The Global Guy

Western Australia had been the only part of Oz I hadn’t seen yet, so I decided to take a quick trip over to Perth and see what it was all about. Perth is a really nice city, and I think my second favorite in Oz, after Melbourne. At night especially, I got the feeling a lot of times that I could be in Austin. The weather was similar, people were strolling around downtown, bands were playing, and there were lots of trendy restaurants with people dressed in all different styles from super casual to seriously dressy without much regard to any kind of convention.

With only a limited amount of time, not nearly enough to see all of the state, I decided to concentrate on the southwest corner. I hooked up with a tour company who had a three day bus trip from Perth, down to Margaret River, Albany and then returning back to Perth. The first couple days were nice with lots of beaches, caves, and small hikes around the area. We stopped at a bunch of rock formations including one called the blow hole that had been carved by wave action over the past several thousand years. Every few minutes the waves would hit the formation in just the right way that would force air thru all the cracks in the rock which would then escape at tremendous velocities, usually with a huge rush of water that soaked anyone in the group that let their attention lapse.

Our third day was my favorite of the trip. We drove thru some forests that had some of the biggest trees I’ve ever seen in my life. Australia has a couple hundred varieties of eucalyptus trees, and the Karri and Tingle are two of the largest varieties. There’s a famous Karri tree called the “Gloucester Tree” that used to be a fire lookout back in the 1930s and its been preserved as a tourist attraction. It’s got a platform at the 61 meter level that you can still climb up to and look out over the forest. To get to the top you have to climb on iron bars sunk into the tree trunk in a spiral pattern all the way up. It’s an amazing view, although apparently only about a third of the people who attempt the climb actually make it. Of course I had a blast climbing it, and an even better time watching people chicken out about halfway thru the climb!

After coming down from the tree, we had lunch at a picnic area in the area. It started out pleasant enough, but then we got attacked by about 50 parrots swarming around begging for food. Eventually we realized that we were outnumbered, and we’d have to share our lunch with them if we wanted any for ourselves! We spent about an hour playing with the birds, posing with them for photos and feeding them sunflowers that the tour driver had tucked away on the bus.

Following lunch, we headed back to Perth, stopping for an hour or so at a couple of wineries in the Margaret River area. This part gets a little fuzzy (as do most winery visits!), but I do remember sampling several excellent varieties, including an interesting un-oaked cabernet, and a very nice shiraz. I’m guessing that Raytheon had always shipped some of the cheaper Australian wines down to the South Pole, so it was nice to see that Australia can actually do the wine thing quite well!

When I got back to Perth I still had another day to explore before I headed back to Canberra for a friend’s birthday party. I decided to take a ferry over to Rottnest Island a few miles off of Perth’s coast. It’s a fairly small island and is fairly unique for its lack of automobile traffic. There are a set number of cars allowed on the island, so the majority of road traffic is bicycles. It’s pretty easy to rent a bike when you arrive, and then the island is the perfect size for a relaxed day long ride, stopping off at a few beaches, and some nature areas. Rottnest was named by some Dutch sailors who landed on the island and thought it was infested by huge rats. It turns out that they’re called “quokkas”, and they’re little marsupial critters that have become tame as the number of tourists have increased on the island. I had one guy that followed me around for about a half hour while I toured a little nature boardwalk area….every time I turned around to take a look at him, he’d freeze, and then he’d hop forward everytime I took a few steps forward. I got a bunch of photos of the little dude before he finally got bored with posing, and wandered off into the bushes looking for something to eat.

After arriving in Canberra, Australia, I immediately met up with an old friend, Virgina. She’s a great friend that I spent a lot of time with in Mongolia, and it was great to catch up with her and her room-mate, Rebecca, who also hails from Mongolia. We spent the first couple of days just hanging out, chatting, seeing a movie (I can’t believe I let them drag me to Bridget Jones 2 right after getting off of the ice!), and just generally letting me adjust to being back in a normal society again.

Anyway, early (well, not really THAT early) on Sunday morning, Gin and I headed off on a road trip to Byron Bay. It took us a couple of days to get there, stopping at cute little coastal towns for the night, and visiting any "Big" monuments during the day. For some reason, Australians love to make huge replicas of everyday objects. I’d seen the big koala on my last trip to Oz, and this time we’ve seen the big banana, big prawn, and the big guitar.

Once we got to Byron it was nothing but beaches and fun. The first morning was spent doing a dolphin sea kayak tour that I really believe should be renamed the bluebottle jellyfish sea kayak tour. We didn’t see a single dolphin, but I got bit twice by jellyfish. I can understand the first sting on my leg while it was dangling from the side of the kayak, but it’s just really bad luck to get stung on the shoulder while paddling!

The next day we headed to the little hippy enclave of Nimbin. Everyone is so friendly here….we were approached lots of times on the street by the locals who wanted to sell us cakes and cookies. We bought some spice cake from a nice lady who asked if I was a smoker. When I told her that I wasn’t, she told me to only eat a little bit of her cake at first. It’s nice of her to be concerned about my health, but I don’t see how that has anything to do with cake. Anyway, a bunch of us ate some of her cake, and I really can’t say much for it’s quality. It tasted funny, and afterwards we all felt pretty mellow and giggly. I got really hungry afterwards, and was paranoid that she might have spiked the cake with something, but I’m sure that’s just silly.

The day after that I went diving and Gin hit the local stores for a shopping extravaganza. After lunch we headed out to Lennox heads for something that neither of us had done before….hang gliding! It wasn’t nearly as acrobatic or intense as I’d expected, but the views were incredible. The feeling of soaring in the air with only wind and no motor noise was great!

Finally we headed back to Canberra so that I could catch my flight to Perth the following Sunday. We stopped and visited with Virginia’s parents overnight, and I had a blast chatting with them all. They’re really good folks and the hospitality was amazing. Sunday night I had about an hour to catch a quick shower, and then it was off to the airport again.

Well, it’s been a busy week. I started out with a camping tour of Kangaroo Island which is the third largest island in Australia. Located off the coast of Adelaide, highlights include seeing penguins (finally!), koalas, seals, sea lions and of course kangaroos in the wild. We drove all around the island, checking out stuff like Stoke’s bay for swimming (the coldest water I ever want to swim in!), the remarkable rocks for climbing, and a huge seal colony for smelling.

After Kangaroo Island, I took the Oz Experience bus down the coast to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. It’s a stretch of coastline I’ve been wanting to see ever since I got here. It completely lives up to its name, and I think that this, along with the Big Sur highway in California are probably two of the best road trips in the world.

I fly to Singapore on Sunday, and I’m finding myself really looking forward to it. I’ve loved Australia, but it’s time to move on to the next phase of this trip.

Mom has come and gone. It was a nice 10 day visit, but it’s time to get back into the traveling routine again. I met her Christmas-eve morning at the Sydney airport, but it took quite a while. Apparently the airline had lost her luggage, so I spent almost two hours in the arrival area trying to figure out what had happened. Luckily Qantas agreed to have the luggage delivered to our hotel in Canberra the next morning. Once that was settled, we rented a car and started out on the drive to Canberra. Mom wanted to go to Christmas Eve mass, so we found the local Catholic church after a couple of wrong attempts. We nearly had to have services with Methodists!The next day we were invited for Christmas dinner with some friends of friends, and spent a great afternoon drinking beer and talking about just about everything.

We spent the next day doing all the tourist things in Canberra…the war memorial (amazing), the botanical gardens (Mom loved them) and the Telestra tower (yawn). That evening we headed down to the ski-town of Thredbo. The next day Mom wandered around town, and I decided to take the challenge of hiking up Australia’s highest mountain. I had heard it was an easy stroll, but I was disappointed with just how easy it really was. There was a steel grated sidewalk all the way up to the top, supposedly for plant conservation, but I suspect it was to make the mountain as accessible to as many people as possible. At the very least I can say I’ve now got bagged one of the seven summits!

The next day we drove down to Melbourne on one of the most fun roads I’ve ever been on! Lots of twisty spots thru green lush forests. We stopped in the town of Healsville on the way so we could see a wildlife rehab center. We weren’t really in the right place to see ‘roos in the wild, so this was Mom’s chance to get to see them. Once we hit Melbourne we started exploring the Queen Victoria’s market almost immediately. I got to be Mom’s pack mule thru the day, but she made up for it by taking us out to dinner that night. It was her first experience with Thai food, and I think she really enjoyed it.

The next day we headed to Sydney for New Year’s eve. We spent the day wandering around, checking out the opera house and the bridge. That night we saw the works at Darling Harbor, and then headed to bed right after midnight. Mom left the next day, and while I was sorry to see her leave, I was glad to get back to my travels again.

I spent three and a half days exploring Byron Bay recently. It’s a small town that lives on it’s counterculture. Wandering the streets at night you pick up a huge smell of incense and pot smoke in the air. It’s got much more than that actually…the people are friendly, the surfing is decent, and there is some surprisingly good diving. I booked a two dive trip to an area called Julien Rocks. At first it seemed disappointing…cold water, lousy visibility, and no coral. Then, I started looking around and noticing the size of some of the critters out there. There were HUGE rays, turtles, Wollongong sharks, and other big fish. It wasn’t the best diving I’ve ever done, but it was in my top 10 dives.

Anyway I’m in Sydney now, killing time for Mom to arrive in the morning. I’ve decided that taking the bus in 1st world countries is asking for misery. It’s so much easier to pay a little more and get to your destination 10 times faster, and without the disadvantage of fat smelly people.