beachin'

Traveling the East Coast of Australia has been amazing thus far. I’m staying by the bay in Airlie Beach right now. I really like it here. It’s exactly the way a beach town should be, breezy and laid back.

Today I went “bushwalking,” or hiking as we would say back in Texas. I climbed Mount Rooper.

It was so interesting to see the difference in the northern forest and southern forest. It's very tropical here. The northern forest is a rainforest so obviously there is a lot more moisture, and I saw much more wildlife here. There were wild turkeys, bats, lizards, turtles, strange tree dwelling ants, and insects everywhere.

Yesterday, I went speed boating and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef around the Whitsunday Islands. When we left the mainland it was pouring down rain. By the time we got out to the islands we had clear skies with a rainbow. It was so beautiful! Loved the white sandy beaches! I was amazed at how vastly inhabited the reef was! The speed boat was awesome too. We were going 40 knots in the ocean. At times we were airborne!

It’s been raining tons so I haven’t really been taking very many pictures. Apparently in north Australia there are two seasons, the dry season and the wet season, and right now we’re at the end of the wet season. I used a disposable underwater camera on my snorkeling expedition. I’ll have to actually develop them like we did in the old days.

Cairns was an interesting town. There were more tourists than locals so it was definitely a party city. There were drunk youngsters and aboriginals running around everywhere. The most outrageous thing that happened while staying in Cairns though was a flasher exposed himself to me and my roommate! We were walking home from dinner and this man in a hoodie popped into an alleyway along the street we were walking on. As we passed this alleyway this guy yelled out at us, and we both looked over and saw him with his pants down! We ran all the way back to the hostel. It wasn’t until the next day that I saw that the alleyway was behind a mental health hospital. I suppose it might have been a rogue patient or something.

Even with that incident and the rain I had a wonderful time in Cairns. I got to meet great people from all around the world and made some great new friends!

 

AND I went white water rafting which is a major check off the good ol’ lifetime to-do list. It was seriously awesome! I can’t wait to do it again! I’ll have pics to post later on. My little netbook doesn’t have a CD drive, or I’d load them on here. It’s definitely one of the biggest highlights of my trip!! I looooved it!

 

"May you live every day of your life."

Jonathan Swift

float on

I’m at the airport right now in Adelaide waiting for my flight to Cairns. Woohoo! On to the sunshine state! I’m so ready for warm weather and beaches galore! I’m going to start in Cairns and work my way down to Sydney.

(this isn’t my exact route - just a map to illustrate)

I went on a wine tour in the Barossa Valley yesterday. Barossa Valley is Australia’s biggest wine producing region.

 We stopped at a few scenic places.

This is the Whispering Wall. You can hear someone speaking at a normal volume if you’re standing at the other side of the wall. Apparently, this was discovered by a group of men who were working on the dam. Two of the workers were calling their boss some pretty unpleasant names, and he overheard from across the dam. We tried it out. It’s pretty cool. It sounds like the person across is right next to you.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
- Soren Kierkegaard

wwoofing woes

The next time I decide to volunteer to do back breaking work in some remote location, please please please stop me! I thought this WWOOOFing thing was going to be a great experience. I thought I would get to stay in a great location with locals while helping with and learning about organic farming. It wasn’t quite like that. While I know land development is a part of ranching and farming, I don’t think it’s reasonable to have a volunteer follow an old diesel dump truck picking up tree stumps (heavy ant covered tree stumps) and rocks for 6 hrs straight, 2 days in row. I think I actually might have gotten carbon monoxide poisoning. I had a headache, was sick to my stomach, pale, dizzy and light headed. The day before that I pulled weeds for 4hrs straight, yesterday I raked for 5 hrs, and today I got to haul and sift through trash. Today was the one day my back actually got a break, not my gag reflex though. I think before I got here they all sat around the campfire and discussed what the worst jobs were they could give to me.

In exchange for my work I was provided accommodation in the trailer and meals with my host. It totally was not worth it. I didn’t actually learn anything about organic farming. My host’s ad in the WWOOF book said his place was near the beach with snorkeling, surfing, fishing, etc available nearby. No. The beach is like 25K away, and I went once…and that was because I invited myself to go with my host’s sister and brother in law. I got to go to the nearby tourist attraction at Flinders Chase Park, but we didn’t even get there until sundown so we had to rush. I hate to be so negative about this experience, but it wasn’t good. I could go on more about my experience on KI, but I’d rather forget about it. When I get back to Adelaide tomorrow I’m going to soak my hands and feet in lotion and put a heating pad on my back.

The island was quite beautiful though. The sunsets were amazing.

And I did get to spend time with my lovely French neighbors. They were very sweet.

The Remarkable Rocks at Flinders Chase.

KI - hop hop hop

 I flew into Adelaide on Wednesday. While I was there I went to the art museum, the Chinese Market, and the Central Market. Adelaide is known as the city of churches because on every corner there is an amazing church or cathedral to stand in awe of. The architecture is fantastic. I’ll be going back on Thursday for a couple more days.

I stayed in Hostel 109 while I was there. It was my first time staying in a hostel. For those of you who have seen the movie Hostel, it was NOTHING like it. For those of you who haven’t seen the movie…DON’T. It’s terrible, and the hostel was quite nice. Very homey. Not like staying in a Hilton or anything, but kind of like the dorms in college except with people from all around the world.

I'm here WWOOFin' on Kangaroo Island now. I flew in on Thursday bright and early. We spent the day in the town Kingscote. Kingscote’s population is around 2000. It’s a nice little town on the ocean, and it’s KI’s largest city. KI has around 4000 people on it.

My WWOOF host's name is Ty. He’s a 27 y/o Aussie who inherited land from his parents, and he runs a camping ground and also has organic sheep, cattle, veggies, 3 bull mastiffs, and a pig named Ivory. There are also 3 French people staying here. Valerie, Arnaud, and Ann-Lyn. They are all very nice and around my age. I’ve spent the last few days cleaning the garden and pulling mint from the garden. I haven’t played in dirt that much since elementary school!

We went fishing at dusk on the beach. My line broke after the second cast so I didn’t catch anything. I took pictures instead.

Beautiful!!!

Arnaud and Doug both caught fish.

This is my little trailer and Ty’s niece, Willow.

Ty

Ann-Lyn

Valerie

Wally our little pet.

It’s been raining a ton. I hope it clears up so I can see a little more of the island tomorrow!

 

wwoofin' it

When I was 16 or 17, I was a camp counselor at PAL of TX Youth Ranch, a camp for “at risk youth.” I was the art instructor and the wilderness instructor. As an art instructor I helped the kids paint pictures, make collages, and scrapbook. As the wilderness instructor I took the kids for nature walks, tried to catch lizards and bugs, and taught them about the local plants and animals. It was a fun summer job. I mention it not because I spent my days there surrounded by nature, but because once a week we would watch the movie Ferntree Gully, and every time it rained we would watch it again. During one summer, I watched this movie like 20 times. It’s a cute movie, but it started losing it’s appeal after time number 4 I suppose. This week I actually went to a town named Ferntree Gully. So in a way, I’ve gone on this pilgrimage to the other side of the world to see this place without even realizing it.

I spent the day there going on trails in the forest. The first of these was the 1000 step trail. It’s called that because, you guessed it, it has 1000 steps up the side of a mountain. Awesome trail and an even better workout. The 1000 step trail was a 1000 times better than a Stairmaster.

No person should come to Australia without taking a trip into the forest. It is absolutely breathtaking. The beaches are spectacular but the forest is enchanting and ever-changing. The best part of it all though was when a wild kangaroo hopped across the trail not 3 yards in front of me. Strike that 3 meters. I’m still not used to the metric system. I’ve seen my share of wild animals, but this was awesome!!

We went to a stone grill restaurant. You cook your own meat on this plate sized stone. Kind of strange to go to a restaurant to eat and have to cook it for yourself, but it was very good. After, we went for a night of dancing and fun.

check out Jen's steak:

For the Easter weekend I went on a big camping trip on the Murray River with Jen, my roommate, and her friends. The Murray is on the boarder of Victoria and NSW, and we went a few hours inland so I got to see some different terrain. I’ve always loved camping so it was fun. It was a little cool though so we didn’t spend much time in the river. And the birds! I hate the birds here! Waking up to the birds chirping while camping over here is VERY different from camping in Texas. In Texas it's lovely. The sun rises, and you wake to the sweet melody of chirping birds. Here, the birds sound like a rooster crossed with an orangutan. My camera was dead so no pics of the river trip. :(

I’ve signed up to be a WWOOFer (willing worker on organic farms). Basically you go to a host’s home and work 4-6 hrs a day in exchange for accommodation and food. It seems like a pretty cool set up. I’ll get to learn a bit about organic farming, meet and live with Australian families, and see more rural areas in between my trips to the big cities. My first commitment is a week on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. I’m excited to go! I fly to Adelaide on Wednesday and then to KI on Thursday. I’m sad to move away from Melbourne and all the new friends I’ve made, but I want to see the country. I’ll return to Melb before I head to New Zealand though for one last hurrah with the roommates.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

- Oscar Wilde