Mike and Kathy: Hikers, Social Butterflies, Fruit Criminals

Darwin to Uluru
By the time we left Darwin I was more and more feeling like I cant really process any more adventures. We have been travelling for a long long time now, and I think the end will come at just the right time when I am still sad that the trip is over, but also happy to be coming home. This is the home stretch.

OZ fashion

One of the places that I really enjoyed on the drive to Alice Springs was Devil's Marbles. The marbles are formed in the same way as Uluru (Ayers rock) which means that everything around them eroded much faster. The marbles are a nice break from the road and are just incredibly cool. This was also a place for us to break out Glen and Judi's protective nets as evidenced by the picture :). I must add that part of the coolness factor was that we stayed at Devil's Marbles through the sunset and I saw several amazing shooting stars. I will really miss the big sky of Australia and will be sad not seeing the southern cross every night. 

Of course you need a negative experience to offset every positive one and our negative one did not make us wait long. We were passing through a town that boasted of an Aboriginal Art Gallery and Mike and I decided to pop in. Some of the art was amazing, while some of the other things in the gallery looked pretty crappy and cost way too much. The owner decided to chat with us and basically made it seem like he was being a saint by having this gallery, because otherwise they [Aborigines] "get into the grog". He made it sound like everything in the gallery was worthless, which is just not true. He was such a dick that we didn't buy any of the art there (which we regretted later) but his attitude definitely explains the disparity int he quality of the work displayed. If he thinks everything is shit, then he displays everything and gibes no guidance on price points. I have ranted about the racism in this country before, but they just get me every time. I saw posters in the Sydney train station recently that say the following: "discrimination causes anxiety and depression in the aboriginal community." Yep. I can't believe you guys need a poster to tell you that....

We spent an extra day in Alice Springs because Mike wanted to hike in the McDonnell ranges. Having hiked in OZ before, I was not nearly as excited about this possibility ad the reality matched my expectations pretty accurately. Regardless, it was 10 miles spent working out, and it was different than what we normally do, so I didn't let it bother me too much.

On our way to Uluru I was worried that it could not possibly match the hype. I mean at the end of the day, it's just a big shapeless rock that sticks out of the plain, what's the big deal? Fortunately, I believe that it was very much worth the trip. Uluru looks unimpressive from far away, but up close the rock surface is very interesting. I will also say that there are several cave paintings that you can see as you hike around the base. The other portion of Uluru that was very interesting for me was the fact that the Aboriginal tribes from the area have mythological stories that explain the scaring and topography of the rock, and they are quite fascinating.

I was also not aware of the fact that there are fresh water spots around Uluru that the people of the land

water hole at Uluru

found to be holy. It is really something to come to a spot in the dessert with greenery, shade and water. It is so peaceful and serene there. One of the plaques told us that the men would hide by the water hole and wait for the emus to come and drink the water. They would not make a move until the emus were walking away from the water hole and then they would only kill the last emu while the other's backs were turned. They did this so that the emu would not be afraid to come back to the water hole in the future.

For some reason this really appealed to us. We imagined the following emu conversation taking place:

Bob: Hey Fred, Ted, we should probably head back...
Ted: Yeah guys, we better go, I always feel uneasy when I'm here.
Fred: Oh come on guys, its so nice and peaceful here!
Bob: No really man, I hear you don't want to be the last one to leave!
Fred: Just relax man, I just want to rest a little bit, enjoy the shade, be one with the universe man!
Ted: I heard the last one out never comes back home...
Fred: Would you relax, that's just an old wives tale, I can totally be last if you are scared.
Bob: fine, we're out of here, are you right behind us?
Fred:...
Bob: Fred?
Fred:...
Ted: Are you there?
Fred:....
Bob: That will teach the bastard to sleep with my wife!
Ted: I know, reverse psychology is awesome
[Bob and Ted high five]

Kata Tjuta

As amazing as Uluru was, both Mike and I enjoyed Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) much more in terms of the hiking. It was an actual hike, with incredible views! I was really glad that we managed to make it out and actually have a hike that was very very impressive while in OZ. I liked the Flinders Ranges, and the Grampians a lot, but Kata Tjuta is hands down the best hike in OZ. Strangely, Uluru is much more impressive up close, while you need some distance for Kata Tjuta as the face of the rock is not nearly as impressive, but the shape that the 36 giant boulders make in the plain is very interesting and unique.

We capped off the day by driving back to Uluru and watching the sun set over both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It was a time for us to just stand together quietly and reflect on our trip up to this point. I can not stress this enough - you should go and see BOTH Uluru and Kata Tjuta while in OZ. It's amazing!!!

Adelaide and our new friends
As we were driving towards Sydney we realized that we would need an oil change before we got there. As it was a Thursday when we made this realization it became apparent to us that we would most likely be stuck somewhere over the weekend. Sure enough, I had called several mechanics and they all laughed at me when asked about an oil change on Friday or Saturday. I finally managed to get someone in Adelaide who was able to take us in Monday morning, so we resigned ourselves to spending the weekend in Adelaide.

This was not entirely bad news as we had been staying at free stops since Uluru, so it had been several days since we had seen a shower. We took our time driving through the Northern Territory and only made it t Adelaide on Saturday afternoon. I am also happy to report that I drove us in to the Adelaide CBD (downtown) which was a first for me. I am now officially a stick driver!!!

Our first night in Adelaide, we decided to go out and ended up going to an amazing restaurant called . As soon as we got there the chef seated us and recommended a bunch of dishes and some amazing Shiraz (three witches) We got to talking and ended up making friends with Mohamed (the chef) and stayed in his restaurant until way past closing time. We also ended up meeting another chef, Joji and his girlfriend Skye that night and having some really late night drinks with them.

Me and Mohamed

Marrakech

Mohamed is a force. I have never met anyone with so much energy and charisma. Within 5 minutes of meeting him, you feel like you have known him forever. Further more, everyone in Adelaide seems to know him. We went to Joji's restaurant the next day, and all of the people at the sushi counter knew who he was. Once you are hanging out with him, you just have to go with the flow. We were not even going to go to drinks with all of them on Saturday night, but he saw us driving home after dining at his restaurant and ran out of his car and told us to come with.

Joji and Skye were also amazing to meet. I think Joji has to be one of the most accommodating and giving people I have EVER met. I think we would become real friends if he and Skye lived in the states. We almost want to smuggle them in :) He also lives the craziest lifestyle by having a full time job in the daytime and working in the restaurant 5 days a week as well which means that most of the time he works 8am to midnight. On top of that he likes to work out after work which puts him at roughly 4-5 hours of sleep a night. I don't really know how he does it.

Basically all of the people we met in Adelaide this time around made us feel at home and gave us really positive memories and associations with the city. Our meeting had a lot of BM magic to it and I started thinking that the magic happens when you are not scheduled. When you are not running late, or have a schedule to keep to, you end up saying "yes" to a lot of surprising and interesting things that enrich your life. This could never happen if we were on a two week trip because we would have a schedule and reservations, and all sorts of other things. I want to know how to add this magic to my life permanently, but I am not really sure how to "go with the flow" when most of the time we know our plans about a month in advance. I think I will try to be a bit more flexible and invite these experiences into my life a little bit more. I mean, when is the last time any of us really made a new connection with someone when we weren't at BM? I am not even talking about discovering something new about the people we have known for years, I am talking about spontaneously hitting it off with strangers. I realize that it's easier in Australia than in the US, because Australians really do start conversations with strangers randomly. I am still in shock about strangers telling each other their life stories on public transportation all around me, but it's a thing here. Regardless, I hope I don't forget about this aspect of life when I'm back in the default world.

We are fruit criminals

You may have noticed me talking about transporting fruit across state lines in my previous blogs, but this time requires an explanation. Australians are crazy about fruit flies and there are certain states that don't have them at all. There are quarantine areas on the borders of states where there are bins available for you to get rid of your criminal fruit.

Mike and I have been solid citizens up to this point and have at times gorged ourselves on apples, tangerines, and pears to comply. This time we thought that leaving South Australia we would be safe and we did some serious food shopping before we left Adelaide. We had all of our salad making ingredients, a kg of pears and a kg of tangerines with us. Imagine our disappointment when we neared the tiny portion of Victoria that we had to drive though and saw those annoying signs.

After stuffing three tangerines in my mouth and having about 5 to go, I put my foot down. I refused to throw away our tomatoes, avocados, pears, and tangerines. I told Mike that I am sick of this bullshit, and furthermore as we are not even planing to stop in the 150km of Victoria that we would be driving through, I don't see any reason to throw away perfectly good fruit! I was also upset because Australia has been punishing us for eating healthy. No one has to throw away candy, chips, and other junk! Why should we have to suffer? Mike agreed with my tirade and we decided to hide our criminal fruit possessions. We stopped by the quarantine bin and got rid of our tangerine rind garbage, and then put all of the offensive items in a couple of grocery bags and hid them under our bed. 

As soon as we started driving we saw more signs warning us not to have fruit with us. We were notified of a 600 dollar fine that we would have to pay. We were also notified that we could be stopped and inspected at random. You could cut the tension in the car with a knife. Images of Mike and me in fruit jail having tomatoes thrown in our face and being beaten with bananas could not be ignored. My plan for us being stopped was to scream "we don't have any fruit, why don't you leave us alone?" was not approved by Mike, and I had problems coming up with a better one. Neither of us could really breathe until we crossed into New South Whales and I have firmly decided that I am not cut out for a life of crime.

Our time in Sydney
Our time in Sydney has been bittersweet. We are concentrating hard on selling our van, but that basically means that we can not do anything else from 10am to 5 pm (the hours of the Sydney Travellers Car Market). We have posted our car online, distributed fliers with all of the hostels in the city (and I mean all) and have frozen our butts of waiting for customers in the car park.  The situation is not dire, as we get to sell our car back to Travellers if we have no other offers, but it would be a shame to waste 10 days on trying to sell the car just to follow our backup plan in the end. If we knew that we couldn't sell the car, we would have just stayed up north where it's warm and had a relaxing carefree time.

Thankfully our nights are a different story. Joji and Skye got into town yesterday and we once again spent some time eating and drinking with them and making new friends. One other guy that we met, Yuuichi, had just finished walking from Adelaide to Sydney. That's right, I said walking! He did this to raise money for the victims of the tsunami. I spoke with him about it a little bit and he told me that unfortunately he did not raise as much as he had hoped due to lack of publicity and sponsorship, but that he learned some valuable lessons and will surely do better in his next walking attempt which will be in the states. He is planning to walk from San Diego to New York and will hopefully go through Chicago. We discussed him walking route 66 and he seemed very excited about this. I really hope that he can make it work, but it is still a couple of years away as he needs to save up and get a visa and such.

The other guy we met was a dead ringer for Jessya's younger brother in terms of cadence and mannerisms. I was trying to figure out who he reminded me of for half the night, and so did Mike, but we finally managed to figure it out. Michael's double is Armenian and moved from Adelaide to Sydney in February.

The rest of the group was also really nice and friendly. Mike and I didn't get home till after one and we were TIRED this morning, but what  nice break from just doing the van selling. We are actually giving our Adelaide friends a ride to the airport today after we are done at the market.

In other exciting news, Olichka will be here for work starting tonight as well. We are already scheduled to see her for dinner tomorrow. She will be working while we are selling, but our nights will be really fun hanging out and catching up. Kova is leaving Sydney on the same day as us, but unfortunately a little earlier in the day, so we wont really be able to hang at the airport together. I still really like that we started and are ending this great adventure with her. I will let you guys know the rest of the story in my next installment of the blog. Miss you all and see you soon.