That's all folks
Well, I'm back. That's the end of my round the world odyssey (until the next one).
What have I been up to?I've climbed mountains, sailed seas, and crossed deserts.
I've slept on beds, bunks, hammocks, yacht decks, truck tops, tents,
mozzie nets, and between people.
I've travelled on planes, trains, cars, ferries, yachts, utes, kayaks,
trucks and shoes.
I've staying in dorms where people have slept, slept with each other,
cried, snorted coke, and danced.
I've arrived in continents knowing nobody and left with friends I'll
always have.
I've learnt to scuba dive, bake cakes, play didge, and relax.
I've carried all my possessions on my back, and only once stayed in the
same place for more than a week (Kajabbi doesn't count).
I've seen sunrises over mountains, sunsets from beaches, and the stars
upside-down.
I've been so hot I burnt my feet and so cold I couldn't feel them.
I've posted home, a didgeridoo, bolognase sauce, a possum skin, cute kiwi
guys, kava, and many more.
I've eaten kangaroo, crocodile, paua and possum.
I've been eaten by mozzies, sandflies, ants, march flies, and possums
(their revenge).
I've lost track of what month it is, but managed to have the same
afternoon twice.
I've jumped from planes, swum with crocodiiles, dived with sharks, and
been to the toilets with spiders!
I've been close to coming home early, but closer to staying away for
another year.
Yet in all that I've seen, and all that I've done, I have only scratched
ths surface. There's a whole wide world out there, and I intend to see
it.
A slight change in plans
I'm back home.
Two days earlier than I told everyone. (Jen, this is your fault - it was too good an opportunity to pass up.) Still, my Mum's face was worth the change! More later.
Boston Tea Party
Today I've made the arduous journey up to Boston. (All of four hours - it was supposed to be three, more on this in a mo.) It's a really nice place, it feels very new and clean. It's also a big student town - at least 6 universities here.
The reason the journey took an hour longer was that the train was late by an hour. Julian, they aren't always on time! With the combination of that and a complete lack of battery for my ipod I wasn't too amused. But then I remembered being stuck for 8 days and things didn't seem too bad.
In the end the journey was a lot of fun, as I spent the whole time chatting to the girl I was sat next to. She's at college up here studying graphic design, what was really cool was that she went out of her way to show me where my hostel was! It's not often you meet people like this. (Caren, you're now famous - at least to everyone reading this!)
Only a few days left...
Good news, bad news
Booo to the London bombers. Bad form. But it could have been so much worse.
What is funny is that the American media has been covering the bombings, and devoting equal amounts of airtime to the raising of the threat level out here - and nothing's even happened this side of the pond! Surreal.
A random film review
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" Pretty darn good. It's an action film with a brilliant sense of humour. (No, I haven't turned American in my spelling just yet.) Worth seeing if you've got the time.
(Chumley, you're dead wrong. It's not like watching that at all!)
Olympics
So, they're coming to London. Hooray! And hopefully I'll be living there through it, that's not going to make things at all busy, oh no.
Airports and NYC
Yesterday was a day on the move. I started at 11am when I left the hostel in San Francisco, and didn't stop until 1am when I arrived at the hostel here in the Big Apple. (There was a 3hr time difference though, so not quite as bad as it seems.)
Yesterday was also only the second time I've been searched prior to boarding a plane. The first was in Fiji, and they were pretty lax - they missed the matches and lighter in the bag they searched! (I did give them to them anyway, though.) It was kind of strange to see all my possessions laid out on a table, it showed just how little I own at the moment. The funniest thing was that the girl in front of me had a bra that obviously kept setting the hand-held metal detectors off! I had to try pretty hard not to giggle - probably bad form when around US Customs.
And I still went on board with matches and lighters! Although I did relegate my leatherman to the hold - that might be pushing it a little.
NYC is a fairly nice place, but at the moment it's going down as "just another big city". It's hot here though, the humidity is way up there even if the heat isn't. I had a wander round today, and went past the former site of the twin towers. It's really bizarre, if you didn't know the history it just looks like another building site. It was also kind of surreal to see parents having children pose in front of it. That wouldn't be my first choice holiday snap.
And then...
...there was 10.
End of a road trip
Well, the road trip is officially over. Betty has been returned to her masters. (That's the car before any of you start getting any ideas.) She was battered, covered in crisps and beer, had flies squashed on her, roamed over two thousand miles, and loved every minutes of it.
After Vegas (again) we cruised up to Yosemite. That should be enough for any rock climbers out there, but for those of you who are vertically challenged, let me explain. Yosemite is one of the premier climbing venues in the world. Literally miles upon miles of sheer, warm, granite with spectacular views and some a place in the history of climbing. I climbed with a guy who was there in the 70's when it really took of, and to hear him talk about some of the famous people I've only ever read about was pretty cool.
Some of the climbs take 4-5 days to get up, you have to camp, on a sheer face, halfway up the wall! It's something I'd love to come back to do but I think I might need to get a little more under my belt before I try it.
In a few days I'm flying over to New York and then the trip will be nearly over. As it is I only have two weeks left. I wonder just how much England has changed while I've been away? (Ali, the hair had better be big!)
The story continues
We're having a lot of fun out here, yesterday we cruised up to Bryce Canyon for the day from Zion. (The campsite where we're staying is too nice to leave!) The bizarrest bit was on the way home though, as we drove over the top of a mountain (10,350ft) and there was snow on top! Yes, there we were in shorts, shades and t-shirts playing in the snow. The photos are brilliant!
There have been a couple of mishaps, like driving along with the boot of the car open for a few miles. Fortunately we didn't lost anything out of the boot or go under any low barriers.
Tomorrow down to the Grand Canyon for a couple of nights, and then back to the hedonistic playground that is Vegas. Vegas, by the way, is a lot of fun - so much money has been spent there it's unreal. There's the fastest lift in the world, the brightest beacon, the largest hotel, a half-size eiffel tower, a sphinx, venetian canals (inside the casino), and more gambling than you can shake a stick at. It's a good thing we're not staying there for too long!
Road tripping
So far we've covered a fair few miles, and we've underestimated the time on each and every journey so far. That means we've done things like leaving Palm Springs at about half five in the evening to drive to Vegas... and arriving just after midnight!
We've stopped for two days in Zion which is a nice chance to get out of the car. (By the way, the car is called Betty; Betty the Beast.) We have a SUV! It didn't cost too much extra and has loads more room, so we're not in some pants hire car, oh no, we have a beast. The guy in the rental place told us that the one we'd hired was tiny (we were thinking micra) but it turns out that americans have a different sense of scale as it was more like mondeo. Anyway, all good.
Zion
Another short post, as I'm short on time: I'm in Zion National Park. It's north east of Vegas, and the scenery is spectacular even if it is a little hot! Tomorrow we're heading north to Bryce Canyon before coming back down to the big one: the Grand Canyon.
Hopefully more soon!
Fear and loathing
I've made it to Las Vegas,and to call it America's playground is an understatement. I've never been anywhere quite like this! It's a lot of fun, but a good thing I'm on a budget - I might have to return when I'm working out here though.
More later.
Ooh, mamma
I'm about to fly down to LA, and that means only one thing... the road trip starts tomorrow. I've been shopping for a little gizmo so that I can broadcast from my ipod on fm (for the car radio), and I'm looking forward to cruising down '66 listening to either Easy Rider or Bad To The Bone at full volume!
"In a neighbourhood like this you know it's hard to survive"
I came down from Banff to Calgary yesterday, and met up with Joanna in the evening. Up until that point I'd thought the hostel I was staying in was quite nice. That was when she pointed out the homeless shelter half a block away and the street corners favoured by prostitutes and drug dealers. Doh!
Kind of reminds me of the time we managed to find the red light district in Madrid by mistake - it was just getting dark and all of a sudden all these women in short skirts and high heels started to appear! Remember that Al?
(Bonus points for the artist/song that the title's taken form.)
Jumping through hoops
I went climbing yesterday, woohoo! It was indoor, booo!
That's not entirely the point of this post though. When I went to climb, I had to sign a waiver; nothing very unusual about that. Except this one was four pages long and required three signatures, two initials, and a witnesses signature too! I'm not exactly sure what I've signed up for as I didn't read it fully so if you don't hear from me for a while I'll be working in a mine somewhere.
Even that wasn't the best bit, I had to take a test to make sure that I could belay properly. (Non-climbers: hold the rope to catch someone if they fall off.) That test cost an extra five bucks and took twenty minutes. And I was more qualified than the guy testing me! I did ask, but apparently being an instructor, "doesn't count for anything". Grrr...
The worst bit was that the wall wasn't even that great - small, old and with a campus board that you bash your body into.
I know that this sort of thing is becoming more widespread in the UK but I really hope it stops before it reaches this point. So much of the climbing subculture is about doing your own thing, in your own way, that it defeats the object almost entirely. In my opinion, you shouldn't be climbing if you don't recognise that there's a risk involved. It's an extreme sport, so shit happens. We were lucky at university in that we one came close to a major accident once, butI have no idea what would happen if someone was hurt - who's responsible? Is it the people running the trip, the university, the student's union, or the students themselves?
Maybe that's a little over the top, but I don't like the idea of being told what to do if I accept the risks I'm taking.
Pooh and friends
One of the things about the Rockies is that there are bears about. Grizzly bears. Last year one of them wandered down the main high street in Banff with her cubs! It's all suddenly become more serious, however, as a woman was killed by a grizzly last week in Canmore. (Just down the road from where I was staying in Banff.)
I was planning to go off for some big walks and spend a day or two in the middle of nowhere on my own. In the end I didn't have the time or experience to do it. It is interesting finding out how you're supposed to deal with bears: you can buy "bear bells" to let them know you're coming and "bear spray" which is like a souped up pepper spray with a range of 40ft. It's all pretty scary stuff, but the last time anyone was killed by a bear was a good few years.
That's the price I suppose, if you want the best hiking, running, biking, climbing, and skiing then you have to live with the wildlife.
Banff
The name of this town might ring a bell with any climbers out there as it hosts one of the worlds biggest Mountain Film festivals each year. That should give you a good idea as to what there is to do around here...
As ever I'm too late for the winter climbing season, and the summer hasn't yet begun proper so it's still too cold/snowy for pure rock climbing. But this place is definitley high on my list of spots to return to. Just looking out of the window now I can see a clean slab of rock rising for a good few hundred metres, the temptation to go and try it anyway is very real.
Still, they've got an indoor wall and I've wandered up some of the hills instead of climbing them. Nice to be outside again after spending time in cities.
Maths puzzle
Okay, here's one to get your brain in knots. I spent a while trying to prove that it was impossible only to find out that it's not; it's just a little devious instead.
Four people have to cross a bridge. The bridge can only support two people and they each walk at different speeds, it takes them 1,2,5,10 mins respectively to cross. The problem is that it's dark and there's only one torch. So, one person has to bring the torch back so the next two can cross. (I.e. two go over, one comes back; repeat until everyone's over.)
Make sense? I hope so...
The hard part is this: you only have 17 mins to get everyone over the bridge. Good luck! (Answers on a postcard, please.)
Thanks Matt.
Distances
Australia's a big place, the US of A is bigger, but Canada takes the cake by a mile. I didn't realise that it's the second largest country in the world, that is, until I got on a bus yesterday.
I've just come over from Victoria to Banff. Victoria's just off the west coast on an island, and Banff is inland near Calgary. That's maybe 1/6 of the way across Canada; I started travelling at 8am yesterday, and barring a wait in Vancouver I didn't stop until 9am today. And I'm not even close to be halfway! It's a good thing I'm flying out of Calgary and not Toronto!
Random fact: Canada's twice the size of EUROPE.
Dormitory Derangement
A couple of funny things happened to me while I was in Vancouver. One's actually funny, the other falls more into the worrying category; I'll let you decide which one is which.
So it's about 11:30 at night, and one of the guys wanders in and announces that he's going to see "transwexual wrestling" and do any of us want to come? After managing to stop giggling, I decide that although it sounds like an excellent idea I can't be bothered to get up. I guess this is what people do in Victoria when they're bored.
The other one will have to wait awhile, as I'm in the seediest hostel in the world at the moment and feel the need to run away very quickly.
Links
I've finally gotten off my lazy arse and set the links up. On the right hand side, near the bottom are a few links to other people's blogs, either people I've met or know from back home.
Lazing in hammocks
Was pretty much all we had to do all day! Well, that and go swimming or drink cocktails. Or sunbathe. Or sleep. God it`s going to be hard to go home!
Katie, Justine, & Steph
On Kuata where I bumped in to them. Memo to self: drinking rum straight is not a brilliant idea. (Although playing "I`ll drink to that" is an excellent one.)
Sunset
Sunset from Manta Ray Island. Again, life is hard!
Blue Lagoon
Anyone remember the film with Brooke Shields? This is where it was filmed.
Sunrise island
Sandy beaches, sunny skies, long cocktails. Life is hard...
Sunrise
Getting up early does have benefits. I did go back to bed afterwards anyway...
LA vs Vancouver
I flew in to Vancouver last night. It`s a very different place to LA. From what I`ve seen so far from wandering around, it`s a lot smaller and greener and there are pedestrians here!
Tomorrow sees a short hop over to Victoria which has the reputation of being a, "small slice of England". I`ll let you know...
Grumpy?
It's just been pointed out that the last post was a little grumpy. It wasn't supposed to be, I was more amused than anything else!
Thoughts from a 'net cafe
There's a guy sat opposite me at the moment. It's strange, he's talking to a guy who's three feet away and yet he's shouting like he's just been robbed. It's cool though as he can't see me typing this. Even if he could, he wouldn't be able to read the words (I hope).
I've seriously never seen anyone pace, and shout, and moan, and huff, and swear, over so little. The internet browser crashed. That's a pretty rare occurrence these days, but even so.
Okay, maybe I'm too harsh. Maybe he needs to get online for something important. Still, it's the funniest thing I've seen in a little while. Actually, maybe I've just been travelling too long and have gotten a little too laid back.
...
Whatever.
Animal style...
...means with onions.
I've just realised how dodgy that must've looked - going to a place called In-n-Out and asking for it "animal style". Ah well.
Plans
I've become used to planning my days as they come, but for once I've made an exception. Tomorrow I'm flying up to Vancouver for a couple of weeks in Canada. Then I'll come back down to LA, wander off on a bit of a road trip for three weeks (Vegas, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, etc) and end up at San Fran. Finally, a short hop over to NY for a couple of weeks wandering around that area before home!
Under six weeks to go. Scary.
One cool thing about being here is the streets I get to walk down - Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Blvd, Santa Monica Blvd. (The latter I'm sure is in a Sheryl Crow song somewhere but I can't remember which one.)
First impressions
If you've read much of this you might gather that I don't like big cities too much. Something of a problem given both that I'm in one at the moment and that I'm going to work in two of them - London and New York.
So, when I arrived into LA I wasn't all that smitten. It's a very big place, but pretty sparse, you really need a car to live here. I think it covers something like 1000 square miles altogether. There are some stereotypes about America which are true (so far) there is as much fast food as you can eat, the freeways are
wide and some people wear the funniest things. In this internet cafe earlier was an elvis, and I walked past two wonderwomen just now. Very strange but quite cool.
As is typical, I now know all the best places to go just before I'm flying out. I spent way too long in the travel agents booking my flights, and the woman there gave me a handwritten map of LA with all her favourite places on it and tips of where to go. Looks like I'll have to come back through this way at some point!
Right, time to go. I've been told to check out "In-n-Out", a fast food restaurant California style and to ask for whatever I have, "animal style". Lord knows what that means, but we'll soon find out!
Not very subtle
I'd forgotten about this one...
When I was on Kuata, one of the islands off Fiji, I managed to lose my sunglasses. This wasn't surprising as I'd had a rum or two and wasn't all that worrying as they'd only cost $10 in Australia.
A day or two goes by, and I come to get on the boat to leave Kuata. Lo and behold, there's one of the staff wearing blue-lensed sunnies. Quite a rare breed out here... In fact, a very rare breed - mine! He was nice enough when I pointed this out, and claimed to have been looking after them for me. So, all's well, and the sunnies are on my head as I type!
Fiji
I could spend ages writing down everything I got up to in Fiji, but it'd make things a little bit long and boring. Instead, here's a general impression of the islands.
I haven't been anywhere quite like Fiji yet, the people are so much more relaxed and friendlier. Almost everyone you see says a big, "Bula!" with an even bigger smile. The islands themselves range from basic to plush and differ range in size all the way down to one that you can walk round in three minutes (yes, we did try it).
The other great thing is that the number of people hopping between islands is pretty small. So, after the first day or two you just keep bumping in to people you've met. The best one was bumping in to Steph, Katie, and Laura (friends from home). I knew they were probably in Fiji but had no idea where until I got off the boat and they waved at me from the beach! That makes three countries we've manged to meet up in, whether we'll manage it in the US remains to be seen... watch this space.
I'll post more tomorrow as I'm a little tired after having arrived before I've even taken off! (Don't you just love time zones?)
Sega na leqa
I'm back from my island hopping and have loads of silly things to add. But the net's sooo expensive out here I'm going to wait until I get to LA to do it.
(The title is "no worries" in Fijian.)
Primer
I've seen many films that have confused me, and they're a genre I tend to enjoy. I think I've just found the mother of all of them though. A film called
Primer about time travel. To say that it's hard to make sense of would be ever such a slight understatement.
Well worth seeing if you've got an hour or two to try and work out what you just saw!
Onward and upward
A long time ago, when I was planning this trip, I didn't know how long to spend in each place I was going to so I just went with three months for each. That turned out to be nowhere near long enough for Australia - it's pretty big - and now I'm coming to the end of my time in New Zealand I see it's not going to be long enough here either.
I've tried to delay the inevitable and extended my stay here by two weeks. (I should already have been out of here.) Even so, there are so many place that I didn't make it to, and so many places that I want to return to. This is the catch with travelling: you can never do quite enough.
So, next stop Fiji. I'm looking forward to sunshine, golden beaches, scuba diving while warm, and, of course, kava!
Coming down
Is always easier than going up.
I'm quite proud of this photo, although the effect wasn't intended and it wasn't as steep as it looks.
Hero poses
Are not just an option, they're a necessity.
Meg
Meggy-lou, where are you?
Toilet humour
Everyone's heard of words which mean things in different languages... Like a car called a "Nova" which didn't sell well in France as that means, "doesn't go".
Well, I was talking to a Dutch couple the other day, and I told them what my website was and they burst out laughing. It turns out that plee, pronounced play, is slang for toilet in Dutch. Doh!
Random quote from a book I'm reading,
That's the major failure of showers. There's nowhere to float your duck.
Le Bons Bay
After the manic atmosphere of Christchurch, I've gone to the opposite extreme: Le Bons Bay Backpackers. This is a little place that's a few kilometres out of Akaroa (east of C'church). I thought that any place that scored higher than Lochmara in the BBH ratings was definitely worth checking out!
It's a lovely little place, and the best things are the meals. Every evening they cook a goumet meal - which is lovely, and such a change - for only twelve dollars! Even including this in the price of the dorm was evening it works out cheaper than some hostels I've stayed in.
More countries
Yesterday was another one of those strange, but good, co-incidences. I phoned Steph, on the off chance they'd be anywhere near Christchurch in the next few days only to find they were already there!
This brings the tally up to three times we've met up, in two countries. Having sorted out schedules, we're going to be in Fiji at the same time, and Los Angeles too. That'd bring the total up to four, and then with a quick side trip to Mexico we'd get five!
There aren't yet any more dents in the campavan, although it's still got to make it all the way back to Auckland...
Wardrobe
4 t-shirts
2 pairs of trousers
3 pairs of shorts
1 shirt (well, a pink hippy kind of shirt)
3 pairs of socks
2 thin fleeces
waterproof jacket + trousers
And not as much underwear as I should have
That's the lot! It's going to be bizarre to come home and find all the clothes back there. At the moment all the above can fit into one, pretty small, compression sack. Still, it does give me room in my rucksack for the important things - climbing gear, tent, down jacket, wine.
Big snowy hills
Today was the first time I've taken an ice axe and been wandered up a large hill. Well, I lie, it's the first time I've done it on my own with people who are no more experienced than I am (i.e. not very). It wasn't all that steep, or all that dangerous, although it was just dangerous enough to be great.
I can now see the attraction of taking the risks to get to the snow-line - the views are incredible! We could see Mt Cook (Aoraki) in all her glory, but that one will have to wait for another trip as it's a little higher and harder than the climb we did.
Now, more than ever, I'm regretting not doing any "proper" climbing a couple of months ago when I had the chance as the season has finished. Still, it's a good thing that I'm heading to the US and the Rockies...
I'll try and get the photos from this little adventure online soon as they're worth seeing. We had to take the obligatory "hero pose" shots at the top and we'll see how they turn out.
Rachael and Bonnie
Or is that Clyde? Either way, it's one of the two baby possums who now live at Lochmara.
Kepler Track
This is the track just before it started to rain. And it rained for three straight days! That was kind of fun in a tent...
Goodbye...
And thanks to everyone at Lochmara (you know who you are) it's been a great last month there. If you're ever in London, drop me a line and say hello!
Behind the times
Uh... why did no one tell me that there was an election? It was really bizarre to read the paper yesterday and see the article about Blair looking good to win, and then realising I had no idea when the election even was!
Another foot in it
You might remember a little while ago I wrote something on here about Betsy puttin gher foot in it with the owner of Lochmara - Shayne. Well, last night she told a similar story to the one that got her the first time round.
We were sat eating another feast (whenever someone leaves, we have a feast) and the story from last time came out. That led on to another story which was suddenly interrupted by, "Oh... hello Shayne". His timing was impeccable!
I'm back in civilization properly today - Blenheim - and then I will get around to leaving tomorrow and heading down to Christchurch. I was going to try and do some mountaineering or ice climbing down by Mt Cook, but it's the wrong season and no-one's running any courses so we'll see what happens there.
Next stop...
...Mt Cook. Well, that's the plan at the moment anyway. As is typical, it's the wrong season to do much in the way of mountaineering - I shouldn've done it a month ago. Or in a month's time. Aaaarrrggh!
Glow worms
I wish I was a glow-worm,
Glow-worms are never glum,
How could you be unhappy,
When the sun shines out your bum?!
(On the notice board above the computer here.)
Plans
I've been trying to work out where I should go when I finally leave here, and it's proving difficult! I'll be in Fiji for somewhere between one and two weeks, and I still have to move my flights for that. Afterwards comes the big USA. Steph and co are going to the same places at roughly the same times, so we might end up meeting in four different countries! Stop following me! The short version of my plan is: up the west coast, through Canada and back down. But that'll no doubt change when I get there!
Oh, we have two new additions to the staff here. Bonnie and Clyde - two baby possums. Everyone's been doing the, "Ahhhh, cute!" thing and kind of ignoring the fact that they're pests out here. Still, they do do the funniest things (like going to the toilet on our boss...)
It's also pretty cold. I'm glad I carried that down jacket with me through Australia, even though I felt like a bit of a tit at the time!
Old friends, new places
Last night I met up with Steph, Katie, and co. (For those who don't know
them, these are more Warwick Uni people doing a similar thing to me.) I
last saw them in Sydney, just after they'd arrived in Oz.
They're cruising around NZ in a pretty large campavan at the moment. It's
proving to be an experience - they have a collection of wingmirrors,
guttering and taillights to prove just how much fun it is to drive the
van! It did sound like the ferry crossing into Picton was, to put it
mildly, pretty rough. At least 4m swells, touching 10m in the middle of
the Strait.
For a little while, it - again - felt like I was back home and had never
quite left Leamington. Sat in an Irish pub, with English people. We're
going to see if we can manage to meet up in other countries too, it's
looking like we'll be in Fiji around the same time and maybe the states
too. Very bizarre indeed! But good fun.
You know you've been guiding too long when...
Just remembered this one, and it's a worthy addition here...
On Franz Josef, Siobhan bumped into one of the guides on the glacier:
Siobhan: "Oh, I'm sorry, I beg your pardon." (Add Irish accent to suit.)
Guide: "Baby, from me you wouldn't have to beg for anything."
I had to try hard not to fall over laughing. Although I will be sooo tempted to bring that line out if someone says that to me!
What a job!
One of the guys who was staying here a couple of days ago has a job that's pretty high on the 'jobs kids want when they're little' list - stuntman. He's worke don Lord of the Rings, and has just finished working on the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (which sounds very good, by the way).
It was kind of funny - he looks at rooms and sees fight scenes (props, smashable things, etc) in much the same way as climbers look at buildings and see routes.
It happens to the best of us
As of yesterday, I'm officially old. Not all that old, just another year to add to the tally. It was pretty cool too, we (the staff) went in to Picton for a meal and a few drinks. Sounds silly to say it, but it's very strange to leave Lochmara. To go from such quiet to a town - and Picton isn't exactly bustling!
Anyway, all good.
Down under
Yesterday I went diving for the first time in New Zealand. These were the first two wrecks that I've been down to, and it was pretty cool - but spooky - to swim around them. Especially as the second dive was at night, and there's nothing quite as eerie as going through the wreck (yes, you can swim through some of them) with only the light of a torch to guide you.
The dives themselves were fairly cruisey - not too deep or too long. The only bad thing was that it was cold down there. Well, 15C doesn't sound all that cold but even in a full wetsuit with gloves and a hood I still cut the second dive short.
The funny thing is that both of these wrecks are just next door to where I'm staying. It's about five minutes in a boat to get to them, and they only lie in 10-15m of water. It's almost possible to free-dive down to that depth so I might have a little look when I'm next in the area.
Right, time to get back to the hard work that is learning to play didgeridoo...
Putting your foot in it
There are few things funnier than when someone isn't aware a certain person is within earshot. In this case, Betsy managed to put her foot very firmly in it. We were sitting around a campfire, saying goodbye to three German carpenters (long story) and she didn't realise that Shayne - the boss - was sat just out of view. The rest of us assumed she knew what she was saying...
Still, the look on her face when Shayne announced himself was priceless. And he was fairly pissed anyway! All good!
This is my day off from the hard work at Lochmara, and I'm killing time before I go diving again. There's a couple of ship wrecks just off the coast here so I'm going to check them out. One of them at night too!
Strange parcels home
I think it's time to explain one of the (many) private jokes that's been going on during this trip...
A little while ago, I wrote on the bottom of one of my group emails something along the lines of, "Ros - Which flavours do you want me to send you?" This is funny in itself as Ros wanted me to send her some Watties (bolognase sauce) from down here. I mean, who would really want sauce from halfway around the world?
Some people managed to firmly grab hold of the opposite end of the stick and assumed that I was, in fact, talking about condoms. Yes, people seriously considered the possibility that I was starting a condom importing business. Word of this made its was back to me, and, now that's just too good an opportunity to pass up!
So, a few weeks ago when I was in Wanaka, I went shopping. For Watties and (vibrating) condoms. To say that I received a few strange looks from the girl on the checkout would be something of an understatement. So, I sent this off with a cryptic email and waited...
The parcel landed last week, and now more people seem to want me to send them condoms. It's just sureal. (And kind of an expensive business to be getting into!)
Welcome to the strangeness of my world tour!
Lochmara Lodge
It's been a while since I last posted properly on here. When I was down in Dunedin in fact.
In Dunedin, I had a phone call from one of the hostels I stayed at in the top of the south island. It went kind of along these lines... "Hey Phil. do you still want to come and work here? Can you start on monday?" Given that this was friday morning, and Dunedin is some 950km from Picton I obviously said yes!
That prompted a two-day dash up the east coast. I managed to spend less than twelve hours in Christchurch en-route and made it to Picton with half a day to spare.
That was just over a week ago. I can't remember if I described this place before, so I'll give it another go here. It's awesome (short version). The longer version goes something like this: Lochmara sits on the waterfront in a large inlet of the Marlborough Sounds. This means that it misses most of the bad weather and is generally sunny. Just along the coastline are some friendly seals who will happily play with you in a kayak. There's an incredible spa, plenty of walking opportunities and a very chilled atmosphere.
It was described by one of the other staff as, "one step above other hostels". That's pretty accurate, - the bunks are more solid, the rooms cleaner, the kitchen bigger, the spa better located, the views more stunning, the staff friendlier, the owners more chilled, the seals cuter... (Okay, I'll stop there!)
So, anyway, I'm working here. I did umm and ahh about whether it'd be a good idea to stop for a month or not. (A month is a pretty long time to me at the moment.) But it seems like I've made a pretty good decision! The work here isnt' exactly taxing - between two and four hours per day. Usually much nearer to two than to four!
Yes, I am still here
I've just been having some problems getting to a computer that likes my blog. If this works then there'll be a longer post in short order...
Christchurch, briefly
I had a slight change of plan the day before yesterday. A while ago I stayed at Lochmara Lodge - up by Picton - and loved it. They emailed me the other day asking if I wanted to head back there and work for a few weeks in exchange for accomodation and food, so that's where I'm heading. It's going to be really cool to unpack everything for more than a night! It is taking me many hours on a bus to get there though, Dunedin is kind of at the bottom of the South island and Picton is the top tip. Still, it's all gravy...
For once computers failed me yesterday. I spent way too long crafting an email to everyone I know telling y'all that I was going to stay out here and not bother coming home. (Well, it was April Fool's day...) But then the stupid thing died on me. (That's the standard explanation, I can't be arsed with the technical version. It'd be kind of sad as well...)
Tomorrow I have to get up at stupid-o-clock to get the bus north. Boo.
Chocolate or beer?
Dunedin is famous for two things - the Cadbury's factory and the Speight's brewery. This led us to an interesting philosophical conundrum earlier: if you could work at one of them, which one would it be?
Tough decision. (As ever, answers on a postcard.)
In other news, the bungy jumping fell through! Boo! Due to a combination of time, weather, and my ineptitude in booking the damned thing I managed to run out of time. Still, it's something to head back to Queenstown for, and if I have time I'll do it later. Or do a smaller one in Taupo. Or just wait until I come back to NZ. We'll see...
Imagination
Just for a moment, let your imagination wander....
Oi! Andy! Not that kind of imagination!
Imagine a hill, a fairly large hill. It's 1300m high. Now imagine that you're stood at the bottom looking up; it's 10km to the top and every step of it is uphill. What you're now seeing is
half of the first day of the Kepler Track. The track basically is 'M' shaped, with the last two days being flat on the other side of the M.
The only other interesting thing about the track is that it's in the Fiordland National Park, here it rains on average 200 days out of each year. It didn't disappoint when I walked it - the first day was okay; the second and third days rained solidly. I decided to run the last two days together and get out a day early as I didn't fancy another night in a tent.
That kind of caused another problem. It's Easter weekend, and did anyone tell me? So, most places were booked solid and I ended up in a place that was a bit of a dump really. Still, it was dry and it had a soft bed!
Bungy vote
Thanks to everyone who's replied to my what-should-I-bungy vote. In case you missed it, the options were:
1. Nevis, 134m, scream all the way down from a gondola above a river
2. Para-bungy, 180m, scream for even longer from a parachute hanging off the back of a speedboat
3. Save the cash for something worthwhile (yeah, right!)
I kind of expected everyone to tell me to take the second option, but opinion is divided. Most reckon I should jump from the boat, a few reckon I should take the leap from a gondola for a variety of reasons. Only a couple of people think I should save the money... not that that was ever really an option, I just needed a third choice!
Well, I'll be back in Queenstown in a few days, so I'll set about jumping then.
Franz Josef Glacier
The walk up the glacier was pretty cool (sorry, pun intended), although some parts of it were a tight squeeze. There were also a whole load of ice-cold pools and one girl managed to fall in to one - doh!
Martin in mid air
This is the other guy who jumped at the same time as me, the instructors got pretty close to each other!
A long way down
...and this is the view from the parachute. It's such a bizarre feeling floating downwards, and it's over all too quickly.
View from a plane
This the view I had just before I threw myself out of a perfectly good plane.
If I remember correctly, that's Mt Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand.
Days off
It's bad enough when you're travelling that Sundays occur once a week - I mean, they close everything for a day and no-one tells you about it - but it's worse with anniversaries. They only come round once a year, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Maybe I should buy another watch...
Climbing (at last)
So, it's Sunday. The clocks have just gone back, and it's raining outside.
But I don't care, as I've finally found some climbing to get my teeth into. Admittedly only bouldering at this point, and I'm way out of shape, but it's all gravy. What's better is that I've sorted out my visits to Castle Hill and Payne's Ford (these'll only mean anything to Jack, but what the hell).
Tonight I'm heading in to Queenstown, although I seem to have ticked most of the dangerous things I wanted to do so far. Unless the tax-man suddenly gives me that money tonight I probably won't bother with bungy jumping. What's the point in 3 seconds of freefall when you've done a whole minute?
Terminal Velocity
After all the faffing around with fuel for the plane to go skydiving, I finally did it. We had to wait six hours, but it was well worth it! The company we jumed with is pretty small, and the plane was tiny. There were only two of us jumping, and we only just fitted into it.
I've a horrible feeling that skydiving could prove to be as addictive as everything else I've tried like it: climbing, diving, sailing, windsurfing... It's such an amazing feeling to fall through the air watching the ground coming up to meet you, and then when the chute stops you it's incredibly quiet. It wasn't even that scary, it's worrying to dangle your feet out of the plane, but then you're off and you don't have any time to worry about it - just do it!
The best bit was that you can take your camera up with you, so I've got loads of photos of the plane ride up and from the parachute. (It's kind of hard to use a camera in freefall!) The plane ride itself was stunning, the dropzone is just near the Fox Glacier so you can see Mt Cook, Mt Tasman and both of the glaciers! Photos online soon... I didn't bother with a video though, they were pretty expensive.
Someone's just told me that you can skydive in Taupo for a fraction of the price I paid. Looks like I'll be doing it again when I'm heading back up there.
Tongariro Crossing
This is from when I did the crossing a while ago, back in the North island. It was kind of cloudy that day! I've gone a few better photos, but this one sums it up pretty well.
Coastline
This was just taken when we stopped the other day along the West Coast. It's quite nice, but the weather is usually a lot worse than this!
More Tasman
Another view of Abel Tasman, this time over one of the estuaries.
Swingbridge
There are a few rivers you have to cross along the Tasman track. Some you walk through, others are a little too big. Hence the cool swingbridges.
Abel Tasman Beach
This is what it's all about - pristine beaches in the middle of nowhere. Perfect.
Rope Swing at Lochmara
Lochmara Lodge has a monster rope swing, this is one of the guys in mid air. It's a lot more fun in the dark, as there are phosphorescent plankton in the water and you glow when you hit it!
Queen Charlotte Track
A view from the top of a large hill!
Rotorua Hot Springs
This is what the hot springs look like in Rotorua. They smell baaaaddd...
Jumping from a plane
Well, this is the sort of thing that I could never make up if I tried to.
The weather here is absolutely perfect. It's bright sunshine, few clouds and good visibility. This means that the skydiving companies have been pretty busy, although I booked well in advance so it's not a problem. As we were driving over to the dropzone, the lady with us had a phone call....
They're out of fuel.
Yes, I kid you not. They have no more fuel for the plane; the weather has been that good they've done way more flights than normal. The tanker was supposed to drop fuel off at 1pm, just before our flight, but the driver kind of got confused and drove straight through to Haast (an hour from here). So, either we'll drop later this evening, at sunset, or wait a day or two and do it then. If the weather breaks, I'm going to cry!
Glaciers
Greymouth today, Franz Josef tomorrow.
And you know what that means - skydiving. It's booked, all I have to hope for is that the weather is good so that I can actually jump! 'Ave it!
(Bungy is looking too expensive for what it is, I'll see what my budget's looking like when I get to Queenstown...)
News
Well, I just checked the news here in NZ. And there's a couple of stories that are kind of relevant...
The first is about a tornado in Greymouth that happened on thursday. Guess where I'm heading tomorrow?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3215586a11,00.htmlThe second is about three climbers who died on Mt Cook while crossing the Ball Pass. This is interesting as I was seriously considering doing this (with a guide). By the sounds of it, one of the three slipped and pulled everyone down and over a cliff. Hmmm.... maybe I'll have a proper look when I get to Mt Cook...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3214237a11,00.html
Travelling by bus
It's amazing the different people you meet on buses. Not backpacker buses, the people on those tend to be kind of predictable, but the normal regular ones.
It's also amazing just how boring some people are. On my one hour journey from Awaroea to Nelson, there was a guy talking very loudly to the driver for the whole way. He's an expect in bridalways and telegraph poles. Yes, you did read that right - telegraph poles. After half an hour of hearing about his 'hobby' I was ready to tell him where to insert his telegraph poles... Even worse, my usual defense (the ipod) was out of battery. So, I can now tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the different vintage telegraph poles.
Ah well, beats working I suppose!
Crossing rivers
Well, if it's Saturday then I'm back from walking the Abel Tasman track. And I'm fairly sure it is, although I've managed to lose my watch again - that's two for this trip - so I'm not certain.
I kind of cheated for the first bit of the walk, as I had a free water taxi that but out the first day's walk. And, well, it would be rude not to! This walk is 51km, and it's all along the edge of the water, beaches galore. I did it in three cruisey days and it really wasn't that hard.
What was a lot of fun were the river crossings, or more accurately the estuary crossings. As most of the walk is near the beach you have to cross a couple of monster rivers at low tide. High tide is something like 4m higher so it's kind of a bad idea. The biggest one I did yesterday, after hanging around all day to wait for the tide, and a few people decided to do it pretty early. The water was up to their waists, and it wasn't even warm. Worrying, especially if you have all your gear on your back and it's going to get wet... I waited, and knee high water isn't anything like as bad!
Oh, and there were a whole lot of sandflies. Like millions of the little buggers. So, I haven't got much of a tan after that, it was long everything for the whole time.
Nelson
Yesterday I wandered over to Nelson; Nelson is midway along the top of the south island and it's close to the Abel Tasman National Park. There's supposed to be some very good walking / kayaking here, and the word on the grapevine is that the walking is pretty much flat. So, I'm going to take a wander through it with my new tent and check it out. (I bought a tent as it'll save me so much money when I'm walking and it's a bit more fun, too.)
It really is a small world when you're travelling out here, much more so than in Australia. I met a couple of girls I walked some of the Queen Charlotte track with as the magic bus stops in the same place as the kiwi experience one; then I got to the hostel and found a guy I met a while ago back in Taupo.
But I'm off now, I've found a climbing wall here and I've got itchy fingertips. More later...
Queen Charlotte Track
Okay, so I got back yesterday from walking the Queen Charlotte Track. It's 71km long and can be done in 3-5 days (or quicker if you're loopy). The first couple of days were hard work: 28km and 24km respectively, but the views on the second day were really good.
The best bit about the track were the hostels. I stayed at one really okay one, one good one, and incredibly, brilliantly, amazing one! The best by far was a place called Lochmara Lodge. It's set in the middle of nowhere, you can only get in either by walking of water taxi, and is right on the water. It's not your average hostel, it's just unreal. There are hammocks all over the grounds, a spa that feels like it's come from a 5* hotel, the friendliest staff in the world and a monster rope swing. (Great in the dark!) I was only going to stay for one night, but I just had to stay for two! I wasn't the only one either, one girl had come for one night and ended up staying for six! Goodness knows how she had enough food to do it!
The walk itself wasn't as hard as I expected it to be. Well, having said that, I did cheat a little - you can have your pack delivered by water taxi to each night's stop so you only have to carry a day pack. That makes things so much easier!
Next stop is Nelson, and what I'm going to do there I really don't know! I've heard there's a couple of good walks so I might have a look at those if I can find a tent.
The South
So, I'm in the South Island. Picton to be precise. This is where the ferry comes to from Wellington, and I'm staying here so that I can walk the Queen Charlotte Track. That's a 71km long track that you walk over 4 days, the there are a whole multitude of different places to stay en-route. You don't even need to carry your bags, you can get them transported between the different places! I'm really looking forward to it as the scenery looked amazing on the ferry in.
Oh, and we think we managed to see a pop star when we were out in Wellington on friday night! (Not that I've any idea who she was.)
Typical!
So, yesterday I walked the Tongariro Crossing, and it wasn't as hard as I expected. (I'd kind of forgotten that 17km is only just over 10 miles.) The views from the top are supposed to be amazing. But we didn't see them... as it was bloddy foggy. And windy. And cold. I was very glad that I'd carried all my cold-weather gear up (after starting in shorts) as I needed the lot. As we were coming down, the sun came out! Still, that just means I'll have to go back and do it again, it was a great walk anyway.
My well travelled boots have now arrived here too so I'm planning to do some of the longer 3-5 day walks. They should be fairly easy as you can stay in huts each night so you only need to carry food with you.
Today I've come a bit further south; the bus was two hours late this morning. Magic were really good about it though, they bought us all lunch. That was a mistake. When you take a group of travellers and tell them, "Pick anything you want, just put it on our tab" the cost is going to be pretty high. Let's just put it this way, I now have enough food for three days for the price of two hours lying in the sun reading a book - bargain!
Tongariro Crossing
Okay, so I hung around in Taupo for a couple of nights, and I've now come slightly south to a little place called Turangi. It's the gateway to the "best one day walk in nz", the Tongariro Crossing. So, that's what I'm going to do tomorrow...
Some bastard nicked my towel off the washing line yesterday! Bit random really, they left the rest (time to buy new clothes, maybe). Still, I'd rather have that nicked than anything valuable. An expensive load of washing...
Oh, and my walking boots have landed in Wellington. Which is cool, but it means I'll have to save the big walks here (3-4 day ones) for when I'm on the way back up.
More Rotorua
Well, it turns out I made a good call yesterday... The guy driving the bus I was on was trying to convince everyone to go and learn more about Maori culture by going to a village for a feast in the evening. It turns out that there were at least 100 people at an tiny village, and little was said about the Maori way of life at all. I have to admit that this sort of thing pisses me off no end, I'd much rather not see it than see the version put on especially for tourists.
Anyway, rant over. I'm off to Taupo tomorrow, the skydiving is seriously cheap here so I might do it. Or, I might wait until I get to the Fox Glacier and pay a bit more for some spectacular views.
Rotorua
Everyone familiar with the smell of rotten eggs? Welcome to Rotorua.
I was planning to stay here for a while, but it's a little too touristy for my liking. Every second shop sells souvenirs, although I have found the cheapest supermarket in the world, ever. In the meantime, I'm keeping myself amused at the climbing wall which I can actually see from the dorm where I'm staying.
Onwards, to Taupo! (I'm going to come back here though and head off east when I'm on my way back up to Auckland as that seems to be much quieter than the middle of the north island.)
Waitomo Caves
Well, it's been a while since I last posted anything, so here's what I've been up to.
After staying a few days with Michelle, Melanie and Adam (thanks guys!) I hopped on board the magic bus. It's really easy, and so far a nice way of travelling and meeting people. Only two of us decided to get off at Waitomo, everyone else carried on to Rotorua the same day.
Waitomo is famous for its caves and gloworms, so I just had to go caving. Five hours of scrambling, abseiling, rock climbing and swimming - all underground - I was pretty tired. The place where I stayed was pretty cool, it had a pool & spa and also because I had the whole dorm to myself. :-)
Today the bus came through at 3pm to pick us up for the trip to Rotorua. The only bad thing was that Joanna had a pretty bad case of toothache and had already maxed out her nurofen and paracetamol allowance for the day... I joking suggested that alcohol is a pain killer, so we ended up drinking the middle of the day away and then hopped on the bus.
We got here at about five, and I'd picked my hostel carefully - it's got a climbing wall in the same building! So, arrive at 5pm, dump the gear and start climbing by 5:10. I'm so unfit, and the callouses on my hands have all fallen off - bad news.
Just showing what a small world it is, I bumped into a couple of guys I stayed with in Auckland about five mins ago!
Heat
It's funny, the last few days have apparently been a heatwave down here. And I'm cold! I was only in Australia for three months, but I guess you adapt a lot quicker than I'd thought. I don't envy all you lot who're heading back to England from Australia - it'll be a wee bit balti at home.
Auckland
New Zealand has a completely different feel to Australia. Not bad, just different. It's quite cool too, as nearly everyone seems to be into outdoor pursuits. And I've left my walking boots at home, damnit.
Auckland was given a fairly bad rep by some of the people I'd met on my way here. Conversations typically went as below:
"So, where's good in New Zealand?"
"The South Island..."
But now I'm here I kind of like it. The weather is much more tolerable than Australia and the people are no less friendly. Oh, and I've discovered a source of very cheap meals - casinos. They happily charge you next to nothing as they think you'll spend the extra money gambling... but if you're crafty you can just eat the food and then, uh, leave! Bargain!
NZ
I'm heeeeeeere...
As usual, Auckland seems to be just another city. Here's one thing that did make me laugh: the south island (the larger of the two) is 990km from top to bottom. I've done days in Australia where we've driver 950km in
one day. I think maybe I should have allowed more time for Oz...
Customer service
Isn't it just nice when you find someone who really knows their job? If anyone's ever looking for a travel agent in Sydney, check these guys out:
http://www.outbacktravelshop.com.au/ I've just booked a bus/hostel ticket for NZ with them and they really know their stuff.
(Plus, they have free jelly beans!)
Poems
Erm... those two poems are based completely around jokes that very few people will get. Oh well...
Reply to Alex
Ode to Jarmbie
So I'm off the trip, not on the truck,
And I really do give a... damn.
I've had fun galore aboard Lilly,
But breaking the screen felt a little silly.
You'll soon be off, en-route to Blighty,
njoy the weather, it's worse. Slightly!
When we first met you saw right through me,
Cheeky monkey? Rotter? Absolutely!
Next up the coast with Heather and Kel,
Our Gucci backpackers, they were swell.
Fraser was good, the Whitsundays were better,
Kakadu was, well, sweatier!
Great Keppel. Ah, now there's a tale,
As usual I was the only one to fail.
After the coast came the best bit,
Staying in Kajabbi, that was fucking... great.
In Darwin we picked up new people,
Some old, some young, some flaming mental.
Down the middle it was red,
Hard to keep ants from my bed.
When you're next tired, have some red drink,
If I was there, I would, I think.
Keep me up to date with Pondy Dave,
How he and Kate fare - he could be her slave.
I'm glad there was a spanner in the works,
A girl who smiles, never smirks.
Miss Burke kept me on my toes,
She's good at turning guides to foes.
Simon was skinny, Mardi was fat.
Now just what sort of a match was that?
Al, may your hair be always wavy,
Han, your tan's in need of gravy!
I'm only kidding, (would I say this?)
But with me gone who's to take the piss?
Right, it's time for me to go,
I'm trying but this ferry's fucking slow.
Still, when I get back such a party we'll hold,
With didges, roo and stories bold.
So goodbye, adieu, cheerio,
I'll see you at home, now off you go!
-Hope you like it Al
Phil 5/2/05
On travellers
After wandering around for a few months, I'm beginning to realise that there a few fairly distinct groups of people who tend to travel around.
Firstly there's people on holiday - a cheap holiday - who seem to spend their whole time rushing from one activity to the next and never really stopping properly.
One of the largest groups is the gap year people, although there's many more people who take them before uni than after it. If you're looking for drinking and debauchery, look here. Although most people in this group tend to stick to the towns and cities - pity really, you come halfway round the world and then go to a bar...
The nomads are the strangest and best group. Imagine a world where you have no permanent job, no ties. You spend your life wandering around wherever looks nice, staying if it's good and leaving if it's not. Generally working along the way and often looking for residency. I'm not sure I could ever manage this, it's good for a few months but after that I can see it becoming draining - what am I actually doing with my life?
The other big group is the people who've taken to travelling a bit later (either late twenties or late forties, there's not a lot inbetween). This is typically after quitting a job and having nothing particular to do at home. The problem here is that people tend to become used to luxuries and travelling doesn't provide many of them. (I've just booked a room for tomorrow, and it's the first time I'll be sleeping in a room on my own - I'm treating myself - since early november.)
It's also strange in that there are a lot mor europeans than people from anywhere else. Many brits, danish, swedish and the odd german. There are (allegedly) no americans as a fair few tend to pretend to be canadian as they get much less hassle from people. Nearly everyone staying in these hostels is under thirty and there's usually a hardcode at each hostel who are staying a while (more than a couple of weeks) while the rest of the population changes daily.
Anyway, it's all good fun. Travelling on your own carries a lot more kudos than with people or, even worse, with a big group. But it's harder, you meet a lot of people who you know full well that you'll never see again - despite exchanging email addresses.
Right, enough waffling, time to hit the beach again!
Night diving
I've just finished my first dive at night - literally, I'm still wet from it! It's a very strange experience, but seriously cool. You can't see anything but where your torch points, and you have no idea how deep you are or where you're going. (Obviously there's a compass and a depth gauge, but just go with me here.) Yet it's easier that diving during the day.
Anyway, coolest bit is surfacing at the end. When you lie on your back to kick to shore you can just float there and look up at the stars. Oh, and when we came out we kind of found a couple who didn't expect any people to be around... very funny!
Face painting
The girls had their faces painted in Kakadu, one symbolises the Rainbow Serpent, another happiness, and I can't remember what the third one is...
Devils Marbles
Sunset at the Devils Marbles, and, yes, it is me up there.
Frilled neck lizard
In Kakadu, we screeched to a halt and then went 60 yards into the jungle where our guide climbed a tree and came down with this! God knows how he managed to see it.
Kangaroo Sign
There's no kangaroos for 200km near here, so Alex had to stand in.
Uluru
Ayers Rock as seen as sunset through my sunglasses...
Farewell to Phil
Philaposis it's time for you to leave us,
Get your stinking trainers off our bus!
Young Phil it's been a pleasure to know,
The boy who can crack windscreens with his toe.
You're always jolly, never crabby,
Not even after 8 days stuck in Kajabbi.
You swallow evil red drink by the cup,
Then get Claire to do all your washing up.
You sit in the truck and eat whole cake
Then burn it off with a quick swim in a lake.
Philpot will keep asking, "what's the time?"
And manages never to answer, "that's mine".
You'll miss "drinking to that", and hi 5's with Han
But you won't have to listen to the progress of her tan!
I will not miss your bloody snoring,
That did get kind of.... well let's be honest, fucking boring!
I'll always think of you as very brave,
Sharing a double bed with hairy Dave.
But now that you've given him up for lent,
With whom will he sharre that lovely tent?
I'll miss you encouraging me to be cheeky,
And taking me sailing at Contiki.
And now you're leaving on a plane,
I won't have anyone else to blame
For feeding me red drink and guarana
Making me act like a boiled guana.
On day one I said you were a cheeky monkey and a rotter,
But you've turned out our very own Harry Potter.
So off you go on your broomstick hotrod,
It's not you we'll miss but your lovely ipod!
But as I wave goodbye, so long,
I'll remember the words of the Bojangles song.
I'll pull myself together, clear my throat with a cough
Then yell, get lost, fuck you, fuck off!
Miss Alex Burke, 2/2/05
Back where I started
Today I got up at an hour I don't see very often and flew back to Sydney from Adelaide. It's a bit strange being back here - it's the same as when I left it. It almost feels like I never left, and that the last couple of months didn't actually happen! Good thing I have the photos to prove otherwise.
It was funny in the airport though, I ended up on the same flight as Annie (she was driving the bus I hopped on up until now and is about 45). The conversation in the check-in queue went something like this...
Annie (loudly): So, Phil, I hear you found the red light district last night.
(Cue many strange looks from the rest of the people there.)
Strange old guy in a black hat: Well, with a mother like that, who needs enemies!
Me: Yes, Mum, I did. It wasn't as good as the one in Darwin though...
Annie: And Hannah went with you?
Me: Yup, she enjoyed it more than I did though!
That should give you a flavour of what this trip's been like the whole way round.
Dangerous
Wine tasting (and therefore free wine) while on bikes starting at 9am. Enough said.
Down South
I'm in the capital of the dryest state of the dryest continent in the world. And it's 14C and raining. This feels so much like home it's untrue! I got in to Adelaide last night, and I'm flying out tomorrow to Sydney to do some more diving.
On the way down from the strangeness that is Coober, we stopped for a couple of days in a place called Wilpena Pound. It's in the flinders mountain ranges and has some seriously cool walks in it. The one I ended up doing was a bit of a beast, not because of the distance but because of the heat and the gradient. Still, the photos from the top made it worthwhile.
Also, there's a town called Quorn out here, and three of us managed to convince quite a lot of people that this is where the vege stuff was invented. And that you can't buy meat in the town at all. Surprising how many people don't know that gullible has three l's...
Time
Well, it's the 28th already. And I'm only here in Australia until the 11th February when I fly off to Auckland. The time has absolutely flown by, I'm been travelling three months now and it kind of feels like forever and also like I only left yesterday.
I've met some of the most amazing people and seen all sorts of things I never dreamt of. The biggest thing I've learnt so far is that travelling is absurdly easy! Before I left I was worried about all the things like insurance, passports, and flights. Now I'm here, it's so easy! If anyone's thinking of travelling then I whole heartedly recommend it.
Oh, and I've just finished watching The Beach which somehow seems kind of appropriate!
Coober Pedy
We're finally moving. Today I rolled in to Coober Pedy which, I can quite honestly say, is the strangest place I've been bar none. (Yes, it is even stranger than Nimbin.) It's a mining town - most of the worlds opals come from here. And it's dominated by mining, there are piles of white dirt literally everywhere you look.
There are three things in this town - men, alcohol, and explosives. The three make for a bad mix. In the past ten years the police station has been blown up twice, the courthouse once and plenty of mining equipment too. As I said, surreal.
Still, it's all good fun, and tonight I'm sleeping 6.5 metres underground. Nope, that's not some sort of mafia threat, it's more that everywhere here is underground as it's so damned hot. It's kind of like walking into catacombes but it's a cool place.
Worldwide drinking
Yesterday we discovered a truly brilliant concept - a bar that has a few webcams set up. And, better, a facility to let people buy you drinks over the internet! (If you're on my mailing list you'll have had a cheeky email from me telling you just that.)
Not sure if anyone managed to see me last night (probably around noon in england) but it was a great night. If anyone's ever in Alice Springs, I recommend you check it out - Bojangles.
http://www.boslivesaloon.com.au
Uluru
Or Ayers Rock as it's better known...
It's massive, the biggest damned rock I've ever seen. I've just got back from spending three days wandering around it, Kings Canyon and the Olgas. They all have amazing scenery although you can't photograph a lot of it as the sites are sacred.
It's also frowned upon to climb the rock itself, although you can do if you decide to disregard the warnings. I would love to climb it, but there's no way I'm going to if it's sacred, that's just not cricket. It was closed when we were near it anyway as it was too hot (45C) and too windy.
More on this later...
A slight technical hitch
You know in cartoons when a car's driving along and the whole engine just drops out of the bottom of it? Imagine that when applied to a bus.
The other day a rather large and important lump (the universal joint between the gearbox and the 4wd gearbox) dropped off. It gouged lumps out of the tarmac and the bus in doing so... Doh!
Anyway, to cut a long story short we were rescued and the truck is being fixed at the moment.
Alice Springs
Well, I'm finally here in the middle. And it's hot, 42C hot. But at least it's a dry heat so it feels a whole lot better than up around Darwin. Last night we camped at the Devils Marbles which was amazing. We had the whole place to ourselves and the atmosphere there as sun sets has to be seen to be believed.
We've also met up with the people who flew away from Kajabbi. I'm trying my hardest to convince Teresa she actually wants to leave the trip so that I can get a free ride down to Alice. In fact, I just bumped into here on the way to this internet cafe...
In other news, I've bought a didgeridoo and it's being shipped home so it should arrive in around a month. There's a guide on how to play it as well, so I'm expecting to hear great things by the time I come back...
Famous!
When we got stuck we made the news! It's nothing glamorous, but it's still pretty cool:
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11879481%255E3102,00.html
Kakadu National Park
Life's a bit hectic at the moment. I've just spent three days in Kakadu and tomorrow I'm off to Katherine (well, Lichfield national park).
Kakadu was awesome, but very very hot. In the middle of the days it was a consistent 37C which is nice to sunbathe in but a nightmare to walk and scramble in. Fortunately there's loads of freshwater swimming holes to jump in as you go round. Even so, it was pretty sweaty!
The guy who was guiding the trip was an absolute nutcase. At one point we'd just got out of a water hole when he spotted a snake on the other side of it. So, obviously, he had to go and have a look to see what it was and whether he could catch it. It turned out to be a King Brown. This snake ranks at number eight of the deadliest snakes in the world... Because of that he decided to wait until it came out of the water to try and pick it up! It got away in the end, but it was quite a chase.
At another point we were driving down a dirt track and he slams the brakes on and comes to a screeching halt. We all get out, and walk about 100m into the jungle where Adam hops up a tree and pulls down a frill-necked lizard. (These look seriously cool and run on their back legs - photos soon.) He saw its tail sticking out from behind the tree trunk... from 100m of jungle away!
The only bad thing about Kakadu was the biting bugs - mozzies, marsh flies and green ants. The worst were the marsh flies, as they really hurt when they sting you but look just like flies so it's hard to see them coming. Still, gallons of mozzie rep helped the situation although Emma now looks like she's got a tropical disease this time.
New Year
I kind of forgot about this one, so it's in here now. A few of us went out in Cairns after I'd done a days diving - lots of caffeine required. It kind of went off with a fizz rather than a bang though. A couple of pubs, watch the fireworks on the beach and then a nightclub which was a bit pants really.
Still, t'was fun.
The locals
The people in Kajabbi were awesome, here's a quick run-down of them...
Todd and Shannon - The keepers of the beer... They've only been in town 6 months and us turning up was a bit of a shock!
Dallas - The guy's a legend. A drunk legend. He used to be the driver of the local fire engine, until one call out when everyone was drunk. He drove the fire engine into a tree... and when they got the the fire they found out that they'd forgotten to fill up the water tank. He's not the driver any more.
Lee - Relaxed as they come, with a scary ability to drink beer from when the bar opens (10am) until it closes (when Todd goes to bed) and show absolutely no sign of it whatsoever.
Sarge - The quite one of the group, although not by a lot.
Freddy Burke - An aboriginal boy who is impossible to understand. He's got a really thick aussie accent and mumbles but has a hell of a sense of humour.
One thing that everyone in the bush shares is their choice of vehicle - a ute. Think landrover defenders or toyota landcruisers. Covered in mud, with a couple of spare tyres, a roll of barbed wire, a shovel and an axe slung on the back. It's bad form to have a car that needs a key to start it, and drive driving is encouraged rather than frowned upon. Although to be honest, you'd have to work pretty damned hard to hit another person as there's no-one else out here!
Oh, and then there's Ronnie. He runs a cattle station about 30km away, and when he heard we were running short of rood drove in to bring up a fresh - monster - leg of beef. He tried it the day before, but got bogged down, tried to walk the rest (10km) but got lost so just lay down and went to sleep in the middle of nowhere. Another legend.
Lost in the outback
Well, it's a little while since I last wrote anything here. That's not because I've been avoiding it or too drunk, but rather as I've been stuck in the middle of the outback for a week.
It normally takes 5 days to drive from Cairns to Darwin, and at the end of the second day I stopped the night in a little place called Kajabbi. When I say little, I mean it - the population is 5 people, 4 dogs and a donkey called Jenny (in who you can buy shares, but that's another story).
So, we drove over a river (more of a stream) to get in, and the next morning we went to drive over it to get out. Only problem was out little stream had turned into a raging torrent and risen by at least five feet overnight! Bugger. Estimates of when it would go down ranged from 24 hours to three weeks. The conservative said two or three days at the most.
In the mean time, the place where we'd stayed the night before was somewhere I could cope being stranded - a pub. Imagine the most local pub in the world, and then imagine a lost of backpackers turning up and completely taking it over. When we arrived we tripled the population!
So, the days went by.... And the river went up three inches one day and down three the next... On the fifth day there, something snapped in two of the women and they actually chartered a plane to fly themselves out of there! Personally I thought they were insane, I mean, if you have to be stuck anywhere why not be stuck at a pub which has unlimited beer and air-conditioned rooms!
We now get to day number seven. The river is still up and there's no way we can drive across. It's possible to swim it, but it's dicey and you get swept quite a long way down river in trying it. Oh, and there's crocodiles in there. They're only freshwater ones who won't hurt you, but they are there. I actually went swimming in the river on the first day - and had a fine time - before someone pointed out that there might be a croc or two hanging around. (Mum, it's only saltwater crocs that will harm you, don't worry.)
The plan now is to hop in a boat and cross the river, then head to the nearest town, Mt Isa. Only that's 200km away, and we're 26km from a proper road... In the end we stayed an extra night and then braved the crossing, I'll try and get the photos online of it.
Two days of driving later and we're in Darwin in the far north of Australia.
Steve Irwin's Grandad
I forgot to put this in earlier, but yesterday I had a wander round a crocodile farm. (Yes, a crocodile farm.) The guys running it were completely bonkers. They'd be stood there telling you how this particular croc had taken fifty cattle and had to be caught while it was advancing on them inside its cage. Their only defense? A broom.
They also had all manner of snakes, kangaroos, cassowaries (a big birl a little like an ostrich) and lizards. So, obviously we had to have a play with the snakes and they're a lot of fun. Well, the small ones are anyway, I wouldn't want to meet a big poisonous one in the dark.
Great Barrier Reef
When I set out to learn to dive the main reason was so that I could dive the great barrier reef. That's what I've been doing today. It's been a long day so far as I was picked up at 6am and three dives and twelve hours later I'm back at the hostel. So, it's time for food and a shower before the new years' party kicks in in earnest. Time for some caffeine...
Anyway, back to the dive. This was the first time I could really relax underwater and not worry about the technicalities of diving and just enjoy it. The three dives got better and better, I saw sharks (reef and grey nurse) and playing with a big cod called Axel. One of the instructors took food down for him so there's a photo knocking around somewhere of my stroking a big fish.
Something that did make me smile: the girl I was diving with was called Ariel...
Mission Beach
Today's been a very long drive up the coast to Mission Beach. This is proper crocodile territory now and I can't even swim in the sea due to jellyfish. If you want to swim you have to wear a "stinger suit" which is like a skintight lycra bodysuit...
Last night was the first alcohol free one in a while, but it got to 11pm and we decided we needed mangos. So a few of us went for a wander, found some mango trees and came home with 25 of them. The only bad thing about this is that we're arriving in Cairns in two days and they have to be gone by then. So it's mangos with everything at the moment, but that's no bad thing.
White water rafting tomorrow, quadbiking yesterday (the guy in front of my rolled his bike over himself which was scary), more later.
If at first you don't succeed then sky-diving is not for you...
Condor
It's the 27th of December today, we got back from sailing yesterday afternoon. It was absolutely brilliant. The boat we were on was called Condor, and it's a older than I am, made of kevlar and has won every big race there's ever been.... twice.
It's 82ft long and has no mod cons but it was still awesome. The best bit of the whole trip was on Christmas evening when we has a fairly large party. Four other yachts turned up and rafted to us and we had a monster party between them all! I've also been introduced to the Game For Life (which you'll all be playing when we get back) and that involves many press-ups as penalties. All in all, a very good trip.
Last night was the after-sailing party (as you do) and it was also very good. All the sailors took over half of a bar here and we had a bit of a drink and the odd dance (on the tables). I don't have any photos of it, thank God, but just take my word for it, it was good.
Today I've been quad-biking which was hard work and worrying as the guy in front of me managed to roll his backwards over himself... (Mum, I'm fine.)
Christmas
Just a quick post: I'm in Airlie Beach at the moment and tomorrow morning I'm getting on a yacht for Christmas. It should be really good, I can't wait! The yacht is an ex-racer and it's massive; it can take up to 25 people as passengers, plus crew.
If you want to see something amazing, look up Whitehaven beach...
Possums
There are some seriousy cheeky possums on Great Keppel. The other night we had steak, cooked by yours truly, and there were four possums hanging around looking for food. They look quite strange, like a cross between a cat and a kangaroo.
We soon hit on a great game of catching cicadas (the really noisy bugs that live here) and feeding them to the possums. Crunch! It was quite bad, the possum would eat the fleshy bit of the cicada and the let it go... and it would crawl away with just a head left...
The funniest bit was when Woz decided to remove the possums from the kitchen. By catching them by the tail and swinging them round and the flinging them out the door and into a tree where they clung on and scampered away. One must have liked it as it came back for the treatment three times!
I'm still here
It's been a while since I added to this, as there aren't many internet cafes in the bush... Here's what I've been up to:
After Surfers, came Fraser Island. This place is a 4wd driver's heaven - you have to drive one or you'll go nowhere slowly. It's the largest sandbar in the world, about 90km by 15km and it's amazing. You can't swim in the sea as there's all sorts of different sharks out there, but you can swim in the freshwater lakes. And, oh, how good they are. There's one called Lake Wobby which is a couple of kilometres walk in over baking hot dunes but it's so worth the trek. I was there for three nights, camping in the middle of the rainforest and lazing on the beach. Seriously recommended!
After waving goodbye to the island, I've come further up the coast through Childers and Bundaberg. (Bundaberg was where a British girl backpacking was robbed and thrown off a bridge not so long ago. We drove over the bridge on the way out of town. The guy who did it has only just been sent down.)
Next on the hit-list has been Great Keppel Island. This is the exact opposite to Fraser; Fraser was unsoilt and rainforest filled. Keppel is the home of a Contiki resort (18-35 holidays) and could be almost anywhere. I'm staying just down the road at the yha, and it's absolutely baking here. It's 35C if not more and you're not really supposed to swim in the ocean as there's a risk of stingers (jellyfish) but we've kind of been in anyway. They've got catamarans here, so I took one out yesterday with Alex but they're rigged so you can't get any speed up which is a bit of a bummer.
Today was diving (again). It was nice and cruisy and not very deep at all, about 9m. A load of the others came along and did introductory dives, I'm really glad I got my open water qualification before I came up here as the things you can see underwater are absolutely awesome. Today I saw a couple of sting-rays and plenty of nudeys, monster cod and angel fish. I took a camera down, so we'll see how those photos come out...
Tomorrow I'm moving on, up the coast, to Airlie beach. Airlie's the gateway to the Whitsunday islands, which is where I'm going to be for Christmas. I cannot wait to get up there, the photos look amazing and everyone I've spoken to says that it's one of the best places in Australia.
What's in a name?
Okay, a little experiment: what image does the name Surfer's Paradise conjour up for you?
For me it's sunkissed beaches, rolling waves, guys with long blond hair, shacks on the waterfront and a chilled atmosphere. I'm in Surfer's Paradise at the moment (yes, that is really the name of the town) and it's the exact opposite of the above. It's kind of a cross between Las Vegas and Benidorm, although it does have an awesome beach. Compared to Byron Bay it's horrible, there are loads of skyscrapers - so many in fact that they cast shadow over the beach after 1pm.
Another strange place I've seen today is Nimbin. It's a small town a bit in the middle of nowhere and it's the drugs capital of Australia. It's really bizarre, the whole town revolves around weed... There are more people selling cookies than there are people to buy them and there's an awesome 'Hemp Museum' among other things. Funnily enough there are more than a few policemen around too... the deal seems to be that so long as the drugs aren't heavier than marijuana then a blind eye will be turned.
Today is the only day I'm spending here in Paradise - it's that good - I'm heading further into Queensland to Noosa. Camping by the beach! Then upwards to Fraser Island (the largest sandbar island in the world) before finally getting to the Whitsundays for Christmas.
More time under
Today was my first proper scuba dive, and it was scary and good. It was off a boat in the middle of the ocean, and it was more than a little worrying to sit in the water in the middle of nowhere. Going down was very strange, as the anchor-line just disappeared into the distance as the visibility wasn't very good at all.
At the bottom, the water cleared, and we set off. It was pretty damned cold but clear. We saw two grey nursery sharks, more wobbegongs and various coloutful fish and coral. I've booked another dive for tomorrow, but I might cancel it as I don't want to spend all my money before I really get started.
I'm hanging around here tomorrow, and then we're moving on to Noosa...
Byron Bay
It's day 4, and I'm not shacked up in Byron Bay. It's a bit up the East Coast from Sydney and is about as far east as you can get in Australia.
So far this safari-thingy is turning out nicely. We've done a couple of big drives to get this far which weren't great, but the people are fun and the scenery is amazing already. We came up through the Hunter valley which is famous for its wines. (Did I put that in the last post?) After that, Bingara and Tamworth before heading back to the coast here. The plan is to hang out here for about three days and then continue north up to Airlie beach.
My fears about diving are turning out to be true, I've just booked a dive tomorrow! But if I do any more advanced diving courses, they won't be up here as the pice is double that of Sydney.
It's been confirmed: I'll be having Christmas day on a yacht! Woo yeah! It's part of a three day cruise on the Whitsunday islands (high-ish up on the east coast). New Year in Cairns should be a blast too.
East coast start
Today is the second day of my safari round Oz, and it's pretty good so far. There are twelve of us, and we've got a monster 4WD bus thing. (Pic soon.) Yesterday we were in the Hunter valley which is famous for its wine (free tasters...) and today we've moved north-west to a town whose name I've forgotten.
So far things are good and everyone on this trip seems nice enough. More soon, as this place is a bit expensive for the internet...
Sydney Opera House
Well, I had to take at least one photo of it since I'm out here...
Ruined Castle
A photo of the runied castle, Katoomba. It didn't upload fully though...
Fully Certified
Today I finished my scuba diving course, so now I can go diving almost anywhere in the world in open water. The two dives today were off a beach just by Manly called Shelley Beach and they were a lot of fun.
Q. What's better than seeing a shark while diving?
A. Seeing two!
Today I saw a turtle and two Wobbigong (spelling?) sharks! The sharks didn't actually look like sharks, they looked like carpet and they were just sat on the bottom lounging around under rocks. There was also a playful grouper fish called George (who's fairly big) who followed us along on the dive. I've a feeling this diving lark could prove to be quite addictive - not that that's ever happened to me with a sport before.
Scuba Mk 1
So, I'm over in Manly and today was the first day of my scuba diving course. It's pretty cool, and not that hard either. Even better is that I'm the only one on the course at the moment so I'm getting personal tuition. Funnily enough, the woman teaching has a degree in Zoology from Edinburgh and is heading back to London in a few months to take up a graduate job in a law firm.
Tomorrow I'm off to dive off a boat, so I'll try and get some photos from under. I still haven't managed to get my photos online either, but they'll be on soonish.
This is how I imagined Australia, 36C temperatures, sunny beaches, cold beer and spending all day loafing by a pool of in it!
Butterbox canyon
I've just got back from going down Butterbox canyon. This is one of the 'big three' canyons around here, the others being Whungee Whingee and (one beginning with C that I can't remember). They're supposed to be pretty intense and technical so I was expecting things to be hard work. In fact, I was lucky to get on one of these at all as usually they want to see that you've done several canyons before and know what you're doing.
So, I turned up this morning, picked up a load of gear and headed off in a 4wd-minibus-thing. There were two middle aged guys and a younger couple as well as two guides. The canyon was absolutely amazing! Except I didn't take a camera with me, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I mean, abseiling through waterfalls is pretty cool but doesn't do wonders for a camera. There was quite a lot of scrambling, some swimming and about half a dozen abseils. The best part was a multi-pitch abseil down into a narrow high-sided canyon following the path of the water. The first pitch was down to a chockstone (big boulder wedged in) halfway down and it was surreal to stop there before continuing. The second abseil was even better, down with the water and then through a waterfall into a pool at the bottom.
One strange thing was the temperature differences between inside the bowels of the canyon and outside. It was roasting outside, high 20's for certain while inside the canyon it was cold and fairly dark. At one point I was shivering inside my wetsuit waiting for the others to join us before we moved on.
Throughout the day there had been a group of six old men in front of us (they pushed in front early on) slowing us down. They only had four harnesses between them and generally didn't have a clue and were dangerous. Our trip was probably extended by about three hours thanks to waiting for these guys, and at one point there was about fifteen people (three groups) waiting on them.
Anyway, we made it out of the bottom of the canyon into sunlight and relaxed for a while over lunch. It's been an absolutely lovely day: no clouds, bright sunshine and fairly high temperatures. Well, what goes down must come up. Five hundred metres of up (at least). So, I've had a fairly good workout today climbing up the track back out of the canyon.
About two-thirds of the way up you have to do a very short rock-climb, it's only about 10 metres, and maybe F5. The slow group (hereafter known as the GI Joe's) were there and one of their party couldn't get up the climb. Bugger. The walk round is about 16km, over un-tracked rainforest and takes maybe a day to do. His friends had lowered him back down, and didn't know how to set up a hoist to haul him up the rock. To be honest, they were all complete muppets and we sat there for over an hour while our guides, somewhat begrudgingly, helped another party set up a hoist. They didn't want to leave him there, but the way things work here is that if you start to help someone you have to carry it through and he is then your responsibility.
Eventually we got moving, and the climb was a piece of piss - I'd been expecting a monster. The guy had been moaning that it was exposed and scary. Well, bollocks. It was off a monster ledge with trees around and so well protected it was untrue. As you can probably tell they weren't the most popular people.
The walk up after that was fine, and I even managed to win myself a beer off one of the guides. About half a kilometre from the minibus, he announced, "A free beer to anyone who can run all the way back!" Seeing as no-one else moved I decided I might as well see if I still had any strength left and jogged up the hill to claim my beer.
"That's one bloody thirsty pom!"
Okay, this is getting a little long now so I'll cut if off here.
Strange politics
There are a few states that make up Australia: New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia and the Capital Territories.
But.... the Northern Territory's representative didn't turn up (I kid you not) to the signing where the country Australia was created. So, it's not officially part of Oz at all! It gets better... they elect representatives, and those representatives go to Parliament but they have absolutely no power whatsoever. And in elections or referendums, the votes cast in the Nortern Territory do not count. But by law you have to cast a vote or you can be fined...
So, we have a huge number of people who have to cast votes by law which are then stuffed in a drawer somewhere and ignored. And they elect representatives who couldn't do anything if they tried. I love this place!
Mistaken identity
I love being mistaken for an Aussie, it's great. Some people asked me for directions earlier, and I even knew the way!
Climbing at last
Okay, if you're not a rock-climber you might want to skip over this one as it'll seem strange, obsessive, and alien.
Another place has just been added to my 'I-have-to-come-back-here' list: Medlow Baths. That's not a swimming pool, it's a place just a few minutes away from here. And it has some of the most amazing climbing I've ever seen.
I was there earlier to go bouldering. (Which was awesome, there was a 40 move traverse I couldn't quite clean, I reckon it must be about F7b to do the whole lot.) After a bit of this I went for a wander to see what other rock was around. I stumbled upon a few people climbing, and as I turned to leave I looked up to see a line of bolts stretching above my head up a perfect face of rock. And I didn't have a harness with me, or anyone to climb with.
Let me just repeat that: I HAVE TO COME BACK HERE. And the Grampians are supposed to be better than this! (Guess where I'm heading at some point...)
Photos
I've just had all my photos so far burnt to cd, but the computers here are all in big metal boxes so they won't be online just yet.
My plans have also changed slightly, I'm heading back to Sydney a day late (Sunday) as I'm off canyoning on Saturday. I'm heading down Butterbox canyon which is one of the 'big three' round here and described by the guy running it as, 'pretty full-on, mate' so it should be good.
Right, enough typing, time to top up my tan...
Book review
If anyone happens to pick up Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff, it's good. It's about the early days of space exploration in America and some of it is hilarious.
Imagine the scene, the astronauts are undergoing psychiatric tests to determine their suitability. In one, they're given a blank sheet of paper and asked to describe what they can see. The obvious response is, "A blank sheet of paper". A more imaginative one is, "A field of snow". But the one which takes the prize was by a guy who stared at it for a moment and then pronounced, "But... it's upside down!" at which point the tester came round to have a look... Genius!
Bushwalking
After a short wander the other day I went for a slightly longer 'bushwalk' today. I'm staying in Katoomba, and the Three Sisters are just down the road from here. (Last night ended with a few of us heading down there to see what they looked like floodlit; the answer is: good, but it's impossible to get a digital camera to take a photo of them like it. Anyway...)
I've just had a look on a map and realised how far I went today - 19km! Whoops, that wasn't supposed to happen. I wandered out to a rock formation called the Ruined Castle; this is on a ridgeline that you can see from the Three Sisters, but to get to it you have to go a fair way round. It was nice to be able to look back and see where you'd come from, and where to head back to. The walk was supposed to last 6 hours and come back up a 'Scenic Railway'. But it only took about three and a half today so I just stayed on the path I happened to be on and ended up at the next town over, Leura.
Am I right that it's Sisyphus in the Greek story of hell who spends eternity pushing a boulder up a steep hill? I felt a little like that coming into Leura as there were a fair few steps. Must have been a good 300m of steps which was interesting at the end of the walk!
Since I left fairly early this morning I had the tracks to myself for the majority of the day, and it's always nice to wander along at your own pace doing exactly what you want to. This does have a downside if you happen to get lost of managed to get attacked by whatever piece of Australian wildlife takes a dislike to you. (I didn't see much in the way of wildlife today, although there were a couple of parrots - I think - and a bird which made a sound like a squeaky bicycle!)
The psychology of playing pool
Okay, the title sounds a bit silly but bear with me... Last night I was loafing, as usual, and playing a bit of pool with a few of the other people here and it was really interesting to see how people played.
I don't mean the way that they held the cue, but rather the amount of effort they put in. If two people were of about the same standard then there was no problem and the games were usually pretty good. If, however, one person was significantly better than the other then the games still tended to be fairly close. The better player didn't want to make the other person look bad and so gave them much more of a chance. The funniest thing was when the better player let things get right down to the last, black, ball. And then proceeded to lose to a fluke!
Anyway, I was bored last night...
Rainforest
The place where I'm staying, Katoomba is on the edge of a large national park. I went for a bit of a wander today through some of it and it's a really cool place. In the morning it was really misty and felt a little like a scene from Jurassic Park.
The climbing here looks awesome, although it's banned in the area I was today. (The Three Sisters if anyone's heard of it.) I'm going to have a wander over to the Leura climbing wall tomorrow and see if I can find someone to climb with as it'd be such a shame to come all this way and then not bother.
Blue Mountains
So, I'm finally out of Sydney. I've moved on up to the Blue Mountains which are a two hour train ride away. It already feels much more like home than the big city.
You might notice the word 'Mountains' in the header of this, and that can mean only one thing where I'm concerned - climbing. There are a whole host of climbing/activity centres around here and I've been for a wander round a few of them this afternoon seeing what's good. Hopefully I'll find someone to climb with or I'll just do a vast amount of bouldering!
It's also much cheaper here, about half the price of Sydney (that's on everything)! I just spend $15 on food and it'll last me two days easily whereas I've spent that on lunch in Sydney. The hostel is also pretty darned good. It's YHA and very plush, open and new.
It was a bit strange leaving this morning to come here, I mean, leaving everyone and everything I've come to know over the past week. Still, I've got a whole load of people's email addresses and I have every intention of pestering them. It is scary though, leaving a hostel with your whole world on your back not quite knowing where you're going or what you're doing.
I'm heading back to Sydney in a week for my scuba diving, but I think I might change my plans slightly and either come back here afterward or head somewhere else before my safari.
Watch this space...
Countries and people
America (Ohio, San Francisco, Texas)
Spain
UK (Sussex)
Korea
Canada
Germany
Belgium
Ireland
And those are the homes of the people who've stayed in the same room as me in the past week! I'm loving meeting people from all over, especially as I have every intention of emailing the people I've met from America when I'm over there. It's also pretty cool to see the different ways that everyone's come here; from this being the first step (me and the canadian guy) to people working out here or on gap years or studying abroad (the lucky ones) or the ones about to fly home.
I'm beginning to wish I'd done a degree in conservation though, as one of the girls I've met here is spending a year travelling round Australia studying the wild (night) life all at her college's expense! Dammit! The nearest I got to a field trip was using a computer in another building.
Still, it's all gravy.
Bop, bop, boo-waaah
Yes, they have it down under. This Saturday, live outside the Sydney Opera House is the final of Australian Idol. I saw them setting up the stage for it as I wandered past yesterday and I'm very tempted to saunter down and see the finals. Ooh, I could even try and get on tele!
I'm just hoping that Ant and Dec don't turn up! (Coincidently, Singapore Idol was on at the same time I was there, and they were all rubbish. Ian, move to Singapore you'll make millions...)
Random fact
Sydney Harbour Bridge was designed to be the longest bridge in the world and it was 10 years in the making. Two months before it openned, a bridge openned in LA which was 25 inches longer!
Doh!
Wildlife
What is it with the wildlife in Australia?
I mean, some of the most bizarre creatures in the world live here only. For example, the kangaroo. It doesn't run, lope, canter or gallop; it bounces! Okay, so maybe that's not particulally strange, but the platypus definitely is and for years scientists couldn't decide if it was a reptile or a mammal.
The strangest thing about the wildlife here isn't that it's just different, it's more that it's absurdly deadly. If you check out the list of the top ten poisonous snakes in the world then you'll find five of them live here. Oz has also got the most poisonous spider, fish and jellyfish. Speaking of jellyfish, the box jellyfish is the most poisonous animal in the world bar none. Yet, it lives of small shrimps! What on earth is the point of being able to kill a grown man with no effort when all you need to kill is shrimps!? This is something that's the same for many animals. Spiders eat flies; but they kill them here by injecting them with enough venom to stun a shire-horse. The coneshell (yes, a shell) is not only venomous but it'll actively attack you if you pick the shell up off a beach - the idea of death-by-seashell sounds a little silly...
Well, after all that it's worth saying that I'm going to learn to scuba dive in a week, I'll be keeping far away from anything that moves!
Sydney Harbour Bridge
If this is working, then you'll see a photo of Sydney Harbour Bridge that I took this morning on the way to Manly...
Sydney
Well, I've been for a little wander over to Manly today - it's a 30min ferry ride. And the ferry goes right past the opera house and the harbour bridge. The beach is amazing, and it's pretty hot; I got here at about ten, and by midday it hurt to walk on the sand.
I'm going to try and post a photo or two, not sure if it'll work...
Traveller's moto: You can either stay in the same place and change clothes every two days or stay in the same clothes and change places every two days!
Cities
Okay, I've been here in Sydney for a day now and I haven't done very much. But already it feels like home. It also feels exactly like every other city I've been in: London, Madrid and Paris to name a few. I mean, there are convenience stores on every corner, taxis, burbury caps, nightclubs, wine bars, the list goes on.
One difference is the amount of things dedicated to backpackers. I went for a wander earlier and found five hostels, four internet cafes and another four travel agents for backpackers! There was also an expo on adventure tourism on today in the Town Hall so I had a wander along; it was good (free t-shirt blagged) but a little bizarre hearing about the things I should go and see if I was ever in London!
I've decided that I didn't come all this way to spend my time in cities which don't feel much different from home so I'm going to make tracks for the Blue Mountains in a few days when my accomodation runs out here. (Ros, you've been here before, any tips?)
Numbers
1 year dreaming
2 months plotting
22 hours on a plane
18,000km travelled
11 hours time difference
28C in the afternoon
Far to much money
Waking up realising that no-one has any idea who I am and that I could actually do anything over the next 8 months nevermind the next day: PRICELESS!
Singapore
Well, as a trip is was short and sweet. I was only on Singapore island for about thirty-six hours and I spent the majority of that asleep after a 12 hour flight from heathrow.
It's a really nice place - what I saw of it - but it is extremely hot. Deceptively so, looking out of an air-conditioned window it all looks very cool when it's actually baking. It's also amazingly clean, there's no litter anywhere and the whole place looks under ten years old.
The best thing is the metro though, it's got air-conditioning! Now, why can't the tube in london do the same?!
Painful viewing
There's nothing worse than watching a novice climber going up something you want to do and doing it very badly. There was a documentary about the Matterhorn on the flight and the woman climbing it was struggling - even with a rope ladder!
Another fine mess you've gotten me into
One thing I did think about on the flight over was how I even ended up here. I don't mean how I got on the plane, but rather where the whole idea of travelling came from. It's not as if any of my close friends from home have done it, nor my family. And I suppose it is fashionable at the moment, but I've never really been one to follow the crowd.
And then I realised. It all started three years ago, I was naive, younger and heading to university. When I got there a certain someone had just got back from travels themselves and was flashing the pictures around and telling stories of bungee jumps and scary backpackers. I didn't realise until earlier today, but it's all your fault that I'm here - and I can't thank you enough!
Thanks Ros, see you when I get back! (This time it's payback as I'll be the one with all the photos! :-) )
The eagle has landed
I'm here.... in Singapore.
The flight was, well, long. And it's a right nightmare trying to sleep when there's so much engine noise, still it's a small price to pay. In fact, everything started extremely smoothly, especially as the seat next to me was empty - tons of extra leg-room.
Singapore itself is pretty cool - well, it's not, it's 28C - very clean, excellent transport and loads of shops. I'm staying by Orchard Road which is the Regent Street equivalent...
The only problem I've had so far is entirely of my own making. I managed to book my first two nights in Singapore to start yesterday - doh! I'm trying to get it changed now, but otherwise it'll be time to hit the Mastercard.
Stay tuned...
A quick explanation
Just realised that I've started this without saying why... The short version is:
I've just left uni, and I'm off for a little bit of a wander for a year before I have to face the world of work.
(Long version available on request...)
10 days...
... before I leave! I can't wait to go, although I'm a little nervous.
Still, for those of you who I haven't seen recently, here's what I've been up to in the last few weeks. .. I've been a bit busy, with climbing trips to the peak district, scotland and the lake district in between planning this trip and general loafing. Oh, and I managed to blag two more weeks work in london to help pay the bills although commuting was a nightmare. (Anand, I have no idea how you managed it for the whole summer.)
I'm flying out on the 10th November to Singapore, and two days later from there to Sydney. Since I'm fairly lazy I'm not planning to work out there, so I'm going to bum around for about three months before I move on the NZ.
There'll be a party sometime before I leave, not sure when yet.
P.S. For those of you who know him Jon Mayes (and half of WarwickSnow) are now in Whistler: http://snowiscold.blogspot.com/
First Post
Okay, I've just set this up. Testing...
