
and headed into our rooms for a nights sleep. We were a bit disappointed cause it would have been fantastic to sleep
under all those stars!
The squid are coming!
Chad and Janet
Sunday, March 14, 2004
The day has finally come. We had a very long sleepless night as the rain soaked through our tent. You would
think that this would make you cold but not in Australia it just makes you sticky. What a mess to clean up.
Fortunately we were able to just throw everything in the car and forget about it till we got back from the sailing
trip. We took the car out to the Airlie Beach Airport to be put in secure parking while we are gone and then back
to the campsite to get picked up by the marina shuttle. While we waited for the shuttle we met two girls that were
going to be on the same boat as us. They were both from England and very excited as well.
Once we were at the marina we got introduced to the four crew members that would be on our boat called Iluka.
Then it was off to meet Iluka herself. We were taken into the dining area in the bottom and soon found out that there
is no air conditioning on Iluka as Chad and I had thought there was. This was one thing that we really wanted but I
suppose we could live without. Before long we were headed out to sea.
There were 8 passengers, 3 crew and the skipper aboard. Since the boat wasn't full Chad and I ended up with a room
to ourselves. The room was tiny and there was a double bed with a single bed overhead. At this point I think all
of us were wondering where the Luxury sailing came in. We later found out that most of the other boats would have 6
people to a room the size of ours. Iluka was luxury!
Once given the full tour of the boat and instructions on how to flush the toilet (which involved using a hand pump that
had to be stroked around 19 times for each flush) we all went and lounged on the upper decks. The day had started out
a bit rainy and dreary but was quickly picking up as we headed out to sea.
The skipper (Mel) looked like your stereotypical skipper, maybe even a bit pirate like. He was quite a character.
Soon enough the engine was cut and the sails were out. What a difference it makes. It is a lot more peaceful
and relaxing all the while holding on to one side to stop from falling off as the boat tilts hard to one side.
We got to Blue Pearl bay where we anchored and ate lunch. King prawns and salads on the deck of a sail
boat is even better then it sounds. Blue Pearl bay had a coral beach that we were going to get our first chance
to snorkel from. Mel took us over in the dinghy all geared up in our lovely stinger suits, snorkels, masks, and
fins (Mel mentioned that a flipper is a dead dolphin from a crappy TV show, fins are what you use). The beach itself
was not sand but dead petrified coral that sounded like glass as you walked on it. It was pretty neat on its own. Soon
enough we were in the water being blown away by all the different colours of fish and coral. It was way better than
our first snorkel trip at Moreton Island. We had been left there to snorkel for a couple of hours and we didn't
take a break once. It is amazing how much sea life there was in this small area. Janet's favorite thing was the
coral that opened and shut as it was trying to gather food. It doesn't look as if it is something that should move.....
very neat! We both enjoyed ourselves immensely and the skipper had to practically drag us out of the water.
Back on the boat we all excitedly talked about our new favorite hobby.
Not long after we were on the move again. We were starting to get to know everyone and it was looking like
a good group. There was an older couple from Toronto who were celebrating there 40 wedding aniversary,
the English girls we met at the bus stop, an English couple about our age, a single English bloke around 30 and
another English bloke probably late 30's. English ....... they're everywhere!
That evening we sailed to our spot for the night (can't remember the name of the bay right now) tossed
the anchor in and settled in for a chicken stirfry dinner and some wobbly pops. On our way out to the bay we
saw three dolphins and a school of tuna that had jumped about three feet out of the water.
What a way to spend a Sunday!
Chad and Janet
Saturday, March 17, 2004
We finally got to sleep in this morning despite the fact that we were in a tent and it is usually sweltering hot by 7am.
This morning was quite breezy and it wasn't raining so we lied in bed with the doors open until 10:30... not a real fast start
to the day.
After breaky and a shower we headed over to the Prosail office to confirm our sailing trip the next day. They gave
us our stinger suits (very attractive lyrca suits that look similar to a wetsuit to protect us from the stingers of course)
and told us everything that we needed to bring, ie water and beer. After paying $18 each for the stinger suits plus
a $50 deposit on each and $27 each for the reef environmental tax it turned out to be an expensive trip to their office.
By this time Janet is about ready to burst from the excitement of the pending sailing trip and is driving Chad mad with
the question "are you excited?" 50 times during the day.
The rest of the day we spent wandering around Airlie. We browsed through several of the shops
on the main strip and bought ourselves a disposable underwater camera for the upcoming snorkelling. It seems that
many of the towns in Queensland have man made lagoons that are free for swimming so we went and checked out Airlie's
version. We are not sure how they keep the local bums and street people from bathing it in after everyone else
has gone home or maybe they don't bother.
A quick trip to the local bottle shop and grocery store for any of the liquids we may need for the next 3 days and we
were back at the camp site for dinner. We ended up chatting with a couple of Canadian guys and an Australian
in the camp kitchen as we ate our supper. The Canadians were from Banff and the Australian from the Gold Coast.
They were great fun and we ended up staying up a little too late just shooting the shit and waiting for the rain to subside....
yes it rained some more. We are just praying for good weather out on the boat.
Are you excited?
Chad and Janet
Friday, March 11, 2004
We made it out of the campground this morning a little on the late side (after getting completely soaked by
a spontaneous thunder storm while we were in the shower- word to the wise: don't leave your tent windows and doors open whilst
you are away from the tent during a rainstorm). We drove out through the sugar cane fields to Eungella National Park
to take in some bush walks and try to catch a few swimming platypus's.
The bushwalks were pretty good. It was a little different because after we went through Rockhampton we had crossed
over into the entirely tropical region of Queensland so the forest was a lot different and a lot more humid. We trekked
through the forest for about six kilometers in total along the Broken River. Unfortunately we didn't see any platypus's
but we saw lot's of turtles and the whole experience was a refreshing break from the heat down at the bottom of the mountain.
After we were done with the park we headed out on the road towards Airlie Beach. It was only about a 140km drive
and we made it into Airlie in the late part of the afternoon. We were suitably impressed as we drove along the main
drag that was beside a huge harbour that was packed full of sailboats. The water had that great teal blue color and
the strip was totally happening. We checked into the best campground that we've been to so far in OZ and it was full
of backpackers which was kind of cool.
That night we made it out to the strip to see some of the wild and crazy nightlife that Airlie Beach has to offer.
We hung around for a while until we returned to the campground to chat with a few people that we had seen in previous campgrounds
before Airlie.
Later that night we met a few rocket scientists who decided that a fun game to play would be kick and kill the cane
toad. Cane toads run rampant through Australia and are viciously regarded as a pest. It is almost applauded when
someone kills one of these creatures. So, these two were running around the campground and kicking any cane toad they
could find, killing it, and then taking a picture of the aftermath. It's amazing how primitive some people can be.
The scary part was that one of the guys actually worked on some of the sailboats but thankfully not for the company that we
are going to be sailing with.
Can't wait to sail,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, March 10, 2004
Goodbye Yeppoon. We made it out in the morning and we were back on the road to our next destination called Mackay.
Just outside of Rockhampton however we stopped at a little town called "the Caves" which housed the largest limestone
caves in the world. We ended up taking a tour through the caves which were unbelievable. They were huge and had
multiple rooms and caverns to explore. Thankfully they weren't completely full of bats as that is their typical home.
We even got to visit the cathedral which was deep inside one of the caves. It was a giant cave that had pews and candles
and was actually blessed which made it an official church. Apparently the early settlers used to actually use it for
Sunday services. It was so cool as the cave had near perfect acoustics and they played a couple of songs for us to show
us the great sound. It was another fantastic and surreal moment. At the end of the tour we were given candles
and were set off on our own to replicate a route that the first cave explorers in the early1900's took. We did it the
same way as they had with the candles and it was extra creepy as our candles kept blowing out from mysterious breezes.
We loved it though!
Back on the road to Mackay took us around four hours and wasn't the most exciting drive in the world. There
was very little in between Rockhampton and Mackay other than a few small roadside towns. One of the few highlites was
the deep red soil that we kept seeing everywhere which made us a lot more curious about the "Red Centre"- and Mars.
Our first impression of Mackay wasn't extremely good. It's a bit of a dirty city that doesn't have a whole lot
going for it other than a bunch of sugar cane refineries, factories, and acres of sugar cane crop land. We drove around
for a bit until we checked into a nice campground. Our tent was set up amongst some trees as several large peacocks
came around to introduce themselves to us. Boy can they crap!
What else did we do that night? Went to the mall of course,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, March 9, 2004
Back onto the road this morning as we realized that we need to cover some serious ground in order to make it to Airlie
Beach on time for our Whitsunday Sailing cruise. We decided that we would go as far as a city called Rockhampton or
"Rocky" as the locals like to call it.
We drove for around three hours as we passed through a few more heritage towns that were pretty interesting. For
lunch we stopped in a little tiny town called Miriam Vale and we ate a few sandwiches in a park. It was a nice break
and we managed to hit the information centre. We were convinced by the information centre guy that we should stay in
a little seaside town called Yeppoon which was near to Rockhampton and apparently a lot nicer.
Eventually we pulled up in Rockhampton and took the turnoff to Yeppoon where we drove for another half hour or so.
We checked into a beachside campground (after a little arguing and driving around aimlessly) and we set up for the night.
That evening we went back into Rocky after exploring Yeppoon a little and getting into better spirits again.
Rocky is nice. That's all we could come up with to describe it. It's not really dirty, not extremely interesting,
but has a cool heritage style downstown strip. That's about it.
Back on the road again tommorrow,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Out of bed bright and early today as we had to check out and eat breakfast before we caught the bus at 8:30 to start
the rest of the days tours.
Our first stop was Lake Wabby. We did a short walk into the bush and then a long walk along a huge sand valley
where we baked and sweated as we hoped that the lake would magically appear over each hill that we made it over. Finally
on the verge of collapse we reached the greeny-blue lake and we quickly jumped in. It was unbelievably refreshing and
we waited to experience the famed "carmudgeon" fish that likes to nibble off dead skin. They eventually started nipping
at our legs and feet although it only tickled as they were not much bigger than a gold fish. Eventually we noticed some
curious catfish that weren't hesitant whatsoever to swim out and hang out with us. It was an awesome experience and
we loved every minute of it. It was a somewhat surreal experience to literally find an oasis in the middle of the desert
like that. It was unlike anything we had ever experienced before. We swam and hung out on the sand bank for a
good couple of hours before we headed out on a relatively long bushwalk back to 75 mile beach where our bus was waiting.
Once again the bus driver had to drag us out of the water to make it back to the bus in time.
We made it back to the resort for one last buffet lunch where we made sure that we got every last dime's worth in food.
We jumped back onto the bus and made it out to the famous Lake MacKenzie. We pulled up and felt like we had
reached paradise. The sand beach was white and was so fine that it was suitable for cleaning jewellery. The
water was the most amazing shimmering aqua color while the middle of the lake was a turquoise blue color. It
was only seconds after we made it onto the beach that we hit the water. The water was the perfect temperature
and you could see easily down to the bottom of the lake. We tried to soak in as much as we could of the experience as
we knew that it was going to be yet another once in a lifetime experience. To add to the beauty of the place
we saw plenty of small yellow butterflies that flew about a foot above the water amongst us as we swam. To cool!
It was definitely our favorite place in OZ so far.
Unfortunately all good things had to come to an end and the bus driver had to drag us kicking and screaming out
of the water to catch the bus back to the ferry launch. We were pleasantly worn out and said goodbye to our new
friends as we got off the double decker bus at our campground after the ferry ride.
We spent the evening getting our campsite set up again and we relaxed. We wondered how we will ever be able to
go back to a normal life again after having such great adventures.
Wow,
Chad and Janet
Monday, March 8, 2004
At about 9:00 this morning we were picked up by the Fraser Venture tour company in a double decker bus to take us to
the ferry over to Fraser Island. We pulled up beside a dozen or more 4wd vehicles jammed full of people and boarded
the ferry. After a 1/2 hour ride we made it to the island where we boarded a giant 4WD bus. The bus took off onto a
narrow, twisty, and bumpy sand trail that was barely wide enough for the bus.
Our first stop on the island was a place called Happy Valley near Central Station. We listened to the tour guide
tell us about the various flora and fauna as we headed out on a bushwalk along Woolongolba creek. It was a pleasant
45 minute walk through the jungle as we observed the incredibly clear and refreshing looking water of the creek. After
the walk we caught the bus and we bounced along the trail to the Eurong Resort where we checked into our accomodation which
was thankfully clean and devoid of cockroaches or spiders. We stuffed ourselves at the buffet lunch like we hadn't eaten
in weeks (when most of your meals come out of a can you are excited to have something fresh) and caught the bus back out for
the afternoon tours.
The bus pulled out onto an amazing beach called 75 mile beach and we drove at about 80km/h towards a beached shipwreck
called the Maheno. We spent about 15 minutes there and took a few pictures. The bus then moved us a bit further
down the beach and we got to see the colored sands which were very cool. It reminded us slightly of Drumheller although
the sands were striped with various shades of white and orange. Finally the bus drove us back down the beach to the
famed Eli Creek where we met up with at least ten other 4WD self drive groups. Eli Creek is a famous destination on
Fraser Island and that was evident as it was packed with people sunbathing and swimming along the shore. We followed
a boardwalk to the beginning of the creek and discovered that the water was extremely clear and looked very inviting.
We waded into the water which was slightly cool and we walked down the creek alongside various fish and even a few eels.
The water was only up to our waist most of the time but it was a great time as dozens of people walked down the creek at once.
The experience has been likened to the backpacker version of the Pilgramage to the Mecca (or whatever you call it).
We loved it and went down the creek at least three times each before the tour bus driver had to drag us out and throw us back
onto the bus.
That night we stuffed ourselves at the buffet yet again and hung out at the resort bar with some of our new friends.
We ended up meeting a ton of people from Germany. It seemed a little strange that there were so many Germans on this
trip as we had never run into as many anywhere else before in one place.
We saw a dingo too,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Now that we were all set to go on a two day safari at Fraser Island we had a day to ourselves. Hervey Bay doesn't
have a whole lot to do and the beach is kind of lousy so we decided to take in Vic Hislop's Great White Shark Expo.
Since we've been in the car so much lately we decided to walk to the shark expo along the promenade. It was a much longer
walk than we anticipated and we got a bit of a sunburn along the way but eventually we arrived. There were plaster casts
of huge "Jaws" like sharks all around the entrance and paintings depicting the great white as a complete and total monster.
We decided to go inside the expo and we immediately found dozens of newspaper articles and clippings related to shark
attacks and anything to do with Vic Hislop and his shark hunting exploits. There were also a few shark jawbones, surfboards
with bite marks in them, and pictures of remains of shark victims. The whole thing was pretty gruesome and obviously
tried to paint sharks in the worst possible light all the while trying to convince us that Vic Hislop was doing the world
a favor by culling the sea's most feared maneaters.
We got to see a few great whites including Vic's record sized catch in a giant freezer with windows. We then watched
a few of his home movies where he raced around the sea trying to catch sharks and then cut their stomach's open to show the
viewer's all of things that sharks will eat including, cute little dolphins, turtles, fish, hubcaps, and anything else that
will fit in their mouth's. After about an hour and a half we had had enough and we decided that Vic Hislop is nothing
more than a crazy sea cowboy who gets a total kick out of hunting great whites. Sick indeed.
After the expo we went out to the beach to watch some local kite surfers which was very cool. If we had the know
how and the money we would have liked to be out there on the water with them. We then decided that we needed to have
a lunch of fish & chips (how we managed to crave fish after watching Vic Hislop gut a shark was beyond us) and we
ended up relaxing at the campsite for the rest of the evening.
Fraser Island awaits,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, March 6, 2004
This morning we woke up to fogged windows and bright sun. The car was about 9000 degrees and we had seriously sore
bodies from sleeping in the car. We dragged out all our gear to get it dried off, packed up, and headed for Hervey Bay
up the coast.
We were quite disappointed that we didn't get to see more of Noosa as it was a pretty cool looking little town.
We did manage to catch a little bit of a junior beach triathalon competition on our way out of town.
As we travelled to Hervey Bay we couldn't help but think that a lot of the places we saw and the countryside was very
familiar to us. We went through a few interesting historic towns like Gympie to see some fine old colonial buildings
and a few goofy tourist things like the giant pineapple and the giant seashell. Once we arrived in Hervey Bay we made
into a campground that was right on the beach.
We found that Hervey Bay was an OK little town but it didn't have a great beach or the vibe of Noosa which made us quickly
realize that it was just a jumping off point for Fraser Island.
We set up camp and headed out to find a place to book our Fraser Island trip. That was when we found out that Fraser
Island had been evacuated due to the cyclone and that there was a serious backlog of travellers waiting to get onto the island.
Due to our scheduling with other tours we were forced to go on a guided two day tour rather than a three day self drive.
This was due to the fact that we couldn't get onto the island until Monday. We researched almost everything that was
available and settled on a guided tour with Fraser Venture that had us staying at the Eurong Resort in their backpacker accomodation
on the island.
What do you do when you have to burn a day in Hervey Bay? Read about tomorrow,
Chad and Janet
Friday, March 5, 2004
We woke up to some serious rain and wind this morning. We battened down the hatches on the tent and went back into
town. Our plan was to hang out at the beach and do some exploring as we checked out some of the huge waves in the surf
competition. Unfortunately we only managed to check out a few shops before we were almost blown off of our feet by the
rapidly increasing wind and rain. The news reports were continually warning that the worst was yet to come meaning 130km/h
winds and some crazy rain.
It got so bad that we had to abandon our plans and head back to the campground to check on our fancy new tent.
It seemed to be holding up but the weather was growing increasingly worse. So bad in fact that we didn't want to leave
the car. So, from the middle of the afternoon we sat in the car at the Tewantin Caravan park listening to the radio
weather reports all the while drinking beer. The whole time we wondered if we were being stupid tourists for a variety
of reasons:
1. We were parked underneath some very large and heavy looking palm trees that looked like they would do a number
on the car if they decided to fall (and probably squishing us at the same time).
2. Or, we were being those stupid tourists who hide in their car because they've never actually been through a
cyclone and in fact the locals claim that they aren't all that bad. To better explain this think of what happens to
Vancouver when they get an inch of snow (all hell breaks loose right?)
3. The tent is still setup. Should we have taken the opportunity to take it down before the 130km/h winds
arrive or should we risk our lives to save a piece of fabric when it gets really bad?
We ended up deciding to take the tent down just at the time when we thought the weather was the worst. We got completely
soaked and ended up soaking the car as well. As Murphy's Law would have it though the weather ended up dying down from
that point forward. The bad part was that we didn't want to put the tent up again and now we were stuck in the car-
wet, hot, somewhat drunk, feeling foolish.
Remember what we said about people who sleep in the back of the car? That's for drunks and losers- oh yeah- that's us,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Our so called early start to Noosa ended up being a mid afternoon start. Oh well. We packed up the car and
quickly realized that we were going to have some serious trouble with our plans to sleep in the back of the car. It's
amazing how much junk you can accumulate in a matter of months.
We got on the road and stopped at a little seaside suburb called Redcliffe so that Janet could search for a new bathing
suit (actually called 'togs' here). Surprisingly there is an odd shortage of bathing suit shops in Brisbane and we were
forced to look elsewhere. This seems strange as this country tends to be in their bathing suits half of the time.
You'd think they would be selling them on every street corner!
We ended up arriving in Noosa late in the afternoon as we passed by a few small towns on the Sunshine coast like Maroochydore,
Mooloolaba, and Caloundra. We really liked Noosa at first glance. It was similar in some ways to Surfer's Paradise
in that it was packed with surfers and all things related however it was less "Miami" and less cheesy. It so happened
that there was a week long surfing competition happening when we arrived so we really looked forward to it. We spent
a little bit of time on the main drag along the beach until we moved on to find a campsite.
After a bit of looking we settled on a site in a place called Tewantin. By this point it had started raining and
we were quickly coming to the realization that we were completely nuts to think we could sleep in the car. So, we headed
out back in to town and we came across a camping store that was having a clearance sale of sorts. To make a long story
short we ended up walking out of there with a brand new tent. The shop owner also kindly informed us of an approaching
Cyclone that was scheduled to hit the next afternoon as it was currently brewing out at sea just off the coast of Mackay which
was up north. Great!
Tents Rule, Sleeping in Cars is for drunks and losers!,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
We managed to catch a pretty decent sleep last night which was a treat as we were bagged from the day before. We
got up at quarter to six as we figured we could maybe get a chance to go snorkelling at the Tangalooma wrecks but when
we met the guide she said that it was still too choppy on the water and that we would be drinking more water through our snorkels
than breathing. So we went back to bed after rescheduling to snorkel under the Jetty at 11:00 as the water was much
calmer there.
Later in the morning we went on an offroad ATV trip on some sand trails that went up the hill behind the resort.
They gave us a quick riding course for those who hadn't rode before and we took off up the hill. It was pretty fun and
sand offers a different challenge on an ATV than what we were used to. It was much easier to kick out and slide around
on the trails although we were limited to fairly slow speeds as a lot of beginners were on the tour. We would have killed
to be let loose on our own to explore the trails on the island.
After the ATV tour we showed up for the snorkelling tour under the Jetty. We were surprised to get thick 5mm
wetsuits along with all the gear but they claimed that the suits were helpful for floating. We headed into the water
doing the "Tangalooma Shuffle" in our flippers to scare off any dozing stingrays in the sand and we headed out under the Jetty.
Considering this was the first time either of us had been snorkelling before we found this to be some of the best 45 minutes
of our lives. We swam with huge schools of various tropical fish and sea life. The fish were unbelievably curious
as they nipped at our gloves and even swam under us as if they thought we were a bigger fish that they could shadow.
After snorkelling we went for a quick walk on the beach and we had to catch our catamaran back into Brisbane. It
was a wild and bumpy ride as the water was completely crazy and the attendant kept handing out barf bags to everyone.
We ended up spending the night in our old apartment with Jason and Deirdre so that we could get an early start in the
morning to Noosa,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, March 2, 2004
We managed to get a couple of hours of fitful and unrestful sleep last night. Fortunately, neither of us recalled
any close encounters with the cockroaches. We made it out to the pickup point for the Desert Safari tour that we were
booked on. It happened to be right next to the reception area so we talked to one of the managers about our issues with
the bugs. They quickly agreed to alert the housekeeping department to go and remedy the situation.
We then jumped on to a large 4WD bus that took us along a winding, sand 4WD track that was just barely wide enough.
We literally bounced off of our seats as the driver talked about the various flora and fauna like scribbly gum trees (they have
scribble patterns in them from some sort of insect) and sugargliders (sort of flying squirrels). We also drove by an
old concrete structure in the middle of the resort that was the old Tangalooma whaling station. We learned that the
station killed around 6100 humpback whales and one blue whale until it closed in 1963. Some business man bought it soon
after and turned it into the resort. Eventually we made it to the desert sand bowl. We were given a quick demonstration
on how to ride the sand toboggan and we started to trudge up a 45 degree incline sand dune. What a workout! We
slid down on our stomach's head first on a piece of waxed particle board. It was super fast, covered us with sand, and
was a blast!
The same TV crew from the night before was around to film the sand tobogganing. The show is called the "Big Arvo"
and is a touristy, Aussie outdoor adventure variety show. They filmed all of us from the bottom of the hill and then
Janet almost destroyed the camera man and all of his equipment as she barrelled down the hill directly in their path.
She ended up eating some serious sand to prevent a huge accident. Chad then got his turn at being a TV star as the camera
crew went to the top of the hill to film him going down. By the way, the Big Arvo is playing on Network Seven in April!
We came back for a quick lunch and off to a "Shark's of Moreton Bay" presentation. What a stupid thing to do before
you go snorkelling. Unfortunately because of rough waters our snorkelling tour to the Tangalooma Wrecks (an artificial
reef made up of 15 sunken ships) was cancelled. We decided instead to try our hand at archery. We rented some
equipment and headed over to the range. Our verdict? We had a great time but we couldn't hit the broad side of
a barn!
We then went for a dip in the pool and headed in to relax and eat dinner. After that we headed out to the Jetty
for the dolphin feeding and we were a little freaked because none of the dolphins had turned up yet. We figured that
Murphy's Law might apply as all 8 dolphins had shown up the night before. We waited until 7 o'clock and they still didn't
show up until finally two of the dolphins made it about 15 minutes later (Fred and Bobo). We lined up in four lines
on the beach and we each grabbed a fish. We got to feed Bobo first in knee deep water. Bobo acted like an excited
dog and quickly snapped up the fish out of our hands. He waited with his mouth hanging open and wouldn't quit moving.
It was an unforgettable, surreal, and amazing experience. Fortunately, two more dolphins showed up and we were given
a bunch more chances to feed them which was fantastic.
Our great night was topped off with a visit from a Huntsman spider in our room. We had to get our room mate Bob
to chase him out. The good thing is there aren't any cockroaches so far....
Time to go to bed so we can get up for snorkelling at 6:15am tomorrow morning,
Chad and Janet
March 1, 2004
We got up early this morning to get a few small things finished and packed. We got a ride from Jason downtown to
the Roma street transit centre. We had originally intended on driving to the ferry terminal to get to Moreton Island
but because of the brake work that we needed on the car we had to leave it for the mechanic to fix. We called Tangalooma
resort early in the morning to arrange to catch the courtesy shuttle from the transit centre instead. We got down to
the terminal and made it onto the ferry without incident. We rode on the Tangalooma flyer which was a smaller Catamaran.
The weather was quite windy and we had to ride out some of the choppiest and wave filled water we had seen. Everyone
secretly battled seasickness and the heat as they had to close all the windows to keep the water splashing over the boat from
getting in.
We finally made it to Moreton Island. It was very nice and the beach was long with fine whitish sand. The
water was aqua colored and beautiful. They got us off the boat and we checked in. We got into the "Adventure Lodge"
which is basically a ten bed hostel room with a fridge, microwave, and kitchenware. We met our roommates who consisted
of an older English guy named Bob who was somewhere in his 50's and an older English woman named Julie who was in her 40's.
We then went on a guided bushwalk with one of the resort staff biologists. She took us on a 2 1/2 hour hike through
the bush until we reached "the desert" which was a giant sand bowl that was actually enclosed by trees and bushes. We
loved the sand bowl and we actually felt a strange sense of deja vu as the sand bowl reminded us very much of a winter ski
hill snow bowl or the Columbia Icefields. It was eerily similar but extremely peaceful. Along the way she pointed
out various plants and animals while telling us to watch out for the highly venomous Death Adder and Eastern Brown snakes.
She also told us about a species of birds (that were all around the resort) that like to aggressively dive bomb unsuspecting
tourists and stab them with poisonous quills in their feet. Only in Australia can you find poisonous birds as well.
After the bush walk we quickly grabbed something to eat and went down to watch the Dolphin feeding. They had eight
dolphins appear at 7:00pm by the boat Jetty which was cool as that was all of the dolphins that typically showed up.
People lined up in rows for their chance to feed the dolphins small fish in knee deep water. They even filmed a local
tv show there.
We then went for a quick dip in the pool, a drink, and then back to bed. Unfortunately, this is where our impression
of our so called nice room spiralled- No, plummeted downward. At last count we killed around 17 cockroaches and they
are still scurrying around in our room. We even put a towel around the underside of the door to our room to prevent
anymore from getting in.
The manager will be dealing with two very unhappy customers tomorrow morning,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, February 28 to Sunday, February 29, 2004
How much more typical day to day crap do you want to hear about our lives? Starting Monday we are on our way out
of Brisbane and things promise to get a lot more interesting. What did we do? More errands, a little going away
party with the room mates on Saturday night, and cleaning and packing.
On Monday we have to be out of the apartment and we need to catch the Ferry to Moreton Island at 10:00am. We are
booked on a three day, two night package trip/tour at the Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on the island. Should be awesome!
Updates on the island trip soon to come,
Chad and Janet
Monday, February 23 to Friday, February 27, 2004
Not much exciting stuff to say this week. We spent most of the time getting our butts ready to go on our trip.
We cleaned up and packed all of our stuff and spent a lot of time planning (as we write this we are realizing we didn't do
enough planning already- more to come later). Chad finished up work on Thursday night and had Friday off due to a monthly
rostered day off.
We had a bit of unfortunate news about the car as we took it into the garage to get an oil change. The brakes had
been sounding a little worn out in the past couple of weeks so we asked the mechanics doing the oil change to check the brakes.
They phoned and claimed that all of the rotors and pads were worn out completely and that we needed to pay $950 to replace
them! Needless to say we didn't get them fixed because the whole story sounded a little fishy. We talked to the
mechanic that we usually use to do work on the car and he figured that the whole story about the brakes was suspect as well.
He quoted much better prices and figured we probably only need brake pads. We'll see as we had to book him to fix the
car back at our apartment in Newmarket while we are at Moreton Island next week.
On Friday after Janet was done work a few of her friends and coworkers came out with us to the Tinbilly Bar and then
on to the City Rowers Club bar downtown. It was a big party night and everyone had a great time. Except possibly
for Chad who got mistaken for a similar looking falling down drunk by the bouncers. He was asked to leave the bar and
for once he hadn't done anything wrong. Fortunately some other patrons at the bar overheard the conversation and quickly
indicated that the bouncers had made a mistake. So Chad got to stay.
We ate so much junk food that night we almost had heart attacks,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, February 21 to Sunday, February 22, 2004
It's hot. How does around 41 degrees with a high of 44 degrees strike you? The whole city has virtually come
to a standstill with the exception of the thousands trying to cram themselves into airconditioned shopping malls and swimming
pools. We fell under the shopping mall crammer category.
We spent most of the weekend doing as many errands and buying as much camping gear as we could. We opted not to
do anything too exciting, expensive, or time consuming because we really had to finish getting some loose ends tied up as
we are leaving in a week.
Too busy to write much,
Chad and Janet
Monday, February 16, to Friday, February 20, 2004
Our second last week in Brisbane. As usual, once you know that you are going to be quitting your job in a matter
of weeks your motivation goes out the window to stick it out at work. Actually, was Chad all that motivated to sweep
floors and pack stryrofoam trays to begin with? Oh well.
It has been extra hot this week and we have been sweating it out at night. It makes it a little tough to sleep
at night. Our room mates managed to find some work which is good. Deirdre has been working for a telemarketing
agency for the surf lifesavers club. It is actually a pretty worthwhile cause. A little background on this: At
several of the beaches all along the coasts of Australia are these lifeguards who wear these geeky little hats with yellow
shirts and red shorts. They are actually volunteers and spend their days risking their lives to save stupid tourists
who can't swim in between the flags. So the fundraising that Deirdre does helps to keep this program in place which
is a good thing. It makes it a little easier for her to call people up and ask for money. A lot of Aussie's fortunately
recognize and appreciate the surf lifesaver service and are happy to donate. Jason managed to find some work as well.
Albeit isn't too glamorous. He got a shift working at the university where he blows leaves off the sidewalks for three
hours everyday starting at six in the morning. We give him a lot of credit and admire his determination to stick it
out at a crappy job like that. We have seen a lot of people come and go through our building who constantly whine and
complain about the lack of jobs and when they finally get one they either don't show up or they work one day and quit.
It's amazing how little people think they can tolerate. Especially when Mommy and Daddy line their pockets after a quick
phone call.
On the subject of jobs this week Murphy's Law has come in to play. Chad got a call from a recruiter that he had
sent his resume to back in December. The recruiter and Chad spoke and Chad was offered some work as a mining engineer.
Of course the catch was that the position was not a temporary one and the idea was that a visa sponsorship was to be pursued
so that Chad could work full time in the position. Go figure! Anyway, Chad opted to decline and asked about shorter
term engineering positions that would fit inside the three month visa limitation. The recruiter said that there wasn't
much going on in the way of short term engineering jobs and said not to feel bad if one couldn't be found. Oh well,
it was nice to finally have some interest expressed.
An interesting note that Chad found out from one of the guys at his work. Apparently OZ has also gone through a
disasterous gun registration program that cost the taxpayer's millions (similar to Canada's fiasco). To top it off (and
to make our situation seems ten times better) the Aussie government also bought people's guns and destroyed them in an
effort to reduce the amount of guns in the country. You can imagine how much that must have cost!
The temperature has steadily increased throughout the week. On Friday it was up to 38 degrees in Brisbane.
At Chad's work it was 42 degrees and as a result was 50 degrees inside the building. Apparently some new worker's rights
law states that people have the option of not working when the conditions are hotter than 48 degrees. So, most of the
guys took the day off but a few hardy (and stupid) employees stuck it out. Chad was one of them and they sweated like
no other day on the verge of passing out. But, money is money when you're travelling!
Janet had a very busy week. She has pretty much confirmed with her work that she will be returning to work for
another month at the beginning of April. She also spent a good deal of time working out details with the travel company
in her work to book some of our tours. We researched a lot of tours for the Whitsunday's, Frasier Island, and Moreton
Island. Janet managed to book us on to a trip at Moreton Island at the Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort. We will
be hand feeding wild dolphins, sand tobogganing, bushwalking, riding ATV's, and snorkelling shipwrecks on the Island for three
days and two nights. Our tour of Frasier Island will include a self drive 4WD trip where 6-8 people get together and
rent a big 4WD truck and drive all around the island to swim in freshwater lakes, bushwalk, hang out on beaches and camp out
at night. That will be a 3 day, 2 night trip as well. Finally, most of our effort was put into our sailing trip
in the Whitsunday Islands. We wanted this trip to be the highlight of our trip to OZ so we spent a lot of time (and
money) to get ourselves on a luxury cruise. We are booked (tentatively) on a 70ft. ex-racing yacht called Illuka with
a company called Prosail. It has been refurbished and outfitted with luxury cabins, kitchen, bar, and equipment for
all the guests on board. We will get to sail around the various islands in the Whitsundays and hang out on beaches,
lots of snorkelling, eating gourmet food, and a trip to the outer great Barrier Reef. We decided that we didn't want
a backpacker boat (complete with no airconditioning and bed bugs) so we spent the extra money to get a very nice boat.
It should be great and there are only about 16 people on the boat. We have not completely finalized the details and
it may change so we aren't 100% sure yet.
We should have a finalized itinerary up on the website for the month of March next week. It's super busy!,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Another hot and sunny day in Brisbane. We have started to notice a bit of a trend around our building. Since
we have started working our partying quota has decreased quite a bit from when we first got to OZ. The rest of the building,
however, has increased their partying quota and as a result Saturday and Sunday mornings are awfully quiet around our place.
We frequently find ourselves the only ones getting up without a hangover so that we can go out and do something fun during
the day. We figure that this might be the result of being the only people working full time in the building. The
rest of the people are either not working at all or a few have the odd job here and there.
Anyway, we figured that we would take advantage of the sunshine (not like there is a shortage of it around here) and
we went to Wet 'N Wild (not a strip club in the valley). We drove down south to the Gold Coast and pulled up to the
giant outdoor waterpark at about 9:30 in the morning. The park reminded us of West Edmonton Mall's waterpark only it
was outdoors. It was pretty busy and we had to wait in line a fair bit but we enjoyed the slides, wave pool, tubes,
and rafting nonetheless. We managed to escape serious sunburn as we have gotten into the habit of lathering up with
30+ sunscreen frequently. It was quite entertaining to see people (including ourselves) hopping around on the sidewalks
between slides trying to avoid burning their feet. The pavement was scorching and ,because we are one of the few
people who haven't discovered the joys (??) of cruising around the outdoors in barefeet, our baby soft feet didn't fare too
well on the scorching sidewalks.
We managed to hang out at the park until just before closing and we headed back home. That evening we cleaned up
a bit and did some more planning and organizing for our trip up north in the next couple of weeks.
Want Summer, Need Ten (Stupid local television station slogan that is stuck in our heads),
Chad and Janet
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Happy Valentine's Day,
Valentine's day doesn't really seem to be as big a deal to retailer's as it is in Canada. Back home every corner
store, mall, or gas station is loaded with candies, cards, flowers, and teddy bears for the holiday. Here in OZ
there is virtually nothing to be found. Hence Chad will use that for his excuse for not creating a particularly memorable
Valentine's Day for Janet. Ooops!
We had originally planned to go on a winery tour and then go for a picnic at an exotic destination in the rainforest
somewhere. Unfortunately due to a little bit of excess on Janet's part from a party the night before she was unable
to participate fully. Instead we decided to finally go out for supper to a real restaurant (the first time since
we left). We went to an East Indian restaurant and sampled a variety of curries and ethnic food. These type of
restaurants are a dime a dozen in Brisbane. After dinner we went to Chermside mall to watch "Along Came Polly" with
Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. It was pretty low key but a good night otherwise.
Our room mates and the rest of our apartment building opted to have a barbecue in the driveway with a few drinks.
As usual this ultimately led to the cops showing up again!
Glad to know that the local law enforcement likes to keep tabs on us,
Chad and Janet
Monday, February 9 to Friday, February 13, 2004
Another week goes by in sultry Brisbane. It's a funny thing how they describe the weather here. Rather than
describe the weather as "partly cloudy" or "hot and sunny" they simply describe the weather as "fine" or "sultry". We
think that our favorite days are "sultry". Hee hee.
We also find a few other things a little to be a little strange here. Tons of people like to walk in their
bare feet everywhere they go. It doesn't matter if it's downtown on Queen St. or in the mall or Macca's for lunch.
Apparently no shirt, no shoes, no service doesn't apply here. They also like to call "coffee breaks" and even lunch
or supper "tea breaks". Sometimes they're even called "smokos" or "cuppas".
Janet had a pretty straight forward week. Her boss has confirmed that her last day will be on February 27 to which
she is quite excited about. We are definitely ready to get on the road and enjoy the experience. However, Janet's
boss mentioned on Friday that they were going to have to find a temp to cover the month of April for the position that Janet
is currently working at. The lady that usually does that position is going on holidays (or annual leave as it is called
here). After some discussion Janet and her boss agreed that she could come back to Brisbane for the month of April and
work in her same position to cover the holidays. This works fairly well for us as we were planning to be coming back
through Brisbane around this time anyways. As well, we knew that we were going to have to work again at some point in
time and an extra month of work would really help our bank accounts. So the long and short of it is we just can't stay
away from old Brizzy. After the discussions on Friday Janet went with a few friends from work that night to the Normanby
Hotel for a few too many drinks and plenty of chit chat.
Chad has had a somewhat interesting work week. At the beginning of the week he got a sort of promotion (although
nothing was officially announced and he wasn't even told about it) from packing styrofoam trays to being an operator's assistant.
This basically involves training and helping the other packers, cleaning, helping to load the machines and troubleshoot, and
various work on a few other machines. But, unfortunately most of the time unless something goes wrong (the only time
a little bit of excitement comes into the night) Chad has to resort to sweeping floors. It just goes to show how low
on the totem pole his job as a styrofoam packer is. It's the only job in the world where a promotion to the next level
allows you to sweep the floors. Boy is Chad ever glad he's using that hard earned engineering education and experience
to make his parents proud!
So the plan is that we leave on the 1st of March. We have an intinerary planned that we will put up on the website
soon to let everybody know what our plans are. We are so excited!
The travelling circus starts soon,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, February 7 to Sunday, February 8, 2004
We had another great weekend! Saturday morning started out with some trips to a few of the backpacker hostels to
check the notice boards. We are trying to find some used camping gear and a lot of backpacker's are selling their vehicles
with a ton of gear. We figure that we might be able to find someone that will part with the gear separately however
we found that was a bit of a challenge. We did however find one girl who is leaving at the end of next week and still
hasn't sold her car. She figures that she would be willing to part with her gear at a decent price if she still hasn't
sold her car by then. The good part about that is that she has a surfboard and a boogie board as well.
After we had a bit of lunch and finished at the hostels we made it over to the grocery store to get a bit of food.
We made it back home and we decided (along with Jason and Dierdre) to go to North Stradbroke Island. We packed up quickly
and headed out to catch the last vehicle ferry over to the island.
When we arrived at the Island we drove around the island for a bit (it's pretty small) and we checked out a few campgrounds
before we settled on a spot at a place called Amity Rock. We sat around and had a few cold beverages for the evening
as we were right on the waterfront.
The next morning we got up and packed up our campsite. We drove to the main town called Dunwich for some fish and
chips and we then drove to a place called Brown Lake. It was a small freshwater lake with a white sand beach that was
really nice. The water was the color of coffee however it was clean. Apparently the color of the water comes from
the surrounding tea trees that shed their bark into the water which gives it the coffee color (and great skin!). We
also noticed a few goanna lizards cruising around. They are a little intimidating at first as they are about 3-4 feet
long and they like to hang around your car or climb trees but they didn't seem aggressive and we got some good pictures.
After Brown Lake we moved on to a place called Blue Lake national park which was supposed to be quite beautiful however
it was closed for some reason citing possible death or injury if we entered the park. Obviously we gave it a miss and
carried on to a place called Point Lookout. At that spot we went to Cylinder Beach which rivalled any beach we saw in
Thailand. It had fine white sand, crystal clear warm water, and it wasn't that busy. We had a great few hours
hanging out and everybody (except Chad aka. Mr. Sunscreen) got a bad sunburn.
We were bagged at the end of the day and we had supper at a cafe back in Dunwich. Chad had an Aussie burger complete
with 'the lot' which included: bacon, onions, tomato, pineapple, beetroot, ham, cucumber, lettuce, cheese, tomato sauce (not
ketchup!), and a burger buried in the middle somewhere. It was huge, messy, and lovely!
We managed to catch an earlier ferry back into Brisbane and we collapsed at our apartment.
We want a pet goanna lizard,
Chad and Janet
Monday, February 2, to Friday, February 6, 2004
This week went by pretty quick. We didn't get much accomplished in the way of planning or organizing for our trip
up north but we had a pretty decent week anyway.
Chad's work has seen more than a few new people come through the doors. For some reason the position they are trying
to fill doesn't seem to attract long term workers who are dependable and enthusiastic (go figure who wouldn't like working
with styrofoam trays!?). The first character that showed up on Monday was a guy from India who was working on his Master's
degree in Physiotherapy. He didn't have a car (which is a dumb idea to work in the remote industrial area that our factory
is in) and he took a cab to work everyday. He then managed to talk Chad into a ride downtown (without any offer of petrol
money) after work each night until he was finally fired on Wednesday at lunch break. He even had the audacity to ask
Chad if he would drive him to the bus station on his lunch break because he didn't feel like paying for a cab. You can
imagine Chad's less than pleasant response to that.
The next guy that showed up has worked out for the better. He is a very interesting character named Sivoulu who
is from Samoa. He is about 4'-8" and he is an ex-boxer turned body builder. He basically looks like popeye and
Chad has been getting him to teach him all the dirty tricks that he used to use in the Asian boxing circuit. He's a
really nice guy though and fortunately has his own car.
Janet had a pretty straight forward week however she is still curious as to the decisions about her future that her bosses
have been hinting at. She is hoping to find out something concrete so that we can adjust our plans and firm up our itinerary.
We are at the point now where we have come up with a tentative schedule/plan/budget for our trip up to the Northern section.
We figured that this was necessary as we have a lot of expensive tours stuffed into that stretch of time and we need to make
sure we aren't going to run out of money before we hit at least Melbourne.
Friday night we stayed in for a quieter night with Jason and Dierdre. The rest of the apartment decided that it
might be a good idea to give our neighbor a rest from the partying and they headed out to the bar. At this point we
don't have too many people left that haven't given their details to the cops.
It has finally quit raining every night and it's cooled off considerably,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, February 1, 2004
Holy crap it's February already! It's hard for us to believe that we have been away from home so long. We
left Calgary in October last year and, although time seemed to pass by fairly slowly in the beginning of our trip, it seems
that the days are flying by now. Perhaps that is a result of working everyday now.
Today we finally made it to Lamington National Park. We grabbed Jason (our room mate) and we drove out to a place
called Binna Burra. It was a nice 2 hour drive and we ended up going on a hike along a trail that had several ancient
caves that ancient aborigines used to live in. It was cool and the weather was actually somewhat reasonable (we mean
that we didn't cook to death).
After we finished our hike at Binna Burra we had a little picnic and got back in the car to drive to a place called the
Green Mountains. It was another hour and a half up a crazy twisty road that alternated between one lane and two while
the pavement quality varied between gravel roads and reasonable roadways. We made it to the top and went on the famous
tree top canopy walk. It was a suspended rope bridge that was hanging 20 meters up off of the ground at the top of the
rainforest. Janet feared for her life as the bridge bounced around and creaked like crazy. We came upon one part
of the bridge that had a series of ladders and platforms attached to a giant eucalyptus tree that you could climb up.
It was a major feat of nerves and only Jason and Chad managed to drag themselves up the ladders. Janet opted for the
relative safety of a platform about 30m below the top tree platform. The view at the top of the platform however was
breathtaking and we loved every second of it.
After the tree top walk we made it through another botanical garden and went on another 5 km hike to the Morans Falls.
It was another huge cascading water fall and we saw plenty of wallabies (mini kangaroo creatures) and heard a ton of different
birds that sounded like sirens, alarms, howling cats, and monkeys. After the hike we were exhausted and made our way
back to Brisbane through the back highways in the Gold Coast Hinterland cattle country. It reminded us alot of the scenery
around Salmon Arm which made us a little homesick.
All in all a fantastic day,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, January 31, 2004
We managed to drag ourselves out of bed to hit a few camping and hardware stores to start looking for some camping gear.
We had hoped to buy a bunch of gear off of a couple named Joe and Stacy that live in our building but they ended up selling
all of the gear with their car as they are leaving OZ in a week. So, we are forced to look for some new gear along with
keeping our eyes peeled for some other used gear opportunities. Fortunately, the Aussie's really love the outdoors and
good cheap camping gear isn't that hard to come by. All in all we managed to make it to Bunning's Warehouse (their version
of Revy), and Tent World.
Later that day we drove over to Mount Coot-Tha and headed into the Botanic Gardens at the base of the mountain.
The city had constructed a gigantic garden with lakes and thousands of varieties of plants, herbs, and trees from all around
the world. We saw a lot of the local wildlife cruising around the area and they weren't scared of people at all as they
strutted around the sidewalks in front of us. We were a little spooked by the abundance of Bearded Dragons that were
absolutely everywhere. Several times we were stopped dead in our tracks as we came upon one lounging in the sun.
They couldn't be bothered to move out of the way even if a bomb went off next to them. So we were forced to cover our
crotches (in case they like to jump up and bite?) and tip-toe over them to continue on our way. We really enjoyed the
walk and finished the evening with a drive around the backroads up Mount Coot-tha.
Tommorrow we plan to make it to Lamington come hell or high water,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, January 27 to Friday, January 30, 2004
It was nice to have a short week. With the Australia day holiday on Monday and Chad's rostered day off at work
on Tuesday it made for a pretty quick work week.
On Tuesday Janet went to work and we met later in the evening to have some dinner and make our way over to the Conrad
Treasury Hotel Casino. We figured that although we are poor backpackers we had to at least check out the biggest casino
and hotel in town. The Conrad Treasury is in a beautiful old government treasury building and has been converted into
a totally luxurious hotel and casino. We made our way into the casino and, armed with only $20 for the two of us, managed
to play on the 1c, 10c, and 50c slot machines for at least a couple of hours. Of course neither of us won big but
we made it out of there only $20 poorer. It turned out to be a nice way to spend a Tuesday evening.
The rest of our week was fairly standard on the work front. We have had to put up with some wild thunderstorms
that wreak havoc on the electrical utilities in the city so there were frequent power blackouts in many areas.
On Friday it was our room mate Dierdre's 30th birthday. Everyone got together to get her a cake and some balloons
and proceeded to throw a party at our apartment. It was a great time and of course the cops showed up-again. We
met a few new faces as the rest of the building is rapidly filling up with new travellers. We find it interesting to
observe all of the new people facing the same challenges that we did with regard to finding work. It makes us feel like
the veterans of the group as we are some of the last remaining people in the original group that we met when we moved here.
Old travelling farts we are,
Chad and Janet
Monday, January 26, 2004
Happy Australia Day!!
Today is Australia day and it is the day that people celebrate what it means to be Australian. It is also the day
that the Australian of the year is named and unfortunately Steve Irwin didn't win. Instead a famous (now recently retired)
Cricket player named Steve Wough won instead. There has already been a lot of criticism that a sports team captain has won
Australian of the Year for the third time.
We decided to find a little bit of a different way of celebrating Australia day by going to the 23rd annual Story Bridge
hotel cockroach races downtown. It was a great outdoor party with a live band, Miss Cocky competition, dunk tank and
of course the cockroach races. We caught a few of the heats which were quite the spectacle. Basically, there was
a giant bullseye mat in the middle of the grass with bleachers for all of the partying spectators all around. The procession
of contestants was led by a guy playing the bagpipes and the contestants all walked in wearing Steve Irwin crocodile hunter
outfits. The cockroaches were all numbered and in a glass bucket. They had various names using the word "cock"
in them such as: The cock hunter, Lord of the Drains (last years winner), and I've had a cock up my ass all day (the eventual
winner). We baked and sweated like no other day we'd ever experienced in the OZ sun and thanked ourselves for having
the foresight to wear a lot of sunscreen. Thankfully we avoided sunburns. We cheered as the contestants dumped
the bucket upside down and the cockroaches scurried from the centre of the bullseye on the mat to the outer edges where they
were scooped up by the "cocky patrol".
After a while we had our fill of the races and we went back home to change into some dry clothes. We went
back downtown to do a walking tour of Brisbane's downtown so that we could get some pictures of some of
our favorite places. We then made it over to the Southbank Area on the river where the swimming lagoon
is and we hung out on the bank to watch the Australia day fireworks. It was packed with people and the fireworks were
about 15 minutes long. Of course everyone then sang "Waltzing Matilda" and we decided to make our way back home
as we were bagged from a long day.
Chad wanted to enter the "Miss Cocky" competition but chickened out,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Yet another day that we missed going to Lamington National Park. We seem to manage to miss it every time we plan
to go there for the last three weeks. Oh well, we ended up getting home a little too late last night.
Last night we ended up going to Tinbilly Traveller's Pub with a bunch of people from Janet's work. We met a lot
of great people and we find that a lot of them are really friendly and easy to get along with. A lot of them seemed
genuinely interested in how we were enjoying our trip to OZ and they wanted to know what we thought of our home back in Canada
(we told them it was the best of course however OZ came in a close second!). Everybody partied long into the night as
we tried to avoid the massive thunderstorm that was raging outside. The sky was filled with lightning and it positively
dumped rain all night. Apparently several roads were flooded and there was even a mini Tornado in a far inland suburb
called Ipswich.
This morning we got up way to late and knew that we wouldn't be able to make it to Lamington so we decided to grab some
groceries and we then headed over to a barbecue at a friend from Janet's work. A girl named Celeste and her boyfriend
Sean were celebrating his birthday with a bunch of their friend's and invited us to an authentic Aussie barbecue. We
grabbed Sean a gift of some lollies (his favorite) and we made our way over to their house. We made a lot of new friends
and really enjoyed our time as we spent most of the night eating and chatting under the house (under the house?). Apparently
in Queensland many people do not have basements in their houses and the Queenslander style houses are actually built up on
stilts in order to catch the cooling breezes. So, the space underneath the house becomes the garage or the workshop
or whatever the owner decides he wants to use it for.
Aussie barbecues are actually just big gas powered frying pans,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, January 22 to Saturday, January 24, 2004
Ah, the end of another work week in Brisbane. Janet however had to work today as her company is trying to catch
up on a few projects. It so happens to be the Australia Day long weekend so we all get Monday off and because Janet
had to work on Saturday they are treating everyone to all their meals and drinks are to be paid for at the end of the day.
What a treat!
Chad also has Tuesday off as his company has a Rostered Day off which occurs once a month but no one gets paid for it
so it is kind of a stupid idea. Oh well, no worries.
Our room mates are working out really well and we get along quite well. On Friday night we all (everyone in the
building) hung out on the steps outside to have a few drinks and talk. Unfortunately our poor neighbor had had enough
as usual and decided to call the police on us. They had to show up two times and the second time we ended up running
up to our apartment and shutting off the lights to pretend that no one was home. How sneaky, evading the Australian
authorities already!
For Sunday and Monday we plan to head out to Lamington National Park and we are going to find a beach to hang out at
on the second day. As long as the sunny weather holds.....
I refuse to think of something witty to put in this spot,
Chad and Janet
Monday, January 19 to Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Just a little midweek update to keep everybody up to speed. Honestly we are having fun even though it may not sound
like it all the time. We're just working folk now and while we are trying to have fun on the weekends we are keeping
our cash spending to a minimum as we are trying to save up for the tours and travelling at the end of February.
Fortunately we have not encountered any other Rhinoceros (actually we were told by several locals that they prefer to
call them Elephant beetles) beetles other than we found the one that had invaded our house belly up on the pavement in the
driveway. The only good Elephant beetle is a dead Elephant beetle as far as we're concerned.
Yesterday we got a couple of new room mates and two other guys from England moved in to one of the apartments on the
second floor. Our landlord Shawn gave us about half an hour's notice that the new people were moving in (dickhead) so
Chad scrambled around trying to clean up the place so that the new folks might feel welcome. They are a cool couple
from Ireland named Jason and Deidre. They seem pretty laid back and friendly and a little closer to our age than Mark
and Gemma were which is nice. They have also been travelling along the coast from Cairns so we are able to pick their
brains about different tours and sights to see.
Hmmmm what else is new? We bought a little tool kit for the car so that Chad can do the maintenance and repairs
on the car when they come up. That will definitely save us some money. What else? We tried making Satay
beef in an effort to relive the great cuisine (some of it) of Malaysia but we just couldn't quite match the original.
Too bad!
This weekend we are waffling with the idea of going to Lamington national park (to do the suspended bridge rope walk
in the rainforest canopy) AND going to check out another beach along the coast (weather permitting). After having
such a good time at Bribie Island last weekend we are definitely going to increase our beach time. Of course the only
drawback is that the car is chock full of sand now. Oh well (We can hear all of you giving us the finger while swearing
and freezing in the snow).
It's time for a cuppa (this is what the locals refer to as the equivalent of our coffee break),
Chad and Janet
Sunday, January 18, 2004
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Take a deep breath), Restart:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Get the point?).
Last night Chad just about shit his pants when he was sitting at the table reading the newspaper. Janet had gone
to bed and it was quite stormy and windy outside. We had left our front door open as we frequently do because it gets
so hot. All of the sudden Chad heard what sounded like a plastic hockey puck skidding across our tile floor in the living
room. He looked over and freaked as he saw a giant Rhinoceros beetle lying on its back in the middle of the floor (see
the attached picture). He grabbed the broom to sweep it out of the apartment and off of the balcony (the old cockroach
treatment) and to make matters worse the bug actually hissed at him. To get an idea what the hiss sounded like imagine
the sound of an aerosol hairspray can and that is exactly what it sounded like. Everytime Chad poked at the beetle with
the broom it hissed angrily. He quickly sucked it up and squealed as the beetle actually tried climbing up the broom
and continued hissing. These little bastards even have claws (kind of like a mini lobster!). The beetle was eventually
swept out the door and off of the balcony where it could be heard continuing to hiss. We don't keep our doors and windows
open anymore- no matter how hot it is!!
Aside from the virtual heart attack given by the encounter with the beetle we had a great day. We got up this morning
and jumped in the car to go to Bribie Island. We couldn't find much information about it but our maps showed that it
actually had a bridge to it from the mainland so we decided to go check it out. It was about an hour and a half north
of Brisvegas and when we got there we found a sleepy little surfing town surrounded by two massive beaches that went on for
kilometers. They had that squeaky white sand and the beach was busy however it was so big that it was easy to find a
spot to hang out. We went to a beach called Woorim beach which is a popular surfing and boogie boarding beach to hang
out for the day. We spent plenty of time body surfing and managed to get sunburns from the 15 minutes that we had forgotten
to put suntan lotion on. We have both decided that one of our purchases in the near future will be a boogie board for
each of us. We figure we could do that all day every day.
We had a great day and walked around the little town a bit before we headed back home. We didn't last too long
as we were wiped out from playing in the water all day. However Chad was jolted awake by his encounter with the beetle
and took a couple of hours to calm down.
Perhaps we could become bubble people to avoid the creepy crawlies,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, January 17, 2004
It was another rainy day today in Brisvegas (as the skater's like to call it). We ran a few errands and basically
relaxed and enjoyed the day. We didn't do anything particularly special but we did go to see The Last Samurai with Tom
Cruise. It was a pretty good movie however Janet fell asleep (again) in the movie theatre. Chad is never taking
Janet to the movie theatre again.
Other than that not much else is new,
Chad and Janet
Friday, January 16, 2004
It's the end of another week in old Brizzy. The rain hasn't stopped all week which has made it a little difficult
to get out and do stuff. The plus side of that is that we don't spend any money. Due to the weather we are still
unsure as to what to do for the weekend. We have decided however that whatever we do will be done on Sunday rather
than Saturday. Now that we are both working we've decided that we need Saturday to get caught up on things all around
the house and around the city.
We are actually feeling a twinge of homesickness believe it or not. Chad actually found a website for Canadians
travelling abroad that talked about all great things Canadian: Clamato juice, Nanaimo bars, Hockey, CFL Football, Poutine,
Maple Syrup, Snow......etc. He also found a website that ships Canadian made food products all around the world to Canucks
living overseas. He's decided that a nice treat might be a couple of cases of Clamato juice and Dad's chocolate chip
cookies.
The buzz from the Steve Irwin crocodile/baby Bob fiasco has died down. We feel the poor guy was abused by
the media. He seems pretty genuine to us.
Tonight after work we went over next door to hang out with everybody who's left in our building. We are all a bunch
of working Blokes and Shiela's now so we get to talk about our work all night. Nobody has a particularly
glamorous job either so we all have that much in common.
We heard from our old room mates. They sent us a text message saying that they had gone on a Frasier
Island tour and sailed the Whitsunday Islands. It was apparently excellent and they are on their
way to Sydney right now. Good for them!
We found another cockroach in the kitchen,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, January 11 to Thursday, January 15, 2004
Now that we are both working our daily routine is hardly noteworthy unfortunately. We decided to lump the last
few days into one update. Janet is finding work to be a little different than what she has become used to. That
makes for a bit of a challenging day for her.
Chad has continued with his illustrious job at the plastic tray factory. He figures he's losing up to 9 billion
brain cells a day both from the plastic fumes and the lack of mental stimulation. He is continually reminding himself
of the money in order to stick it out.
On Tuesday we had a mechanic come by (mobile mechanics are very common here) to check out the stalling problem on
our car. As we had predicted it turned out to be something expensive (a new crankshaft sensor) and we ended up shelling
out $400 to fix it. Oh well, that's the joys of owning a used car. The car is now running fine again and we are
looking forward to resuming our plans this weekend to take in a trip to go surfing and/or hiking in Lamington national park.
We still can't decide and we may end up doing both just for the hell of it. We are also looking forward to spending
some time together as we don't really get to see eachother during the week due to our shifts at work.
On Wednesday another couple from England moved out of the building so we are now down to only eight people left in the
building. It is a lot quieter and the place seems like a ghost town. We are wondering if there will be a few more
people moving in in the near future?
Bug/Creature stories: The only thing we've seen are fortunatey non-lethal. We have discovered that we have
a resident gecko (he lives on the outside of our kitchen window, snatching moths) and the other day we were greeted by a big
green stick bug who made his presence known on the kitchen counter (As curious as they are Chad smacked him with a book and
swept him out). The only other creature that we noticed was a giant bullfrog that we had mistaken for a huntsman spider
in the dark. We were relieved to find that it was only a frog when we went to investigate with a flashlight.
The weather has gone from 38 degrees to 30 degrees with monsoon like rain. Chad was almost late for work on Wednesday
when the road he was travelling on (Ipswich Rd) flooded in several places and brought traffic to a standstill. When
it decides to rain in Brisbane the rain doesn't just fall it pukes!
Soggy, hot, feel and smell like dirty socks,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, January 10, 2004
Unfortunately we didn't end up going on a trip this weekend to go surfing or on the jungle walk. Last night the
car stalled and was running a little funny so we decided we had better wait to get it fixed before we go on the highway.
What a bummer!
So instead of playing around on the beach or in the rain forest we went to the mall and had a lazy day that turned into
a lazy evening.
Sorry no new bug stories although there are rumors that a dingo and a snake have been spotted in our neighborhood although
we think that is a load of crap.
I want a pet dingo,
Chad and Janet
Friday, January 9, 2004
Another day at the office for the both of us.
Janet had a pretty good day at work. Today her boss has been shuffling around everybody's work duties and
she was given some more responsibilities which she's looking forward to.
Chad realized that the plastic fumes can help for a more interesting evening at work. In conjunction to that he
has also realized that Jimi Hendrix works at the factory as well. His job is to go around and give guitar lessons to
the employees on the styrofoam tray machines. When Jimi isn't available the factory puts on a kaleidoscope of colors
and flowers for everyone's entertainment as a few members of the Smurfs come by to dance and sing.
Alright, if it isn't the fumes it's the heat. Along with yesterday it was 38 degrees outside today. The factory
isn't air conditioned and the temperature inside was about 50 degrees. Everyone in there sweats buckets and the boss
laughed when Chad mentioned that it was a little warm. He said "Nah mate, that ain't hot, wait till it get's to 60 degrees
in here". Sixty degrees!???! Oh well, the job isn't so bad. We just think about the money.
And the wind cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix),
Chad and Janet
Thursday, January 8, 2004
Chad got a job!!
This morning I went in for an interview with a recruiter and by that afternoon I had been called into work for ACI Plastics.
The job is very glamorous (not!). It involves working on a machine that produces styrofoam trays and then we have
to pack them into plastic bags and then put them on pallets. You basically go in and turn your brain off. It is
good money though and full time which is good. The down side is that the shifts are 3pm till 11pm through the week so
Janet and I don't get to see eachother hardly at all. But, that's the sacrafice we have to make to get some extra travelling
dough.
So far the votes from our poll at the beginning of the week are showing that people prefer the jungle walk on the suspended
rope bridge. Only one person has told us so far to get eaten by a crocodile (thanks Suzanne).
We shall see what the future holds,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Happy hump day! Chad is starting to realize that folks in Brisbane just don't get too excited about working very
hard. All of the places that Chad had talked to for interviews ended up putting things off and they tend to like to
give you answers like 'sometime next week' or 'pretty soon'. "Pretty soon!??!" What the hell is that? Anyway,
Chad did have an interview with a recruiter called Geoffrey Nathan International today. He met with a guy named Tony,
who was flaming gay, and got a few more job leads. Tony explained that Brisbane is notorious for being extremely slow
in the business world. No one gets too upset or works too hard. Must be the heat.
Chad did however get a confirmation of a couple interviews for tommorrow so that is a good thing. Janet is finding
that she is feeling fairly comfortable with her job now. She has settled in to her position and is finding that it has
its challenges occasionally but it has turned out as good as she has hoped. She is still really enjoying everybody
there and the work environment is good.
Work will find me soon,
Chad and Janet
Tuesday, January 6, 2004
Another day, another job hunt. Chad spent the day chasing some more leads for jobs and got a few more interviews
set up. The job market definitely seems to be improving. The remaining people in the building are all in the same
boat and we are all busily looking for work. Well, those of us who aren't working already like that lucky accountant
Janet.
Today was yet another day in the heat wave that has been hanging around Brisbane. It was about 35 degrees again
and is really muggy.
That's it. Nothing special today. We're still having more fun than your average bear though.
Except perhaps Yogi bear (howsa bout a picinic?),
Chad and Janet
Monday, January 5, 2004
Back to reality now. The glow from Christmas and New Years is starting to wear off as everybody is starting to
get back into the regular grind. Well, as regular a grind as can be found in the land of OZ.
Janet is back at work full time today and the official job hunt is back in full swing. The opportunities are still
a few and far between (virtually nonexistent over the holidays) but Chad has managed to scare up a few interviews for later
this week. Somethings gotta give!
We bid our room mates adieu this morning as they got on the road at about 9:00 this morning. Chad immediately started
cleaning out their old room and moving all of our stuff into it (they had the bigger room with a patio and a giant closet).
Other than that we didn't get up to too much. We enjoyed having the place to ourselves for the evening and savored the
peace and quiet (something that you don't get very often around here).
We decided to try our hand at some ethnic cooking based on some of the dishes that we tried in Malaysia. We decided
to try making Satay Chicken. It wasn't bad (one of the main ingredients was peanut butter) but you can never really
make something better than the folks who invented it. At least it gave us something different to try.
We are planning our next adventure for this upcoming weekend already. We are having trouble making a decision so
we thought that we could leave it to a vote by anyone still bothering to read this site. Send us an email
with your vote from the following list:
1. Take surfing lessons at Noosa
2. Go hiking in Lamington national park where there is a rope suspended bridge hanging in the top of the rainforest
trees.
3. Go to DreamWorld (OZ's version of Disney Land)
4. Go to Wet N' Wild (Not a strip club- It's actually waterslides etc.)
5. Go to the Botanical gardens and Planetarium at the bottom of Mt.Coot-tha
Please do not add your own options like:
6. Eat shit
7. Jump of a bridge
8. Feed yourself to a crocodile
Oh yeah, we forgot. We have another spider story. Fortunately it has nothing to do with us. This morning
the Canadian girls down on the second floor let out a huge scream at about 7:00am. Lori had noticed something moving
in the shower and when she looked closer a Huntsman Spider jumped out and started running around their shower. It was
another one of those hand sized spiders and according to Lori had great big fangs. Hmmm, a little bit exaggerated perhaps?
Anyway, their entire apartment building including the only male (Joe from England) turned into complete chickens and couldn't
do anything to get rid of it. The one person that stepped up to the challenge however was the other Canadian girl (Lisa)
who bravely took a giant wad of toilet paper, picked up the spider (there isn't enough toilet paper in the world that would
get me to pick up a spider like that), and flushed him down the toilet. Uggggghhhh!! Now the whole building is
freaked out and we have all spent at least an hour combing the nooks and crannies of our own apartments in search for a large,
hairy, arachnid.
Wonderful interactive entertainment for the whole family,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, January 4, 2004
We got up today to find our room mates getting ready to leave tommorrow. They have officially decided to get going
on their trip. We were happy for them as they had been growing increasingly frustrated and depressed as they hadn't
found a job in the entire six months that they had been here (we figure it had more to do with them than the economy
in OZ). Anyway, their parents ended up giving them a big chunk of money with the intent that they get on their way and
do some fun things before they have to come home- which will be soon. Both Janet and I have learned a lot from them
that you should never take for granted the situation that you are in. They have managed to whittle away six months of
their (once in a lifetime working holiday visa) trip doing basically nothing and seeing very little. Perhaps when you
finance the trip yourself and give up your car and house to get here then you appreciate it more rather than if Mom and Dad
pay for the whole thing. Seeing them cope with their own realization of wasting so much of their experience only strengthened
our resolve to milk this trip for all it's worth.
We got a little jealous and excited that they were going to be on their way to do some travelling so we dived into some
brochures and read our lonely planet to do a little dreaming and planning of our own. At the rate we have planned we
should end up being in OZ for the next 900 years. I'm sure we will quickly figure out what can be missed when we look
in our wallets.
So, in between planning we got some groceries (exciting eh?) at the local "ACTION" supermarket at Brookside mall and
had burgers for supper (complete with beet root and a fried egg). That's how they do burgers in OZ.
Tonight we ended up watching a great movie (although quite weird). It was called "Welcome to Woop Woop" and was
a complete Aussie movie that we think was also released in North America for distribution. It's about an American guy
(Jonathan Skeoch- from the movie "That Thing You Do" with Tom Hanks) who is travelling in the desert of OZ and gets hooked
up with a crazy Aussie country girl. She ends up hitting him on the head, drugging him, and he ends up waking up married
to her and living in a crazy desert cult/commune. It's very cool because it's filled with product placements (you know
like when the actor drinks a can of Coke and makes it really obvious what he's drinking) that are all Aussie products that
we use everyday. Anyway, we definitely recommend it. The language that they use is totally hard to understand
and is filled with all their crazy slang. My favorite line was "C'mon Jimmy, c'mere and part my beef curtains".
We are now addicted to beet root. Go figure?,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, January 3, 2004
We had an awesome day today!!
We got up really early as we planned to go to a place called Springbrook national park. It was about an hour and
a half south west of Brisbane up in the mountains. We followed an extremely twisty and steep road for about thirty kilometers
up into the rainforest in a village called Springbrook. We made our way over to a camping area called Gwongolla and
walked over to the PurlingBrook falls. We did a great hike on a 4km long trail that wound through the rain forest and
passed by a huge waterfall. The trail followed the top of the falls and then curved its way through the forest until
we made it to the bottom. We actually got to walk under/through the falls and got soaked. On the trail we saw
dozens of creatures-mostly crazy looking birds and lizards.
After our hike through the falls we stopped at an information centre to get some trail maps and we headed on our way
to a "Glowworm sanctuary". We came upon a little gift shop and cafe stuffed into the side of a hill in the middle of
the jungle. We had to take another windy single lane road (single lane for both ways!) to get there. It was a
"grotto" that had been built by a hippie in the seventies to house glowworms for scientific study. While we were waiting
we got to feed some parrots (or maybe they weren't parrots- they had the same color scheme as Toucan Sam minus the goofy beaks).
We put sunflower seeds on a little wooden plate and the birds flew down and sat on the edge of the plate to eat the seeds.
We then started the tour. We watched a little video to learn about the lifecycle of the glow worm which described
the different phases that it went through. Basically it starts as an egg, hatches into a fly, mates, turns into a maggot,
and grows into a final glow worm state (maggot with glowing tail). We then walked into the "grotto" which was completely
pitch black and were amazed to see thousands of glow worms. It looked like a star lit sky and we were very impressed.
The tour guide proceeded to tell us about about all the wonderfull things about glow worms and then told us about a creature
that commonly lives in harmony with glow worms. She pointed a red light flashlight at a small black creature.
At first we couldn't tell what it was and then she described that it was a highly venomous trapdoor spider. This little
guy actually burrows into a little hole and builds a working trapdoor. When we shone the flashlight on him he got
spooked and shut his trapdoor. We freaked especially when the tour guide told us that these spiders can jump up to 30
centimeters. I believe that was the distance from the spider to my crotch. Lovely!
We then moved on to see the remainder of the glow worms and the tour guide got us even more freaked out. She mentioned
that the trapdoor spider population was kept in check by none other than the Huntsman spider. "Great!" I thought.
"Now I have to worry about a highly venomous spider jumping onto my crotch whilst a huge Huntsman spider, which I can't see
because its pitch black in here, is going to crawl up my leg to go after the trapdoor spider on my crotch!". I expressed
my fears to the tour guide and she assured us that prior to any tour they do a sweep of the grotto with a flashlight and a
"Spider whacker". She mentioned that she had found a spider the size of an octopus in there. I had to reach for
the railing to keep from fainting. She then laughed and said he was only the size of my hand. Lady, have you seen
the size of my hand? We left, quickly.
After we recovered from the tour we jumped back in the car, stopped at a foggy lookout, and took off on another
lonely, twisting, extremely steep trail further into the mountains. We came upon an area that boasted a natural bridge.
After we hiked along a rainforest covered trail for a couple of kilometers we found a huge waterfall that had bored a hole
through the rock to create a natural bridge and a swimming lagoon that was filled with hippies. We thought about taking
a dip with them but just before we got in the water we noticed a sign warning about water eels and the threat to swimmers.
That was enough for us to be content with watching only. It was very cool and we got some great pictures.
We then ventured home as we had seen enough and we were extremely tired. That night we fought to stay awake but
we didn't last and headed to bed early.
Those crazy hippies,
Chad and Janet
Friday, January 2, 2004
Well here we are already into the second day of January 2004. Janet had to go back to work today and she ended
up having one of the most boring days ever because there were only about four people in the entire building. Much of
Janet's job depends on other people and when they aren't there her tasks come to a stand still.
Chad went out to start tracking down a few things for the new car. The other day he had done an oil change
and got a wheel alignment (it has new tires but the alignment and balancing was a little messed up still) and we figured it
was time to get a maintenance manual and some spare parts for highway travelling (spare oil, radiator "anti boil"- of course
its not called "antifreeze" here).
That evening we decided that we didn't want to have anything to do with partying so we went over to the Chermside mall
to catch a movie. We saw Master and Commander with Russel Crowe and Chad enjoyed it however Janet didn't find it too
interesting (She actually fell asleep in the theatre- I'll never figure out those Hobbs genes). The neat thing about
some Aussie movie theatres is that you can actually watch a movie from a special room that has lazy boy recliners and you
can sit there and drink beer the whole time. Will wonders never cease?
Oh yeah, we sat through World Idol- yee hah?,
Chad and Janet
Thursday, January 1, 2004
Ouch, head hurts. We had an extremely quiet day although some of the folks in the other apartments thought it might
be a good idea to continue partying even after they had gotten back from Byron Bay. We can't believe how much the Irish
and English like to party- it's insane!
As we predicted earlier in the week our poor neighbor next door finally had it up to here last night. At about
4:00 in the morning when the Canadian girls were doing their rendition of the soundtrack to the movie "Grease" on the balcony
with the stereo blaring our frustrated neighbor poked his head out the window and began to unleash about two weeks worth of
pent up anger. He yelled, and yelled, and yelled, and threatened to call the police, yelled some more and finally went
back to bed. That proved to be our curtain call for the night and we quietly dispersed and headed to bed.
Most of the people that had gone to Byron Bay last night stumbled in this morning at about 8:30. The Byron Bay
party was supposed to be this huge (5000+ people) party in a small town on the coast (called Byron Bay of course) and we had
heard that the town was charging one hundred dollars to party on the beach, fifteen bucks to park your car, and they were
planning to shut down the highway at an unspecified time to prevent too many people from over running the beach. We
figured that a 230 dollar plus night wasn't in the budget so that's why we opted not to go. Of course the rest of the
people in the building only paid the 15 dollars and snuck onto the beach thereby avoiding the 100 dollar charge. They
did get some hassles from the cops but overall they had a fantastic time and spent the night sleeping on the beach.
We were quite jealous but who knew?
Most of New Years day consisted of very little activity. Unfortunately we didn't even come up with any resolutions
either. Oh well, I think we both agreed that we had certainly gotten our fill of partying in 2003.
We are actually missing snow (just a tiny bit),
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, December 31
Janet had to go to work today but much to her surprise was let go early at 1:30pm. We didn't really have
any great new years eve plans and most of our friends from the building had headed out to Byron Bay that morning just for
the big night. We decided not to go along as our savings were a little sore from Christmas and it was sounding like
an expensive party.
The afternoon proved to be very uneventful. We went to the Internet, to see if anyone loved us, then back home
to a big plate of spaghetti for supper. We had planned to go into the city on the bus to see the fire
works show at 9:00. Thinking that if we left an hour early we could make it there in time as it only takes 15 mins on
the bus. Well, we missed the bus by 5 mins and the next one was schedule to appear at 8:50 and was late. We gave
up and went back to the apartment to drown our sorrows. The only other people that were around were the "Canadian
girls" (Lisa and Lori) and "Peaches" (Tabitha). We played cards and picked on Chad all night as
he was a little outnumbered being the only male in the room. We had a good time but drank a little
too much and paid for it the next morning. At midnight we watched the Sydney fireworks on TV which are
apparently the biggest and best in the world. They were pretty impressive!!
Adios 2003,
Janet and Chad
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Unfortunately another straightforward and relatively uneventful day. Sometimes they happen- Even in Australia!
Our room mates are contemplating moving on. They have been in OZ for almost six months and haven't found any work
yet (we don't think it's necessarily because of the economy) so they've arrived at the conclusion that they had better get
moving if they want to do some sight seeing. Unfortunately they have seen very little since they've been here.
It is a good lesson for us to make sure that we are cogniscent of our time spent in OZ and to make it as great as possible.
They talked to their parents (who have been ridiculously generous so far) and they got a big boost in their bank
accounts to carry them on their way for at least another month or so. We've been encouraging them to go because they
seem so bored here and we realize that you usually only have the opportunity to do this once. Janet is lucky enough
to work for Tourism Queensland and has tons of travel literature at her fingertips so she brought a miriad of brochures and
magazines home from work. They flipped through them briefly and then we got our hands on them. We basically are
ready to get moving again because the brochures really got us excited but we know we have to hang in there until we get some
more money. As well, we still have a long list of things we want to do and see in Brisbane.
We are happy for our room mates although we are a little sad because in the next few weeks almost everyone that we know
in our building will be moving on. It's too bad because we've all become good friends and do a lot of stuff together.
Oh well, such is life when you're travelling. We are hoping that the new year will bring a bunch of new travellers to
meet and hang out with.
Insert stupid catchphrase here,
Chad and Janet
Monday, December 29, 2003
This morning Janet wearily dragged herself out of bed to go back to work after her nice Christmas long weekend.
Chad got back onto the job hunt. Unfortunately there still isn't much out there as most people are still on vacation
for the week because of the long weekend.
So, with that said we'll share a little story to make this a more interesting update:
One day a couple of weeks ago Janet went in to work for a company Christmas party. Everyone was to bring a small
snack or dish for the party and almost everyone on her floor were making a lot of fuss over a dish that a girl was bringing
in called "Little Boys". Janet envisioned some sort of small pastry or a dessert of some type that had some funny
anecdote to explain its unusual name. Well, the dish arrived and everyone crowded around the bowl and cheered at the
"Little Boys". So, "what are Little Boys?" she asked. The crowd parted and unveiled a dish full of small red sausages
(no sauce). The look on Janet's face caused everyone to pause for a moment and then burst into laughter. Unfortunately
they weren't laughing for the same reason that Janet was. Apparently Aussie's haven't made the connection between little
red sausages and little boys anatomy. Perhaps that name might not be the most appropriate. Once Janet managed
to delicately hint to everyone the connection that she had made they got a sheepish look on their faces and began to laugh
once again.
P.S. We have now managed to single handedly introduce spinach dip into Australia,
Chad and Janet
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Not a real exciting day today. Janet went shopping with "the girls" and Chad did a little of this and a little
of that.
World's shortest update to date,
Chad and Janet
Saturday, December 27, 2003
We figured that today would be a good day to go to the Australia Zoo- home of "The Crocodile Hunter- Steve Irwin!".
We brought a couple of the Canadian girls from Ontario and one girl from Georgia in the US (nicknamed "Peaches") and we jumped
in the old station wagon to head out to the zoo.
It was about an hours drive north on the main highway from Brisbane. Traffic was packed although it thinned out
as we got further away from the city. On the way we passed by an ancient volcanic mountain range and forest called the
Glass House Mountains. We only caught a brief glimpse of the giant stalagtites (or stalagmites?) sticking up out of
the ground but we didn't venture in too far (We have a list of places and things to do while in Brisbane and seeing the mountains
is on it so we wanted to make an official trip to see them on another day). We eventually made it to the zoo and we
were bombarded all the way with giant billboards with the Crocodile Hunter all over them.
The zoo was great. We started out going through the venomous snake area where we got to have another look at the
top ten most dangerous snakes in Australia. The displays were covered with Crocodile Hunter phrases and quotes such
as: Crikey!, What a beaut!, Don't muck with it!, Awesome!, Look at this fella's fangs!, This fella's me best mate!.
After the snake area we passed by the Wombats (which are the cutest things in the world next to Koala bears), through the
"Birds of Prey" aviary, into the Red Kangaroo sanctuary. It was a cool spot where you could walk right up and pet the
kangaroos and take pictures close up (I was hoping to find one to have a boxing match with! Or perhaps have a rap session
with Kangaroo Jack). Some of the kangaroos actually had little "joeys" in their pouch. We were convinced it must
be unbelievably uncomfortable for both the mother and the baby to be jammed in that pouch.
After we made it through the kangaroo area we passed by a series of exotic birds and saw the American Alligator area.
Finally we made it to the Koala sanctuary. These little guys are as cute in real life as in pictures. They are
incredibly lazy though and apparently are only really active for about four hours a day or so. The rest of the time
they look like drunks that have climbed a tree and passed out. We got to one spot where you could actually reach up
and pet the little guys. Janet loved it!
At about eleven o'clock we had made it over to the brand new "Crocoseum". We watched a traditional aborigine dance
as they played a didgery doo (basically a long hollowed out log that is sort of played like a trumpet). Then we got
extra lucky because we found out that the famous Steve Irwin was actually at the zoo to do a feeding of the crocodiles.
The "Crocoseum" is actually a big outdoor arena with an enclosed pool and a grass stage area all around it. The
show started with Terry Irwin (Steve's wife) and their five year old daughter Bindi (we know exactly who will be the next
Crocodile Hunter after seeing this kid). They had Bindi swimming in the pool to pretend like she was bait for the
crocodile. Next thing you know Steve Irwin swam in with a snorkel all the way to the end of the pool and grabbed Bindi
for his dramatic entrance. This guy is exactly the same as he is on tv. He obviously loves animals and is insanely
enthusiastic. He first introduced some new elephants that they had at the zoo and then proceeded on to the first crocodile
feeding.
Steve Irwin introduced a giant crocodile named "Graham". This guy was about 10 feet long and was extra pissed off.
Steve ran around clutching chicken carcasses with his assistant as he swam in the water to bait the crocodile and taunted
him around the edge of the water. He discussed the best way to avoid a crocodile attack is to stay out of the water.
Crocs are apparently very territorial and the minute he entered the water "Graham" was after him. Basically his safety
speech was to stay out of the water and away from the edge of water bodies. Fortunately crocodiles aren't very quick
on land and only saltwater crocodiles are really dangerous to humans (I've decided to avoid the freshwater ones however).
With their 3000psi bite force and thick armour like skin they are a scary creature. It made the whole thing extra scary
because just a few days ago a guy out with his friend on quads was eaten by a crocodile up in Darwin. How nice!
Steve Irwin also proceeded to tell us the story of how his assistant ("Me best mate Wes") was bitten and almost killed by
"Graham" recently. They had made a few croc handling mistakes and poor Wes got bitten on the ass. Graham took
two fist size pieces of meat out of this guys butt and lower leg. Why he was back I'll never know.
After the crocodile feeding we watched a python show and we continued our tour through the zoo. We saw Dingoes,
Cassowaries (ridiculous looking ostrich like creatures that are apparently ultra dangerous as they have a tendency to attack
poor jungle walking tourists with giant clawed feet), Tasmanian Devils, Camels, Lizards, and Komodo Dragons. We
watched another crocodile feeding at a different location with Steve Irwin again. It really puts you on the edge of
your seat. Janet compared the spectacle to watching a suspense thriller movie.
We all managed to get sunburns and near the end of the day we were forced to leave the zoo because of rain.
That night all of the girls figured that it was makeover time as Gemma (our room mate) had just completed her Beauty
Therapy diploma before she got to Oz. So, they booted out all the guys and we retreated to an empty apartment to play
cards for the night. Eventually the girls managed to create another party and.......those poor neighbors.
Look at the size of that Sheila, crikey!,
Chad and Janet
Friday, December 26, 2003
Happy Boxing Day! Today was a bit of a late start for everyone as we are recovering from a non stop party over
the last couple of days. It is one of the hottest days yet and is ultra muggy. Everybody thought that it might
be good idea to get out of the house and hit the neighborhood outdoor swimming pool.
After watching a series of Boxing Day ads for clearance sales (referred to as "StockTake Sales") we all (about ten of
us) headed over to the pool. We decided to have an Aussie barbie so we brought a bit of food with us and some frisbees
etc.
The day was spent playing in the pool and eating some crappy hot dogs. A good time was had by all.
How can we possibly expect to think of a new caption every day to put in this spot?,
Chad and Janet
Thursday December 25, 2003
Merry Ho Ho!!
We all scrambled out of bed this morning to see what Santa had brought us. It turns out he is very thoughtful and
he apparently is on a budget this year. Our room mates had beaten us to the punch and had already opened their presents
by the time we got up. That's ok we didn't want to share in the joy of opening up presents with them anyways! Just kidding.
Janet and I have done a fine job this year of buying a lot of little presents for each other so it looked like we made out
like bandits but we didn't actually spend that much money. For instance Janet is now the proud owner of an umbrella,
flashlight, air pump, perfume, coffee mug, bath towel, and birthday book. Chad scored a cd, hat, jug of handsoap (we
needed it for the house but it made for an interesting present), and a notepad. What a haul!
We were all shaking a few cobwebs out from the night before. Everyone from the building came to our apartment for
a Christmas Eve party and we did a fine job of annoying the neighbors long into the night. For the rest of Christmas
day we pretty much continued our festivities from the night before until we all realized that it was time to get to work on
cooking our dishes for the "Newmarket Backpackers Potluck Christmas Feast". We grabbed a few kitchen tables from various
apartments along with a bunch of chairs and set them up in the driveway of our building. We had a great time and some
good food. We actually had a turkey, ham, mashed potatoes (or "mash" as called by the English folks), veggies, and plenty
of chocolate. It was a good time but unfortunately Australia has far too many flies, which makes for a bit of annoying
experience when eating outside, but we managed.
After dinner we had a secret Santa party. Most people in the building had gone and bought ten dollar gifts (ie.
mini boomerangs, six packs of beer) and we wrapped them up. We played a game that ended up with all of us switching
around and stealing eachothers presents until a time limit was up.
As any good group of backpackers would do we resumed partying after the Secret Santa game and for a second night in a
row we annoyed the neighbors long into the night. Not a bad day at all considering it was put together by a bunch of
starving backpacker party animals.
I lost my Secret Santa present after 15 minutes,
Chad and Janet
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Tis the season to sweat in places you never thought had sweat glands. Fortunately today it isn't as hot as the last
couple of days. It's only around 30 degrees however it's seriously humid!
We got a momentary sense of adventure last night when we thought it would be a good idea to go to the Chermside mall for
their 36 our marathon shopping spree. The catch was that the mall was to be open all night for 36 hours straight and
that they were going to give away a thousand dollars once every hour to some lucky shopper. We were sure that we could
stick it out long enough that at some point in the morning (likely three o'clock) the mall giveaway people would be delerious
with exhaustion and would pick our smiling faces as we would be the only people crazy enough to be there at three in the morning.
We would walk away with a cool thousand bucks for the holidays all for a little time hanging around in a mall. Well,
apparently the rest of Brisbane- actually all of Australia and South East Asia heard about the contest as well and all ended
up coming to Chermside mall. We managed to hang out until about 11:00 and we decided to give up.
Today Janet finishes work at 1:00 and the whole apartment complex is geared to get started with the Christmas festivities
at beer o'clock. Seeing as how no one has any money and there aren't that many presents to open we figure the next best
thing is to play drinking games from now until boxing day. We are having a turkey dinner out on the driveway of the
building and everybody has to bring at least two dishes. So far we have turkey, two vegetable dishes, mashed potatoes,
and about ten desserts. Perhaps a little pre-planning might have been beneficial but going into a sugar coma isn't necessarily
a bad thing.
This is the first year that either of us have ever wrapped Christmas presents with newspaper. It lends a certain
class to the Christmas tree especially when you get ink all over your hands from shaking the boxes.
So, basically the next few days are just going to be a big party. This weekend we are planning to go to Steve Irwin's
zoo (the Crocodile Hunter- of course!) on Saturday with a couple of Canadian girls from Lake Huron.
We hope that everybody has a great Christmas and a successful shopping experience on boxing day. Those of you that
care to can extend hugs, kisses, high fives, or any other form of affection on behalf of us to your various family
members.
Merry Christmas,
Chad and Janet
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