Now is the winter of my discontent

Three weeks back at home. I've caught up with a good number of my friends, eaten a good number of meals and played through a good portion of Doom 3 and Tony Hawks Underground. God I'm bored...

Whilst I was weary and uninspired at various points of travelling, I knew that once I pushed onwards, new places and people would offer some variety and new adventures. But now I've hit the end, and not figured out where next. Normally I am happy being trapped in a rut like this, having a base to work from and some structure in life is very reassuring. But this rut is my parents house, nowhere near the socials whirls and graces of people I know and without my own wheels. I feel trapped.

Escapes into London are offering breif sanctuary from all this, and the approach of xmas is something to look forward to certainly. Spending lots of money of snowboarding and techy toys is helping too ! But I see an end to the cash coming quite soon at this rate, and will have to start the job hunting soon. Even though I am not entirely sure where or what I want to work as. Post-travel blues are on me it seems ! Grey days and early nights arn't helping much either - travel tip : return home for the SUMMER !

Home is where the heart is

My flight home wasn't too bad, although I was charged almost 200UKP in overweight baggage charges - so much for a cheaper PC from Taiwan. Maybe I should of delayed buying the case and power supply until I got home ! I landed safely and hurried through the green channel before they decided they wanted more money out of me, met up with my parents in arrivals and headed home.

I marked my return home by sending out a quick e-mail to everyone I met on my travels. Unfortuantly it managed to send itself five times - thank you all for your inventive jabs about that ! I blame the AOL client I am forced to use.

Over the last few days I have made it into Reading and London to visit old friends again, and it's like nothing has changed, almost like I never actually went away ! People had warned me of this but I hadn't really thought it would be like that for me, of course. There is something both reassuring and depressing about it all, the second part of which I am combatting through that old technique of "keeping busy". Lots of tax forms and computer stuff I want to sort out, and with only a modem to do most of it over, it's taking plenty of my surplus time up. Broadband is on it's way, thank god...

I expect my honeymoon period of being home will wear off around xmas time, where I will be off snowboarding to celebrate the new year. After that, some other snow holidays are on offer, although I think some sort of income-type job may have a higher precedence. Just got to figure out what, where, which and when :)

Leaving on a jet plane

And now the end is near, and so I face the final... oh hold on, I did that one last post. Today is the last day of my travels, tonight I get on a plane and arrive in the UK sometime Friday day. That's it - it's all over. Finito.

Gosh.

I have just packed my bags, along with some last minute souveniers, one of which was a fully-specced up desktop PC ! This may cause a few baggage allowance issues at the airport I realise, but I'm sure I can figure something out. Besides, I'll appritiate being home that little bit more after fighting my way through a crowded airport with 70+kg of baggage in tow !

My plans for my first days back are to spend a night with the family, then see some Reading friends on Saturday hopefully, and then into London on Sunday for a friend's birthday celebration. After this, I think a spot of reverse culture-shock followed by dealing with 2 years of post, tax returns and paperwork ! Should be fun.

This will hopefully not be the final post on "exit turner", although I suspect the 'blog will wind down as (or IF) I settle down. But at this point I wanna throw out a big ol' THANK YOU to everyone I met on my travels who made them so special. It's not where you go, it's who you meet, and I met some amazing people and great friends. Don't be strangers now, ya here :)

And so I face the final curtain

I managed to drag myself out of the slump I was in and finally escaped Kaohsiung, but not before I went out on the official "tour of the hidden city" midnight bike ride / drinking session. Riding drunk down tiny alleyways in a large gang of pedal bikes was really a memory to be treasured :)

I moved onto Tainan, the previous capital of Taiwan and now a pretty but equally pretty dull city. I went to one of the main forts here from when the Dutch occupied the town and got some nice pictures - definately enjoying the photography part of travelling - and then looked around some of the parks and shops. After a quiet evening of seafood noodles and beer (for under 2 quid) and a little TV I slept well and headed onto Chiayi and the mountain train to Alishan. This is a 4 hour train ride up into the mountains, after which I checked into a hotel and had an early night waiting for my alarm call at 4am...

At 4am, everyone gets out of bed, treks over to a train (or hikes the 6-7km) and rides to the very top of the mountain area, where some decent (but over-crowded) lookouts offer views of a spectacular sunrise and the famous "sea of clouds" below. Unfortunatley the view was not as good as I'd hoped, and the sea of clouds was more like a thin viel of mist... Not many good opportunities for photos like I'd hoped and a little dissapointing.

But after a train ride back to Alishan and a quick nap I was ready to get down the mountain (by bus this time, less panoramic, but much faster and less wobbly than the train). I waited at the bus stop and was bemused to see a small parade grow larger and larger for one of the many Taiwan religious festivals that seem to occur. After staring at a groups of youths for about 2 seconds, I was dragged over to join them in there good mood, and had a few beers and a betel nut forced upon me. Buzzing off the cocktail I boarded my bus and spent a long lesiurely day on both bus and train heading back into Taipei.

So I am nearly at the end of my trip. A few more things to sort out and see in Taipei and well as a big session tomorrow buying cheap computer componenets (80% of UK cost roughly) to build myself a new PC when I get home, hopefully for little more than the PC I sold when I left ! Photos are now 70% uploaded, and the Taiwan album link is now fixed.

Gotta get out of this place

So after a couple of nights out in Koashung I took up the offer of a free apartment room for a few days from a guy who'd just moved to better digs and hung around town to try and beat my travelling slump. This sort of had the opposite effect and I quickly found myself holing up during the day with a few beers and HBO movies. With little oppurtuinity for decent conversations with like-minded people, I had basically hermitted myself away for a few days. Feeling down, uninspired by travel and pissed off with spending hours to find food shops I can understand, I have resorted to 7/11 rice balls and beef jerky most often.

Hope I've painted that picture bleakly enough ! I think I'm having my post-travel blues before I've even landed. Maybe it's all for the best, this way I can get through this little funk and get on with life once I hit English soil again. Either way, I'm getting up at the crack of noon tomorrow and getting out of town. With only a few days left it should be a race up the coast, keeping me far too busy to notice I'm not having fun. Should get back into Taiwan just in time to pick up some cheap computer parts and then cruise home !

Curiouser and curiouser

I finally left Taitung after a more controlled but still crazy late-night in the Amigos bar (some entertaining pictures to come there...). Had a great time dancing and ranting about bands with the locals, which despite having no common language went swimmingly well I though. Technically it was foreigner night, but I don't think there advertising is working too well...

My next stop was Kenting, the Taiwanese Hawaii, in there own words. It was a nice enough beach town, and Saturday night on the main strip was quite lively, but I was really recovering from exhaustion and what appears to have been a mild stomach bug (which I had assumed simply just from the beer beforehand). So I stayed only one more day and looked around the botanical gardens up there, walking miles just to see a feature called the "cliff of apes" which should of been the best thing in the world, but turned out to be a small ape-less rock ledge. But lots of nice plants and a few caves and good fresh outdoor area, always nice after the scooter-fume filled towns. On the way out of the park I felt dizzy and very exhausted, so I instead sat down to wait an hour for the bus with my water and my book. Two minutes later I was being offered a lift from a random passing guy - the people here are great ! That evening was spent relaxing with beer and a decent French chap I met who spoke great English - you begin to value that common bond after a while.

I then moved into Koashung, the second biggest place out here, where I felt once again just really uninterested in seeing any of the few "sights" and quite bored and tired. A lucky encounter with a local bar owner and hash house harrier turned my late afternoon stroll into an evening of biking through tiny alleyways, stopping off at tiny stalls on route for beers and seeing the incredible back-street everyday life-styles of the locals, only a few metres from the main roads that had been boring me so much. The guy is organising a whole two hour biking / drinking tour of the area for Friday, I only wish I was around for it ! Our session went on long and well though, I met a few more local ex-pats and shared beers and stories with many of them, before wondering home via one of the night markets for lots of post-drinking snackage. Some of the fried items you can pick up for 30-40p are simply wonderful, and after a few drunken e-mails (you'll probably know if you got one of them...) I took the remaining food things I'd picked up back to my hotel for closer examination and consumption. Tonight I am due to go to the guys bar for some food and beer and hopefully more of the wonderful English language being spoken ! Then onwards up the West coast to find more outdoor areas for hiking and picture taking - far more healthy and feels a bit more like travelling.

Bad tiger

Quick update - after last nights post I moved onto a late night bar, having been invited down by friends of the hostel owner. Seeing as the hostel is called Gringos, and the bar is called Amigos, I'm guessing the hostel owner is ALSO the bar owner too ! These friends turned out to be half-working / half-socialising around the bar and remarkably good at convincing me to do tequila shots. I got a few shots free for being an oddity in town, and then in what I can only assume was an attempt on my life, was offered a free shot with every beer I brought. The beer was Tiger (one of my favorite) so I may of had what is commonly known as a "few too many"...

The upshot of all of this is I didn't leave the bar around midnight as I'd hoped, but infact about 4-5am I think... As I'd taken a taxi down there, I had no idea which way the hostel was an preceed to head in completly the wrong direction, reaching the beach a while later. I knew my way back from the beach so finally got to the hostel about 6am. It was here I realised I'd lost my key, so with no-one on reception I tried to wander back to the bar. But of course I didn't really know where the bar was still so I think I finally located it again around 7am. It was shut, naturally, so with no sign of my key I went back to the hostel and slept quite soundly on a chair in the corridor, aided by the half-bottle of tequila inside me and the fact I'd smashed my face and nose quite badly on the absurdly low entrance.

The upsetting thing about all of it is I had spent 30-40 quid already on a return flight out to a local island (green island) which was supposed to be really nice. But as the tickets and all my stuff was in my room, I couldn't get to them and missed my flight. Not that I would of been in much of a state for it all admittedly. I guess I was just so happy to have people to talk to I didn't want to to leave the bar. Plus free tequila is a wonderfully tempting thing too. So feeling a bit foolish, quite pissed off with myself, and very hungover, I spent most of the day in bed (when I finally got in my room) drinking water and snoozing. Had a little wander around town too, but was not in the mood to be pointed at today, so skulked into a cinema for a couple of hours.

Oh - just been told that a couple of the girls behind the bar were asking if I was coming back down tonight and it's 2-4-1 drinks for foriengers tonight. Plus being a hostel guest I get free entry. Eeek.

People are strange when your a stranger

Where to start ?! In a coutnry where your vocabulary is simply "hello" and "thank you", combined with pointing and smiling, even getting lunch is an adventure. My first troubles after leaving John and Karri was getting a train, but after some wrangling I got a slow train out to Haulien, a port city on the coast. Arriving there I quickly found a cheap hotel with cable TV, and went hunting for food to watch MTV with. But my efforts ended up with a confused look around shops for hours and finally some beef jerky, crisps and a beer. Not the best dinner ever...

The next day got out to Toroko gorge which is an absolutley breath taking national park. Driving through cliff-side roads looking up at the endless marble walls next to me made me really glad I had made it out here. I spent a couple of days here doing what walking trails I could. All the trails had a large "uphill" element to them and my legs are trobbing even now. One trail had an observation platform where I almost "observed" a young Taiwanese couple getting a little over-friendly... Seeing the girl die of embarrasment and the guy beam with pride I quickly moved on and left them to it. Moving on, all the other views along the trails were even more breath-taking and quite spectacular - expect lots of digital pics curteousy of John's camera (mine appears to have broken down again...)

Buses turned out to be a little troublesome, but if there is one thing travelling has taught me is that everything works out somehow. Especially in a country as friendly as Taiwan - a couple of easy hitches and I even got to see some hot springs I hadn't thought I could get too in time ! I left Toroko the next day utterly walked out and headed back in Haulien where I stayed in the older part of town. This turned out to be a great move, as I found a great hostel with "joined up" beds, meaning I could use the length of two single beds to stretch out... so good ! My food missions were getting better too - I managed to pick up some horrible looking sloppy dumplings and a little pizza, which of course tasted the opposite to how they looked, the pizza cardboardy and the dumpings heavenly. As always, my meal was accompanied by the local brew, Taiwan beer. Quite nice, and a bargin and a quid a large bottle.

Cost of living is qutie good out here - 20 quid a day and you can eat well and bag a decent room in a hostel, as well as pay to see the sights. Cds are also about 6 quid an album which isn't too bad. Only problem seems to be the lack of communication out here as most people can only say "Hello" in English (my Chinese being the same, of course). I appear to have started talking to myself and singing as a walk around to compensate for the lack of conversation. Can't be good. Hopefully these effects are temporary, until then I need to get some better songs in my head...

Thanks for all your mails - it's slow going typing on chinese keyboards so I will offer a quick group response of I look forward to seeing those at home and miss those far away. Will reply to all your mails soon - promise ! Ben.

I'm turning Taiwanese, I really think so

Greetings from Taiwan !

Two days into my Taiwanese tour and I am reasonably well settled in. This is mainly due to staying with my friends John and Karri who have been very good travel guides during this time. I've seen a lot of local temples and night markets, as well as just soaking in the general culture. I've also been nibbling and samping a lot of the local food - when it is only 20-30p for a "snack on a stick" style thing, you tend to spend the whole day eating wonderful nibbly things. I have also had a chance to try the local brew, "Taiwan beer", not too bad at all.

Tomorrow I will be heading out of Taipei and embraking on my two week tour of the island. I expect the culture shock will kick in once I am out in the country with no-one to explain what is what and where things are. Quite looking forward to it, but also quite looking to getting through it and getting home for some rest, relaxation and reflection. And beer.

Kakadu dreamin'

Having spent a couple of days relaxing in Darwin, it was time to brave the heat and get out into the "real" Australia. So I signed myself up for a full-on five day tour of kakadu with Kakadu Dreams. I packed myself an optomistic change of clothes and a lot of sun / insect repellant and five days later was burnt and bitten all over.

The tour consisted of three days in Kakadu park, seeing saltwater crocs (salties) jumping for meat, gorges, waterfalls, billabongs and aboriginal art sites. Then we had a full day of canoeing in Katherine gorge, and another day visiting the popular watering holes in Litchfield, which became more like a wet'n'wild theme park than a wilderness adventure. Overall the tour was alright and went to some great spots. I think I had hoped to see more dangerous creatures than just the crocs, although maybe it was safer this way ! It was also very hot and humid, some days I was drinking 5+ liters of water and still dehydrating quite badly. Pictures of the adventure are all in the new Northern Territory photo album.

So on our final day we headed down a backpacker bar and got rather hammered. A little bit too hammered in my case as I stumbled down to the airport shuttle, somehow stayed awake in the airport departure lounge and then passed out for a deep but short sleep on my flight to Sydney. This mornings high-altitude hangover was a reminder of the perils of drink-flying. Thank god the nice trolley girls came round about two minutes later with fresh juice for everyone !

I am spending the next two days seeing old friends and sights in Sydney. Today I visted the old backpackers I was staying in and was suprised to see a few familiar faces still working and living there. Tomorrow I need to sort out stuff in the city in time for my trip to Taiwan, little things like Visa stamps and so on :)

So close, but I still can't see a hat...

Finally I am in Darwin and it is hot, humid, hot, sticky and hot. My four day epic drive up here got a little bit too much like an endurance test, and I am glad to have a couple of days to chill out and enjoy some metropolitan living, before hopefully heading off on a tour of some croc infested swamp :)

Whilst organising some stuff online, I came across an annual novel writing contest, NaNoWriMo, which I have signed up for. The idea is not to write a great novel, but just to write 50K words in a month. Unfortunatley this contest kicks off on Nov 1st, when I shall be busy travelling, but I have bravely setup a blog to make progress on the novel incase I get time.

It's getting hot up here

Just got a few minutes before I leave with my lift up to Darwin. I have spent the last 2-3 days in Broome, just a little bit North East of Exmouth, where the heat and humidity have shot up to tropical levels. It's hot. And sweaty. I coped with this by sitting by the pool, drinking beer and playing lots of travel scrabble. I think the beer helped most. Either way, it's time to press on North now, with the next few days hearlding 8-10 hour drives through high 30's / low 40's heat in a car with little or no air-con. I'm thinking of it as a 4-day health spa which really focuses on saunas - hopefully I'll come out of this week a few pounds lighter :)

More news when I get to Darwin...

West Side ! (had to be done...)

So with a brand new super-sized and super-stable van, our team of 5 finally started out up the West Coast. By midday, almost 48 hours after the crash, we were back in Moora, loaded up and up for some fun. Over the next two days I saw cool geological stuff such as the pinnacles and gorges around Kalbarri and lots of nice coastal spots.

Unfortunatly, after a couple of days, it was clear that our French companion, Mags, was not a happy bunny about the speed of the van. Or sleeping rough. Or anything what-so-ever. Ok, we'd had a nasty crash, but we were on our way and in a better van - things had worked out - and we were now trying harder than ever to have a good time. So upon arriving in Monkey Mia (wonderful name, no monkeys though) we gently suggested that she might be better off in a backpackers, taking tour buses up the coast. When she didn't go with that, we essentially booted her off the bus...

So much guilt all round (and much credit to Kirri for essentially doing the booting) but in the end it was the only way we were going to make it to Exmouth without a homicide on our hands. As some form of extra karmic punishment, we drove our van out of town that evening and promptly got bogged in a sand track we shouldn't of gone down ! So we gave up trying to get out, sat down for drinks and cards, and had a fun night together - which is exactly the sort of optimism that simply wasn't there with Mags in the group.

Some ocker blokes released us from our sandy trench the next day with a 4WD and much blokey cunning. Then we continued on to see the dolphins and dugongs in Monkey Mia on a Catermaran tour. Here we saw Mags again (more guilt) but had a great time out at sea, and the girls attracted a small swarm of guys as we lay back sunbathing. Ww then carried on past Shell beach and onto a loverly coastal apot called Gladstone, where we had a great night ruond a campfire, followed by a wonderful morning of wading around the stomatalite covered bay.

This put us in great spirits for the last couple of days of our tour, where we stopped off in Coral bay for snorkelling off a glass bottomed boat (for the guilty two of us without broken arms) and then up to Exmouth for a proper night out of beer, pool and mouhting off the locals. It was one of the best weeks I've had out in Oz and it was cool to be off the backpacker circuit.

So onto the last five days, where I have been learning to scuba dive ! I have just finished the course, and I am now a PADI open water certified diver. The course aws three days of theory and pool practice (very nice on a hot day) followed by 4 dives over the last two days. During these dives we praticsed emergency skills underwater, as well as seeing lots of amazingly coloured fish, turtles, rays and even one reef shark (all 2-3 foot of it)! It was really good fun, and I would love to get some underwater photography kit down there sometime and get some nice shots.

As always, photos to come :)

Everyone is OK, everything is fine

It has always been the intention of this blog, "exit turner", to be a light hearted summary of my travels, designed to inform, lightly amuse and occasionally lightly shock. To avoid undue levels of stress however, I am starting this post with the message that EVERYONE and EVERYTHING IS OK now. Worth bearing in mind, the "everyone being ok" part, alright ?

Anyhow, five of us began our road trip yesterday in a campervan - Kirri and Zibby (mother and daughter), Sayaka, a japenese exchange student, Mag, a French Backpacker and I. We started off heading North on a trip towards Exmouth, where I hope to learn to scuba dive. This plan was slightly altered by... oh, and remember, everyone IS ok... us crashing the camper van. Not just crashing infact, but as we were moving over a bit on a bend to keep away from a road train, then catching the soft shoulder, which started our van swaying from side to side. It was so top heavy and badly designed that the van osciallted more and more until it tipped to the right, at which point we were down to about 40-50km/h, and then we slid round to a halt, fortunatley hitting nothing. Lots of people came straight to our aid, and a shout of "fire" got us moving quickly out the vehicle. We quickly put out a small fire with sand from the road, and then the police arrive and sorted everything out.

A whole day and a half of sorting stuff out followed, during which the girls were diagnosed with a broken wrist (Zibby), broken elbow (Sayaka) and a few stiches (Mags). Being in the front seats myself and Kirri were unhurt, and are now back in Perth sorting paperwork out and getting a new SAFER van to drive back to the others (currently in a motel in Moora - the middle of nowhere) tomorrow and try and restart our journey. Not only was our old van really unsafe in retrospect (and a write off now), but I think we loaded it very top heavy and we could of put a lot more heavy stuff lower down. Either way, rest assured the next vehicle will have a wider wheel base, be much safer and be loaded a lot better - no more accidents I promise ! The girls won't be able to swim with there casts though, so probably not many stops for snorkelling on the cards, but everyone, as I believe I mentioned at the start of this, is OK.

The drugs DO work

The drugs have cured me, despite my forgetting to not drink, and I am much better now. Thank you for your many e-mails of sympathy and get well wishes - I'd like to think that each and every one contributed towards my recovery - but in reality in was a few grammes of fludoxycillian type stuff :) Picture of my then bumpy face can be seen here

I have completed my week long trip around the SW tip of Australia, where I saw dolphins, walked amongst Kauri tree forests and climbed the famous 60m tall Gloucester tree, a fire-lookout tree with pegged climbing struts all the way up. Short of the NZ bungee jumps, it was the scariest thing I've done all trip - by the time I was only halfway up my legs were almost jelly ! Didn't see any whales on my trip, beginning to suspect they arn't actually real infact.

Final treat of the week was the RMax cinema, a failed IMax cinema in Perth that was brought by Regent cinemas and used to screen normal releases. Not sure why they don't do this elsewhere, but I saw the biggest and loudest screening of Hellboy I think anyone has ever seen, and it was fantastic.

Thinking of shortening my time on the West Coast of Oz to spend a little more time in Taiwan at the moment - whilst Oz is a wonderful place, I'm not feeling the culture shock and wonder much anymore, and think more time in Asia would be much more fun.

Update - My flight out of Sydney and back home is now booked ! I have given myself just over two weeks to see Taiwan, and should arrive back in the UK on the 19th November, almost 17 months after I left !!! Full details can be view here

Blerugh

The train journey passed without too many hitches. I managed to bag two sets of double seats facing each other which made for a reasonable comfy bed. Also, the meats, fruits, breads and cheeses I brought along from Adeliade market was a really nice treat after months of pasta and sauce ! As the journey came to an end, I quickly devored the last of the fruit to avoid quarentine control getting pissed off with me, and checked into a nice cheap backpackers in Perth.

It was here I started nursing a swelling around my ear which I aquired on the second day of the train journey, like a glandular ear-ache type thing. I hoped it would go away, but it turns out 2 days later that it is NOT going away, hence I am up at 6am writing this ! I don't feel totally awful, but I have been getting a little feverish and the swelling isn't going away. I am guessing I just need some anti-biotics, hopefully the medical system over here is good enough for me to pick some up today ! Not sure exactly HOW I get hold of medicine, I am guessing I go to the hospital first and they will either sort me out or telling me some GP to go and see... A quick search on the Yellowpages online map-based search revealed nothing of use anyway :(

So needless to say, I am not a happy camper right now, but I hope to be drugged up and back in the game by tonight !

Update (11am) :- the doctors have checked me for a variety of scary sounding illnesses, but finding not enough evidence to back up the scary illnesses have decided I have something like Cellulitus - e.g. some sort of basic skin infection. As hoped and predicted, they have given me a course of anti-biotics and some more painkillers, as well as an anti-biotic drip to get things started. Hopefully this should clear it all up anyway !

Get on that groovy train

Adelaide is still farily quiet, and offers to travel across the Nullarbor plain to Perth are few. Whilst I could wait 4 more days for a lift over to Perth, I am figuring that 6 days of driving through nothing sounds a bit too similar to my journey up to Uluru. So I am skipping whatever delights there were and taking the train tonight to Perth, which should arrive 39 hours later on Saturday morning (!)

Needless to say that means I am stocking up on food, drink and entertainment for this long slog across the wastes of Australia. I figure from Perth I can get a van to explore the SW region of Australia that I would overwise miss out on, and then head up the West Coast to Darwin - a classic traveller route that I hope to find some travel companions for ! The difference with this travel period compared to others is that time is more of a constraint than money now - I am pretty much aiming to be out of Australia by start Nov and back in the UK by Mid-late Nov (stopping via Taiwan).

Stuck in the middle with Uluru

10 days later, and my bold adventure is complete. A group of eight of us drove in a 4WD out to the Flinders ranges where we had a couple of short hikes. Then a few days later we drove through Williams Creek (pop 12) and Coober Pedy, an opal mining town built mostly underground and used in many sci-fi films, including Pitch Black. From there we drove up through Oodanatta and past Dahausie hot springs, where I experienced the only hot water of the trip so far, and then onto Uluru (Ayres rock) itself. We spent one day hiking around the base - I didn't climb the rock in deference to the Aboriginals wishes - and then a couple more days seeing the other interesting geological areas nearby - the Olgas, Kings Canyon and the Western MacDonald ranges. Finallu we drove into Alice Springs yesterday, and celebrated with lots of aussie beer and a nice long lie-in ! All the photos for this trip can be found in the Adelaide / Uluru photo album.

It was nice to meet new travellers again, and many of the people on the tour had interesting stories and opinions to share over a Coopers beer or two ! But ten days was enough time to spend as a group, and everyone is now heading there seperate ways - much to my dissapointment as I still need to find a way to get to Perth ! I am due to take a shuttle bus back to Adelaide in a couple of days, and from there try and get a lift Westwards, although if nothing comes up again then I guess another tour could be the quick, but again expensive, option.

Like a Sunday Morning

Having been offered a 10-day tour reduced from $1400 to $995, I thought long and hard about it, and realised that they must be desperate for people ! So I waited until the day before and phoned up with a counter offer of $895 which they accepted quite quickly. Almost too quickly. Damn, should of aimed lower still !

But for me, it's the haggle of the centuary, and it means I am getting my butt into action, departing tomorrow sometime around 7am (bleurgh) and getting into the Aussie outback, where I will be camping under the stars in swags (not wussy tents for us) and hiking around a lot with my camera !

So will be offline for a couple of weeks - not sure what kind of interent services I might see in the outback...

It's quiet... too quiet...

My first two days in Adeliade have mainly involved finding my travelling feet and resisting lattes, boost juices and tasty snacks - such luxuries are not permitted on the backpacker budget. My other money saver has been trying to organise a road trip up to Uluru, which so far has yeilded no response... It seems it's low season, many of the hostels are near-empty and people are mainly headed to Sydney or settled with work.

So it may be that I have to opt for a tour bus package - not a terrible option as all companies are price cutting at the moment to fill seats, but somehow the adventure is not quite as great on a pre-organised tour, the road trip "fun" just isn't quite there. But the fear inspiring sales tactics of the companies are quite good - after all the Australian outback is full of posionous evil and bad mobile phone coverage, so what if I broke down or got bitten on my own out there ! Ah, at the end of the day, lazyness may win out and get me to sign me up for the tour option :)

Forward march

In three hours I will get on board my coach to Adelaide. The last few days have been full of final, final, no really honestly final goodbyes, which has been all a bit emotional to tell the truth. It was only as I left London that I started to appritiate what I was leaving behind, and I think the same is starting to happen with Melbourne. If I didn't have plans to move on and see home again, I think I could of qutie happily stayed a long time in Melbourne; like Vancouver it was one of those vibrant yet pleasant cities you could spend a long time in and never get bored of.

But I must head on - lots of Australia to see, and plenty of people I want to meet up with back home before xmas. Plus of course, xmas dinner, surely one of the best reasons to return home of all! Last few days have therefore been spent on Tax (tedious forms), Visas (tedious waiting) and posting stuff home (tedious forms). Oh, and I managed to fit in a very enjoyable session snowboarding and a few nice days in the country too ;) I am once again back to just a backpack and a small day bag, although not much room for expansion this time, probably due to the addition of my manual camera kit and some extra clothes !

Oh, Melbourne photo album is now complete, lots more evenings out uploaded with workmates and non-workmates on there. Camera is clear and internet access is no longer free - back on the road again !

Marines, we are LEAVING!

As I type this, only one hour of employment remains with Sensis, and still plenty to get finshed ! Leaving drinks were last night at the basement cafe, a friendly little bar in the center of town run by a very enthusiastic French guy called Sylvestre & his charming wife Elizabeth. I can't remeber the last time I went to a bar and wanted it so much to be my local !

There was drinking of 6% Corsican beer, cocktails, french music, dancing and complementary champagne opened using Ye olde sabre trick (if anyone knows the actual name for this, I wanna know...). Today at work was of course long and painful, but it's all over now and time to go snowboarding for 3 days on Mount Hotham! Very excited about that...

Just a little longer - but leaving soon !

I pondered the whats and the whys, and I've decided to extend my time in Melbourne a little bit longer - but only by two weeks. This gives me time to wrap up work, tax and travel stuff, and get ready for another few months of backpacker living (no more lattes for a while, anyway...) At the end of the day, Melbourne is very nice, and I've got some great friends over here now - but I'm not really putting roots down here, and as such life has felt a bit too static. I can't gather possessions (such as cooking ingrediants to learn to cook better, cocktail stuff for mixing of fine beverages, or a kick-ass PC for the playing of Doom3 !)

So I am hitting the road again August 20th, and probably travelling into Novemeber at the very least. As I have booked a snowboarding holiday the day after xmas, I am looking at being home for quite a bit beforehand, but won't really have time to get a decent job, so some major budgeting may be required ! Prehaps it's time to hit Thailand / cheap East Asian areas...

Anyhow, plans change, and I'll try and avoid making every post nothing more than a "returning home date update" from now on ! Esp. as I might have some adventures and things to report on again. Recent happenings have been some heavy partying and general rock and roll behaviour - and the discovery that the day after always hurts more than it did last time ! All worth it though, Melbourne really never sleeps - we went out to a club around 2:30am the other night, no cover, and walked right in. Can't often do that back at home...

Final news is new Melbourne pictures are on the website - these are some real old pictures (pre-Tasmania) that I found lying around on my PC of a few backpacker parties and social dos, including the infamous Saint Kilda lawn bowling session (that I won along with my elite partner, Rob). Mainly of interest to fellow Pink house people, I reckon, but feel free to have a look see.

Wrapping up or staying put ?

Life in Melbourne suffered a large shakeup recently, with my house/work/drinking mate Hardy heading off back to Europe today. This means I am now sleeping on friends floors, moving each weekend to avoid over-staying my welcome ! I am also now working in a brand spanking new futuristic office building in the middle of the city, so spending lots more cash on smoothies and coffee.

But when will this life of city decadance end ? The current termination date for my contract is set for the 5th August, just over 2 weeks away. Plan is then to travel for a couple of months around Oz and head home, possibly with a stop over in Japan or even Taiwan.

So does this finally answer the enternal question of my return date ? Erm... well... it kinda does... but then I met this girl... but I want to travel... Hmmm, let's just say "watch this space" :)

Picture this

So far camera course has been fun, but I got homework - how is THAT fun ? I've picked up a cheap old manual camera and a couple of lenses to play with off ebay. Early results - appaling! Aside from drinking, I've been watching movies and playing some board games (Chess, Settlers of Catan and Formula De) to fill up the evenings. Basically being very un-rock and roll at the moment, but saving dollar for future stuff.

Thoroughly bored of my job at the moment - a problem that has arisen in all many career choices so far ! Definate need to figure out what I really want to do, or who I want to work for needed before my next career move. Just counting the days really and starting to think about travelling onwards. Ah well - it's Friday - it's 5pm - and that signals beer'o'clock !

Itchy feet and Photo hassles

Firstly I have finally uploaded my Tasmania pictures - however it seems the website I am using to host them is finally making it's financial play and charging for memberships. I have membership access for a year, enough time to migrate to another solution, but I am kind of worried this may affect access to photo alubums for other people ? Let me know if you encounter any problems - all album links are on the left-hand side as always :)

Oh - and you get asked for a login, you can always use benguest123 for both the username and password. The only reason to create a login is if you want to add "personal" comments - you can always e-mail me them instead, of course :)

Speaking of photos, after the cancellation of my cocktail course (not enough interest - go figure), tonight I am starting my camera course. Should be fun to do something different in the evenings, and maybe learn why my photos suck half of the time :) Have to sign up for advanced photography to find out why they suck the other half of the time...

Recently I've been to a classical concert, a bit of bowling, drinking frozen cocktails and a few movies. Still waiting for the new Micheal Moore film to come out here, until then looking forward to the unobjective but fun McDonalds slur/documentry, and of course the "bet it's rubbish" remake of a horror classic.

I've also been reading e-mails for travellers and ex-travellers alike, both giving me itchy feet and a desire to get out there and travel again. Only 7 more weeks... hmmm, that's quite a long time. I also fancy a spot of snowboarding - seems we are geting some snow down here and I'm not sure I can wait until January :)

Back to (Melbourne) life, back to reality

With business visa in hand I finally returned to work a couple of weeks ago. And I'm now dealing with trival daily stuff like sorting out camera repairs and sorting out lots of neglected finacial stuff.

Nothing really blog-worthy aside from the discovery that a friend of mine has broadband + firewire ports in his computer which = new tunes on the iPod ! It can be a drag being stuck with the same 4,118 songs for 10 months :)

Currently dealing with the "nesting / consumer" instinct that wishes I had my own place to deck-out and put lots of things that I want to own. Possessions do not = happiness as I know, but when your livin' the city life, the city instincts kick in, and I want more stuff :) I need to learn to be engaged and happy without computer stuff and toys, but sometimes I'm jsut sh*t bored in the evening.

So much so that I've signed up for a couple of evening classes - firstly, a one-session class of the art of cocktail mixing, which should be fun - and secondly a six-session course on Basic Photography skils. Think I need my own SLR camera for that though, and not a busted digital one ! Have to see if someone can loan me one for the classes (bit suprised that the course doesn't offer deposit based camera loans).

Was going to learn a new language (Espanol), but remebered how much I hated GCSE French, so canned that idea quite quickly !

Time out in Tazzie

Whilst waiting for my business visa, I have spent the last week and a bit out in Tazmania taking in the sights. I also took lots of photos which I'll link into this post when I have uploaded them, and as always provide an album link in the "links" panel.

In my brief week I hired a Mazda "fun top" - a silly little car with a pointless convertible roof (it drizzles here daily). But it has a good set of speakers and a tape player for me to play my iPods tunes through using an adaptor, so it met my criteria.

I headed first to the old convict prison of Port Arthur to learn about all the nastyness that went on there. Then I went up the East coast and walked through Freyginuet (sp?) National park, and saw the beatiful wineglass bay. Onwards up the coast, I stopped off in a winery and then into Lanceston to restock on city stuff like food, pizza and pants.

Making use of the great weather I was getting I went via a caving tour onto Cradle mountain, which provided a great full-days walk, with lots of tricky bouldering in icy snow at the summit climb. This kind of strained my ankle, so the next two days involved a boat cruise around Strauhn and the west-coast Huon pine fields + Sarah Island, and some other short walks in the South-West National parks.

Finally, back in Hobart, I've gone on an "Airwalk", wandering around rainforests suspended 30m in the air on walkways, and tomorrow I visit the Cascade brewery before flying back home.

It's been nice to travel and recharge the batteries. I've met lots of cool people on the travels, and with Tazzie being so small, you keep meeting people again and again which is really nice. Plenty of Boags and Cascade (the local brews) has been consumed, although not too much as I've been starting out around 8am most days to make use of the limited sunshine (by 6pm it's pitch black) and opening hours.

The only regretable news is I discovered exactly where the legendary beer drinking pig (pay $1, feed the pig a beer!) was when I had driven over 250km past it. I debated a return journey, but prehaps it was best left as a myth or legend... reality sometimes doesn't live up to expectation !

Anyhow, look back in a few days to see an edited, photed up version of this post ! Back to work soon, assuming the work visa finally gets approved...

eternal turmoil of the spotted mind

And so it was, that as I hurried to complete my business visa paperwork, fighting the red tape of beaurocracy, that another option occured to me. The option was promoted by the messages for so many people at home announcing weddings, social plans or wanting to know when I'll be back. And the option was to throw it all in and come home next month.

I was basically at the point of emotion collapse this afternoon as I worked through the issues. It seems the job market at home is pretty good right now, so no problem there, and it also seems the snowboarding season plan may be not happening now, hence no immediate need for extra savings. However, there is so much of Australia to see I decided that I will stay on (therefore getting a new plane ticket, rather than being tied down to the 20th June expiry on my prev. ticket). Note to RTW travellers, buy a one-way ticket to Oz, and then another to get home - costs a little more, give you lots more flexability !

So all that remains is for my business visa to be approved by Monday. Except the application probably won't even be submitted by then ! So I have booked a one-week trip over to Tazmania, to brave the cold windy isle and see some real outdoor stuff again. Hopefully I'll team up with some backpackers over there, and hire a car to travel and see the sights (roadtrip !). Might need to get a working camera though - I'll have a go at mine tonight, but my tool selection is quite limited...

Anyhow - what have I been up to otherwise...

Recent fun has included lots of AMAZING films - "Enternal sunshine of the spotless mind" and "The barbarian invasions" are two of the best movies I've seen in ages (since Donnie Darko, I reckon). Also saw "Elephant", which was very good but quite hard watching, and "Tais Toi!" which was kinda stupid but funny.

Aside for my film habit, I've been indluging my drinking habit. Some afterwork drinks of Coopers beer (a mere 5.8%) on an empty stomach led to a befuddled walk home, followed by a brief spot of memory loss (whoops) and then a conversation with some nice policemen. They seemd very insistent on giving me a ride, and I was very politley insistent that I was prefectly capabale of walking home without there kind assistance. Not sure how I came to be talking to the nice policemen (that's part of the memory loss) but I eventually submitted to a nice ride in there nice car (my parents will be soooo proud) to my home address (and not the drunk tank as I expeceted).

The only small final snag is for some reason I've since forgotten, I decided to lie about my address (clever, huh !) So I ended up pretend to walk up to the house until the police had gone away, and then quickly and stealthily I made my way to the hostel (only 2-3 blocks away, by some miracle). Somehow I doubt my actual progress was the ninja-like effort I thought it was, but I woke up in my own bed, hungover and feeling stupid. But slightly amused too :)

They have people here called Troy !

It seems some people were still unaware of my extended stay in Oz - even though it has clearly been posted since... ...April 20th ! It also seems there are those who log on quite a lot, only to find I have failed to update once again - well this ones for you ! Oh, the title has nothing to do with this post. But they DO have people here called Troy :)

My time in "the Nunnery" hostel is drawing to a close, as I prepare to move in with a workmate for the next two months. In that time I have had pizza thrown at me by a drunken roomate, only to have to wake her up early to catch her early flight (for which I was given the rest of the previous nights vodka. I hate vodka). I've woken up on the TV room sofas once too often, had lots of free ice-cream and nibbles, indluged in the SUnday morning pancakes and basically got sick of sleeping in the same room as 2-3 random people every night.

Kite surfing has become a constant pain also - my final hour lesson has been cancelled the last 6 weekends for not enough wind, except the one time where just for irony it was cancelled for too much wind. My conclusion is Kiting and 9-5 jobs don't mix well. At least it stopped me spending $2,500 on my own kit... Anyhow, final lesson scheduled for tomorrow - weather outlook isn't too promising (naturally).

Bens final thought - essentially I am staying on for the money. I like my job and workmates, and I've got a little social cliche going over here, so things are pretty good. But the big worry would be returning home to discover I have no cash and need to take the first half-decent job I can get which could take a while with the job market still not "recovered" from the crash two years ago.

There are a lot of things I am going to miss this summer, and I have had major doubts over the last week or two as I sort out my business sponsership about staying on. There are weddings, summer festivals and even college reunions all happening - so I expect lots of photos from everyone attending these events ! Alas, regarding photos, my camera has finally taken on too much dust / sand / mistreatment and broken down after 9 months of major usage. Short of getting it fixed, I think I might be looking for a new camera soon. Until then, no new pictures on the photo site I'm afraid... Missing everyone loads at the moment (I blame it on the final scene of Love, Actually which was on the hostel TV the other night - lots of people hugging at an airport - it's a killer for backpackers that one). Take care, Ben

A season of OZ for a season of Europe

The negotiations are complete, I am staying on in Melbourne to work for another 3 months, and I also managed to wangle a little extra salary from my contracting agency who were bascially over-charging before I reckon ! Not the ruthless negotiation success I had hoped for, but I got the one-way ticket home into the bargin, payable in a cash sum (which leaves my options open).

This means I am now employed up to the 6th August, with the possibility of exploring Oz for another few months afterwards (until my visa runs out near November, I think). This should work out better for both seeing more of Australia, and also having funds for a snowboarding season come winter. Also means enduring a few more months away from home and a whole year of winters though !

Thinking forward

Recent events have caused a period of "forward thinking" in my life. Cataylsts include the upcomgin 4-day Easter holiday, which I was compleltly unprepared for, and looked to be facing 4 bored-as-fsck days sitting around Melbourne until I got a camping offer of some workmates today (woohoo !). Second thing was my contract renegotiations (ongoing).

With Glastonbury a big NO this year, the remaining things pulling me home sooner rather then later are the expiry date on my RTW ticket (20th June) and seeing family and friends, many of whom I miss heaps. The ticket may be out the equation, as I have negotiated a pay-off to purchase a new ticket should I stay on for a few more months here (as well as sneaking in an ickle pay rise too).

So I am seriously considering braving the Aussie winter for a while and continuing to increase my funds so that I can possibly spend a few months snoboarding in Europe this coming Northern Hemesphere winter. This would probably push everything back 3 months (leave work start Aug, return home mid-Sept). Seasonally, the timing sucks - after a whole year of spring/summers I'd be looking at a year of autumn/winters ! I'd also miss all the Summer Festivals for the second year running :(

So that's the state of play right now. Final thing to point out here is none of this is said in a tone of complaint ! I feel so lucky that I can be in a position like this - I just wish life choices were a lot easier... but then I guess this is once again what travelling is all about, facing what seem like big choices and realising they arn't a lot harder than deciding which colour of penguin to have (because in the end they're all nice and all taste the same, and tim tams are much nicer anyhow).

Buggeryshite

Glastonbury tickets sold out before I could get any... Looks like the infrastructure (phones / web) was just jammed until they had all gone ! Can't imagine any large groups have done that well this year, with the 2 per person limit. Did anyone back in the UK get hold of any tickets ? Or spend hours trying ? Lemme know / share your pain ! What we need is another rain-soaked mudpit of a festival - that'll keep numbers down for the next year...

Ah well, who's up for Roskilde instead ? Pixieis, Korn, Dizzie Rascal, Hives, Wu-Tang, B.Jaxx, Morrisey, Wire...

Otherwise something closer to home, I guess :)

April tool

A terrible April fool wind up about me staying on in Oz for 2 more years WAS here - but it recieved too many congratulations and not enough upset so I pulled it ! Ok, I can't do wind ups...

In other news - GLASTONBURY TICKETS on sale NOW ! I hear the lines are blocked, and the website was down when I visitied it - which given it's 2am at home means there are some determined people out there. Tickets are already on sale on ebay, it seems.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Work took an interesting turn with the project I'm working on be technically pushed aside for a month, possibly forever. Bit upsetting to work on a peoject for almost 2 months, only to see your creation discarded, and watch another pick the bones for useful tidbits for THEIR solution. Ah well, just checked, and I'm still being paid ;)

Kite surfing lesson #2 came along, with a one hour session involving getting the board on your feet whilst sitting in shallow water and controlling the kite. Very tricky. I managed at the end of the hour to get dragged feet-first, board pushing ahead into the water, but not enough wind to pull me onto my feet - so my final hour of lesson has been delayed until next week.

Hope to take my camera down and get some snaps next week - it has lain dormant in my dorm room for quite a while. I emptied it of pictures today and found some pictures still awaiting upload. So the first lot, pictures of my return to Sydney, birthday drinks and last night in town drinks have been added onto the end of the Sydney album. The other lots are some Melbourne pictures that will be added into a new Melbourne album sometime soon.

Everybody loves surfing

This weekend saw the start of my kite surfing training. With strong winds on Saturday, I went out and flew a 3m² kite without a harness. This was all easy stuff, familiar from my days off Flexifoil flying, but using a bar rather than 2 straps for the steering.

Then I graduated to a 5m² kite, which with the addition of being clipped to a harness around my waist was also quite easy to fly - just getting used to the power controls offered by the harness. I skidded about the beach for a bit, before donning a wetsuit, lifejacket and helmet to go "body-suring" in the water - letting the kite drag you face forwards across the water (fun).

Then, enjoying my confidence, I moved onto a 11m² kite - which took me 10-15 mins jsut to walk it out into the water as the pull was so strong. I then tryed body surfing back into the shore. The kite not only dragged me along, it also wrenched me out of the water a couple of feet, leaving me to splash back painfully as the kite swung round for another tug. Fun, but painful after 10-20 mins !

That was the end of the Saturday session. A few beers and a good kip later it was Sunday, where I went down for a second session - only to find there was not quite enough wind to try out the kite-board. But kindly they let me play around on the beach with a 14m² kite, skidding around for 30 mins. This ended with a sharp turn which flipped me onto my back, landing head first into the sand. Dazed and happy I decided I had overstayed my free session, and rebooked my other lesson for next Saturday.

Cars, booze and money

Life in Melbourne plods on. Work is going really well, Sensis appears to be "on the up" at the moment, and lots of launch celebrations are planned (e.g. free beer). Yesterday was the first of these free drinks sessions, which went on for a long time, after which was my mates birthday in Saint Kilda. It all got blurry... blurry enough to prevent a 9:00 apperance at work today, it was more like 11:00am when I finally got in - whoops.

Most of my fun has been constrained to weekends though. Last weekend was a bank holiday and the Melbourne grand prix. I went down for the day of the race (which was a foregone conclusion in seconds) and had a good time - it was loud as hell and a nice day to sit outside, and we were surrounded by many exitable Columbians who went wild at every mention of Juan Pablo Montoya. I cheered on our boy Button, mainly as he was my sweepstake pick, but he only managed 6th.

Otherwise I've been catching lots of movies (go see the station agent if it's out near you) and a few nights of drinking and dancing, including one legendary night in "Tony Starr's kitten club", a trendy jazz club / restuarant hidden away in the alleys of central Melborne. This is one of Melbourne's signature themes - all the cool bars worth knowing are all hidden down side streets with little or no signage - although this has prompted the sale of a very useful pack of cards, detailing how to find these hidden gems.

Still waiting for my first pay cheque - it has to go through various layers of companies now that I am contracting, but hopefully a few dollers will drop into my account soon, as I have over 1,000UKP of debt on my credit card ! This has been partially accomplished by me signing up for some kite surfing lessons for next weekend - which accomplishes one of my new year's resolutions (try kite surfing) - which I am very excited about.

I don't really remember being THAT cold...

Is the weather at home really this bad ?
I'm not sure I could deal with that sort of temprature any more...
Good thing I'm coming home for summer :)

Further adventures in Melbourne

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Melbourne Life

I am now into week two of the new job, and it's going pretty good. Lots of familiar J2EE web stuff and some new technologies to pick up. The job is for sensis, who make the on-line yellow pages and other search directories for Australia.

Last friday was work drinks, where I proceeded to drink for England (they had PINTS !) and left sometime later to meet up with backpacker mates in the Casino - where I then played drunken blackjack and won $150. I have this system, you see...

With my casino winnings I picked up some new clothes, including some running shoes and shorts - the intention being to go running before work in the big park next to my hostel. I've managed two runs out of four this week, which isn't bad - and I am sooooo out of shape.

Currently looking for a possible faltshare or someway to not be living in a 3-bed dorm... although given my minimal commitment (just under 3 months) I am suspecting the hostel may be my new home for this period !

I am SOOOO employed !!!

In a shock moment of efficency, I got a call this morning confirming I have got the contract role I interviewed for yesterday !

Which means this weekend I will be flying (or coaching - not rich yet !) down to Melbourne where the job is based, and will be working there for the next 3 months. This also means it is more than likely I will remain out of the UK for the full year length of my ticket now and return mid-June.

Needles to say, I am very happy right now - best birthday present ever :)

Cross fingers

A couple of days back in Sydney, and one possible job in Melbourne has presented itself. Just finished the phone interview, and apparently the interviewer was impressed - although I muffed up a few questions in one area (UNIX).

Should know the results ("no" or a job offer) within 48 hours and needless to say, if it can be crossed, it is...

Road Trip (part 3)

Yesterday I arrived back in Sydney and checked into the hostel I had been at before I left, the pink house.

The journey home from the road trip was mainly unremarkable save a couple of points. Firstly, we managed to cover over 2,000km in only 3 days - taking 2 hours shifts at the wheel and pushing hard through the Outback. Here, we stopped at desolate roadhouses and small mining towns - with a little more time, money and 4-wheel drive I would like to have explored more of the area.

We also stopped in the blue mountains on the way back for a "one hour tour". As Graham and Simon had both been out here before, this involved them driving me to various lookouts to see the sights (three sisters etc...) before getting into Sydney at a reasonable hour.

So today I am sorting out photos and e-mails, applying for jobs and tonight celebrating my birthday with a few beers and a burger, I think. Links to photos coming soooon...

Road Trip (part 2)

The road trip continued on through Melbourne, where we stayed a couple of days with a backpacker friend, Alison. The luxury of hot showers and laundry was amazing, and we got a brief look around the main city in our short time there.

After dropping Ian off to go WWOOFing and picking up Beppie, another friend from the pink house hostel, we drove down the great ocean road taking in the coastal scenery and fine beaches. Then we moved inland through and Grampians and onto Adelaide. A quick trip south took us too Kangeroo island, an island full of indigenous Ozzie wildlife, including fur seals and koalas, and then today we headed north again and did a bicycle tour of the barrosa valley winerys, which involved lots of free vine and some drunken cycling - amazing fun.

Some cool highlights included heading out into the water in Wilson's prom (sothernly point of Oz) and seeing a 4-foot shadow. Thinking better safe than sorry, I immediatley fled the water, saying "no idea, but think I saw a tiger shark" to the others as I zoomed past. Then turned around to see the harmless sealion imitate a couple of body boarders and surf a wave right into shore about 2 foot away from me - terror turned to complete joy in seconds.

Also cool was camping out next to some ozzie teenagers and talking what we think of ozzies vrs the real oz, walking along some sweet trails in the mountains and seeing lots of kangeroos on out outdoor travels. Good photos of all these to follow when I'm back in the big city (this Monday onwards...) Then back to the old job hunting !

Road Trip !

So it was, on the 8th Jan, that four brave souls - Graham, Ian, Simon and I - headed off on a cross-country tour of South Oz.

So far we have cruised down the coast through Wollengong, Kimla, headed inland to see Minnamurra rainforest and then onto Batemans bay. From here we headed inland to Canberra and now find ourselves in Cooma, on the edge of the Snowy Mountains.

Our first days have been really good and adventurous. Highlights include almost being hit by a large frieht train as we drove through an industrial park, buying a large stuffed tiger as a mascot (Reggie) and exploring and sleeping in outdoors national parks and forests.

And of course, nothing beats waking up minutes from the ocean, going for a swim and making use of the free showers afterwards !

Low points include the staggering number of flys all trying to fly in bits they are not welcome in, and large number of mozzie bites. Scratchy buggers.

Finally - in "making my parents happy" news - I got a hat. Finally. It's very Indiana Jones and makes me look dead cool. Honest.

All Change !

ROAD TRIP ! I have decided a change will lift my post-new year blues, and have booked a camper van for 28 days to do a loop from Sydney -> Melbourne -> Adelaide -> Sydney with three other people. Really looking forward to it :)

Today is also the day I am taking my Java Certified Web Developer exam - another feather in my CV hat basically. Quite nervous about it, mainly as I havn't taken any tests for over 3 years now...

[edit]

... and the boy is a genius ! With a score of 52 out of 59, I am now a Sun certified Web component developer for J2EE. Which is nice - so nice that I decided to shave my head as preparation for a month on the road.

HAPPY 2004 !!!

The rest of the xmas period was consumed with beach trips and a labourers BBQ party I have little or no recollection of ! This all led up to the highlight of my travels - new years eve overlooking Sydney Harbour.

Situated on blues point, we went down with smuggled alcohol and lots of picnic food. Then began a superb 12 hour summer festival-esque party with around 70-80 backpackers, some tunes and a guitar. The photos speak better than I could the wonerful atmosphere and immense drunkeness reached on that fine night, and it is certainly one to remember.

My plans now are to uproot myself for a few weeks, travel around South Australia for a little while, and then head back to Sydney late Jan / early Feb for jobs. The only possible flaw with this plan would be missing the big day out festival - we'll see.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone, and I hope to see many of you again in 2004.