Australia

We're off @ Sydney, Australia

2009-09-21T09:20:05.000Z

So they say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step... Ours started with a thousand frantic steps trying to get our luggage packed and shit organized for the next three months.

Those of you who know and love us might say we are not the most organized, forward thinking pair but at the end of the day we yield the same results just the start is a little less smooth, think of someone learning to drive standard, that first clutch release is always a little bumpy but it gets better after that.

So we hit the road around 2pm and cruised on down to Toronto for our first overnighter. Marc-André's uncle René was nice enough to open his apartment to us. We arrived around 11:30pm chatted for a bit while I tried aimlessly to repack my backpack so everything would fit and by some miracle not have me topple over once lifted onto my back. Later tonight, the two boy scouts are going to help me repack so it will "feel lighter"

Bedtime was a riot, JR is the proud owner of a waterbed a WATERBED, it takes some getting used to. As we were both fidgeting around trying to get comfortable Marc-André leaned over calmly stated, it's kind of like a Simmons Beauty Rest only the complete opposite :) Waves radiated from combined laughter and we finally settled in for the night.

I sit here typing while the sweet smell and crackling sound of bacon fill the space, I am nervous and excited to leave the comforts of home for a little while.

Our flight leaves from Buffalo on Wednesday September 23rd at 4:35pm. Stay tuned!

Sept 25 Sydney (Beahces) @ Sydney, Australia

2009-09-25T05:00:44.000Z

After 29 long hours we finally set foot on Australia soil, well airport tramway carpet to be more specific but you get the idea. No problems navigating through the airport, following the crowd has proven to be a successful strategy so far. At one point we are in a long line waiting to show some sort of official paperwork when someone ahead of us catches my attention. Is he from Kap? It couldn’t be. I found myself more or less stalking this person. Convinced, I nudged Marc-André and whispered “I think that guy is from kap.” “Ben voyons don!” was the recognition I got. I continued to stare more or less discretely then it happened. As I was slowing down to catch a head on glimpse the familiar stranger looked up with a puzzled, surprised look on his face. “HOLLY HANNA!” (or something to that effect) it WAS someone from Kap!!! Dan Dupont, who had been in western Canada for the past year and more recently in California for the past month had decided to spend the next year working and traveling in this land they call Oz.

We stuck together through the remainder of the security check points. As we were exiting the airport another Kapper was waiting with a sign for our new found friend. It was André Grzela! He has spent the past year in Australia also working, touring and obviously living the life. The four of us spend the rest of the day together dumbfounded by the coincidence. We checked into a hostel, Marc-André and I, with the help of Josh, the most awesome person ever found a rental van. Josh really went above and beyond the call of duty here, I simply went to ask him for a phone number and he ended up making a ridiculous amount of phone calls to find us the cheapest and best deal on a rental van. The company we ended up with not only matched the lowest quote we had received, they flew us to Brisbane to pick up the van! The van is far superior to all the others. It has a tent that attaches to the back hatch which makes for a less claustrophobic and cooler nights sleep. As if that wasn’t enough, they gave us their newest model and included free table and chairs! It’s not the dream VW van, but we are sooooo much better equipped than anything we could have bought. It’s even got a DVD player!

After confirming the van rental we met back up with the crew and we headed to the beach! Well first to a bottle shop (Beer Store) then to the beach. André, the seasoned Aussi had the good sense to burry the beer in the sand, it actually kept relatively cool. We walked from beach to beach until we arrived at André’s place where we met his roommate who was surprised and discouraged “You mean there are more of you?!” We ended up at the famous Bondi beach but it was too late for our grand plan of renting surf boards so we found a nice little restaurant, had dinner and headed back to the hostel.

This hostel was awesome, so clean and nice, it was the first hostel stay for both of us and it’s safe to say all other hostels will seem like run down, cockroach infested, bed bug ridded crap holes…

Sept 26 Sydney (walking tour) @ Sydney, Australia

2009-09-26T05:00:58.000Z

Up at the crack of dawn, we decided to follow Josh’s advice (great guy who helped us with the van rental) and do a walking tour of Sydney.

we were pretty hungry and nothing was open as it was probably like 6am... luckaly you can always count on Bakeries and Asians to up at this hour. We found a conbination of the two and had a delicious breakfast!

We walked down from the hostel to the Marina, went over to an area called The Rocks, where there was a great market filled with local artists and great Aussi gear. We then visited the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House and spent the rest of the day walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens and capped off our day with dinner in China town.

Sept 27 Flight to Brisbane @ Brisbane, Australia

2009-09-27T05:00:04.000Z

Sunday morning we woke up effortlessly at the crack of dawn, packed our tings and headed to the airport. We were fussing over bus and train schedules and fairs when the hostel worker said it would probably be cheaper and easier to take a cab. Indeed! We hailed a cab and made it to the airport no problem. Once again we made it thought security sans problème with the tiedye and patchouli safely tucked away. The flight was about an hour and a half and they served breakfast. It was a nice little feast of cereal, yogurt, orange juice, an orange and tea. From the airport we decided to take a shuttle bus to our hostel. We struck up a conversation with a random guy who just happens to own his own tour company. A professional tourist, perfect! He kindly gave us some hints of places to go even though he thought we were crazy for going up north at this time of year… “It’s going to be hot” he kept repeating. This conversation sort of influenced our travel route. Originally we were going to travel up the east coast then down through the center, or Centa as it is pronounced here, but now we are heading towards the Centa then down the coast all the way to Melbourne where Marc-André’s course starts on Nov 9th.

The shuttle dropped us off at the hostel and instantly we knew we had been spoiled at Wake Up. This place was alright and I’m sure it ranks high by backpacking standards; it just paled in comparison to our initial stay over. The friendly staff advised us on a few hot spots which brought us to a man made beach and lake. We stuck to the grassy null, copped a squat and read our books. After a while of listening to a street performer we decided to sit up and catch his final hurrah, which failed miserably then we decided to check out another market area then back to the grassy hill with our books. We snacked in china town again; you can never tired of Asain food.

We were finally able to end our quest for a power adapter/converted at this great camping surplus store with very helpful staff. Marc-André was able to pick up a hydration backpack for dirt cheap, I passed because it wasn’t pretty but we haven’t been able to find another reasonably priced one since and the outback is fast approaching and Marc-André is getting less patient with me mooching his water supply.

28Sept SPACESHIP @ Sept 27 Flight to Brisbane, Australia

2009-09-28T05:00:32.000Z

Today we woke up in a less than adequate hostel room, packed our bags for the last time as we were picking up our van today!!! The van depot wasn’t far from the hostel so we decided to walk it. With like 90lbs of gear! Unfortunately for Marc-André it wasn’t a 50/50 split, he got stuck with the heavy bag which SURPRISE was mine.

The van is sweet! Plenty of storage, a tent out the back, DVD player, fridge, water jugs, all the utensils and cooking stuff supplied. The only thing about the van is it is bass ackwards! Gear shifter and wipers on the left, signal on the right… I have lost count of how many times the wipers go of instead of the turn signal. (This has vastly improved in the past week!)

We opted for a short drive while we (Marc-André) got used to left side of the road. We camped at the Coobera Show Grounds which happen to be a cattle auction market.

In the morning we organized our things in the van, decided on a driving route and hit the open road.

Sept 29th Killarney @ Killarney, Australia

2009-09-29T05:00:26.000Z

This was my favourite part of the trip so far, we were driving through beautiful rolling mountains, amazing scenery

Sept 30th Killarney to Glen Innes @ Glen Innes, Australia

2009-09-30T05:00:11.000Z

We woke up, FREEZING, with dew on our windows… It was freaking cold in the van so we decided to go for a jog right away to try and warm up a bit. The scenery was just breath taking. We are slowly building our endurance. After our run we walked/trespassed into a field with the most majestic tree. W finally made it back to the camp site had some breaky. Marc-André BBQed our Kangaroo Burgers for dinner later that night. On our way out we decided to check out some falls, Browns Falls, ___ Falls and Queen Mary falls… so beautiful!

Browns falls was my favourite, I think Marc-André’s too. We had to walk in about 30mins over rocks and steep slopes, we earned it…. I was funny, the man had told us you will see the falls getting progressively bigger until you arrive at one big one at the end. As we were walking I kept thinking maybe this is the big one, then further would be an even bigger on. This kept on until finally, without a doubt we were at Browns Falls. A Thundering 300ft wall of water was cascading from the heavens…  It was pretty freaking cool! We got as close as we deemed safe, the rocks were fairly slippery but you could feel the mist, awesome!

We continued down the falls drive road, arriving at __ Falls, it was just a lookout and somewhat anticlimactic. Had we seen these falls first we would have been impressed but we were still reeling form Browns Falls. Two quick photos and we were back on the falls drive to Queen Mary’s Falls, in ___ National Park. Again from the lookout we were certainly impressed but again not comparable, we decided to embark on the 2Km trek down to the falls, now you can imagine if you are looking down a Waterfall that is 300 ft high, to get to the bottom you must descend 300 ft and inevitably asend 300ft, the walk down was enjoyable but the walk up was riddled with stairs and steep inclines, FEEL THE BURN!

The Best part of the day was when we returned to the car only to realise it was only 10:30 am! What a productive morning. It pays to wake up with the roosters and the sun!

We decided to quite dilly dallying and hit the road to gain as much ground as possible, again we were distracted when we entered the granite belt which is apparently world famous for it’s fruit and wines. Unfortunately most of the fruit are not in season yet but we did go for a wine tasting at Lucas Estate Wineries. We enjoyed the experience, learnt about taste buds in our noses, tried some delicious beet root which is nothing like the beets we have up North, met an American who knew nothing about Canada. We were trying to situate Ontario for her and even when we mentioned the great lakes nothing registered! If you don’t know what they are you shouldn’t be aloud to siphon them when the world’s water supply runs dry!

We continued down the road to yet another distraction, Giraween Nation Park. AT LAST we saw some LIVE Kangaroos! It was amazing how close you could get to them. We have about 100 pictures of this experience. There were two mums with Joey’s in their pouches! Very cute when they poke their little heads out. This is also the site of the second largest monolith in Australia, Ayers Rock being the biggest. We voted against the 6km walk, having reached our collective exercise limit for the day.

Finally it was game time, we found a camp site that was FREE and at a reasonable distance Mother of Ducks Lagoon in Guyra, no showers but it was a nice place. We took an executive decision to forgo the tent since it was already pretty cold. We had our Roo Burgers with Beetroot (very Australian way to enjoy a burger) read a few chapters…

1Oct Glenn Inns to Warren @ Warren, Australia

2009-10-01T05:00:18.000Z

2Oct Warren to White Cliffs @ White Cliffs, Australia

2009-10-02T05:00:36.000Z

So we were well on our way to Broken Hill, I had anticipated 2 days for this trip, and we have yet to arrive and to no surprise another distraction. This one comes in the form of two fellow Space Travelers.

To give you a bit of background information, we are traveling in a rental can from a company called Spaceships. To encourage communication between travelers they have what’s called the spaceship community. We are supposed to wave and walk up to fellow Space Travelers and trade DVDs and chat about our travels.

This was our first spaceship spotting and we were so excited. It was the cutest couple from New Zeland, the cuteness factor is directly related to the number of grey hairs on their heads. Either way we were all so excited to see another space traveler we practically jumped out of our respective vans at the gas station in Wilcamina. They mentioned a must see, in the form of White Cliffs, an Opal field, where people much like in the gold rush days go to stack their claim. You can walk around and there is camping.

So we arrive in White Cliffs and make our way to the Red Earth Opal Café where we chat with the owner who is an opal miner. He points the way to a visitors trail which loops around the opal fields. We drive around, exiting the van here and there in search of that illusive Opal gen but to no avail we found but rocks. They are from a great inland ocean that once filed this land which is impressive, I guess.

This place was crazy, there are open mine shafts everywhere! Honestly, this place looks like the surface of the moon. People live in rickety old trailers and sheds made out of corrugated metal. At first we thought what a way to live, then we realized most people live underground in the mines shafts and drives (the tunnelled out sections) we learnt that from Jock, a hilarious local who showed up his tunnelled out home.

Toward the end of our trip we saw a sing for Brian Moors Opal showroom so we decide o stop in, Brian and his wife Carol ended up being the kindest, most generous hosts, they showed us around their underground home and in their yard, it was great! They even has some helpful tourist information for us.

3Oct White Cliffs to Broken Hill @ Broken Hill, Australia

2009-10-03T05:00:45.000Z

Today started out like any other day, up at the crack of dawn and get in a bit of exercise. We have taken up jogging, or is it pronounced yogging? I believe the “j” is silent.  It is a great way to take way to take in some of our surroundings. This morning we decided to jog around the Opal fields.

We gathered our shower kits and some clean cloths and headed to the lavatories. This is when things started to take a turn for the worst. You had to pay 1$ for 7.5 minutes of warm water… WTF! We discovered that the cold water worked for free but we were already freezing down to our bones so we passed. The drive to Broken Hill was just as depressing. The highway looked like Jackson Pollock had painted it using Kangaroo Blood. We saw well over 100 dead, mangled, splattered, picked over carcases scattered all over; some where in the middle of the road while others had been pulled to the side by dingos. Each passing image of destruction was pushing my breakfast a little closer to the surface so the drive into civilisation was a welcome change of scenery. That is, until we noticed the signs… A series of road signs warning us at first of the potential dangers of bringing contaminated fruits and vegetables over provincial borders as fruit fly contamination is a huge threat to local crops. They were progressively more threatening until finally they mention the 200$ fine for the infraction next to a huge dumpster which awaited our perfectly good produce.

We ate up bananas, passion fruits and as many oranges as we could take and begrudgingly tossed the rest, it was a shame to see the mound of fresh, perfectly good fruit in the dumpster for something as silly as fruit flies but it must be a serious problem here. If I was a homeless person in Australia I would definitely park my shopping cart and cardboard box next to that dumpster. The sign said nothing about veggies so we kept our carrots, garlic and sweet potato. We later found out EVERYTHING had to go.

We had been told that Broken Hill was really a beautiful place to visit, and I had read it was in the top 100 most beautiful towns on Australia so we decided it was more economical to spend the night and cook up our veggies than to throw them away and start over. We will be eating carrot, sweet potato and garlic soup for the next three days… Lets not forget curry since it is one of only 5 spices that we have onboard.

The day in Broken Hill was relatively uneventful. We saw a few art galleries, we skipped out on the mine and sculpture tour, just fatigue setting in, lack of motivation. We found our camp site, before dusk for once and started cooking up all the fruits and veggies in our fridge. We made a delicious feast, met a get lady staying next to us who offered to boil water for tea and dishes and gave us maps and things she no longer needed.

We met fellow travelers from Normany named Fanny and Eric. They have spent the past 7 months in South American and are in the land of Oz for a couple months then off to Indonesia for a bit then eventually back to reality. They are staying in a Wicked van (rental company)although the van itself is far from Wicked. We had looked at their van but Spaceships was a much better deal, newer van, more amenities, better price, more fuel efficient.

We go to chatting about our respective rentals and we have them totally convinced Spaceships is the way to go for their next rental… I think we should get a commission.

4Oct Broken Hill to Flinders Rangers @ Wilpena, Australia

2009-10-04T05:00:14.000Z

When we got off the plane in Brisbane, while we were waiting for the shuttle to the hostel, we struck up a conversation with a local man who just happened to own his own tour company. We asked him for some free advice and he mentioned, among other things, the Flinders Rangers National Park

We arrived in the park area on the 4th but as it was too late for any bushwalking we opted for a free campground just outside of the actual park. We had the most breathtaking view of Arkaroo Rock, an outcropping of the Flinders Rangers.

5Oct – Flinders Rangers @ Wilpena, Australia

2009-10-05T05:00:02.000Z

We woke up to a stunning FREE view; with kangaroos hopping, sheep grazing and the most retarded sounding birds chirping… It’s more like 100 Tom cats in heat, just horrid.

Wasting no time, we headed straight to the park eager to take on St-Mary’s Peak, the highest point of Wilpena Pound. Wilpena Pound is basically a gigantic bowl surrounded by mountains. There is certainly something geologically significant about it; I’ll leave curious minds to Google away!

The hike to the peak is 7.2km each way. Naturally the path is uphill but the last 3km are straight up! Now, of the countless people to have conquered this peak in the past and of the swarms of people making the trek on this Australian Labour Day, wouldn’t you know Marc-André and I got lost… Don’t ask how, but we somehow ended up on the expert trail up to the peak.

Smart people have said that if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t… Within striking distance of the peak these words rang all too true. We couldn’t help but agree that our path was indeed the one less traveled and with good reason, lets just say you slip you die! (Mom calm down! I am alive and typing. ) Sadly, we abandoned our quest.

I couldn’t shake the feeling of defeat until I read that this particular peak holds symbolic significance to the aboriginal people and they dislike when ill-equipped tourists hike up as they feel responsible for any injury or god forbid death that may occur.

I find solace in the thought that the location where we stood will one day be the peak… even if it is in another 10 million years.

The rest of the day was for rest and relaxation and we were in bed well before the sun and any of the kids in the park. Zzzzz

Oct 6 – Flinders to Port Augusta @ Port Augusta West, Australia

2009-10-06T05:00:14.000Z

We rose to the not so glorious sounds of retarded birds (you know the ones that sound like hundreds of Tom Cats in heat.) We packed in out things, took advantage of the warm showers and once again hit the open road. There were a few interesting sites around the Flinders Rangers that we wanted to check out before leaving them in our dust trails. First up, Sacred Canyon, like the name says, it is a Sacred Canyon with aboriginal engravings on the rocks. No surprise here, we got lost! The road less traveled is one we are becoming far too familiar with, sometimes the mistake is rewarding and unexpected gems are unearthed, other times the road is better left untraveled. This was one of those times, we walked through nearly 3km of nothingness thinking the Sacred Canyon lay just beyond the bend, or the hill, or the bend.

We finally turned our heals, once again defeated, and made the 3km trek back to the mother ship. As we fired up the moter a road appeared. How had we missed it? In a last ditch effort we set the odometer for 1.3km and drove on in. Much to our surprise we arrived at the site of the Sacred Canyons and they were awe inspiring. We were literally walking on a dried out river bed with 50 foot jagged rock walls jutting up on either side of us. The prehistoric engravings themselves were pretty cool, thankfully there was a legend to help decipher the drawings into water, emu, kangaroo, people.

We left the sacred site with a sense of wonder and continued on with our scheduled visits. Against our rental agreement we went offroading through the Bunyeroo and Bachinda Gorges which was an awesome experience. We arrived on the opposite side of the flinders Rangers, welcomed the paved road and headed on to Port Augusta, our last stop before we take on the REAL Outback.

7 Oct - Port Augusta to Coober Pedy @ Coober Pedy, Australia

2009-10-07T05:00:00.000Z

Journey to the Outback and beyond!

So after the long and tedious task of updating the blog we bid farewell to the waterfront and set off towards the centAH. It would be first of many uneventful drives through the CentAH. We saw a bunch of dried up salt water lakes which were cool. It’s crazy to think that the climate is such that an entire body of water can disappear during the dry season only to reappear during the wet season.

Coober Pedy, another quirky Opal Mining Town surrounded by a lunar landscape, was our recommended stop for the night. It’s one of the last bits of civilization where you can get decent drinking water and relatively cheap gas. The mines here still produce a fare amount of Opal and are much more technologically advanced than White Cliffs using tunnelling machines to excavate the earth leaving an almost perfectly square shell which, of course bods little or no character when compared to the hand dug mines/homes in White Cliffs.

We settled into our spot at Ribba’s Caravan Park. We were pumped to find out that the showers were free! Water is scarce in the Outback and most places charge about 2$ for 4mins of water YIKES! After filling us in on local attractions and Must See’s, the owner helped us figure out what freaking time it was. In Queensland we had to “spring ahead” by 1h. Now, in South Australia, we’ve changed time zones so back ½h. She warned us that in the Northern Territories they don’t “spring ahead” so we would have to readjust our clocks AGAIN!

We grabbed our things and headed to the kitchen area which is becoming a major selling point when choosing a Park. Not only to you get free cooking fuel, running water and a sink to do your dishes it’s a great place to meet other travelers. Here we met Francois and Alexandra from France, Kate from Melbourn who was traveling with Andy from France and Peter and Susan from South Africa.

We had a great time chitchatting about our travels so far and upcoming itineraries and exchanged highlight and lowlights over some local wine, beer and porto. We had a blast with “les Français de France” laughing at each others accents and expressions. Andy was practically impossible to understand, especially once the cheap wine started to kick in! He would replace words and entire sentences with sounds… “T’sé c’est comme boff bon la la boff.” You get the idea… Andy was giving Kate a lift which is basically new age hitchhiking. They met on some kind of forum were people can look for rides or offer rides, it’s quite common here.

We got to talking about the long distances and how we pass the time. I mentioned that Marc-André and I had listened to the same 500Mb of music about 20 times (it would appear that a clear radio station is scarcer than the water supply!) Kate was kind enough to share her 70Gb of music with us in what I like to call old school peer to peer file sharing.

We had a night cap in an underground camping area and I was happy we never got around to watching Wolf Creek, an Australian movie based on a real like cereal killer who hunted tourists.

7Oct - What have we learnt so far… @ Port Augusta West, Australia

2009-10-07T05:00:45.000Z

 Just cause it’s Australia, doesn’t mean it’s hot…
 Sam much prefers reading maps than driving on the left side of the road in a bass ackwards vehicle!
 Marc-André, by process of elimination, is forced to drive on the left side of the road… sorry Chéri, the tribe has spoken.
 Macadamia nuts are cheaper than most other nuts and surprisingly fattening
 You have taste buds in your nose
 It’s important to watch the engine temperature! You know that random gauge on your dash with a funny looking sail boat… Yeah, the one that tells you when it’s safe to turn your heater on in the winter! We learnt that while I was driving up one of those beautiful rolling mountains trying to convince Marc-André that the van was making a funny sound when smoke started billowing from the hood. Conveniently this happened next to a National Park with a walking path through the subtropical rainforest. BONUS! We walk while the van cooled.
 Marc-André is fascinated by all the different species of birds, one kin din particular sounds like C3PO, or is it R2D2, which one makes the beeping sounds
 One bird in particular sounds like a hundred Tom Cats in heat.
 Contrary to our confidence in the grocery store, we show no self control when faced with honey roasted cashews.
 Guandong is a type of peachy fruit… Which while delicious costs 100$/kg YIKES!
 Not all water is created equal. I am anxious to chug a tall glass off cool, delicious, thirst quenching Kap water. Props to our water treatment station.
 Test work has proved to be inconclusive in confirming or disproving the counter clockwise drainage of things. Marc-André claims it is true, but I remain unconvinced.

7Oct - Next up @ Port Augusta West, Australia

2009-10-07T05:00:48.000Z

Up Next…
We leave Port Augusta via the Stuart Hwy to Darwin and all stops in between. See you on the other side.

8 Oct – Coober Pedy to Mt Ebenezer @ Mount Conner, Australia

2009-10-08T05:00:35.000Z

We exchanged e-mail and blog information with our new friends and bid them happy trails. We toured around Coober Pedy for a bit going to see some underground Churches and a few Opal shops. This place capitalizes on all things Opal, it was quite nauseating to see the word plastered everywhere. We filled our water tanks and gas tank and hit the road.

Excited to hear some new tunes I quickly sifted through Kate’s 70Gb only to find out the majority of her music is trapped in iTunes format so we can’t even listen to it. The few songs that were compatible were not to our liking so we’ve resorted to acappella sing alongs; an endless medley of random songs with half the lyrics and half the melody. I feel a little bad for Marc-André at this point cause let’s face it I’m no Janis Joplin.

We were quickly exhausting our musical repertoire when Marc-André had a wave of genius. He remembered some old PowerPoint presentations full of song lyrics that I had on my laptop! One is all French chansons à répondre and the other is from the Losier’s Off The Wall Beer and Wings Boxing Day Jam Session.

It’s amusing and frustrating to go through the songs because if Marc-André isn’t familiar with a certain song, I try hopelessly to hum a few bars but unfortunately what I hear in my mind and what comes out of my mouth are two very different things. Either way, it passes the time which we have plenty of and nothing but flat, boring Outback scenery to look at.

650 uneventful kms later we decided to stop in Mr Ebenezer for the night. This ended up being a SWEET deal! The camping was free PLUS there was free BBQ’s and a free shower! Free is our favourite word but still we felt a little guilty so we treated ourselves to a cold beer at the restaurant which was probably worth more then the propane and water… Ah well!

9 Oct Mt Ebenezer to Yulara @ Yulara, Australia

2009-10-09T05:00:51.000Z

The ROOCK

So this was kind of like the movie except no Nicolas Cage, no Alcatraz and no Sean Connery… Ok I guess it was nothing like the movie!

This is indeed a land of stark contrasts… A massive monolith jutting out of flat earth; a natural wonder of the world trapped inside a capitalist, over commercialized tourist attraction.

Don’t get me wrong, Uluru is without a doubt an impressive site but so is the cost of everything that surrounds it. A purpose built resort, to serve the droves of tourists who flock to the area each year, which charges a staggering 33$ per night for unpowered camping. (I can’t even fathom the cost of a hotel room.) An art gallery that showcases local aboriginal artists which should be impressive but instead it was more like a sweat shop (free BO!), a mass production line of half assed dot paintings with phenomenal price tags.

We couldn’t take anymore of the information center and art gallery so we laced up our running shoes and hit the 10km trail which circles the base of Uluru. It was late in the afternoon and the sun scorching hot but it was great to see this monolith from all angles. Around the bass there are many sacred sites which are symbolic to the Anagu people. Some people reportedly feel ancient mythical powers at play here. The only thing we felt were millions of flies crash landing all over us but we managed to enjoy the experience all the same.

After our walk we headed to the sunset viewing area and waited for the light show to begin. The sunset was not particularly colourful but we did see some slight colour changes in Uluru and we met a great couple (Ken and Linda) who are retired and have been traveling and living in their RV for the past 18 months EIGHTEEN MONTHS!

Since it is against the law to park anywhere else and uninterested in a 5000$ fine we begrudgingly headed to the overpriced resort campground for the night and took a 20 minute shower… TAKE THAT! Yeah we showed them…

10 Oct Ayers Rock to Alice Springs @ Alice Springs, Australia

2009-10-10T05:00:51.000Z

Rise and shine was bright and early today as we wanted to catch Uluru’s mood as the sun rose over her. We followed a bloated tour bus to the new 20 Million dollar Sunrise viewing area and settled in for the show. Marc-André learned all about shutter speed on the fancy camera as we took shot after shot trying to catch that one, postcard worthy picture.

At one point we couldn’t help but be baffled by the shear volume of people just pouring out of bus after bus, congregating on this viewing platform waiting, like us, to catch that one elusive shot of the Mood Rock.

Confident she was done changing colours for a bit, we headed to Kata Tjuta or The Olga’s. This is another sedimentary rock formation but instead of the one famous chunk it’s many, much less famous chunks scattered around. We once again laced up the old running shoes (now red from the outback sand), strapped on the hydration backpacks and embarked on the 7.4km Valley of the Winds walk. This was a bit more challenging than the Uluru base walk but nothing compared St Mary’s Peak. At one point I felt like a needed to sit, just then we crossed a group of senior citizens and I felt suddenly ashamed… if they can do it, hell I should be able to do it!

After the walk we made a quick detour and snuck back into the overpriced resort and took another 20 minute shower…  Nice and Clean we headed straight to Alice Springs in true hwy junky form, skipping over everything and anything in our path. We even forwent the trip to Kings Canyon and apparently we really missed out… oh well!

We did stop at Devil’s Marbles but just for a quick look and a pee. We got to chatting with a Kiwi and he mentioned a much nicer way to get to Cairns so we will be following his advice and traveling on the Burk then Gulf Development Roads instead of the Barkley Hwy.

We arrived in Alice Springs and settled in at the G’Day Mate Caravan Park. Our only reason for picking this place over all the others was that they supplied free clothes pins for the clothes line. Maybe the pool had something to do with it too!  We wasted no time getting into our swimsuit and made our way to the pool. It was just before dinner and the pool was swarming with kids, all of them running around, doing cannonballs, splashing each other AND US *shakes fist*, fighting over noodles and beach balls... Marc-André and I looked like two old fudie duddies at the end of the pool but we did enjoy the commotion as it reminded us of home.

11 Oct Alice Springs to Tennant Creek. @ Tennant Creek, Australia

2009-10-11T05:00:34.000Z

So we rose on this, the day of our one year wedding anniversary in the most unromantic place ever, lost in a maze of camper vans with hardly any trees and no wonders of world at our door step. We did make the best of the free cooking area and prepared a yummy breakfast. After another quick swim, in a much calmer pool this time, we packed our things and hit the road.

As per some fellow traveler’s advice we decided to check out the Alice Springs Reptile Center. *Mom you might want to skip over this part * Marc-André got what he thought was a kiss from a blue tongue lizard when in fact Mr. Blue tongue was having a taste to see if Marc-André would make for a suitable snack. Fortunately humans taste like sunscreen and cosmetics so we are safe. We also got to see and hold a python and two other types of lizards. By we I do mean Marc-André, I was holding the camera and that was fine by me.

As we were checking out some of the most dangerous snakes in the world a guided tour walk passed so we quickly made like the flush tourists and tagged along. Our guide was a Steve Erwin look alike and he taught us all about the different reptiles and snakes and for a while there I was less grossed out by these fascinating creatures. There is a surprising amount of research being done on snakes with respect to anti venom and also their ability to rejuvenate their eyes when they shed their skin…

Back on the road we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. We paused for a picture and reflected on the fact that while we were vacationing around the 133rd parallel most of our friends and family were preparing for the snow up on the 49th.

While we were pondering longitude and latitude a van pulled in and naturally we got to chatting. Unfortunately for me the gift of gab is not synonymous with the gift of facial recognition and the couple in the van was Peter and Susan from South Africa who we had already met in Coober Pedy.

Back on the road, now following “Les Afwicains” we pulled into Barrow Creek for come much needed yet highly overpriced gas (1,85$/L). This was another one of many dodgy looking road houses with questionable heath and hygiene standards but with one quirky difference. Every inch of the walls were plastered with cash money from just about every currency in the world even CANADIAN TIRE money!

So the story goes, back in the early 1960’s workers would pile in on payday and of course blow their pay checks and have nothing till the next week. Workers started leaving money at the bar to settle future bills they might rack up in between paydays. The bartender would have them sign the bills and pin them to the wall as a type of payment insurance. Some 50 years later the tradition lives on and every inch of space behind the bar is covered. We would have loved to leave some Canadian Tire bones with our names on it but unfortunately all we had was a lonely quarter to add to the collection. Either way, kap is on the wall and we informed the bartender that Canadian Tire money is actually printed by the Royal Canadian Mint. (The more you know…)

Tennant Creek was our stop for the night and surprise “Les Afwicains” were at the same caravan park. We once again got to chatting about the damned radio and they mentioned that none of their CD’s would play so I ripped some Africaans music to my computer and placed it on a USB key for them and it worked! One might say it was music to their ears… BAHAHA

12 Oct Tennant Creek to Cloncurry @ Cloncurry, Australia

2009-10-12T05:00:16.000Z

Decision making time…

To Darwin or not to Darwin? This was our dilemma. A trip to the far north would take at least 5 days which would mean 5 days less on the coast and us becoming mad hwy junkies, adding an extra 2 500kms to the odometer. Time was flying and the temperatures rising. The heat was hardly bearable as is so we took an executive decision and headed east.

This was going to be another long day of driving so I generously volunteered my services. Now, of the 6 500kms travelled so far I can only take credit for about 150kms. What can I say, I prefer maps and travel brochures while Marc-André, even though it was by default, prefers watching for kangaroos and driving on the left side of the road. Ying and Yang you know!

So this was my 3rd or 4th time driving and naturally we encounter a hwy check point. GREAT! The police officer waved me over and as you can imagine, in my bass ackwards rental van, off went the wipers as I fumbled to activate the signal light. The officer, bearing a knowing grin, walked over and casually stated “license and registration.” After reviewing the paperwork and my red flag Ontario Drivers License he proceeded to the front of the vehicle to start the inspection. First up were the signal lights… Ok, so I would consider myself to be an intelligent person but stress has a funny way of turning me into a blabbering, “tête heureuse” so another instinctive flick of my left hand sent the wipers screeching across the windshield AGAIN. We both cringed while the officer fought to conceal his laughter. Anyhoo we passed the inspection and my license wasn’t revoked so that was a good thing.

The good news is I have somewhat overcome my fear of driving on the left side of the road. Between Tennant Creek and Cloncurry I clocked a record breaking 100kms!!! Most exciting of all is that in the last 25km I wasn’t even slowing down for oncoming traffic anymore or hitting the rumble strip on the left!  There is definitely a learning curve to be had. You sort of feel like you are driving out of the MTO building for the first time with that G1 certificate proudly folded in your wallet.

We met back up with “Les Afwicains” at a rest stop where they were letting the old van cool off a bit. We had some lunch and I ripped the movie Australia while we hid from the scorching sun. Later that afternoon we travelled a la queue leu leu to another caravan park where we settled in for the night. There was another Canadian couple there from Kenora BC so we chatted about our travels so far and the differences between Canada and Australia.

I have to tell you about the INSANE locust (grass hoppers) we encountered in this region. HUGE! I thought the end of the world was nearing! All you could see were clouds of giant locust then came the horrible thuds as they came face to windshield and felt that one last thing come through their minds… their butts! (tee*hee I just had to add that dad(Bruce) joke)

Oct 13 Cloncurry to Karumba @ Karumba, Australia

2009-10-13T05:00:25.000Z

Aye Karumba…

This morning we bid farewell to our friends and travel companions “Les Afwicains.” They were headed east towards Townsville and we were headed north to Karumba before going east to Cairns. We exchanged e-mail and blog info and headed our separate ways.

As you know there are no radio stations here but if there were I swear it would be Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam doing the weather saying “it’s hot! DAMN Hot!”

Anyhoo, as per the Kiwi’s suggestion we travelled up to Karumba “where the population is small and we love them all”  The big attractions here are the sunset over the Gulf of Carpantaria and Barramundi fish and chips. We decided to combine the two for our delayed anniversary celebration.

We headed to a “world famous” fish and chip stand then settled in on the beach at a safe distance form the crocodiles and tore into our romantic meal as we waited for the sun to set on the gulf.

I was enjoying a mouthful of barramundi while another awaited its fate when a crazed falcon came swooping down and grabbed the piece of fish straight from my hand! I of course yelled for dear life while Marc-André jumped to his feet, trying aimlessly to figure out what the hell had happened. Wild eyed I pointed at the sky “bird, bird” was all I could muster feeling the space where his claws has dragged against my skin. “Où?” was all I got in return. “UP! Straight up!” “Ohlé *&#$” I believe was his response when he finally saw the bird hovering above us waiting for another morsel of fish to go unguarded.

By now another traveler who was obviously waiting for the sun with a professional looking camera had heard the commotion and came running over probably thinking some crazed lunatic was being eaten by croc. The tree of us laughed it of while we covered the food with a backpack only retrieving bit sized pieces of fish and chips from then on. The bird never left our side and he even called two of friends to let them know about the tasty snack.

After that ordeal we walked the beach, poked at some dead jelly fish and found a good spot to take pictures of the sunset. A couple arrived with a guitar which created a nice ambiance for the grand event.

3000 pictures later, the sun was warming another side of the earth while we harassed poor innocent hermit crabs until darkness settled in and we headed back to our campsite.

Hermit crabs are so funny. If you stand very still they all walk around and it looks like the ground is alive, then you make one little sound and everything stops no more clicking of shell to rock, just silence.

The heat was unbearable so we snuck into the pool, which was closed for the night, to try and cool off. On our way back to the van we noticed mango, coconut and lime trees. The limes were within reach so naturally we helped ourselves to ½ a dozen. Unfortunately the mangos and coconuts were just too damned high.

14 Oct Karumba to Ravenshoe @ Ravenshoe, Australia

2009-10-14T05:00:43.000Z

With any luck this would be our last hwy junky stint for a while. In the past two weeks we’ve clocked a daily average of 500kms and we are just fed up of being in the van and paying for all that gas. The coast is nearing and things should settle down for a little bit.

Hopelessly I scanned through the radio stations and to our great surprise there was music instead of the usual fuzz. The volume cranked, the windows down, life was good! That is until we went down a hill and the music was lost forever. We will never forget those 45 precious minutes.

Since we had exhausted the lyrics on the computer and in our head we decided to host our own radio show… we mostly talked about the scenery and wildlife but it was a good way for me to fill in Marc-André on all the stuff I had been reading in the guidebooks.

We stopped in at the Croyden information center where the town historian and genealogist gave us the 411. He even tipped us off on a great picnic area down by a lake where we could have some lunch.

After lunch by the lake we headed down the road and made it as far as Ravenshoe… pronounced raven’s-hoe and not raven-shoe as I was corrected. We were hopping for two things here: cheap camping and platypus spotting. It was getting dark and no one we talked to even knew what a platypus was and there was no camping in site. We pulled into a viewing area for the Ravenshoe wind farm and spotted a shagadelic looking van. Hippy tourists always have the skinny on cheap places to park and cool things to see.

We walked over and were surprised to see a clean cut, older man reading a local newspaper. He advised us on a 3$ camping ground with showers and a great place to spot platypus in Yungaburra.

We walked away satisfied with the information but something didn’t feel right. Why was a local man reading his paper by a tourist attraction at the edge of town offering up regional knowledge to innocent travelers? Could it be from the kindness of his heart? Not likely! My thoughts went to Wolf Creek and the serial killer who hunted tourists now upset that I hadn’t watched the movie to know his MO. My suspicion was peaked when we saw the seemingly kind man pull into the caravan park behind us, stop and then drive away.

Needless to say, this wasn’t the most peaceful nights sleep as images of mass murder danced through my head. As I am alive and typing you can imagine we woke up unscathed, packed our things and made like the trees.

15 Oct Ravenshoe to Yungaburra @ Yungaburra, Australia

2009-10-15T05:00:51.000Z

Somewhere along the way I had read about this great waterfall drive in the area so we hit the trail. Our first stop was Millsview waterfalls, the widest waterfall in Australia. Mr. Wolf Creek had also mentioned this site and an uneasy feeling creped over me as we wandered down the winding path, through the thick rainforest to the viewing platform. To my great surprise no knife wielding psychopaths jumped out of the bush and we made it back to the van in one piece. (I promise this is the last you will read of my paranoia… for now anyways )

This may sound obvious but the dry season is not the best time for a waterfall drive. Millstream had but a few trickles coming over the edge. We proceeded on to view the falls of Little Millstream, Pepina (where we saw turtles), Mungalli, Ellinja, Zillie, Malanda and Milla Milla. They were all impressive to the unknowing visitor but each paled in comparison to the mighty flow depicted in the brochures.

Milla Milla was without a doubt the highlight of the day. In local aboriginal dialects a word is repeated to emphasize or show greatness. Quite simply, Milla = water or waterfall, Milla Milla = KICK ASS WATERFALL!

The lonely planet guide book had advised us it was safe to swim in the waterhole below the fall so we saved this one for last, arriving just as the sun peaked in the sky. We could have guess it was safe to swim without our trusty guide book as we watched fellow visitors stepping of a stifling tour bus, sweat beading on their brow, swimmers and towels at a ready position. It was a race to get into the change room then into the icy mountain spring water bellow Milla Milla.

It was damned cold but oh so refreshing. It seems none of the water ever gets really cold here. We’ve given up on the prospect of a nice cold shower to try and cool off as the water is tepid at best. We swam up to and under the falls trying to go sit on the rocks behind but the stinging droplets of water felt like Chinese torture so we retreated and found another way. On this side of the sheet of water I was half expecting to find a secret passage to a hidden lair but alas no such adventure awaited us.

Our visiting was not limited to waterfalls we made time for The Mungalli Dairy, a biodynamic dairy farm. What is biodynamics you ask? Well, biodynamics is the new organic, it has something to do with the moon that’s all I retained. We also managed to squeeze in Gallo Cheese and Chocolate Factory as well a Nerada Tea, the largest tea plantation in Oz.

Yungaburra was our destination for the night and our first chance to see Platypus! The poles were unanimous, Petersen Creek, next to Nick’s Café was THE place to see this Australian wonder, often said to be proof that God has a sense of humour. We made our way over a small crossing and without à doubt it was bridging the gap created by Petersen Creek. The row of butts with upper bodies, heads and cameras leaning dangerously over the guardrail was a dead give away.

I made it to the platform first while Marc-André was fiddling with the camera and spotted the object of our stop straight away. I started jumping and pointing wildly, grinning ear to ear. “yé là, vite vite, yé là!” Inevitably by the time Marc-André made it over the shy creature had poked back into the murky water. We did end up seeing him again and a short walk down the river graced us with about five other. We settled into a spot

We settled in for the night next to Lake Tinaroo, another forbidden waterhole, mocking us with its cool inviting waters contaminated with blue algae. Mr Wolf Creek never made an appearance.

16 Oct Yungaburra to Cairns (Palm Cove) @ Palm Beach, Australia

2009-10-16T05:00:56.000Z

Marc-André, as per usual woke up way before me. He snuck out with the camera and set off to capture the sunrise over lake Tinaroo as well as some local wildlife. I crawled out of the cozy van sometime later and we walked along the edge of the lake.

We hit the trail as the Atherton tablelands still held a few points of interest before heading to the coast. Mareba, our first stop, is a mini Columbia and home to the largest coffee plantation in Oz which offers tastings and a museum for a small fee. Originally we were not going to stop as neither of us are coffee drinker but along the way we heard it was a must so we went to get our java fix.

WELL, it was like stepping into heaven! Some thirsty odd brews with additional teas and chocolates ALL YOU CAN HANDLE! After my tenth cuppa I was BUZZIN’! I could feel the caffeine coursing through my brain steam making me happy and flighty if only slightly dizzy. How is this legal? We decided to take a break from the jo and walked through the museum which was FILLED to the gills with coffee paraphernalia of all shapes and sizes. Each visitor got a type of walky talky which delivers sound bytes for most of the articles in the museum. My skitty state didn’t bode well for concentration but it was interesting to learn about the origins and history of coffee.

Interesting java factoid #1
Coffee was introduced in the work place to replace alkamahal as many of the workers were getting injured from WUI (working while under the influence). Hence the coffee break was born!

Interesting java factoid #2
Since coffee was made to replace alcohol the drink vessel was directly influenced by the countries spirits of choice. Italy who sipped from delicate goblets took to drinking strong coffee in teeny little cups – espresso anyone. Les Français who preferred une coupe de vin crafted fancy cups with delicate handles to accommodate this warm new brew and lets not forget England who would guzzled beer from mugs now sip coffee from mugs with similar sturdy handles well until noon anyways.

One last Interesting java factoid #3
England didn’t take to adding milk to their coffee as their milk was often contaminated.

THE MORE YOU KNOW 

Now, as some of you may know digestive health can be an issue when traveling… Ginger and prunes can be a natural way to clear things up but as we found out after our unlimited tasting, coffee will clear the track in no time flat! (I think that could be a good slogan)

Now that you know more that ever needed or wanted to know about our digestive tracks we can move on with the day. I’ll spare the details; there was a mango winery, a banana field and a hammer head shark.

WHAAAA!!!

Ok I guess I should elaborate that last bit. Palm Cove, a beachside community on the outskirts of Cairns was our budget destination for the night. We settled into our cheap council caravan park then headed to the jetty (dock) which was lined with fisher people. We got to chatting with some locals who had claimed the end of the dock. Blah blah blah… FISH ON!!! Holly jumping banana boats! Reel, reel reel, zzzzzzz (drag), reel reel… A baby HAMMER HEAD SHARK!!!!!!! They were about to toss it back in the water like we would a nasty pike when they noticed the grinning tourists and let us strike a pose before sending the little guy home.

Marc-André couldn’t believe how strong the 2 foot thing was. He could barely keep hold on it.

G’night!

17 Oct Palm Cove to Port Douglas @ Port Douglas, Australia

2009-10-17T05:00:00.000Z

Marc-André woke up FIRST THING and headed down to the pier to watch the fisher people, hopping to see someone reel in a prize winning Mackeral or at least another hammer head shark. I took this time to catch up on my beauty rest.

We spent most of the day wandering around the local markets. The Cairns Farmers Market was cool because everything was locally grown and bio-dynamic and fresh picked and handmade and from the rainforest. We definitely blew our grocery budget but everything was just so irresistible. Kuranda on the other hand was a bit of a disappointment. It’s supposed to be this hippy arts and crafts place but everything was made in china. The only highlight was the Kuranda Candy Shop where we watched the confectioners mould sugary deliciousnous into a bite sized candy that read “I *heart* Kuranda. Although that wasn’t entirely true for us we did *heart* the free samples.

At this point the traveling was starting to catch up with us. Exhausted, we treated ourselves to a fancy powered campsite with free unlimited internet and settled in for the night.

18 Oct Port Douglas to Newell Beach @ Newell Beach, Australia

2009-10-18T05:00:23.000Z

We spent the morning taking advantage of the unfathomable unlimited wifi, got set up on Skype and called home. It was great to catch up with everyone as the only communication since we left nearly a month ago had been via e-mails.

After prying ourselves (read myself) away from the WIFI hotspot we headed to the Mossman Gorge. This was supposed to be a quick detour but you know how that goes…

Thankfully, the route to the Gorge was very well indicated. On our way we noticed a number of cars haphazardly pulled over to the side of the road and wondered what the fuss was about then we saw. OH MY! Mango trees lined the narrow street with ripe orangey fruit just waiting to be picked. We made sure they didn’t belong to a farmer then wasted to time filling a huge paper bag.

Satisfied with our loot we made our way to the Gorge. As if the day could get any better (free internet, free mangos) Mossman Gorge was a spring feed, freshwater swimming hole… MAGNIFICENT! We quickly pealed off our humid cloths and wiggled into our swimsuits then walked the short distance through the rainforest to the Gorge. It was full of people but for once we didn’t care. We ran into the cool refreshing water then followed suit swimming in the rapids, using the rocks as waterslides, walking all over the rounded boulders. It was awesome!

This “quick stop” lasted the rest of the day. On the way back to the main road we stopped and picked a few extra mangos for good measure then found a place to park it for the night. This part is always the most frustrating. When we rented the van everyone assured us “you can park anywhere is Australia, we don’t have laws against that.” BUT it seems everywhere we would want to park for the night has a no parking or worse a no camping sign. Oh well.

19 Oct Newell Beach to Cairns @ Cairns, Australia

2009-10-19T05:00:23.000Z

Today was a pretty chill day. We had our fresh FREE mangos for breakfast then went for a walk on the beach. This is when we spotted THE COCONUTS dun dun dun… And so began what I like to call Marc-André vs. The Coconuts!

Marc-André decided he wanted to dissect a coconut. Fair enough. But wait. If we were going to have coconuts and coconut milk, they must be fresh! We can’t trust the ones that have already fallen on the beach. We must get the fresh ones from the trees…

The first attempts involved swinging fallen palm leaves at the lovely bunch of coconuts. When that proved not so successful old coconuts were used as projectiles in a feeble attempt to free at the little bastards from their perch. One bunch in particular, I swear were laughing at us and I could see poor Marc-André’s blood pressure rising. It wasn’t easy but it was time to walk away, just walk away man. In the end he did manage to score 4 coconuts in different stages of ripeness but we would soon find out that the real battle was yet to come.

I fetched the tea pot so we would have someplace to put the coconut juice. Three of the greener coconuts went down without too much of a fight. The juice inside was clear not milky and there was very little if any flesh. Then came the ripest coconut with about 4cm of husk. Well Marc-André, armed with only a small paring knife, poked and prodded and smashed and stabbed at the poor thing to try and free the coco nut inside the husk. I sat and watched, entertained by various efforts put forth and injecting a few genius ideas of my own.

An hour or so later, a clear winner emerged as we have ½ a tea pot full of coconut milk and a large Tupperware container full of flesh and only a few minor flesh wounds.

Une fois que la thrill a wearé off…  We were northbound to the Daintree River. These croc infested waters are notorious and factor into the top, lets say 50 things to do in Australia. We did no prior research and hopped on the first river cruise that caught our eye. This one had two parts one on the lower fresh water part of the river where we saw nothing but 120 million yr old rainforest, which I guess is interesting in it’s own right but c’mom we came for the crocs. The second part of the trip was on the estuary or salt water mouth of the river. It’s a good thing that Marc-André was on the boat as he spotted the only two crocs of the trip. A 4yr old named Scout and an older, much lager on names Scarface. We were hopping to see Fat Albert, the rivers alpha male, but he was nowhere to be found.

We decided not to continue North to Cape Tribulation and head back down to Cairns so we could start our journey south. We settled into our spot at a place which also had free internet but we dutifully filled out the post cards we had bought in Sydney.

Oct 20 Cairns to Bingal Bay (Mission Beach) @ Mission Beach, Australia

2009-10-20T05:00:16.000Z

After a quick stop at the local information center we were southbound. The girl behind the counter, who was about our age and shared similar interest, was so helpful. She checked out some concerts and festival information online for us, tipped us off to the best camping spot near Mission Beach and told us about a place to view Cassowaries, a huge endangered flightless emuish looking bird.

We headed to Etty Bay for the cassowaries but they were no where to be found. Our inquiries to the locals were met with torrid rants about how these birds were a pest and how the world will be better off once they are extinct. Despite the negative feedback we decided to stick around for a bit and Marc-André dominated a quick game of tv tag while we waited for the birds to make an appearance but alas they could not would want to show. We made our way to Bingal Bay (ça rime en crime) just outside of Mission Beach and settled into the suggested council park right next to the beach.

Our neighbours were Mark & Liz who had just sold everything to buy a caravan and travel around Australia. We have met quite a few people who have embraced this alternative nomad lifestyle. We got to chatting about fishing and our hammerhead shark experience. Mark happened to be an ex commercial fisherman and told us about a friend of his in Wooli who still is a commercial fisherman and who might take us out. We will definitely give him a ring when we get to his ‘hood.

We had picked up some fresh prawns at a roadside stall for dinner that night so we would be “putting another shrimp on the barb-e” to go with a Thai inspired rice dish made using our fresh coconut milk. For those of you who don’t know, prawns are basically shrimp before they have been beheaded, peeled, decrotified, cooked, frozen, vacuum packed and shipped half way around the world to be the guest of honour at your next cocktail party.

While we were preparing dinner we met Peter and Diana who were very excited to see our fresh coconut as they had a trunk full themselves. We chatter briefly about the health properties of the coconut then Marc-André headed to a picnic table next to the water where we enjoyed our meal while listening to the waves lapping against the shore and polished what would be our last bottle of fine wine. We had picked it up at the Murdering Point Winery. You could say it was… To Die For! MUAHAHAHA

You may be wondering, like we were, what the deal is with Murdering Point. Well, it seems there is a shallow rock shoal jutting out from this point where a number of boats capsized in the late 1700’s. Ahhhhh… BUT a capsized boat is not murder now is it. The survivors would swim to shore where they were met by a cannibalistic tribe who had been waiting patiently for the main course to arrive. ***The More You Know***

The wine was delicious but it wasn’t the only thing that was dry at the Murdering Point Vineyard. The customer service was seriously lacking and the lady definitely earns her status as face de cul de bois.

Oct 21 Bingal Bay (Mission Beach) @ Mission Beach, Australia

2009-10-21T05:00:19.000Z

We were just about ready to peel out of Mission Beach but my obsessive need to stop at every single information center in Australia won and this is where we were finally convinced to loosen up the wallet chains and book a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. It had been very windy and Friday was to be a nice calm day with lots so sun so perfect conditions to view the reef but in the mean time we had two days to kill before the trip.

The rest of the day will herein be known as the lost day. We just wandered around aimlessly not knowing what to do with ourselves. We drove 40kms for a supposed world class mud crab sandwich but the place was closed. We then drove to the nearest place that advertised the local treat where we were greater by non other than the Lunchlady herself. Funny, I don’t remember seeing Sloppy Jo on the menu. Come to think of it there were no hoagies and grinders either. Weird.

Anyhoo, the shear thought of this woman makes my stomach heave. As if the sight of her scummy teeth stained uniform and dirty medical dressings around her legs were not bad enough the sandwich was two pieces of untoasted Wonder beard with a chunk of butter and a glob of sauce atop a slop of mudcrab riddled with bits of cartilage and hard shell. Tasty! We parked ourselves next to the murky water of the bay and gagged down our lunch before heading to the see a giant gum boot (rubber boot.)

As you can imagine this stop was rather anticlimactic. We were going to see a freaking giant rubber boot, how exciting could it be! Once that MUST SEE was out of the way we drove back to Bingal and were happy to find that there was still room for us at the very cheap council caravan park with the absolute best view.

We had a chat with Peter and Diana who showed us the real trick to opening a coconut (AN AXE!) We then met Mel and Drew who were traveling around in a Hippy van but were on their way to New Zealand where they were picking up a Spaceship. We gave them the grand tour of our home away from home and they were pretty excited at the prospect of having a fridge and dvd player on the next leg of their trip.

Oct 22 Bingal Bay (Mission Beach) @ Ingham, Australia

2009-10-22T05:00:59.000Z

Oct 23 Bingal Bay - Ingham @ Ingham, Australia

2009-10-23T05:00:53.000Z

Oct 24 Ingham - Home Hill @ Home Hill, Australia

2009-10-24T05:00:04.000Z

Oct 25 Home Hill to Proserpine @ Proserpine, Australia

2009-10-25T05:00:03.000Z

Oct 26 Proserpine to Rockhampton @ Rockhampton, Australia

2009-10-26T05:00:26.000Z

Oct 27 Rockhampton to 1770 @ Seventeen Seventy, Australia

2009-10-27T05:00:47.000Z

Oct 28 1770 @ Seventeen Seventy, Australia

2009-10-28T05:00:04.000Z

Oct 29 1770 to Bundaburg (Burnett Heads) @ Burnett Heads, Australia

2009-10-29T05:00:02.000Z

Oct 30 Burnett Heads – Tin Can Bay @ Tin Can Bay, Australia

2009-10-30T05:00:31.000Z

Oct 31 TinCan Bay to Rainbow beach @ Inskip Point, Australia

2009-10-31T05:00:48.000Z

Nov 1 Rainbow beach to Caloundra @ Caloundra, Australia

2009-11-01T05:00:11.000Z

Nov 2 Caloundra to Main arm @ Main Arm, Australia

2009-11-02T05:00:37.000Z

Nov 3 Main arm to Byron Bay @ Byron Bay, Australia

2009-11-03T05:00:01.000Z

Nov 4 Byron Bay to Wooli @ Wooli, Australia

2009-11-04T05:00:46.000Z

Nov 5 Wooli @ Wooli, Australia

2009-11-05T05:00:58.000Z

Nov 6 Wolli to Berrima @ Berrima, Australia

2009-11-06T05:00:10.000Z

Berrima to Eltham (Melbourne) @ Eltham, Australia

2009-11-07T05:00:10.000Z

Nov 8 - 22 Eltham (Melbourne) @ Eltham, Australia

2009-11-22T05:00:21.000Z

nov 23 Eltham to Ballarat @ Ballarat, Australia

2009-11-23T07:28:31.000Z

nov 24 Ballarat to Mt Gambier @ Mount Gambier, Australia

2009-11-24T07:31:16.000Z

Nov 25 Mt Gambier to Portland @ Portland, Australia

2009-11-25T07:32:21.000Z

Nov 26 Portland to Port Campbell @ Port Campbell, Australia

2009-11-26T07:34:22.000Z

Nov 27 Port Campbell to Lorne @ Lorne, Australia

2009-11-27T07:35:24.000Z

Nov 28 Lorne to JanJuc @ Aireys Inlet, Australia

2009-11-28T07:36:11.000Z

Nov 29 Jan Juc to Coolendina @ Torquay, Australia

2009-11-29T07:38:23.000Z

Dec 3 Coolendina to Rye @ Torquay, Australia

2009-12-03T07:41:49.000Z

nov 30 to Dec 2 Surf Coast @ Torquay, Australia

2010-10-30T07:39:24.000Z