The Break Up...

Well, it didn't really work out with the Belgian guy, but the German girl and I hit off well...and it turns out neither of us could really stand Steven. We made it to Rainbow Beach together and were basically stuck together until after Fraser Island, but we were in a group of 11 people on Fraser Island so there were many diversions.

I guess he was just too immature and too clueless for me...I mean, I'll sit in the passenger seat and read a map for you, no problem...but PLEASE remember how to get back somewhere after we've been there three times! I mean, there's only one turn...how hard is it??? I should have known it wouldn't work when the first thing I had to do before we set out (super late, thanks to Steven) was clean a moldy cooler.

Anyway, Sara and I have been hanging out in Rainbow Beach for a few days looking for rides...no luck so far and after she got this text from a guy in Brisbane who is supposedly heading north, we decided to revise our plan. Here's the text. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. All she wanted to know was his name, his age and where he's from. The text came through in 4 parts.

"Hi my real name is dhaval, but my australian friend call me darren. I am 26 yr old male. I am from planet earth, at earth, on earth because I believe because there is no boundary created on earth at time of origin, still no boundaries for birds, water & breeze but we are most logical creation of god and we logically devided this world in countries. my main aim to travel around world to feel part of planet not creater of this planet. I hve been in australia since 1 & half year, staying in queensland, tell me something about you if you feel that i m not crazzy, by the way enjoy rainbow beach."

Ooookay...We thought we'd tell him we're from Venus so probably not compatible travel buddies...Yikes! Sounds like a lunatic.

Anyway, yesterday we weighed our options...waiting for a ride, buying hop on/hop off Greyhound passes, renting a camper van. We decided to go with the camper van. It's slightly more expensive than the Greyhound but at least we can get out to see the national parks and all the beauty Australia has to offer.

So, to Crystal and Patty...I will be sleeping in a "van full of curtains."

We plan to get up to Cairns by the 20th. Sara will then spend a week with a WWOOFING family, I think, before she heads back to Berlin. I'll probably bum around the Cairns area for a few days before heading back to Perth.

So...Fraser Island was amazingly beautiful. It's the largest sand island in the world. It's just off the east coast of Queensland right near Rainbow Beach. I signed up, with Steven and Sara, for this self-drive safari. Basically the company that organizes it puts 9 to 11 people together in a giant 4WD Landcruiser, gives you some fairly detailed driving instructions, what to do if you get bogged, when to drive on the beach and when not to based on the tides, tells you what to do if you come across dingoes, etc., etc. Then he leads you to the vehicle ferry and send you on your way with your new big maybe-not-so-happy family for the next 3 days.

Our group was pretty good over all. I probably would have enjoyed a slightly older crowd...we had two 19 year old girls from Scotland, two 22 year old British guys, two 26 year old British girls, 20, 21, 22 year old German girls, 25 year old Belgian guy, and me. For the record, I have always found drinking games boring. Some of us were on the same page as far as getting up early to enjoy what we came there to see (mostly the German girls and me), and there is really a lot to see, so we needed an early start. But all in all it was okay, and we did see some absolutely beautiful landscape and a shipwrecked that washed ashore in 1935.

The dingoes stole some of our food the first night. They are sneaky animals and these dingoes are really not at all afraid of humans. One dingo crept in behind us in the dark as we were preparing dinner and stole the bag of wraps we needed for lunch the next day. So we had to improvise and ration out the bread for the next two days so we could have sandwiches instead for lunch the next day.

The government is working to keep these dingoes wild and enforces fines for feeding or attracting dingoes to your campsite by leaving food or food scraps around, but I think so many people come to Fraser Island every day that the dingoes are just very used to people.

Some of us were very fortunate the second day after our late start...we were supposed to go to a nice point called Indian Head where if you get there early enough you might see sharks (swimming in the water surrounding Fraser Island is not recommend due to sharks and strong undertows), whales, dolphins, dugongs (manatees), sea turtles or manta rays. We didn't get there early enough to see much and really didn't have much time to walk to the Champagne Pools which was another beautiful area recommended to see. We didn't even really know how to get to the Champagne Pools.

So I started asking around up top of Indian Head and stumbled across this Norwegian guy who said if I waited around just a bit his Australian brother-in-law would be up there and could probably tell us. So I waited, and the Aussie showed up. He told us it would take about 30-40 minutes but it would probably be a long hot walk. We thought about and decided we really didn't have the time because we had to leave Indian Head in about an hour and 20 minutes or so because of the tides...your car really can get washed out to sea if you're not careful.

But this nice Aussie guy, Mark, asked how many of us there were and offered to give us a ride over there in 2 groups if we wanted. Yes! Please! We weren't allowed to drive our vehicle that far per the rental agreement. So we piled in, and it turns out half of the people decided not to go, so it was just one trip. He zipped us right over there, and we passed Sara and Iris along the way. They had decided to head straight over there instead of going up to Indian Head. He said he'd pick them up after he dropped us off, and he did! It was great. We only had about a half an hour there, but at least we got to see it.

On the way back, Sara flagged down another Aussie in the parking lot who gave us 4 girls (the Germans and me) a ride back to our car. We really lucked out.

So, my memory card does have a virus. I got a new one for Fraser Island going forward, but all the pics from the west coast and when Crystal and Patty were here are stuck on the "sick" card. Once I get back to Perth, I'll try to have someone fix it up for me. Unfortunately I can't post any pics of Fraser right now because the computer I'm using at the hostel says if I plug any devices into the computer I will be fed to sharks!

I guess that's it for now...tomorrow I'll be in behind the wheel on the right side of a camper van driving on the left side of the road, but today...it's off to the beach.

Heading North!

I've been in Brisbane about a week now. It has rained almost everyday, but it's a nice city with a good vibe. I could very easily live here.

Crystal and Patty left on Monday to fly back to L.A. I had a fantastic time while they were here, and it may very well have been the most fun I've had since I left Denver. I laughed so hard everyday for 7 days that my abs were sore by the time they left!

We started out in Brisbane. I met the girls at the airport. They finally came out of customs after about an hour and a half. We rented a car and drove to Byron Bay, about 1.5 to 2 hours south of Brisbane. It was a nice little town right on the beach, but the weather was crap...and Australia wasn't turning out to be too enticing to Crystal and Patty.

Luckily the weather changed overnight, and the second day we had beautiful blue skies! We headed to the "Most Easterly Point of the Australia Mainland" just outside of Byron Bay. To get to it you have to walk or drive up a hill where there is a lighthouse then hike down and out east. On the way to the lighthouse we were lucky enough to spot some humpback whales heading north to warmer water to have their babies. We could see them splashing around, and although they were fairly far out, we occassionally got a glimpse of the whales...enough to identify there colors. It was awesome! I would love to go on a whale watching tour some day.

From Byron Bay we drove about six hours north to Noosa, where we got kicked out of a hotel before we checked in...may have had something to do with the booze breath that was radiating from Crystal, but I think the owner was just crotchety. I was the designated driver, or the skipper as they say here, so no booze breath for me. That was definitely a low point seeing as it was already 10.00 p.m. and all the hotel receptions were closed. Ugh. But we managed to eventually find a hostel with an open reception until 11...we barely made it. They didn't have any triple rooms, so we crammed into a room with two twin beds...the smallest twins you've ever seen. Crystal and Patty squeezed into one, and I was lucky enough to get my own. (Thanks Crystal and Patty!)

We spent one night there, then headed up to Agnes Water/Town of 1770 where we really splurged on a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef. It was pretty cool, although we all three were sea sick. Poor Patty was the only one who really had to make use of the barf bags...but Crystal and I were going downhill pretty fast once finally moved inside from the back of the boat where we were having a grand ol' time gettting soaked...I mean absolutely SOAKED...until the sun went behind the clouds never to return and we spent the next 6 hours freezing. By the time we finally made it to Lady Musgrave Island, we were really a collective wreck. But we had a great time all in all.

We spent three night in Agnes Water...met some great people there. Crystal maybe fell in love. Then we had to head back to Brisbane for one night before Crystal and Patty had to fly back. We stopped at the Australia zoo and fed kangaroos and petted koalas. Wow !

Would like to write more, but my time on the free computer is running out.

I leave tomorrow and a three week road trip with a Belgian guy and a German girl. I met the guy at my hostel and he met the girl through a community website like craigslist...she was looking for a ride north.

Two minutes to go...

Something is wrong with my camera. I can't seem to download/upload photos. It seems like I may have a virus. Is that possible?

Gotta run!

Down Under

I arrived in Australia about 5 weeks ago and have been on the go almost ever since, minus the first week when I pretty much only slept and ate and slept some more while getting over the jetlag and pure exhaustion from South America.

The first week I couldn't seem to stay awake past 7:00 p.m., and I was awake every morning before the sun came up...I heard the first bird of the day chirp...EVERYDAY. But now I seem to have my internal clock in sync with Australia time. Perth is 14 hours ahead of Denver.

It has been very nice to be in an English-speaking country. Australia is similar to the U.S. as far as standards of living goes, personal space, cleanliness, social norms, etc. So things generally make sense here. And the best part is, when things don't make sense, asking a question and getting an answer is easy because it's all in ENGLISH!

I have had to learn a bit of a new language, however:

stubby = bottle of beer
stubby holder = beer coozie
footy = Australian Rules football
cheesy = toasted cheese sandwich
pram = stroller
capsicum = bell pepper
tea = dinner
mozzies = mosquitoes
bottle shop = liquor store
sunnies = sunglasses
chewie = gum
chooks = chickens
daks = pants
dag = nerd, dork
bung = plug
ute = pick-up truck
Good on ya! = Good for you!, Well done!
sheila = a woman
lollies = sweets, candy
chips = french fries, fried potatoes
perving = checking someone out
pashing = french kissing
Rack off! = Get lost!
Wanna get on the piss? = Wanna go drinking?
rock up = show up, arrive
call in = stop by
spewin' = angry
Oz = Australia

And guess what. Fosters is NOT Australian for beer, Mate!

So what have I been up to the last few weeks?

Chris and I took a three week road trip from Perth up to Exmouth along the west coast of Australia. It was absolutely gorgeous, and we visited a lot of places that I would never have been able to see (or not so easily) without him because of the need for 4 wheel drive.

We hung out on some absolutely pristine beaches, some completely deserted and others jam-packed, but probably the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. Some of them were nice and sandy, others were rocky with amazing cliffs. We went to one beach called Shell Beach which is made up of millions of tiny shells, something like 8 feet deep.

I've seen lots of dolphins since I've been here. Besides just seeing them in the ocean from a distant or "chasing" them with a boat in the ocean, I also went to a resort called Monkey Mia where they have a feeding program for a group of dolphins that come to shore every day without fail. There was one dolphin in particular who back in the 60s was quite sociable with humans and begged for food at the back of boats. Some woman caught on to this and decided to lure the dolphin into the shore over time, and eventually this dolphin would come to shore on its own to be fed.

Today the Monkey Mia resort has a program (and tourist attraction) where they feed 5 dolphins (although about 15 or so come to shore semi-regularly) up to three times a day before lunchtime 1/3 of their daily intake. They don't want the dolphins to become too reliant on humans for their food. They won't consider feeding any dolphins younger than 13 years old, and they only feed female dolphins these days because the males sometime became too aggressive.

Occasionally, one of their females is "taken" by the male dolphins when the males are ready to mate. They males will literally bully the female, bite her, and force her to come with them. Usually the female is seen at the shore again, with injuries, within a few days but the longest one was taken for was just over a month.

It was a really amazing experience to stand in the water with dolphins swimming past my legs just a few feet away!

After making it to Exmouth we headed inland and checked out the gorges in the Karijini National Park. Gorgeous! We spent one day just sitting half in half out of one of the pools in the gorge soaking in the sun, drinking beer and watching tourists. We hardly moved for about 5 hours except to take turns hiking back to the car for more beers! It was a fantastic lazy day.

I'm back in Perth for about another week, and then I head to Brisbane to meet up with Crystal and Patty who are coming for a 7 day vacation. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends, especially girlfriends.

I'm not sure what the plan is yet from Brisbane. I've been invited to a birthday party in Sydney, so I may head south to Sydney, but it will be colder there. Or, because of my new addiction to sunshine, I'm pretty tempted to head up north where it should be nice and hot!

I'll keep you posted!