Australia Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne

---

12-20-07
I was really tired and all I really remembered doing was hitting the bed, as I fell asleep immediately on mattress impact. It was quite hot actually last night and the birds outside were very loud and I think were up at 4:30. I was excited as this was my first day in Australia. I was tired though too and resting seemed ok as well. Trudy left around 8:00 and I used the internet most of the morning after eating some cereal. Around noon I went down to the local Hungry Jacks as I had not heard of that place before only to find out it is a Burger King. I had a whopper value meal. Got some food supplies, dropped them off at Trudy’s and then went for a walk. I hiked for about 1.5 hours only to get lost. I saw this Water Lizard as identified by local. I thought it was a baby alligator. After a long walk I found my way back to Trudy’s and jumped on the internet. Man what did we do before that device. Rebeca, Trudy’s daughter, got home from College for Christmas break and we talked for awhile. Trudy got home soon after and we got ready and all went to Trudy’s friend’s Christmas Party. It was a blast and she even had a pool. She fed us some excellent food and I swam a while after the food. We drank quite of bit and had a lot of fun. Couchsurfing was discussed a lot. Several of the people at the table had done extensive traveling and it was a great evening. Trudy was not feeling too well and we headed back to her place around 12:00. She had a two bed room place so she slept with her daughter in her bed while I slept in Aaron’s the semi permanent couchsurfer's room. Good night from Brisbane in the subdivision of Kedron.

12-21-07
Trudy and I got up around 8 had some breakfast and headed out. She was going to show me a few places. We drove to an area north of Brisbane that she really likes. She said her and her daughter had spent a lot of time in this area as her daughter took some sailing lessons there. From there we went farther up the coast line and stopped in an area that had a pool. Trudy said I could swim if I like. and I like so I did just that for awhile. From there we went into the countryside west of Brisbane. We got lost a few times and bought a map as I believe she said Aaron had hers. Man it is amazing how those two get along. Aaron is doing some sort of work to help the youth of the world and I think Trudy loves doing what she can to help him down this road.

We went to Mount Glorious and had lunch in this rainforest. I was amazed by the birds in the area and their amazing colors. There was a turkey like bird walking around as well. I was astounded by the colors of these birds. After lunch we proceeded down this mountainous area back towards the Brisbane. It amazed me there was this type of landscape in Australia. I thought Australia was desert like. That sure is not the case as it is lush and green and mountainous in this area.

Trudy was dancing this Friday night as she always does so she was dropping me off at Vicki’s my next couchsurfers at 4. It was funny that my next host lives just a 5 minute drive from Trudy’s house. Trudy dropped me off and I was surprised at how nice a place Vicki’s parents had. They had a good view of downtown Brisbane and they had a swimming pool. Trudy invited us in and we drank some tea. Trudy had to get going so we said our goodbyes. Vicki showed me my room, which was down stairs. I talked to Jeff, Vicki’s dad, for a long time as he is very interesting and polite. They owned a big farm for awhile then got into the logging business and now is in the General contracting business as well as leasing storage space to a big company on their land.

Vicki told me in mid conversation with her dad, that I had 5 minutes to be ready. She said men get ready so fast there is no reason to give them more than 5 minutes to get ready was her theory. I started calling her 5 minutes after awhile as a joke. Vicki and I went out and met a friend of her’s Harry downtown for some Nepalian food and it was very good. If you get good spices you can really make some good food even without meat. We went to a lookout over town and then headed home as we were all tired. It was a good first night with Vicki. Good night from Brisbane Couchsurfer number 2’s home!

12-22-07
On this day Vicki and I went to the market in town and looked around. It was quite fun. Vicki kept handing me stuff to try asking first if I have had it and then saying it was from Australia, if that was the case. I enjoyed trying all the different foods. We had some coffee and a band there was playing some sort of Balkan music, which I danced to. I was a little embarrassed to dance, but I did it anyway and it was fun. I had a fun time at the market and then Vicki took me to a bus stop at the Brisbane Casino, where I got on a bus to go to the wildlife sanctuary. This sanctuary had the largest number of Koala Bears in the world. The admission was $22 which seemed like a lot to me but I guess it really is not that bad. There were loads of Koala Bears, a dingo, wombats (pig like creatures), several snakes, lots of Kangaroos. They had several shows going on every ½ hour. There was a birds of prey show, which was quite interesting and my favorite. The birds did not always do exactly what they were supposed to do, which made it even more interesting to me. The owl flew really low across the crowd, which was quite cool. They had a big eagle too that was relatively young that had difficulty flying because of wind currents. I just thought birds instinctively knew how to do that. There was a koala show, a kangaroo show and a dog sheep show that I watched. The sheep show was interesting in that the dogs were well trained but the sheep had done this routine so many times that I think they would have done what they did without the dog.

I jumped on the bus and went into town to the Irish bar where Vicki was to pick me up. I had a Guinness, but it just did not taste the same as what you get in Dublin. Vicki drove by and saw me in the window and yelled at me indicating I should run out and jump in the car so she did not have to find a parking space, which is what I did. When we got back to her house she said we have 20 minutes before we had to leave. This is an improvement over the 5 minute warning the day before so I jumped in the shower and got ready in about 15 minutes. Vicki on the other hand took about 40 minutes. We again were late. Her friend came along as well and we drove down town to meet Harry again. Harry again was waiting on us. It took us forever to find a parking spot, but we finally did. We had supper and there was some dancing after the dinner. It was a fun night and we went home around 10 and called it a night as Vicki’s parents were already in bed. Good night from my second and last night couchsurfing in Brisbane.

12-23-07
This is the day I fly to Cairns to get access to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. I had a 2 O’clock flight so I wanted to be to the airport at least by noon. I went upstairs and talked to Jeff, Vicki’s dad for awhile around 7:30. Jeff said Stephen, his son, is coming over soon to discuss house demolition work. Jeff seems always to be in work mode. He works 7 days a week. Man I sure do not do that these days. Not even close. Ha Ha! Vicki got up around 8:30 about the same time Stephen arrived. Jeff was fixing me a vegemite sandwhich, which was about my 3rd one now. I think they are pretty decent while most people it seems do not like them. I suspect the salt content is rather high and it probably is not too good for you. Vicki discovered that Stephen is going to the airport around 11:30 and said I could ride with him. That would work out great. I used there computer for awhile and then got ready to go. Vicki and his parents were extremely hospitable and they carried that through all the way to the end when they waved goodbye. Stephen, his two kids and I, all jumped into the truck and we were off to the airport. The trip was uneventful and before I knew it I was arriving in Cairns.

Cairns I expected to be a beach town with sandy beaches all over the place. It turns out it was quite mountainous all around the town. There is a big mud flat out in front of the City as well. The town itself though seemed like a lot of fun although it is all about tourism. I actually like a touristic place every now and then. Every day would get old, but every once in awhile is ok. I like Waikiki Beach where as some people will tell you it is too touristy. I took the airport City shuttle to the hostel. They dropped me off at the Palace Hostel where I was staying. The accommodations were quite nice and they even had air conditioning which is a luxury at times. Actually Cairns is very hot this time of year and air conditioning is really necessary otherwise you would sweat all day. I used the internet café which I the cheapest I have found on my travels at a $1 and hour. I was a little perturbed that if your used 1 minute over an hour they charged you another dollar and they never warned you when your time was about up. I asked the guy about it and he said that is just the way it works and that I should be able to keep track of time. A lot of internet cafes will have a little clock that tells you when your time is up and warns you. I think is trickery, but it is so cheap it really doesn’t matter. This was the last computer access I would have for a long time so I used 2 hours of time. I had supper and talked to two women travelers from the Netherlands. What I am doing is not that uncommon at hostels. Quite of few people have quit there jobs and are taking some time off to travel. Not many Americans but there are a lot of people doing it.

I went to bed around 11:00 and ended up talking to a French man, Frank for awhile. He was complaining a little about Cairns and how there really is not much to do besides diving. He said too that he was unable to scuba dive because of some kind of problem with his licensure. Good night form Cairns my access point to the Great Barrier Reef one of the 7 Wonders of the World thank you very much!

12-24-07
I got up bright and early and headed to the Marlin Pier where you jump on the boat the compass which takes you to the boat Reef Encounter where I would be spending Christmas Week 2007. I heard they would feed you on the boat but I saw some sort of nut cake that looked really good so I scarfed it down. It was indeed quite good. We jumped on the boat around 7:45 as planned and got our paperwork signed for the diving and we were off. It was about a 2 hour boat ride to the Reef Encounter. On the Reef Encounter we were welcomed aboard and it was all quite fun. We had lunch and before we knew it was time to dive. They do not mess around here. Everyone dives with a partner so I dove with the Belgium guy that I was sharing a room with. He indicated he had dove in several remote locations. We had a dive briefing and headed out. I was feeling reasonably comfortable considering this was my first dive without an instructor. I was leading the dive at first, but then Coen took over. He was moving really fast and I was wondering how he was seeing anything at that pace. I caught up to him and tried to indicate that I desired for us to slow down. He continued on not understanding my response at a torrid pace. Essentially all I was doing on the Great Barrier Reef was trying to stay up with this Belgium guy not having time to see anything. We checked our air several times and then 20 minutes into the dive Coen said he was at 50 bars which meant he was out of air we needed to get back to the boat. Unbelievable really. I still had around 100 bars and he was out. He was swimming so fast he was using a lot more air thus the quick consumption of it. I am not sure why I had not used more air but I did have some left. When we came to the surface we were no where close to where we were supposed to be. We were completely on the wrong side of the boat even. We worked our way to the boat. Once on board I told him that we needed to slow down and that the next dive I was leading. This was absolutely ridiculous really. There was no way you had time to really see anything. He was saying he saw this that and other thing, but it was like seeing something as your driving by. I wanted to sit there and really absorb some things. The little bit of snorkeling I did in Hawaii it was cool to just sit there and let the reef come to you. Anyway one dive in the bag but I really did not get to see much. I was going to need to find a different dive partner if he didn’t slow down.

We moved from Hasting’s Reef to Saxon Reef where we did our next dive. This dive I did lead and we took it much slower and for me I felt like I could absorb some of the reef. I particularly enjoyed the undulating coral. I had never seen coral move like that. We saw lots of different types of fish and it was truly a neat experience. I had no idea coming into this, but the Great Barrier Reef is composed of about 1,800 smaller reefs. We have dove on two now. I was hesitant to do a night dive this first night, but in talking to the people around me I got enthused and decided to go for it. I also decided to go on a guided dive. We had supper first and had our briefing, which we have briefings before every dive. There was about 6 of us which turned out to be too many really. It seemed we were on top of each other a lot. But we did see some interesting stuff. We saw a turtle that was sleeping in the coral. The coral backdrop made for a beautiful scene. We saw lots of little red eyes, which are shrimp and other crustaceans. We saw another turtle that was swimming around. I assume someone must have disturbed him, which I did not think was cool. You could see lots of fish tucked away in the Coral hiding. I saw phosphoflouresence (sp) it turned out to be a very interesting dive, but it would have been nice to have about 3 less people which would have made it even better. Back at the boat we had our desert. After the meals we always dive and then have desert. It seemed kind of cool and fun actually to have the desert after our dive. I didn’t drink anything as I did not want drinking to affect the quality of my diving. I had had some equalizing difficulties and my head hurt a little but all in all I was ok. There was a guy from New York said he was having some equalizing problems and chose not to dive. I went to bed around 10:00. I felt like I had a good first day. Better get to bed tomorrow is Christmas morning and we had a dive lined up for 6:00 AM. Good night Chirstmas Eve in Cairns, Australia out on the Great Barrier Reef!

12-25-07
I got up at 6:00 and headed for the Christmas tree to see what Santa brought. Oh wait that was 20 years ago when I did that. No on this Christmas I headed for the back of the boat, where we gathered to dive each day. Coen (the Belgium guy) and I dove together. We had a great dive and saw sea turtles, a shark, a school of Napolean Wrasse’s and lots of parrot fish. Our briefing said to go out to these two big coral masses called Twin Peaks. On the back side of the second coral in about 30 feet of water is where the reef shark was just laying on the bottom. Sharks always startle me at first but this one was just sitting down there chilling out not bothering anyone. I enjoyed watching this shark and soon after just around the corner were 5 barracuda laying on the bottom. A lot of people are more fearful of barracuda than they are sharks. I didn’t realize what they were and hence was not concerned about them at all. When we got out of the water Coen told me what they were. There really is not much in the ocean that will hurt you as long as you respect things. There are some jellyfish however that can really injure you and about the only thing you can do is where a stinger suit. You still have some parts of your body exposed however although I suspect some suits will completely cover you. The sharks you just need to respect and if they act aggressive get out of the water. Barracuda just stay out of there way. The barracuda and sharks just should not be bothered and you will be fine. Anyway, Coen and I had a great dive on Saxon Reef.

We then went in and had breakfast and those going out went out for their next dive. I skipped the next dive as you are only allowed 4 dives a day and you have 6 opportunities and I was going to do 3 other dives. After the 2nd dive of the day they moved to Hastings Reef. Again Coen and I went out and saw a stingray as well as lots of fish in amazing coral. Coen ran out of air again so we had to cut the dive to 30 minutes. We had a great Christmas lunch buffet and moved the boat to Norman Reef. At 3:30 we headed out for the 3rd dive of the day. Saw a huge crayfish, clownfish, and great coral. Took a photo under water with the Christmas Tree. This reef has lots of crevices to explore and is really cool. This again was a great dive but was guided which I did not realize until after the dive. The person I was going with jumped in with another group so I went along and learned later this dive was guided for a $10 fee. Oh well it was a great dive mainly because the guide took us to the cool places.

We had some leftovers from our lunch feast and then we got ready for the last dive of the day which was a night dive. I was planning to go with one guy, who was a doctor from Perth, Australia but then he mentioned going with another group of 3. We had a group of 5 in last nights night dive which was too many then and he even said the same thing and then he jumps in with a group of 3 so we now had 5 again. I am not sure if maybe he thought there was safety in numbers or what as the night dives are a little scary. We use special underwater flashlights for night dives and the hand signals change as well. We went out away from the boat for 15 minutes and then turned back as the night dives are only 30 minute dives. Going back however for some reason we got right to the boat within just a few minutes so we messed around there for awhile before coming up. The dive was not too great. I think it would have been better if we had a smaller group. One thing I think people make the mistake of doing is only diving in the deeper waters. It was cool though as I looked around at the other people it felt like I was in outer space. This is the first time I can remember feeling like that. I had one drink and decided to go to bed. I did not want to drink too much and jeopardize the diving. Good night from Normans Reef. Christmas 2007 is in the books.

12-26-07
Again I got up at 6:00 and headed out to get ready for dive one. The wake up call person was just making his way down the hall way waking people. I didn’t need a wakeup call (knock) this morning. The mornings have been my favorite time of day to dive. It seemed like we saw lots of stuff and swimming before breakfast like this just seemed good! I was concerned this time of using a lot of air and having to cut the dive short so I was not going to push my self. I dove with Morris again the facial surgeon from Perth, Australia. He kind of annoyed me at times, but he needed a partner as well so it just worked well. We headed out to a different area of Norman’s Reef and for whatever reason I was in the lead. I was going at a steady pace consciously trying to save air. We were moderately deep around 18 meters or roughly 50 feet. I came around a corner and saw a shark laying on the bottom just chilling. The shark was probably about 5 ft. in length and was cool to see. I had been struggling with buoyancy but think my main problem was not having my weights right (too heavy) and compensating by putting air in the BCD. The air in the BCD then would expand and contract causing buoyancy problems. I thought the 8 kg was a good weight as I could expel all my BCD air and eliminate that air expansion and control my buoyancy with my lungs only. I was talking to a young doctor and he was suggesting doing this and it sounded like a good idea to me. It was cool having my buoyancy controlled like that as it felt like I was suspended in air. I have heard people say this is as close to being in outer space that they would ever get and I could see how someone might feel that way. They said there were some caves and places to swim through, which was like and underwater amusement park. For me anytime I got in those situations it made me nervous so to date, I had not ever got in a situation like that. Once I got back to that area we made an air check and to my surprise I did not have a lot of air left. I had been taken it really easy this time too so I was confused. Why did I all of the sudden start using more air. I told my diving buddy and told him I would go closer to the surface using less air that we needed to start heading back. I was really concerned about him having a bad dive as a result but I think in the end he was satisfied with his dive which lasted about 32 minutes approximately 8 minutes shorter than the planned 40 minute dive. I put my equipment back and looked things over and then realized someone had given me a smaller tank. This irritated me a little and I told the dive folks. I asked them what is up with switching tanks. I had to cut my last two dives short and my partner had shorter dives as well. They didn’t seem to want to find me a tank as they indicated all the tanks or in use. I was going to try and just go with the flow and see what happens here.

We had breakfast and got ready for the next dive and again I still had this small tank. I told the person I was diving with and told them to help compensate I was going to dive closer to the surface and told them I would just stay with them but above them. We saw giant clams, a star fish and of course numerous fish. I again still ran out or air sooner than desired and told my partner that I was out and needed to start heading back. This time though we still got our 40 minutes but I waited this time until I was completely out of air so much so that when I surface I had to manually inflate my BCD. I thought my partner still had a good dive as we got our entire 40 minutes in but I was out of air completely this time whereas normally I come in with about 30 bars. This is a little dangerous but I always stayed close to the surface when I was dangerously low which put my risk at a minimum level.

In the afternoon I had to begin working as a hostie which was a lot of work. The social interaction though with the other people was cool. At the end of the day we got a few beers out of the deal, got free boat accommodations and got to dive about 3 times during the day. It is a good program for someone with no money wanting the opportunity to dive but it is a lot of work. The owner’s daughter came out with a friend as well to work as they were low on hosties, but they often laid back and didn’t do much. This frustrated me a little. Our sleeping quarters were in the bottom of the boat where it was quite musty giving off a foul odor. We finally hit the hay around 11:00. This is a lot different lifestyle now working as a hostie rather than being a guest. I am not use to working we will have to see how this goes.

I met an English lady on the boat that I hung out with for awhile. It was quite entertaining talking to her as she had lots of fears it seemed liked and several problems. One problem was her traveling companion was sick and she stayed in bed for most of the time. She also made a comment that you can see a lot of the Reef from the boat. I could tell she was afraid of the water. I told her she is not coming this far and not getting in the water. I really gave her a hard time about that. She said she has a fear about getting her face in the water. I laid off her a little bit as I did not know about this fear of hers. I told her I would go snorkeling with her in the morning if that would help. She never wanted to fully commit to it as that would intensify her fear. I knew how fear worked. It is better to say maybe at least for people that do not have large egos it works that way. We talked a lot and she was suffering from a long term relationship that ended. Everyone has their issues. I spent a lot of the night watching the Bruce Springsteen video and talked to my fellow hostie workers. Good night from the Great Barrier Reef.
12-27-07
Man the days are getting fewer in 2007. Man I can remember just a few years ago when it turned 2000. I remember as a kid when it seemed like we would never get to the year 2000. Life has really picked up speed for me as it does for most people as they age. Carpe Diem everyday is all we can do.

I got up for the morning 6:00 dive. I was surprised to find the English lady, Clare, out there ready to go. I was happy for her that she has the courage to face her fear regardless what happened. We both put our suits on. I mainly put mine on because of the jellyfish concerns. We got in the water and she was a little cautious but I always stayed really close to her so she had me there as a security blanket. Clare seemed pretty relaxed and was really enjoying it. The first time we put our heads above the water I told her now this is the Great Barrier Reef. She indeed was impressed as well I think. We ended up seeing a turtle, a giant clam, and lots of amazing little fish. Really I think you can see about as much snorkeling as you do diving. The diving is just something different mainly. I like the fact that I know how to do dive now but I really think if you just came here to snorkel that is cool as well. We were called in by the boat crew and I was happy that she was able to spend the entire time out there and enjoyed it. She had conquered her fear.

After brekky, as the Australians call it because they are always trying to shorten words. Not sure if that means they are a little lazy or what but they like to shorten words. My job was to vacuum several rooms and then afterwords Clare, a French Lady that I know has a different spelling than how I spelled it, said we need to move all the boxes out of her room than to room 313. It was a lot of work and but we got it done. Being a hostie is actually a lot of work. Me an Irish guy Conner had to wash as well all the boats windows. Clare actually had to put up with a lot of crap and really had a stressful job. The Captain told her and another guy, that their leaving about 20 minutes late was Bullshit and was going to have to stop. Clare went out and said something to him but her English is quite bad and therefore even if she said it loud enough for me to here I probably would not have understood what she said anyway.

I had asked Clare, the French lady, if I could take the other Clare out there for a snorkel again at a time we normally or not allowed to swim but she said no. The English lady decided to go with a group and I saw where she got startled or something and came back in. I believe she still needed individual attention and I think I could have helped her and could have allowed her to conquer her fear again and have an enjoyable dive but I was working as a hostie now and that was that. I commend her though for having the courage to try the snorkeling again. Good on her as the Australians say!

On the afternoon dive I went with Matt and Connor, two other hosties, we saw a cool turtle and a reef shark while swimming around. At the 20 minute mark we began to head back. Matt indicated he saw the boat and pointed in that direction. I didn’t see it. We were at about 10 meters and continued to surface. All of the sudden I looked to my left and saw a shark. I then looked right and saw a shark. Then in front of me another shark took off really fast to eat something above it. As I looked around further there were even more sharks. I bet there were at least 10 sharks in this area maybe 15. One shark had what appeared to be some fishing line attached to it. I was hoping he did not blame that on me. Some of the sharks were very big as well. Bigger than me. I didn’t want to panic but I felt I was a little, mainly because my goggles were about ½ filled with water. I was having a hard time keeping track of the sharks actions. We surfaced and I saw we were right close to the boat and there was probably 15 people watching the sharks and now watching us. I was wondering what they must be thinking about us swimming with all these sharks.

Matt had picked up his pace in getting back to the boat and Conner was behind me. There was no hand signals necessary to comprehend what we all had in mind. It was lets get back on the boat! We did get back on the boat and I felt relieved to do so. As I got back on the boat everyone seemed quite relaxed about the situation. The crew acts like seeing sharks are no big deal but I think they do that for multiple reasons. One reason is having a bunch of people afraid of sharks is bad for business. I walked onto the boat and looked at the sharks from this vantage point which was a lot less thrilling but nonetheless fine by me. I got to thinking about the situation and came to the conclusion that all those fish down there must be there for the food. Food is getting off this boat into the water. Someone was chumming the fish. This made me a little mad as it is just like not feeding bears. The more a wild animal is fed the higher human to shark contacts and the more problems. Once that first person gets bit they then blame the sharks whereas the people made them start doing a behavior that is not normal. Generally sharks will not attack a human but changing his behavior by feeding will lead to lots more human contact and changes in the sharks behavior. The shark will eventually make a mistake and attack a human. I mentioned the fish being fed to the captain and he said, “that is illegal and they better not be.” He said the fish always stay close to the boat. I knew he was just feeding me a line. I mentioned it to another diver and he ask if I had tried to catch one. It was a big joke to everyone. I didn’t find it funny at all. After serving the guest the meal some folks went for the night dive. I decided not to as I had seen enough sharks for one day. The people that did go said they did see sharks. I was really starting to get tired of diving believe it or not. I had 11 dives in now. The hosties always hung around late at night hanging around. We were up until around 11:00. I played my Bruce Springsteen video for awhile and enjoyed that.

Good night from a very sharky place on the Great Barrier Reef.

12-28-07
This is the last day on the GBF (Great Barrier Reef). In actuality I was ready to go ashore. I was happy experiencing all this, but I had had enough. This hostie program too is a little crazy. It is very hard work but I guess if you look at the value which is around $200 a day it is about right. I had injured my toe the day before and it was still really swollen and I was tired and my skin was cut in a few spots due to the salt water drying out my skin, I still thought about all the sharks as well hence I decided to just skip the dive. Clare, the French lady, was a little surprised I wasn’t going diving. I was just tired was the bottom line and we drank a few extra beers the night before.

It was cool working as a hostie for the learning experience but it was a lot work and I was not diving therefore I was not getting as much out of it like most people. I was talking to two German hosties, both named Matt, and we started talking politics. Like most Europeans they hate the current politics in America, but I am tired of agreeing with them. I told them yes we have a bad politician currently, but for a German to state that seems a little crazy to me. Our guy has not gassed 8,000,000 people and started a war that ended in the death of 73 million people. I don't blame the current Germans for what Hitler does but it takes a lot of arrogance for a German to tell me about bad politicians and then not even admit they had one too. The one guy said those were a lot different times back then. Germany was in a depression and they were looking for a way out. I told them that we had a depression in America in the 1920’s, but we didn’t elect someone that wanted to kill a whole race of people. Hitler wrote a book stating what his plans were. The one guy said Hitler told us he was going to get the country working again, but then did something different. I told him that is what a politician does. I told them you guys had the worst politician the world has ever seen. I still think they believe somehow there hands are clean of anything Hitler has done. Sure they were not responsible for anything Hitler had done way back then, but it is really hypocritical in my mind for them to say anything about Bush. By no means am I an advocate of what George Bush has done. I think a lot of the things he has done were crazy, but I am not going to sit back any longer and listen to people bash the US. We do a heck of a lot of good. I recently told a person you know why everybody seems to like the Canadians and the Swiss because they do not do anything that might be a risk. Anytime you do anything in this world somebody is going to criticize you. If your not doing anything sure you will not be criticized. I read where the Swiss had lost no one or just a couple hundred people as did Finland during WWII. Germany is their neighbors and they just stood back and watched the slaughter. How could they live with theirself. Us bad Americans traveled across the ocean to fight Hitler on his own soil. The lady in Poland criticized the US for not going right to Poland to stop the slaughter there. Yea maybe we could have done that at a cost of a lot more American soldiers to save some Polish lives. We may have won that battle but had lost the war. The Russians were on the eastern front already. While Switzerland and Finland just sits back and remains neutral. My motto these days is just to tell these folks yes just blame the worlds problems on the Americans. It is a lot easier to do, that than take responsibility yourself. Next time us “Bad Americans” should let Germany take over all of Europe. Can you say, “Sprechen Via Duetsch?” Oh another thing I learned is the Germans do not teach their kids about the holocaust. He who does not learn from history repeats it, is the way I understand the saying. Ok back to my travels and away from my new found world views.

The day went pretty much uneventful and around noon I got to help bring all the groceries from the Compass boat to the Reef Encounter boat. I couldn’t believe we were eating this much food as there was lots of groceries. It was kind of cool seeing how all this played out. After lunch though I was done and back to be a paying traveler and waited on. It was kind of nice.

Once on the Compass we were ready for the 2 hour boat ride in. At one point we stopped and snorkeled for awhile. I decided this was my last chance to be in the water so I jumped in and snorkeled for the 40 minutes. It was cool and we saw another turtle and of course people had to dive down and touch the turtle. They do not do a good job explaining to people that they are not supposed to do that. I felt sorry for the turtle being harassed like that. We all got back in the boat and they then made the announcement that anyone that wanted to be dragged by the boat should go to the back. That sounded like fun to me so I did it. A lady told me to not get in the back because the people in the back get all the water but the guide people said they needed people for the back so I did it. They had a net that hung off the back and then other people got in the middle and sides of the net. Once they took off you just held on. Some of the woman were complaining about there tops coming down and a couple just let go of the net. One lady lost her grip and fell against me. I couldn’t see anything as her belly was in my face. After a few seconds of that though, she was able to break free from me and was picked up with the other people in the boat behind us. Myself and about 6 other people hung on for the entire duration. I did something similar to this on Lonn’s ski boat’s swim deck one time, but Lonn’s boat was harder to hold on.

On the way in I spoke with this Swedish lady who was traveling with her Japanese husband and their two kids. Their whole family speaks Japanese, Swedish and English. I teased the daughter a lot. There English was very good. They had lots of money, but seemed pretty grounded none the less. On the way end they served us cheese, crackers and wine. Clare, the French lady who was on the dive boat, gave me extra wine and I felt like I was getting a little inebriated. It started pouring down rain near the harbor.

At the dock I got my rain poncho out and began walking to the hostel. I am getting a lot of value out of my $4 poncho. At the hostel I got booked in and went out for some supper and got my transportation out to the airport organized. I had a 4:00 AM pickup. I talked to the other American Guy who has been on the road for 5 years. He plays a saxophone to earn money when he travels. I really liked this hostel even though it smelled a little. Went to bed around 11:00. Need to sleep fast as 3:30 is coming soon. Good night from Cairns on land again. First night on land for 4 days although I still seemed to have my sea legs as at times it felt like things were moving on land. The human body impresses me some human bodies more than others 😊 .

12-29-07
I did indeed sleep fast or time flew, however you want to look at it as 3:30 came soon and I got on the bus at 4:00 as did several other people. Everyone trying for those cheap flights. I saw kids still on the street that had not yet gone to bed. It amazes me how these kids come these far distances just to party. When you ask them about their stay they say man we had the most wicked party last night. I say how about that Great Barrier Reef one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. They do go out there, but it doesn’t seem to be there focus. I have always been that way I would rather a good challenge like sleeping in subfreezing temperatures as opposed to going out and getting drunk. To each his own.

The flight to Sydney was over 3 hours, which seemed a little crazy to me. Australia is a huge country and I am quickly realizing I am not going to see much of it. I really hoped to get into the outback, but I do not see that happening on this trip.

I flew over Sydney and I got some great photos of Sydney from the air. I landed in Sydney and then jumped on the train to downtown Sydney, where I got on a bus to my Couchsurfing persons house. Lucille lives in Lane Cove, which is a part of Sydney. She has two roommates, but only one was there a the moment. We met at a pub in Lane Cove. I had learned that my Vodaphone did not work in New Zealand because the phone lines were typed up. The Vodaphone representative said they had problems in New Zealand in recent weeks, but they could not help me out as they had nothing to do with Vodaphone New Zealand.

That night we headed out to a dance place called the Retro and danced until about 3:30 in the morning. It was a crazy day and I was glad to get back. I had been up for 24 hours now and needed some rest. Good night from Sydney, Australia. Again pinch me as it is hard to believe I am really here!

12-30-07
Man Lucille is up already at 8:00 pm. Doesn’t her body know that she went to bed at around 4. She was ready to take me around to see downtown Sydney. I really would have preferred to lounge around, but now I am sounding like those kids who just come here to party. I got up and headed out with her and we went down town. We went to a Chinese place for lunch. Acutally they had all kinds of Asian foods including Tai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian etc. After that we walked around Hyde Park, St. Mary’s church, the art gallery, down through the Botanical garden, past the Opera House, Circular Quay (pronounced key) and stopped at the Rocks for a beer at a Irish Pub. The Botanical Garden had Flying Foxes bats, which are really big and were cool to watch. I was sure to get some photos of that. We actually saw the bats flying around in the evenings as well. The Opera House of course was amazing as expected. There were lots of people working to get things set up for NYE which is the biggest thing that happens in Sydney every year. The beer at the Rocks was just ok. I am sure it would have tasted a lot better last night than it did at that moment.

We then headed back to her place mid-afternoon as she wanted to cook a nice meal for the two Brazilian women couchsurfers that had been staying with her prior to my arrival. We did some shopping and then Lucille started fixing supper while I used the internet. The Brazilian girls were quite fun and spoke pretty good English. After supper we watched Forest Gump and then went to bed around 11. I was really, really tired, but really did not feel hung-over, which was good. Another day in the books and my first full day in Sydney. This is indeed a beautiful City, but the main event was to take place tomorrow with the fireworks.

12-31-07
I had been reading and hearing how a person needed to get down to the Harbor by 10:00 AM to secure a nice viewing spot. I had decided on going to Camerion (sp) Point, which a local said was a good place. The fireworks are shot off in about 6 locations along Sydney Harbor, which was news to me. I just assumed they had one barge out there from which the fireworks were shot from. I also learned that the fireworks are shot from the bridge as well. Lucille was very helpful and gave me instructions on how to get down there by bus. I left about 10:30 which was later than I wanted to be leaving. After what seemed like forever I finally made it to the bus stop from where I needed to walk the rest of the distance. There were lots of other people already heading down. I went to a grocery store and got some food and beverages, but decided against getting beer. The last thing I wanted was to get down there then security run me off. I found a pretty good spot with a good view. There were several blankets around me where people were saving there spots. This aggravated me a little as there were no one there even just a blanket. I can understanding saving a spot, but I think the people should have to be there with the blanket as well. Anyway I had a decent spot so that is all that mattered I guess. I said hello to the people next to me and they were from Baltimore. I talked to them for awhile, but they didn’t really seem to want to talk to me, which was fine by me. The father was really loud and that is how a lot of foreigners like to describe Americans as being really loud. I didn’t find that stereotype to be true, but this guy definitely was. I ran into lots of Irish and English who were extremely loud on this trip but of course everyone likes to be negative about the Americans.

I lathered up in sun screen as the sun was beginning to bear down. About the first hour I had some shade, but no longer. The heat was on. I really did not feel that hot, but I thought that it was going to get much hotter. Some people were starting to swim as I was right near the water. I thought about the jellyfish warnings and I heard some jellyfish were spotted in Sydney Harbor, but these folks did not seem worried. I really wanted to swim as well and thought maybe I would a little later. I had some lunch and soaked up the rays. About 3:00 I jumped in the water and swam for awhile. It felt great. I swam for about a ½ hour. It is very easy swimming in salt water as it really improves buoyancy. I went back to soaking up the rays. I began my wait at noon and it was almost 4:00. The day seemed to be going very quickly much quicker than last year in Times Squarea Square where you arrived later, around 3 in the afternoon, but had to stand the entire time and not drink anything in fear of having to go to the bathroom and losing my spot.

Around 5 I decided to make a run for the liquor store since everyone else around here was drinking I thought I might as well too. I learned the only thing banned was glass bottles, but everyone had glass bottles anyway. I walked away hoping my beach towel would be enough to guarantee my spot. The people near me had their blanket down the whole day unattended. At one point during the day the parents are some older friends of these kids ask that I watch their spot and said the kids that would be coming were very young and they said they put their blanket down the night before. I didn’t really say I would watch it. Anybody could put their blanket down and do that. I think the person needs to be present to save the spot. That is my personal opinion anyway and sticking to it.

I had to walk about 30 minutes to get the beer. There were a few cans sold at the store, but not many. I couldn’t find any ice so I just went without. About ½ way back down to my spot I found a broken cooler with some ice so I picked up a few larger chunks and threw them in my bag with the beer. That would help some. Upon arriving at my spot the young kids were now on their blanket and my beach towel was not visible. I found it piled up and another person had their blanket down in the place mine had beeen for the last 8 hours. I told them I had been sitting there all day and now you moved into my spot. I was a little perturbed, but saw another spot near Baltimore folks on the rock. I guess the people that had to work on this Monday of New Years Eve was now getting down there and things were getting a little squeezed. The Baltimore people said no problem I could have the spot. I was sitting on a rock as had been the Baltimore folks all day. The father of the Baltimore folks was loud and a little obnoxious. At times I felt like the guy wasn’t too bad then at other times he got on my nerves. He always seemed to be yelling something. He was talking about a young kid who was going out with a lady that he thought was out of his league. He told another guy in the that he should be after that lady. One of the guys in the group stood up for the guy dating the lady and said he really is not a dork he is a good guy. This kind of talk really made me think this loud father was a jerk. He seemed to have a frat boy mentality thinking certain people are better than others. In my eyes we are all equal. Some Swedish guys stopped by and wanted to swim and I told them I would get in with them. We threw a volleyball around. A lady from California joined in as well. I kept referring to her as California and she refered to me as St. Louis. It seemed kind of funny to me. She ask me if I had played water polo before, based on how I caught and through the ball. I took this as a compliment and told her no. Maybe she felt sorry for me and was just trying to come up with a compliment.

At 9:00 pm they shot off, "The Kids" fireworks, which were really amazing to me, but I realized the big shells were yet to come. I talked awhile to the French kids near me. I do not see a lot of French traveling, but there were a group of about 4 here. Everyone was getting pretty sloshed. Finally midnight came and the fireworks were absolutely amazing. It was the most amazing fireworks display I have ever seen. I couldn’t believe all the shells they were shooting off the bridge. This really blew me away. They also shot fireworks in about 6 other locations throughout the harbor with about a 3 mile span. All the other locations essentially shot the same fireworks just a little smaller. The grand finale was amazing and I started getting goose bumps. They were that amazing. The wife of the Baltimore guy wished me a Happy New Year, which was a really nice gesture. I hung around there for about 10 minutes taking a moment as this is one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. Sydney delivered in a big way. I headed out and the streets were packed and chaotic. Some ladies were being dragged back as they appeared almost unconscious from drinking. One kid in particular was really loud and I myself and everyone else was getting tired of him. The kid I assume really had some problems to be loud like he was starved for attention. I made it back to Lucy’s around 3:30 as the traffic was horrible and the bus moved very slowly. I walked about the last ¾ mile instead of riding the bus as it was slower. It was truly an amazing night and actually much easier with regards to waiting than NYE in Times Square. Both were quite amazing. Good night and Happy New Year. 2008!

1-1-08
I slept in until about 10:00 this morning. The last 3 days sure have not resulted in much sleep. It is definitely a festive time of year. I worked on the computer for the lion share of what remained in the morning and then headed down to the City for one last time. It always seems a little sad the last time I will ever see a cool City like this. There’s a good chance it will be the last time in my life although I would like to see the fireworks here again someday as it is quite spectacular. I took the bus down and walked around Hyde Park for awhile. There was a big dance festival going on in a park near Hyde Park. It seemed like a bad time for an event like this, but I guess the people that go there probably take it a little easy the night before. The event was sold out and I heard the cost was like $90 so I would not have went in anyway for that money. There were just several DJ’s playing in this huge park. I walked on to a botanical garden that provided probably the best view of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge so I snapped a couple photos of course. I walked up past the Opera one last time, but stayed more inland and did not actually get very close to it staying more inland instead and walking to the harbor and up to the Rocks area where they have the old restaurants. I was looking for a relatively cheap place to eat but suspected I would not find any in this part of Sydney. I saw a German Restaurant called Uber something. There were guys wearing Lederhosen and women wearing Dirndls. I bet a restaurant like that would go over well in St. Louis. Restaurant owners though have bad hours who wants that. I am going to keep that in the back of my mind though for a future entrepreneurial endeavor. Although that is not my style. Making money (the root of all evils) is only something I do to support hobbies and maybe a family someday.

I found a noodle place and figured I better get used to eating noodles since I will be in China soon so I had them. I had a beer with it so the total price was still around $15. Not exactly cheap. Oh well. I did not go on this trip to make money. From there I walked across the Harbor Bridge, something I had on my list of things to do. I was trying to figure out how they mounted the fireworks on the bridge from the night before as it appeared they had to be on curved portions of the bride and I would have thought the fireworks would have needed to be on a flat surface. I know it took some ingenuity to do it, that is for sure. I asked the security guards on the bridge but they did not know. After crossing the bridge I went and asked a guy standing outside an ice cream shop if there were buses to Lane Cove from here. He said he didn’t think so and my best bet was to go to the train station. He asked me a few more questions about me and my travels and then said I could have a ride with him if I wanted. I guess he was just wanting to know a little more about me before saying I could get in his car which made since to me. I took him up on the offer and he dropped me off at the doorstep of Lucille’s place. I thanked him a bunch of times. Didn’t do much that evening. We were all wiped out so we called it a night. Good night from my last night in Sydney. It has been a great ride! January 1, 2008 is in the books. I have been on the rode more than a year now. Unbelievable. Time flies when your having fun.

1-2-08
Even though it was comfortable staying at Lucille’s it was nice to get going as well. I had met a young lady in New Zealand in a Queenstown Hostel that had invited me to spend sometime with her parents in the countryside northwest of Sydney. I decided to take her up on the offer and was headed there today. I need to catch a train to Windsor and then Phoebe, the lady who I met in Queenstown, would pick me up at the train station. Everything went pretty smoothly and sure enough when I arrived at the Windsor train station Phoebes was there. Man it is a good feeling when you arrive somewhere and someone is waiting on you. I so often arrive at places and must fend for myself. When a local is there to meet me it is a great feeling. My guard is immediately let down and I let them show me around. At first I didn’t recognize Phoebes as the first time I met her she was wearing a hat. We said hi and then we ran up town and ran a few errands and then we were off to her place. She lives in the countryside in a rural area called Ebenezer and they live on a 40 acre paddock (means piece of land). You hear the term paddock a lot in Australia as well as words like No Worries, Mate, G’day Mate, Brekky (meaning breakfast the Australians are always shortening words) and there are many others. The Australians have been really nice to me and they seem pretty laid back normally. Live and let live society, but not to the level of Amsterdam of course, which is probably the most liberal society in the world. The Australians though are very competitive and love their sports. I think Americans are similar to the Australians in that respect. I am finding it very interesting to learn that most of the rest of the world fears coming to America. They think we all have weapons and are not afraid to use them. A lot of people fear coming to America, which just seems absolutely crazy to me. 99% of the people that go to the USA quickly realize it is a very safe place. It is just like the rest of the world Cities there are certain areas were you just do not go. My new saying when people criticize the US, I respond by saying, “Lets just blame all the world problems on America.” It does seem like people like to blame us for everything. As I have said before sure we have our issues, but we do a heck of a lot of good too. Sure we currently have a lame duck leader, but he does not represent the views of most Americans. I have heard of Americans who are traveling lie and say they are Canadians and put a Maple Leaf on their backpack. You will not see me doing that. I am more proud than ever to say I am an American. I would die for our country if necessary. I would have died for our Country in Afghanistan, but not in Iraq. Not when part of the reason for the war was oil (money) I will not die.

We made it to Phoebe’s families place and found it to be absolutely beautiful. They have a big house that is really open and the house just seems friendly and welcoming. When I walked into there house I just got a welcome feeling. A feeling like I am safe here and welcome. I really like how they laid out their house. We had some lunch that was very good. Phoebe’s brother’s girlfriend was there as well and the three of us walked to the back of their property. They had some cows that just calved and we went back to see them. After that we got back we just messed around the house for awhile. I didn’t realize it until now, but Phoebe is only 17. She is very mature for her age. I think it is great that her parents let her travel to New Zealand at such a young age. I am sure that was a great experience for her. We watched each other’s Bungy Jump videos. Phoebe did a great job on her jump. She said she was scared as is everyone. A lot of people do it just once and then they say I have nothing to prove and do not do it again. Right after the jump you would like to do it again, but most people cannot afford to do it again. Now that I am almost a month removed from that great bungy experience, I am less "gung ho" about doing it again. I suspect though that I will do it again someday with someone that is wanting to do it. Bungy jumping, at least for me, is something you want to do with someone else, you do not want to do it alone. I see sky diving in a similar way.

Phoebe’s mom made it home around 6:00 and her brothers and Dad, who had been watching cricket all day a little later. Her mom fixed a great supper and we drank some beer. Phoebe’s whole family are great to talk to and have lots of great stories. They have done lots of biking and have great stories to tell of that and many other things they have done. I could not have felt more welcome. The only bad thing about feeling that welcome is I tend to let my guard down with word selections, which makes me vulnerable to saying something I shouldn’t be saying. I also tend to want to talk politics more than I should. I find myself wanting to defend the US for some reason. In the beginning of this trip I was always wanting to say how disgusted I was with the US, but after hearing everyone else always putting her down and seeing how other countries live, I think it often is quite hypocritical. Nobody has a perfect country. The people of the world can call me a yank any day! I am proud to be a yank. I am not proud to be represented by Bush, but I am proud to be a yank. But accept him as that is the way our political system works.

I used the computer for awhile and then hit the hay. They had a spare room that was absolutely perfect. They had a porch that ran around the front of the house, which was right outside my window. I love their house. They have a tin roof as well that must be delightful during a rain. I hit the jackpot here. I get to spend a couple days with some really nice folks. Good night from Ebenezer, Australia.

1-3-08
On this day Phoebe’s was taking me into the Blue Mountains. We got up and going around 7:00 after a quick brekky, we headed out. On the way we stopped and got some gas. I told Phoebe that I was paying for the gas and she let me after arguing against that at first. I told her I have stubborn German heritage and if I say I am paying I am paying. I noticed that she did not fill the tank up all the way. That was a very nice gesture of her, but I felt a little beat in that she still was able to pay some as well as she would be the next person to fill up the car next time. She kind of duped me. It was all done out of niceness and I was impressed by her actions, which is the best thing to be impressed of definitely, a lot more than words.

We stopped at a lookout the name of which I do not remember, and hiked a few kilometers. This area reminded me a little of the Grand Canyon although there was a lot more growing here and it was of course smaller. The rock though is sandstone, which is the same as the Grand Canyon. I was always on the lookout for poisonous snakes and spiders and puppy dog tails as that is what Australia is made of. There was a couple hikers ahead of us so I figured any dangerous animals would have probably been long gone. We continued on to Evans Lookout (I think) and then to Echo Point and then onto Katoomba where I did some hiking. Again Phoebe was thinking of me and suggested I head out on my own so she would not slow me down. I wasn’t worried about her slowing me down or anything, but I said ok and she went into Katoomba to do some shopping. I for whatever reason hiked pretty quickly and finished the so-called 3 hour trail in about 1.5 hours. The trail would have been very treacherous in certain areas if it were not for the railings that kept everyone well protected. There were lots of people on the trail. It was a pretty rigorous trail in certain sections, but I never was concerned about my personal safety as it was not that dangerous. I got back to the trailhead about 1.5 hours earlier than the proposed meeting time with Phoebe. I went inside and had a ecco coffee. It was supposed to be a coffee substitute and I really enjoyed it. I assume it did not have caffeine as I did not get the hangover from it like I got with regular coffee. I hope to buy some of this myself in the states someday. I read the newspaper while waiting. The designated meeting time came about, but no Phoebe. Finally about 15 minutes later I walked out side and Phoebe was waiting for me out there. I just thought she would have walked inside when she had arrived. Anyway a little miss communication, but no harm. We decided to go into Katoomba for lunch to a place Phoebe had scouted out during her walk. I did indeed like the food there and thought Phoebe had made a great choice.

After lunch we headed back to her house. A friend of their family came over on Thursday nights so supper was fixed and we waited for their friend to show. We had some appetizers and drank some beer and wine while waiting. We played with this turf football like thing for awhile while the steaks were on the barbie or barbeque as they say in the US. After that we ate and the food was great and the conversation was even better. One of Phoebe’s brothers was riding his bike with some brightly colored clothes on and a car passing by yelled at him saying he was gay. They all seemed to get a laugh at that and he was teased about that the rest of the night. His clothes were quite bright, there is no doubt about that and maybe a little tight too. No one seemed surprised by the comments and surprisingly her brother never took them off. He didn’t seem to be too concerned by the whole matter and took it all in stride.

After supper we watched a couple U tube videos and some people watched tv and I worked on the internet for awhile. We called it a night around 11:30. Good night from the Nobel’s Ranch in Ebenezer, Australia. I am staying with some really nice and fun people.

1-4-08
I said my goodbyes and thank yous to the family members as they hustled off to their respective jobs. Phoebe’s parents both work at the local college and they ride to work together. I worked on the internet for a bit longer in the morning and then Phoebe and I hustled off to catch the train. We made it into Windsor and to the train station with about 10 minutes to spare. Phoebe walked to the train station with me and gave me a gift right before boarding the train. I was surprised by the gift, but thanked her and jumped on the train. On the train I opened the gift and to my surprise it was a cross stitched picture that has a picture of an insect, I am sure a poisonous one since this is Australia 😊 It also had the words “Ebenezer”, the town I was in, “Phoebe”, and “January 2008” the month and year I was there. I was touched and could feel my eyes welling up a little. I saw her doing the cross stitching the night before, but had no idea what she was doing. I know her light was still on when I went to bed after midnight as she worked on it a long time. I was really touched as that was the nicest thing anyone has done for me in awhile. What a nice family. What a nice Phoebe!

I took the train to Sydney Central and then went to the bus station. I talked to the Premier bus station folks and they said they had no buses to Lake Burill where I was headed today. There was a train however that went to Ulladulla a town not far from Lake Burill. I was going to then find a place to stay there for the night and the next day head to Lake Burill. The lady behind me heard my conversation and she told me there is another bus like going to Lake Burill that she knew of. She called the other bus line and they had availability and we went to that bus station. It is nice being with a local as they really no their way around. She showed me the ropes and before I knew what was happening I was on the bus to Lake Burill. I really like Sydney, but was glad to be leaving none the less and heading into a small town. I used her phone to text message the couchsurfing host to let her know what time to pick me up. We went through Kangaroo Valley, which is country side you never believe would be found in Australia. Big mountains and lush green valleys. The East Coast of Australia is quite nice and not what you think of when you think of Australia.

I got off in Lake Burill about 30 minutes earlier than expected so I grabbed a soda and sat down and talked to some locals. The sore owner asked about me and he said he has a son that works as a painter for 8 months and then travels for 4 months each year. The store owner said his boss is ok with him doing that and said his son often works overtime for him and does what is necessary during those 8 months. It sounds like both people respect each other and are able to get along in that relationship. Most people would not accommodate each other like that. It sounded like a win-win situation to me.

Cheryl my couchsurfing person showed up and I headed to her house. She has a son and daughter as well and a dog. The son was not there during my stay. We sat around and talked for most of the evening. I was not hungry so I didn’t eat anything. I used my computer for awhile and called it a night around 11:00 as I still really felt tired. Good night this time from Lake Burill. A small town, that is about a 3 hour drive south of Sydney.

1-5-08
Cheryl had to run her daughters boyfriend to work and I went along as I had some errands to do as well. We went to the barbershop and got my hair cut. I had been looking for a cheap haircut for a long time and ended up just going where Cheryl new there would be availability. It was a fishing store with a barber’s chair in the facility as well. The guy said he had been cutting hair like 50 years or something. It was a long time and I estimated his age in the 70’s. I sat down and about 10 minutes later he essentially had completed his shears job on my head. I ask him how much and I thought he said $9.50 and I thought well that is ok and then he reiterated and said $19.50. I figured he was giving me his tourist discount or something. Lets see that works out to be about $120 an hour. Damn that is good money or maybe that is the cost for tourist. Oh well that is part of traveling sometimes you have to pay a little extra or maybe that is just what it cost. I know in Sydney there was a place where it cost $17 where I decided to hold off and wait awhile longer in hopes of finding something cheaper. What are you going to do?

We did some shopping then headed back to her house. I used the internet for awhile and felt a little bad using it that much and not getting out to see more of their town. It is a small town and not particularly touristy. Around 2:00 I went for a short hike that lasted about an hour and thought really I needed to spend more time on the internet and it actually started to rain anyway so I went back to Cheryl’s and got back on the internet. Cheryl fixed some supper in the evening and then we headed to a golf course lodge for some drinks and music. They had a lady there who did a really good job singing. There was a guy in a group who really liked to dance and danced like no other person I have ever seen. He was really cracking the place up. I think everyone in the room wishes they could dance like him although they would never admit it. He had an Elaine technique like on Seinfeld. It was good fun. I had a Carlton beer that was advertised being super cold and the tapper actually showed the temperature as being a -1 deg. C. We went home and called it a night.

1-6-08
This was a moving day. I was leaving Lake Burrill and heading to Canberra, which is Australia’s Capitol. I originally did not plan to go to Canberra, but after reading about Canberra I figured since I was this close I should go there. I had read in the paper that an alcohol fueled crowd went a little crazy at the Summerknauts car show in Canberra the previous night. I thought that was a clever joke as I think the top fuel cars are alcohol fueled and they described the crowd as being the same.

Anyway I said goodbye to Cheryl and she took me to the bus station. Like all the other couchsurfing places except maybe Carmen in Madrid this again was a very positive one.

The bus ride to Canberra took about 3 hours and I got to see more of the East Coast Australian Countryside. It looked pretty dry and I learned later that they had some fires there in recent times. It reminded me a lot of California. My couchsurfing host in Canberra actually said a guy started growing grapes there because it reminded him of California and he knew that grapes grew well in California. Not sure how the grapes are doing in Canberra.

I arrived in Canberra at the airport and got off there as it appeared my next couchsurfing host Lelda lived near the airport, but the location was way off, which it often is on the Couchsurfing website. I was going to call Lelda, but needed money for the payphone but the zipper on my shorts was broke and I could not get it out. I finally resorted to cutting the billfold out and actually cut all the way to my skin but fortunately did not cut my skin. I had just told the guy working there that the last time I used one of those utility knives I cut myself and I almost did the same here. I put $4 in the phone and tried to call Lelda, but the machine was broke and I thought I was out the $4. My phone then rang, which I did not want as it would use up my minutes, but I answered it anyway and it was Lelda so I talked really fast and succinctly. She probably thought the conversation was really weird. Anyway she had suggested I walk around Canberra for awhile. I had a heavy backpack and computer pack and really did not want to do that, but I just said ok. I was having a bad go of things since arriving in Canberra. My pants got slashed, I lost $4 but did get that back and now unless I could find a place to store my gear I was dragging that around the rest of the afternoon in 90 plus degree temperatures.

I got a bus into town, which was like $9 something. It is amazing how these places really jack up the prices for the tourist. Within Canberra you could travel quite cheaply, but if your coming from the airport by bus, which is something tourist are going to do you get gouged. At the bus station they had nowhere to store my luggage so I was stuck with it. The lady working for Greyhound indicated Summmerknauts was within walking distance so I started walking there. After about 40 minutes of walking I asked another person how far and they said it is a long walk. I pulled into a tourist information place and sat in there for awhile and worked on my computer in the air conditioning. I waited until the time to head to Woden bus stop which is where I was to meet Lelda.

I had a craving for a doughnut so I got one at the mall there. It was just ok. Lelda picked me up and we headed to Cheifly where she lives. Lelda has a degree in engineering and I assume artistry (or something like that) as well as she is an artist now. Her work is amazing as she has it hung up around the house. She has a great eye for it. She uses paintshop a lot, but actually can do it by hand as well. She has an absolutely beautiful place with a beautiful pool and in her backyard which is rather secluded she has chickens and a garden. This is my kind of place. Her house is spacious and just seems friendly and usable with high vaulted ceilings in a couple rooms that seem to reach to the heavens. She is from Latvia and she said she had a Latvia architect design the house or help remodel it I do not remember exactly. I gathered she did not build the house from the ground up. She very rarely runs the air conditioning and uses nature the best she can to cool her house and it always felt comfortable to me. Whenever she would get hot she would just jump in the pool for awhile. I really liked her son and his girlfriend as well. They were cool kids. His name was something like Valdee. Not sure of the spelling. He also had a Korean kid staying with him and he seemed really nice as well. In the evening Valdee invited me to go with his friend to the Telstra tower and to a nearby mountain for view points. The Telstra tower was just ok as you cold not see Lake Burley Griffin at night and that was a main thing to see in Canberra. I suspect on a full moon it might be cool though. Valdee’s friend forgot his camera and Valdee courtesly offered to run back to get it back I know he really did not want to go back. His friend is of Asian descent so I am sure he would hale liked for Vadee to run back but he said no that he did not have to run back. I told him I would give him copies of my pictures. He had his camera actually he just forgot his memory stick which results in the camera not being usable. We got back around 10:30 and his friend did ask me for my memory card to put those pictures on his computer which was fine by me. I would just have to be careful downloading the pictures to make sure I get those pictures downloaded too as my computer might think those pictures were already downloaded onto my computer. No worries.

I went to bed around 12:00 really happy with my new couchsurfers. Good night from Canberra, the capital of Australia and I had never heard of it.

1-7-08

I slept great and got up around 7:00 to use the internet for awhile. Around 10:00 Lelde and I started to get the bike stuff together. I was going to borrow one of their bikes and ride around Canberra on this day. I took the 25 year old street bike. It still seemed to be in great shape. Around 11:00, which is a horrible time to head out on a hot day, but that is exactly what I was doing? Having internet access is always a priority for me so if I have access I try to use it as much as possible. Lelde took me to the bike path as it is a little tricky to find. I just hoped I could find her house back. I got her address just in case I did have trouble. The heat was starting to bare down already. I rode probably 10 kilometers to get into town and then began my trek around Lake Burley Griffin. I stopped at the National Musuem which had a lot of Aboriginal artifacts. Had lunch there as well. Left there and went to the Carillion. It seems the stuff in Canberra for me anyway seems to be cheap. They are trying to create cool things on the cheap. Not sure what to think of this place yet. I continued on and planned to go all the way around the lake but got to the end and the trail turned to dirt. I was not about to take this street bike on this trail so I turned around and went back to the Carillon where I crossed the lake at the bridge. I was really getting hot and my bum was sore. The seat was not very forgiving. I went to the Old Parliament Building and went inside to check out the National Portrait Gallery. This is a gallery that has the so-called “most important” people of Australia in it. The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was included. For me the portrait gallery was just ok. Australia is such a new country everything seems a little different to me having spent 4.5 months in Europe. They had another guy that was kind of a Jesse James type character that was interesting to learn about his name was Ned Kelly. Why is it people always seem to like the crazy people. I do not think though that we will ever like Osama Bin Laden.

Outside of this National Portrait Gallery was the lion share of the Old Parliament Building. This showed where the Prime Minister worked until they moved everything to the more modern New Parliament Building. The Old Parliament Building just seemed like what you might see in a house in the US, say that was abandoned in the late 60’s or 70’s. I left there about 4:00 and started heading back. The sun was getting really tough. I had decided I would ride until I get to the McDonalds I had remembered seeing on the way down in the morning. I needed a break and a goal for that matter. I made it to the McDonalds never really ever getting lost which surprised me as there were significant turns but I really tried to remember the path and was able to remember a couple landmarks like the skateboard park and the McDonalds, which assured me I was on the right path. I went into the McDonalds really thirsty and thought I would get a value meal and would upsize it so I could get a bigger drink. I ask them about the drink selections and they had orange juice which sounded good and healthy so I got that. They gave me the food and the orange juice was a really small one. They said they can’t upsize that drink like they do the others. I was a little irritated about that but partially blamed myself for not asking more questions although I assumed it would be upsized like all the other drinks. Oh well, I ate the meal and drank that small orange juice and headed out. The going got harder now because I had a full belly and the going was predominantly uphill. I got lost for a little while once close to there house but knew I was not far off. After about 15 minutes I finally got my bearings and made it back to their place. I told them where I had went and they said it was probably 47 kilometers which is about 28 miles. That was a little farther than I though but wasn’t too bad considering it was really hot I was on a bike I had never used before and I had a sore arse from the seat. Even though the bike was really old, I was impressed by the gears as they shifted really well an once shifted they stayed there. My bike seems to jump out of gear frequently. I jumped in the pool and cooled off a little. Lelde said we were invited to the neighbors for supper so I got out and we headed over there. It was very cool talking to them. The guy was an environmental scientist study global warming. Of course I prodded him for awhile and we talked about global warming. He said there is pretty much consensus that the globe is warming. At one point I saw three ducks waddle through the backyard. They said yes those ducks are theirs. Lelde has chickens and they have ducks. This seemed funny to me as they do live in the City. Lelde and her her neighbors seem to really get along.

After supper they were headed to see a Bob Dylan movie and I was invited, but declined because I wanted to work on the blog sense I had internet access. They left for that around 9 and I went back to Lelde’s. Valdee showed up a little later and he went for a swim and worked on the computer for awhile. He is a really cool guy and is really into music. We started listening to music and I played some Bruce and he played a guy by the name of James Barnes that is kind of the Bruce Springsteen of Australia. I liked his stuff and as Valdee suggested, I am going to buy his greatest hits album. We listened to music for about an hour and then got back to what we were doing. Lelde got back around 12:00 and went to bed soon after. She is not really working now and says she really doesn’t want to do any art for her work until maybe sometime in February. Valdee said I have convinced him that couchsurfing is cool based on his experience with me. I thought that was nice and it made me feel good.

My tank was out of gas as well and I went to bed about 12:30 and Valdee was still up and he had to be at work around 7:00 the next day. He said after listening to that music he was too awake to go to sleep. Good night from my last night in Canberra. It is an interesting place but a little too cold for me to really like it. It just doesn’t not have much character in my evaluation. I do however recommend people see it as it is Australia’s National Capital and is interesting but just not a favorite City of mine. Two days is enough though. Toodle Bops!

1-8-07

I decided to break up the trip to Melbourne and found a couchsurfing person that lived in Mansfield, which is about 3 hours outside of Melbourne by bus. This couple said they would pick me up in Albury as I mentioned going there for a day first. They said there were no buses going into Mansfield from Albury and that they would pick me up there after work. That sounded cool so the plan was to hang around Albury for a day then go to Mansfield for two days and then off to Melbourne my final destination before V day, which is my flight day to Vietnam.

This morning I was still in Canberra until 1:30 when my bus went to Albury. Lelde asked me if I wanted to do some gardening in the morning and I said sure. She had talked earlier about what couchsurfing is going to give her, which I believe is going to be a bad way to approach couchsurfing. If a person is always thinking, I did this for this person, which has a monetary value of say this much, then this is how much I should get back from couchsurfing, then they are not going to like it. You have to do it with the approach, this is going to help this person and enjoy sharing the persons travel stories along with your own. Those folks that are using it to just get by cheap is not what it is about.

I went into Lelde’s garden and she wanted me to hand pull the weeds so as not to propagate the seeds and to turn over the soil with a shovel. She said whenever I get tired to just come back to the house. She said I did not have to do any of it. I wanted to be the best couchsurfer I could be and she was new to the couchsurfing realm so I wanted for the experience to be good for her. Also I kind of like doing gardening as well. It really went pretty well and in a couple hours time I had it about ½ done. Lelde came out and was really happy with how much was done and she said the garden seems manageable for her to do now. It is funny how the mind works like that. A lot of things it is just a matter of getting going. For example when swimming that first stroke is always the hardest, but once you get that in everything is much easier. So I was glad I now had the garden in a more manageable position although I now was bit sweaty and a little dirty. I went in an got cleaned up a little. I put my now wet shirt onto my backpack so it would dry and we headed to the botanical garden which is just below the Telstra Tower. We had lunch there and walked through the garden. Lelde really knows her plants and trees and she could identify a lot of them before looking at the trees. There were sections of the garden for plants common in Sydney and different parts of the gardens represented other areas. It was a neat garden and I had only seen a little bit of it, but I really needed to get to the bus stop although Lelde said we had plenty of time. Sometimes I think people like to say things like that to make themselves act cooler or more relaxed. Not sure but in the end Lelde was right we did have plenty of time and I had to wait about 20 minutes before the bus left. I said goodbye and thanked her for everything. She is a very talented lady and I enjoyed meeting her and her family.

It was good to be on the road again though, as it always is meeting new people and seeing new places. I arrived into Albury around 4:00 so I walked down the road and found a place to stay, which cost $30/ night. This sounded pretty good, but I thought I would check a few places before committing to it. Maybe I would find a place that provided AC, a full course breakfast and a foot massage for less. I know I was dreaming but I needed to use the internet anyway so what the heck. The temperature was very hot and the backpack seemed heavier than normal. I made it a ways and found internet. The lifeline of a back packer. I checked some emails but no couchsurfers had offered a couch so I checked one other place and the cost was like $70. This was just more than I could pay and the person there seen the backpack and knew that was too much for me. It is amazing how people in other countries know the life of a backpacker better than the people in the US know. They really seem to help though as much as they can. I think most of them know how backpacking works at least in other countries. I wish more people in the US backpacked.

I walked back to the Railway Motel and the guy asked me if I was ready for the room and I said yep I sure am. He told me where the room was and gave me the key I walked up the room and it had two beds in it which was nice but there was no AC and the room was very old. The only time you got air moving through this room was when you opened the window. I kept remind myself I had only paid $30. The girls restroom was the closest to my room so I went ahead and used it as I knew no lady would put up with these conditions. I never did see a lady staying in the room.

I went downstairs and had a beer and a little lady had a supper. I splurged and had a $10 steak meal. I had not had steak in awhile so this was a nice change. It was pretty good. I had talked to a divorced Irish guy and a divorced Australian guy for awhile and they bought me a beer. The Irish guy offered me to come to there house for a meal but then the Australian guy I could see didn’t really know what they were fixing for supper. I am always looking for a local experience but that probably wasn’t going to work out too well so I told them I was just going to grab something here. I went to my room after eating and was going to spend a few hours typing but the electrical did not seem to work. Therefore I went back to the bar and used their power point since the one in my room did not work. They said all the rooms do not have power points after I suggested switching rooms. They let me sit there which I did until around 10:30 when they closed the bar. The place had gambling as well and a lot of people were doing that.

I called it a night and just hoped it cooled off over time even though it sure seemed hot at that moment. Good night from a hot place in Albury, Australia.

1-9-07
I got up around 3:00 in the morning and opened my room's door to allow some air to flow through the room as that was the only way to get air flow. I did that for about 30 minutes, but really could not sleep like that wondered about someone walking in the room, although there was only a couple other backpackers in the place as well so I shut the door and the airflow stopped. I slept a little after that.

In the morning I had there so called continental breakfast which included old bread and warm milk for cereal. I just kept reminding myself I only paid $30 and that seemed to make everything seem ok. After breakfast I got my train ticket for 12:00 and walked around to one location for a pic of Albury. I was quite confident no Japanese would be taking a picture of this town anytime soon. It was not in their tour books and it would not be in mine anytime soon either. It was an ok town just not a tourist town.

I typed for about 3 hours in the air-conditioned train station and then got on my train and headed out. I made it to Benalla about 40 minutes later and walked around town looking for internet and food. I was wanting to find a meat pie which is what Australia is famous for but I started feeling light headed as it was 2 in the afternoon and I had ate virtually nothing all day so I settled for a KC which I had not had in a long time. I had a big meal and then headed to the internet café down the road. I used there internet for a few minutes and then walked back to the train station waiting for Uschi to pick me up. I had thought Uschi worked in town, but found out later she actually worked in Mansfield and was coming all the way to pick me up. I was really impressed by her doing that and wondered if my presence was going to make it worthwhile for her. I doubted it.

The guy at the train station was very nice and I enjoyed talking to him. Anyway I typed for a few hours in the afternoon and Uschi showed up. She is a fireball and an extremely positive person. She is the type that you just want to be like, but never seem to be. Lonn Grandia is that way. He is a very talented man, but I know he works hard as well.

We made it back to there place and went out for supper. Her boyfriend Lauren was a really nice guy and they both seemed to go out of their way to be modest and were really helpful. Nice people and talented as well. I really liked the restaurant and noticed the nights really cooled down. I could tell it was definitely an arid region. We went to bed around 11:00. They too did not run their air conditioning very much as it cooled off so much at night there was no need to. The mattress was very comfy and I enjoyed Uschi and Lauren. All was good. Goodnight from Mansfield, Australia.

1-10-07
On this day we were going Cross- Country or Down hill biking. I had not decided exactly what I wanted to do yet.

Sorry I am not able to upload the rest of the journal at this time. Will add it in the future!

---

Photos

The Opera House
Date: December 31, 2007
Time: 10:30 pm

Great Ocean Road
Northwest of Melbourne

Australians love their Vegemite
I come across many backpackers who carry this with them. I like it but do not love it.

Who Doesn't like a Koala Bear?
One of the few Australian animals that will not kill you!

Brisbane Fireworks
Don't remember the occasion.

Funny Stuff
Two people I hung out with in Brisbane. The guy was bald so Vic shared some of her hair with him. Nice people!

Transfer Boat
This Boat took me out to the dive boat.

The Water Palace
This is the Boat I spent 5 days including Christmas!

My Room
Very nice rooms I shared it with a guy from Belgium.

An Island?
No this is just a massive structure floating on the Great Barrier Reef for divers and snorkelers.

High Dollar Dining!
I didn't eat here.

Night Dives
I went out on 3 night dives. It was a little spooky I must admit.

The Kitchen
I worked the last 2 days on the boat and had to do quite of bit of work in the kitchen.

Oops Wrong Soap!
Someone put the wrong kind of soap in the dishwasher. The guy on the right is from Ireland, the lady from France and the guy on the left from Germany.

Helicopter Arrivals.
Some folks arrived by helicopter to the boat. You paid a few pennies extra for that service though!

Not so Nice Lodging
When I was working on the boat this is where I stayed. It was musty and not too nice.

Irish guy unloading luggage.
Every day we got new passengers and new groceries delivered to the boat.

Sydney Harbor!
Now I am traveling. You can not imaging how excited I was when I saw this. This is the good stuff!

December 31, 2007
Right where I wanted to be for the fireworks display. Now just have to wait another 11 hours and 30 minutes for the fireworks. It was worth the wait!

Let the Fireworks Begin!
Best fireworks I have seen in my life. I made videos mostly though so I will have to show them to you in person someday! I got goose bumps during the grand finale.

Opera House
Not many more recognizable buildings in the whole world.

Hogs Head?
Pretty cool looking rock.

Three Sisters.
If I remember right these three rocks are called the 3 sisters.

Meet the Nobels!
I met Pheobe in a New Zealand Hostel and she invited me to visit her family in Ebenezer, Australia which is west of Sydney. This was a great experience! I am extremely thankful to them. Extremely nice and fun people!

Dinner is served!
We had some awesome food!

No Worries
The Australians or an extremely laid back group of people. I liked that very much.

Canberra, Australia
This is the nations capital.

Couchsurfing Host in Canberra!
Very nice people!

Canberra is a huge Modern City.
I biked all over Canberra and by the end of the day had a very sore arse!

Couchsurfering host Pool!
Very nice home!

Buller Ski Resort
In the Summer you can Mountain Bike here which is what I did with my couchsurfing host.

Mountain Bikes on Chair Lifts.
Takes a little getting used to.

I'm Going to Graceland!
Let me know how that trip turns out.

Close up of a Beach Storage Unit
These buildings have been here for ever and if someone decides to sell one they fetch I believe it was over $100,000. It is prime real estate.

Fun With Food!
I know Mom I am not supposed to play with my food! :(

I tried to get them to spell Village!
How did they do?

Couchsurfing Group
I traveled with these folks up the Great Ocean Road northwest of Melbourne!

Fire dancing.
Actually there is no fire just batteries. Safer that way!

Lots of Flies
Not sure why but there were lots of flies in Australia when I was there. Do I smell that bad?

I couchsurfed with Foxy Lady the lady standing in the back!
Extremely nice people. She invited these people over the night I was there and had a great time. Her home is in an old school. Her mail box says the principal's office so she tells everyone to come to the Principals office when they get there. Good times!

Cricket Grounds.
To say Cricket is huge in Australia is a huge understatement.

Craziest Sail Ever!
The weather started getting rough the tiny ship was tossed. We were in 35 knot winds, everyone was wet, we had an accidental jibe, one guy got hurt. It was awesome. This sail was about survival not about winning or losing the race about finishing. We finished!

The Lazer
Light shining off this building created this lazer like effect. Beam me up Scotty!