Australia Observations
It has been a really long time since I have posted so this one is going to be really long. We have been in the country long enough now for me to have some observations on Oz much like I had in NZ so here goes:
- Road Signs - I don't know why, but the road signs here are made for people who should not be legally allowed behid the wheel. The government must feel like drivers on average have the IQ of Forrest Gump because we have seen the following signs:
- "Crossroads" with arrows pointing to the road. Really? you don't say! so this is what a crossroads is. Thank you Australia for finally clarifying this for me. What do you expect me to do with this invaluable information?
- "You are in a Parking area" I am? I thought all those white lines were a modern art project! Is this purely informational or should I get out and do a little "I'm in a parking area" dance? Why in the world would I not know that since the sign is in a parking lot?
- "Do not overtake unless it's safe" Aww, but that takes all of the fun out of it. I like to overtake other cars when there is a car in the opposite lane. It's a game we have in the states called "chicken".
- Bathrooms - There is never a bathroom inside a grocery store, it is always on the outside. Even if the building is the same you still can't get to it from inside the store. In general it's not uncommon to not have a bathroom in a restaurant either. There will be one nearby that is shared by the restaurants and the building and if you have to go, you will need a key to it and directions, and maybe a map. (OK the map is an exagerration but the rest of it is the truth) Also, if you stay at a campsite chances are you will get a key from the front desk to use the bathroom. You will be given one key regardless of how many people you are camping with.
- Sharps disposals - every public, gas station, or camp bathroom I have ever been at here has a box for needles. Mike and I were arguing on whether there is a huge drug problem here or a huge diabetes problem, but we have not been able to figure it out. We even asked some locals, and their opinions were also divided between heroin users and people with diabetes. I have decided to go with heroin users since I have also seen the following signs in the bathrooms/showers: "do not thow bathroom tissue on the floor after use", "do not defecate on the floor" (this was in a shower at a truck stop), and "you must flush after using the toilet". I think whoever makes road signs moonlights as a bathroom attendant somewhere....
- Australians are all extraverts - This is not an exagerration. Any time you interact with anyone they will hear your accent and ask you where you are from. We end up telling the same story at least once a day. The Australians will then tell you their whole life story and give you all sorts of advice about where you should go and what you should do. They will also tell you about the government and how they feel about their politics. I don't mind this too much, because it gives us a chance to get the insiders view, but all of our interactions that would have taken 30 seconds in the US end up being at least 30 minutes. We did get some really funny bits of information though. The last guy that did our oil change told us that Ozzies are fascinated with the "bad neighborhoods" of the US and his friends took a tour through Compton and then ran away from the tour to get a haricut at a barbershop. I think the movie "Barbershop" with Ice Cube had a lot to do with that. I don't have the words...
- Drive-Though Liquor stores - because you need alcohol ASAP
- Random Breathalizer tests - Could that be tied to the aforementioned drive-through liquor stores? we were averaging about one stop a week, but there has been a lull for a week or two. On the positive side, they ony take 2 minutes total from the time you are pulled over to when you are on the road again
Bloodwood
Before I get on with my story I just want to say that if ever you are in Sydney and need an amazing place to eat, go to Bloodwood. They do small plates there and every single thing that we ordered was absolutely fantastic. I will also add that its cool for waiters there to have waxed mustaches which adds a key element of entertainment to the meal. They do not take reservations so don't come there hungry, but it's worth the wait. The neighborhood that the restaurant is in is also pretty hip so take your time and walk around. It has a very hip and cool vibe to it and it's away from the CBD for when you are sick of that whole area.
Here I am, on the Road Again
Once our guests left Mike and I took a couple of days of not driving or doing anything much for that matter, to get our bearings back. We had a couple of lazy days of lounging around and reading, doing laundry, and cleaning up the van before getting back to the road, and the driving is pretty different this time around. There is no more schedule, there is no checklist, there is just whatever feels like a good idea at this particular moment. This is the first time that we have taken the van on a trip as just the two of us. As we started driving for some reason I had the Chizh song "Na Dvoih" in my head and even played it for Mike a couple of times. I can't even describe the feeling, but I feel like it's us against the world, and we are extras in "On the Road"
by Jack Keruak. The destinations are no longer important, or at least not as important. I have finally become the vagabound that lives for the metronome of the tires hitting the road. This sounds a bit forced, but there you have it, this is where the fantasy matched up with reality for me. We drive and talk and listen to music and laugh. We are never late to a meeting. We (or at least I am) are just enjoying each other's company and the adventure of discovering new things and new people.
Down By the River
Nighttime Hiking.
We decided to swing by the Dorringo National Park for some hiking so took an hour detour off of the main road. The hike we did was a short one and the road was paved but the forrest was vastly different from anything that we have done up to that point. We were told that there was a cheap place to stay nearby so we opted to spend the night in the area. It was very beautiful to wake up there in the rolling green hills with the blue sky and sunshine. We even did some outdoor yoga which I needed because even with the beautiful scenery I felt kind of strange about the place. For some reason that there is no explanation for I just wanted to hit the road.
We did want to do a proper hike (without a paved road) so we went to a different part of the national park and started off. It was probably around 4pm when we started so we took headlamps with us. Thank god! It got dark in the middle of the loop that we were on and night hiking in the forrest in a place where the trail is on a side of a mountain and there are waterfalls and rapids beneath you is not exactly the greatest in my book. I was scared that there would be snakes, that there would be other animals, and that we would lose out footing and tubmle to either out deaths or to a breaking of a bone. I had a scenario in my head that Mike breaks both legs and I have to go get help and leave him. I told him about this later and he got mad at me for hypothetically leaving him alone in the forrest. Apparently you never leave a man behind even if you can get help faster by leaving them for an hour or so than by dragging him for 5 hours to safety. I have never been so happy to see the parking lot as I was that night and informed Mike that I can be talked into a lot of things, but hiking in the forrest at night will not be one of them. By the time we got to the van my feeling that we must leave this place was at an all time high, so even though it was pretty late we headed back towards the highway. We didn't realize until the next day that we left our towels at out campsite to dry. I hope they find a happy home, but I am never going back to retrieve them :)
The Chainsmoking Cyclist
We stopped at a rest area somewhere not too far off from Sydney and met a chainsmoking cyclist who was camping there. Being Australian, he immediately wanted to know where we were from and where we were going and even though he looked to be quite a talker and we thought we would get stuck with him for a while without a plite way of extricating ourseves from the situation, we talked to him for a bit which turned out to be amazing for us. First off he told us about WikiCamps which is the greatest app ever if you want to travel the way we do in OZ. It's less than 5 dollars and is basically a list of all of the campsites in OZ (kind of like the Camps book that we got with the van but better because you can sort it and it works with Navigation and even offline). This has been amazing for us because not only can we figure out where to go for free showers (which we couldnt with the book) but also people add comments and pictures so that you know exactly what you are in for. If he didn't tell us about anything else, he already improved our quality of life significantly. The cyclist was from Melbourne and gave us a restaurant recommendation which also turned out to be solid, and lastly told us where we should stop for the night. There was a town of Woolgoolga not too far from the rest area and the guy recommended that we park by the beach and sleep there. He said that there were public toliets and no one would bother us. The toilets even had free cold showers, but the temperature did not make that seem like a pleasant thought.
We ended up following every piece of advice that he gave and it turned out great. There was a bit of a
problem with the public toilet (it gets locked after dark) but we figured it out and slept where we were told. It was great to wake up to the sound of the waves hitting the beach. There were BBQ facilities, a sink and even a power supply and we ended up having a lovely picnic breakfast followed by some R and R, and a run on the beach. The beach was beautiful with many different colored pebbles washed up and Mike and I picked some up as souvineers. The whole day felt maigical to me, just the thought that my "house" could be beachfront property whenever I felt like it gave me a little thrill.
Canberra
Mike really wanted to see Canberra so we stopped in on our way to Melbourne. There is a really spooky feeling of being in a ghost town when you get to Canberra, especially when it gets dark. The town itself is very pretty and very well planned. Perhaps it's planned a little too well. It has wide streets, and a lot of trees, but not a lot of people. We spent 1.5 days there and the nights are very strange. You keep walking around asking yourself where all of the people are. It's really quite strange, but the town is clearly trying. There are weird scultptures throughout the CBD and nice benches and chill areas.The only thing missing are the people. It might be that the city is too wide and too big for the population, and maybe a little to clinical and sterile. None of the art including the gafitti feels genuine... Our second day there we went to the Sunday Market to try some tasty food and look at crafts, swung by a glass blowing demo in a glass studio and then went for a 35km bikeride around the lake that is located int he middle of the city. The bikeride was absolutey beautiful. Canberra has all of the seasons and we were there just in time to see the leaves change. We biked through greens and yellows and bright reds, we biked through the hills and preserves, through university ad museum campuses and finally through a beautiful sunset. It took us about 3 hours to do the distance and we were not even aware of how tired we were until we had to walk down a flight of stairs and our legs refused to obey :). We treated ourselves to hot apple ciders and burgers and closed the book on Canberra. I understand why people say that it's a boring place, but i had an absolutely phenomenal day here.
We finally made it to Melbourne!
I took a free tour of the CBD on one of the days and found it to be absolutely fascinating. Melbourne was built in two waves:1850s with the Gold Rush money, and the 1880s when that money was inherrrited by the children of the miners. There are old beautiful buildings everywhere you look and everything seems accessible. On the tour I started getting disillusioned by Bill Bryson and his book. He stated that there is no reason why Ned Kelley is such a hero to Australians, but the tour guide went through the whole history of Ned and his family and why Australians hold him in such reguard:
Ned as just a regular kid from a large irish family that got into a little trouble ow and again, but nothing serious until one day a corrupt cop hurt himself and framed the whole Kelley family stating that they shot him. The family was rounded up and jailed, ony Ned and his brother escaped. They went into hiding with two of their friends and started robbing banks to make ends meet. The reason people were so fond of him is that when he robbed a bak, he would set fire to all of the mortgage and deed papers and would erase people's debts. He also seems to have been pretty generous with the money he stole, kind of like a real life Robin Hood. The gang was finally discovered and surrounded. Ned made an armor for himself covering his head, torso and family jewels. The shootout was leading the police nowhere so they set the house that the gang was in, on fire. Ned was the only one to escape and when he saw that his friends and brother all died in the flames he decided to go out with a bang and ran out shooting. In order to bring him down the cops shot him in the leg 28 times. He survived and was brought back to Melbourne to stand trial. The city gave the judge a petition with 30,000 signatures asking that Ned go free, but of course that didn't make one bit of distance. The judge sentanced Ned to death by hanging and sentanced him with the words "and may god have mercy on your soul". Ned looked up at the judge and said "I'll do you one better, I'll see you in hell!". The judge kicked the bucket a couple of weeks later (but after Ned has already been hanged). The police captain (I think) didn't think it was good enough that Ned died, he also had his head mounted on the fence by the jail and made a tobacco pouch for himself out of Ned's scrotum so that for the rest of his life he had Ned by the balls!
Take that Bryson! why couldn't you put that in your book? It made me respect you less and take everything you have written about Australia with a boulder of salt. I also loved walking around the CBD at night. No matter what day of the week it is, it's absolutely packed with people. The Chinatown (2nd oldest in the world) is open 24/7 so the party never stops. We decided to belatedly celebrate our anniversary in Melbourne and got a hotel in the CBD for a couple of nights, it was glorious.
Once we were done with the CBD we went to the eighborhood of St. Kilda - which I was very underwhelmed by. Honestly I would not have fallen in love with Melbourne the way that I had if we didn't also go thte the neighborhood of Fitzroy. I LOVED FITZROY!!! If I lived in Australia, I would want to live in Fitzroy. It's artsy and cool and old and shabby and beautiful all at the same time. It reminded my of NOLA with its wrought iron work on the old houses, and of Bucktown with it's cool and hip restaurants and cafes and people. I also discovered the most delicious cafe there called "Babka" which had amazing Russian food. Since I got sick from a homeless woman coughing in my face on one of our nighttime walks inthe CBD I really enjoyed me some Russian comfort food. I liked it so much we ate here on two separate occasions. We must have walked all up and down Fitzroy. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for it. All in all I think we spent about two weeks in Melbourne and really soaked up the vibes of a hip and cool city. We probably stayed a little longer than we should have, but it was one of very few opportunities to really soak up the big city life :)
The Road to Adelaide
We rode out of Melbourne right as the weather turned colder and rainier. In a way it has been good, we have soaked up all of the good weather in the city but we are greedyand want good weather all of the time. Mike saw a destination called Wombat Forrest and decided that we must camp there in order to see a wombat in the wild. He got his wish and on our one night there he indeed saw a wombat right in the area where we camped. I was too sick and too cold and it was too wet for me to get out of the van, but he was really excited. I don't want to work that hard and hope that like the emus and the kangaroos the wombats will come to me when they are ready. This was also the first night we made dinner inside the van due to cold and wet weather. It's actually very cozy and nice to make and eat food while sitting crosslegged on the bed. Makes me think we are having a strange sleepover :)
We spent the next day relaxing and not doing much as I was still pretty sick, but did go on to expore the city of Bellarat which was supposed to be old and historic (it's a gold town) but after just spending some time exploring Fitzroy, Bellarat was really nothing special. I have grown spoilt by my new favorite place in OZ. The next day we made it through the same portion of the Great Ocean Road that we did with Mike's parents, but this time caught a beautiful sunset from Gibson's Steps. The other amazing thing that happened that day was that a koala just happened to cross the road while we were driving! After all this time, this is the
first wild koala that I saw. We stopped the car and went back to take pictures and he was there waiting for us and posing. Koalas are really adorable animals and this one was much better than the ones at the zoo because he wasn't drowsy and tired from interaction. My favorite part has to be the super soft furr growing out of his cute little ears. Take note wombats, this is how I would like to be approached by you! For me the koala was the highlight of the day, I even posted about it on FB as you gys might have seen. Mike wanted to do night photography and so I went to sleep in the back of the van while he drove to different locations where we have been with his parents and took some night shots. It was my dream come true up until we stopped for the night at our campsite (the road was unpaved and it was not a pleasant ride in the back).
The next day we finished off the Great Ocean Road and saw "The Arch", "The London Bridge" (a portion of which collapsed in the 90's while there were tourists on it. No one was hurt but they could not go back to shore and had to be helicoptered out. I guess that's what you get when you name a structure London Bridge, it can't help but fall down), and my favorite of all the Great Ocean Road sights, "The Grotto". I hope I can use one of Mike's pictures, but the grotto is really amazingly beautiful and the best part is that we were the only people there. There are about a million tourists at the 12 Apostles, but it seems like no one has the stamina to go to the very end and see the Grotto. I highly recommend going there if you are ever in OZ.
As we left the Great Ocean Road we did have a couple of animal sightings: we passed a farm with dead foxes strung up on the fence. They were mostly exploded and nasty, and I'm not quite sure what the farmer was trying to do there... Clearly the original bodies didn't keep the remaining foxes off the land, and I don't know of any other reason to string up corpses and make the area reak of death and decay. The day ended on a more positive note, with ANOTHER KOALA SIGHTING!!! This time we were going through a town and the little bastard was just running down the road and then jumped onto a tree. Mike stopped the van and took about 30 minutes for a proper photoshoot. While he was at it a local showed up and informed him that there are several koalas that live in the town, so it's not at all strange that this one was hanging out by the road and not even on a eukalyptis tree. The night of the koala we ended up getting hungry for dinenr before we were ready to stop for the night, so we went to Wooly's (Woolworth's) and bought a couple of items we were low on, and proceeded to again cook in the van - this time in the grocery store parking lot. I don't know why it made me feel self conscious, but there was something extra vagranty about making a salad and slicing bread in a van under the harsh lights of the grocery store parking lot. We didn't really have any other place to go to eat and it was really cold, so we would have been inside the van anyway, but somehow doing this in the city and not in a picnic area just brings weird associations to my head. I guess it's all relative.
The Night of Adventure
Over the last month there have been plenty of times that I thought that we would get the van stuck in the mud. It seems only natural that this would happen since it has been raining fairly often and a lot of the rest areas are not paved, but I never thought that it would be like this. Mike and I decided to splurge on a powered site since all of our tech was low on power and a chance to do it all in one shot plus have drinking water and hot showers makes it almost even. We have figured out that the camping prices go like this:
- free - either its a cool remote location with a bathroom and no shower or drinking water or it's a truck stop right off the highway with a lot of noise
- Show-grounds - $15-$20 with hot showers and bathrooms - but old and maybe a little nasty. There are usually no kitchen facility but there might be drinking water
- Holiday Park - $35+ but really nice facilities and if you are lucky there is a closed off kitchen area although mostly it's just an area outside with BBQ and a sink. There are often laundry facilities but I have decided that going to the laundromat is cheaper and faster.
We try not to stay at the Holiday parks unless there is a very good reason, and on this particular night we opted for a Show-grounds. The GPS took us to a dirt road that ended with a dead end so we had to turn the van around. It did not look particularly muddy, but we did not make it back to the road. The back tires got stuck in the mud and there was no moving the van. I thought it might be helpful to go to the show-grounds anyway and ask for a push but apparently 8pm is the dead of night in these parts and the one camper van that was staying on the premises was already done for the night. Mike and I tried to get the van out for over an hour with me at the wheel and him walking around in the mud and we even got it out, but due to lack of communication I drove it into another mud area and got it stuck again. We gave up right as one o the people that lived in the area came out to see what was happening because we woke him up. He was pretty nice about it and let us borrow his shovel, but it was still a no go so we gave up as no not wake more people up. We ended up sleeping in the van about 50 feet from the campsite we wanted to go to :)
I the morning Mike made a joke about us getting a free night out of our adventure and I told him to hold off to us NOT having to call a tow truck, since it might end up costing us quite a bit. We were still in the process of getting up when there was a knock on the door and the caretaker of the Show-grounds appeared and informed us that the cavalry was arriving and will be towing us out. They had us out of the mud in no more than 5 minutes. Mike didn't even have time to take a photo, it was that painless. I hope that this is the first and last time that we get stuck like that - but I doubt it. There have been too many close calls, but that's part of the fun isn't it?
On a side topic - I casually mentioned to Mike how bad we are in high stress situations and he was shocked that I thought so. He thinks that we work amazingly well in a "crisis". We are approaching it from completely different sides I think. Usually, especially since we have been on this trip, we have our jobs down and work like a well oiled machine. We can anticipate what the other person needs and can both work on a task without getting in each other's way. When there is a "crisis" situation that no longer applies. There is a lot of bumping into each other, terse speech, and a general layer of fuckery part of which stems no doubt from the fact that we both have a plan and the plan that I have is drastically different than the plan he has, but we both think that ours will work better. Mike countered with the fact that our "crisis" work never ends in fights, we are not actually mean to each other, we don't call each other names, and one of us does not walk out on the job in the middle because they just can't deal with the other one. I don't think we have ever had more differing viewpoints on a particular thing, and it made me wonder how other people feel. Do I live in a dreamworld, or are his expectations too low?
Granite Island Penguin Colony
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