Advertisement
Well, here it is, the last blog, the last day of the trip and I have a whole 10 weeks to get off my chest! Not sure where to start really. I have had a great time and seen both the best and worst of Australia and of other travellers! Add to this, my mixed emotions in leaving and it makes for a hard blog to construct! I had to take the enevitable 'group-trip' in the Northern territory, but thankfully it wasn't the 'get-a-long gang' chaos that some of them become! I have also travelled on my own which has been a refreshing change and allowed loads of impromptu stops!
So here goes....
I spent a few days in Melbourne on my arrival in this ex-convict land, staying with friends that I used to work with when I was here in 2004. It was lovely to be in a real house again, although this bliss was inturrupted abruptly when the whole first floor flat was wall to wall in 2 inches of water, with a waterfall flowing under the kitchen window of the flat below. The exact cause of this great flood was never accertained and the water accumulated in only an hour?! I was last to leave at which point the main water supply was off due to repairs. When the neighbour entered, all the taps were off, weird. Thankfully, nothing was really damaged, although it was chaotic for the rest of my stay. Aside from this, it was nice to be back in melbourne even though it was freezing with southern winds sweeping threw the city! This made it pretty chilly for the jazz musicians that were giving free concerts as part of the Jazz festival. There was some cracking music and the dancing helped to keep me warm! The football players were also cold up near where we used to live in Brunswick. The Itailians were pretty serious about their game and this included rolling around crying in distress when the wind blew them too hard! It was therefore not too alarming when one of them fell to the floor and started shouting in pain.......it continued......and then he shouted "my finger, it's pointing the wrong way!!!'. There was no team doctor and the shout came out 'is there a doctor here?!'.........on I ran taking him off the pitch to assess the damage! The ref surprised me when he said 'Are you a doctor? Oh yes I recognise you now'. Never seen him in my life! The finger was dislocated, but with some fairly hefty persuation and some, I presume swear words in Italian, I managed to relocate it! Great fun! I managed to see a few spots that I didn't get to last time I was here, mainly in the north of the Victorian state, including the Holden museum which was actually interesting, made more so by arriving in Brian's vintage holden! It was a nice car until the lights went off in driving rain in the dark!
With the house slowly drying out it was time for me to move on and I arrived in darwin at 11pm, tired and ready for a nice sleep, in my first dorm in Aus. To call the night horrific would not do it justice! Check this;
1. I get there to be greeted by just pubescent kids acting like alcohol was going out of fashion and like they were so cool for drinking and even ...... smoking! 'Cool man'... Now I like a good night out as you all know, so i was moderately prepared to let this slip..... but.....
2. 1am - 3 of the aforementioned teeny-boppers come in and turn all the lights on, stating that they have paid like everyone else so they are entitled to use the lights, even if it means waking us all up....
3. 2am - The door bursts open and someone is dragged out in a torrent of abuse before they start fighting on the balcony outside......
4. 3am - 2 people return and start making out on one of the top bunks!
I was far from amused in the morning and although darwin had one or 2 sights of moderate interest, the city itself didn't improve too much!
However, all was not lost, I was fortunate to meet 2 real special people. The first was a chance encounter with an aboriginal guy in the botanical gardens. Johnnie (not his real name no doubt), was fascinating and I spent at least 2-3 hours listening to his tales from the bush and learning more about his culture. It turned out that his brother is a famous Aboriginal actor and most of his family live in Kakadu NP, which I was to visit later in the week and verify his stories. He is the traditional land-owner of the magnificent JIM-JIM falls, together with a potential Uranium Mine. His stories of the mining companies trying to persuade him to let them dig was funny. Elaborate gifts and parties every 5 years, even with his mind already made up on the answer of no! He has no intention of ever changing his mind and has instructed his son to do the same. The second person was called Elfyn, who joined Johnnie and I on the grass in the park. A girl from Holland living a lifestyle best described as a hippie around australia and avoiding all capitalism as much as possible, she was one of the most grounded people I have ever met. Both were really interesting people and the conversations we had were ones I have found myself reflecting on, since our encounters.
That trip to Kakadu I mentioned was a real treat. I hired my own campervan giving me the freedom to spend more time in the better spots and also in the adjacent NP - Litchfield. Litchfield was a waterhole dream with the best swimming holes below sumptous waterfalls. I also managed to find some nice native-artwork in a community gallery which shall grace my walls in Leeds! I made a campfire every night and cooked me tea on it which was great fun. I am now quite the expert and a budding pyromaniac! Kakadu was just as wonderful as Litchfield, with some cracking deserted bush-walks, I spent a good couple of hours watching colourful bee-eaters flying around the dramatic stone karsts in the dry and arid heat. There was an abundance of aboriginal influence with rock art estimated to be 10000 years old if not more. I bumped into one 'get-a-along gang' who were looking at artwork on a ledge 20m off the floor, the aborginal community believe that they were created by special spirits, not according to the teenyboppers 'couldn't they have just used a stick, the pictures are rubbish anyway', some people have no soul! One of the saddest notices stated that the meaning of the artwork in certain places has been lost, as the entire community that were responsible for them, had their secrets taken with them to their grave. A death caused by the colonial invasion. Sobering thought. The view from a lookout out near Aboringal land in Obirr was out of this world! It had a 360 degree view of the land and it is hard for words to do it justice! One real surprise was an olympic 50m pool in the main center of the NP - it was great! I saw the resident salties (crocodiles) in numerous places without the need for the exorbatant tours! The best spot was Cahill's crossing near the entry point for Arnhemland. The poms and other tourists were hellbent on catching a barramundi from the river even though standing in there up to your waist is highly dangerous! I didn't see any taken down and they didn't catch their barramundi either! One thing that was unbelieveable were the blumming mosquitos! There was thousands of the bleeders especially near Ubirr! It made the smoke from the fire even more important but on a couple of occasions I had to admit defeat and retreat to eat my tea in the van!
On return to darwin I saw the worst of Australia. Those of you who have been will no doubt agree that they can be a very racist country and this is not just restricted to the Aboriginal Culture, but to any non-whites. I have tried to see this differently but one cannot ignore it here. You meet too many people who make flippant offensive comments. Of course this is not limited to Australia but I find it totally abhorent and usually challenge each and every person that expressed their biggoted views. The worst of this was seen in darwin. There are unfortunately a Higher proportion of Native Australians, living rough, with associated alcohol and Drug related problems. This is a highly complex issue. You tell someone for long enough that they are useless, destroy all that is sacred to them, steal their children to indoctrinate them with the 'true religion' of the missionaries, ignore their views and steal their land and eventually they give up hope. I couldn't bring myself to try and explain this to the tourists who moaned about the 'locals', on their way out to the pub to enjoy the 2dollar specials and be sick on the way home.... Such irony would be lost on them. But the scene that was hard to stomach was a policeman (white) kicking a homeless Aboriginal who was sitting on the floor, telling him to move for no real reason. There was real hate in his voice and eyes and he was kicking him hard, whilst his 2 colleagues watched. It was something that I thought I would never see and is how I would imagine SA was during Apartheid. What the policeman did not like, was Elfyn and I standing and watching. Upon realising we were, he then challenged us as to if we had a problem, decided that the guy didn't need to move afterall and walked off. Sickening. The other way that almost every shop discriminated, was to have signs saying 'no entry without footwear'. Ok, in Barnsley you would generally wear shoes but in the Northern territory it's nice to drive in barefeet and just jump out the car into shops. I asked what it was about and was told that 'it was to keep the Abo's out'. Hard to believe that we still have people harbouring such unacceptable views.
After darwin came the organised tour across the Kimberleys to Broome. This route crosses some real 4WD country, making the adapted Toyota Landcruiser V8 all essential! There was only 8 of us on the trip and the guide, Will, was great fun. Being only 23 he was up for adventure and took us to some brilliant cliff dive locations, even though only he dare try the real high ones! Each day was as memorable as the previous. The camp sites were an undoubted highlight with total seclusion in some beautiful spots, all with roaring camfires and even campfire made pizza's and a sunday roast which was devine! We walked through beautiful gorges, including Manning gorge. This was a 5km walk to a waterfall and then a 3km swim/float down the river to the beginning. No-one else was swimming and we never ascertained if we were meant to, but we didn't care, it was truely awesome! It was like Jurassic park with dramatic red rock cliffs covered in vibrant green and red plants with crystal clear deep water sweeping us along! The bungle bungles were fascinating with their beehive shaped domes jutting from the landscape. The landscape was appreciated more from the air in a doorless helicopter! Cathedral Gorge was a majestic natural amphitheatre which resonated Will's Digeridoo playing just perfectly. But it wasn't all sights; Will's birthday coincided with the middle of the tour and we had a party in the bush with punch and the odd drinking game, he seemed to enjoy the day, even if the girls dressed him up in a similar style to the 'crazy frog' for the gorge walks! Another random event was the excavation of an embedded tree on one of the river beaches that we camped at. It took ages, and alot of hard work. It all started when Sarah announced that if we could excavate it, she would try and raft it across the river. Unfortunately after all our hard work it sank! The stars were so bright as I slept in my swag that you could swear that cast shadows! Wonderful!
It was a shame that the trip ended but Broome was a nice place to end up with stunning sunsets and even some x million year old dinosaur footprints! While admiring the sunset, I happened across 2 Blue-Ringed Octopi(!?) in a rockpool. Now these little buggers are only 7-8 inches long but are capable of killing you! Bit different from the rock-pooling that Rebecca and I did in Angelsea!
Next came another campervan and some independent travelling up the West coast. It was disappointing that they wasn't as many free campsites where fires were permitted that I expected, but the few that I found were great. It was nearly my undoing though - I stopped on a verge to gather firewood, only to be bogged when I tried to leave. After some reversing and a few neatly placed sticks, I was eventually on my way with only a minor panic! Will had recommended a few lesser known spots along the coast that provided neat stopovers along the way. I enjoyed fabulous bush walking with koala's in the Yanchep NP north of Perth, as well as numerous suicidal butterflies that threw themselves at my windscreen. Thankfully there was no major road-kill on my part! Parts of the coast were great. Swimming with whalesharks in Exmouth was a unique experience. Seeing the 8m friendly giants suddenly in front of you was awe-inspiring. Then came the snorkelling to keep up with them! They were huge but had a peaceful calm about them. We were lucky to swim with Manta-rays on the way back as well and even saw 5 humpback whales migrating! We were spoilt somewhat! There were a few snorkelling spots in the area but the sea was as cold as the North sea I swear and compared to Sipidan it was decidedly average, even if i did see a 6ft reef shark swimming past me! At Monkey Mia, dolphins come to the beach for regular feeding sessions, allowing you to stand on the shore-edge as they come for the fish. It was less of a circus than I imagined and allowed real good viewing of the creatures. What was most pleasurable for me, was the private show a young dolphin gave me chasing and catching fish after the official feeding session! He would swim on his back, force the fish to jump out of the water and then catch them in his mouth! A real surprise favourite was at the Strolatomites - living rocks created by bacteria. The sea was so still and the sceanery beautiful. There was no-one else there and I enjoyed a truely awesome sunset before settling inot the lovely campsite for bangers and mash on the fire! The west coast had a few damp-squibs too though! They seemed to have created attractions fairly loosely. For example, mushroom rock - a rock with a bare resemblence to a mushroom....... The grandstand - a wind swept coastline with some ledges........ They weren't worth getting out of the car for! One widely promoted attraction are the Pinnacles - hundreds of limestone pillars jutting out of an otherwise barren desert. True, they were a bit earie and surreal but not the amazing spectacle that I had been led to believe! It was even worse when the winds came near sunset and blew sand absolutely everywhere and almost hurt as it hit me in the face, delightful!
Being on the road so long I noticed some nice touches. The statutory acknowledgement of other drivers was to raise you index finger off as the steering wheel, as they passed by. It may be a similar north-south divide to the UK again but they were much more friendly in doing this up north! Maybe because you could drive for tens of km's without seeing another car! I like this friendly gesture though, so don't be surprised to see me doing it in the UK! The other beauty were the police signs scattered around the towns and cities. For those of you that remember Jess off the fast show will appreciate the humour in them, they read "This week the police will be targetting ________"!! The targets varied from drink-sriving to fatigue?! I couldn't help but see Jess walking out of his shed everytime I saw them "This week, I have mostly been eating tripe". Priceless!
After seeing the west coast North of Perth I ventured down to the southern regions seeing the wine region of Maraget River, where I was delighted to find a cidery and some mighty fine Scrumpy. The lady used to live in bristol hence the quality! Another highlight was the Jewel cave which had a impressive display of stalatites, stalagmites and many heligtites. There were more great NP's which I generally I had all to my myself. One such place was Youlangup. I enjoyed 2 bush walks and set about making my fire for tea in the deserted campsite. All was fine until the sun disappeared and the moon was in it's new phase was virtually non-existant. The dense tress created no light and the bats and insects flying around made it very earie! So much so, that I am ashamed to say that I had to bottle it and leave! I was 50km from anywhere and anyone, down a unsealed road, making it true wolfcreek, potential nutter territory! I suffered 2 days of rain in the southern region after a few glorious crisp days. Still it didn't affect my enjoyment of the huge forests of karri trees around pemberton which were truely magnificent!
So how could I end my trip?! Well, I went to work! During my trip down the west coast I had a great horse-ride in kalbarri. The horse, 'Big Arnie' was awesome. Really responsive and fast, indeed I was the first person to ever beat the guide on the final gallop home! I was invited to return and help out on the ranch in return for bed/board and free rides - too good to resist. I had a wonderful week to end my travels. I worked hard, making fires (spot a pattern), feeding horses, tacking up and getting atacked by a pomegranate bush that I pruned within an inch of it's life! There was a lot of banter from Rory, the head guide that I had beaten up the track and he was determined to get me to fall off by the end of the week. Dispite 'Big-arnie's attempts to buck and rear me off in what was his usual display of naughty behaviour, Rory was not getting his way, until the last day.....! I was riding the most frisky, liviest and fastest horse on the ranch that usually only Rory rides. He was fine, dispite his rearing displays that accomnpanied every canter. Holding him back on the final gallop was hard and when we set off, he absolutely flew up the fire-break. The other horses were miles behind, it was amazing. When it came to pulling up, stopping in a straight line was hard so I veered him left to the edge of the track. However I didn't bank on him trying to jump the 4ft metal fence in his way! He left it too late, half refused, half jumped and hit the fence leaving me to be dispatched on the ground and he galloped home without me! Rory, as Welsh as a leak, loved it and couldn't stop laughing, especially as I only had 20M or so of the ride left! It was all good banter though and I was sad to leave the ranch on Monday.
And so to the end. I am currently in the business lounge in Singapore airport, enjoying my Business class flight home. The hospitality even dwarfs that of the 5star place in KK!
The trip has been awesome, and so hard to emcompass in a few lines or words. Real highlights are so numerous and varied: Snorkelling in Sipaden, walking in borneo, the temples of Cambodia, riding in at the ranch, camping in the Kimberleys and even the simple things like that sunset at the strolatomites will all stay with me forever. I bring these new memories into the rest of my life including the concepts of what matters to me, what is important and what is inconsequential. The knowledge that where-ever you are, people are fundamentally good and each and every encounter every day, every second, has the potential to bring something new to your life and enrich it, it just depends how open you are to receive it. I'm still the same James that left on September 18th last year, maybe more relaxed and content but it'll be interesting to see if there are any differences that people notice. I think I have realised things that I probably already knew, but never had the space or time to reflect adequately. I'm certainly more unfit, less wealthy, better at campfires, a master at catching mosquitos, great at packing a rucksack, improved at taking photos, have a few words in 4-5 new languages, can horse-ride better, can remove a sucking leech as well as being able to survive 10 months with 5 pairs of boxers and 4 t-shirts!
I can't wait to get home and see my family and friends. I hope to catch up with as many of you as possible in the next few weeks and months, but feel free to call me and let me bore you with even more stories. I'd love to hear what's been happening to all of you.
The return to work on the 21st is likely to be a huge shock but I can rest knowing that my next holiday, snowboarding in chile for 2 weeks is only 6 weeks away!!...........That will probably not nessitate another blog you will be relieved to know!
I still can't believe that I am actually going home!
See you all soon!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0451s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
