Blogs from Griffith, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 2

I gave up hitching the Princes Highway. I waited more than an hour and was offered one ride to the next service station. I ran across to the opposite side and hitched back to the turn off to the Hume Highway, the direct inland highway between Melbourne and Sydney. A Taiwanese guy took me all the way to the outskirts of Canberra. We stopped off for breakfast and coffee along the way. He told me about his life before he came to Australia in Taiwan where he'd been part of a gang, carried a gun and fought people. He'd travelled to South Africa for a few weeks and realised he wanted to change. He was friendly and polite but he had a very confident air unlike a lot of Asians abroad. His English was good and ... read more

Last week was Thanksgiving. I spent two days cooking and baking a proper American Thanksgiving from scratch. Because Australians do not celebrate Thanksgiving they are lacking all the nice short cut products like stove top stuffing and canned pumpkin. I ended up mashing potatoes and drying bread crumbs for stuffing. Boiling pumpkin for pumpkin pie. It was very labor intensive. I am really impressed with my Grandma that she cooks this much every year for my family. I will always remember the first Thanksgiving I was in charge of being in Australia and cooking for 15 Europeans in a tiny little gas oven. I am the only American at the fruitshack now, and there are only two Canadians that have experienced Thanksgiving dinner before. It is interesting to really see your culture from another perspective. Especially ... read more

Hi Everyone, I am sorry that it has been so long since my last update. I am still alive and working in Leeton. In my last blog I talked about the Fruitshack where I am living with other backpackers. Now I am going to talk about the place I am working: Mick's Bakehouse. So far most of the people I have met have been other travelers but working for a small business means I talk to lots of Australian's everyday! Of course that offers challenges in itself. I love the Australian accent but it isn't always easy for an American to understand. Or at least for me to understand. (I also have problems understanding other Americans but I can't blame that on language differences.) I am constantly running into problems at the bakery because people order ... read more

Day 3 Tuesday 5th July 2011 Wymah to Griffith Today started with a bit of drama – we followed Tony down to the old Hume Highway and just after we’d turned onto it we came upon a farm car (unregistered paddock basher) in a grassy ditch by the roadside. We never really found out how the young cousins driving it had got it there, but they were unhurt and the car undamaged, so one of the 4WDs gave them a tow out and told them to get back to the farm pronto! We went on to Culcairn for morning tea, where there is an amazing old hotel. The story goes that in order to get a liquor licence in what was once a “dry” area, the prospective publican had to provide many bedrooms (?20+) and dining ... read more

Wednesday morning brought a feeling of relief rather than anticipation of the day ahead. Early inspections showed that, despite the heavy rains, water levels had gone down considerably. The locals were still interested in flood levels as measurements are usually taken alongside the bridge adjacent to the caravan park. There were a few cars parked up and one or two people taking photos but no-where near the numbers that were around yesterday. It meant we were able to make a pretty good start to our journey towards Nerranderah. We didn’t know what conditions lay ahead of course and the early part of the journey raised a few eyebrows as the road was often isolated like a “causeway” with deep floodwater either side. Nevertheless, we made good progress and soon reached West Wyalong where we had planned ... read more