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Published: September 16th 2013
"If you stand here, you can get those people in the picture" Said Dancing Dave as I warmed my bones and dodged seagulls at Manley
"But I don't like people in pictures" I responded.
I hadn't really given that any thought until I got home and was reflecting on my action packed extended weekend until during a conversation with The Travel Camel I mentioned that I was actually a little afraid of going to the get together as..I really don't like people. I have really spent most of my adult life alone, I travel alone, I live alone and I am quite happy being alone. I also worried about fitting in, being the token West Australian Bogan, we suffer from cultural cringe even more than any other Aussies. There is a saying that going to W.A is like stepping back in time 20 years. There is an element of truth in that. I will also admit that the idea of meeting such seasoned intelligent and far more world savvy travelers than I had me stepping on a plane full of apprehension. I had even googled Dancing Dave and Jo before I left home - which just made me feel
even more nervous.
The moment I looked around at the airport and spotted Dave I felt a massive hug that came from deep within, then Jo and Denise...an instant connection. Real people, good people. Jo mentioned during the weekend that travelblog really has a sense of community and family, and I certainly feel honored to have been lucky enough to find this family. We headed from the airport into Newtown to enjoy a divine Thai meal and I looked around the vibrancy of Sydney so unlike Perth after dark. I think by the time we had eaten and driven to Dave and Denise's lovely home I had divulged my life story (and its quite a quirky one) to the unfortunate captive audience i had in the car. I realise that is something I have never done before. I felt no judgement, and there is a lot to judge if one is so inclined. We had a busy day the next day and forgetting I was a few hours behind couldnt get to sleep and was probably mumbling profanities in my sleep (apparently I am prone to doing this, my apologies if I did) after exploring the marvels of Dave
and Denise's beautiful home filled with travel mementos.
Denise had seen my ramblings about tall ships on my facebook page and had organised a sail the next day on the Soren Larsen where we would meet up with Rachel. I cannot stress enough how much Dave and Denise had put into this weekend and wow, what a weekend.
The sun was shining as we walked through the Rocks down to the quay to meet Rachel and board our tall ship - and were welcomed to the harbour by a plane writing TB in the sky..ok, it added an N and an org but really, surely nothing was more important than we were 😊
The ship was great fun, conversation flying everywhere, cameras dueling but Jo really took the cake with her super camera and climbed the mast to get those fantastic shots she somehow just manages to find. I couldnt help myself and as soon as we were past the opera house I scuttled up and started talking fluent tall ship with the Captain, a lovely guy and great tour guide, cunningly planning my moment to mutinee and wrestle the helm off him. Turns out I didnt
need to draw swords and he was quite happy to hand over the helm finding myself quickly slipping back into my sailing pirate life - 16 turns starboard then bring her back to midships, and don't hit Port Dennison, and stay inside the harbor, we cannot go to Tahiti.
Only a light breeze so just the sails on the first mast for a while - I was down in the galley with Rachel when the engine turned off and felt that tug at my soul, remember back to the sailing days with just the wind and the waves controlling my destiny. Thank you so much for finding me a tall ship.
As I didnt have any cannons or swords to pull of a decent mutiny and steal the ship I had to hand her back and all too soon the cruise was over, but not our day!. We bid goodbye to Rachel until the next day where she would join us for lunch and headed to the Sydney Library to view the world press photography exhibition and the faces of Sydney homeless exhibition. The images were fascinating, confronting and thought provoking, unfortunately our time was limited as the
library was closing.
In need of coffee we walked through the CBD and Denise spotted Max Bremmers, something else we do not have in Perth. Please keep your Krispy Kreme donuts NSW but let us share the magic hot chocolate and cappuccino with real chocolate melting into it, an Oh My God mouth experience. Jo and Denise bought some of the cutest hug cups and we all savoured our cups with lots of photos being taken....I really dont have the most photogenic tongue but Dave managed to grab a shot where it actually looked good.
From the exhibition we headed to Camelot, a club Dave knew of with the most amazing band, Monsieur Camembert, a Russian Gypsy Folk Band. What an awesome venue (Camels everywhere) and an amazing band - super high energy and with some new instruments I spent an hour googling to find out what the Cimbaron was called. Our table directly in front of the stage gave us the best seats in the house, and im sure we would have all danced if the club had any more room - I can see why the venue was packed though, not many bands can manage to
Dave must have connections
The wrote our names right across the sky ;)cover a song from 1970s soft core porn movie. Singer Yarran and the guitarist hailed from Perth and suprisingly I found that I knew them from the full moon parties we would hold in the 1980s. Its a small world. Back to Dave and Denises for more chats long into the night and listening to Daves amazing collection of world music before hitting the sack for the night, this time worn out and ready to sleep.
The next day we met John and Sylvia and new member Ski Set who came down to lunch and boules championship (John and I took the honors! although I suspect Dave had been practicing some special moves, including hitting a small sole tree smack in the middle) before a fantastic lunch with much conversation on so many different topics where Rachel joined us again and the Travel Camel made an appearance via skype. Skype made nonsense of this tyranny of distance stuff and I got my first live view of a very surprisingly green Ethiopia as The Camel told us of his amazing morning in Axiom viewing the Ark. Incredible stuff. After our amazing lunch we talked late into the night.
..............Intermission..........................
I wrote that part of this blog some weeks ago, before I read a blog that was scarily accurate about Perth, and before the thread from Tam about your comfort zone. I reread what I had written and decided to publish it honestly instead of hiding this fear of people that I have, because...people can be lovely. I found People can be a destination in themselves. Since then SkiSet has published two blogs, Shane has published his Ethiopia blog, Dave has published his Sydney blog and Ive realised that it doesnt matter that my pictures will never be as good as most, travellers dont compete, we share.
On our last day together I had arranged to meet a friend Anthony and go for a shark dive in captivity - aka Manley Sea World. Before we headed down to Manley and Dave took Jo and I for a walk around the wetlands, so beautifully different from the flattish brown hills we have here in W.A. Sydney in wintertime is beautiful. We sat on a rock for a few minutes Jo and Dave snapping away. It was about then I decided Jo is actually capable of levitating. She is beside
you one moment, the next she's quietly slipped away and down her camera lens without you even hearing her move. She even snuck into the kitchen at the Thai restaurant...I wouldve tripped over a wok and caused a real stir..fry.
Finally time to say Goodbye to Denise, such an amazing soul and head down the magnolia filled streets to Manley. Goodbyes are horrible..maybe thats why I have generally stayed away from travelling to meet people?. More goodbyes to come, but first, the shark dive.
Im a scuba diver...i tend to like moving around in the water not being anchored to the bottom and having no fins...but thats the rules of diving a 4m deep aquarium. It was actually good fun, Anthony turned out to be a lovely guy (thank god! Id arranged to crash on his couch that night before an early flight home) and it wasnt too awkward looking for a guy on a scooter and saying..Um hi! Are you Anthony?...luckily I got the right person and we hit it off instantly. Walking around the aquarium while we waited I kept thinking.....this is going to be freezing. It was. I had a wet 5mm full wetsuit, a
wet rashy, a wet 5mm shorty handed to me after watching the obligatory safety video and signing the wavers. I do not like cold water. I do not like stripping off and putting on wet wetsuits on a winter day. But...I did it in lightning speed to try and get it over and done with as soon as possible, suiting up before Anthony and the couple from the US who were going into the tank with us. Which turned out to be a mistake because I had more time standing around in a wet wetsuit contemplating how cold the water was going to be. Freezing. I asked for and got the last hood and pair of gloves. 14c according to my dive computer, which I threw in my handbag because I wanted to see what the temp was. Overweighted and with ill fitting booties on we eventually went through the pool how to dive instructions (the US girl decided to pull out then) and finally into the tank. Dave and Jo cameras at the ready smiling and laughing through the glass, out into the tank and over the tube where my friends and the public were standing. Over the other
side..grey nurse sharks around 3.5m cruising slowly not too far from your face. Close enough to see that sharks blink. I never knew that before. Grey Nurses are very slow moving sharks so you tend to get the opportunity to have face to face encounters that last for quite a while. Theres enough sharks in there to keep them coming and Anthony and the US guy got to see their first sharks up close. I had a particularly dumb fish I suspect of the mulloway family bump into my legs a few times and watched a turtle mindlessly swimming into bamboo barricades in the tank. Another smaller turtle found as a hatchling with one flipper missing has grown up there and is quite a sweetheart. The fish seem happy enough but ... hey... I wonder if they felt like I did. In Captivity.
And Cold. So insanely cold I was happy for it to be over. Time was running out, we had a quick meal of fish and chips and a coffee on Manley Beach and were attacked by seagulls. Then it was time to say Goodbye again, this time to Dave. Bloody Parking ticket. Dancing one, you really
showed us a good time, thank you and the lovely Leila so much.
Its corny, we were on the Manley Ferry heading back to circular quay working out which train Jo had to catch and relying on Anthony knowing which train we had to catch, that song was in my head and I looked over at Jo. Backpack beside her, tickets, reservations, working out routes, flight times, goodbye notes and CDs. Beautiful person, consummate traveler. Me with everything stuffed into a $2 plastic bag because im too cheap to pay for luggage. Too soon the ferry docked and we wound our way through Circular Quay train station, doing what travellers do, ticket machines, route boards and suddenly its minutes to hug and say goodbye before we were running for separate platforms. Why does saying goodbye on a busy train station platform seem so Audrey Hepburn?
I spent the night talking to Anthony and his lovely bride to be and grabbed a few hours sleep on his couch before my stupidly early flight. As usual I waited for them to call my name (it makes me feel important) before boarding the plane to head home to work. I looked
down at Sydney disappearing below me and realised i wasnt just saying good bye to a city, i was saying goodbye to friends. Bring on the next Get Together!!!
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Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy
Glad you came for the reunion
Wouldn't have picked that you were nervous about coming, but so glad you did - really enjoyed your company. Loved the honesty and humour in your blog entry. Hmmm, might give that levitating thing a go for real, would be quite handy for getting those overhead shots :-)