So, "Melben" (Melbourne) was lovely! Day by day might be a bit of a dreary recount so I'll give you the highlights. I stayed with an aunt and uncle on the Mornington Peninsula and had a very relaxing and enjoyable visit consisting of many of excellent coffees, lots of fabulous food, and a spectacular view of the ocean. It was a pleasant twenty minute walk down to the beach; very near where Harold Holt, a former prime minister of Australia, disappeared into the ocean. Not the most hospitable spot for swimming. I did not risk entering the fierce surf crashing endlessly into the shore.
For those of you who don't know, my aunt and uncle love golf. And while I love my aunt and uncle I can only take golf in smallish doses. So, while they went off to worship on the greens, I had a little adventure of my own. Stand up paddle boarding lessons!
A long, fairly stable board, and a paddle were the means to carry me on my perilous sea voyage. I was pleasantly surprised at how stable the board was on the very calm bay of Dromana, and how relatively easy it was to stand up. Lynda, my instructor, gave me the basics; how to paddle, what to do if there is an emergency (ie if I happen to be drowning, attacked by a shark, etc.) how to get from kneeling to standing, how to turn the board, and how to stay on in small waves.
I had a wet suit on ( I love wet suits!!! I know they don't look cool, but I feel invincible in a wetsuit... despite my resemblance to a seal whilst sheathed in foam neoprene) which kept me warm on and in the water. I did manage to stay dry for most of the lesson, believe it or not. It was only when Lynda called out "look how far you've come!" that I turned and toppled into the water, losing my sunglasses in the process. Fortunately there was a very helpful gentleman with a mask and snorkel who discovered them without too much difficulty.
Among the culinary delights were wine tasting Mornington peninsula, hot chocolate affogatos at koko black, cheese from a local cheese factory, and fresh cherries and strawberries which are in season here.
The best times though were sitting on the beach, watching the waves crash, and talking to my God. He who holds the oceans in His hand, who can calm the sea with an authoritative "peace be still", and who satisfies my soul with good things.
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Friday 11 November 2011
Almost caught up
Right, so, just quickly now, to get you caught up;
Nov 8
day at the beach in Glenelg, great place!
Trammed to Adelaide lugging my pack
Caught a night bus to Melbourne
Nov 9
Met uncle Hugh at the bus station
Had breakfast with him
Tooddled around Melbourne
Had dinner with Hugh and Joanne
Nov 10
Explored st. Andrews beach
Went out for dinner
Nov 11
went out for coffee
Sat in the sun
Mailed some post cards
Blogged.
Nov 8
day at the beach in Glenelg, great place!
Trammed to Adelaide lugging my pack
Caught a night bus to Melbourne
Nov 9
Met uncle Hugh at the bus station
Had breakfast with him
Tooddled around Melbourne
Had dinner with Hugh and Joanne
Nov 10
Explored st. Andrews beach
Went out for dinner
Nov 11
went out for coffee
Sat in the sun
Mailed some post cards
Blogged.
~3800km's later...
Guess what. Australia is a big country. True story!
Oct 30
Early morning start to meet the bus between 6:45 and 7am in Perth. With backpack on and fully loaded I head to the train station where a fellow who has clearly been out all night asks;
"are you a backpacker?"
We'll... Yes, I guess I am.
Meet the bus: Craig the driver, Aussie through and through, Paul a Dutchman, Marcus from Switzerland, Chris from Sweden, Megan, Chris and Steve from the UK, and me, the sole and most gullible Canadian. (Later we picked up Mads the Viking ie Danish)
The bus is an 18 seater, fairly comfortable, towing a trailer full of the essentials. Being early yet, you an imagine that the bus was a bit quiet to start with. Getting to know people can sometimes be bit awkward, as you know. I think its a fairly reasonable practice to start by talking to people and if you're going to be strategic, you want to make friends with the person who is responsible for your food, transport and safety...ie the tour guide.
That is how the following conversation came about:
Craig: "I hate cyclists! I have three dents on my bus; one from a kangaroo, one from a cyclist and one from a giraffe."
Kirsten: "giraffe?"
Craig: "more concerned about the Australian giraffe than the Australian cyclist are we?"
Kirsten wishes that she'd said something clever after this but instead and henceforth became giraffe girl... She was wearing a shirt with a giraffe on it.
First cool stop was at Hyden, Wave Rock is a 15m high rock formation. You'll never guess what it looks like! It was great to walk around and explore the area, but the flies were thick and persistent, and we retreated to the bus after only about an hour.
Our first night in the swag was at Hopetoun North, where a lovely little lady named Mary welcomed us to her lovely little restaurant and fed us a fabulous meal on a cozy little veranda. We slept under the stars in her back paddock next to a field of kangaroos. The outhouse was a red box that she called "the Tardis". Unfortunately, to get to the Tardis there was a gate, and the gate had a chain, and the chain was a pain!
I was cold that first night, and being cold and awake I had to visit the Tardis on several occasions. The gate was the home of a spider... I have no idea if it was dangerous or not, but every time I had to undo and redo the chain at the gate that spider bullied me, taunting me;
"I might be lethal, but I might not- how badly do you need the Tardis?"
Serious business! I may also have been a little on edge because of all of the initial warnings; "watch out for spiders, snakes, drop bears, etc." (please note, no such thing as drop bears, or hoop snakes, or various other creatures which seems a bit too fantastic to be true)
In any case, I slept poorly that first night and retreated to sleep on the bus, mostly because it was cold.
Oct 31
Up early enough to see the sunrise, which if you will remember was still fairly early in Western Australia. So I watched the kangaroos and was thankful for a long night over and sunshine to finally warm me.
At Esperance we picked up Mads, and headed to Cape Le Grand... Quite possibly, my favorite spot of the whole trip. We hiked from Rossiter Bay to Lucky Bay along some rocky paths that led to some great views. The beach at Lucky Bay is white, more silica than sand, and the water is such a gorgeous array of blues. There were kangaroos lolling around on the beach with their joeys, not really bothered by us at all. It was a nice enough day that I was able to go in for a swim, and I got to try out my chawel(towel that doubles as a change room), it worked great!
Having been ridiculously cold the night before, I opted for a tent. I am only slightly smug in informing you that my tent was set up for me. I am really not all that helpless but once and a while surely it is ok to let fellows be gentlemen?
After an excellent stir fry supper and an evening of banter we settled in, to what was for me a very satisfactory sleep.
Nov 1
Ever the early riser, I was able to walk on the beach with the kangaroos, before any of the others were up. It was a bit of a cloudy morning, but warm.
Up the Esperance highway, to Norseman a gold rush town, all the way to the Caiguna blowhole (via the Eyre highway) where we camped in the middle of the "bush" (which was actually a lot more open than I expected bush camping to be).
Today was mostly a lot of driving. But I'm happy to report that though I had been dreading it, I mastered the bush toilet.
Nov 2
Rabbits are not beloved in Australia having been imported for sport and thriving wildly in the Australian terrain, they caused some pretty major havoc. What damage can a rabbit do? Oho! Quite a nasty bit! Prime example: Eucla. Happy little telegraph town, holding its own. In sweep the rabbits like a plague. Bunnies gotta eat, and they do it pretty well, so poof! Vegetation gone! (amazing what rabbits pull out of their hats!) No vegetation to hold the sand dunes, therefore sand dunes shift and devour the town of Eucla. It's a ruin now.
After lots more road we come to Koonalda Homestead, which got left behind like the town in Cars when the new highway was built. It had tons of old cars that were more expensive to tow than to buy new, so they just got left there. It is a bit like the set of a horror movie, and there were mice running everywhere, but it was a pretty cool place, with a beautiful sunset, and I slept in my swag under the stars after a tasty curry dinner.
Nov 3
Highlights of today: Bunda cliffs, quintessential Aussie road sign, getting to bottle feed a baby kangaroo at a wildlife rescue centre, seeing a rare white wombat and having a shower!
Stayed at a farm called Coodlie Park.
Nov 4
Ok, so today was pretty cool! First off, away we go to Baird Bay for swimming with dolphins. I had never snorkelled before, so that was an adventure, as you can imagine. The dolphins were wild, not trained, so we weren't to touch them. They swim right up to you and play turning themselves in the ocean around you. We also got to swim with sealions, but as it is mating season they were rather less interested in us.
In the afternoon we did a walk around Venus Bay which was lovely, and since it was so hot, we followed it up with a swim, and an ice cream.
Then we went to Talia caves and did some exploring. The sea was very calm so we were able to see more of the caves that are inaccessible when the surf is too rough. All this and THEN we went sandboarding! Which is basically tobogganing on sand dunes. I was worried, the dunes were steep and it looked like it could be awfully painfully to wipe out. However, really really fun. And climbing up a sand dune is as much work as climbing a snow covered hill... In case you we're wondering.
After that full day, we still had a nocturnal tour of Australian wildlife, and got to see still more kangaroos, wombats, and emus. Followed by tea by the campfire, it was a good stay at Coodlie park again.
Nov 5
Sadly, no waves=no surfing at Sceale Bay. So we drive and stop at lookouts, Locks Well Beach, have a very windy lunch at Coffin Bay, and rock up to Mikkira Station near Port Lincoln to set up camp for the night. Mikkira Station has lots and lots of koalas, so we check them out and explore the area.
We lost Paul at Coodlie Park- exchanged him really, for a mother son combo Josee and Dominic. Dominic is almost seven, and he is a bright kid! Also, they are Canadian too, so they correct me when I get my geography wrong. Somehow I forgot Saskatchewan...
It is a rainy sort of day, but luckily there is a shelter that we're able to roll out our swags under. I try to convince the crew that some swing dancing would be fun, but I get mostly mutters about there not being enough space, and how dusty it would get, blah blah blah.
Nov 6
As Megan and Chris go out to sea to do a shark dive, the rest of us do a tour of Whalers Way Conservation park, doing some walks along the coast line and seeing some Australian wildlife. We then head out to Glen Forest Wildlife park and hand feed kangaroos, camels, birds, and all manner of creatures.
Next order of business; tuna! From Port Lincoln marina we head on out to a tuna farm, to swim with and feed tuna. I didn't realize that tuna were such big suckers! Really! I hope you won't think less of me when I tell you that I chickened out. I did throw sardines and pilchers at the tuna, which sent them into a crazy feeding frenzy while other people were swimming around in there... But somehow the description "it's like swimming with lightning" just didn't really appeal.
Once fed, the tuna were more or less unexciting, so we had coffees and waited, waited, waited for the shark divers to return. This waiting was more disappointing for them than for us, as they never did see any sharks. It did mean a late night as we had to drive a ways to get to our camp, and then when we got there, we set up and went straight to bed.
Nov 7
Last day dawned a bit unexpectedly. A big day of driving since the shark divers came in late, we stopped only once to see the Wadlata cultural centre at Port Augusta, and then to have lunch. It was HOT, 39 Degrees, which meant no bush walk in Flinders ranges. So when we got to Adelaide and the trip was over... It just ended.
Some of us did get together for dinner that night, and then went out to a little local pub for some live music also by the locals, but it's funny how close you can feel when you need to, and how different that dynamic can be once the trip is over and you're fending for yourself again... not to say it wasn't a good group, or that we didn't have a lot of fun. Just that, it was fun and that was it.
Leaving the bus I thought, ya, I'm going to miss these guys. Leaving the pub at the end of the night, I was more or less ready to be done.
So I left the crew, caught my tram, and had an excellent nights sleep in a backpackers hostel in Glenelg.
Oct 30
Early morning start to meet the bus between 6:45 and 7am in Perth. With backpack on and fully loaded I head to the train station where a fellow who has clearly been out all night asks;
"are you a backpacker?"
We'll... Yes, I guess I am.
Meet the bus: Craig the driver, Aussie through and through, Paul a Dutchman, Marcus from Switzerland, Chris from Sweden, Megan, Chris and Steve from the UK, and me, the sole and most gullible Canadian. (Later we picked up Mads the Viking ie Danish)
The bus is an 18 seater, fairly comfortable, towing a trailer full of the essentials. Being early yet, you an imagine that the bus was a bit quiet to start with. Getting to know people can sometimes be bit awkward, as you know. I think its a fairly reasonable practice to start by talking to people and if you're going to be strategic, you want to make friends with the person who is responsible for your food, transport and safety...ie the tour guide.
That is how the following conversation came about:
Craig: "I hate cyclists! I have three dents on my bus; one from a kangaroo, one from a cyclist and one from a giraffe."
Kirsten: "giraffe?"
Craig: "more concerned about the Australian giraffe than the Australian cyclist are we?"
Kirsten wishes that she'd said something clever after this but instead and henceforth became giraffe girl... She was wearing a shirt with a giraffe on it.
First cool stop was at Hyden, Wave Rock is a 15m high rock formation. You'll never guess what it looks like! It was great to walk around and explore the area, but the flies were thick and persistent, and we retreated to the bus after only about an hour.
 |
| First night set up; green lumps are swags, red box in distance is the Tardis. |
I was cold that first night, and being cold and awake I had to visit the Tardis on several occasions. The gate was the home of a spider... I have no idea if it was dangerous or not, but every time I had to undo and redo the chain at the gate that spider bullied me, taunting me;
"I might be lethal, but I might not- how badly do you need the Tardis?"
Serious business! I may also have been a little on edge because of all of the initial warnings; "watch out for spiders, snakes, drop bears, etc." (please note, no such thing as drop bears, or hoop snakes, or various other creatures which seems a bit too fantastic to be true)
In any case, I slept poorly that first night and retreated to sleep on the bus, mostly because it was cold.
Oct 31
Up early enough to see the sunrise, which if you will remember was still fairly early in Western Australia. So I watched the kangaroos and was thankful for a long night over and sunshine to finally warm me.
At Esperance we picked up Mads, and headed to Cape Le Grand... Quite possibly, my favorite spot of the whole trip. We hiked from Rossiter Bay to Lucky Bay along some rocky paths that led to some great views. The beach at Lucky Bay is white, more silica than sand, and the water is such a gorgeous array of blues. There were kangaroos lolling around on the beach with their joeys, not really bothered by us at all. It was a nice enough day that I was able to go in for a swim, and I got to try out my chawel(towel that doubles as a change room), it worked great!
 |
| Lucky Bay |
 |
| Mid hike: Chris, Paul, Megan, Steve, Chris, Mads, and Marcus |
After an excellent stir fry supper and an evening of banter we settled in, to what was for me a very satisfactory sleep.
Nov 1
Ever the early riser, I was able to walk on the beach with the kangaroos, before any of the others were up. It was a bit of a cloudy morning, but warm.
Up the Esperance highway, to Norseman a gold rush town, all the way to the Caiguna blowhole (via the Eyre highway) where we camped in the middle of the "bush" (which was actually a lot more open than I expected bush camping to be).
Today was mostly a lot of driving. But I'm happy to report that though I had been dreading it, I mastered the bush toilet.
Nov 2
Rabbits are not beloved in Australia having been imported for sport and thriving wildly in the Australian terrain, they caused some pretty major havoc. What damage can a rabbit do? Oho! Quite a nasty bit! Prime example: Eucla. Happy little telegraph town, holding its own. In sweep the rabbits like a plague. Bunnies gotta eat, and they do it pretty well, so poof! Vegetation gone! (amazing what rabbits pull out of their hats!) No vegetation to hold the sand dunes, therefore sand dunes shift and devour the town of Eucla. It's a ruin now.
 |
| Eucla telegraph station |
After lots more road we come to Koonalda Homestead, which got left behind like the town in Cars when the new highway was built. It had tons of old cars that were more expensive to tow than to buy new, so they just got left there. It is a bit like the set of a horror movie, and there were mice running everywhere, but it was a pretty cool place, with a beautiful sunset, and I slept in my swag under the stars after a tasty curry dinner.
Nov 3
Highlights of today: Bunda cliffs, quintessential Aussie road sign, getting to bottle feed a baby kangaroo at a wildlife rescue centre, seeing a rare white wombat and having a shower!
Stayed at a farm called Coodlie Park.
Nov 4
Ok, so today was pretty cool! First off, away we go to Baird Bay for swimming with dolphins. I had never snorkelled before, so that was an adventure, as you can imagine. The dolphins were wild, not trained, so we weren't to touch them. They swim right up to you and play turning themselves in the ocean around you. We also got to swim with sealions, but as it is mating season they were rather less interested in us.
In the afternoon we did a walk around Venus Bay which was lovely, and since it was so hot, we followed it up with a swim, and an ice cream.
Then we went to Talia caves and did some exploring. The sea was very calm so we were able to see more of the caves that are inaccessible when the surf is too rough. All this and THEN we went sandboarding! Which is basically tobogganing on sand dunes. I was worried, the dunes were steep and it looked like it could be awfully painfully to wipe out. However, really really fun. And climbing up a sand dune is as much work as climbing a snow covered hill... In case you we're wondering.
After that full day, we still had a nocturnal tour of Australian wildlife, and got to see still more kangaroos, wombats, and emus. Followed by tea by the campfire, it was a good stay at Coodlie park again.
Nov 5
Sadly, no waves=no surfing at Sceale Bay. So we drive and stop at lookouts, Locks Well Beach, have a very windy lunch at Coffin Bay, and rock up to Mikkira Station near Port Lincoln to set up camp for the night. Mikkira Station has lots and lots of koalas, so we check them out and explore the area.
We lost Paul at Coodlie Park- exchanged him really, for a mother son combo Josee and Dominic. Dominic is almost seven, and he is a bright kid! Also, they are Canadian too, so they correct me when I get my geography wrong. Somehow I forgot Saskatchewan...
It is a rainy sort of day, but luckily there is a shelter that we're able to roll out our swags under. I try to convince the crew that some swing dancing would be fun, but I get mostly mutters about there not being enough space, and how dusty it would get, blah blah blah.
Nov 6
Next order of business; tuna! From Port Lincoln marina we head on out to a tuna farm, to swim with and feed tuna. I didn't realize that tuna were such big suckers! Really! I hope you won't think less of me when I tell you that I chickened out. I did throw sardines and pilchers at the tuna, which sent them into a crazy feeding frenzy while other people were swimming around in there... But somehow the description "it's like swimming with lightning" just didn't really appeal.
Once fed, the tuna were more or less unexciting, so we had coffees and waited, waited, waited for the shark divers to return. This waiting was more disappointing for them than for us, as they never did see any sharks. It did mean a late night as we had to drive a ways to get to our camp, and then when we got there, we set up and went straight to bed.
Nov 7
Last day dawned a bit unexpectedly. A big day of driving since the shark divers came in late, we stopped only once to see the Wadlata cultural centre at Port Augusta, and then to have lunch. It was HOT, 39 Degrees, which meant no bush walk in Flinders ranges. So when we got to Adelaide and the trip was over... It just ended.
Some of us did get together for dinner that night, and then went out to a little local pub for some live music also by the locals, but it's funny how close you can feel when you need to, and how different that dynamic can be once the trip is over and you're fending for yourself again... not to say it wasn't a good group, or that we didn't have a lot of fun. Just that, it was fun and that was it.
Leaving the bus I thought, ya, I'm going to miss these guys. Leaving the pub at the end of the night, I was more or less ready to be done.
So I left the crew, caught my tram, and had an excellent nights sleep in a backpackers hostel in Glenelg.
Thursday 10 November 2011
it's a long way!
Oct 26th to Oct 28th
I will spare you the long and boring details of the process of getting to Australia. It takes a long time and involves lots of sitting and waiting in airports or sitting and waiting on planes. I'm sorry to report that I don't even remember any of my seat mates, which is a bit uninspiring.
Oct 28th
Arrive in Perth, get dropped off at the YMCA hostel around 7 pm, stay up for a bit, figure it's late enough, sleep a solid 8 hours until 4am.
Oct 29th
Give up on sleep, western Australia doesn't do daylight savings so the sun is up early! Stroll through the quiet morning streets, awash with security for CHOGM and the Queens visit. Discover that the ferries are not running, but that the trains are all free (thank you, your Majesty!) and head to Fremantle for a great little breakfast in a small cafe, the Saturday markets and some general sightseeing. Back to Perth to visit Kings Park, an unsatisfactory visit due to my lack of direction and the thwarting of my plans by more CHOGM security. Therefore, the only sensible thing to do; find a grocery store, and create an affordable evening meal.
I will spare you the long and boring details of the process of getting to Australia. It takes a long time and involves lots of sitting and waiting in airports or sitting and waiting on planes. I'm sorry to report that I don't even remember any of my seat mates, which is a bit uninspiring.
Oct 28th
Arrive in Perth, get dropped off at the YMCA hostel around 7 pm, stay up for a bit, figure it's late enough, sleep a solid 8 hours until 4am.
Oct 29th
 |
| Perth, from what I could get to of Kings' Park. |
Lest we forget
Remember the cost of freedom. What is our role in maintaining that freedom? Let us be wise even in our small decisions, not blind to the effects of our attitudes and actions. Let us prevent, as much as we are able, the need for war. Let us also be ready to stand if needed, for the protection of what is right, and for those who cannot defend themselves. Remember. We cannot afford to forget.
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