I wanna go Florida

Rubies and sapphires

allwelcome — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 02:32:00 GMT

They say that the area west of Emerald, and compressed by the small townships of Sapphire, Rubyvale, Anakie and Willows are the largest gemfields in the world. And the world is a pretty big place, so I guess this must be quite a special feature.

You know that from this journal we have advocated passionately against the abusive mining of all sorts, stripping stuff from the land from for the sake of the profit you may get. You will be surprised, then, than even I play the game of the sapphire digging. And do you know what? I don’t have a big excuse. I put my principles in some dark corner for a while, and blazing the bad justification “if I don’t do it, somebady else will anyway”, I happily headed for the Sapphire Gemfields with the secret hope of unearthing the biggest stone ever found and retire me and several generations to come.

When you travel between those towns, your hopes kind of vanish a little bit: the land is painfully digged and removed and full of scars everywhere, so you kind of thing that whatever was to be found has been found already. To add some confusion, every two buildings claims to have fossicking licenses and sell buckets, so you don’t really know where to stop.

With some help from the ladies in the local supermarket I headed for a fossicking park in the outskirts of Rubyvale (not that Rubyvale is very big anyway) with a not very welcoming “For Sale” sign at the door.

Not put down for that, I took the easy fossicking option: instead of going yourself and digging from the ground, you already buy a bucket full of dirt, and you carefully wash it to separate the gems from whatever else may be there.

And well, they said it was going to take like half an hour to go through the full bucket, and it took me an hour and a half, but I found 2 sapphires that may be cutted and several small ones that would just be as they are. They told me that the two biggest ones were worth about 60 dollars each, with pretty little surprise or excitement. So for a bucket that costed me 10 dollars I kind of got 120 back. This doesn’t look like a bad business! No wonder people spends all day here buying one bucket after the other! This is better than the pokies!

I finally didn’t cut my sapphires. I will just bring them to my beloved princess Tiffany as a prove of my loyalty and she can decide what to do with them.

And by the way, if you have some spare savings and a jewelry vocation, the fossicking park is called Miner’s Heritage, and maybe you are interested in buying it.

Gorgeous Carnarvon

allwelcome — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 02:31:00 GMT

Many people had told me already how magnificient the Carnarvon Gorge is. But you know that a big amount of words doesn’t feel quite like a real experience. Well then, after my real experience, I will join those who tell how magnificient the Carnarvon Gorge is.

If you read my past post, you will see that I came here, after the downs, with a certain depressed syndrome. But for some mysterious reason, once I approched this area the sky became blue and the temperatures became warmer. Such a bless for the low-budgetty traveller!

However, it is not possible to accommodate yourself for free or for very cheap at the Gorge. During school holidays, National Parks allow you to camp for the normal national park fees of around about $4, but now, you had to stay in a proper camping, where I had to pay $16 per night. That said, the camping is absolutely nice, with beautiful settings, great facilities and even platypus viewing just next to it. Which is such a plus!

The night I arrived, a park ranger came and did some sort of slideshow presentation to all the residents in the camping. The slideshows were fine, but the passion she was talikng about the park, how she absolutely loved her job and the place, were tremendously engaging, and next day I was even more eager to start my walk around the magics of the park.

I like to walk in the bush. Absolutely. And here, it seems, is a walkers paradise. Well. The fact is that “the walk” to do is about 25 km. You have to walk the full gorge and then come back while visiting all the small side gorges, each one with a different amazing attraction.

Well, you don’t HAVE to, but I did anyway.

And the walk took me a full 9 to 5 working day, but it was absolutely worth it. The main gorge is towered with huge white walls at both sides, and fringered with palms and gums. 20 stone hoping crossings (made by hand by the abnegated rangers –I wonder if “abnegated” is a word, in english) criss-cross the Carnarvon Creek, to bring you safely to all the attractions through the huge amounts of debris created by recent floods.

I will highlight the Beewinda Gorge as an amazingly narrow canyon with eternal wind, the aboriginal art in the Cathedral and the Art Gallery, and the spectacular Amphiteatre, a “hole” in the rock of hundreds of meters on all sides, that make you wonder how the hell could something become this.

Accessing this amphiteatre, by the way, and hopping from stone to log to stone to go around some water, I was misfortunate enough to trust my weight on a log that was not quite stable, and I fell miserably into the water. Well, just til the knees, but miserably anyway.

So the last several kilometers had the extra burden of wet and heavier feet. Nothing has been written about cowards, anyway!

The 20 crossings of the creek, on the way back, felt like the 21 curves of the Alpe d’Huez, each one more painful than the last one. But absolutely worth it.

Talking about the Alpe d’Huez and the Tour, by the way, hummm… I just want to remember you that the australian guy lost. Yes. And to a spanish one, yes.

The next and last day in the gorge, I wanted to climb what they call the bluff, from where supposedly you have gorgeous panoramic views of the whole area. But do you know what? I had problems walking from the tent to the toilet, so I sat in the sun and wrote this instead.

Love song

allwelcome — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 02:27:00 GMT

You don’t know it yet, but a few days ago, I started a new trip.

A couple of friends of mine from Spain are coming all the way down to visit us, so considering the effort in time, will and money, we have to happily pamper them a little bit.

They will fly to Sydney and then to Mackay, from where we will drive slowly down (slowly means taking around about a month) to hit the big smoke down in Sydney.

There is something special about this trip, and is not just that friends from Spain don’t come every day. For a long array of reasons that don’t need to be discussed here, I took this trip alone. I mean, neither Tiffany nor Jett came with me. I mean. This won’t be like this for the whole trip, but yes for the first few weeks. What is happening is that I am driving by myself to Mackay (and I am taking a week). Then, I will pick my friends up and start driving down. And once we get to the Gold Coast, we will meet with Tiffany and the baby and go all together (we’ll see about the baby, but Tiffany for sure) down to Sydney.

And this first part will take about three weeks.

That’s nice that I have introduced the situation :)

The fact, anyway, is that I thought I would be fine going up this week by myself. I am visiting the towns along the

Warrego Highway

(Toowoomba, Miles, Roma,…), the fabled Carnarvon Gorge (which I think will deserve a post at some stage) and the sapphire gemfields around Emerald, to see if I can unearth something worth something and retire forever. From there, I will already go to Mackay.

So doesn’t seem like a bad trip, isn’t it?

Well, it is not. But do you know what? Though I thought it would be funny it is not that much.

First of all, is cold. Yeah. Very cold. Specially in the mornings. Oh, and in the evenings. And it rained. It actually rained quite a lot, the first couple of days. And, since we are, as you may already know, low budget people, I decided to sleep in the car. And though the car is big and I fit in perfectly, is not super cosy when you are cold and/or is raining.

And worst of all, and probably highlighted by all these previous miseries: I miss Tiffany.

Oh yes! You wouldn’t expect such a declaration from these public words, and as she uses to say, it won’t be a nice post to read for any future girlfriend that I may have. But it is a fact, and as a fact I state it: I miss Tiffany, and I miss her badly, sometimes.

I feel myself remembering all those things done together in the last and quite similar-styled trip, sighing at the things she would like, like the infinite stars, a flower in blossom, a tall tree, a vast plain, some fine coffee or a nice walk. I miss her food and her organisating skills and her sane opinions (which of course, sometimes I didn’t really appreciate). I miss her smile, and I miss cuddling her in the bed when it’s cold.

By the way, I don’t know if I would like her to be here much, with this cold… it would be hell for her and anyway she would be complaining all the time and making my life a misery. :)

So anyway, I guess is all for good!

I however hope it will get better in the next days. Surely it will. At least the weather may help. But anyway, I have learnt my lesson, and I will be a good boy :)

Cyprus

allwelcome — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:31:00 GMT

At the beginning of our trip ‘half way around the world’, we stopped in Cyprus.

It seems to have been a little step on the path to Australia, with the giant of India in our sights, but looking back in time, from my armchair, it was a remarkably diverse place.

We spent three days there. We arrived at night and picked up our hire car. Albert had arranged our transport before departure on our epic journey.

There is something for everyone. Cyprus has mountains, forests, beaches, streams, a border between the north and the south, Byzantine churches, Roman ruins, luxury shopping, waterfalls – you name it, it seems to cover everything.

Signs for Tourists

Not to complicate the issue, the signs directed traffic to the ‘tourist’ areas, or the ‘old town’. Honestly, there was a sign pointing ‘tourists this way’. Of course, being unabashed sticky noses, we drove down one way (to discover the fair skinned restaurant dwellers and their habitat) and then back tracked to find ourselves having trouble parking the car, and wondering in what little corner to have a quick cup of coffee in …

Cypriot Coffee

Ah, the coffee… well, we did it, so I can’t tell you not to… We drank the Cypriot coffee… just for the experience. Imagine the grainy fodder at the bottom of your bath tub, swirl the grains into thick mud like substance.. then imagine that in your mouth… mmmmm

Four Unforgettable Experiences

Byzantine Churches

Atmospheric and charming.

Roman Mosaics

These mosaics prompted me to study Ancient Roman History this year. They were simply jaw dropping. And to think, only ‘accidentally’ discovered in the ‘60’s.

The Stunning Coast and Aphrodite’s Birthplace

The

Forest Drive

This was amazing. We didn’t take any worth while photos. The light wasn’t good enough, or our camera lacking. We’d been driving across the island and accidentally found ourselves on a dirt track. The track wound down into a valley, and we drove along beside a stream with enchanting. We saw the elusive moufflon, a near extinct wild sheep, and a truck with two of the oldest looking humans I have ever seen. It was a man and woman. Very old, very white haired, very crumpled. He was driving a utility van and she sat beside him. They had a truck full of empty water bottles. Albert and I imagined that they were 700 or so years old, and had found a secret source of water that kept them young enough….. It was a magical place…

Cyprus – well worth more than a fleeting visit.

I volunteered for the wolf’s den

allwelcome — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:11:00 GMT

The two men jumped out of thin air, smiling, gesturing, waving an exotic smell under my nose, and I was hooked.

I had a list of ‘musts’ to experience in India. Some call this being a tourist. I’m going to see something I’ve heard about, rather than going to see what there actually is. So call me half tourist, half traveler, because after my list is ticked off, its not like I close my eyes and stop looking. I’m still after as much of the real thing as I can take.

On my list, was ‘buy spices’. No, it was more like, ‘indulge your senses in a spice alley and be taken away to far off lands by smells, colours and maybe even get a few tips for cooking aubergine’ . (I always say eggplant, but I write aubergine. I think aubergine looks so much more elegant on the paper)

Anyway, that was my dream.

Funnily enough, I resisted the allure of plenty of spice alleys before. We’d been to Dubai where I had my first encounter with a spice souk. I was intrigued, but Jett, my 8 year old son, started having an allergic reaction to something in the air and we had to rush out for fear of him choking to death.

So there I am, a willing victim of overpriced spices.

After a vivid and emphatic description of the quality and ‘best best’ garam masala (I wanted something for lentils) , I was shown perfume made of oils, tea masala, massage oil for headaches and the dealers began to insist on other services.

My partner looked at me pointedly, and started to object to all the extras that seemed to be piling up beside the garam masala.

But I was in a shopping moment of heaven. A buying moment that was like a dream. I had that look of ‘give me more’ and the stall keepers knew it.

I had to put half the things back before we left the store. Albert (partner) refused to let me be so ‘stupid’. We’d discussed how shoppers get sucked in to buying more than they went for. We’d talked about the commissions, the kick backs, the tricks of the trade.

All ration had left me, and I walked out of the stall angry with Albert for having ‘ruined’ the buying moment.

Today I woke up thinking about how those two men had jumped out at us as we’d been walking through the back streets of Varanasi. I can also see two other men, quiet and sad on the other side of the street, sitting in their stall. They were looking at me as if to say ‘You want to be fooled into buying overpriced spices. You want the big drama of a sales pitch. We can’t offer it. All we have is the same spices as these two men jumping at you, for a third of the price.’

Of course, its not the money that is our concern. In India, the Norwegian Kroner pushes aside the question of money. We’re talking about being fooled and feeling foolish.

Seth Godin, master marketer, suggests in his brilliant book ‘All marketers are liars’, two rules for the conscientious consumer. The second rule states ‘after I’ve used this and experienced it, will I be glad I believed the story or will I feel ripped off?’

Today I felt ripped off. Today the glory of the shopping buzz I had 5 months ago made me feel like a fool. I can see that I bought too much. I can see that, to the stall guys, I was a sucker to be had. And it colours my memories.

Now, what are the effects of being a fool?

Of course, to the stall guys, it means nothing. I probably would never go back and buy something, let alone find the stall again, in my entire life. So, directly, they do not lose.

But I associate the shopping experience as a lesson to be learnt, and I do not want to a repeat performance. So, I’m more wary and a lot colder, and I lose out, because I can’t afford the illusion of shopping happily without suffering the consequences of feeling like an idiot afterwards.

The ‘Indian shops’, to throw a blanker term over the lot, also lose out, because its another unhappy tourist with another scam story to fill the pages.

Moral of the story?

For me – don’t lose your head. Don’t be a sucker. Listen to Albert (he doesn’t get cross all that often and if he does you should listen)

For Indian stalls – treat the foreign shopper with respect, because we’re happy to pay you more and tell our friends, just don’t make us feel like a fool afterwards or you spread the word that Indian shop keepers want scam you.

Grover, Sanchez and The Van

allwelcome — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:29:00 GMT

And with this we close our ambassadorism! It has been a pleasure! :-)

Some impressions about Australia

allwelcome — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:21:00 GMT

For a long time, Tiffany has been insisting me to write what are the things that, under my foreigner point of view, have called my attention in our Australian experience so far.

I have been delaying the writing of this post for several reasons, most of them absolutely external from the post itself, but today, when the server I was supposed to work in (I am a web developer) wasn't letting me connect repeatedly, I took it as a sign and I thought it would be a good moment to do this.

I don't know if it happens to you, however, but I have a bit of a problem "starting tasks". I mean: I am a naturally lazy person, and I use to look at the tasks to be started with certain dislike. But once I effectively start them, I don't have a problem continuing with them, and I even enjoy the process of finishing them. I guess it is good that I know myself that way, and I just need to push me over that starting point.

Not that any of this is any relevant at all for the topic of the post, but… whatever

Here there are, then, some of my impressions!

Rugby

I have never been a huge fan of rugby. But I certainly had seen some games (or, to be honest, some parts of some games) back in Europe, and as far as I remember, they were not like that. They hit each other occasionally, yes. It was a bit rough, yes. But here, this is something else. Somebody lighted my ignorance saying that one play rugby union and others play rugby league. Maybe is because that, but here, this game is absolutely barbarian, and players just crash onto each others like angry trains without any kind of restrain.

In Europe, when a player is bleeding, it is not allowed in the field, and must be treated outside before coming back. Here, everybody ends the game bleeding profusely and nobody cares much. Of course I guess it is normal, seeing how they play… And I wouldn't like to see the bruises at the end of the game!

So, in Europe, at least in southern Europe, we don't have any sport of this kind. We play mainly soccer, and then basketball and handball and all this senstive stuff… so we don't really have a place where to send the really tough guys that want to hit others.

I guess that's why we kill our wives? I don't know…

Or maybe the guys here are a bit tougher? I would bet so… and maybe even the girls…

Public Toilets and BBQ'S

Some other things are great in Australia. For example, there are MANY public toilets. Everywhere you go there is a public toilet. This doesn't happen over there… and what do you tell me about the barbeques? Free electric barbeques in every single park we have seen, squeezed between the toilets! These are great features for the homeless nomad traveler.

They say that barbequing is one of these great things Aussie. I don't know what is about barbeques, but everybody seems to want them for themselves. In South Africa, people was telling us how typically south African thing barbies (brie) were. In the States, you don't wanna know… in Spain, the barbeque is such an event… not to talk about Norway, where as soon as there is a little bit of sunshine and you just need a couple of jerseys to be half comfortable outside, they draw the barbeque utensils ready to flip whatever it takes. (and mix it with the most shocking things, but that's not for here).

Beers

To accompany the barbeque, what's better than a beer? And man… here we have tons of types and brands and smoothnesses to choose. I have been changing favorite quite a lot of times, but this is because every second beer that I have is something I haven't tasted before. The super dry style, by the way, is such an invention for those thirsty moments! And so is the Solo!

Wild Things

The profusion of wild animals everywhere is also noticeable down here. Crossing the road are hundreds of kangaroos, up in the trees, koalas rest their bums, in the night you have to be careful that a sneaky hungry possum doesn't approach your food. You can not swim here or there because there are crocs, or sharks, or rays, or stingers, and the variety of sounds coming from the treetops is mind-blowing.

In Europe, you have lots of pigeons in the cities… and… humm… that's about all… in one year in Norway I saw just one lone moose (and it even was on a trip to Sweden), and in my whole life in Spain I doubt I've seen much more than stray cats.

Population

I guess it helps that there is just 20 million people in a more than huge country. So, for more than they try to chop off natural habitats, there is still a lot to go. Spain can be the size of a county here, and it holds up to 50 million people, not even too squeezed.

People in Australia live as far as they can from anybody in their big houses in the suburbs, and they go to eat and shop as close as they can from anybody in huge shopping malls, that take the social life from city centers, full of businesses and offices and that. If I was a daring man looking for problems, disapproval and antipathy from my fellow co-residents, I would say that it looks pretty much to me like the American model. However, and since I am not that kind of man, I won't say anything.

Tip of our hat and warm smile

allwelcome — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:19:00 GMT

Being poor of purse, but rich in eloquence, let us look back over our two months with The Van with but a drop of nostalgia.

Blue skies have taken over as the propelling force, just as we once took over from the Hussy Hicks. The new generation of Ambassadors take their rightful place, while we, the experienced and travel weary, must lay our drivers license and maps down once and for all.

To cut it short – thanks goes to -

The World Nomad’s. Without your enthusiastic endeavours to get more people up and involved in fun-sustainable travel, we’d have just sat here listening to my mother’s dictatorial diatribe for two months more than necessary. (Hi mum!)

Glen Bambu

Bachelor and Litchfield National Park

Croydon - A place that still calls us

The outback stars – you open my brain….

Jett’s quotes for all the 'humorous' things we recorded.

Travellers Autobarn – Especially Tania and Tricia, located in Cairns, who were kind to us (and absolutely spoilt Jett) way beyond the call of duty.

Spencer and Murphy Book store - Indicates a big change in the direction of my life choices. Not to be under empasized.

Paronella park (Especially the Bush Tucker Tour – Jett just loved it and I have to apologies to his bugging you girls!)

Of course, we could sow thanks like wild rice. We were greeted with kindness everywhere and if we've missed anyone who thinks they deserved note - $20 in an envelope always does the trick.

Thank you and remember .... we have .. a final.... slide show for your enjoyment....soon to be released......

Thank you and farewell to our Ambassador Van

allwelcome — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 08:20:00 GMT

And we have handed over the Ambassador Van to a new crew. As World Nomad Ambassadors we have traveled this wide brown land, tapping our fingers on the keyboard along the way. We’ve watched the kilometer thingy flicking over with hypnotic repetition.

We’ve explored, enjoyed, laughed and documented. We have all grown wiser and browner for the experience.

My stomach is not in its usual Pilates inspired shape and it feels more like a sponge cake than a fitness instructor’s chief tool. I will get right on to fixing that. Albert has lost the few kilos hanging on him since eating my mother’s delicious food. And Jett, well, he’s taller and a bit fatter and definitely more knowledgeable about Cassowaries than he was two months ago. (He was greeted by my mother with a lollipop in one hand, some chocolate in the other, and a muffin shoved right into his smiling mouth. He’s now catching up on TV time….)

Most importantly, for Albert and I, we’ve discovered a common bond that we didn’t know existed. We have often noticed that we have similar views about the world, but from different stand points. Sometimes its hard to see the reflection in all the sun. During this trip, during the enforced time together, we discovered that our views were more than similar. They were almost identical. And we have formed a deep resolve to unite our formidable talents (much like Hilary and Obama) and formulate our ideas into something we can work with in every day life. More to come about this rather mysterious comment. I like mystery… I think its underrated by modern fashions…

But you have had more than enough of my ramblings and divergences.

We hope you have enjoyed following us on our travels. Thank you for your support.

Thank you to Amanda, our chief contact with worldnomads and all of the great sponsors who have helped to make our trip so comfortable and inexpensive.

(I will write one more post as a ‘thank you’ to some of the people we met, and we will upload a final video at a later date.)

Conversations on the road V

allwelcome — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 07:59:00 GMT

(I haven’t uploaded conversations on the road for some time because, as we all know, familiarity breeds contempt, and in this case, enclosure in a little van erased what little sense of humour I had left after our India trip. However, with ‘home’ firmly in our sights, my ability to see the funny side of things has returned. Hurrah for shifting perspectives and down with the tyranny of habituation and close proximity.)

Albert – If we were animals, I would be a stallion, you would be a bush turkey, and the baby would be a mosquito. (He laughs with enthusiasm to rather pointed silence from the bush turkey and the mosquito.)

Jett – watch how fast I am! I’m going to run from here to the tree in one second! Oooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Jett came back from the toilets smiling.

‘What are you smiling about?’ I ask, not really sure if I want to know the answer.

‘There were no spiders and the toilet was pretty clean.’

Tiffany – Did you see that dog Jett? He sniffed in your sand castle when you walked away.

Jett – But the poor dog!

Tiffany – Why?

Jett – Because I built a military station and all the soldiers will have jumped onto the dogs nose and be pulling his hair and hurting him. They think they are being invaded.

Jett – That Beverly Hills, what is she so famous for?

Tiffany – I’m feeling indignant!

Jett – How can you feel like an Aboriginal?

Tiffany – Hi. We’re looking for fantastic coffee, do you know where to find it?

Local of Kuranda – I’m sorry. I haven’t heard of that one. Is it a chain?

Credit given to women over 80 accompanied by their mothers.

We don’t serve women, bring your own.

In a pub in Mt Surprise

Don’t talk to me, I’m confused enough as it is! (I feel for this one)

Don’t criticise your husband. Its exactly those faults that stopped him getting a better wife.

The name of a property in Ravenhoe

‘Gunna Doo’

Albert is well known to be a ‘romantic Spaniard’. If you don’t believe me, you can learn something from his romantic Spanish heritage here –

Tiffany (after not showering for three days) I feel ugly.

Albert – Don’t worry, I’ve seen you uglier many times.