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Published: August 6th 2007
Roos!
We never got tired of watching kangaroos - even after seeing hundreds of them around the farmG'day from Australia,
The land down under was: lots of great family, very cool animals, wide open spaces, losing our around the world tickets (oops), and just like home.
Andrew here. As we've been horribly behind schedule, we're doing all ten weeks of our Australian adventure in one giant blog to get caught up. We've had to spend a lot of frustrating time recovering many of our blogs because the travelblog web server crashed. We've been able to recover almost everything - only one blog missing! Along the way we also discovered that one of our camera's memory cards decided not to talk to us anymore - you'll notice that there is only one picture from Sydney on this blog. Hopefully we can restore it when we get back home, otherwise we've lost a couple weeks of pictures too.
First, a little background family history. Australia is home to half of my family. My wild and crazy Aussie mother Jean grew up on a sheep station in Queensland (about halfway up the coast and three hours inland). She left home soon after school to be a nurse in New York, eventually finding her way up to the Canadian
Celebrity Sighting
The green bum belongs to Pink - she's much shorter than you'd think from the videos. arctic where she met my father. Before this trip, I'd only been to Australia once before when I was nine years old. Since that trip, I haven't really had much contact with that whole side of the family. This was the first time I was speaking to many of them as an adult.
Before I get into all the gory details, I would like to put out a huge thank you to all of our relatives and family friends that we met and stayed with. We were blown away by the warmth, generosity and attitude of everyone. Positively first rate people (and lots of fun too).
Australia started out just outside of Sydney, staying with family friends, the Warburtons. We never did figure out exactly how we were related but that didn't stop us from having a great visit with them. After a month of mostly camping in New Zealand, we were really enjoying our own bedroom and home cooked food! Tops was the drive to the northern beaches, complete with all the affordable housing (mansions) and floating toys you could imagine.
We had to organize our time in and out of Sydney carefully. We planned to
Wild Wallabies
We spotted this wallaby in the woods as we strolled along the coast get both our Indian and Chinese visas here, as they are only valid for six months from date of issue. The drop off, processing and pick up times for each visa meant that we hopped in and out of Sydney three times on the trip. The city was much like a North American one, with better beaches and huge bats. After wearing the same clothes for four months, seeing everyone walking around in full business dress actually made us miss our wardrobes!
Our next stop was the incredible Blue Mountains area, a two hour train ride west of Sydney. We were there to stay with a nursing friend of my mum's, Christine Killinger. She runs a beautiful bed and breakfast called Edgelinks (www.edgelinks.com.au). We were thoroughly spoilt yet again! We spent our days strolling through town, hiking in the blue mountains and our nights trying to get some juicy stories about my mum out of Christine. Don't worry mum, your stories are safe, we were terribly unsuccesful. We ended our visit with a memorable dinner. I had the honour of being the only man at the table with five very charismatic women!
We returned to Sydney to pick
Great Ocean Oops
Jen thought these old pier supports along the Great Ocean Road would be a great spot to pose - until the waves came up! up our passports from the Indian consulate (which you can only do in the afternoon) and drop them off with the Chinese (which you can only do in the morning, of couse). We stayed in the King's Cross area, chock full of prostitutes and their customers. The area provided some very entertaining people watching to say the least.
After getting our consular affairs in order, it was time to hop an overnight train to Melbourne. We were staying with my Aunt Hazel and her husband Ron. We spent a very enjoyable time with them, especially our road trips. Just outside of town, we saw wild kangaroos for the first time. We loved seeing kangaroos...over the whole ten week trip, every glimpse of a skippy was memorable. We spent an enjoyable day just strolling around the city. It's surprising how modern most of the buildings are in Australia - much more than at home. The great weather must have a part in it, but overall it makes the buildings in Canada look dated and frumpy by comparison.
During our stay with them, we drove down to the picturesque Mornington pennisula to have lunch with my cousin Campbell and his
The Apostles
Had to include a pic of the iconic rocks standing firm against the test of time girlfriend Nicky (hope I spelled that right) and her parents. This was also the first time the parents were meeting, so we were there for some family history in the making. I really enjoyed seeing them, and was a little dissappointed that we only had a few hours there. We ended up having the perfect excuse to take the three hour trip back to Campbell's place a second time, as I had left my favourite jacket at their house. (This was the first time I left my jacket behind somewhere - the second was a little more exciting). We spent a very chilled out two days at their place, going for a windy stroll along the coast and having dinner while listening to Campbell's bandmate Josh play at the local venue. Speaking of Campbell's band - they're call the President Roots, and they sound great. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/presidentroots.
We headed back for one more night with Hazel and Ron after watching a live Aussie Rules Football game in Melbourne. The Carleton Blues were spanked by the Adelaide Crows - we loved it. The game is super easy to pick up and has lots of continuous action.
Knock Knock
Andrew and his cousin Campbell check out a crazy old bombshelter in the woods We left Melbourne, travelling overnight on a Greyhound back to Sydney. This was the first leg of our very long bus trip up the coast all the way to Cairns (3000 km). After the great buses in South America, the very typical Greyhounds were a bit of a dissapointment - but they were on time and clean, and most importantly they were cheap! We had a quick visit with a friend from Ottawa, Scott, from my ultimate team (go Dukes!) who has moved down to Sydney for work. Watching people running all over the field reminded us of how out of shape we have become! As soon as we hit New Zealand, our fitness level starting dropping like a rock. With the rented car in NZ and getting driven around Australia by the rellies, we haven't been walking nearly as much as we did in South America. I'm sure all the Australian beer and wine didn't help either!.
Leaving Sydney behind we began our travels up the coast. We were looking forward to some beach time after having had some pretty cool days in the south. Our first stop was at Coff's Harbour, a beautiful little spot to stop
No Peace!
The papparazzi continue to hound me wherever I go - on the beach along the Mornington Pennisula near Melbourne for a couple days. We were treated to an amazing show as we strolled along the paths of Mutton Bird Island. A small pod of humpback whales was swimming north, hugging the shoreline. They were playing around, leaping out of the water and spinning around, splashing about and generally having great fun. It was the first time either one of us has seen whales in the wild, and we were both captivated. What a time to forget the camera!
We headed from there to the very touristy Byron Bay. The campground was right on the beach - very sweet. We had planned to spend our days swimming and surfing, but our mood was much more mellow, and the weather was still pretty cool. Most of our time was spent just chilling out, which we both needed anyway.
Another long bus ride later, we hooked up with my cousin Peter in the little town of Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. Peter and his kids, Alan (14) and Paul (11), are living with his girlfriend Alana and two of her children (plus more people hanging around the place from time to time). The activity and craziness was welcome after our
Tossing Around the Disc
Tossing two discs with my cousin Peter on the beach at Coolangatta downtime. We headed to the beach on Sunday with them and had a great fun playing in the waves. I had a little scare when I went out to try boogie boarding. The water was only up to my shoulders, with fairly puny waves. The fun came when I got caught in a rip current. Even though I could touch the bottom between waves, I wasn't having much luck making it back to shore. After several minutes, I made my way back, huffing and puffing and looking like a drowned rat. Jen had a good laugh.
The next day we said goodbye to Peter and headed off for the absurdity of Surfer's Paradise. The town feels more like Las Vegas than Australia. The tall, modern buildings that line the waterfront are the epitome of bad architectural planning - they cast a shadow all afternoon that covers the narrow strip of sand, making it one of the worst places to hang out on the beach for miles around. The hostel that we stayed in here was terrible - hard beds, dirty carpets and lots of friendly roaches! We were satisfied with our one night stay here - and never again.
Coolangatta Sunset
A surf lifesaver packs up after a day at the beach - I almost needed him after I got stuck in a rip current here Our next destination was just outside of Surfer's. We were meeting my (third?) cousin Valentine and her husband Rob. They were very generously putting us up in the Seaworld Resort for the night. We were all going to the 'Australian Outback Spectacular' that night. It's a dinner show where everybody wears the same big silly straw hats and cheers on their respective sheep stations as the actors compete in horse (and camel) games. It was good value, as they say down here. The next day we detoured from the coast - well off the backpacker circuit. We were headed to the town of Milmerran (pop 1050), with a whistle-stop in Toowoomba to meet a few more rellies for lunch. We only had one night with Val and Rob before we had to take off again.
The next stop was the family farm, Brigalow Park. The farm is an unassuming place with a small farmhouse sitting well off the road. At only about 2800 acres, it's small by Australian standards. It was great to see the place again, especially as it was the part of Australia that I had the best memories of from my childhood visit (Stuart and
Dry Dry Dry
Brigalow Park hasn't had good rainfall for a very long time I got into more trouble here than anywhere else). We spent several days with my uncle Alan and his partner Carmel. The farm has been a tough go for a while, as they've had drought conditions for a long, long time. They get so little rain around here that everybody knows how many points (quarters of a millitmeter) they receive with each rainfall. It was the first thing reported in any phone call with friends. Because they didn't have enough water (only what comes off the roof), Jen and I stayed in the nearest town, the bustling metropolis (pop 150) of Leyburn.
There are only a couple places to stay in town, and they were pretty full because the nearby power plant was being revamped. Alan had found us a little cabin, the last one available. We had a good chuckle when we saw it. We were staying in the 'Lavender and Roses' cabin. It was obviously done up for couples who were stopping here on romantic driving weekends. Four poster bed with canopy, popourri, super deep spa tub, it was decked out! We had a fantastic stay. We even enjoyed the ten minute drive back and forth to
The Farm Dog
Didi - the newest addition to the Brigalow park family. the farm - at night roos littered the side of the road. We never saw fewer than a dozen of them on each trip. Speaking of nights - the stars out there were incredible. I love starry skies (Jen's not nearly as keen on them as I am). We've seen some pretty good starry nights on the trip so far, but nothing came close to the skies over Leyburn. I could move here just for the stars.
We ran into some pretty crappy weather - close to freezing temperatures overnight, with (thankfully) a little rain! Carmel decided to take us on a tasting tour of the nearby Granite Belt wine region. We returned from the day with big smiles, full of cheesecake and more than a little tipsy. We had been rained on for most of the day, but back at the farm they had received very little. What a frustrating way to be teased by mother nature.
The next day we all piled into a truck for a road trip. Every body here has a different idea of where the 'outback' is, and particularly where it starts. City folks think it's anywhere off the coast. Ask a
Red Earth
As we drove into the outback from Leyburn, we hit the famous red earth that fills the center of the country farmer and they'll tell you it starts somewhere about a ten hour's drive inland. We headed west, into the fertile plains that border the outback by Alan's definition. It was well off the beaten track. The earth was a striking deep red and groups of jackaroos (cowboys) made temporary camps in clearings as they drove their herds across giant property blocks.
We left the farm after five days there. It was a bittersweet time for me. Throughout my visits to close relatives, I had mixed feelings as we said our goodbyes. I don't know when I will return to this place, it might be decades before I make it back. My mother had already said that her most recent trip here (when her mother passed away) was likely her last. Seeing the farm recede into the rearview mirror forced me to confront the fact that I may never see the farm, or my uncle, again.
Our next stop took us to Eleanor and Peter McGovern's place, back in Toowoomba, after dropping by for a cuppa to meet another set of relatives, Russel and Carole Batham. Eleanor was an old school friend of my mum's, and I had met
Outback Jen
Jen at the Nindigully pub, the farthest point westward from the coast that we hit on our drive into the outback them when they visited Canada a while ago. We stayed just one night at their place, really enjoying getting toured around town in Peter's classic cars. I think it was a '39 that we rode around in, with Jen stretching out on the limousine sized back seat, feeling like a queen. Still no incriminating stories about my mum though, despite our hard efforts!
The next day saw us back on a bus to Brisbane for more whirlwind family intros. I had no idea that my mum had been in contact with so many people for all these years! We had dinner with the Beverly and Neville Taylor, and then whisked off to stay with Beverly's sister Jocelyn and her husband Tim. We had a day to ourselves to putter about Brisbane, riding the ferry down the very picturesque river, with more views of affordable houses and their owner's big boats. That night we were treated to an all you can eat seafood dinner. The dinner was at the marina (we were seeing lots of boats on this trip!) I should have remembered the rule: an all you can eat buffet is not a challenge.
The next day we
Dashing Bridesmaid
Andrew's mum Jean at eighteen adjusts the veil - we had a great time going through old photos with the rellies and family friends headed up the coast to the blissfully small town of Caloundra. We were there to visit with Eleanor's daughter Katrina and her husband Shane. After many visits with the older rellies, it was nice to hang out with some people our own age. We had a great time in Caloundra. We tried kangaroo roast (delicious), went surfing (stood up for the first time) and drank lots of beer (yum). While strolling along an incredible coastal walkway in the snooty Noosa area we even spied a wild koala!
We said our goodbyes and headed further up the coast. Both of us were pretty visited out, and glad to be back on our own again. We were camped in Hervey Bay, gateway to the unique Fraser Island which is basically just one big sand dune (about 125 km long) jutting into the sea. We had planned to do a 4x4 camping trip around the island, but the weather was miserable. Unlike the farm, the coast was getting plenty of rain, and we were stuck right in the middle of it. The campground we were staying in was pretty basic, and after the second day of rain the tent was getting a
Is that you Skippy?
Jen wasn't so sure about our Kangaroo roast - it was delicious! little claustrophobic. We decided against the 4x4 trip and booked a one day bus trip on the island - with a twist. Instead of taking the normal ferry route, we treated ourselves to an air taxi back and forth. The view of the island from the air was better than anything we saw on the ground, and the beach landing was impressive! We had decided to take pictures from the air on the way back, when the weather would be better (it was raining in the morning). The camera gremlins were hard at work though - the battery died just as we were taking off!
We were regretting the fact that we hadn't spent much time on the sand or in the water so far on the trip, so we planned to stop for two days of surfing at the tiny town of Agnes Waters. This was the last place to surf as you move north, before the great barrier reef gets in the way. Again, our plans were spoiled as we pitched the tent in the dark just before the rains hit. It poured steadily the next day with high winds, and after checking the forecast and seeing
Stand up on a surfboard - check
Standing for the first time - with applause from my surf guru Shane more on the way, we decided to screw it and get the next bus out of town. We were sick of killing time in our little tent. It was nice and dry (thankfully), but just too small to be much fun.
We arrived in the backpacker haven of Airlie beach, bleary eyed after a terrible overnight bus. The place exists for nothing more than drinking, tanning and boat trips out to the Whitsunday Islands. I had been looking forward to doing a sailing trip since we landed in Sydney. Our plan was to book an overnight trip on one of the maxi racing yachts, but once again the weather got in the way. More rain! If only I could pipe some of this up to Alan on the farm! They whole town was full of people waiting for better weather to book their trips. We waited for four days for the forecast to improve. In the end, we had to take a one day trip with marginal weather - we had to meet our last set of relatives the next day. The sailing trip was a blast - but it was frosty. The trip included a short snorkel on
Working It
After standing up on a board for all of fifteen seconds, Andrew decides he has to perfect the pose too a coral reef - a first for both of us. We were amazed by the incredible colours of the reef - including Jen's blue lips. Things warmed up a little on the sail back from the beach in the sunshine, but we still wore our gore tex jackets for most of the way. It wasn't exactly the sun, sand, surf and bikinis that we were expecting, but it sure beats working!
Our final visit with relatives was in the coastal city of Townsville. We met my (third?) cousin Rosalyn, who was full of energy, and let me drive when we toured around the city. I love driving, and it was great to get back behind the wheel again. We stayed that night with her daughter's family: Niomi and Mick and their two sons. They have a small farm outside the city, complete with cutting horses. Jen and I both got to ride, neither one of us with much success - although for me just staying on top of the beasts is an accomplishment. Unfortunately, this would be another whistle-stop tour, as we had to head out on the bus the next afternoon. With all the time we added to
Andrew Likes Boats
Nothing puts a smile on my face like spending some time on a sailboat (well, almost nothing) the schedule in the first few weeks of the country, we had run out of extra days by the end. After another whistle-stop visit for lunch with Rosalyn's other daughter Julie and her children, we were off on another long bus trip.
And now Jen will take over...
We arrived in Cairns, the last stop on our East Coast Greyhound pass (only 1 more Greyhound ride to go!), late Friday night. Yet again we set up the tent in the dark (although we could do it with our eyes closed at this point)! I was excitedly anticipating starting my open water scuba diving course the next morning...
I had signed up for a 5 day course, with the first two days spent in Cairns in Pro-Dive's training centre, and the last three days on a liveaboard boat on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Andrew joined me on the boat, which was great as we could dive together once I was certified. We were both very impressed with Pro-Dive's operation and would recommend them to anyone. My first two days of theory and pool training were long (I had to study and write tests!), but went by quickly
Happy Jen
As you can see, some things make Jen smile too! and I had a great group. The funny part was that my instructor's name was Andrew Mackinnon! He and Andrew even look alike (tall & skinny) - very wierd! The liveaboard boat was fantastic - now I can't imagine diving any other way, not to mention the fact that we were on the GBR. We had our own room (bunk beds), with the boat carrying about 40 people in total. All our meals were included, and every time we came in for a dive there was food waiting for us. I got in 9 dives and a snorkel over the 3 days, including a night dive which was a highlight. Andrew did 11 dives over the 3 days - they had the whole trip choreographed to perfection! We saw several sharks and sea turtles, thousands of bright, colourful fish of all sizes and shapes, some creatures that looked more like monsters that sea life, and all kinds of coral. And yes, we found Nemo! The dive trip was one of the major highlights of our adventure so far.
After the diving we had a few days to recover before our flight to Ayers Rock, which was a good thing
What's the Horn For?
Jen tries to get used to riding western style - she was happy to be back on a horse, but didn't like the saddle much! as we both picked up colds on the boat (not surprising given the space we were confined to over 3 days). Cairns is pretty touristy, but we were able to do some planning for India and stock up on meds and other stuff we would need in Asia. The campground was good and fairly close to town, so it was a nice break.
Since our around the world (RTW) ticket gave us four flights in NZ and Australia, we had decided to use the extra two to fly in and out of the Outback to see the famous Ayers Rock. Our flight to Uluru (the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock), was uneventful, or so it seemed at the time... The only unfortunate thing was that we didn't get a window - the row we were in simply didn't have a window! So much for that first sight of the Rock from the air. We landed and made it to the campground located in the Ayers Rock resort and were just about to head out to see the Rock, when Andrew discovered that he had left his jacket on the plane. Not good, but it's just a jacket, right... "What
Ridem Cowboy
Andrew just trying to stay in the saddle this time is in the jacket", I ask. "Our flight tickets", he says (our paper-based RTW tickets for ALL our remaining flights). I'm not quite sure what sound escaped from mouth at that point, but I remained calm and we went immediately to the reception to call the airport to see if the jacket had been found. After many calls, we determined that the jacket was likely still on the plane which had gone from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs, and then on to Perth. Our cell phone was also in one of the jacket pockets, so we kept calling it hoping someone would pick up. The phone kept going in and out of reception, which made us assume that it was still on the plane. We eventually had to give up for the day having left a message at the Perth lost-and-found which was now closed. While we did get to the Rock for sunset, which was beautiful, and did some star gazing through a giant telescope, neither of us slept very well that night. It was also close to freezing and our sleeping pads were only lasting a couple of hours before they had to be pumped up again (they'd
The Andrew Mackinnons
Jen's dive instructor in Cairns had a particularly familiar name: Andrew Mackinnon meet Andrew Mackinnon. been dying a slow death for a few weeks). I think it was the first night that we both thought about going home!
The next morning we started by calling the Ayers Rock airport again. To our utter delight and relief, there was a message for us from the Brisbane airport. They had the jacket, tickets and phone included, and would we please contact their lost-and-found (to this day we have no idea how many flights that jacket went on before being found)!!! To make a long story shorter, Andrew eventually reached a very kind lady in Brisbane who broke Qantas protocol and put the jacket on a plane that would meet us in Darwin the next day. She even tore off the tickets for our flight from Alice to Darwin and called the Alice airport to say that they would process the tickets in Brisbane and would they please let us on the plane! (We took our last Greyhound bus from Ayers to Alice, where we flew the rest of the way to Darwin). I can't tell you how relieved we were (especially Andrew) when there was a package waiting at baggage claim with our name on it!
Certified!
This was taken on the third day of our dive trip. Jen had her certification, so now we could dive together for the first time. At that point I smacked Andrew a few times and we both agreed that I would hold the tickets from now on! (Note from Andrew - Jen was truly forgiving with me during this whole affair - right up to the point when we got the tickets back, at which point she got mad for the first time. I'll never understand women!)
We only had a couple of days in Darwin, so the night we arrived we booked a day trip to Litchfield National Park for the next day. The trip was great and started off with a boat ride down the Adelaide river where we watched salt water crocodiles ("salties") jump out of the water to grab meat being dangled on a string! While it was incredibly touristy, it was great fun and well worth the trip. We even saw one older crock, "Hannibal the Cannibal", who is 6 m long! From there we went into the park, where we visited several waterfalls, two of which we swam in. One, with a turquoise lake under two falls, looked like a setting for a movie!
The rest of our time in Darwin was spent doing some final souvenier
Cuddles
This one is for Eve (Jen's mother)...she loves snakes, honest and Asia shopping. We also went to the famous Mindil Beach Market where we watched the sunset from the beach, listened to some fantastic digeridoo players and wondered among the stalls - a very cool market.
On our last morning we went to the post office to mail one very large package - all of our camping gear went home (yeah - we don't have to carry it any more!). Now I had lots of room for Asia shopping!
On Friday, the 13th of July (week 26 of our 49 week adventure), we boarded a plane for Mumbai, India. Two continents down, two more to go!
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