I thought that I had met just about every sort of traveler. I thought that I was a long term traveler. I am nothing in comparison. Or that's how I feel at least.
I have met a fair few long term travelers, which make me pale in comparison. People who have been travelling for:
1) 10 years - Lithuanian guy. Felt he was above everyone else, talked down to you, not cool. Impressive though was that he had to go back home to get a new passport a few times...why? Because the other one had too many visas in it, so he a needed a new one to accomodate the up coming ones.
2) 5.5 years - Canadian married couple. Don't want to die with regrets.
3) 4 years - Just met him tonight, don't know too much about him.
4) 25 months - Me.
I thought I was hardcore. I'm speachless. I take my hat off to these people, but only half way for the Lithuanian guy cause he was a bit full of himself.
Would I want to go there too. Yes...sort of. But I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far, and I need to get an education. If I still have the travel bug, then let's do it! Get out there and kick more ass than what I've already kicked.
What gives them this drive? Why do I lack it? Could it be because I've already travelled so much in my past? Don't know.
And I don't feel I should play so much on the whole "I'm Swedish-ish gig". I'm getting tired of it. Just having to repeat it, also, I'm not special because of it (which I thought I was before). The amount of people who are pure bred are pretty freaking rare now. And I mean rare. Just about everyone I've met are usually half something else.
I think I had an epiphany today.
I'm just human, living on this world, doing my thing, hanging out with other humans. Not, I'm a Swede, hanging with Aussies. Nah, bugger that.
Give it another couple of generations and I'm mighty sure that there'll be more mix blooded people around than ever thought before, which in turn could make our whole global society a bit more open and tolerant. The last part is probably a bit far fetched, but you can always hope, right?
Am I becoming a hippy? No. I'm just seeing the truth. Or my inturpretation of the current situation.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Epic Entry
Make some pop-corn and put on some good music, this is going to be a long one. Here goes!
Gorgeous Gorge
I last left you guys knowing that I was going to go on a small hike out in the Flinders Ranges, which was going to be quite an adventure, and was it!
Before I ran into the Flinders, I felt it was a pretty good idea if I had a map over the area, considering that some of the hike would be off track and such. I quickly run to a map shop before they closed, and they showed me a map with the gorge. Wow. I was buggered. I couldn't see any sort of tracks which I was going to start off on. Great. I ask them if they have any more detailed maps, but they say that if there existed any maps more detailed than 50000:1 scale, there would be THOUSANDS of maps over Australia. They claimed they don't exist. I don't buy any map off them, and head over to an outdoors store to see if they can help me out. It was a Boy Scout run store, which was pretty sweet. All the profits the store made went to running the Boy Scouts of Australia (mainly paying the insurance). I talk to one guy and he pulls out the map that the first store pulled out, plus another one. It all came together – literally. The other map he pulled out showed me the first part of the track, where it ended, and where the real fun began. He even showed me how he went over the mountains to get back to the starting point, which was helpful later on in the trip. Luckily, he had walked it a few times, so he told me how to get down the waterfalls that I would encounter (which my host did as well – more on that later). Buy the maps, and go onto my next task.
There were a few people who contacted me about going to the Flinders or just going to Perth, but I just met up with one person, and went with my gut feeling on her. Let's call her Amy. She's 20 from Germany (surprise surprise), and a pretty cool person. I asked her if she had any experience in hiking/camping in the bush, and she said she's done a few day hikes, and most importantly if she had the basic equipment (sleeping bag, water bottle, bag, and shoes). She said she had everything and said she planned to hike in her Chucks (I've never heard of them, I thought it was a German thing, more on that later). We got along pretty well during our meeting and I even was interviewed by her friends more or less. And by interview, I mean sitting in a park drinking a few beers. They were pretty cool and I was later invited to a BBQ the next day which they had planned to go to. Sweet as! I love being invited to random BBQ/parties, always great fun and you'll meet interesting people...usually.
After the beers, we all decide to go our separate ways (ie. Home) and we decide to meet up the next day for the BBQ. I get home, or to my hosts house better said, and everyone was asleep. I quickly jump into bed and start making a mental list of what I need to get done before I depart on my next adventure.
Next morning, when everyone in the house is awake, I tell them that I would be leaving that day and continue my trip. Hugs were given, handshakes exchanged, etc. It was really cool to meet those people, and I hope to meet them later on. Who knows what's going to happen and where.
I do some laundry, send some CS requests and other small errands that I require an internet connection before I depart. Drive one of my hostesses to her work, and then make my way over to the BBQ, using a map I copied (analog copied that is) and try to follow it. Not that easy. I got “lost” twice, but finally found my way there. As always.
We head over to the BBQ and man, it was really fun. There were a lot of international people there: Holland, France, Germany, Columbia, Mexico, Australia, Argentina (I think), Malaysia, and me. It was like a small UN meeting almost. Pretty cool. And boy was I right about the people there, everyone was really cool. Super friendly, and there were some real characters there too. Not going to write about what we talked about, but there was a lot of adult humour going through the air (defining a cougar and coyote). It was great. When it was time to go home, we head over to Amy's friends house and crash there and decide to head out early since it was going to be a long drive.
We leave the house around 9AM and yet again, hugs and handshakes were exchanged (I also got a copy of Lonely Planet – from 2004) and go to Wolly's to stock up on supplies for both the hike and the road trip ahead. Once all that was done, we get on the road. It was a long drive. Very long drive.
Get to Wilpena Pound, where we would camp the first night, pack our bags, prepare for the hike, and what ever else needed to be done.
The morning came, and I was properly excited. This was it! Pack tent down and start heading out. I was checking out Amy to see what she planned to wear, and I all of sudden found out what Chucks are: Converse. You know, the old skool single layered shoes which go over your ankles, which you can buy for like 5 bucks. Yeah, that's what she was going to wear. I asked her if she was joking, she wasn't. Several different possible scenarios flooded my head: slipping and falling, twisting of an ankle because of bad support, etc. The list goes on. I make the call that I would carry more weight in order to minimise the risks. Park the car, and start heading off to our first destination: St. Mary's Peak.
Ok, I'm sorry guys, I'm not going to write any more about this, I more or less documented the whole trip with videos and photos, so you'll just have to check them out. I'll try to post them ASAP.
But here's a quick summary: both my host and the guy at the store were little lying bastards. They said it was easy...nah. If you're a moderately experienced hiker, then yeah, it's easy. But if you haven't done any rock scrambling, hiking, or anything else, then no, it's not easy. My nerves were strung tighter than a finely tuned piano. I was constantly thinking about not only my safety, but Amy's as well. I was a guide on the trip. Now, it's not a bad thing, but it was an experience. Man...just thinking of the things we did...you should have been there. I'm pretty proud about my performance, but more so about Amy's. She did better than most of the people I did the army with. I'm serious! She's a bad ass compared to some of those guys!
Get back to camp, go to the bar there and order one big Sprite, one big Coke, and one big bowl of chips as our reward. It was grrrreat! Next reward was taking a nice shower, and drinking water out a tap that didn't taste like chlorine. Now, it was only a 2 night, 3 day hike, but man, you get used to the small things, and it was a pretty demanding hike.
Next morning, we have a small sleep in, and the pack our gear and go to something which I truly love: a restaurant that serves random food. I'm talking about the Prairie Hotel which serves emu, roo, camel, and a wild goat meet. I had the antipesta which consisted of emu pate, camel salami, wild goat cheese, smoked roo with small veggies and a nice sauce. Following that, I had the Farrell Meat Platter, which was fillets of emu and roo, along with a camel hot dog. All of it was great! The emu fillet has a very strong flavour to it, but it was really tender! Nummers!
Oh, we could of caught our own dinner/lunch along the way, cause we were attacked by a swarm of grasshoppers. Big ones too! Or maybe they were locusts. Not to sure. The one thing I am sure about is that they are all in my grill, I couldn't see out the window properly (still can't – dried bugs are hard to clean off your windscreen). We had to make our way through that s#$t storm twice. It was great. I now have bug screen covering my radiator so the engine doesn't explode.
We head all the way down to Port Augusta where we try to find a caravan park, and when we do, we were both just so bloody tired and not very motivated to do anything. Make some dinner and talk to some people at the BBQ area, which was really nice. There were two Mauri there from NZ who were both really cool and funny as. Another bloke there told us of how he worked on a cattle station when he was just 15 years old for 9 months in the outback, working on horse back. It sounded like a real adventure for someone of that age.
While we were at the caravan park, I noticed that my dual battery system isn't working exactly as planned, which isn't very good. Not good at all. I'm not too sure as to what the problem is, but I'm pretty sure it's the little relay box which is acting up. Today I just unplugged it, and connected everything directly. The auxiliary battery is pretty much dead...sorry, was dead. It was only putting out 7.5V instead of 12V, so we'll see if I can get that little box fixed/replaced. I went over all the wiring, but nothing seems to be wrong. From what I can tell. The box switches to charge, but then just shuts off after a few seconds, which is not really what it's meant to do. Food for thought. And, when I changed the wiring, all of the dashboard problems disappeared. The fuel level indicator started working properly, and the engine thermometer started working too. I didn't even no it was broken! I saw the temperature spiking, and found that odd, but now, it isn't, which is good. Very good.
After Port Augusta, we drove all the way to Streaky Bay, found a spot next to the road and just slept there. Beautiful town, really small ocean town, my kind of place. I'm actually writing this on Amy's netbook on our way to...I don't know. Somewhere.
I'll probably update it along the way. Until then, later!
__________________________
The Nullarbor
We had to cross the Nullarbor National Park yesterday, which was pretty amazing to say the least. A lot of people say that they find it boring, but I found it absolutely amazing. Nay, spectacular. However, I can see how some people would find it a very boring drive if the weather is clear and not a cloud in the sky. We however, were very lucky. We had some serious storm clouds brewing in front of us, with patches of clear skies, which made an amazing contrast to the landscape, along with seeing some of the clouds emptying their contents onto parched soil. All I can really say is wow. I tried to take some photos, not too sure how well they turned out. I need to stitch them together since they are mainly panoramas (I need a super wide angle lens to capture the sight in one shot). Once we crossed the Nullarbor, we got to the South Australia and Western Australia border, where they had a nice quarantine check point waiting for us. Which meant we had to get rid of our fresh foods (veggies, fruits, etc). We weren't too happy. But to cheer me up, was the sunset. The clouds (I love clouds, ok? ;P) were insane! Wild curvature going on, with some really intense colours. True beauty!
Anyway, since we didn't want to ditch our food, we decided to stay over night at a caravan park by the border and cook as much of the food as possible. Both of us were pretty grumpy from all the driving and also, I was extra grumpy because of my dual battery system and I couldn't turn the key in the ignition. Now, it wasn't that I couldn't turn the engine over; no, I couldn't physically twist the key in the ignition, it was jammed. I tried using some WD-40, no luck. Walk over to the mechanic across the street and we comes over with some basic tools just to have a look at it. He says the whole cylinder is buggered. Great I think. I ask him if he can destroy the cylinder so that I could use a coin or whatever to start the engine, until I could afford to fix it properly. We walks back to the work shop and comes back with some tools. Pops the key in the ignition, takes a pair of pliers, and twists with a bit of extra force. It worked. I tried that myself, but I was afraid I was going to snap the key off and really put myself in a pickle. Guess how much it cost me for him to walk across the road to do this. 30 bucks. I felt so happy, really, I did. So happy I felt like ripping my nails out my fingers with a pair of rusty pliers. Hmm...
SOOOO, we were grumpy. We start cooking as much of the food as possible, and then it started to rain. One batch was made, but there was enough to make two. I had pitched the tent up before hand, thinking that it would rain soon. We both sat in the car talking while the worst of the rain was hitting us. I fall asleep and wake up to Amy asking me I felt, and before I could respond she tells me that the tent was flooded and that my sleeping back was soaking wet. Yay. So, now my tent isn't waterproof is what I'm thinking (I looked at this morning and concluded that it was in the path of a small river formed by the rains). I'm pretty pissy at this point. Amy tries talking to me and I tell her that life has an amazing way of making me jump through hoops all the time. Granted, it happens to everyone, but it seems like it's one hoop here, then another one there further down the road. For me however, it's hoop after hoop. As if I were lion performing for the public at my tamers command. Lame is what I have to say about that. Bah...I'm getting used to it...or not really.
Moving on. We both felt better this morning and are going to try to push our way to Esperance by tonight. I don't think we can do it. It's about 900km away, and we usually drive maybe 500km a day. I think I'm going to try to sleep some more before it's my turn to drive.
Ok, will keep ya posted!
__________________________
V.o.A has two meanings
We made it all the way to Norseman last night. And this is when Voa has two meanings:
1)Vehicle of Awesomeness because I squeezed 348km out her (an extra 48km compared to my last measurement).
2)Vehicle of Agony because the exhaust pipe cracked again. Well, the can that I had placed there last time had just burned to nothing, making the epoxy tape slip off, opening the crack again. So I had to fix that again, but I did a better job this time. Also, when Amy was holding the gas down, I saw a fair bit of smoke coming out the back. Don't know what it means.
I don't know what to do with the car. I feel like I should sell it and start hitch hiking again. It's nice having a car, but man....it can get annoying at the same time. Meh.
Should be in Perth in a few days time. Going to couchsurf at someone's place for a few days in Esperance and then probably head up to Perth and find some work. I was thinking about making my way around the coast to Perth, but it would be nice to save it for weekend adventures while I'm living there. Yeah, we'll see what happens, eh?
Off I pop, later.
PS. some of the road we were driving on had a warning sign for air planes, because the road is an emergency landing strip. Funny.
__________________________
Esperanto in Esperance
Been in Esperance for two days now, and I just love this place. It's a quiet little town by the beach with super clear water. I could imagine working here for a while and just hanging out (the town really reminds me of Paihia in Aotearoa, actually) I'll let Perth play itself out first, and if I don't get used to the big city again, I'll try to come back down here.
Amy and I treated ourselves to some breakfast at nice cafe by the waterfront yesterday, and surprisingly (well, not really) there was a group of 6 German girls hanging out not to far away from us. I swear man, I think that Germany actually won the war, conquered the world, but we just haven't realised it yet. It's spooky.
I had a look at my bank account yesterday, and I was about to cry, because I found out I need to get a job. Not soon, but I don't want to push my luck with it. So instead of doing the coastal route to Perth, we'll drive directly there, and I'll have stuff to see and do on the weekends. It'll be good.
Today we'll be going to beach just to hang out and enjoy the day. It'll be good.
Oh yeah, made dinner for my hosts, and it was interesting. There were a lot of awkward silences, so I decided to pull out my two ice breaker stories: Madame Kerstin (S'n'M superstar) and one of the weird gay hang outs in Stockholm. It worked. But I think I shocked them a bit too much in process. Hmmm...yeah. They liked the food though, which is always a plus. I felt a bit sorry for Amy though, she had a bit of trouble keeping up with what everyone was saying, since everyone was a fluent English speaker, we just talked at our normal pace or a bit faster. She missed out on a lot of funny stuff which I tried to explain to her when everyone had gone to bed. Funny times.
Ok, time for breakie!
PS. Your going to have to wait for the videos and photos since I can't get a good connection here in Esperance.
Gorgeous Gorge
I last left you guys knowing that I was going to go on a small hike out in the Flinders Ranges, which was going to be quite an adventure, and was it!
Before I ran into the Flinders, I felt it was a pretty good idea if I had a map over the area, considering that some of the hike would be off track and such. I quickly run to a map shop before they closed, and they showed me a map with the gorge. Wow. I was buggered. I couldn't see any sort of tracks which I was going to start off on. Great. I ask them if they have any more detailed maps, but they say that if there existed any maps more detailed than 50000:1 scale, there would be THOUSANDS of maps over Australia. They claimed they don't exist. I don't buy any map off them, and head over to an outdoors store to see if they can help me out. It was a Boy Scout run store, which was pretty sweet. All the profits the store made went to running the Boy Scouts of Australia (mainly paying the insurance). I talk to one guy and he pulls out the map that the first store pulled out, plus another one. It all came together – literally. The other map he pulled out showed me the first part of the track, where it ended, and where the real fun began. He even showed me how he went over the mountains to get back to the starting point, which was helpful later on in the trip. Luckily, he had walked it a few times, so he told me how to get down the waterfalls that I would encounter (which my host did as well – more on that later). Buy the maps, and go onto my next task.
There were a few people who contacted me about going to the Flinders or just going to Perth, but I just met up with one person, and went with my gut feeling on her. Let's call her Amy. She's 20 from Germany (surprise surprise), and a pretty cool person. I asked her if she had any experience in hiking/camping in the bush, and she said she's done a few day hikes, and most importantly if she had the basic equipment (sleeping bag, water bottle, bag, and shoes). She said she had everything and said she planned to hike in her Chucks (I've never heard of them, I thought it was a German thing, more on that later). We got along pretty well during our meeting and I even was interviewed by her friends more or less. And by interview, I mean sitting in a park drinking a few beers. They were pretty cool and I was later invited to a BBQ the next day which they had planned to go to. Sweet as! I love being invited to random BBQ/parties, always great fun and you'll meet interesting people...usually.
After the beers, we all decide to go our separate ways (ie. Home) and we decide to meet up the next day for the BBQ. I get home, or to my hosts house better said, and everyone was asleep. I quickly jump into bed and start making a mental list of what I need to get done before I depart on my next adventure.
Next morning, when everyone in the house is awake, I tell them that I would be leaving that day and continue my trip. Hugs were given, handshakes exchanged, etc. It was really cool to meet those people, and I hope to meet them later on. Who knows what's going to happen and where.
I do some laundry, send some CS requests and other small errands that I require an internet connection before I depart. Drive one of my hostesses to her work, and then make my way over to the BBQ, using a map I copied (analog copied that is) and try to follow it. Not that easy. I got “lost” twice, but finally found my way there. As always.
We head over to the BBQ and man, it was really fun. There were a lot of international people there: Holland, France, Germany, Columbia, Mexico, Australia, Argentina (I think), Malaysia, and me. It was like a small UN meeting almost. Pretty cool. And boy was I right about the people there, everyone was really cool. Super friendly, and there were some real characters there too. Not going to write about what we talked about, but there was a lot of adult humour going through the air (defining a cougar and coyote). It was great. When it was time to go home, we head over to Amy's friends house and crash there and decide to head out early since it was going to be a long drive.
We leave the house around 9AM and yet again, hugs and handshakes were exchanged (I also got a copy of Lonely Planet – from 2004) and go to Wolly's to stock up on supplies for both the hike and the road trip ahead. Once all that was done, we get on the road. It was a long drive. Very long drive.
Get to Wilpena Pound, where we would camp the first night, pack our bags, prepare for the hike, and what ever else needed to be done.
The morning came, and I was properly excited. This was it! Pack tent down and start heading out. I was checking out Amy to see what she planned to wear, and I all of sudden found out what Chucks are: Converse. You know, the old skool single layered shoes which go over your ankles, which you can buy for like 5 bucks. Yeah, that's what she was going to wear. I asked her if she was joking, she wasn't. Several different possible scenarios flooded my head: slipping and falling, twisting of an ankle because of bad support, etc. The list goes on. I make the call that I would carry more weight in order to minimise the risks. Park the car, and start heading off to our first destination: St. Mary's Peak.
Ok, I'm sorry guys, I'm not going to write any more about this, I more or less documented the whole trip with videos and photos, so you'll just have to check them out. I'll try to post them ASAP.
But here's a quick summary: both my host and the guy at the store were little lying bastards. They said it was easy...nah. If you're a moderately experienced hiker, then yeah, it's easy. But if you haven't done any rock scrambling, hiking, or anything else, then no, it's not easy. My nerves were strung tighter than a finely tuned piano. I was constantly thinking about not only my safety, but Amy's as well. I was a guide on the trip. Now, it's not a bad thing, but it was an experience. Man...just thinking of the things we did...you should have been there. I'm pretty proud about my performance, but more so about Amy's. She did better than most of the people I did the army with. I'm serious! She's a bad ass compared to some of those guys!
Get back to camp, go to the bar there and order one big Sprite, one big Coke, and one big bowl of chips as our reward. It was grrrreat! Next reward was taking a nice shower, and drinking water out a tap that didn't taste like chlorine. Now, it was only a 2 night, 3 day hike, but man, you get used to the small things, and it was a pretty demanding hike.
Next morning, we have a small sleep in, and the pack our gear and go to something which I truly love: a restaurant that serves random food. I'm talking about the Prairie Hotel which serves emu, roo, camel, and a wild goat meet. I had the antipesta which consisted of emu pate, camel salami, wild goat cheese, smoked roo with small veggies and a nice sauce. Following that, I had the Farrell Meat Platter, which was fillets of emu and roo, along with a camel hot dog. All of it was great! The emu fillet has a very strong flavour to it, but it was really tender! Nummers!
Oh, we could of caught our own dinner/lunch along the way, cause we were attacked by a swarm of grasshoppers. Big ones too! Or maybe they were locusts. Not to sure. The one thing I am sure about is that they are all in my grill, I couldn't see out the window properly (still can't – dried bugs are hard to clean off your windscreen). We had to make our way through that s#$t storm twice. It was great. I now have bug screen covering my radiator so the engine doesn't explode.
We head all the way down to Port Augusta where we try to find a caravan park, and when we do, we were both just so bloody tired and not very motivated to do anything. Make some dinner and talk to some people at the BBQ area, which was really nice. There were two Mauri there from NZ who were both really cool and funny as. Another bloke there told us of how he worked on a cattle station when he was just 15 years old for 9 months in the outback, working on horse back. It sounded like a real adventure for someone of that age.
While we were at the caravan park, I noticed that my dual battery system isn't working exactly as planned, which isn't very good. Not good at all. I'm not too sure as to what the problem is, but I'm pretty sure it's the little relay box which is acting up. Today I just unplugged it, and connected everything directly. The auxiliary battery is pretty much dead...sorry, was dead. It was only putting out 7.5V instead of 12V, so we'll see if I can get that little box fixed/replaced. I went over all the wiring, but nothing seems to be wrong. From what I can tell. The box switches to charge, but then just shuts off after a few seconds, which is not really what it's meant to do. Food for thought. And, when I changed the wiring, all of the dashboard problems disappeared. The fuel level indicator started working properly, and the engine thermometer started working too. I didn't even no it was broken! I saw the temperature spiking, and found that odd, but now, it isn't, which is good. Very good.
After Port Augusta, we drove all the way to Streaky Bay, found a spot next to the road and just slept there. Beautiful town, really small ocean town, my kind of place. I'm actually writing this on Amy's netbook on our way to...I don't know. Somewhere.
I'll probably update it along the way. Until then, later!
__________________________
The Nullarbor
We had to cross the Nullarbor National Park yesterday, which was pretty amazing to say the least. A lot of people say that they find it boring, but I found it absolutely amazing. Nay, spectacular. However, I can see how some people would find it a very boring drive if the weather is clear and not a cloud in the sky. We however, were very lucky. We had some serious storm clouds brewing in front of us, with patches of clear skies, which made an amazing contrast to the landscape, along with seeing some of the clouds emptying their contents onto parched soil. All I can really say is wow. I tried to take some photos, not too sure how well they turned out. I need to stitch them together since they are mainly panoramas (I need a super wide angle lens to capture the sight in one shot). Once we crossed the Nullarbor, we got to the South Australia and Western Australia border, where they had a nice quarantine check point waiting for us. Which meant we had to get rid of our fresh foods (veggies, fruits, etc). We weren't too happy. But to cheer me up, was the sunset. The clouds (I love clouds, ok? ;P) were insane! Wild curvature going on, with some really intense colours. True beauty!
Anyway, since we didn't want to ditch our food, we decided to stay over night at a caravan park by the border and cook as much of the food as possible. Both of us were pretty grumpy from all the driving and also, I was extra grumpy because of my dual battery system and I couldn't turn the key in the ignition. Now, it wasn't that I couldn't turn the engine over; no, I couldn't physically twist the key in the ignition, it was jammed. I tried using some WD-40, no luck. Walk over to the mechanic across the street and we comes over with some basic tools just to have a look at it. He says the whole cylinder is buggered. Great I think. I ask him if he can destroy the cylinder so that I could use a coin or whatever to start the engine, until I could afford to fix it properly. We walks back to the work shop and comes back with some tools. Pops the key in the ignition, takes a pair of pliers, and twists with a bit of extra force. It worked. I tried that myself, but I was afraid I was going to snap the key off and really put myself in a pickle. Guess how much it cost me for him to walk across the road to do this. 30 bucks. I felt so happy, really, I did. So happy I felt like ripping my nails out my fingers with a pair of rusty pliers. Hmm...
SOOOO, we were grumpy. We start cooking as much of the food as possible, and then it started to rain. One batch was made, but there was enough to make two. I had pitched the tent up before hand, thinking that it would rain soon. We both sat in the car talking while the worst of the rain was hitting us. I fall asleep and wake up to Amy asking me I felt, and before I could respond she tells me that the tent was flooded and that my sleeping back was soaking wet. Yay. So, now my tent isn't waterproof is what I'm thinking (I looked at this morning and concluded that it was in the path of a small river formed by the rains). I'm pretty pissy at this point. Amy tries talking to me and I tell her that life has an amazing way of making me jump through hoops all the time. Granted, it happens to everyone, but it seems like it's one hoop here, then another one there further down the road. For me however, it's hoop after hoop. As if I were lion performing for the public at my tamers command. Lame is what I have to say about that. Bah...I'm getting used to it...or not really.
Moving on. We both felt better this morning and are going to try to push our way to Esperance by tonight. I don't think we can do it. It's about 900km away, and we usually drive maybe 500km a day. I think I'm going to try to sleep some more before it's my turn to drive.
Ok, will keep ya posted!
__________________________
V.o.A has two meanings
We made it all the way to Norseman last night. And this is when Voa has two meanings:
1)Vehicle of Awesomeness because I squeezed 348km out her (an extra 48km compared to my last measurement).
2)Vehicle of Agony because the exhaust pipe cracked again. Well, the can that I had placed there last time had just burned to nothing, making the epoxy tape slip off, opening the crack again. So I had to fix that again, but I did a better job this time. Also, when Amy was holding the gas down, I saw a fair bit of smoke coming out the back. Don't know what it means.
I don't know what to do with the car. I feel like I should sell it and start hitch hiking again. It's nice having a car, but man....it can get annoying at the same time. Meh.
Should be in Perth in a few days time. Going to couchsurf at someone's place for a few days in Esperance and then probably head up to Perth and find some work. I was thinking about making my way around the coast to Perth, but it would be nice to save it for weekend adventures while I'm living there. Yeah, we'll see what happens, eh?
Off I pop, later.
PS. some of the road we were driving on had a warning sign for air planes, because the road is an emergency landing strip. Funny.
__________________________
Esperanto in Esperance
Been in Esperance for two days now, and I just love this place. It's a quiet little town by the beach with super clear water. I could imagine working here for a while and just hanging out (the town really reminds me of Paihia in Aotearoa, actually) I'll let Perth play itself out first, and if I don't get used to the big city again, I'll try to come back down here.
Amy and I treated ourselves to some breakfast at nice cafe by the waterfront yesterday, and surprisingly (well, not really) there was a group of 6 German girls hanging out not to far away from us. I swear man, I think that Germany actually won the war, conquered the world, but we just haven't realised it yet. It's spooky.
I had a look at my bank account yesterday, and I was about to cry, because I found out I need to get a job. Not soon, but I don't want to push my luck with it. So instead of doing the coastal route to Perth, we'll drive directly there, and I'll have stuff to see and do on the weekends. It'll be good.
Today we'll be going to beach just to hang out and enjoy the day. It'll be good.
Oh yeah, made dinner for my hosts, and it was interesting. There were a lot of awkward silences, so I decided to pull out my two ice breaker stories: Madame Kerstin (S'n'M superstar) and one of the weird gay hang outs in Stockholm. It worked. But I think I shocked them a bit too much in process. Hmmm...yeah. They liked the food though, which is always a plus. I felt a bit sorry for Amy though, she had a bit of trouble keeping up with what everyone was saying, since everyone was a fluent English speaker, we just talked at our normal pace or a bit faster. She missed out on a lot of funny stuff which I tried to explain to her when everyone had gone to bed. Funny times.
Ok, time for breakie!
PS. Your going to have to wait for the videos and photos since I can't get a good connection here in Esperance.
Friday, April 9, 2010
ALSO!
I'm going to finally get to see my hero! Henry Rollins!
That guy is freaking sweet! He's going to have two shows in Perth, 1st and 2nd of May. I'm going to both of them!
That guy is freaking sweet! He's going to have two shows in Perth, 1st and 2nd of May. I'm going to both of them!
Rock F#$kin' On!
All Choked Up
I've cried in my life a few times. Mainly at things that really affect me, not so much movies. Until the other night.
It was a movie called Marley and Me. It was about a guy buying a dog for his wife and how they get along with it, pains, etc. I can't relate to everything in the movie, but the dog was a labradore. Probably only my direct family can see where this is going, but I'll continue anyway.
I had a dog once, his name was Charley and he was a lab (a mix though), too. We had to put him down. Charley - Marley, they rhyme. I was really holding back the tears, bad. It even got me thinking of the other people (and animals) that have left my life, that were part of my life for a long time. Death isn't cool. I know it's natural, I'm not going to say I wish for immortal life. I just wish there was some way of making death a beautiful thing, a cheerful thing. Yeah, I know they celebrate it the southern regions of the United States, but in general, it's a time of mourning and grief. It truely sucks.
______________________________________
Found another travel partner who's going to follow me up to the Flinders Ranges at least. If she comes with me to Perth, we'll see.
I'm going to do a hike in the mountains, and it's definitely going to be a adventure. I'm going to plunge into the Edeowie Gorge. Here it is:
View Larger Map
Nervous? A little bit. I'm going to register with a ranger before we head out, but we should be okay.
I'm more nervous about my new travel partner. She's done a few day hikes, so this is going to be a bit of challenge for her. I've been told by to experienced people that's an easy hike. But they were experienced, soooo...yeah. I'm not worried (and neither should you dad).
Oh, some other fun and exciting news! 3 companies have showed interest in hiring me. One called me today about a job working as a super intendent in diamond mine. Pretty freaking awesome, eh? Hopefully it's FIFO (Fly In, Fly Out) which means big bucks! Or so I've been told.
But nothing is for sure. We'll see sometime next week I guess.
Tonight, I go to a BBQ of the friends for my travel partner. I met most of her friends yesterday, and they invited me, so I guess that's a good sign, eh? People like-ed me, cooz i beas sp3ciAL.
Ok guys, I'll see ya when I see ye, and you'll read me when I write something :P
Toodles Poodles!
It was a movie called Marley and Me. It was about a guy buying a dog for his wife and how they get along with it, pains, etc. I can't relate to everything in the movie, but the dog was a labradore. Probably only my direct family can see where this is going, but I'll continue anyway.
I had a dog once, his name was Charley and he was a lab (a mix though), too. We had to put him down. Charley - Marley, they rhyme. I was really holding back the tears, bad. It even got me thinking of the other people (and animals) that have left my life, that were part of my life for a long time. Death isn't cool. I know it's natural, I'm not going to say I wish for immortal life. I just wish there was some way of making death a beautiful thing, a cheerful thing. Yeah, I know they celebrate it the southern regions of the United States, but in general, it's a time of mourning and grief. It truely sucks.
______________________________________
Found another travel partner who's going to follow me up to the Flinders Ranges at least. If she comes with me to Perth, we'll see.
I'm going to do a hike in the mountains, and it's definitely going to be a adventure. I'm going to plunge into the Edeowie Gorge. Here it is:
View Larger Map
Nervous? A little bit. I'm going to register with a ranger before we head out, but we should be okay.
I'm more nervous about my new travel partner. She's done a few day hikes, so this is going to be a bit of challenge for her. I've been told by to experienced people that's an easy hike. But they were experienced, soooo...yeah. I'm not worried (and neither should you dad).
Oh, some other fun and exciting news! 3 companies have showed interest in hiring me. One called me today about a job working as a super intendent in diamond mine. Pretty freaking awesome, eh? Hopefully it's FIFO (Fly In, Fly Out) which means big bucks! Or so I've been told.
But nothing is for sure. We'll see sometime next week I guess.
Tonight, I go to a BBQ of the friends for my travel partner. I met most of her friends yesterday, and they invited me, so I guess that's a good sign, eh? People like-ed me, cooz i beas sp3ciAL.
Ok guys, I'll see ya when I see ye, and you'll read me when I write something :P
Toodles Poodles!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Day of Wankiness
Today was an interesting day, in a very wanky way.
Now, most of you most likely know the word wank like they use it in England, and down here in the Oceanic. However, to wank and to be wanky are two different things.
Wanky is the same as being artsy/fartsy. And to wank...well...just Google it. How was my day like this? Because I went on a wine tasting tour today with 9 other people, 9 other people who knew a fair bit about wine. Did I feel out of place? Meh, sort of. It was fun to watch them drinking...no sorry, tasting wine, tossing and spitting super expensive wine into a bucket since they don't want to swig it back and just enjoy it. I fully understand why they do it, but I just don't see why it can't be a "yeah, it's pretty yummy wine," instead of "the talons are really strong, and I can tell the acidity in the earth was strong combined with some vanilla that I crapped out yesterday cause I'm so full of it sometimes." My favourite though are the Stureplan Ozzie equivalents doing the tasting. And I'll leave it at that.
The whole experience got me thinking of my super duper awesome high school of SSHL (Super Shitty Hell-hole Lounge). Yeah, those of you who know me know how much I worship (the destruction of) that school. That topic is for a drunken night where I lose all ability to talk about relevant stuff that makes me happy. And when I'm talking to Casper the friendly ghost.
The day was good without a doubt! Don't get me wrong it was really a lot of fun, and we had lunch at an Italian restaurant where I had the quail and a chip (french fry, sorry, freedom fry) disguised as a fish finger. Very strange, but amazingly delicious. Not a whole lot of meat, but super tender and just - wow! Try quail at least once in your life, it's worth it! We also had two platters with both cheese, meats, sun dried tomatoes, olives, and everything else that gives you an orgasm in your mouth. Or as the Dutch would say, like an angel pissing on my tongue (I'm not making that up, it really is a saying in Dutch).
After the lunch, we went to two more wineries, but I didn't drink any more wine since I had to drive, but the 3rd one was called Alpha Box and Dice. The others said I should just taste it, but told them I simply don't appreciate the same way they do. A good comparison would be a musician hearing the perfect song: perfect structure, bridges, etc. I just can't hear it, nor taste it. But I asked the wine maker, who made a comment about me (not a rude one, just a "yeah, that's cool that your honest about it") and I was just straight up and asked doesn't it all just boil down to how you, the drinker feels about the wine. Just like a song. You either like it, don't like it, can learn to like it (through repetitive tasting/listening), etc. And he completely honestly agreed. Since there is no real industrial standard in wine, then there is no perfect wine, it all comes down to the taster. However, his cellar door (aka, shed) was by far the coolest. It had the most character. Heaps of vintage random items scattered through out the whole shed, and he himself was just dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and leather shoes (minus socks). This man screamed of laid back, and I respected that a lot. The other places were just screaming wanky - big time. The first place had an amazing drive way down this hill, in perfect symmetry leading down to a pond with salmon in it, with a small chalet on the other side of it. It was an amazing sight, and while you were driving down, all you could see was vineyards on the rolling hills. Super beautiful, but the staff were just too over dressed for my taste. Really trying to push their image of elite. But this dude, he was more like "I love to make wine, it's my life, and if you like my wine, that's awesome. If you don't, that's cool as well, I just hope we get along." My kind of guy.
He had this one bottle called Two Lanes, which had very interesting label on it. Hologram. He had a hologram label: from one angel it was a photo of him holding a sign Lane I, and the other photo was his brother or business partner holding a sign Lane II. A nice, clean original label. It was genius, and about 70 AUD. In short, he's an underdog, and I always support the underdog.
Now, going back a bit, cause I started thinking about this, one of the wine "experts" amongst us came from France and tried to teach me a bit about wine. How you break it down into three parts: colour, sound, and taste. It was pretty interesting in that sense, and how they would break it down. It's just when the openly talk about it that it just gets too wanky for me. I guess I wouldn't think it was so wanky if had the same palette that they did, or interest for that fact, but I simply don't...yet. Maybe it comes with time, who knows.
Next stop, a winery that makes a beer. Don't know what was so special about the beer, but it was good.
We could only squeeze in one beer cause they were closing for the day, and so we make our way to the Upper Pub of Willunga. Yes, Upper Pub. Most small towns in Australia have three pubs: Upper Pub, Middle Pub, and Lower Pub. In this case, that's what they were called, but most often that's just the local way of calling the pubs. Funnily enough, the Lower Pub of Willunga didn't want to be known as the Lower Pub and renamed themselves as the Alma (which is soul in Spanish I think). Had small beer there, and we all were dead tired. It must of been 11 o'clock in the evening by that time. Look at the watch, it was just 19.00. 7 o'clock and a bunch of 20 something year olds were dead tired. Amazing. I had never seen anything like it. Head back home and just chill for the rest of the evening.
Continued writing 7/04/10
Not a whole lot to report for today except I got my ear stretched out to 4mm (not very painful, but I really felt it - bad).
Cleaned and flushed my radiator today, which got me talking to the people across the street and got to borrow some of their tools. I love Australian way of life. It's just not Swedish. It's so much better. They take care of one another. It wouldn't be the same in Sydney, but it's still better than Sweden. My most memorable experience of kindliness from a stranger in Sydney was when someone was going to pay for my bus fair. Small gesture, but it meant a lot to me. He didn't pay, but the fact he was willing to made my heart warm. Here though, or in Tassie, it's more like: "Hey come over for some beers (or lunch, dinner, etc), don't bring anything but your appetite." Oh, these are from complete strangers by the way. Yeah man, different mentality down here.
Aaaaaand I talk to the Troll and my mom via Skype tonight...only like 15 minutes ago, which was really nice. Cool to see their faces again.
Hmm...what - OH YEAH! I went to Adelaide for Easter, and everything was closed, pretty sad. But on my way back, I was driving along the coast, and I smelled the salty sea. Park my car and jump straight in. Splashing around, and there was a group of guys playing football next to me, and then one of them just freaks and starts pointing into the water. I turn around, waiting for something to happen. 3 meters in front of me a dorsal fin breaches the water and blows out some air. A dolphin, swam past me, 3 meters away. What a great way to end the day, eh?
And I leave you with this one photo.
Now, most of you most likely know the word wank like they use it in England, and down here in the Oceanic. However, to wank and to be wanky are two different things.
Wanky is the same as being artsy/fartsy. And to wank...well...just Google it. How was my day like this? Because I went on a wine tasting tour today with 9 other people, 9 other people who knew a fair bit about wine. Did I feel out of place? Meh, sort of. It was fun to watch them drinking...no sorry, tasting wine, tossing and spitting super expensive wine into a bucket since they don't want to swig it back and just enjoy it. I fully understand why they do it, but I just don't see why it can't be a "yeah, it's pretty yummy wine," instead of "the talons are really strong, and I can tell the acidity in the earth was strong combined with some vanilla that I crapped out yesterday cause I'm so full of it sometimes." My favourite though are the Stureplan Ozzie equivalents doing the tasting. And I'll leave it at that.
The whole experience got me thinking of my super duper awesome high school of SSHL (Super Shitty Hell-hole Lounge). Yeah, those of you who know me know how much I worship (the destruction of) that school. That topic is for a drunken night where I lose all ability to talk about relevant stuff that makes me happy. And when I'm talking to Casper the friendly ghost.
The day was good without a doubt! Don't get me wrong it was really a lot of fun, and we had lunch at an Italian restaurant where I had the quail and a chip (french fry, sorry, freedom fry) disguised as a fish finger. Very strange, but amazingly delicious. Not a whole lot of meat, but super tender and just - wow! Try quail at least once in your life, it's worth it! We also had two platters with both cheese, meats, sun dried tomatoes, olives, and everything else that gives you an orgasm in your mouth. Or as the Dutch would say, like an angel pissing on my tongue (I'm not making that up, it really is a saying in Dutch).
After the lunch, we went to two more wineries, but I didn't drink any more wine since I had to drive, but the 3rd one was called Alpha Box and Dice. The others said I should just taste it, but told them I simply don't appreciate the same way they do. A good comparison would be a musician hearing the perfect song: perfect structure, bridges, etc. I just can't hear it, nor taste it. But I asked the wine maker, who made a comment about me (not a rude one, just a "yeah, that's cool that your honest about it") and I was just straight up and asked doesn't it all just boil down to how you, the drinker feels about the wine. Just like a song. You either like it, don't like it, can learn to like it (through repetitive tasting/listening), etc. And he completely honestly agreed. Since there is no real industrial standard in wine, then there is no perfect wine, it all comes down to the taster. However, his cellar door (aka, shed) was by far the coolest. It had the most character. Heaps of vintage random items scattered through out the whole shed, and he himself was just dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and leather shoes (minus socks). This man screamed of laid back, and I respected that a lot. The other places were just screaming wanky - big time. The first place had an amazing drive way down this hill, in perfect symmetry leading down to a pond with salmon in it, with a small chalet on the other side of it. It was an amazing sight, and while you were driving down, all you could see was vineyards on the rolling hills. Super beautiful, but the staff were just too over dressed for my taste. Really trying to push their image of elite. But this dude, he was more like "I love to make wine, it's my life, and if you like my wine, that's awesome. If you don't, that's cool as well, I just hope we get along." My kind of guy.
He had this one bottle called Two Lanes, which had very interesting label on it. Hologram. He had a hologram label: from one angel it was a photo of him holding a sign Lane I, and the other photo was his brother or business partner holding a sign Lane II. A nice, clean original label. It was genius, and about 70 AUD. In short, he's an underdog, and I always support the underdog.
Now, going back a bit, cause I started thinking about this, one of the wine "experts" amongst us came from France and tried to teach me a bit about wine. How you break it down into three parts: colour, sound, and taste. It was pretty interesting in that sense, and how they would break it down. It's just when the openly talk about it that it just gets too wanky for me. I guess I wouldn't think it was so wanky if had the same palette that they did, or interest for that fact, but I simply don't...yet. Maybe it comes with time, who knows.
Next stop, a winery that makes a beer. Don't know what was so special about the beer, but it was good.
We could only squeeze in one beer cause they were closing for the day, and so we make our way to the Upper Pub of Willunga. Yes, Upper Pub. Most small towns in Australia have three pubs: Upper Pub, Middle Pub, and Lower Pub. In this case, that's what they were called, but most often that's just the local way of calling the pubs. Funnily enough, the Lower Pub of Willunga didn't want to be known as the Lower Pub and renamed themselves as the Alma (which is soul in Spanish I think). Had small beer there, and we all were dead tired. It must of been 11 o'clock in the evening by that time. Look at the watch, it was just 19.00. 7 o'clock and a bunch of 20 something year olds were dead tired. Amazing. I had never seen anything like it. Head back home and just chill for the rest of the evening.
Continued writing 7/04/10
Not a whole lot to report for today except I got my ear stretched out to 4mm (not very painful, but I really felt it - bad).
Cleaned and flushed my radiator today, which got me talking to the people across the street and got to borrow some of their tools. I love Australian way of life. It's just not Swedish. It's so much better. They take care of one another. It wouldn't be the same in Sydney, but it's still better than Sweden. My most memorable experience of kindliness from a stranger in Sydney was when someone was going to pay for my bus fair. Small gesture, but it meant a lot to me. He didn't pay, but the fact he was willing to made my heart warm. Here though, or in Tassie, it's more like: "Hey come over for some beers (or lunch, dinner, etc), don't bring anything but your appetite." Oh, these are from complete strangers by the way. Yeah man, different mentality down here.
Aaaaaand I talk to the Troll and my mom via Skype tonight...only like 15 minutes ago, which was really nice. Cool to see their faces again.
Hmm...what - OH YEAH! I went to Adelaide for Easter, and everything was closed, pretty sad. But on my way back, I was driving along the coast, and I smelled the salty sea. Park my car and jump straight in. Splashing around, and there was a group of guys playing football next to me, and then one of them just freaks and starts pointing into the water. I turn around, waiting for something to happen. 3 meters in front of me a dorsal fin breaches the water and blows out some air. A dolphin, swam past me, 3 meters away. What a great way to end the day, eh?
And I leave you with this one photo.
Friday, April 2, 2010
McGuyver'd
Well, I fixed two things now. There was another crack in the muffler, and I fixed that using some more epoxy glue and the lid from a can of fruit which I cut up using a pair of pruning scissors. I tied up the exhaust pipe a bit too using steel wire, so that should stop the rattling.
Here are some photos. You'll see where I had to duct tape an air intake hose, and also the other exhaust pipe that cracked.
Here are some photos. You'll see where I had to duct tape an air intake hose, and also the other exhaust pipe that cracked.
The Unfolding.
I'm feeling a lot better now after some well deserved sleep.
And now let our story begin...sorry, my story. HAHA!
It all started off in Melbourne, where I picked up my travel partner, and our first stop was close to a camp site which was close to Apolla Bay that my Couchsurfing host from Melbourne had told me about (very nice couple by the way) and it was free, which made it a big bonus.
I figured it would be best to leave Melbourne some time after 9 in the morning, try to beat the morning rush, how I was wrong. The traffic was a nightmare! It moved, but it was just so bloody chaotic!
Once we were out of Melbourne, we start heading to Geelong and decide we should buy our supplies there since it was the biggest city along the coast, which meant that there would be a Coles or Wolly's where we could buy some food at a decent price. We have lunch down by the beach, and then continue our journey down to the camp site. And the drive down there was a just beautiful, a lot of quiet towns where, and if I had a butt load of money, I know I could retire there in a nice villa. Or just a little shack, either one would work out I think...well, it all depends, but that's another story, and I have a few years before I need to worry about that kind of stuff.
Moving on!
We find the camp site and pitch up the tent (travel partner got the tent) and started preparing dinner. While we were talking, I heard something climbing on the tree next to my car, and since my travel partner had never seen a possum, I figured what better time than now. I use my little magnetic light and shine it on to the tree and to our pleasant surprise, it wasn't a possum climbing in the tree. It was a koala! First night out and we see a koala 3 meters from the car! How awesome isn't that?! Two other travellers from Belgium come over to look at the koala and start having a little photo session with it. And one of the Belgians did something I would never of dared to do, and that was to pet the koala. They can be pretty vicious if they need to, but this one was pretty relaxed, and so we all got to pet it. To do this in a zoo isn't the cheapest thing, and it's time limited. So being able to pet and hang out with a wild koala is a pretty special thing.
After a while, the koala got tired of us annoying it, so it climbed down the tree and climbed up another one 2 feet away. Interesting reaction, no?
We go to bed and then haul ass to The Grampians the next morning.
Oh! I was under the impression that this trip had no "time-limit", and I was proven wrong when my travel partner (I'll call her Dutchess, cause she's from Holland, and D for short). D decided to tell me (when we were on the highway out of Melbourne) that she had a plane booked to go to NZ in 7 days time from Melbourne, which, for me, took my plan by the collar and held Desert Eagle to it's head and pulled the trigger until the gun went *click*. Great days.
To get to The Grampians, the best - no, the scenic way is via the Great Ocean Road. Very famous, and super touristic road here in Oz which everyone needs to drive along. I couldn't agree with them more. If it's good weather at least. We had semi dodgy weather, which made it not as Great as it could of been. Along the way there's an attraction known as the 12 Apostles, but it's more like 7 or 10 Apostles, didn't really count, I just know that some of them fell over. Old age you know. If you were around to hang out with the big JC, it's no big surprise you would fall over 2000 years later. You are forgiven.
They weren't all to impressive. I thought they were going to be MASSIVE rocks out in the ocean. Sure they were big, but just not as "wow" as I had expected. Hmm...weather had a bit to do with it all as well. The beaches along the way were pretty sweet too.
Get to Warrnambool where we get a flight ticket for D to fly from Adelaide back to Melbourne, and check out some of the sights there. Nothing too special, cause yet again, the weather was pretty crap. Start to head north towards the Grampians and decide to take free hot shower at the visitors center in Dunkeld and also crash at some rest area.
Next morning we head into the actual Grampians, which was super frustrating. Cause D was on super tight budget, which I didn't know about either, so camping out at the campsites was limited to one night and only two days of short hikes. Pretty sweet hikes, but short ones nonetheless. Bit a drag but I had fun either which way. Where we were camping, we met some pretty cool dudes who were pretty into climbing and bouldering, they also invited us into their circle around the camp fire, which was pretty nice. Oh! And they made popcorn! Score!
Wake up, and I decide I wanted to climb another hill/mountain before we leave and I had been told of a Mt. Hollow which was meant to be pretty awesome and it was. It was pretty freaking awesome! Did some bouldering with the guys we met at the camp and some other small rock scrambling which was a lot of fun. Also, one of the climbers had a fisheye lens which got me pretty jealous....bastard. To his credit though, he had a Nikon, but oooohhhh boy, if he had a Canon. Well, let's just say he's lucky he had a Nikon. :P
All in all, I think the Grampians were the best part of the trip for me. Do some scrambling, hard up hill climbs, and amazing vistas. A good adventure.
After the adrenaline rush from the bouldering, we go back to the car and head on over to Horsham to refuel and make our way to our next stop: The Naracoote Caves. And upon leaving the Grampians, we ran out of fuel. And after some math, the car had done about 260km before it ran out. Mega gay. Luckily, I was prepared and had a jerry can with 10L of fuel in it, which by my calculations would take us 83km. Oh, but on flat highway stretches, we did 300km. And when I drive with the window down I smell petrol, but when I roll it up, I don't smell it. So that tells me I have fuel leak somewhere. Going to the mechanic on Wednesday to have it checked out.
Naracoote Caves aren't anything special. Semi cool, but nothing mind boggling. Hmm...the one "fun" thing that happened there was when we were going to pay for the camp site. It cost 21 AUD for the two of us for one night, which is a good deal considering it had hot showers, flush toilets and power outlets. Great setup in short. We only had 20.75 on the spot, so we go back to the car with the envelope and say that I would go back with the full 21AUD. I didn't. In morning I decide to pay, and D refuses to pay her half because we would be able to get away with it, and I claimed that Kharma would come around and kick some ass if she didn't. Still says no, so I do the following: Take a new envelope and write the following (approxiamately, can't paraphrase it) -
"To whom it may concern,
We stayed here for one night and use all of the facilities and had a pretty good time. However, my partner in crime doesn't want to pay her half of the 21 bucks, and since I'm semi-poor, I can only afford to pay my half. Have a good one, enjoy life and I'm sorry! /Ollie."
Yeah...weird, I know.
After laughing about that, we start heading back to the coast to some ponds which were meant to be pretty awesome for snorkeling close to Nelson. Buy an ice cream and start looking for the ponds. They were amazing! Limestone based ponds which made they super clear, with a deep blue colour at deeper depths. Freaking amazing! And that's with the photo of me jumping into the water. I setup my camera to shoot at 4000th of second, just to make sure I get "frozen" in the air. I love my camera!
Camp out close the lakes and then make our way to Mt. Gambier where there's a lake that changes colour, and a cave garden. Both impressive sites.
After some driving, we decide to crash at camp site in the Little Dip Conservation Park. Rough roads which really messed up my car. Big time.
I thought that the engine was getting louder, but I couldn't really say if it was. D couldn't hear a difference.
The campsite was ok, nothing too special, but the really nice thing about it was that there were heaps of trees around where I could put up my hammock and just chill out. Quite literally. It got pretty cold pretty quick. But just nice to lie there looking at the sun setting through the trees.
On our way out, the engine got REALLY loud and the cooling system stopped working as well as it did previously. So I decide to make a mechanical stop in Meningie where I would let the car cool down and see what I could do.
The exhaust pipe was split. Completely. Not cool at all. After some thinking, I think of way of making a splint using epoxy glue and tent pegs. A passer by sees me and tells me there's actually a tape for that purpose. Walk over the local hardware store, and there it was: muffler tape. Buy a pack and start rethinking everything. It said if there was a major problem, I should use a coke can to fix it. Luckily I just drank an energy drink, but I crushed the can. Go to the rubbish to see if there's anything else there. Score again! An un-crushed coke can waiting to be cut to pieces.
I drive half the car up onto a ledge, hoping it would give me enough space to move around under, but nej, it was going to work. I left the car there and pulled the jack out (this is after 20 minutes of struggling trying to get my big ass under there. Once the car was jacked up, I was more afraid of it breaking and landing on me, which, simply put, would suck a lot. I couldn't get the coke can to stay put, so I had to use steel wire (after already having tried this, but poorly done, and semi used the tape a bit) I do it properly and get the engine running to heat up the exhaust (that's how it melts and sticks together) I frantically wrap the tape around and hear how it all starts getting really quiet. I felt like freaking McGyver, but in truth all I did was read the instructions. Now the exhaust pipe is rattling around, so I'm going to try to solve that today.
The drive from Meningie was a very scenic one. A place where you could get lost with your camera. But since my car can only pull off 300km and doesn't have roo bar, I didn't want to do any night driving there. So we just plowed our way through.
Make the final way of the trip to Port Willunga where I had a couch waiting for us, but before we could get in, we stop off at the Victory Hotel to visit our hostess. I have a well deserved beer and a chicken schnitzel with pepper gravy sauce. It was yumma dum dum! Oh, small bowl of salad with feta cheese in it! After 7 days of rice and tune or spaghetti with tuna, this was a real treat for me.
We finally went to the house and there we were greeted by a super happy Italian and Argentinian girl. Very warm welcoming!
Been here since...Wednesday and enjoying it! Going to the mechanic on Wednesday to have the engine tuned up and hopefully find the petrol leak patched up. Oh, I was leaking oil as well, and I was afraid it was going to be really expensive to fix, but it was only 44 bucks and 5 minutes labour. Pretty mint!
Yesterday, D went into Adelaide, and I had planned to sort out as much stuff as possible, but after having successfully called Hobart JB Hi-Fi to retrieve a receipt to get my speakers switched, I felt pretty content with that, and just hung out by the beach and did some snorkeling. Met a guy who was part of the Australian SAS 12 years ago, really cool dude, and then just headed home.
Life, in general, is pretty sweet. You're going to have some downs. And then some moments where you just want to end it all. But the best moments are when you plan to do a heap of stuff, realize you really don't want to do it, and just do something completely different which makes you happy instead. Those moments are...precious.
Now, I'm going to hang up some laundry, try to fix my car and then go to the beach for some sun and fun. Laters guys!
Here's a visual on my drive.
View Australia in a larger map
And now let our story begin...sorry, my story. HAHA!
It all started off in Melbourne, where I picked up my travel partner, and our first stop was close to a camp site which was close to Apolla Bay that my Couchsurfing host from Melbourne had told me about (very nice couple by the way) and it was free, which made it a big bonus.
I figured it would be best to leave Melbourne some time after 9 in the morning, try to beat the morning rush, how I was wrong. The traffic was a nightmare! It moved, but it was just so bloody chaotic!
Once we were out of Melbourne, we start heading to Geelong and decide we should buy our supplies there since it was the biggest city along the coast, which meant that there would be a Coles or Wolly's where we could buy some food at a decent price. We have lunch down by the beach, and then continue our journey down to the camp site. And the drive down there was a just beautiful, a lot of quiet towns where, and if I had a butt load of money, I know I could retire there in a nice villa. Or just a little shack, either one would work out I think...well, it all depends, but that's another story, and I have a few years before I need to worry about that kind of stuff.
Moving on!
We find the camp site and pitch up the tent (travel partner got the tent) and started preparing dinner. While we were talking, I heard something climbing on the tree next to my car, and since my travel partner had never seen a possum, I figured what better time than now. I use my little magnetic light and shine it on to the tree and to our pleasant surprise, it wasn't a possum climbing in the tree. It was a koala! First night out and we see a koala 3 meters from the car! How awesome isn't that?! Two other travellers from Belgium come over to look at the koala and start having a little photo session with it. And one of the Belgians did something I would never of dared to do, and that was to pet the koala. They can be pretty vicious if they need to, but this one was pretty relaxed, and so we all got to pet it. To do this in a zoo isn't the cheapest thing, and it's time limited. So being able to pet and hang out with a wild koala is a pretty special thing.
After a while, the koala got tired of us annoying it, so it climbed down the tree and climbed up another one 2 feet away. Interesting reaction, no?
We go to bed and then haul ass to The Grampians the next morning.
Oh! I was under the impression that this trip had no "time-limit", and I was proven wrong when my travel partner (I'll call her Dutchess, cause she's from Holland, and D for short). D decided to tell me (when we were on the highway out of Melbourne) that she had a plane booked to go to NZ in 7 days time from Melbourne, which, for me, took my plan by the collar and held Desert Eagle to it's head and pulled the trigger until the gun went *click*. Great days.
To get to The Grampians, the best - no, the scenic way is via the Great Ocean Road. Very famous, and super touristic road here in Oz which everyone needs to drive along. I couldn't agree with them more. If it's good weather at least. We had semi dodgy weather, which made it not as Great as it could of been. Along the way there's an attraction known as the 12 Apostles, but it's more like 7 or 10 Apostles, didn't really count, I just know that some of them fell over. Old age you know. If you were around to hang out with the big JC, it's no big surprise you would fall over 2000 years later. You are forgiven.
They weren't all to impressive. I thought they were going to be MASSIVE rocks out in the ocean. Sure they were big, but just not as "wow" as I had expected. Hmm...weather had a bit to do with it all as well. The beaches along the way were pretty sweet too.
Get to Warrnambool where we get a flight ticket for D to fly from Adelaide back to Melbourne, and check out some of the sights there. Nothing too special, cause yet again, the weather was pretty crap. Start to head north towards the Grampians and decide to take free hot shower at the visitors center in Dunkeld and also crash at some rest area.
Next morning we head into the actual Grampians, which was super frustrating. Cause D was on super tight budget, which I didn't know about either, so camping out at the campsites was limited to one night and only two days of short hikes. Pretty sweet hikes, but short ones nonetheless. Bit a drag but I had fun either which way. Where we were camping, we met some pretty cool dudes who were pretty into climbing and bouldering, they also invited us into their circle around the camp fire, which was pretty nice. Oh! And they made popcorn! Score!
Wake up, and I decide I wanted to climb another hill/mountain before we leave and I had been told of a Mt. Hollow which was meant to be pretty awesome and it was. It was pretty freaking awesome! Did some bouldering with the guys we met at the camp and some other small rock scrambling which was a lot of fun. Also, one of the climbers had a fisheye lens which got me pretty jealous....bastard. To his credit though, he had a Nikon, but oooohhhh boy, if he had a Canon. Well, let's just say he's lucky he had a Nikon. :P
All in all, I think the Grampians were the best part of the trip for me. Do some scrambling, hard up hill climbs, and amazing vistas. A good adventure.
After the adrenaline rush from the bouldering, we go back to the car and head on over to Horsham to refuel and make our way to our next stop: The Naracoote Caves. And upon leaving the Grampians, we ran out of fuel. And after some math, the car had done about 260km before it ran out. Mega gay. Luckily, I was prepared and had a jerry can with 10L of fuel in it, which by my calculations would take us 83km. Oh, but on flat highway stretches, we did 300km. And when I drive with the window down I smell petrol, but when I roll it up, I don't smell it. So that tells me I have fuel leak somewhere. Going to the mechanic on Wednesday to have it checked out.
Naracoote Caves aren't anything special. Semi cool, but nothing mind boggling. Hmm...the one "fun" thing that happened there was when we were going to pay for the camp site. It cost 21 AUD for the two of us for one night, which is a good deal considering it had hot showers, flush toilets and power outlets. Great setup in short. We only had 20.75 on the spot, so we go back to the car with the envelope and say that I would go back with the full 21AUD. I didn't. In morning I decide to pay, and D refuses to pay her half because we would be able to get away with it, and I claimed that Kharma would come around and kick some ass if she didn't. Still says no, so I do the following: Take a new envelope and write the following (approxiamately, can't paraphrase it) -
"To whom it may concern,
We stayed here for one night and use all of the facilities and had a pretty good time. However, my partner in crime doesn't want to pay her half of the 21 bucks, and since I'm semi-poor, I can only afford to pay my half. Have a good one, enjoy life and I'm sorry! /Ollie."
Yeah...weird, I know.
After laughing about that, we start heading back to the coast to some ponds which were meant to be pretty awesome for snorkeling close to Nelson. Buy an ice cream and start looking for the ponds. They were amazing! Limestone based ponds which made they super clear, with a deep blue colour at deeper depths. Freaking amazing! And that's with the photo of me jumping into the water. I setup my camera to shoot at 4000th of second, just to make sure I get "frozen" in the air. I love my camera!
Camp out close the lakes and then make our way to Mt. Gambier where there's a lake that changes colour, and a cave garden. Both impressive sites.
After some driving, we decide to crash at camp site in the Little Dip Conservation Park. Rough roads which really messed up my car. Big time.
I thought that the engine was getting louder, but I couldn't really say if it was. D couldn't hear a difference.
The campsite was ok, nothing too special, but the really nice thing about it was that there were heaps of trees around where I could put up my hammock and just chill out. Quite literally. It got pretty cold pretty quick. But just nice to lie there looking at the sun setting through the trees.
On our way out, the engine got REALLY loud and the cooling system stopped working as well as it did previously. So I decide to make a mechanical stop in Meningie where I would let the car cool down and see what I could do.
The exhaust pipe was split. Completely. Not cool at all. After some thinking, I think of way of making a splint using epoxy glue and tent pegs. A passer by sees me and tells me there's actually a tape for that purpose. Walk over the local hardware store, and there it was: muffler tape. Buy a pack and start rethinking everything. It said if there was a major problem, I should use a coke can to fix it. Luckily I just drank an energy drink, but I crushed the can. Go to the rubbish to see if there's anything else there. Score again! An un-crushed coke can waiting to be cut to pieces.
I drive half the car up onto a ledge, hoping it would give me enough space to move around under, but nej, it was going to work. I left the car there and pulled the jack out (this is after 20 minutes of struggling trying to get my big ass under there. Once the car was jacked up, I was more afraid of it breaking and landing on me, which, simply put, would suck a lot. I couldn't get the coke can to stay put, so I had to use steel wire (after already having tried this, but poorly done, and semi used the tape a bit) I do it properly and get the engine running to heat up the exhaust (that's how it melts and sticks together) I frantically wrap the tape around and hear how it all starts getting really quiet. I felt like freaking McGyver, but in truth all I did was read the instructions. Now the exhaust pipe is rattling around, so I'm going to try to solve that today.
The drive from Meningie was a very scenic one. A place where you could get lost with your camera. But since my car can only pull off 300km and doesn't have roo bar, I didn't want to do any night driving there. So we just plowed our way through.
Make the final way of the trip to Port Willunga where I had a couch waiting for us, but before we could get in, we stop off at the Victory Hotel to visit our hostess. I have a well deserved beer and a chicken schnitzel with pepper gravy sauce. It was yumma dum dum! Oh, small bowl of salad with feta cheese in it! After 7 days of rice and tune or spaghetti with tuna, this was a real treat for me.
We finally went to the house and there we were greeted by a super happy Italian and Argentinian girl. Very warm welcoming!
Been here since...Wednesday and enjoying it! Going to the mechanic on Wednesday to have the engine tuned up and hopefully find the petrol leak patched up. Oh, I was leaking oil as well, and I was afraid it was going to be really expensive to fix, but it was only 44 bucks and 5 minutes labour. Pretty mint!
Yesterday, D went into Adelaide, and I had planned to sort out as much stuff as possible, but after having successfully called Hobart JB Hi-Fi to retrieve a receipt to get my speakers switched, I felt pretty content with that, and just hung out by the beach and did some snorkeling. Met a guy who was part of the Australian SAS 12 years ago, really cool dude, and then just headed home.
Life, in general, is pretty sweet. You're going to have some downs. And then some moments where you just want to end it all. But the best moments are when you plan to do a heap of stuff, realize you really don't want to do it, and just do something completely different which makes you happy instead. Those moments are...precious.
Now, I'm going to hang up some laundry, try to fix my car and then go to the beach for some sun and fun. Laters guys!
Here's a visual on my drive.
View Australia in a larger map
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Keeping it (Virtual) Real.
Title doesn't really bare any significance as to what I'm going to write about, I just thought it sounded cool. I could of heard it somewhere, but I'm not too sure. I was thinking about running with "Like dirt f#$ked by a hobo" but that's a bit crude and quote from Patton Oswalt.
I digress.
Jumped into my car, drive into the belly of floating beast to take me to another land and emerge at dusk in chaotic city where I have to find someone to take along on my journey across a small patch of the vast country of Australia. There were four to be seen, but one was enough.
We met up downtown and there didn't seem to be any major issues with the person in question, and figured "This person seems stable and pretty trustworthy, let's roll." And so we did, 2 days later I picked up my future partner in crime from their hostel and made our way to the coast.
Our adventure together begun then.
I'm going to let you check out the photos first, and then I'll give you the whole story, because now, Mr. Sandman is roaring at me to stop all this and pay him a visit in his mystical land of Never Never.
Oz - Melbs to Alds in B&W via Facebook.
PS. B&W conversion done via camera, hence weird look to them. Enjoy.
I digress.
Jumped into my car, drive into the belly of floating beast to take me to another land and emerge at dusk in chaotic city where I have to find someone to take along on my journey across a small patch of the vast country of Australia. There were four to be seen, but one was enough.
We met up downtown and there didn't seem to be any major issues with the person in question, and figured "This person seems stable and pretty trustworthy, let's roll." And so we did, 2 days later I picked up my future partner in crime from their hostel and made our way to the coast.
Our adventure together begun then.
I'm going to let you check out the photos first, and then I'll give you the whole story, because now, Mr. Sandman is roaring at me to stop all this and pay him a visit in his mystical land of Never Never.
Oz - Melbs to Alds in B&W via Facebook.
PS. B&W conversion done via camera, hence weird look to them. Enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
