Pack my bags, have some breakie, and charge out the door with my hostess/friend from Sydney. We say good-bye/see'ya later by her bus stop and I start my small march over to the train station. Destination: Dapto. After two trains, 2 hours and 20 minutes of travel, I finally arrive. Next goal, find the recommended hitch-hiking spot which I found here: Hitchwiki. Zoom in on the map and you can see exactly where they recommended.
After about say 10 minutes, my adventure begins! A professional prawner picks me up and drops me off 10km down the road, where he feels I'll have a better chance of getting picked up. He also recommended I start panning for gold in TAS when I'm on the farm.
From this point on, the longest I have to wait is about 10 minutes. Great day! 5 rides later, I get dropped off at Ulladulla. My last ride was heading all the way to Melbourne, but I was getting some funny vibes from him, so I jumped boat in Ulladulla because i) the funny vibes ii) because two of the other rides recommended it. Walk over to the visitors center and see what information I can get about the area. They said it's a down with great surrounding beauty, and a very quiet in general too. Perfect is what I thought! They let me leave my bags there while I was out exploring the town, which took about 10 minutes (but did it in about 1 hour). It's very small. I then decide to have a beer at the local pub, the Marlin Hotel, where upon I meet an ex-Pro surfer, now professional painter. He bought me a beer and said that I could crash at his place, something I was somewhat expecting from the small town mentality. However, the woman at the info center had recommended a place for me to crash by the beach instead, so I was wondering what to do. So I decided to let things roll and see where it leads me.
After some more beer and talking, it was time for me to go and grab my kit. When I return, I buy the guy a beer and keep on talking and meet some more of the locals. It was awesome man! And something I had never seen before too, they set out 2-3 big plates of small "nibbles" composed of salami, cheeses, hams, crackers, olives, and small onions out for the customers, and once all that was gone, out came the brownies and other yummy delights! It was so great tasting and awesome too see a pub do something like that. Anyway, back to my pub hosts. After some more talking and, I saw this on his friends mainly, that they were all a bunch of piss heads (read: alcoholics) and druggies. I was threatened by one of the older ones when I patted his shoulder.
"Oy! Don't touch me or I'll knock your fucking teeth out!"
Yeah...I said I was sorry and planned on keeping my hands to myself for the remainder of the time. The surf dude disappears and returns with a big smile, saying that he's scored some drugs. Oh, did I forget to mention that this same dude claimed he no longer needed drugs because it almost killed him. Hmm...food for thought I reckon. He then goes home, totally forgetting his invitation he had made before hand, which I was some what relieved by. And something else which was really cool about this pub is that they had a bus to take you home or to the pub! For Free! So no drink drivers with that kind of service! I reckon it should be encourage globally. And yes, I can see problems with it to, but the idea is great non-the-less!
I tell some of the guys left behind that I planned on sleeping on the beach, but non of them were all supportive of the idea (I never mentioned which beach I was thinking). They all felt I should either check into the caravan park or into the pub for a mere 20 bucks. Which is pretty decent, but I wasn't to keen on the idea of paying for accommodation when I had been lugging a bloody tent with me all the way from Sweden. Before it got completely dark, I jump on the bus and before I get to tell it where to take me, some of my new found friends decided to jump on the bus as well because it was time for them to go home. They all insist on me staying at the caravan park, so I get driven there against my will. I tell them all that I'll see them in the morning and pretend to start heading into the park. The second the van disappeared, I leg it to the Bombie. It took maybe 15 minutes to walk there, teetering on tipsy and drunk. And once I get there, it was empty, not a soul to be seen! By the time I get there, I felt pretty sober. So I pitch my tent, and start prepping my dinner. The good old rice, tuna and garlic mix that I was making during my last trip too! Memories came flooding back :D At this point, something scared me half to death! I see some silhouettes coming down the hill from which I came and start walking towards me. They were just some locals teens coming out for a mid night dip. Didn't really say anything to them, they were harmless.
I wake up in the middle of the night and THEN I was drunk. Very drunk, very strange.
Wake up again, this time there's light, a very soft light. The sound of the crashing waves is soothing and the air is salty and cool. I was in heaven.
I crawl out of my tent and then I remembered why I love the nature and travelling. That moment in time is something I can't explain. Actually, it was like coming back home from a long travel. It was a sense of joy and glee, I can compare it to when I saw my friends back in Sweden again.
After eating some dry Weet-bix, going for a dip in the ocean, standing on the edge of the reef, feeling the water pass through my legs at calf height, I was forced to leave in order to catch a ride out of there to my next destination, which would hopefully be Eden.
It was a long day. A lot of waiting compared to the previous day, and a lot of forcing myself to keep on going and not crawling into the bush to setup camp. And boy was it worth it. I met the owner of EchoTree.com.au which was a real trip. A very mellow man, very simple. He invited me to his home for lunch and to show me how to make didgeridoos. I have never seen up close or experienced such a low class of living before, upon seeing that, it was even more reenforcement of me knowing that I have a good life. Stuff was everywhere, trash, food, dishes, everything. The son there, to clean his knife of some weird tasting roast nut loaf, just swopped the knife in the air throwing the loose bits on the floor. And the way he talked to his dad and vice versa was definitely only things I've read in books and seen in movies. Yeah, I felt like I should say something to him privately, but who am I to say anything. After hearing some of his past, I concluded that he never really lived in a real family, so I guess he doesn't know any better.
Apparently, he lived in the bush with Aboriginals in Queensland for like 4 years, hunting everyday, catching his food, and everything. I found it pretty amazing to say the least. Also checked out his workshop and he explained a bit of how to do it all, which was pretty interesting. He also explained how to actually play the didg too, in a way that made perfect sense and I've been trying the technique a bit too and it's a bit tricky, but, obviously, doable.
Once I felt I had out stayed my welcome, I jumped back on the road, and then the most random ride ever came. Long story short: Two alternative Aussie chicks pick me up in an old Land Rover which was seen just about every corner of Australia, and take me to the town where they were going to meet their friends. A few minutes after arriving to the town, their friends invite me to a party out in the bush. I was a bit reluctant, but decided it would be one hell of an adventure, and it would be something I would regret if I turned it down. And I'm guessing you know what I did, right? Of course I said yes!
It was an amazing party, full of great people. I became known as the Hitchhiker, and when I presented myself as a hitchhiker, one person didn't believe me until I convinced them otherwise. It was someone's birthday party, and they had setup a 6 deck turn table bench, and all these lights, a projector, a drum set, and the works man! I've never seen a setup like that for such a small party (we were only about 30 people). And a mock band jumped on stage presenting themselves as the Packages, from, wait for it: Sweden! What are the odds of that, eh? Really! Utter craziness! People were offering me beer all the time, it was great, although I refused to get completely lost cause I still didn't really know the people there, although they seemed pretty harmless. In retrospect, I think I was in shock that I was in that situation in the first place.
The next day I go to the local watering hole which is a small collection of water where the locals went to cool off. And when I got there, I knew I was as far off the beaten track as anyone could get. I knew I was alive.
After a nice dip, and a chat with the people who drove me there, it was time to head back and half way, my original hosts picked me up to drop me off back from where they picked me up. They were awesome, packed all my gear into the car and everything. The warmth of people here is just overwhelming sometimes. Ok, granted, my kit was right next to the car, but the fact that they drove out to the watering hole to pick me up with my kit already in place, made me smile :D
I'm now about 100 meters from where they picked me up from, which, by my standards, is progress :P Slow, but progress non-the-less. After about 10-15minutes, a family picks me up and drives me out to Eden where I check out the local whale museum which had been recommended to me by another ride. It was pretty interesting to read what's happened in that area. For example, how there was a semi symbiotic relationship between the local whalers and killer whales. The killer whales would round up the hump backed whales or other ones, and herd them towards the whalers, where they then killed and collected what they wanted, and in return, left the carcass out at sea for the killer whales to eat (they favour the tongue and lips apparently).
Once it was about 12.20, I felt it was time to start making some more progress, and I was pretty lucky with this ride. It was a group of backpackers heading towards Melbourne with the same time frame as me, score! The group was composed of two Dutch, one English, and one Italian. A very cheery bunch! Oh, by the way, all of them were girls, which was pretty cool. But the English one was probably the more interesting ones, since we had some good deep and meaningfuls. She was 32 years old, studying and practicing alternative medicine like healing stones and what not. She was a very spiritual person and had some interesting things to say and an interesting background. She had some troubles a few years back, but finally got back on track and is kicking some serious ass now compared to before.
After some driving we decide to crash at Paradise Beach, which wasn't too much of a paradise, but it was really nice non-the-less. Once we had setup our tents, we went to talk to our neighbouring backpackers from Belgium, who had started a nice big camp fire to keep us warm and the mossi's away. A great group of 4 people who'll be working on the farm down here in Tassie (yup, gave'em the a tips as to where to call). We'll see what crazy adventures I'll have with them, eh?
In morning, after a great nights sleep, I woke up and took a small stroll along the beach, which, without any big surprise, was just amazing. Took a dip and did some body surfing in the waves which was a blast. Caught one or two really good waves, and then I got some good sun too. Maybe too much. Burned my back a little bit, but not too bad which was a relief.
Once we had packed our gear down, we made our final stretch towards Melbourne, where I was almost pissing myself of fright when we got into town. The Dutch girls were driving pretty bad at that point (not saying it had anything to do with them being girls...or maybe I am :P), mainly because it was such high traffic, they didn't know where they were, and I don't think they had a lot of big city, left-handed driving experience, which added together can cause some issues. I know it did for me, so I can't judge them.
Got dropped off at Franklin St, which is downtown and then had to find my way out to my host's house which was in one of the greater suburbs of Melbourne, and that was a real pain to reach, but I made it.
Next day go for a stroll through Melbourne with another set of eyes. Let me explain.
The first time I was in Melbourne I was with Ms. D to visit my dad, and on my 3rd day in Oz, she dumped my monkey ass, in Melbourne. Seeing as how I couldn't stay in the country, I left back to NZ to lick my wounds. I then came back to Melbourne about 7 months later, and there was still a bitter taste in my mouth. But this time around, I saw what Melbourne really has to offer, other than bad memories, and grew a liking to it. Met some of the local CSer's there and said that all my travelling was due to me being traded as a male prostitute from birth and that my English was as good as it is due to copious amounts of porn. I then told them the truth, and they found it all pretty funny.
My host was pretty fun to talk to, hearing how she saw her travelling and how it affected her children, along with her experiences in countries I had never been to. And talking about her childrens upbringing, and mine, was, well, confusing. I'm reading Third Culture Kid (TCK) at the moment, and it is driving me up the bloody wall. I'm getting more and more confused as to what sort of person I am, or better yet, which category of TCK I fall into, and so far, there doesn't seem to be one. I really don't fit in anywhere it feels like, which I accepted during high school. I thought the book would give me answers, but just brings out frustration and confusion in me. FUBAR.
Anyway! My third day there, I had to fly out at 08.15 , and from where I lived, caused a bit of problem. I had a taxi come and pick me up to drive me to the bus terminal, but the taxi driver was trying to convince me to pay the extra 10-15 dollars and he could take me all the way to the airport. I never said yes, just tried to agree on a fixed price, because it was going to get steep. But, I repeat, I NEVER agreed to him taking me to the airport. All of a sudden I see that we're driving to the airport. I ask him what he was doing and he said he was driving me to the airport. I told him that I never agreed to him driving me, which got him a bit upset, and I was pretty keen on giving him an ear full, but since the meter was a low as it was, relative to where we were, I thought it would be just as expensive to take a taxi all the way. We keep on going. He stops the meter at 80 dollars, yes I think to myself. Doable price. Not the greatest, but doable.
When I pay the fair, and I get the receipt, it was for 94 dollars! Why? 4 bucks for the toll road, and then tax on top of that with the 80 bucks. I wanted to throw the douche nossel over the hand rails to his death. Dirty fucking lying son of whore! I shit you not. First off, he presumes that I wanted him to take me to the airport, and then neglects to tell me the other expenses on top of the fair. Another reason why I can really hate people. And I mean hate. Well, I hope he gets what's coming to him, like getting robbed or flies off the road.
Am I over reacting, most probably, but I seriously can't take it when people "forget" to tell you vital information. Can I blame myself? Sure, because it's super common over the entire globe that you pay more than what it says on the taxi meter, because some ball draining idiot decides not to tell you the extra fees involved. Bah! Yeah, I'm working myself up, and so I'm not going to talk about it anymore.
While we're taxing in the plane, I crash and wake up not too long after take off, seeing Melbourne from the skies above and clear blue sea in front of it. Brought back memories from when I was a kid and saw that same sight of the land going into the see, thinking that every body of land was literally floating in the ocean, like an iceberg, but made of dirt.
And at the airport my Tassie friend is there to pick me up and drive me back to his place, where I am right now, writting this blog for you all. However, before I started writting this, he took me to where he works and got to taste a few very fine whiskeys and gin, and after that I went to my favourite bakery in Hobart, the BakeHouse, open 24/7. Filled with amazing pies and yummy delights.
All that I have left to do now, while I'm here in Hobart is to prep for my hike up in the mountains, which I'm pretty stoked about!
I also noticed someting, I have ALOT of green with me: green sleeping bag, green swim shorts, green serong, green shoes, green t-shirt, green shorts, green socks, green underwear, green dish washing liquid, green shirt, green belt, green jumper, green mug, green bracelet, green bag, and green rain pants. Funny thing is, blue is my favourite colour.
One sad thing happened too, very sad actually. After 10 long years of being in my possession, after some serious abuse, my Oakley's, which had been given to me from my parents for getting good grades, split in two the other day. The were in my backpack, like usual, and then when I leaned on my bag, they snapped. Why wasn't I wearing them, because I have a theory that people wouldn't want to pick up a hitchhiker whose hiding his/her eyes (othe people have confirmed this theory), so instead of always taking them off when a car passes, I just left them in my bag. Hopefully my insurance will cover it, and if not, well, I need some sunnies. The sun is starting to affect my eye sight too I've noticed. Oh well.
Ok, that's all I have to say for now and I leave you now with these links:
My hitchhiking route.
Some photos.
And some videos 1 2 3.
After a nice dip, and a chat with the people who drove me there, it was time to head back and half way, my original hosts picked me up to drop me off back from where they picked me up. They were awesome, packed all my gear into the car and everything. The warmth of people here is just overwhelming sometimes. Ok, granted, my kit was right next to the car, but the fact that they drove out to the watering hole to pick me up with my kit already in place, made me smile :D
I'm now about 100 meters from where they picked me up from, which, by my standards, is progress :P Slow, but progress non-the-less. After about 10-15minutes, a family picks me up and drives me out to Eden where I check out the local whale museum which had been recommended to me by another ride. It was pretty interesting to read what's happened in that area. For example, how there was a semi symbiotic relationship between the local whalers and killer whales. The killer whales would round up the hump backed whales or other ones, and herd them towards the whalers, where they then killed and collected what they wanted, and in return, left the carcass out at sea for the killer whales to eat (they favour the tongue and lips apparently).
Once it was about 12.20, I felt it was time to start making some more progress, and I was pretty lucky with this ride. It was a group of backpackers heading towards Melbourne with the same time frame as me, score! The group was composed of two Dutch, one English, and one Italian. A very cheery bunch! Oh, by the way, all of them were girls, which was pretty cool. But the English one was probably the more interesting ones, since we had some good deep and meaningfuls. She was 32 years old, studying and practicing alternative medicine like healing stones and what not. She was a very spiritual person and had some interesting things to say and an interesting background. She had some troubles a few years back, but finally got back on track and is kicking some serious ass now compared to before.
After some driving we decide to crash at Paradise Beach, which wasn't too much of a paradise, but it was really nice non-the-less. Once we had setup our tents, we went to talk to our neighbouring backpackers from Belgium, who had started a nice big camp fire to keep us warm and the mossi's away. A great group of 4 people who'll be working on the farm down here in Tassie (yup, gave'em the a tips as to where to call). We'll see what crazy adventures I'll have with them, eh?
In morning, after a great nights sleep, I woke up and took a small stroll along the beach, which, without any big surprise, was just amazing. Took a dip and did some body surfing in the waves which was a blast. Caught one or two really good waves, and then I got some good sun too. Maybe too much. Burned my back a little bit, but not too bad which was a relief.
Once we had packed our gear down, we made our final stretch towards Melbourne, where I was almost pissing myself of fright when we got into town. The Dutch girls were driving pretty bad at that point (not saying it had anything to do with them being girls...or maybe I am :P), mainly because it was such high traffic, they didn't know where they were, and I don't think they had a lot of big city, left-handed driving experience, which added together can cause some issues. I know it did for me, so I can't judge them.
Got dropped off at Franklin St, which is downtown and then had to find my way out to my host's house which was in one of the greater suburbs of Melbourne, and that was a real pain to reach, but I made it.
Next day go for a stroll through Melbourne with another set of eyes. Let me explain.
The first time I was in Melbourne I was with Ms. D to visit my dad, and on my 3rd day in Oz, she dumped my monkey ass, in Melbourne. Seeing as how I couldn't stay in the country, I left back to NZ to lick my wounds. I then came back to Melbourne about 7 months later, and there was still a bitter taste in my mouth. But this time around, I saw what Melbourne really has to offer, other than bad memories, and grew a liking to it. Met some of the local CSer's there and said that all my travelling was due to me being traded as a male prostitute from birth and that my English was as good as it is due to copious amounts of porn. I then told them the truth, and they found it all pretty funny.
My host was pretty fun to talk to, hearing how she saw her travelling and how it affected her children, along with her experiences in countries I had never been to. And talking about her childrens upbringing, and mine, was, well, confusing. I'm reading Third Culture Kid (TCK) at the moment, and it is driving me up the bloody wall. I'm getting more and more confused as to what sort of person I am, or better yet, which category of TCK I fall into, and so far, there doesn't seem to be one. I really don't fit in anywhere it feels like, which I accepted during high school. I thought the book would give me answers, but just brings out frustration and confusion in me. FUBAR.
Anyway! My third day there, I had to fly out at 08.15 , and from where I lived, caused a bit of problem. I had a taxi come and pick me up to drive me to the bus terminal, but the taxi driver was trying to convince me to pay the extra 10-15 dollars and he could take me all the way to the airport. I never said yes, just tried to agree on a fixed price, because it was going to get steep. But, I repeat, I NEVER agreed to him taking me to the airport. All of a sudden I see that we're driving to the airport. I ask him what he was doing and he said he was driving me to the airport. I told him that I never agreed to him driving me, which got him a bit upset, and I was pretty keen on giving him an ear full, but since the meter was a low as it was, relative to where we were, I thought it would be just as expensive to take a taxi all the way. We keep on going. He stops the meter at 80 dollars, yes I think to myself. Doable price. Not the greatest, but doable.
When I pay the fair, and I get the receipt, it was for 94 dollars! Why? 4 bucks for the toll road, and then tax on top of that with the 80 bucks. I wanted to throw the douche nossel over the hand rails to his death. Dirty fucking lying son of whore! I shit you not. First off, he presumes that I wanted him to take me to the airport, and then neglects to tell me the other expenses on top of the fair. Another reason why I can really hate people. And I mean hate. Well, I hope he gets what's coming to him, like getting robbed or flies off the road.
Am I over reacting, most probably, but I seriously can't take it when people "forget" to tell you vital information. Can I blame myself? Sure, because it's super common over the entire globe that you pay more than what it says on the taxi meter, because some ball draining idiot decides not to tell you the extra fees involved. Bah! Yeah, I'm working myself up, and so I'm not going to talk about it anymore.
While we're taxing in the plane, I crash and wake up not too long after take off, seeing Melbourne from the skies above and clear blue sea in front of it. Brought back memories from when I was a kid and saw that same sight of the land going into the see, thinking that every body of land was literally floating in the ocean, like an iceberg, but made of dirt.
And at the airport my Tassie friend is there to pick me up and drive me back to his place, where I am right now, writting this blog for you all. However, before I started writting this, he took me to where he works and got to taste a few very fine whiskeys and gin, and after that I went to my favourite bakery in Hobart, the BakeHouse, open 24/7. Filled with amazing pies and yummy delights.
All that I have left to do now, while I'm here in Hobart is to prep for my hike up in the mountains, which I'm pretty stoked about!
I also noticed someting, I have ALOT of green with me: green sleeping bag, green swim shorts, green serong, green shoes, green t-shirt, green shorts, green socks, green underwear, green dish washing liquid, green shirt, green belt, green jumper, green mug, green bracelet, green bag, and green rain pants. Funny thing is, blue is my favourite colour.
One sad thing happened too, very sad actually. After 10 long years of being in my possession, after some serious abuse, my Oakley's, which had been given to me from my parents for getting good grades, split in two the other day. The were in my backpack, like usual, and then when I leaned on my bag, they snapped. Why wasn't I wearing them, because I have a theory that people wouldn't want to pick up a hitchhiker whose hiding his/her eyes (othe people have confirmed this theory), so instead of always taking them off when a car passes, I just left them in my bag. Hopefully my insurance will cover it, and if not, well, I need some sunnies. The sun is starting to affect my eye sight too I've noticed. Oh well.
Ok, that's all I have to say for now and I leave you now with these links:
My hitchhiking route.
Some photos.
And some videos 1 2 3.
E N J O Y !
