Australia - Day 2 - Corinella

Oceania » Australia » Victoria
July 23rd 2006

Published: August 11th 2006

COCKATOO WAKE-UP CALL
I woke up at the ass crack of dawn, about 6:30, and rolled out of the futon to get an early start on the day. All around me, I could hear cockatoos singing, which sounds an awful lot like monkeys doing it. What a pleasant thing to wake up, eh? I went outside the caravan for a cigarette to get my early morning fix, and ran into Danny, who has already been awake and walking around. We walked down to the pier (jetty, in Australian) to catch the sunrise over the bay, and snapped a few pics. On our way back to the caravan, we ran into John and Barbara, who were already up, running errands. They had to drive to nearby Phillip Island to drop off the rented van that they used to pick us up from the airport in Melbourne, so we tagged along with them. Fuck it, what else was I gonna do at 7:00 am on a Sunday anyways? The ride was about 30 minutes, and we got to see some beautiful Victoria countryside. On the way, we passed by some 2 million dollar condos that were being built close to the beach. Apparently, the land value in that area has skyrocketed in the past few years; it would have been a pretty money investment had I known a few years ago. The condos weren’t even very close to the beach; building apartments and condos right near the shore is not allowed, because they are trying to keep the whole Corinella area as pure and natural as possible; you won’t see any commercial whoring of real estate here, like you would in most beaches in the states. It was a pretty refreshing thing to hear.

THE CORINELLA FORESHORE COMMITTEE
We got back from the ride, and met up with the rest of the group. There is a little rotunda a second away from the caravan park, and we met up at 10:00 am to meet the Corinella Foreshore Committee and go through a little orientation about our projects. Everyone was extremely stoked to meet us, and couldn’t express enough gratitude to us for being in their little town and helping with their foreshore restoration efforts. They put together little packages for all of us, with numerous little souvenirs from Corinella, t-shirts and pens and water bottles and whatnot. Afterwards, they led us on a walk down the foreshore to the various sites that we would be working on. On the way, they were all very eager hear our story and find out more about us, as well as enlighten us on what they were trying to accomplish. Every now and then, they would stop to look at a plant, and would explain it to us, like whether or not it was native or a weed. They seemed to know their shit…at least to me they did. We arrived back at the rotunda at lunch time, where they began barbecuing for us. Before we came, they had set up a sign at the General Store announcing our arrival, and encouraging the locals to come to the barbecue to greet us. It was a very cool gesture.

BARBECUE
John and Keith grilled a shit-ton of hot dogs, and they were fucking on point. They weren’t actually hot dogs, at least as we’re used to; they were skinny sausages, which we put on sliced bread and added tomato sauce, mustard, and grilled onions. The onions were delicious, but whenever you requested onions, they gave you a SHITload; I’m talkin’ like a mountain of onions that covered the entire bread slice. I don’t like onions THAT much, dudes.

We met Kath at the picnic, who was, no shit, the very first smoker that we ran into on the entire trip. Everyone that we had met up to this point seemed pretty proper and formal, so we would follow suit and be as polite as possible back to them. Kath, however, cussed and smoked and talked very casually, just like I fuckin’ would (I threw in that last “fuckin” intentionally for added emphasis), so she was very cool to talk to and hang out with.

During the whole barbecue, a bunch of locals came around, and started kicking the footy around. It’s funny, in America, you normally see people throwing the football around at barbecues; in Australia, people kick the footy around. Made me chuckle to see that…but throwing the football seems more efficient then kicking it, right?

GROCERY SHOPPING
After the barbecue, Marcus, Kath, Naomi, Danny, and I went grocery shopping. We had made a list of foods that we were going to alternate cooking for dinner throughout the week, and the lunches would vary between sandwiches and soups brought by the locals, so we had a pretty good idea of what to buy. We stopped at a small local market, which was like 30 minutes away (would be a bitch to get home from the store and notice that you forgot to pick something up, eh?), and got started. We filled up a whole cart, and some, with various foods that we could cook with, all the while making sure that we would have enough to feed 8 people every day for the next week. If I ever have a family of 8 in my lifetime, I’d be pretty fucked, because it seems like a lot of work to feed that many people daily.

We stopped by another store afterwards to pick up a few last things. I picked up a towel, which I failed to bring on the trip like an idiot, and a cheap scarf to wear during the cold mornings at work. There was also a bottle store there (which is what Aussies refer to as a beer/liquor store), where Danny and I immediately went. We spotted a slab (24 pack) of Budweiser for like $45 or so, which is expensive as shit, but we decided to splurge and bought it. On the way to the car, Marcus spotted it, and made us return it, because we were only allowed to drink Aussie beer while in Australia. Which, in retrospect, is a pretty good rule; I don’t know what we were thinking. We picked up a slab of Toohey’s Extra Dry, which was way cheaper anyway, and made our way back to the caravan.

EVENING
That night, after arriving at the caravans, we met up with the rest of the group to go through a little orientation. We basically introduced ourselves to the rest of the group, and Marcus told us about what we would be doing, what he expected, and so forth. He basically said that we had a lot of work to do, but to not be totally occupied by the work; we should enjoy the fact that we’re in Australia, and to take frequent breaks to enjoy the scenery and to soak everything in. Good stuff.

It was me and Danny’s turn to cook dinner, so we cooked up some beef and chicken fajitas. We had limited space to work with, so we basically had to simmer everything in the wok, along with some seasoning and marinade. It turned out kind of saucy, so they weren’t really fajitas at all, but fuck it, they still tasted good.

After dinner, everyone else chipped in to do the dishes, so Marcus, Danny, and I kicked back, had an ice cold Toohey’s and watched some Aussie television. We didn’t have cable or anything like that, so it was the basic stuff. Their version of Big Brother is HUGE in Australia; they also love Deal Or No Deal, the OC, and a shitty prime time soap opera called Neighbors. Everybody, even dudes, watch the OC religiously. Every time an Aussie bloke would tell me how awesome the OC was, I just wanted to point my finger in his face and say “you asshole, only girls watch that shit!! Hahaha!!” Since getting my ass kicked by an Aussie bloke was not on my list of things to do whilst in Australia, I would politely say instead, “Yea dude, I don’t watch it, but it’s huge in the States…”, and then say to myself, “…among 12 year old girls, sucka”.

After a bit of TV watching, we went to bed early again. I tell ya, I could totally get used to going to bed before 4:00 am every night.

Australia - Day 2 - Corinella

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