Crikey! Clay in The land of Oz

Coda/Summary

clayontheroad — Tue, 1 Jan 2008 15:45:00 GMT

Who Let The Roos Out? My adventures in Australia

I looked out the window of the Southwest Airlines 737 as we passed over the vast dessert of the American Southwest. I was crossing the USA for the thousandth time but in some ways it was really the first time. The redness of the soil reminded me of the far away places I had seen and the amazing things I had experienced in the last 90 days. It was time to come to grips that my dream-trip, my trip of a lifetime was rapidly coming to and end. When I say rapidly, I mean at 600 nautical miles per hour as the 737 rushed towards my destination in San Diego, California. USA

I reached down to fell my front left pocket for what was probably the one thousandth time in the last 90 days. For some reason, my passport had found it’s most comfortable spot to be my front left pocket. For the one thousandth time, I felt the slight outline of the document, right where I had put it

Looking forward to my backpacking trip in Australia got me through some very tough times and I was now using the still very fresh memory of the trip in the same way. I opened my journal and began to relive the trip as best I could, if only to distract me until the flight landed in California……..

Los Angeles to Sydney Australia

I always knew I would be visiting Australia. As far the back as the 3^rd grade, I had been fascinated with the Land Down Under. It started when on of my classmates brought in a picture of a kangaroo for show and tell and we sat mesmerized as he described Australia Up the point, we had only heard of Australia through Warner Bros Tasmanian Devil cartoons. At that point I was completely hooked. Of course, I had no idea where it was and fully expected my family would be visiting Australia on an upcoming weekend trip. …… Hopefully we would get to spend the night!

Fast forward a few decades.

It was finally here, the day I had been looking forward to for 4 months but really my whole life. It’s an odd feeling to be excited to leave but to dread the actual flight, the very means of my escape! My Dad was kind enough to drive me up to Los Angeles and give a good send off. In fact this week has been amazing, the well wishes and going away parties have been really touching. My friends are a little worried but excited for me at the same time. I feel the same way! The flight was leaving at Midnight and per my usual habit, I am very early. Over the past few years I have grown to feel very at home in airports, I have always felt that such a massive example of logistics was an amazing sight but the more I travel the more I appreciate each airport’s unique personality (or in the case of LAX the lack thereof.) I can sit and just watch the “goings on” for hours. I dropped $20 on beef jerky, water ands other snacks and take a seat at the gate. Of course our flight leaves an hour late and at this hour folks are a little grumpy and simply want to get the 14 hour trip started then over with.

It turns out I enjoyed the flight immensely. Not only for what it represented in terms of me finally going to Australia but the quality of the food, the wine and most of all the in- flight (in seat) entertainment. I watched 3 movies and several Simpsons episodes and a great British indie film that happened to use copious amounts of female nudity as a plot device. I’m sure the girl in the seat next to me was convinced I was somehow watching porn! (This will be the theme for the next day or so.)

I was able to sleep for about six hours and must say the food on the flight was excellent. The crew passed out eye masks and socks to each of us. Socks? I realized this was a way to encourage folks to take of their shoes and walk around. I already had socks on, so I stashed the pair in my pack (all the time wondering if they were going to collect them later ala the headphones.) One can never have enough socks on the road.

Once on the ground I realized that I had not touched the somewhat expensive foods I had bought back at LAX. As I passed the very bold and numerous “Declare it or Toss It” signs at the gate, I pitched the goldfish crackers thinking to myself that were probably powder by now anyway. I couldn’t force myself to toss the still unopened jerky so I added it to my customs form.

After an uneventful luggage collection I headed over to the customs line. I was surprised to get through the checkpoint with just a nod and a stamp. Surely they are more cautious than that? I was about to find out just how much cautious they really are….

I joined a huge line and couldn’t really tell where it was heading. I saw a younger man in an official looking uniform heading my direction walking along the queue. As he passed me I stepped out and held up my passport and asked if I were in the correct line. He looked at me a little bemused and replied “you are now, please follow me.” I thought to myself “cool, were going right to the front I’m glad I asked!!” This feeling quickly passed when we passed through a side gate a headed for what was clearly not a “regular” inspection.

He led me to a table off to the side and proceeded to ask me the standard questions regarding my visit. While I was confident there would be nothing in my bags that would get me into trouble, it was still kind of uncomfortable, plus my bags were packed with extreme precision and were far over capacity. As he reached for my big suitcase/backpack I started to joke “Watch out, it might ex….” I caught myself before the rest of the word “explode” came out of my mouth but I’m pretty sure he figured out what I had just said. He looked at me for a moment and proceeded to dump the contents of my bag out on the table, he was clearly looking for something and found it fairy quickly: my shave kit.

He spent a good 10 mins removing the entire contents of my shave kit and carefully examined each one of the (seemingly hundreds) of over- the- counter drugs I had packed “just in case.” He must have thought I was either a hypochondriac or very sickly. He then laid out some of more personal items but mercifully put them back fairly quickly. I had a thought that this would suck for a female to have all of her stuff laid out like this.

Satisfied I was not a drug- runner, he turned his attention to my CD holder and laptop. As he thumbed through my CDs and DVDs he asked “got any pornography?” He said it in the manner like he was in the market for some, not like he was going to confiscate it and incarcerate the owner. One thing I was certain of, there was no porn in my CD wallet. “No sir” was my reply but what I wanted to say was “What’s the big deal is it illegal?

I decided the answer toy that question would be better sought elsewhere. He picked up my laptop, as if to judge its weight again, not like an official but more like a person comparing brands. After some small talk he put his hand on top of my computer and asked “got any porno in here?” My mind flashed back to the last dozen or so sites I had visited and after a quick mental checklist, I answered “no sir.” At that point I began to wonder if it was assumed that all Americans traveled with porn or if I just looked like the type of person who did.

I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that question.

So after about 40 minutes and a visit by a harried and hurried representative from the agriculture check team (who frowned heavily on my beef jerky as she bagged it and took it away) I was on my way out the door. I was impressed at the courtesy and efficiency that the Customs agent worked but was a little shaken by the experience.

I was able to contact my hostel and they arraigned for pick up and was soon on my way to downtown Sydney for a day of rest before shipping up to Darwin in the Northern Territory to really begin my trip.

Sydney to Darwin

After a few calm days in amazing (and expensive) Sydney, I made my way back to the airport for my flight north to Darwin. I was, as per habit, 3 hours early for my flight and of course it was 3 hours late. I spent the good part of the night wandering the airport cursing my ridiculously heavy carry- on. It’s funny how all airports are really the same, if I closed my ears my surroundings could have passed for Nashville International or Stansted in London. The food is generally bad and overpriced; the travelers are self absorbed and focused on making to their next destination with minimal hassle.

We finally boarded the flight and somehow I was upgraded to a highly coveted exit row seat. This probably means I paid too much for my ticket, or maybe it was simply “be nice to Americans Day” who knows.

We arrived at 1 AM and I was relieved to see the Darwin airport was alive and buzzing with activity and therefore had no trouble finding a shuttle bus into town. Of course my stop was number 10 of 11 made.

I checked in at 3:30 AM and was given my room key. I went upstairs to the room and found 3 bunk beds with one open at the top. I tried to make as little noise as possible and slipped into the bathroom to change. I noticed the toilet seat was down, but didn’t think anything of it. Even at this hour it was hot and muggy so I stripped off my clothes and clad only in my underwear, slowly and quietly climbed onto the top bed. Every creak and squeak sounded like thunder to me but no one stirred. I laid my weary head down and as my eyes adjusted, I noticed the person to my left was a girl. I looked down and the person below me was a girl as well, a quick survey of the room confirmed it: they were all girls. That smarmy kid at the front desk had put me in a girl’s dorm!! At that point, I even heard the sound of half a dozen girls snoring cute little girl type snores.

Uh oh- wait till they hear me!.

It is at this point that I remember that in my tired state, I had left the toilet seat up (after all it had been a really long night.)

This was kind of a dilemma, I thought it might be a bit of a shock to wake up and find me in their midst, so I got back up, crept down off the top bunk, tiptoed to my bag and put on more clothes. I even made my way back to the toilet and put the seat back down. (I am trained very well!)

I awoke with the sunrise after what seemed like about 8 minutes of sleep. I decided to hang my leg out of the sheets and to cover my face. I though the sight of my very obviously masculine appendage would break the news gently to the girls that there was a man in their midst. It worked, as my roommates stirred and awoke they gathered around my dangling leg. I could picture the puzzled looks on their faces and had to suppress a laugh. I heard whispering in French and what I thought was Italian. After a few moments, mostly to break the tension, I popped my head up suddenly and exclaimed “Surprise!!”

They jumped a little but seemed to enjoy the joke!

It turns out we all got along great and although the line for the bathroom was brutal in the mornings, it was good to be the man around the house once again. I’m just glad nothing broke.

I spent the next week touring Kakdu and Litchfield National Parks, sleeping outside in the heat and being constantly amazed at the wonders of The Northern Territory. Our group hiked by day and drank beer by night. We swam in holes that would be soon occupied by man (and woman) eating crocodiles and visited World Heritage Sites one after another. One of the highlights was a visit to the Ubirr Aboriginal Rock Art site where we met a local ranger who explained the significance of the paintings, many of which were thousands of years old.

It was the first week of a nearly two month journey but I had already gotten my money’s worth. I could have flow home after my visit to Kakdu and been perfectly satisfied. Part of what made the trip so special was the other travelers that were on the tour with me. Like a mini United Nations, our group was comprised of Italians, Brits, Dutch, French and even a few Aussies. Thankfully they all spoke the universal language of adventure and shared a passion for a cold beer at the end of the trail. On more than one occasion, I felt the mandated to keep up with my Commonwealth Brothers and Sisters in the area of alcohol consumption – I’m pretty sure I represented the USA well.

The Red Center and Ayers Rock – Ularu

After a day back in Darwin enjoying the pure ecstasy that is air conditioning, I boarded The Legendary Ghan for the train ride down to Alice Springs and the gateway to the Outback. In hindsight, it would have been faster and cheaper to have flown down but the train ride through the vast Australian wilderness was amazing (if not a bit repetitive.)

At the Hostel I upgraded to a private room as I decided that there was little chance of being put into an all-girls dorm again and it would probably have been in poor form to request it.

I met up with my tour group for our trip out to “The Great Neva’ Neva” as the locals called it. Unlike Kakadu, whose existence I had only recently discovered, Ayers Rock had been on my “to see” list for as long as I can remember. Now called by it’s original name Ularu, this monolith is the single most iconic sight associated with Australia. To say I was excited like a little kid on the Night Before Christmas would be an understatement!

Once again the tour group had a distinctly European flair to it. Scotland, Ireland, England, France and Denmark were all represented, in addition to Japan, Canada and even the USA! I could not help but notice that of the 22 of us 15 were female. I knew this was going to be a rugged trip and this impressed me to no end.

It was 40 degrees centigrade when we did our first hike into King’s Canyon National Park. The geology was amazing like nothing I had ever seen. In the middle of the hike we stopped for a swim in a billabong and enjoyed some shade. Despite the harsh conditions the group was in high spirits and having a great time. I know I’m getting some great pictures.

That first day we rode camels and that night we had camel meat for dinner. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I had ridden an animal in the day and eaten its kind that night.

We slept outside under the stars in a “swag” (a self contained canvas bag with a built in pad.) As one would imagine, the stars were breathtaking seeing the Southern Cross for the first time was literally life changing.

The Irish girls constantly made me laugh. Not that I can understand them, but I was reasonably certain they were making jokes. At one point I probably ended up doing some extra camp chores as a result of me simply nodding and laughing at everything they said to me. Not that I’m complaining.

In the next few days we visited two great rock formations: The Ulgas and Ularu, both beautiful and special places. The Ulgas reminded me a bit of Joshua Tree National Park back in the States, both have a sort of spirituality that cannot be easily described, the energy is just different. During our hike in the Ulgas to a place called The Valley of The Winds, I split from the group for some quiet time. I was rewarded almost immediately when a 5 foot Goanna (monitor lizard) come down off the hillside and sat on the rock in front of me. I was in such shock that I almost forgot to grab the camera and get some pics. He stayed with me for a little while and then with no particular sense of urgency walked off.

Amazing – by far the biggest lizard I have seen in the wild.

. Check This Off The List:

As mentioned before I have dreamt of visiting Australia since I was a little boy.

Now I was here.

Not just here on the continent but at the base of Ayers Rock, the image that had captured my imagination as a little boy. I have planned this moment in my mind for decades. My original idea was to play Frisbee on the top of the rock like I did at Stonehenge and Half Dome, but last year I found that it was turned back to the Aboriginal clan that first owned the land. The site is considered holy to them and to play a game on top of it would be sacrilege and highly offensive to them so I gave up on that. We had the choice of a circuit hike around the rock or a climb straight up the side. As I understand it, the climb route is closed most days and it was fairly rare that to have it open. There was a line forming (just like Yosemite) at the base and folks really wanted to climb this baby. The Aboriginals ask politely that visitors do not make climb but they do not close it and 36 people have died making the trek up.

I decide to make the trip to the top.

The climb was ROUGH about 4 times longer than the accent up to the top Half Dome in Yosemite on cables. Once at the top, I found a side trail and ditched the rather large and noisy crowd for some quiet time with “my” rock. The view was breathtaking and I sat in the sun for a while reflecting back on things I had done and things yet to do. The way down took over an hour and I was exhausted by the time I got to the bottom. On the way I witnessed two rescues of hikers who had run into trouble. No wonder the Aboriginal owners don’t want visitors to climb!

That night just before we made camp we saw a wild Dingo running around and as we laid down to sleep everyone was a bit nervous. There was a rumor going around camp that Dingos would run off with your boots leaving you barefoot for the rest of the trip.

Naturally I dreamt of Dingos all night.

I would spend many more weeks traveling around Oz and have tremendous adventures in places like The Great Barrier Reef, Kangaroo Island and of course Byron Bay. But the time I spent in the Northern Territory will always stand out in my mind as special, even amongst some very special memories.

Days 32 - 43

clayontheroad — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:47:00 GMT

Day 33: On the Road Again

A brisk 6 block walk starts off my day today. It’s no fun dragging my bags through a busy city like Sydney plus it’s hot. I’m dripping wet by the time I make it to the train station for my 14 hour ride to Brisbane. The trip was overnight and I was able to sleep a bit the train. Upon arrival at Brisbane, I immediately head to the Grey Hound bus terminal and catch a 4 hour bus ride to Byron Bay via Surfers Paradise. So, in a 24 hour span I was on the move for 18 hours. I will need some serious down time in Byron.

Byron Bay was recommended by my good friend Jason from O’side now a resident of Tampa. He gave some good advice because this place is killer. The vibe reminds me of Santa Cruz, counter culture and surfing – a winning combination. I found an old artist commune that had been converted to a back packer hotel/hostel and booked my room. The Arts Factory is a totally self contained little community with 2 restaurants, a pub, a pool and much to my delight a movie theater!!! I may never leave.

I’m digging this place, the folks are pretty much hippies but not the pretentious wannabes like we have back home. My room is great right on the pool and will be a good sanctuary for the 4 days I will be here. I went over to the theater and met the owner he gave a mini tour of the theater that was small and instead of rows of seats it was rows of futons and couches (futons with drink holders who’d have thought??) He’s showing a couple of art flicks and of course “Rush Hour 3”, this movie is haunting me. Twice I’ve been at a cool theater and wanted to go a see a movie (one time was at the Casino on Catalina) and I passed because I couldn’t stomach that movie.

So that night I gave in and watched “Rush Hour 3” wow- what can I say.

I had the theater pretty much to myself except a couple of Dutch girls behind me and another couple in front. One of the Dutch girls saw I had a drink and asked if it was ok to bring drinks in. I said I assumed so since the owner saw me walk in with it…She hopped and reappeared with a bottle of wine. We started talking – can’t recall about what and the movie started. Ok it was kind of funny in parts. After the movie the Dutch girls joined me for a nightcap and we talked the rest of the night away. For the record of all the folks (girls) I have met, Holland wins the prize for the combination of nicest, coolest, smartest and prettiest. One of these two was studying to be a Dr and will be going to UCLA next year.

Day 34 – Nimbin

I booked a day tour to the farm town of Nimbin (aka The Amsterdam of the Southern Hemisphere) the bus driver showed up in a “happy hippy bus” and off we went. One thing I should mention at this point is how much of the world really is really down on the USA. An Australian was killed in Afghanistan a few days ago and with an election coming here in a few weeks, there have been a lot of Anti Bush rhetoric thrown about. I am about to head into the capitol of the anti American sentiment that started in 1973 when Australia’s involvement in Viet Nam began to be protested on a wide basis. The Anti War movement held a Woodstock- like “love in” on a dairy farm near Nimbin. Many of the protesters simply stayed and took over the town. Now it’s the tie dye capitol of Oz. It reminded me of The Haight Ashbury District in San Fran more than Amsterdam but it was worth a look. I walked around town with another set of Dutch girls (they are everywhere) and it was fun for about an hour then I was ready to go. We stopped at a nice waterfall on the way back and the driver cranked some good tunes so all was good.

I crashed pretty hard that night. I’m going SCUBA diving with sharks tomorrow, so I

need my rest.

Day 35: Weather Blues and All Hollow’s Eve

A storm blew in overnight and the winds are whipping out of the North. There will be no shark dive today, too choppy. Instead I hiked about 4 miles to the top of Cape Byron and to the most Eastern part of the continent. Saw some cool iguanas and the beach was really nice despite the stiff breeze. One thing that was a bit of a surprise was the beach was clothing optional. Not there is anything wrong with that, it just caught me a bit off guard. There is a big shipwreck right off the shore and it looks diveable but not in these conditions. I am going back and forth on what to dress up as tonight, there are several parties going on and I am at a bit of a loss as to what I should and could do for a costume. I sent an email to Arnold back in the states and he has sent some good ideas. It will depend on the weather, I may blow it off completely.

Back at the Arts Factory I do some laundry and join in a good game of beach volleyball with some English folks from the Midlands. It’s rare that I’m the best volleyball player on the court but I sure was this day, and by a lot. My surfer roommates back in Encinitas always said volleyball is for those who can’t surf…

Now I’m seeing some folks dressed up and feeling a major urge to put something together. I opted for the Invisible Man (a Arnold suggestion) and catch a ride into town for some beer and ace bandages (what a combination!)

The night was fun and was capped off by an awesome hippy fires how. Those hippies love their fire!!

Around 2 AM there were a few of left hanging out in the great hall, a friend of one of the ladies I had been talking to joined us and we began to talk. I suggested we play 20 Questions (name a famous person version.) I went first and they picked Napoleon in about 15 questions. Rats! The girl who had joined us last went next and we were stumped after 20 questions. She had picked Oscar Wilde, I didn’t guess him because I thought he was English (Doh!) and that was one of the clues. Anyway I was impressed that she would pick Wilde. I said “Keats and Yeats can be on your side but Wilde is on mine” and she got the joke.

Ok now I’m interested, this girl picks a cool literary figure for our game and picks up on my obscure Smiths lyrical references. Hmmmmm.

Anyway we talked into the night and it turns out she‘s an artist (of course) and asks if I would like to see her work. Of course I do. She runs to her dorm and gets hers sketch book. The art was amazing, like I wanted to buy some right there. It was hard to describe but some of it reminded me of Tool videos and Fractals. By now it’s almost dawn and time for bed.

Day 36: On the Road Again

I get up and check out of my room and throw my stuff in a locker

As my 3 hour bus trip to the Brisbane Airport won’t start until 5:oo PM. I find a hammock out by the lagoon and finish off 20,000 Leagues. Again I find myself irritated at Verne for his abrupt ending that leaves so many questions. It’s like he was planning a sequel. He would have fit right in here in the 21^st century. A catch a ride into town pound a Subway sandwich (yes they have them here) before boarding my bus to Bris. Of course I was 2 hours early and my flight was 2 hours late. I slept the whole flight and we touched down in Cairns in Far North Queensland at 1:00 AM.

Unfortunately I had not had the chance to write down the PH # of my hostel, so I was counting on them having an advertisement at the airport lobby. Of course they didn’t. It was then I realized I didn’t have any cash either so taking a cab was out. The situation was getting dire as the airport was empty, no taxis, no buses, nobody. I sat down and brought up my computer to see if I could jump a hotwire spot after an eternal boot up there were no networks available. Uh oh. It looks like I sleeping in the airport!! (there were about half dozen already spread out and asleep on the benches.) This is totally bogus and a waste of money I had already paid for the night’s stay. I walked out to see if I could get a cab around the corner. It’s hot, I’m tired and not a bit stressed out. I turn the corner and there right before me is the shuttle from my hostel – and it’s pulling away.

I ran after it yelling – One More!! Someone heard me and the driver stopped. It turns out someone on my flight was also staying there and had called for a pick up. If I had waited another 30 seconds inside the terminal I would have had to sleep there. I must have some sort of guardian angel looking after me as this was about the 5^th or 6^th close call that had gone my way.

Day 37: Cairns (pronounced Cans)

Back in the tropics and it’s hot and muggy. I would say like Orlando in September. Yuck. My room has a fan but no A/C. I want my $40 back J!! Today is a chill day, I spend most of it on the computer trying to book a live aboard dive trip and update the blog and pics. I decide to head to the pool/bar for a snack and a cold pint. Well pitchers are a better deal so I opted for a “jug.” The bartender was really nice and we started talking, it turns out she was a local D/J and bartended in the day in between gigs. I went back to my room to stash my computer having booked my dive trip and setting up the rest of my time in Cairns. When I got back to the bar to chat with my new DJ friend the bar was full and folks were getting their groove on (hey it’s almost 5:00 on Friday)

Good story alert (in case you are just skimming through this read the next bit all the way, it’s one of the better stores so far. Well maybe not everyone will think so, especially the kids)

I found my spot at the bar and the bartender says “hey I was just about to mix up some fresh pineapple margaritas want one? How do you say “Hell Yes!” in Australian? Of yea you say “Hell Yes”! So she gets a fresh p-apple and makes us a tasty frozen treat. Now I notice she has “Jurassic 5” playing, probably the best Rap band out there (if one is in to such things.) One of the members of J-5 used to be in a LA band called Ozomatli an Aztec/Mexican/Rap/Jazz band from South LA that I happen to love. So being the cool guy I am I say “You know J-5 is cool but I liked Chaly 2una better when he was in Ozomatli” The bartenders eyes light up and she says “I’m dying to hear them but we can’t get their stuff over here.” I thought about it for a moment and said I probably have them on my computer and can burn you as disc right now. She FLIPS OUT and runs to the internet café to get a blank CD.

I can’t believe I found a person who is dying to hear Ozomatli in a resort town the size of Panama City Beach at the very top of tropical Australia.

So I don’t have the Ozo on my PC. Bummer. Then it occurs to me I can get it off Napster for $10 and burn it for her. Normally I would not spend the money but she was so excited to get the disc I couldn’t let her down. Sure enough, Napster has it and I DL and burn her a copy. It takes about an hour and I bring it over to her, she still as excited as when I left her. She puts her DJ headphones on and skims through the tracks, this girl is really stoked. She came back over to me and said “awesome – drinks are on me” I mentioned how good the margarita was so she promptly blended me a pitcher. Uh this could get ugly. Then she brought me a menu and I ordered a $12 rump steak, again no charge. I proceed to have dinner, a pitcher of margaritas, 2 mores pints of beer and 2 pints of hard cider all for free and all because I burnt her a Ozomatli cd (I estimate the value at about $60) She said she was going to incorporate the tunes in her show and that it would really set her apart. I guess so.

I love rock and roll (and laptop computers)

Day 38: A Driver’s Driver

Surprisingly no headache this AM and I got a good night’s sleep. I walk across the street to a cheapo rent a car place and hire a car for the day. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rental period was 24 hours, not a single day. That meant I paid for one day but kept it overnight. Cool. I grab the car and head back to the hostel to check out, as I have decided to move to a new location hopefully with A/C in my room. What a wimp.

My car is the size of a Mini Cooper which is fine because I'm heading to one the curviest roads in all of Oz and I need something that will stick to the road. Sure enough the road up the coast is gnarly, big sweeping curves and incredible views of the coast on the left and tropical rainforest on the right. Motorcycles are lined up to take the run, If you are familiar with the Tail of the Dragon in N Carolina, this is the same deal.

Now for a word about left hand driving. You may recall a few weeks ago I rented a car for the

Now I’m far North near the top of the continent. Here is where The Great Barrier Reef meets Ancient Rainforest. I head east up into the mountains in search of a waterfall and some rainforest beasties.

I stop in a little town for some water and a local map. Sure enough there are trails that lead to a waterfall near by. I find the parking lot and head into the Big Green. The trees are all 60 to 90 high and covered with vines and strangler fig. I’m sure there is some dreadful uber - poisonous snake just waiting for me around the bend. No snakes but I saw some crazy birds and a 5 foot Tree Monitor. I got some pics of him way up in the tree but like an idiot forgot to bring my zoom lens into the forest. It’s going to take a while to get used to using different lenses again.

Being the dry season the waterfall is less than spectacular but good enough and not too crowded. I hang for a while then head back down the mountain and back to Cairns. I check into my new Hostel and grab some dinner there. I plan to take full advantage of having a car and head out for an evening drive.

I even found a DRIVE -IN!!! Stoked. I’ll go the Drive In by myself no problem.

Guess what was playing:……

”Rush Hour 3”!!!

Damn you Jackie Chan!!

This movie is killing me. I don’t care how cool it would be to go to the Drive -In here, I can’t sit through that movie twice in one week.

Bummed, I turned around and headed back into town. I find the local Cinema and catch “Good Luck Chuck” a by the numbers romantic comedy with Jessica Beal that did have a few good scenes J.

Day 39: Chill Day

I miss not having a car already!

Up early to return the car L and do some laundry. After a nice nap I catch a ride into town for lunch and was happy to find Mexican Food!! It was better food than Melbourne but the company was not as good and it was more expensive, Oh well it was worth it. Again it was shredded beef so we’ll give them that. I head out to sea tomorrow and will be diving for the next 3 days. I am beyond excited, I will be making 2 night dives to see the coral spawning and reproducing. It happens about 3 weeks every year.

Day 40: Out to See

Toady is another one of those “milestone” days, the day I will visit and dive on the Great Barrier Reef. The dive shop picked us at 8:00 ish (Aussie time is always “ish”) and brought us back to the office to sign some paperwork and of course try to sell us some more stuff. It was actually a good deal, for another 65$ I could get my Advanced Open Water Certification that would allow me to dive deeper (legally) and make me look cooler around other divers. As tempting as that was, I decided against it as it would involve studying and doing some technical (i.e. no fun) dives. We were then driven to the dock where a day boat was already loaded with divers ready to go. It was kind of strange that we loaded our luggage on the small boat but as I found out later, they use it as the shuttle to the big “live aboard” ship that stayed offshore for 30 days at a time.

The GBR is about 2 hours off shore so I settled in for the ride. I found out that there a family of Americans on the trip with me and I asked the Dad (David) where they were from. Boulder, Colorado. That’s pretty funny because my Dad and 4 of my very good friends all spent time living in Boulder at one time or another. It’s a small world (and it gets even smaller later.) Of course he was a huge Broncos fan, so I delighted in telling him they lost 44 -3 this past Sunday. This joy was tempered when I admitted that my beloved Chargers had choked in Minnesota as well. Anyway it was pretty funny, we talked about hockey, baseball and football all ride long, 3 things I miss immensely. One of the dive shop workers that was riding out to the big boat with us joined the conversation and he had some great stores to tell as he had just returned from working for a dive tour outfit in Thailand. He (Paul) asked what part of the states I was from. Man is that ever a complicated question!! I usually say raised in So Cal but most recently lived in Florida. Paul said “ever been to Tampa?” A funny question coming from a Kiwi, ( a person from New Zealand.)

“Um yes I used to live there.”

“Me too, ever heard of a place called Valrico?”

Don’t tell me this dude used to live in Valrico, Florida.

(Valrico is the town attached to Brandon, many of my friends and former co-workers live there. It’s like Scripps Ranch is to Mira Mesa)

Yep, the dude I was about to go diving with on the Barrier Reef who was from New Zealand worked as a mason in Valrico Florida for 2 years.

Freaky.

We met up with the MV Kangaroo Explorer a 110’ catamaran dive boat out on the reef. After a brief and tour, we met our divemaster who goes by “Popeye.” Of course Popeye is an old salt with about a trillion dives under his belt. He gave us a no nonsense briefing and did a quick one-on-one evaluation of each newly arrived diver. He would be accompanying us as a group on the first dive to “check us out.” He noted that I got my license in 1982 (damn I am old) and that I should have many dives under my belt. I do but none of them would be live- aboard boat diving especially in tropical waters.

We suit up and hit the water, I found out several things were going to be very different diving on this trip. The weight on my belt was in Kilos not pounds and the air gauges run on Bars of pressure not PSI. I also noted these were small 60 CU tanks as opposed to the 80s I used in the States. That means less air and shorter dives. The deckhand set my weight belt up and I made a note of where “almost empty need to head up” was on the strange new gauge.

Giant stride entry and I am in the water, the visibility is 90 feet and the temp is 83 degrees.

We gather around Popeye and he makes the signal to descend. I bleed my air and am ready for my first dive on the GBR. One problem, I didn’t have near enough weight to compensate for my wetsuit and I could not sink. The rest of my group dropped down and I had to go get more weight from the boat. If you are a diver you know how not having the correct buoyancy pretty much stinks. Even with 8 more pounds I was still not sinking. I said screw it and swam down. Not good. The real bummer was the boat staff photographer was diving with us and filmed the whole thing. Rats!! I finally made it down and Popeye gave me another weight to put in my vest. It helped by all the huffing and puffing that I was doing was killing my air supply. I was excited to be diving again anyway and air was going to go quick anyway. Well the dive was great, we saw a preview of what we were going to see the rest of the trip: coral, fish, coral and more fish. Of course I ran out of air 10 mins before everyone else and had to go up. This was bad, I got labeled as an “air pig” and would struggle to kick that stigma the rest of the trip. I used up my 60 cu of air in 28 mins. This was not good, I should be able to get 45 mins out of one.

We chowed on some lunch and the boat moved to another part of the reef. I added some more weight to my belt and set my camera up for the next dive. No more guided dives, so we partnered up with each other. My partner was Paul from Paris, a very experienced diver who had his preverbal stuff together. Popeye told the deck hand to bump me up to an 80 CU tank (thankfully he didn’t call me an air pig, at least while I was within earshot.)

Our dive was killer, the reef was better than I could have imagined. Some moments I forgot to breathe I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the scene that lay before me. I did better this dive and got 45 mins out of my tank.

Back to the boat and a quick dinner and prep for our night dive. I was hoping to see the coral spawning but Popeye said that we would probably not see it, it was too early in November plus it was very hard to spot and recreational divers don’t usually get to see it.

Oh well. Maybe we’ll see some sharks or eels or some other night time sea beastie. We were given strict instructions not exceed 30 mins total dive time as we had already done 2 dives that day.

We made it back to the boat in 29 mins.

Day 41: Dive, and unintentional Drift Dive

Up at 6:00 AM to be in the water by 6:30 (before bekky!) Paul said he really wanted to make this dive last and advised me to slow down and not work so hard. Admittedly I was moving from place to place rather quickly, it‘s pretty much my nature, especially when I have a camera in my hand. There is always a better shot just around the corner! Being the first dive of the day, we needed to get some depth so we dropped off a wall and went to 18 meters (60 feet.) It was good dive and we ended up at about 50 mins.

Next up after breakfast an 8:00 am dive. This one lasted 62 mins and now I’ve found my groove, not only with my weight belt but the camera and my breathing are all coming together. For this part of the trip I’m shooting film but I’m feeling like I’m getting decent shots. We’ll see.

We rest until 3:30 as the boat moves again. This time we arrive at some coral towers with caves and swim through tunnels in them. Oddly enough, there are no rocks or plants at all in the GBR, it’s all coral, both living and dead. Now for the next few dives I rented an 10 mega pixel underwater digital camera and can’t wait to put in through its paces. Paul and I get the dive brief and agree on our own plan of attack. I can tell he is more comfortable with me as a buddy.

The dive is killer, we swim through the caves and gaps, I take over 100 pics. Paul was about 20 feet to my left when I spotted a White Tip Reef Shark on my right. I bang on my tank to get his attention but he can’t hear at this distance.

So off I went after the very shy shark. To my delight, he dropped to the bottom and sat in the sand for about 5 seconds. I was snapping away and swimming strong for a close up. Alas, my bubbles scared him and with a flick of his tail gone. I went back to Paul using hand signals told him I had seen a shark. Right as I was finished, and as if on cue, a good sized Green Sea Turtle swam right between us. We looked at each other in disbelief and proceeded to give chase. Paul caught up to it and gave it a rub. I handed the camera to him and he got a couple of me swimming with the turtle as well. Cool

Now it’s time to find the boat. Uh oh, I had no idea where we were, during the dive I was aware of a medium current but felt we had gone against it enough that we shouldn’t be too far away.

I was wrong, dead wrong.

We popped up about a half- mile, down-current from the boat.

Paul was as surprised as I was. Well there was nothing to do except inflate our jackets and start kicking. After about 50 yards both my thighs started cramping. This is very odd I am not prone to cramps but we had just swam for over an hour and on the surface against a stiff current I had worn out quick.

Even Paul was getting tired, he asked “what do you think should we signal for a pick up?”

Yep, I said I didn’t think I would make it and the sun was going down. He agreed, we signaled that we were ok (the deckhands were watching us with some interest) and Paul proceeded to inflate his rescue sausage. (the sausage is a 6 foot orange tube used to signal the boat in case of emergency) I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever need to use one but I sure did this time. Of course I took some pictures for posterity. J

One of the crew came over in the zodiac and pulled us by rope back to the boat. I should say he dragged us back to the boat, I’m sure teaching us a lesson.

We got a ton of grief, most of it good natured but some of it not so much. I finally said “hey we are customers and we needed a tow, deal with it”

At least now I’m not known as “Air Pig” any more, now it’s “

I tell myself it will be worth it if the pics are good.

And they are. J

Another night dive this time we spot a Lionfish and I got a couple of pics although the auto focus does not like the dark.

Again back at the boat after 29 mins at 10 meters. Now it’s time for hot shower and cold beer!

Day 42: More Dives and Feet Dry

Up at 6 AM which was difficult, last night was the Kangaroo Explorer’s 30^th night at sea and that meant a Midnight trip in to port for fuel and provisions. My cabin was is right by the galley, the noise was too much for me to sleep so I got up at 2:00 and watched the crew load 30 days worth of supplies onto the ship. It was pretty interesting as you can imagine there was a lot of food loaded plus an entire fuel truck. I didn’t get much sleep but it was kind of cool to see a bit of behind the scenes, we were back out on the reef before the other guests awoke.

I only get to do two dives today as I am flying tomorrow. The rule of SCUBA diving is no flying above 12,000 feet within 24 hours of diving. I’m ok with that, I want to do some skin diving without gear and see what I can see. Yesterday I hooked up with a new dive partner, a Norwegian guy named Oysten. He’s new to diving and I kind of took him under my wing now that I’m no longer an “air pig.” Although the dive master joked that I had better not show him my navigation techniques. Ha ha. Oysten and I had a good dive and we both had cameras, he sucked his air down in 35 mins but I was ok with that and we headed up.

A word about Oysten, the kid is incredibly good looking, I say that in a purely heterosexual sense but as we sat on the sundeck reviewing our pictures, every single good looking girl that was aboard (and there were lots) came over to talk to him and sit with us. It was pretty funny to see him just bask in the attention. David the other American noticed as well and came over and said something to the effect of “Oysten you must be quite a lady killer” His reply was “I’m no hunter, I’m prey” The 3 of us had a good laugh at his choice of words but it made perfect sense.

Oysten and I made one more dive together and I got some good pics. I’m getting worn out and ready for a break.

On his next dive Oysten was partnered up with an insanely pretty Swedish girl (see the pics) and I went solo skin diving out on top of a coral tower. It was nice not to be hindered by the gear, I have always prefered the freedom of diving with just mask fins and snorkel. In this case the water was only 3-5 feet deep so I was actually snorkeling.

On the ride in I exchange emails with a few of the folks and promise Mike and his wife I would send them my blog and pics. Oysten and I agree to meet later at one of the clubs in town.

Next section not for kids.

Back to my hostel for a quick meal and nap then it’s off the Woolshed the craziest bar in town. I ran into Paul from the dive boat down in reception and invited him to come out with me and Oysten. So Paul from Paris and Clay from the USA are heading out to meet Oysten from Oslo.

We had a little trouble finding the club and I was worried that Oysten thought I flaked on him. Sure enough he was at the bar waiting for us and was happy to see I brought Paul.

Oysten was already noticeably buzzed and was slurring his already questionable English. I thought “uh oh” it may be a long night.

Well it turns out there was a reason. Oysten just had a really bad break up with his girlfriend. When young folks in Australia need to get away and forget about things they go to Cairns. It’s like our Vegas. So Oysten came here to forget his ex and decided to learn to drive. The only probably is that unbeknownst to him was his ex did the same thing. How he found out is pretty funny:

After we were dropped off earlier today Oysten went shopping, there he met a really pretty Aussie girl who pretty much chased him though the mall to get his number (remember the comment about prey?) Well he found out there were staying at the same place and met later at the hostel. He was visiting the Aussie girl in her Dorm when his ex walked in. His new love interest was staying in the same room as his ex girlfriend. Wow.

The Aussie girl wanted to go out but he declined as he had already agreed to meet with me. Pretty amazing the kid held off with this chick to keep his plans with me, boy am I glad I showed up.

So Oysten is telling Paul and I this story and he’s pretty shaken up at seeing the ex and said he was going to get hammered. I asked him where the Aussie girl had gone and maybe we should find her party and join them. He said he didn’t know but wanted to stay here to see the world famous wet t shirt contest. He made a very good point. We proceed to get lit like a lava lamp and the club is great. Pretty soon it’s Midnight and the contestants line up for the wet t shirt contest. There are 6 of them in torn white shirts provided by the bar. Believe it or not, this is my first wet t- shirt contest and I always wondered if the girls were provided something to wear. Now I know! Whew.

Well the show begins and it’s pretty much what one would imagine it to be. Not much of it has to do with t-shirts since those are shed after about 30 seconds. It was terrible.

Guess who contestant # 3 was?

Oysten’s new Aussie girlfriend!

And she didn’t bother wearing any pants either! Heh heh. He leaned over and said “that’s her!!” I though it was his ex at first but then figured out it was the Aussie pretty quickly. He was not all thaat stoked for her to up there and I though it may be a deal breaker for her but we cheered as loud as possible for her and she ended up coming in second ($100 prize) She should have won. Anyway, she went back to get changed and Oysten and I headed out for some fresh air. I wanted to make my exit before she came down so he would have “options” plus I was tired as heck. She called him from inside and said she had free drinks the rest of the night. He tried me to go back in but I was ready to bail.

I missed the bus back to my hostel and would have to pay a taxi or wait an hour for the next one. I decide that the people-watching was pretty good, so I hung around. After an hour Oysten and Diane stumbled out of the bar. They were headed home and hung with me until my bus came, pretty cool. I told Diane that she was robbed and we had cheered as loud as we could. She said she felt so degraded and ashamed that we all saw her pretty much naked. Yeh right, degraded.

I looked at Oysten and said “Prey” and he cracked up and said “Yeh.. prey”

Day 43: Back to The Start (and really scary moment)

The airport shuttle is 30 mins late causing me some stress but I make my flight ok. I’m heading back to Sydney for a week before I ship home. I booked my first night at The Maze (the dump where I stayed on first night in Oz) because I knew where it was and how to get the shuttle there.

I spend the next 5 days relaxing, I’m pretty drained for the near constant traveling of the last 2 months and if you count my move from Florida (twice) back in July the events of the past 6 months are catching up to my body and mind. I feel a cold coming on Friday, the main problem I have is my room is the size of a closet and not much fun to hang out in but going out requires money and energy.

I finally go stir crazy and head to a movie, I caught a vampire horror movie “30 Days of Night” that was surprisingly very, very good. I went back to my room and undressed for sleep, unable to sleep I got back up and headed to the movie room of the hostel. There I watched a bootleg copy of “American Gangster” with Denzel Washington. It was excellent. Finally off to bed.

I wake up feeling better and head out to get some brekky. I threw some shorts on and went to grab my wallet out of my jeans.

It wasn’t there.

It wasn’t anywhere.

I tore the room apart and looked through my stuff at least 10 times. I flipped the tiny bed over, nothing. I went to movie room and tore it apart.

Nothing.

Uh oh - not good.

A few words about this trip: It has been amazingly complex, I was in a new town on average every 2.2 days. To make everything work out took an amazing amount of planning but also a lot of luck. So many things could have gone wrong that didn’t, I had so many close calls that went my way I was beginning to feel invincible.

Now this.

Admittedly it could have been a lot worse, it was the end of my trip. The credit card I had in my missing wallet was pretty much maxed out so any thief would be in for a surprise if they tried to use it. J It was my check card and DL that had me worried. Again I went back to the room and tore it apart. Now I’m getting hungry and need something to eat so I can formulate a plan. This is getting kind of stressful and being run down didn’t help.

Luckily enough, I had $15 American in my shave kit and I was able to exchange that and buy some dinner. I bought $2 worth of internet and emailed my Mom and Dad: “Help lost wallet and need a little money to live on until I leave next Tuesday, please send $150 Western Union”

That pretty much stunk. Having to get money from Mommy and Daddy was not cool but by the time I had a new check card sent over it would be too late.

My Dad responded within an hour. He got my email and was setting up an online Western Union payment.

Cool! I was not going to starve or have to spend my last night on the street.

Sure enough the next AM there was $150 dollars waiting for me at the Western Union office right next to my hotel.

Where could my wallet be? I had it in my room before I went to the movie room. Could someone have gotten in there while I was watching the movie right next door? That seemed unlikely, it also seemed unlikely that I lost in the movie room as it would have been at least partly tuned in.

So back to my room to tear it apart again.

Nothing.

Ok now I have accepted that it’s gone and someone out there has my luck guitar pick and my Florida DL.

By now my stuff is all over the room. I have a lot of stuff with me and it’s thrown all over the place, the searches got more and more frenzied as the days went on.

I decided to start to repack my stuff and proceed to pick up my suitcase. I reached down to pull the handle out and it was stuck, something had gotten jammed down the well hole where the handle fits into. I looked down the hole and yep you guessed it, there was my wallet. It was perfectly stuck down inside my suitcase. It was lodged and black so there was no way I could have seen it or shake it loose.

I pulled it out like Arthur removing Excalibur from the Stone. I am invincible!!

Oops I put my Dad through some trouble and a bit of worry, so I went down and sent him an email. After I sent it I saw that all my emails to my Mom failed and she didn’t see any of them, that was a good thing.

So now all is well, my wallet is back in my possession and I’m happy as a pig in mud.

Plus now I’m rich!! J

Well not really but I did go see another movie. A Aussie horror movie about a giant Croc, it too was pretty darn good, I had lowered expectations because there had been so many giant Alligator movies in the past few years but this one was filmed here in may of the places I had just been too. Sure enough I recognized all of the scenery. Pretty cool.

Day 45 – Chargers and Justin Timberlake

My last full day here and I’m really stoked to find that the Chargers/Colts game will be broadcast on Aussie ESPN at Noon today. RIGHT ON!!

I go down to reception and ask where I can see the game and get directed to a sports bar “Cheers” right down the street. I arrive at 11:00 for the Noon kickoff. I ask the bartender if they are going to show the game and she directs me upstairs. Sure enough there are two other Americans already watching the Dallas Cowboys game. STOKED even more!! I plop down and introduce myself. One guy is from Detroit and the other from Atlanta. Cool, I know both places very well. The dude from Atlanta asks if there is a late game and I said HECK YES! Colts v Bolts. They are both stoked and even proceed downstairs to the Sports Book to bet on the game. (Not me)

Well we have blast and the Chargers kick major butt in the first half.

It turns out the guy from Atlanta (who was about 6’2” 340) used to play pro football and went to school with a Roy Williams from the Cowboys. He played in Canada for Montreal before he blew his knee out. He showed me the scar and said it took 2 years to rehab. Brutal.

I didn’t ask him what he did for a living now.

Anyway the second half was brutal with the Chargers stinking it up and almost losing. After half time the Atlanta dude’s cell phone rings and he says “Man…I have to go to work!!” He got up to shake my hand and I asked where he worked by now I had assumed he was a door bouncer but it was in the middle of the day(?)

He answered kind of sheepishly that he was a body guard…for Justin Timberlake.

Then I remembered him on the phone earlier saying “bring him over, bring him over!”

I asked the Detroit guy if that meant what I thought it did and he said yes. Justin Timberlake almost came and watched the game with us.

Pretty funny.

Well no pop starts were there but it was great to hang out and watch some football with fellow Americans.

Plus The Chargers somehow won. Nice.

Wrong Way

.”

Great Ocean Road

and had a blast. The thing about driving on the left is you not only shift with your left hand but you steer with a different had as well. I don’t know about you, but my primary steering arm is my left (leaving the right to shift of course.) So the hardest part of driving on the left is not shifting with a new hand it’s actually steering with a different had. Needles to say I didn’t let this get in the way of my taking extreme pleasure from this drive. I got the thumbs up from two different motorcyclists (presumably for my prowess on the curves and not holding them up) It was so much fun I made the run twice.

Halloween

clayontheroad — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 16:35:00 GMT

Well nothing will make you homesick more than a holiday that is pretty much an American exclusive (as in N America.) However, I was pleased to find out that some clubs in Sydney were going to have Ween party/events on Sat the 27th. My first stop was The Gaff where my tourmates were having dinner and an hour of free drinks. Alas I had no costume but I did sport a pretty scary Black Sabbath shirt (hey they were named after a Boris Karlof movie after all) anyway it was a great night. Thankfully not many pictures were taken :)

I was exchanging emails with my buddy Arnold in SD to get some ideas for a cheap easy and light outfit that I could put together. By now I had made my way to Byron Bay on the far East coast and needed something cheap,easy and relevant. He sent some great ideas and I settled on the Invisible Man (ace bandages were purchased and everything else I had in my bag - brilliant!!) Well it got hot pretty quick as we were partying outside and I kept dribbling my drink on the bandages but it went over well and I'm glad I didn't break my streak of costume madness.

At the end of the night we were treated to an astounding fire dance show, far better and trippier than any I had seen in Hawaii. A great way to end the night, too bad I was invisible......:)

Gallery: All Hallows Eve(s)

clayontheroad — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 16:25:00 GMT

good times

Gallery: Melbourne

clayontheroad — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 15:31:00 GMT

good times

Days 25 - 31

clayontheroad — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 15:25:00 GMT

Day 25: Wonderful Melbourne

Monday was a chill day: laundry, updating the blog and organizing the snaps. I decided to head out after dinner and catch a cab back to the Mexican restaurant for some marigs and some conversation with the waitress whom I had hit it off with. It was funny trying to explain to the cabie “Mexican.” Together we figured it out and I was able to chat with my new friend Sarah as she made me a rocks Margarita. She explained that only Americans drink them mixed so when the order came in she thought it might be me. She asked when I was leaving and maybe we could get together (NICE!) but alas she was working on all the nights I would be in town. Bummer. Anyway the food was positively AWEFUL but it was fun to have tacos Down Under. At least they were shredded beef!

I caught ‘Bourne Supremacy” later that night. Good stuff (although it was 15 bucks!!)

I got word that San Diego is on fire. I think my most of my friends and family will be ok (based upon where they live in the city) but it’s terrible to see the devastation of my home town on Australian TV.

Day 26: Getting Around Town

I was up early and walked over to the Victoria Market, the second biggest open air farmer’s market in OZ. I could have spent all day, the meats, cheeses, wine, the wine, the cheese, the wine. Great prices too, now I regret buying all those souvenirs in Adelaide. Oh well. Armed with bags of goodies I headed down the block back “home”, I stepped out towards the street I walked right into a bus stop full of tourists. I looked up and a big red bus was pulling up. The driver opened the door and I said “hey what’s this all about??” She said it was a free buss around the city and it made stops at all the nice spots and made an hour loop. COOL! So grocery bags in hand I hopped on. I couldn’t believe there was free transportation all over the city. I made the circuit twice and picked all my spots I wanted to revisit the next day. If I had not walked out right at that moment I would have missed most of the city (which was so far somewhat uninspiring.)

Day 27: Melbourne > or = Chicago + San Fran + Amsterdam

Melbourne is rapidly becoming one of my favorite cities on earth (at least amongst those I have visited.) If I were to be able to come back to Oz and live in a “big” city, this would be the one. It has the perfect mix of art, music, sports and architecture. They are completely sports crazy here even by Aussie standards. Horse racing rules here and the Melbourne Cup is an official legal holiday. Right now the Sydney International Arts and Music festival is going on and the city is in full bloom. I hit some of the tourist spots (WW 1 Memorial, Victoria Gardens and the city park) then made my way over to the oldest pub in Victoria (the state we are in) opened in 1861. The barmaids are cool as hell and I put back a couple of cold ones along with a basket of spiced wedges (thick cut fries.) One of them asked about the fires in San Diego and we talked about it for a while. It’s amazing how many Aussies have been to So Cal. She knew the city (SD) really well and was following the news pretty closely.

Once again I ask my self the age old question: Does beer taste better when served by beautiful, really nice woman? I am beginning to think so.

One thing that is odd (or at least compared to the USA) there is no tipping here. None. The wages are so high that no one works for tips. It’s not unusual to start a job at $18 to $20 an hour. I’m not sure what the minimum wage is but I’ve heard it’s something like $15 and hour. That would certainly explain why good cost so much. So it’s really strange to go to bars and restaurants and not leave a tip at all. I have been tipping my tour guides when they go all out but only a couple of times have I tipped a server. Not even taxi drivers expect tips.

That night I hop a bus to the entertainment complex and casino. The casino is really upscale and I don’t think they will let me with my jeans on so I head into restaurant and theater row. I find a cinema and catch “Resident Evil 3” in the nicest movie theater I have ever been too (and that is saying something!) One thing that was odd, they had reserved seating, like a concert. At the box office I was shown a screen and was asked to pick my seat. This turned out to be more of a pain then a good thing. All of the patrons were clumped in a group and a few times folks were in the wrong seat causing some confusion and heated conversations. This was a case of too much control, if it’s not broken don’t fix it. I guess if it’s sold out it would be ok but I say let me pick my seat when I get into the theater!

The movie was not half bad although there is not 5 minutes of originality in it. It ripped off so many movies scene for scene it was almost comical. I made a mental note to put an editorial up on the IMDB site for the movie and see if we can name all of the movies that were copied. (Day of The Dead, Damnation Alley, The Birds, From Beyond, Dawn of The Dead etc I could go on.)

So, 3 nights in town and 3 movies seen. Good stuff, now I’m caught up and it’s certainly better (cheaper and safer) than night clubs.

Day 28: More Meli

More shuttle bus ridding and walking around town. I popped into a small showcase theater for a artist Q & A and performance that was part of the Arts Festival. The artists were a duo from San Francisco that had a cabaret/nightclub act that was very similar to the one my uncle Hal used to do back in the day. (These two were slightly less talented than Hal and David but who isn’t!!) It was pretty funny and the crowd young and old, gay and straight ate it up. They got a standing ovation and answered a few questions from the audience (the mike didn’t make to me in the back of the room.) L I really wanted to ask them if they had heard of Hal and David (or maybe even influenced by??) but did not have the chance. Oh well.

Back to the hotel for packing and unpacking. My bags are beyond full and beyond heavy. Tomorrow I catch a 3 bus tour to Sydney. We are going to the highest mountain in Oz and there will be….drum roll please…. SNOW! So now I have to get my rain/mountain gear ready for the climb up to the top.

Day 29: On the Road Again

It’s 5:30 AM and I have to hike 8 blocks with all my gear to meet the tour bus that does not offer pick up at my particular hotel. After 3 blocks I say to heck with it and hail a taxi. The driver is a bit miffed that he stopped for such a small fare. Bummer dude.

The tour bus picks me up and we head to other locations to pick up the other customers. It’s a big bus by adventure standards 22 folks. Once again the whole world is represented with England and Scotland leading the way this time. Once again it’s mostly girls something like 14 to 8. The guide seems ok, I grab the shotgun seat as it has the most legroom. We drive 3 hours to a National Park and hike to a grassy meadow. In the meadow is something like 200 kangaroos spread out amongst the grass clumps. We split up and I am able to walk right into the middle of them. Very cool. I never get sick of seeing kangaroos and these are big Eastern Grays. I found a Mom and Joey and got some good pics of both. Back to the bus and down to the seashore where we had picnic lunch on the beach. We then hike the Southern most point on mainland Oz. Pretty cool.

Another 3 hours on the road and we end up at 90 Mile Beach, the longest in Oz. We stop for beer and wine to take to dinner (BYO is very common here) I split a case with a couple of Danish dudes who were very cool. We check in to the hostel and my room has been upgraded to my own dedicated room with a kitchen, living room and queen bed. The party will be at my place tonight!

Dinner was good and I sat with the UK girls. I invited everyone back to my place for after dinner drinks and a few of us (1 Brit, 1 German, 2 Danish) ended up staying up late telling stories. Good times!

Day 30: SNOW!

Up too early and down to the common room for what passes as brekky on tour (toast and cereal) then we load up for a 3 hour drive up to Snowy River and the highest point on mainland Australia: Mt Kozyoscko.

The Snowy River is amazing. There was a famous poem written about it that was made into a movie called “The Man from Snowy River” and it is an important place in the national psyche here. We pass through a small ski resort town that reminded me of Crested Butte, Co. and then we head up the mountains. One thing I didn’t know was that the closer you are to the Antarctic the lower the snow levels tend to be. There is near year round snow at least in patches at only about 7000 feet here. Strange.

We park at the trail head and it’s raining, cold mountain rain. We have a 7 mile hike RT to the summit and would prefer not to do it in the rain. On top of that we have two alpine river crossings that must be made barefoot. Since the river is melted snow that was going to be one hell of a cold river walk. The rain stops and we head out. The first river is about 2 clicks down the trail. Some folks are pretty bummed and the prospect of walking through knee deep snow melt and begin to squawk. I for one am stoked. I pull my boots off and tie them together around my neck. I roll my jeans up and am ready to go. 4 or 5 of us beat me to the water and were making their way across before I could get to the waters edge. By now 3 of the Brits have decided not to make the crossing and ask for the car keys. They are going to hike back up and wait for the group.

Ok here is where it gets embarrassing. I hope you appreciate this candor.

I made a mental note of the path I was going to take to cross over and headed to the waters edge. I took one step off the ledge and hit a patch of flattened moss/grass. I was looking at the water and didn’t take notice of how slick the edge was.

Yep you guessed it.

I slipped and fell ass first into the raging snow melt river. The first thing to hit was my tail bone. My entire midsection was soaked to the bone. Somehow my feet stayed dry (odd) but from my ankles to my waist I was soaked. It pretty much sucked. One, it was mega embarrassing, and two, I was chilled and cold within 5 mins and there was no way I was going to make a 7 mile hike in the snow. I was pretty much the only one who got wet. So with my tail stuck firmly between my now freezing legs I joined the group of girls who didn’t want to make the river crossing and headed back to the bus for a change of clothes and I guess a nap L One good thing was it was the hottest of the girls that I was now stuck with. Hmmmmm

Back up to the bus, I got into my bag and got some new clothes and my computer. The moment I sat down to write this update, the sky opened up. It poured rain, then it started snowing!! (slush) At that point I was feeling way less bummed about missing the hike. I went out into the rain and stuck some beers in the snow for my Danish buddies for when they got back.

Sure enough the group only made it a couple of miles before they turned back and headed back down to the bus. I didn’t miss a thing. Still, it was pretty freaking embarrassing.

On the way down the mountain we found it had snowed like 3 inches while we were up top. We stopped for pictures in the falling snow. It was quite surreal. How many days ago was it when I was in 108 deg temps??

We make our way back to the ski town and into out hotel. There was a pub attached and many locals were gathering for a big Friday night. Our group partied and played pool into the wee hours. My game remains the same: I made some hard shots but missed too many easy ones. There was a video jukebox and I threw some coins in it. The Smiths, Iron Maiden and Young MC were in order. I’m pretty sick of beer at this point so Jim Beam was the drink of choice this night, not great if one is trying to save money…

Day 31: Canberra or Can-Bra

Naturally the washer and dryer were broken at the hotel so I cold not take care of my wet clothes. I hung my jeans upside own under the heater vent and rigged the legs so the air would blow down them. I cranked the heater up and went to sleep. It was hot in the room and of course I had weird dreams because of it. When I awoke, my jeans were bone dry! This was cool, as I was worried about dragging soaked clothes around the rest of the day.

Today were are driving to the ACT – Australian Capitol District to visit the Capitol and tour the Parliament building. Some time ago Melbourne and Sydney were involved in a power struggle with both claiming rights to be the new Nation’s Capitol, it was decided that neither should have all the power so the compromise was to put it in its own territory right between the two cities. Canberra’s main claim to fame is that is the world’s first completely planned Capitol City. Every block, road and avenue is part of a master plan. The city is near perfect in its layout and design and it’s a shame most Aussies and indeed most tourists skip the Capitol.

Not me. I had read about it and wanted to see it for myself. The House of Parliament alone cost $ 1 Billion dollars to build. It was pretty incredible and we were able to view both the House and The Senate Chambers as well as a few of the museums in town.

That day I actually had a Burger King Whopper for the first time since High School.

Day 32: Sin in Sydney

I have one night back in Sydney before I ship out to the East Coast for my “beach” leg of the trip. As part of our tour package from Mel to Syd via Canberra we had free dinner and an hour of free drink at one of the hottest clubs in Sydney (an there are a lot of hot clubs in the town!!) We agreed to all meet and take the company up on this most generous offer. As mentioned before eating and drinking in Sydney is really expensive so this was quite a good deal for us. Plus there were Halloween parties all over town that night (maybe I’ll get to carve a pumpkin after all!) NO such luck on the Pumpkin but there were a few people dressed up and the bar was decorated. A little taste of home! I found our group and we waited our turn for dinner and drinks, the Danish guys and I make a pact to do as much damage as possible.

I’ll spare you the details but suffice to say that was the wildest night I have ever spent in a city not named Amsterdam. I’m told it was quite fun. J

Gallery: Coast with the most

clayontheroad — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:01:00 GMT

cool snaps!

Days 20 - 24

clayontheroad — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:53:00 GMT

Day 20: The Orange Blossom Special

A huge tour group has booked the entire car except form my seat. They are a group of senior citizens on a two day trip to Melbourne. I became an instant celebrity when I showed one of them how to raise the arm rest table (like on an airliner) and ended up going up and down the isles doing it for all the grandmas. Pretty soon I was helping with bags and opening water bottles. Once we were settled, the ladies next to me started up a conversation and it was pretty interesting, most of them had been around the world and a few had been to the states. The same group did a 20 day rail tour of Canada just last year.

I took the "train time" to catch up on the blog and organize the next batch of pics. We passed through fields of blooming canola plants and the entire countryside was covered with the yellow flowers. Canola? Who would have thought it??

Here is where the trip gets tricky, up to now I have had every moment planned out and organized. From here on things will be a bit more loose and mostly in the big cities or tourist areas. No more camping! I even bought a pair of scissors and gave myself a quick haircut and shaved off the beard. No use being scraggle - puss while in the city.

So the train dropped me off at the industrial town of Geelong. I expected there to be a station where I could get some info and catch a train down to the coast. The bad news was it was a simple platform with no roof and certainly no friendly window where I could get some much needed info. I had reserved a rental car and was planning on doing The Great Ocean Drive by car. I was little apprehensive about driving on the left. I did it in the UK but had a co-pilot who calmly kept me on the correct side of the road, plus by now I was dead tired. It turns out that Avis closed before my second train got in, so I was “stuck” taking the bus out to my next stop Apollo Bay. Once again what I thought was going to be a bummer was a huge blessing. The road through Geelong was brutal with tons of roundabouts and crazy merge points and when we got to the coast, it was hairpin city, just like Hwy 1 in Cali. Besides that, the bus was 12$ and the car rental was going to be $300. The bus driver was silent the entire time as he dropped people off at their stops and I thought to myself that he must be really uptight. Soon there were only two of us on the bus. At one stop, the driver walked back to my seat and started up a conversation. He turned out to be one of the coolest guys I’ve met here! We talked about politics, koalas in the road, where to stay in town etc. He saw a koala walking on the side of the road and stopped so I could have a look and instead of dropping me off at the station he took me all the way into town and dropped me at the front door of my Hostel. Front door service!

When I checked in, I mentioned to the owner that I was stuck without a car, he said he had a friend that would hire me one for a nominal fee. Stoked! I was going to get to drive after all. I told him to set it up for first thing in the AM.

My host drove me down to a cottage where I would be staying. I was sweet with a full kitchen, fireplace and a huge queen bed. Reggie said he would set the car up and left me the key.

As I plopped into bed I noticed a book on the nightstand, it turned out not to be just any book: “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea” Quite possibly my second favorite book of all time! Another odd but very good coincidence.

It would be good to travel with Cpt. Nemo again.

Day 21: Stay On the Left!

Up for “brekky” as they call it here. Reggie popped in and said the car would be brought here at 8:30. COOL! Sure enough a gentleman who introduced himself as John showed up in an older Nissan caravan. I was sort of hoping for an automatic but sure enough it was a 5 speed. I dropped him off in town where he was meeting his wife. He gave me some tips on where to go and directions back to his place and off I went – On the left!

It came back to me pretty quick and soon I had the MP3 player fired up and was rocking down the road. I bolted up the coast to hit the hot spots before the busses filled with tourists arrived. It was cool to be driving a local car, I felt like I was blending in J

The

Great Ocean Road

is a major attraction in Oz and the rock formations known as the “12 Apostles” are considered a symbol of the country, just much as kangaroos and Ayers Rock are.

The drive was winding and twisting, again nearly identical to Hwy 1 in California except for the occasional koala in the road. I did indeed beat the crowd to the beach and got some decent snaps. The water looked really inviting (if not a bit cold) and I was reminded it had been over a month since I had swum in Mother Ocean. Alas, reason prevailed, probably not a good idea to swim by myself.

I stopped in a little beach town Port Campbell for lunch, I’m tired of sandwiches so I braved the “nachos” for $12. I warned the hostess that I was a bit of an expert on nachos being from California and all. She had a good laugh and told me not to expect too much. In fact they were not half bad with real cheese and decent guac. I washed it down with a local beer “Red Duck Amber” by far the best beer I’ve had here. As much as this country is associated with beer it all kind if tastes the same with little variation. Red Duck was the exception and tasted much like my own brand. Everybody loves their own brand!!

After lunch and at the advice of my host, I hit the back roads into the rain forest, it was a dirt track for about 80 miles and it was awesome. Absolutly one of the best drives I have made in my life (and that is really saying something) I parked and hiked into the trees and way back off the beaten path I found a grove of trees that somebody built a huge tree top walkway and tower. It was a strange sight in the middle of nowhere to see this steel structure way up in the canopy. I made the climb up and the view did not disappoint. There are 300 ft eucalyptus and beech trees here and the tower went right to the top. I was hoping to see some animals (sugar gliders??) but all the wee beasties are nocturnal in this part of the world. Bummer.

Back to the van and on to another hike, this time about 5 miles through giant ferns to Twin Falls. The hike was rough but the end was worth it. Amazing waterfall and the pics look good. Thankfully the hike back was shorter from the top of the falls. Back on the road and the trip back to return the car was very cool. Winding back roads through the trees, I went the rest of the day without seeing any other people or cars.

I found the farm and let myself in the cattle gate. I walked up to the farmhouse but there was nobody home. Hmmmm this was odd. I took the opportunity to walk around and check out the alpacas and sheep. When I came around to the front of the house I ran into John and his wife sitting on the front deck watching the sunset with a bottle of wine. They were engrossed in conversation and didn’t hear me come in. John introduced his wife Betty and sat me down for a glass of wine. They were both really interested in hearing about my day and my adventures in the outback. They ended up inviting me for dinner and I stayed with them into the night. Betty was a delight and we hit off well. She was really into aboriginal issues and was interested on my “take” of what I saw up North.

The home cooked food was awesome, tuna casserole, farm with grown corn and much local wine. It was a great evening. When John brought me back into town, I knew I had made two new friends and we exchanged emails with the promise to stay in touch. Only in Oz!

Back at the ranch I jumped on the computer to book my next stop. I found a bus that was going North to a town of Warnamabool along the same road that I drove just today. It would be nice to get a look without driving and it was only $8.

Day 22 Padre Fans and the WILD Women of Warnamabool

I hopped on the bus – I did a double take on a guy in my row - he had a San Diego Padres hat on!

“Dude cool hat”

“Thanks, I have some friends there, I go there a lot”

“That’s where I’m from! Padres kind of choked last week”

“Bro I know! That was painful”

Well it turns out my new friend was from Calgary, Canada and had friends living in Coronado. He spent his summers in San Diego and was a Charger fan as well. He had just moved to Oz and was invited to play Aussie Rules Football for Perth. He also played rugby and hockey and was planning on playing both while he was here. Pretty amazing. We hit it off pretty well and I noticed he had a San Diego shirt on as well so I got a picture. (The dude looked just like the singer of the Dandy Warhols.) The bus driver stopped at all the photo spots to let us get some pics.

We were going to different towns so I said “later dude!” and headed into the thriving metropolis of Warnamabool, Victoria. The owner of the backpacker hotel picked me up at the bus stop and drove me down to his place. He checked me in and seemed pretty cool. He mentioned that it was going to be a wild weekend. (I thought “do I look wild”??) It turned out that a local Woman’s Net Ball team was coming in later than night. I didn’t really understand what he meant by that.

Note: Net Ball (pronounced Ne-pple) is a game played here that is basketball without dribbling or a backboard. They pass the ball and can’t take any steps, it’s a pretty big social gathering in the country and the girls and ladies get to go out once a week without husbands, kids or boyfriends. Some leagues are pretty serious while others are “beer leagues”. At the end of the season the girls take a traditional road trip together and tear it up. By the way, Ozzie women are as wild or wilder as the men are.

Soon the Nepple team arrived: There were 15 of them ranging in age from 18 to 50. They were loaded for bear and many had a drink in each hand.

These girls tore it up like I’ve never seen.

I was joined in my viewing in the lobby by a Irish bloke who was also staying at the hostel. He was like a hungry wolf watching a herd of sheep. It took him 5 mins to make his choice and move in. It was pretty astonishing.

So let the party begin. We drank until 10:00 PM then boarded taxis into the small downtown pub district. Aussie country bars are pretty tough and I heard our host warn the girls not to ever let their drinks out of sight. Nice. We went to an Irish Pub and waited to get in. My accent is standing out as we talked with the others in que and many of these folks had never met an American before. The drink flowed at the Pub I switched to Jameson’s in honur of my new Irish friend. There was a band playing lame America rock songs (although it was pretty hysterical to hear “Blister In the Sun” sung with an Aussie accent) they do LOVE our music over here.

Next stop was an upscale place with an $8 cover, one dude in line yelled “Don’t let the American in, he started the Iraq war!!” It was pretty funny (ha ha) and I replied “Ahhhh Baby let me in - I’m Elvis” in my best Pressley accent. They let me in but still charged the cover L

The bar had a bad vibe and several fights broke out within about 10 mins of our arrival. I knew I was not going to stay long and by now it’s almost 2:00 AM. Most of the girls were on the dance floor and I hung out for a few songs and then let them know I was heading out. I grabbed a taxi and was in bed by 3:00.

The group came in with the sunrise. (Or so I was told.) One of them had a gash and lump from a flying beer bottle. This is like a freakin movie.

Day 23: Choices

They were quite a sight at brekky, half of them puked and a few had already hit the hair of the dog. Sure enough, the Irishman hooked up with his choice and I guess they made quite a ruckus in the 16 bed dorm, although I didn’t see him until dinner.

I spent the day walking around town with the girls (I kind of crashed their scene a little but what the heck) They rented paddle boats and went around in circles, then they each did the “flying fox” zip line at a nearby park. I for the most part just hung out and stayed on the sidelines out of the way.

I split off from the group and went back for a nap, waking in time for a home cooked dinner of salad and lasagna. (The girls had taken over the kitchen and were cooking up a storm) I was told right after I had left the group “things got wild” and there was a bit of flashing. Not sure who and what was being flashed but whatever it was I missed it. I’m not really into any of these girls but they are nice and shared their food with me, plus they put on a good show.

A few girls left that afternoon and a few more showed up. Now the party turned into a bachlelorett (spelling?) party (they call it a hen party) and things got really crazy. There was drunken tumbling, limbo, conga lines and they harassed one of the local blokes into doing a strip tease. At this point I had to get my camera and catch these girls in action. Not even the Irishman could keep up. He and I had a few drinks and I told him I was not going to make it out with the “pack” that night. He agreed and was going to stay in as well. A Scottish girl came into the bar and announced she and her mates were going to get up at 5:00 AM and watch England play S Africa in the Rugby World Cup. I made a mental note that I would do the same. J If anything just to hear those accents!

We heard later that the Netball (pronounced Ne-pple) girls had gotten banned from two pubs and kicked out of another. I made the correct choice by staying in and watching TV. No need to have an international incident this weekend. Besides Ali G was on and we laughed out butts off.

I did indeed get up and joined the UK girls for Rugby at Dawn. (I’m getting into rugby as well as cricket.) I wish I could understand the girls when they tried explaining to me what was going on in the game. The UK lost so they were kind of bummed and it was kind of a buzzkill.

Day 24: Road Trip

I was all set to catch the train back into Melbourne when the Irishman came to my room and asked if I wanted to ride with him into the city. This was a cool turn of events, and I was never stoked about taking the train. So I hopped in his recently purchased yellow 1978 Holden Ute and off we went. He has a year visa so he purchased a car and was driving around the country before starting helicopter pilot school up in the top part of the country. I have actually been considering getting a heli license so this was very intriguing. We had a nice ride into the city stopping in the country for snack and a look around. At my suggestion we went to the Royal Australian Airforce Museum which turned out to be pretty cool. The Aussies have an interesting military history including their own controversial involvement in Viet Nam. I did not know that it was Aussie ground gunners that shot down The Red Barron in WW1. Fascinating stuff.

We made into the city and to the hotel I had booked, the Irishman got a room as well and we had steak dinner and drinks. Folks down here are unbelievably friendly and we spent the night chatting with our fellow bar patrons. Around 9 we decided to go find a movie theater and catch a flick. This was great as I had not been to a movie in about 2 months (a record for me, by a lot.) W got a taxi to the cinema and watched “Rogue Assassin” (It was called “War” in the US) a marshal arts flick with Jet Li.

We were out front killing time before the movie started when I spied a MEXICAN restaurant across the street. Garth the Irishman had never had a margarita so it was ON. The place was called Taco Bill’s and it was not half bad. The margis were tasty and I even splurged on some Flan. Oh the taste of home!

The movie was “ok” and we caught a taxi back to the hotel. We exchanged emails and said goodbye as he was leaving in the AM to head back home.

Gallery: K I

clayontheroad — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:23:00 GMT

Island

Days 14 - 19

clayontheroad — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:11:00 GMT

Day 14 Another Town and Another Hat

Got off the train and it’s freezing. I went from 108 to 53 in 24 hours. My hotel did not provide a pick up so I hitched a ride with Annie’s Place’s bus and they were cool enough to drop me off. I didn’t sleep a wink on the train so I’m in serious need of a nap. My hotel is in the CBD above a rowdy Pub (kind of a bummer on a few levels) so rest was not in the cards at least while happy hour was on.

I dropped my bags and went in search of a place to buy a light jacket. I found the world famous Adelaide Central Market right around the corner from the hotel. I had read about it and knew I would be able get some good deals on a jackets, souvenirs and food. Sure enough I found a nice fleece jacket for $20 ( an amazing price for Australia) and the owner threw in a wool stocking cap for free.

Some of the more perceptive folks may have noticed that I am wearing several different hats in the photos I have posted. I brought 3, my wool “Outbacker” (which was too hot for the Outback!) a leather one for the rain forest and a baseball cap from New Iberia La.

I purchased a lightweight white cotton jobby for the desert and now I had a new stocking cap. That makes 5 hats in my bag. 5 hats and 4 cameras, I’m all set.

I grabbed some fruit at the farmers market and headed back to my room for the bag swap and to ready for my trip to Kangaroo Island. Not at all stoked on the hotel they are much more concerned with running the pub than they are taking care of their guests. Oh well I have my own room albeit in a bunk bed.

Day 15 Kangaroo Island!

The second biggest island in Australia is way down South and is named after a specific sub-species of Roo that is found only on that island. The island is 80% National Park and is pristine and unspoiled .It is also home to wild Koalas! (I keep making the mistake of calling them Koala Bears much to the disgust of the locals) and two kinds of endangered seals.

The tour left at 6 sharp and I was ready to leave the hotel by then. The guide was a hippy dippy type with long hair named Nick. I was the first pick up and for a while I thought I would have the tour to myself. Alas we picked up 5 Americans, 2 Brits, 2 Dutch and 2 Germans.

We drove 2 hours South to the ferry and I swear we were in Nor Cal. The landscape is nearly identical to Pt Ryes and Marin County above San Francisco (minus the kangaroos of course) it’s uncanny.

We hop on the car ferry for the crossing and I sit next to the Brit girls. They were from Birmingham and one of them grew up not too far from Rob Halford! Of course she was a rocker so we had much to discuss.

Our first stop was a eucalyptus oil plantation. We got a tour and I bought some gifts for me Mum. It was pretty interesting and the oil (not unlike Hemp) has a thousand uses.

Next we visited Seal Beach for a stroll with the highly endangered Australian Sea Lion. Many of the seals are with pups and were very grumpy. A ranger led us right out into the middle of them despite the fact that there had been an attack the day before when a girl got her kneecap bitten off. This would never happen in the States! He was clearly nervous and not happy to be leading us onto the beach. Sure enough, a big male came loping toward us in attack mode, I though he was being curious and stood there snapping pics, the ranger grabbed me and rushed us up to safety. We spent the rest of the time watching from the boardwalk. :)

Next stop was a grove of eucalyptus and wild Koala!! (bears) This was very exciting but the guide warned that they would be asleep and not moving much at all. Much to my delight I found a big male that was (by Koala Bear standards) a virtual jumping bean. He moved from branch to branch, looked down at me several times and pretty much hammed it up the whole time. I got some terrific pics of him. In the next tree was a mom and baby but by then it was too dark for pics of them.

We stayed at an old farmhouse that night and had a fire both inside and out. We dined on chicken, sausage and yummy Kangaroo steaks.

That night I was asked since I was from So Cal if I had met any famous people (since that’s what we do in So Cal) J Of course I said I had and told the guide to pick a rock star. One girl chimed in “Steven Tyler” oh brother

Nick the guide thought about it and said “Perry Farrell??”

Un-freakin believable.

I did a triple take, like this had to be a set up. So around the campfire, 26 thousand miles from home with fruit bats overhead and kangaroo on the barbie, I told the now world famous “Perry Story.” Oddly enough right about that time Perry was playing a show in San Diego and all of my friends were at that show, some with backstage passes. I found out later, when asked, Perry still remembered me and staying at my house.

After dinner and a bottle of wine, I was coerced into telling more stories (twisting arm) so I recounted a few Yosemite Bear Attack stories and a couple of good old American Ghost stories. Once again I’m getting ribbed for my “accent.”

Day 16 Remarkable Rocks and Platypus Myths

I was up for the sunrise and walked about by the barn to catch the good light. There was a family of kangaroos grazing and the baby hopped right over to me. He checked me out for a while and hopped away. Pretty soon Dad became interested and started making his way over. I got a few pics and retreated away pretty fast. A large male kangaroo can kill a man easily and they often do. The Roos on the island are dark chocolate brown and as mentioned before very rare and they show well on “film.”

First stop Remarkable Rocks I will let the pictures do the talking here. The rocks were truly… well, remarkable! We hiked a natural arch and saw some rare New Zealand Fur seals.

The big hike of the day was to some water holes were there was the (remote) possibility of seeing a duck billed platypus. Not a chance. After an hour I gave up and headed back to the bus. I did get to see an Echidna (looks like a porcupine) another egg laying mammal related to the platypus, I guess that’s the next best thing.

Got some good shots of the sunset and we were back to Adelaide by 9:00 PM. I fell in love with KI and vowed to return.

Day17 – 19 Rest!

The next three days were very mellow. I spent one entire day posting pictures and updating the blog. I was able to catch up on my Charger news and was happy to hear they beat Oakland – Go Bolts. Even The Lightning are doing well and are undefeated. Cool. Much laundry was done and I purchased and shipped some souvenirs back home.

The last night in town I found an Absinthe Bar (I do love me some Absinthe!) and proceeded to get very relaxed. J (to those I sent rambling incoherent emails that night I apologize)

Thankfully, I awoke with both ears.

Back to the train for the day ride down to The Great Ocean Drive. Goodbye Adelaide, I will be back!

Gallery: The Outback

clayontheroad — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:43:00 GMT

Hot Hot Heat!

Day 9 - 13

clayontheroad — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:17:00 GMT

Day 8-9 The Legendary Ghan

Today I board the overland railway called the Ghan as I start to head South. The cheap seats were booked by a huge group so I was forced to get a sleeper car for the 2 day trip down to Alice Springs. What a blessing that turned out to be, my car is great and I’m glad to have some down time to relax and reflect on the past week. I fell like I’ve been gone for about a month and it’s only been 7 days (with many weeks to go.) Traveling through the Outback by train is the only way to go and the views are incredible. On Sat. I was able to take a “whistle stop” break and head into the town of Katherine where I found a pub and was actually able to watch the Angles lose to The Red Sox in game 2. Again it’s very strange to be so far away and still be connected to the States.

Day 10 Alice Springs

I arrive at Alice Springs ready for action. This is the town I will use as my base for expeditions into the Outback. The hotel/hostel was supposed to pick me up from the train station but after about 45 mins of waiting, I grabbed a bus into town. As we passed through town I saw a scene that was a repeat of another I saw in Katherine, dozens of Aboriginal people hanging out in groups doing nothing but hanging around. It’s a strange sight. The driver dropped me off at Annie’s place and the girl at check-in profusely apologized for being late picking me up. She said she would buy me a beer later that night to repay me. (that’s certainly fair enough!!) Up to my room and was stoked to find A/C, a king sized bed, TV and a sink (all luxury items in a backpacker hotel.) I did a load of laundry and took a nap. Later that afternoon on the advice of the front desk girl, I walked into town in search of the “baby kangaroo rescue center” I found it but it was closed L. On my walk back I passed a group of girls two of which were speaking with “valley girl” accents (it almost sounded fake) and I asked them where they were from. “We are like from Los Angeles” was the reply. After being in country for 10 days I had come across my first Americans! I said “me too - San Diego” I was very happy to meet some of my countrymen. Well the chicks from LA didn’t share that sentiment and barely acknowledged me. Certainly they didn’t think I was hitting on them?? (The women outnumber the men 10 to 1 in some cities here and the hostels are 80% girls, I would have no need to pursue some So Cal chicks.)

So the first Yanks I meet were kind of kooks. Oh well. More on that later.

The one thing that is consistent with backpacker hotels/hostels in Australia is the nightlife. They always have a rockin pub with very good cheap food and beer specials, so god and so cheap that the locals end up filing up the place so there is a great mix of young Aussie and visitor. Annie’s Place is no exception. I had an incredible Thai chicken salad and a glass of wine. As promised the front desk girl had gotten off work and was there to buy my beer (I switched it to wine.) I ended up buying a bottle and hanging out with her for a while. Pretty cool (although I couldn’t understand half of the things she said.) Back to my room for the massive bag swap and gear readiness for the expedition to the Outback.

Day 11

Up at 4:00 AM and am regretting the wine from the night before. I slip out front to find my other tourmates gathering by our bus. There were 22 of us 17 female and 5 male, this time, no kids or families and I was the oldest by a few years. I knew this was a fairly hardcore trip and was impressed by all the girls. Our guide was a local who went by “Beej.’ We helped him load up and off we went, he warned us it would be hot and it was. I sat up front and could tell Beej and I were going to get along great. He said my job as co-pilot was to tell him interesting stories and keep him alert,- no problem there. We had a blast and it was not long before my MP3 player was jacked in for real rockin. I asked how often he had Americans on the tour he said not very. I told him about the chicks I met back in town and there were kind of stuck up. He said ”Could that be them right behind you?” Sure enough the girls from LA, that I was kind of bad mouthing, were 3 rows behind me. Doh!! Thank goodness to music was up. We stopped at a camel farm and some folks paid for a quick ride. Beej then announced that he forgot some of our food and we would have to buy our own lunches. Not good. I though there was going to be a riot!!

Its 40 degrees centigrade when we did our first hike into King’s Canyon National Park. The geology is amazing like nothing I have ever seen. We went several miles stopping for pictures and wildlife viewing. I found out there were in addition to 3 Americans, Japanese, English, Swiss, Irish, French, Dutch, Canadian and Danish on this tour. In the middle of the hike we stopped for swim at a billabong and enjoyed some shade. Despite the harsh conditions the group was in high spirits and having a great time.

Back on the road we stopped for beer and ice, I got together with the French delegation and we pitched in on a 30 pack of “XXXX” Aussie Bitter. We headed to camp off road. We pulled up just as the sun was setting and I missed getting pictures of my first Outback sunset. At that point I was kind of cursing all those bathroom stops we made – thanks girls!

We unloaded our gear as Beej made dinner – Chili Con Camel with pasta! Yummmm. We had a huge bon fire and consumed much beer and wine.

We slept under the stars in what is called a “swag” a self contained canvas bag with a built in pad (kind of like a tent with no poles.) I was feeling a bit down as I headed off to bed, I think being around and camping with all of those girls reminded me a bit of some other girls that I have recently said goodbye to over the past few months. This was the first time on my trip that I let the last 6 months catch up to me and I guess it was bound to happen. I grabbed my MP3 player and put on Pink Floyd “Astronomy Domine” just in time for a small meteor shower and I counted 27 shooting stars before drifting off. I woke up around 3 and walked around staring at the strange constellations, the Milky Way and a few planets. There was no moon and the sky was breathtaking. My old friend Orion rose up from the North and I found the most famous constellation of the Southern Hemi:

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time

You understand now why you came this way

And the truth you might be running from is so small

But it is as big as the promise

The promise of the coming day.

Up before dawn to get some sunrise pictures with the big camera. It was hard to use SLR in the dark and I don’t think the snaps will be very good. We had breakfast and broke camp heading for Aboriginal land. First stop a series of monoliths used as an important ritualistic site called The Ulgas. We hiked up to a peak with a great view of the desert and Ayers Rock (now known by it’s original name Ularu.) The Ulgas remind me of Joshua Tree or Monument Valley in the sense that there is something there that cannot be easily described, the energy is just different.

On the hike back, I split from the group for some quiet time and was rewarded almost immediately when a 5 foot Goanna (monitor lizard) come down at sat on the rock in front of me. I was in such shock that I almost forgot to grab the camera and get some pics. He hung out for a little while then walked off. Amazing – by far the biggest lizard I have seen in the wild.

It’s now well over 100 degrees and we hike back to the van and the A/C. We spent the rest of the day at the Aboriginal Cultural Center where we basked the A/C and ate Ice Cream. I am very much enjoying the Irish girls, I could listen to them talk all day and night (even if I don’t understand them!) Everybody is cool and I’m also enjoying talking with the Canadian couple from Vancouver. They have been on a round the world trip for over a year and I got him caught up on all the happenings in the NHL since they left.

I was all set to purchase some native Aboriginal artwork until I saw the prices – Yikes! We head off to catch the sunset over Ularu but clouds moved in and it’s was not as spectacular as we had hoped, oh well we will be back to the same spot for the sunrise and that should be much better.

We made camp under the stars again and tonight Beej broke out his acoustic, it sounded pretty good and it was funny watching the girls swoon. He didn’t have a pick so I let him use my lucky Smokin Joe Kubic pick that I carry with me everywhere. It does come in handy.

We saw a wild Dingo running around before we went to sleep so everyone was a bit nervous, there was a rumor going around camp that Dingos would run off with your boots leaving you barefoot for the rest of the trip. Naturally I dreamt of Dingos all night.

It’s much warmer tonight and may even rain a bit, as long as it’s not too much that would be cool.

Sure enough a few drops fell and I’m glad I was up last night to see the stars.

Day 12 – Check this off the list

When I was in the 3^rd grade all of the students had the assignment to do a presentation on another culture or country. My Mom helped me make an igloo out of sugar cubes and I talked about Eskimos. One of the kids did his presentation on Australia and he had a picture of kangaroos and a big red rock called Ayers rock. When I saw it, I really wanted to go there, and of course I had no concept of how far away it was. I expected my parents would take me there any weekend. That’s what started it, a few years later it was Bugs Bunny and The Tasmanian Devil that got my attention. I now had an idea that it was pretty far away because Bugs had to get on a plane to get there. Later on it was AC/DC records, The Discovery Channel and hand raising Australian Sugar Gliders as pets that kept me close to the place I have always felt an odd connection to.

Now I was here.

We are up before sunrise so we can break camp and head over to the viewing area. It was amazing and I shot 40 pics (3 of them came out decent.) We have breakfast in the shadow of the monolith and head over to the base. We had the choice of a circuit hike around the rock or a climb straight up the side. As I understand it, the climb route is closed most days and it was fairly rare that to have it open. There was a line forming (just like Yosemite) at the base and folks really wanted to climb this baby. The Aboriginals ask politely that visitors do not make climb but they do not close it. 36 people have died making the trek up and there were two rescues the day we were there. The climb was ROUGH about 10 times longer than the accent up to Half Dome on the cables. At the top I found a side trail and ditched the crowd for some quiet time with “my” rock. Once again Pink Floyd was in order. The way down took over an hour and I was toast by the time I got to the bottom.

I’m getting teased pretty regularly about my accent now. It seems that everyone thinks I talk funny (little do they know it’s they who talk funny) and apparently I say “freakin” a lot. We have a six hour drive back with plenty of breaks for water and snacks. We arrive back at the hostile and agree to meet in the pub for a group dinner. The drinks flowed and it was great fun, Beej was trying hard to get with one of the girls (I can’t blame him) and it was interesting to see an Aussie guy in action with the ladies (I have always heard they were a bit rough and direct.) Not much finesse in his game for sure but I left for bed (to sleep) before I could see if he had any luck.

Oh and the two American girls turned out to be allright. J

Day 13 Roo Joeys and Train Ride

I slept in to a decent 7:30 and got up to repack and head to the train station. I had a few hours to kill so I grabbed a mountain bike and headed back into town. This time the Baby Kangaroo Rescue was open and I made a $5 donation so I could hold a Joey and hang out with the orphans. Hundreds of kangaroos are killed on Aussie hwys every month and many have live babies in their pouches that survive the impact but starve to death or get eaten by birds. These folks go check out road kill and rescue the babies. They hand raise them and turn them back into the wild. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Now I’m back on the train headed South to Adelaide and cooler weather.

Days 5 -9

clayontheroad — Sun, 7 Oct 2007 15:29:00 GMT

Day 5 Darwin (down time)

It’s hot here. I put the AC down to 22 (Celsius) and took a nap trying to sleep away the day. In the later afternoon I walked into the heart of the town and did some grocery shopping. The prices were fairly reasonable and it was fun to walk the isles checking out the food items both familiar and totally strange. (I bought some Ritz crackers for a taste of home.) When I got back to the room my bunk mate Jane was back from her tour and we got to know each other. She was Canadian from Calgary so we chatted about The Cup and all things hockey. She was on a year sabbatical and traveling the world by herself (sounds familiar eh?) we had a lot in common including our age it was great to make a quick friend in such a far away place. It turns out she was originally from Thunder Bay Ontario! The same town that my good friend Mike Power back in Tampa is from!!! Her family was pretty big in town and she said there is a park named for her grandfather. I can’t wait to tell Mike about that. We went to bed early as we both had to meet our groups at 5:30 AM.

Day 6 Into The Bush

Met up with my eco tour group and was picked up in a very cool 4WD bus/ATV/SUV thingy. I grabbed a seat up front for the best picture spots (a move I would regret later) but I wanted to be close to the driver so I could ask him questions and look through the windscreen at the trails. Folks piled on the bus, there were 16 of us. Holland, UK, Ireland, France, Italy and Australia were all represented with this group. (No other Americans!) This was one of the more hardcore tours with hiking and sleeping out in the jungle so the folks were just like me (except for the whole language thing.) We drove 2 hours into the bush and then hiked an hour or so to several swimming holes. They were incredible and with the heat we wasted no time jumping in. After about an hour there, we walked back, hopped to the bus and headed towards another pool. This time fed by two unbelievable waterfalls. On the trail down I got to see my first wild kangaroo! Oddly enough they were in the cliffs up amongst the rocks – Rock Wallabies. (not to be confused with rock lobsters.) Sweeet.

Another tropical plunge pool and now I’m cursing the fact I left my underwater camera back with my non camping gear in Darwin. Bummer.

We had hot dogs for lunch – the universal food. The tour is far exceeding my expectations and my tourmates are cool as heck. The British are a total crack up. The Dutch and French couples just sit and watch us bust each other up. One of the Brits is from Birmingham and I asked him if he knew Ozzy Osbourne, his reply was “No. Do you know Elvis?”

We drove another 2 hours off road to a river where a local guide took us to look for Crocs and local birdlife. I have been on many river cruises and seen many gators but this trip blew my mind. The guide was a genuine Crocodile Dundee and he had a serous passion for wetlands management and wildlife conservation. This was a relief because I had heard of guides feed crocs to get them up close to the boats. Not this dude. He did reach down and pull a reed from the water peeled it and handed it to me. He said “eat it mate – tastes like celery” All eyes were on me so I took a bite. I’ll probably get some parasite or something but couldn’t wuss out. I used the big camera for the first time on the river trip and am very pleased with the pics I was able to get. In addition to crocs, we saw some crazy birds including eagles and even more kangaroos! This time they were Agile Wallabies and some had joeys. The Aussies (including our river guide) are not at all impressed with kangaroos since they are seemingly everywhere and they got a kick out how excited I was to see them. Hey, a came about a zillion miles and I want to see some freakin kangaroos all right??

I’m stoked to find that our campsite is near a “outpost” with a pub and bottle shop. (whew I though we would be roughing it!) I made my way over and bought a couple of beers for me and my new limey mate. They were $5 each or they were running a special 6 for $18. What a deal! I couldn’t resist. So I brought a six pack back and gave all of them out. This turned out to be a very good move because with Aussie hospitality, I would be later paid back ten fold. So the beer flowed and the jokes started soon the Brits pulled out a 30 pack. NICE! They couldn’t believe that a Yank could keep up with them and don’t worry folks I represented us well. We had a local fish called a Barramundi along with chicken pasta for dinner. We talked politics and told travel stories into the wee hours. At one point they tried to explain the joys of Cricket to me and I just didn’t get it.

Day 6 Kakadu National Park

Up at 5:00 AM – did not sleep that great in the heat but am ready to rock. Today we 4WD deep into the wilderness to Kakadu National Park. After about 3 hours of heavy off roading (man my Dad and Bob would be in heaven here) we parked and hiked down into a gorge to yet another incredible swim spot. This time with dropped our gear and swam up the river stopping at swim holes to lounge and hang out. Aaron out guide grabbed me and said “ hey Clay I think you’ll enjoy this” and disappeared under the surface. About 25 seconds he appeared in the next pool up river. He was showing me an underwater passage from one pool to another. I dove down and sure enough about 8 feet down I could see daylight I headed to it and popped up on the other side. I must have a had a grin a mile wide because everybody came over to see what was going on. Most of them didn’t have the nerve for it but a few did it and I did it 3 more times. Now I really wish I had my underwater camera.

It’s approaching 93 degrees and with very high humidity and the walk out was brutal. We passed some croc pools but since it is the dry season they were empty. Thankfully.

After a lunch of sandwiches and cole slaw we headed over to an Aboriginal outpost and hiked in to see some native cave drawings and paintings. This was something I had on my “to see list” for about 20 years now and I was stoked to actually do it! Australian Aboriginals are the oldest and longest running culture on Earth (by a lot) and the paintings I was about to view were 6000 years old. The spot did not disappoint and we were given a tour a Aboriginal who told us the meaning of the images and told us several “Dreamtime” stories. I thought my head was going to explode with the awesomeness of it all. I will have my Dreamtime story to tell you all when I get back.

Near the outpost we stopped for beer and gas (in that order) and at camp enjoyed a traditional “Aussie BBQ” of sausage and lamb chops. Again many beers were consumed and I was able to provide the music via my portable speakers and MP3 player. It was quite a party in the bush that night. Something crazy happened as we were off the bed. Someone heard yelling coming from the trees. We all stopped in our tracks and sure enough we could hear a faint “HELP!” “HELP ME!!” It was chilling. They were coming from quite a ways a way and too far for us to attempt anything (most all snakes in this land are nocturnal) so Aaron headed out to use his cell and call the local police /rangers. They came pretty quick and headed over in a 4WD to try and find the person. Every once and a while we could see headlights in the distance but we never heard what happened. Freaky.

Day 7

Up at 5:00 AM again and now the beers were taking their toll. I was not the only one and it was a quiet breakfast. We break camp and head up into the mountains, this time we are crawling and river crossing so being in the front on a bench seat was not the best place to be. The upside was Aaron had an MP3 player adapter and put me in charge of the music. Right before I was about to drop some Dandy Warhols on them the he busts out a tape and says “I need cash when I’m off road.” I didn’t understand what he meant by that and just nodded. I popped the tape in and it was Johnny Cash holy smokes, I’m in Australia, tens of thousands of miles from home, up in the rainforest on a mud and clay off road track and I’m singing “Ring of Fire” at the top of my lungs with total strangers most of whom don’t even speak English. Un-freaking believable. It was a moment that I will treasure the rest of my life.

We parked and hiked to Jim Jim Falls, my pictures don’t do it justice. I highly recommend doing a Google image search on it. More swimming and hanging out on the rocks and beach.

Again the hike out was brutal and as a group we were toast.

I collected everyone’s E-mail with the promise of sending my pictures along. One of the local Aussie guys and his family that I became really friendly with pulled me aside and asked if I was going back to Sydney anytime soon. I said yes and he said when I get there he was going to take me to a cricket game. He then explained that he was the president of the Sydney Cricket Grounds and I would be “king for a day,” throw out the first ball and be treated to BBQ and all the beers I could drink. I AM ALL OVER THAT!

Day 8-9 The Legendary Ghan

Today I board the overland railway called the Ghan as I start to head South, the cheap seats were booked by a huge group so I was forced to get a sleeper car for the 2 day trip down to Alice Springs. What a blessing that turned out to be, my car is great and I’m glad to have some down time to relax and reflect on the past week. I fell like I’ve been gone for about a month and it’s only been 7 days (with many weeks to go.) Traveling through the Outback by train is the only way to go and the views are incredible. On Sat. I was able to take a “whistle stop” break and head into the town of Katherine where I found a pub and was actually able to watch the Angles lose to The Red Sox in game 2. Again it’s very strange to be so far away and still be connected to the States.

Day 1 -3

clayontheroad — Tue, 2 Oct 2007 18:35:00 GMT

Day 1

The 13.5 hour flight was GNARLY (plus it took an hour to load and get off the ground.) I was able to sleep for 6 hours then watched 2 movies (Blades of Glory and a killer indy called Cashback) and a few episodes of The Simpsons. The food was excellent and plenty. I did not need to bring any of the stuff I carried on. I lucked out and had an empty seat next to me and met a very cool girl in my row from Alaska who was going to school in Newcastle. She was reading Angels and Demons so we had a good chat about Dan Brown. The crew passed out eye covers and socks to encourage folks to take off their shoes. I got two pairs :) you can never have enough socks!!

On the ground at Sidney International I was pulled into a very detailed search by customs. It took the better part of an hour and all of my stuff was unloaded and inspected very closely. They were very nice but scolded me for my knife (formerly Andrea’s) that I did not declare and they confiscated all of my beef jerky. L They asked twice if I had any pornography. I assume that A) I looked like I did or B) Americans always travel with pornography and they ask all of us the same question. I Met some cool folks from Brazil on the shuttle bus ride down town (is everyone from Brazil amazingly good looking??). He was a free diver and was packing oversized fins. I’m certain she was a bikini model. They gave me some good info on the Great Barrier Reef.

Day 2

The Maze Backpacker hotel is kind of a dump but it’s clean and safe, plus I get 15 free drinks. It’s a holiday weekend (Ozzie Labor Day) so the city is buzzing, to top it off the Super Bowl of rugby is in town as well. Tonight was movie night at the Maze, we watched a bootleg copy of Stardust and a couple of English indy films. Good stuff.

Sydney = San Diego

The vibe is almost the exact same right down to the weather. (if you can put aside the fact they drive on the left) but it is really expensive here, a can of coke was almost $3.00. Good thing I don’t like coke that much! I can see why they brag about the 15 free drinks!

I went to some of the usual tourist spots today: Darling Harbor, The Sky Tower and China Town. I passed by a wildlife park that had a huge picture of a Sugar Glider out front so I had to go in. I was lucky enough to meet the marsupial keeper who went in to the Glider exhibit and put some food in for them so they would come out. Sure enough there they were and twice as big as my gliders. The keeper was pretty astounded that I had pet sugar gliders in the USA. We had a nice chat. It’s funny how much my “accent” stands out. As it was in the UK, folks just like to hear me talk, which of course works both ways.

Off to the airport. This stay in Sydney was just to recover from the flight and get acclimated. Tonight I went to the airport for a 5 hour flight to the top of the country and begin my real trip. The airport was a huge mess (holiday plus Rugby Super Bowl) almost every flight was delayed and many were canceled. My flight to Darwin was 4 hours late putting me in at 3 AM. Ouch. Something funny did happen while I waiting for my flight.

I ran into a group of kids all wearing hip hop clothes and sideways baseball caps, these wanna be hip hoppers were hysterical. I couldn’t resist asking one of them where they got, LA Lakers, Dodgers, Raiders and Cardinals hats. He very politely told me they were a professional dance troop on tour and they got the “gear” in LA. Turns out they were really nice kids and were astounded to find that I had lived in Inglewood so close to Compton and I had even seen Snoop Dog live I concert. It was a freakin crack up. The picture says it all. When I asked how they got the money to travel he said they were supported by their church. How gangster is that J.

Day 4 Darwin

The doorstep to the jungle and it’s hot and muggy like Tampa in June. I’m here for one day at a hostel before heading off camping in the rain forest for 3 days. It’s a pretty cool place, as in Sydney folks are in a party mood, things are a little cheaper here but not much. Bottle of beer is $5 and my pancakes were $10 this AM. I will need to watch my money closely.

One funny story from last night. I checked in at 3:30 AM and was given my room key. I went upstairs to the room and found 3 bunk beds with one open at the top. I tried to make as little noise as possible and slipped into the bathroom to change. I noticed the toilet seat was down but didn’t think anything of it. In my haste I left it up. I climbed into bed and as my eyes adjusted, I noticed the person to my left was a girl. I looked down and they were all girls, they had put me in a girl’s dorm!! The even started snoring little girl snores. Uh oh wait till they hear me L. This was kind of a dilemma, I thought it might be a bit of a shock to wake up and find me in their midst, I got back up and put more clothes on and went in and put the seat down. (I am trained very well) when the sun came up they were quite surprised to see me but didn’t really have a problem. I closed my eyes so they could change (well they were almost closed) and all was well. We are getting along great, there is one Canadian and 3 Aussies. It’s good to be the man around the house once again, I hope nothing breaks.

Testing Testing 1 -2 1 -2

clayontheroad — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:57:00 GMT

Test of how uploaded images update the RSS feed and show as an update to the blog. If you are reading this it worked!

2 Weeks and Counting

clayontheroad — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:58:00 GMT

Well the trip is getting close. So far each week of travel has = about 30 hours of research. The time difference is not helping, the folks I'm dealing with are 12 hours ahead. So far it's been fun and keeping me busy.

I'm actually excited about the flight Quantas has excellent movie selctions and for me to sit and watch movies for 12 hours is not a stretch at all.

New camera came today, if I can figure out how to work it, the snaps should be good.