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.