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Published: December 18th 2006
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It all looked so promising at the beginning of the nightAfter England's dismal effort in Brisbane, I was looking towards the second test in Adelaide hopeful of an improvement, but alas it was not to be as a pathetic batting collapse and a tepid bowling effort cost England the match on the final day and most likely the series as a whole.
After the delights of The Palace Backpackers accommodation in Brisbane, I was staying at Josh and Tash's house in Henley Beach for the duration of my stay in Adelaide and I'm very grateful to them for an enjoyable stay. After quite a few heavy nights out in Brisbane, it was good to have a more laid back time of things for the next week or so.
I'll quickly gloss over the cricket at this point, as I'm sure everyone knows that we declared on 550 and somehow contrived to become the proud record holders of the highest first innings score/declaration to lose a match and probably several other unique statistical facts. Anyway, we threw the match away on the final day after four tedious days of slow scoring and defensive play. The only time I woke up during days one to four was when I was bitten
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Josh and I outside the Ramsgate Hotel, Henley Beach by some feral indigenous creature and was forced to add antihistamines to my drug cabinet, as my forearm swelled up ridiculously.
In addition to this crushing defeat, I managed to lose the England v Australia golf challenge to Josh on the final hole. A defeat which I accepted with my usual good grace and abiding by few golfing etiquette standards.
As the guys were working and had to rise early for work, the only drunken incident of any note occurred when after stumbling out of a nightclub at around 5 am, I somehow ended up in a taxi with three ladies and an hour or so later I arrived in an hilarious real life version of the Aussie movie classic called The Castle.
After wandering in to this establishment somewhere in Port Adelaide I was greeted by the unusual sight of the mother of the house and her considerably younger chap drinking stubbies of cheap lager at 6.30 am surrounded by Bull Terriers and more gold jewellery than one would find at a Mr T lookalike contest.
Needless to say, I soon realised that the best idea would be to leave asap, however I was in
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The only way to play golf; with sunshine, a few beers and a buggy to take the strain of walking out of the equation the middle of nowhere so had to suffer a trip to the local Hungry Jack's at 7 am and a few fitful minutes of sleep in a stifling hot room prior to being woken by the sound of a drunken shouting match from the stubbie swigging couple. I managed to beg myself a lift home eventually and had a few hours to pack and ready myself for the flight to Perth.
I'd booked myself a private room at the Backpack City & Surf in Perth's Northbridge area, which is a sort of travellers ghetto crossed with Chinatown and houses lots of Asian restaurants, hostels, bars, strip joints etc.
I didn't know what to expect of the hostel, but when I arrived (at 8 pm) the reception was closed with a sign asking arrivals to phone a number to check in or out. Interesting, but fortunately for my tolerance levels the receptionist was lurking in the kitchen preparing food. Needless to say her meal was somewhat colder by the time she returned to it.
I soon realised that the reception is hardly ever open and there are no rules to speak of at the hostel because there's nobody
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A textbook swing in charge. Also, all of the rooms are on the one floor and face out to the communal area, so it's pretty noisy all of the time what with the random jabbering of travellers and skateboarding on the tables etc at all hours. I decided to book myself onto a three day tour after the first night there.
The tour was to take in Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River and Albany in the south west tip of Australia and I was really fortunate to have landed a great group of people to travel with. There were around thirty of us in total, split over a three day tour and a five day tour and it soon became apparent that all of the unusual and annoying characters were on the five day tour, as we encountered them all too often.
The first day took in Bunbury Dolphin Centre (which I didn't actually enter, as I met up with Nic for a chat instead), however there were no dolphins gracing us with their presence at the time and then on to Busselton Jetty and the impressive Ngilgi Cave. After lunch we took in Margaret River before heading to Pemberton Forest for
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Josh looks on anxiously as the tension mounts a night in a large wooden cabin. This is where we met the other group, containing many of life's social misfits. It was an interesting evening.
A second 6.30 am start on the bounce followed by a visit to the Bicentennial Tree greeted me on the second day and of course I had no intention whatsoever of climbing the 70 metres to the top of the lookout tree. In fact only two of our eleven made it to the top and only two or three others even put a foot on the unsafe looking climbing rungs. Just looking up at it brought me out in a cold sweat.
Our next stop, the Valley of the Giants treetop walk, was a less giddy prospect. Although about 40 metres high, it was simply walking on a metal canopy and easier on the vertigo sufferers amongst us.
Greens Pool was the highlight of the day; a beautiful sandy bay with cool water to swim in and a beach where a top quality game of beach cricket took place. The only venue in Australia at the moment where the Poms could wield a cricket bat without being barracked.
Albany was
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Incredulous as an agonising final hole defeat looms our home for the night and Albany Backpackers the venue. The group had an amusing drunken team bonding night out in the small town and although the pubs were very quiet, a fair amount of alcohol was consumed. I called it a night when a couple of the team resorted to attempting to open a bottle of wine with a knife and one chopstick after the pubs closed.
Another 6.30 am start virtually finished me off and just what I required was an hours climb up to the top of Castle Rock. Another much appreciated visit to a winery was made even more enjoyable when the driver/guide spilt an entire crate of salad onto the grass and then got into an almighty strop about it and sulked for an age.
Back to Perth in time for the Third Test at the WACA and coincidentally my seat was directly behind Jon, one of the lads from the tour. I managed to make first ball of what turned out to be a proper test match. By that I mean a pitch which made an even contest between bat and ball was prepared and it became by far the best test
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The Adelaide Oval to watch so far.
We bowled Australia out for around 250 and Monty Panesar was the star of the show with five wickets. It looked like we may have a chance of victory, but some awful umpiring decisions and crap batting combined to remove the opportunity during our first innings.
We were set around 580 to win or bat for two days for a draw and we had a chance of a result until Cook lost his wicket right at the end of the fourth day. I didn't bother to buy a ticket for the fifth day, which turned out to be a good decision as England predictably capitulated and The Ashes were gone.
Thankfully, I only obtained tickets for the first three tests and I can now forget all about it and have some time to do other things. Some of the poor souls I met are doing all five tests, which has got to be a depressing experience.
Socially, I had a good time in Perth. I was taken to Scarborough Beach and to an Xavier Rudd concert by Christina and met up with Gaz Fulton for a few drinks in addition to a
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Collingwood scores a double century, McGrath is wicketless and Warne has 1 for 146. Surely England couldn't lose from this position?! couple of nights out with Jon and the lads, one of which ended up with three of us walking home down a motorway and railway siding after failing to secure a taxi.
Taxi's in Perth are impossible to get and we were stuck miles out of town at a casino/nightclub complex. We decided not to join the huge taxi queue and instead embarked upon a ridiculous journey that took well over an hour. We got in at 3 am absolutely exhausted.
It's my last night in Perth tonight and I'm heading over to Cottersloe to have a few drinks in the OBH with Nic and Mark and then flying over to Sydney tomorrow where I'll be reaquainted with Matt Richards for Christmas week. What could possibly go wrong with that arrangement...
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James
non-member comment
Animal Attack
Good to see a blog which makes no mention of colds, flu or gastric complaints, merely an indigineous animal attack ... bush baby was it? Or perhaps a possum ? I see the following words were also included in this latest blog "...cool water to swim in..." ... Now, knowing you as I do, I have to ask: was the water deep? did you actually 'swim' ? I think not sunbeam ... Hope you're having a great Xmas. James