Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Brisbane, OZ

Well, yesterday was my one year anniversary on the Road. I went out and had a bang up meal with Karla. After spending near a week at her place being a houseboy of sorts, I'm off to explore some more of Brisbane, and to give Karla some space. I've finally tracked down Ingrid Mackay, whom I met when I first arrived in the French Alps, nearly five years ago. She's ill tonight, but we'll catch up later this week. Not too much else to report, I've been compiling my records over the past year in preparation for the annual report that I will be posting in the next few weeks.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Brisbane, OZ (Paddington)

Sunday is the day of rest, theoretically, and as hard to believe that's what it was to me. Granted most days are fairly leisurely but I had a nice Sunday today, giving Vac a serious cleaning, repacking and refitting.

Last night was unexpected. I had planned to meet Karla after her Hen's Party, but her phone disappeared and we never met up. I headed to the Valley and went to a club there. Karla, after shedding her 20's flapper costume headed to her local with Kurt for a few beers to mourn the loss of her phone. As it turned out, when they made there way back they found someone passed out on their front step. It wasn't me, though that was Karla's first thought as well. It was, in fact, her father. Her folks are in town this weekend, and it seems that Poppa Harrison tied one on as well. At any rate, when I finally arrived back here he was comfortably passed out on the front veranda (with a mattress and bedding). It is nicely warm here, like Florida.

I met Karla's other flatmate today, all three of the housemates are in music but Darrin seems to be the most involved. He's a tour manager here in OZ and from the posters hanging around the apartment, it seems that he's worked with some major acts. He's met George Clinton, at any rate, something I've yet to do. Tomorrow, I plan to start doing some of the touristy things here in Brisbane. I have gotten to see a good part of it, so far, I had a nice walk home at 3ish last night and walked through some rather pretty sections. Met some interesting locals as well. Not too sure how long I plan to spend here before resuming my push North, but I like it here, and wouldn't mind spending a bit of time, though my visa's expiration is ever looming. We'll see, as always.

I've started working on my annual budget report for this trip. So far, I've added up my room bills over the past year. As it stands, I've done well. On room costs, I've spent under 4.50USD per night on my rooms, about 1,620USD total. When adding fuels costs to that amount, it still comes in under 6USD per night. I'm starting to go over the other numbers now, but it's late, and I'm ready for bed.



Saturday, September 24, 2005

Brisbane, OZ (Paddington)

It is gorgeous out, the Sun is hot, and the music is mellow. I'm hanging out at a little house in Paddington, just around the corner from the Paddo, a bar with Budweiser and cowboy hats on the staff which look like how I imagine mine once did, a long, long time ago. I got into town yesterday and after cruising around in Vac, and seeing the neighborhoods, I made my way over to Paddington to watch Karla sing with her band at the Paddo. It was fun, they played a great set of cover songs, ranging from Joe Cocker to the Commitments (I know they both covered other people as well but it's still great stuff).

Today, I've been hanging out with Karla's flatmate as she is off at work. They've got a lovely little house, with great Veranda's. I've been puttering around on the computer, finally posting the family photos from the trip up from Sydney, they should be there by the time any of you read this. Apart from that I've just been relaxing, and getting to know Karla's Tassie flatmate. Oops she's back, I may have to pause my thoughts for a bit.

Yep, that's all for now folks, turns out it's already 5pm. So, I'm gonna have a smoke outside, and plan for tonight's festivities. Jolly ho, and have a good one.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Surfer's Paradise

Well, I'm pushing on. I've been in Surfer's for two nights now, it's nice and does have a skyline similar to Southern Florida. Yesterday, was a beach day, I didn't feel like driving so I chilled and took in some sun. Today, I'm heading up to Brisbane. I'm travelling solo which is a nice change from the past few weeks. In Brisbane, I may load up Vac again with a new group but I figured till there I'd simply take some time to drive by myself, I'd forgotten how much I'd missed it. Last night, I finally was able to sleep in Vac for the first time in the past week, oh how I'd missed my bed.

Ironically, within 20 minutes of getting into Surfer's I ran into a Danish girl from Jutland whose name bears a striking similarity to that of my ex's. Funny old life, eh? I also managed to run into a girl from Medfield which is the next town over from Sherborn, my hometown. Small world. But, my time's nearly up so I'll wrap this up, time to fuel up and point myself North and to Bris-vegas.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Byron Bay, OZ

Well, I'm wrapping things up in Byron Bay and getting ready to move up the Gold Coast to Brisbane, which I plan to get into by Friday at the latest. Byron's nice, and I could see staying here but I've spent time in surf towns (see Raglan) and there's other things that await down the road. I had an alright Friday night went out with the family to a backpacker bar (pretty cheese but you know what the music's gonna be and they always play a few good dance songs).

Saturday, I decided I needed some space and had to do my own thing. I went out with some guys I'd met in the hostel and at first hit the same two bars that everyone seemed to have gone to. I ended up moving on to a small club by myself. It had good music playing and a fun dance floor. As the lights came up, I'd met half a dozen Ozzies and realized that the night was just beginning again. Sarah, a local from Byron, mentioned a 7am World Dance Event. I'm not sure what she was on about, but the rumor was that there was to be a 7am sunrise music set on the beach. This sounded good to all and I went with four others to Timo's place for a small post/pre party before heading to the beach. The group at this point was Timo, another Ozzie whose name is escaping me at the moment (it's a normal name so I'm not way off with Ben or Andy, I'm thinking), Kirra Lee and Karla. The latter two are both incredibly fit ladies from Brisbane who were down in Byron for the Saturday night. When I say fit I mean that Kirra is a PT instructor and Karla works in the gym as well, so both are rock hard. It's a good thing I don't worry about my physique anymore. At Timo's there was ping pong, drinking, dancing, smoking but absolutely, "NO PASHING!"

Timo's place was on a hillside a few hundred meters from the beach so it had a perfect view of the sunrise which I knew that I'd be seeing. At the end of the day, it's the only way I really enjoy a sunrise is at the end of a very long night. I will say know for a variety of reasons this was one of the top 5 sunrises that I've ever seen, absolutely.

Sunday grew warm and I started it with a grin. I left Timo's with the girls who were also checked into a backpacker's downtown. We decided to take some time for showers and then head out for a Breaky. I had Chinese eggs which were pretty good. Poached, wok fried with shallots and some other things and then soy sauce. Different, which is always fun. The day was then spent lounging about near and on the beach with K&K. They finally got the energy for the drive back to Brisbane and I borrowed Wes' surfboard and went to a beach. Now, I haven't surfed since Raglan which I left in April, so no I didn't manage to accomplish much more than paddling for about an hour. That was good enough for me it was simply nice to get in the water for a bit.

Now, in terms of the family, the divorce papers have been finalized and the wife got custody rights, well I've got partial visiting rights. They have elected to go on to Brisbane seperately from me which is pretty much what I expected when I pulled in here. At the end of the day, it's for the best. The wheels came off for me, and it's time to move on, as I do.

But I've got my eye turned North now, and I'm looking forward to Brisbane and the weeks ahead. Karla is a singer and performs in a bar cover band most weekends so I plan to go see her sing next weekend. Kirra says she knew of a few fun clubs in Brisbane which sounds perfect. In Brisbane I'm get my last taste of a Western city for some time, I don't think most of the places I plan to hit from this point forward in OZ are that large in size, though I could be wrong. So, I go, wrung out, unravelled and frayed bumbling up into Brisbane to recharge the batteries and start things fresh with a smile.

"It is a Dream! I will Dream On!"

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Byron Bay, OZ

Well, I've made it to the beginning of the beaches. The family rolled into Byron this afternoon after spending last night in Nimbin. It was fun, we decided to camp as high as possible and headed to the summit of the nearby mountain and camped at its peak. After two weeks in the van, we've checked into a hostel to get some much needed space. I plan to spend a few days here in Byron before starting up the coast. I don't know if any or all of us are heading off together, we'll figure that out when I'm ready to rumble on again. But the sun's growing hot and my tan's starting to grow again. Ah... good times.

It's been an interesting two weeks. It has been the longest that I've travelled on the road with three other people, I think. Definitely in such close proximity as Vacilando was everyone's home, not just mine. But the divorce papers are in, the German in-laws are out and our family is taking a break. That said, Malte and Nadja are sitting immediately to my left. And I don't know that I'll ever be able to think about them without thinking about the family that we had in Vacilando. Will there be others? Who knows, but I will rumble on. But till then I'm looking forward to soaking up some sun on the Gold Coast up to Brisbane.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Coffs Harbour

Hitting Rock Bottom

For a variety of reasons, I didn't have the best Sunday yesterday. Maybe it was because it was 9/11, though I didn't realize that till halfway through the day. However, by the day's end, we'd managed to drive Vacilando into the deepest ditch imaginable. Not so much a ditch in fact, more like the Dell from Hell. Let me back up.

Since last I logged on, we turned inland towards New England NP. This is an area of NSW that had at least 14 national parks. We first drove through farmlands and passed a hell raiser on a Vespa. He warned us of the big hill up ahead and sure enough, there was a hill and it was big. The last few k were interesting as we were starting to worry about our fuel supply and so the hammer was dropped and I coaxed all the speed out of Vacilando that I could safely manage. Safe for us, but unfortunately not for the 2m Black Snake that was draped across the road. Yep, hit him good, but there was no way to avoid it. We then decided to find a off road to head down and camp for the night and took Vacilando into the most serious bush I've ever driven through. None of the trails proved managable with lakes of mud and trees getting in the way. As darkness fell, we drove up to Lookout Point in the New England National Park and made our camp for the night.

The next day we headed 25k down the road to Dorrigo and camped in the Never Never campsite in the National Park there. And then we drove to Bellingen.

I'd heard of Bellingen from Simon whom I met in Coogee down in Sydney. He said it was a nice place and that it was worth passing through. So we lumbered into town, showered and then pulled up Vacilando by the river. Yes, I was living in a van... down by the river. It was Saturday night and we all cut loose on the down, and ended up with four very different nights.

Sunday was less fun. We had a quiet day and then set off for the Promised Land after a longer than expected wait for our pizzas that were to become dinner. As darkness fell, we tried taking Forest Bridge rd. a dirt track as we were unsure where we were and the Promised Land was proving difficult to find. Turning here was not the best idea. We finally came to the Forest Bridge which was down the steepest road that I've ever driven (I think I may have ridden in a car that once went down something steeper, but that was a 4x4 in the Arizona desert, less muddy). The hill was much too difficult to get back up, and rather than try for the hill up on the other side of the path, we decided to bed down for the night and wait for daytime to have a clearer view of our mess. I had a sneaking suspicion that we'd never get out because we were camped next what I believe to be the last car to drive down this road and it now has a tree growing on it, as well as grass.

However, things looked better this morning and after much debating and talking we managed to Vacilando around again (see Austin Powers 1 for what this looked like). Jannie gunned it, put the pedal down and drove Vacilando like a demon, screaming their way up the hill as the rest of us watched. This was followed by the woods echoing with Danish war cries of triumph, the one's Viking's make before the raping, looting and pillaging begins. However, it was a ballsy ass moment as we really thought that we were going to need a tow.

And so, after a foray into the forest and into the green hills around Bellingen, we're once more on the coast, and again heading North. We're 12 days out of Sydney and about 400k from Brisbane. It's been an amazing time, and we really are starting to become something of a family. After nearly a year of travelling solo it's an amazing thing to have travel companions, a family On the Road.

Finally, Springtime has arrived for me. Belligen and the mountains around it were in full bloom and the sweet smell of blossoms fills the streets even as I type. While I don't really think that I experience winter (not a real one anyway, these Ozzies are pansies when it comes to cold), it's nice to finally have it get hot again.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Port Macquarie, OZ

Been a week now since we left Sydney and we're just passing through Port Macquarie now. It's been a slow drive North, and it's been a ball. I'm not going to get into a whole lot of detail but I'll give a brief overview. We've been camping every night this past week, and have yet to pay for a site. The last 4 nights have been on the coast. Our group has now shrunk to four. After 3 nights, James and Nicky decided that they'd rather head back to Sydney, and we dropped them at the bus. Nicky was talking about finding McDonald's and a heated indoor pool, neither of which are things anyone else seemed interested in. So, it's Me, Malte, Jannie, and Nadja.

Yesterday was damned near perfect. We awoke to sunshine for the first time in days, and it was the first morning that we were without the kids. Nadja found a beautiful campsite nearby where we'd pitched the night before, and we moved our camp there. We decided not to drive anywhere and spent the day lounging about. In the afternoon, I stayed at the campsite while the others went out for water, and to clean Vacilando and the dishes. Aah, life is good. As the sun set, we built a campfire, lit the Tiki torches and got out the disco ball. The stars were brilliant, the crescent moon hung below two planets and a thin cloud of the Milky Way spread overhead.

We've formed a bit of a family. Jannie and I have essentially become a married couple, "dear, have you seen my vest?"

"It's in the closet behind your golf clubs."

While James and Nicky were still with us it felt even more this way as we were constantly fielding questions like when we'd get there, and so on. Jannie has been splitting the driving with me, and she now knows the van better than I seem to. As it turns out she's a former Danish mailwoman, and there motto appears to be, "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, will stop the mail from being driven 30k in reverse." Inside joke I know, but she can definitely handle backing the van up.

The wife has also been making bang up dinners for us each night. I'd say I'm eating better than I have in months, esp. as the Wife's watching my cholesterol intake and all.

Today, we head to see Koalas, and then head towards New England Nat. Park. North of there is Bellingen which sounds lovely. Anyway, I'll finish by saying that this trip is going wonderfully, and now that the sun's out, well, it's just perfect.