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!
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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!
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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.
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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.