Filed under: Random Thoughts
My 26th birthday has come and gone, life is good and I’m still on the road, well kind of on the road. I have some cashflow issues due to earlier this year when it was pretty much impossible to find a job no matter how hard we tried or where we drove to and my general feeling at the time that things would work out and why don’t I just charge it all on my credit card, and hey I know I’m broke but lets still road trip into the outback and drink all the time. Yeah those where good times, but it’s all catching up to me now.
After my experience in New Zealand when I was 18 out in the world for the first time and racking up thousands of dollars in debt through my wonderful parents who were kind enough to back my up in my time of major irresponsibility I had decided that I would be much more responsibile this trip when it came to money. That didn’t happen. Luckily I have Candice & Eden who let me stay at their house rent free while I get my shit sorted.
It’s funny looking at my life, I didn’t image that at 26 I’d be broke and crashing with a friend in Australia without a proper job. I’d always kind of pictured more for myself at this age, I guess I figured by 26 I’d have done all my travelling and adventure seeking and be settling down with a real job and a real house and maybe even a boyfriend.
Candice & Eden were trying to freak me out about being 26 on my birthday because they didn’t like it, Eden likes to insist that he’s still 25. After thinking about it I realize that I really don’t mind getting older, I like where I am right now (aside from the money issues) and I know where I want to go and I’m excited about it. Sometimes the thought of getting older is scary especially when friends start getting married and having babies and buying houses and you think about all the things that society expects you to have and to do by certain ages and sometimes it freaks me out and worries me and I wonder, will I ever get there?
My travelling life has been amazing, I’ve seen and done so many cool things, and met loads of awesome people but for all the good things it’s still hard a lot of the time. Like when you have to say goodbye to the awesome people, especially if it’s someone you’ve been hanging out with for a while or someone who you felt really close to. You have to make a lot of sacrifices for this life, the people at home who envy you don’t always realize that.
It’s kind of weird being back in Melbourne a year later. Working in the same office, living at the same place, taking the same buses at the same time. It’s kind of nice though.
We spent the next week with Hayley (Sparkle) and her roommate Taylor, but as it turns out we didn’t really go to the Gold Coast, we somehow ended up back in America!
It’s the weirdest place I’ve been to in Australia. Almost everybody on that campus was from America, they had American snacks in the vending machines (Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!!! And even better Peanut Butter M&Ms!!!), at the IGA on campus they also had American food including Dr Pepper, and something called Goobers which is PB & Jelly all wrapped up in one container, there was no nightlife on campus, and nowhere to go. It’s kind of like living in Derrimut you have to take the bus everywhere.
There was a small bar in the dorm and Katie and I went there our second night while Hayley was in class and were talking to these guys who had decided that they were staying – in Australia. They’d only been here two weeks and only pretty much on campus which I mean it’s not even like being in Australia really, they don’t even realize what Australia is really like because they are in this little America zone. I mean good for them, they like Australia, but I think if I were on a student exchange there I would be really disappointed.
We had a good week there although we mostly sat around and did nothing, ate peanut butter and chocolate, drank Dr Pepper, went to Robina Town Centre which also had a little candy shop there selling all kinds of international candy, and pretty much just relaxed. It was great. After that I had decided to fly back to Melbourne, the closest thing I have to a home right now, and Katie went back to Maroochydore.
So far it’s been great. I mean I miss the beach and the weather and Maroochydore but it’s good being back here. Temping again, hopefully I’ll get a car and maybe a job at the airport. But life is good.
Filed under: Australia
So I decided it’s too hard to try and recap everything that happened. Basically we had an amazing trip, from Eungella we went on a three day two night sailing trip through the Whitsunday’s. It was so beautiful and I loved boat life, and I went snorkelling for the first time in my life, and the second, third, fourth, fifth, and probably sixth times. Needless to say we did a lot of snorkelling. We went to Whitehaven Beach the most idyllic white sand tropical paradise you could ever imagine, hiked on Koala adventure island and then got drunk at the bar there. The next morning on the boat wasn’t so awesome. I had to lie down on the deck and not move all morning for fear of chucking my cookies off the deck.
After that we stopped at Mission Beach where we hunted Cassowaries (unsuccessfully) and took a day trip up to Tully so Carlie could go Whitewater Rafting before stopping at Paronella Park for the night. Someone had told me you shouldn’t miss it and was this old Spanish Style kind of hang out or something in the 1920s it was beautiful but by that point we were all itching to get to Cairns.
It turns out Cairns was a huge disappointment. After dreaming and wanting to go there for so long I didn’t like it. The beach sucked and I was over clubbing at that point, but having a bed and electricity for extended periods of time was nice. And the Great Barrier Reef was a cool experience even though I couldn’t complete my Scuba Dive due to my ear not pressurizing properly. But I did get to go snorkelling.
We did a day trip up north to Cape Tribulation, which was really beautiful we should have spent the night. The next day we tried to organize a camper relocation through Alice Springs so we could see Uluru but it wasn’t to be so we decided to split paths. Carlie would stay then fly to Sydney and then home, Mary would fly to Brisbane to hang out with friends before going home to Germany for Uni, and Katie and I would drive back down the coast so we could use the free stay on Koala Adventure Island we had won during our Whitsunday Trip.
It was beautiful and relaxing, but kind of a funny place to stay. It’s marketed as a backpacker destination but they have no kitchen and no fridges so we brought our own food and just kept it in our room . There was nobody there, literally, the first night was supposed to be a big night because there were a bunch of guys from Hamilton Island who had come over to party, there were maybe 20 people. Overall it was nice but we both decided we wouldn’t pay to stay there.
We drove to 1770 after that and stayed at this awesome hostel called Cool Bananas. It was really homey and the guy working there was super nice and fun and they had a fire pit and we made popcorn and sat around drinking beer and chatting with the other residents. Such a nice relaxing chilled night we had, although I think we were maybe going a bit batty by the time we got there because we sat in our room cracking up about making beds and home addresses for so long after we first checked. Katie’s awesome. I love her.
Then we were in Maroochydore, I camped out near the YHA to hang out with Mary and reconnect with some of the peeps there and Katie stayed at her mates house so she could see her friends again, she was planning on flying home. I was planning on driving down to Sydney.
We were driving down to Brisbane, the three of us, to hang out for the weekend and bring Mary to the Airport, but on the way down Katie had a change of heart and decided she wanted to stay and try and make things work with her boy. I was still thinking of going to Sydney but the car was having issues again so I was starting to consider flying but wasn’t sure.
I started freaking out. About everything. As much as I love change and new places and new people I have a hard time dealing with it. It’s weird. Everything was coming to an end and they all had a plan, Carlie was going home to be with her boyfriend who she’d met here, Mary was going home to Uni and then coming back in January to continue studying, and Katie was going to go give love a chance, I had no idea what I was doing.
I was broke, I was going to be alone, I was going to give up my car, I was going to give up my surfboard, and Glen was supposed to hang out with me but he didn’t answer my call. I was pretty miserable. I didn’t want to say goodbye. I was so tired of saying goodbye after a year of having a new best friend come and go every two weeks or so and these had been around for so long. It was sad. And I was leaving Queensland which I love, it was the end of an era. I was totally miserable.
Mary decided it was time for a little bit of radical therapy and we went to this tiny park in the middle of the Valley and did some screaming, which actually helped a lot. When we got home I texted Glen to see what was up and he called me back inviting us to some hip hop gig way out in Loganholme somewhere.
Katie and I decided to go and Mary stayed and hung out with her old friends in Brissie. Best decision I ever made. We had such an awesome night out with Glen and Leyton, we ended up going to the Casino and won lots of money and stayed out all night, then watched the sunrise and went and crashed Neils house and jumped into bed with him (all 3 of us) then woke up 2 hours later and went to get the car from the pub where we’d left it. Then Glen bought us tickets to Sounds of Spring a music festival that day. It was great, I was exhausted and after a few drinks lay down in the grass and all but slept for a bit. I bought a burrito because I was hungry and then some guy knocked it out of my hand onto the ground and I stood there shocked. I can’t believe you just knocked my burrito onto the ground! He gave me $50 to make up for it. I was stoked.
The next morning we drove Mary to the airport. We made a date to meet at the coffee shop January 15th, 2010 7:00 when Mary flies back in. Katie and I hung out at Alex’s house for a while watching Mad Men which is an awesome show before she got a hold of her friend who was going to Uni on the Gold Coast and offered to let us stay with her for the next week.
So off we went to Goldie.
Filed under: Australia
It was a long drive to Eungella from 1770 and we didn’t even get close until well after dark, we’re driving out west from Mackay into pretty much the middle of nowhere. We pass a few small towns but the further out we go the smaller and smaller they get. Then as we are driving we see flames in the distance, the girls start freaking out thinking it’s a wildfire and that we’ll get stuck in Eungella and die in the fire, I figured it was probably a controlled cane fire, but we stopped and took pictures before continuing on our way. After a while the road starts going up on an incline and getting steeper and steeper and windier and windier and it’s pretty narrow but Mary was taking it slow and it was all good. Then the fog starts creeping in and before you know it we could barely see two feet in front of us. Mary starts driving slower and we all start kind of freaking out because we know there’s the road and then there’s a drop off and we can only just see where we are going. Then this car comes up behind us and he’s impatient and riding our ass, I guess he lives around here and is used to the road.
Finally the road levels off and we kinda pull over and this guy goes flying past us. We can’t see anything. We don’t know where to go. We don’t know where the camping is. Finally we see a sign for a caravan park so we turn down this road but can’t see anything, the road splits and we don’t know where to go. So I got out of the car with the torch and walked ahead of the car trying to find the right way to go, but I don’t know. I end up down this dead end road with tons of big old semi trucks. It feels like something out of Wolf Creek but with fog.
Luckily this woman drives up just then and I run over and ask her if she knows where the caravan park is. She’s local and admits that she has a hard time in fog like this too but offers to lead us to the caravan park. She tells us that Eungella means ‘land in the clouds’ oh if only we’d known we all joked. The caravan park was two seconds down the road. So we get there and get out of the car and not only is it foggy but the air is really wet and it’s kind of spitting and there’s nothing to do at the caravan park, nowhere to sit inside and be warm. Luckily they did have a laundry room with a kettle and microwave and fridge and covered eating area where we hung out and had coffee and beer. It was cold and wet and the tent and the feet of our sleeping bags got pretty damp that night.
We had to be up bright and early to see the platypuses the next morning, it was still foggy but not as bad as the night had been, but everything was still wet. So we packed up our wet gear and piled into the car to go see the platypuses. We got there, walked down to the river, read all the signs about what to do to see them and stood there watching the water. And watching, and watching. We saw a lot of turtles.. and then across the river where you could barely make anything out came a ripple in the water. The ripple we were supposed to be watching for. The ripple that was supposed to mean a platypus. So we stood there, watching the little ripple in the water for a good 10, 15 minutes and then it was gone. I felt so fulfilled.
We decided to go walk down under the bridge to see if we could see anything there but there was nothing. So we took platypus face pictures, posed with some trees and the platypus billboard. Then got back in the car and headed to Airlie Beach to celebrate Mary’s birthday.
So it was all pretty much for nothing, facing the wildfires, a terror filled drive up a twisted narrow mountain road in the fog, a miserable wet cold night, only to not see a platypus. It was still one of the best times I had on the trip.
the Whitsundays are coming up next!
The thing is I moved to another hostel where they didn’t have internet, well they didn’t have wireless internet and then it all fell apart – blogwise that is. Life became ultimately more awesome. As awesome as it can be when you are working 12 hour days packing strawberries. We complained pretty much nonstop but that’s life and part of what made it bearable to keep working. Then I got my taxes back and with 4 grand in the bank it was hard to rationalize standing there going strawberry crazy all day every day so the next day I didn’t go back, Mary played hooky as well and we had such an awesome day we didn’t go in the next day either, or the next and then we pretty much just called and told them we were done. It was fine though because we were leaving in a few days anyway for our Great Australian Road Trip. Carlie’s last day of work was Wednesday and on that day the Strawberry Farm pretty much told them all their strawberry careers were over and they didn’t need them anymore. So good riddance. Friday we packed up the car and took off for our first stop – Brisbane – to party with Mary’s friend Alex.
Brisbane was awesome, the best night out I’d had in a while, but it was only a brief stop to gear up and have some fun before hitting the road. By noon the next day we were heading north out of Brisbane, music pumping, Katie’s hand on a stick waving in the air and pointing at people out the window, and there was dancing… lots of dancing. We hit Hervey Bay that night went to the pub to have a few drinks and met these Bogan ape men and hung out with them that night before going back to the beach to set up camp. That was our first night roughing it in the car and on the beach. The tent was super easy to set up but the wind coming off the ocean was really rough and blew the tent around all night, I was sleeping ocean side and was getting whipped by the tent all night it was all on top of me, hitting my head constantly. I did manage to get some sleep but how awesome was the morning waking up with the sun and the ocean and then grabbing all the girls and going for a swim in the ocean in our undies. Good times.
The next day we went to Bundy to check out the Rum Distillery. I was driving on the way back and on this one time passing someone I don’t know if I misjudged how far away the car was or the Haybird was just slow at picking up speed but it was a close one. Nearly head on collision. I’m just glad the girls were all sleeping at that point.
Next day we drove up to 1770 for some free laundry, free internet and so Katie could rendez-vous with her boy toy Chef. It was a cute hostel though the rooms were very white and bare, we didn’t stay long and after coffee in the morning we headed off for Eungella to see the Platypuses. Kenya had told me about it and it was my must do thing.
