Oz Life (VII): Books (OJG)

For some reason bookshops and therefore books seem to be in small supply in Australia. I did manage to find a few serious bookshops in Perth (discounted book shops do not count), but they were fairly small. Although I will say that about half the bookshops I did see were second-hand bookshops (with interesting titles!) which I believe to be a really good practice.

In addition to the lack of bookshops, the books themselves are fairly expensive, at a guess 50% more than the UK.

Now, I am not going to say that the reason for the above observations is due to the lack of demand by the general Australian public. No, I would never say that. What I will say is that whilst the UK public are happily reading their books in the evening or weekend, the Australian public are doing activities, playing sports, and working on personal "projects".

And all the while they are maintaining their significantly better level of fitness, of which the UK public as a whole can only dream about, or perhaps read about.

I suspect a good balance between the two would be the ideal, or maybe audio books whilst playing the said sport would be a good mix!

Oz Life (VI): Traffic Lights (OJG)

I know it does not sound interesting, and you'd probably be right. However, I did want to write a tiny number on them.

Traffic lights in Australia last longer. Both in regards to the Amber light and the Green / Red lights. The Amber light length has to be about twice as long as the UK. I am not sure if this is to compensate for Road Trains or not, but it basically means it is impossible to jump a red light unless you really meant to do it.

The Green and therefore Red lights are also longer, which means that if you are at a red light you can relax for a minute. It also means less stopping and starting when there is a queue of traffic ahead of you.

Nearly every junction I have seen has a separate set of ahead, right, and left lights.

If there should be a junction and therefore a set of traffic lights on a highway, they have flashing warning lights 300m ahead to alert you if the traffic lights are about to go red.

All in all, these little things make travelling that much more hassle free. Now there's an idea!

Day 27: Townsville

Oly lured me down the magpie road again.

Henry was being moved to B & J Autos, the only VW specialist in Townsville, where he would hopefully be revived. It was kind of sad looking in him, stripped of our necessities. He was very messy too and we didn't have time to tidy him up. Since he broke down the only times we have been in him we have grabbed what we needed and locked him up.

Back to the magpie. Oly said we would be fine and I let him go ahead of me. As we approached the stretch we saw the magpie position itself on top of a lamp post ready to swoop. I panicked and started peddling faster and so did Oly, all the time he was looking behind which made him not go as fast as he could have and as a result slowed me down. I didn't' want to overtake as I figured safety in numbers. Oly started shouting, "it's flying after us!" I started squealing... Oly is STILL looking behind! We passed some road workers who said "G'day" and all I could manage was "there's a bird chasing us" as we flew past on our bikes. (no pun intended)

We bought some delicious sausages from a butcher on the way home and eagerly returned to the camp site, salivating. I set up our gas burner and got out our plates and corn wraps. It was when I went to chop up some onions I realised that we had no utensils or cutlery... it's really hard cooking with plastic knives.

Em

Day 26: Townsville

It didn't stop raining.

We were still awake at 4AM battling with the drips from the ceiling. The rain was so hard and noisy we couldn't sleep even if we were dry.

It first started dripping on the pillow and then on Oly's head. Then we found the other secret, sneaky drips that were slowly creating pools of water soaking our duvet (dooner).

We had to get up and move the bed over to the other side of the tent (all of 50cm) but as that area was full of our clothes, wash bags and other stuff we had to move all that too.

So we spent our first night in our new tent home with two buckets on the floor (well one dishes bucket and one egg carrier) and a torch scanning the ceiling looking for other leaks.

I remember the last time we looked at the clock it was 6:30AM.

The humidity at the moment is 73%. The rain was very welcome but it didn't make it any fresher.

It was very overcast but warm. Oly and I got up around noon and jumped on our bikes to explore the city.

Townsville is very small. It only took us 10 minutes to cycle to the city and 2 minutes to cycle around.

Once again we went down The Strand just like the rest of Townsville had. It was full of people playing games, exercising, picnicking, enjoying the water park and in the sea there were people learning to surf. We love it. Plus, of course, there is the Cold Rock Ice Creamery!

When it started raining we went back to our tent, tired from our afternoon of fun.

I really hope it doesn't rain as hard as it did last night... but it will take a lot more than that to break our spirit!

Em

Temp: 30c

Location, location, location

I am sure most people know this already...

At the end of my posts, when we stay in a new place, I put a Location: Click Me! link to show on Google Maps where we are.

If you click on this, a new window will open up with a map... click on the HYBRID button in the right hand corner and you will get a satellite image and you can use the slide bar on the right hand side to zoom in and out. I do try and centre our exact location if possible.

Enjoy!

Em

Location: Click Me!

Day 25: Townsville

At 9:30AM we said goodbye to the nice comfortable apartment that made us forget all our Henry troubles and set off to find a camp site with available space.

We settled into Rowes Bay with our little tent and inflatable bed and wondered where we would fit everything else we had.

There are quite a few long term residents here and a lot of children. The only space for our tent is opposite the children's play area. Thank god for earplugs. Some people are so established they have plants growing up their caravans and tents and have even made gravel paths with borders to their front door.

I hope it doesn't take that long for Henry to be fixed...

We dashed off in our hire car to get last minute provisions, as once we returned the car at 4PM it would be pedal power for the rest of the week.

After all our chores were done we walked from the airport to Henry and cycled back to the camp site.

Being a bit rusty on the bike I slowed down to have a drink of water and Oly ended up about 50 metres in front of me along a stretch of road near the seafront. A magpie swooped down from a tree and lunged at the back of Oly's neck... I couldn't believe what I was seeing, Oly flinched and I peddled as fast as I could calling "watch out!" as the bird did it again. At this point I was screeching "go, go, go!", this bird wouldn't leave him alone. We were trying to get away, I was behind Ol who was yelling "it's coming again!". I have never peddled so fast in my life, I was terrified!

All the way back to the camp site we couldn't stop laughing. We think the top of Oly's bike helmet, which was black and reflective white, may have caught the birds eye. Even if I have to cycle an extra 5km there is no way I am going down that road again!

Its started raining so we hope we have repaired all of the holes the tent got in Kings Canyon when the wind turned it over. It is very humid here but it is a nice change from the heat of the outback.

Em

Temp: 29c

Wanted: Room for Henry?

We are flying back to England for 3 to 4 weeks on the 20th of December and need a safe place to leave Henry in Cairns while we are away.

If anyone knows someone/somewhere in Cairns where we could park Henry for this time please let us know.

Oly & Emelie

Day 24: Townsville

We treated ourselves to another night in luxury in our room with a view and booked an extra night. This meant I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and Ol didn't have to try and get me up at the crack of dawn... everyone's happy!

Our day involved running around and getting all the bits we would need for our week of camping in the tent.

Just before we were going out to dinner at 7:30PM "Wolf Creek" came on the movie channel so we watched it...

I am so glad we didn't see that movie before we went to the outback. Ol started watching it saying "this is just like our adventure!" by the end he was really disturbed. It's not a good advert for Australia that's for sure.

We have become quite partial to Thai food since we arrived in Australia and Oly chose this as his birthday dinner. Unfortunately it was really bad and it has put him off Thai for a while. Shame there isn't a Nando's here!

Em

Temp: 30c

Happy Birthday!

Today is Oly's birthday.

Happy birthday OB1!

Some Extra Pics (OJG)

Ok, I thought I would publish some extra pictures that I quite like, I don't think you have seen any of these. I suggest you click on each one to get the full impact.





Wheat Belt (WA)










Running Dragon (NT)















Pink Rose (WA)

















Wave Rock (WA)








Kata Tjuta "The Olgas" (NT)



That last one is a Panoramic (I told you I would get better at them!), the full size image is more than 19,000 pixels wide, or about 60 times bigger than the thumbnail above. Poster time :)

Finally, I have this little picture left, please click on it to see the special detail, I won't tell you what!

Oly

Day 23: Cloncurry - Townsville

We left Cloncurry at 6AM and stopped for breakfast at 9AM in Richmond.

Our journey was pretty uneventful. Oly and I were pretty tired and relieved to be away from that Homestead. We really thought we were going to be stuck there for a long long time.

When we passed an over turned truck Steve decided to tell us that if you veer even a little bit on the side of the road there is a sort of whip effect and the end trailer can turn over taking the whole train with it. We later overtook another huge road train which was pretty tense from where I was sitting!

We arrived in Townsville around 3PM and Steve took us to a mechanic who wasn't able to help us as he was not familiar with VW's, plus he was very busy for the next two weeks. We made a few calls and decided to sort things out tomorrow.

We hired a car and checked into Bayview apartments which are right on The Strand overlooking the sea. I think we were lucky to find somewhere as most of the places we called were fully booked. We presume it has something to do with the funeral tomorrow of the Black Hawk pilot that crashed off Fiji.

Oly and I walked along the seafront. It was amazing how many people were exercising; joggers, rollerbladers, basketball and soccer players. They even had balancing beams. The Strand esplanade is beautiful, it is lined with palm trees and lawn. Everything is very well kept and clean and it has a real holiday feel.

As a treat we had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the sea. I had barramundi in beer batter and it was delicious. Walking back we visited the Cold Rock Ice Creamery where they crushed your choice of sweets into your choice of ice-cream flavour and then present it to you in your choice of tub or cone.

It's like Henry never existed ;)

Em

Miles: 790km
Time: 9 hours
Location: Click Me!
Temp: 31c

Day 22: Barkly Homestead - Cloncurry

We have been saved!

Oly got up at 5:30AM to catch the early morning trucks that would be outside Barkly Homestead waiting for it to open for breakfast.

When I woke up I tidied up Henry and spent an hour plucking up the courage to go into the ablutions where a dozen hornets were waiting to ambush me. Good job I googled hornets and it said if you kill one close to the nest the whole clan comes out to defend it. I had emptied a can of Raid into the crack of the door (my fire fighting training wasn't for nothing!) prior to the googling, but I don't think any died. When they started to come towards me instead of flying away in fear I knew I was not going to shower that day.

Finally around 11:30AM a road train pulled in going in the right direction with room for Henry. Plus the driver, Steve, said he could take us too. Townsville here we come!

I quickly showered in the hornet free gents. Even I didn't want to travel 100's of kilometres with me in a close confined space.

Henry was forklifted onto a trailer, we climbed up into the cab and didn't try to hide our excitement being in a road train. There were only two seats so I perched on the bed behind them.

Road trains are pretty cool. They have high ceilings so they are really roomy. It was a surprisingly bumpy ride, however even at 90 km/h you feel like you are only going at 50.

We are staying in Cloncurry tonight and tomorrow we will arrive in Townville. Hopefully we will be able to sort Henry out.

Em

Miles: 600km
Time: 8 hours
Location: Click Me!
Temp: 35c

Oz Life (V): Quality of Life (OJG)

This particular topic will probably pop up a few times, but I will write what my thoughts are on it at this time now.

Several people have asked me what I thought of the living over here? do I like it over here? and so on. I reply that the yes, the quality of life is without doubt better. I then try to think about specifics that make it better, and struggle.

Having given it some thought I think I can encapsulate it with the following 2 observations:

First of all "space". It goes without saying that Australia has a lot of space, possibly even the largest amount of space per capita in the world, or close to that. Space makes a lot of difference. Space to build a home, space to store stuff, space to park your car, space to play your music without disturbing the neighbours, space to build safe roads and cycle paths. In effect having a larger amount of space means less conflict, it is as simple as that.

Secondly, "common sense". This is a difficult one to describe, but basically there seems to be just a tiny bit more common sense used in all areas of life. Even as I write this is seems almost ridiculous but that is the point. Applying just a tiny bit more logic into every part of the Australian Life collectively ends up making a huge amount of difference.

You see, I am in no way saying that life here is perfect, it is not. But what if it were a tiny bit better, an almost unnoticeable amount better, but in nearly all aspect of ones day. Then it starts to make just enough of a difference. It works, at least right now anyway. I can't really give examples, but you will read about these little differences all over our blog, and maybe you too will be able to see the sum significance.

Day 21: Barkly Homestead

:(

Henry didn't start.

Henry is most likely buggered.

I am in the bar of the Homestead and we have been sitting here since about 11AM watching out for trucks going east.

This morning several tinkering and helpful people have had a look at Henry. Sean, who works here, helped "tow start" him... sadly he spluttered and cut out in a billow of white smoke.

I don't know what else to say.

We are hoping a truck will pass through on the way back to Brisbane from Darwin and will have some room for Henry. We will have to get the Greyhound bus which I think takes around 3 to 4 days.

If we don't get Henry on a truck tonight then there is not another Greyhound until Thursday. Its now 23.15 and this places closes at midnight, the Greyhound comes 5 minutes after that.

As Elvis once said... "It's now or never"

We have excellent internet access with our laptop card so we don't feel too cut off, however neither of us have mobile access. I was starting to feel this place was like the Bermuda Triangle (where's Wonder Woman when you need her?).

On the plus side, Ol and I are good and taking it all in our stride... what else would we have to write about eh? Well Mount Isa, our next planned stop, would have been nice :)

We are fine, a bit tired of hanging around, but fine nonetheless!

Em

P.S. If Henry doesn't buck his ideas up he might be getting a new brother... http://www.volkswagen.com.au/california/features.asp (bring on the air-con!)

Temp: 39c

Oz Life (IV): Rubbish (OJG)

No, not this blog, but the collection of! Now I can only really speak for Perth, but I will for the moment assume that the same is true for all of Australia.

Rubbish collection in Oz is very efficient and quick!

Having only ever known British bin collectors, you know the ones that arrive in gangs of about 5 and a truck, drag the bins out of their storage making as much noise as possible, and an equal mess on the pavement. It seems to take them 5 minutes to do each house, and often they will not even take all the rubbish.

Well in Oz it is a little different. The truck has a driver and that is it. It takes him about 15 seconds to do each house. I am trying not to sound too excited about garbage removal, but believe me it is such a leap forward from what I have been used, it is hard to hold back the praise.

The reason it is so quick is a good combination of technology and scheduling. Each area has a different day of the week that the rubbish will be collected. Recycled waste is collected additionally every alternate week. People place their rubbish bin(s) at the end of the drive in the morning ready for the collector.


When the truck arrives, it stops at the bin, an arm pops out, lifts up the bin and tilts it over into the back. It then places the bin back and driver is already moving to the next bin before the bin has touched the ground. And within 15 seconds he is at the next bin.

Just as an additional note, I will mention that the local council also do a garden waste pickup twice a year. They send out plenty of leaflets beforehand with the exact date, and it is then up to the resident to do any tree cutting, mowing, digging, whatever and place it outside the house before that date. It will all be taken away completely free. Makes sense to me.

Day 20: Tennant Creek - Barkly Homestead

Where do I start...

Oh Henry!

We visited the cultural centre in Tennant Creek before we headed east to Barkly Homestead.

Henry felt a little sluggish and we put it down to having a few days of cold and now it was heating up again.

There was a moment of worry a few hours into our journey when we both noticed a distinct burning smell. It took a while but it finally dawned on us that we were running along side a bush fire. I just thought it had gone a bit hazy.

Half an hour later Oly shouted for me to stop and pull over as there was smoke filling the inside of the van behind us. We turned off the engine and had a look, couldn't see anything obviously wrong so we thought Henry needed a rest.

He wouldn't start up again.

Oly suggested one of us cycle the remaining 30km to the Homestead and get help. I just replied with "Urban Myth". I could see it now, he cycles off, it goes dark, he still hasn't returned. Hours later there is a banging on the roof of Henry, 10 police cars rock up and get me out of the car saying "don't look back", I look back and there is some psycho with Oly's head banging it on the roof. It was too hot to cycle and there was enough traffic on this road. We would be fine. Its a good job I haven't seen the movie Wolf Creek yet.

It was two hours and 30 cars/road trains later before anyone stopped for us. Luckily for us Todd and his father Alex pulled over to see if we needed any help and towed us to Barkly Homestead.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the bar talking with them. Todd is a tour guide based in Alice Springs and his father lives just outside of Sydney. Alex had flown up to Alice to join Todd for the long drive home for Christmas. Todd has recently adopted a beautiful 10 weeks old puppy called Knuckles who was so cute, he fitted perfectly into a small round washing up tub. We had a great time and they certainly kept our mind off Henry. We were very sad to see them go.

We are hoping tomorrow Henry will be well rested and raring to go...

Em

Miles: 200km
Time: 5 hours
Location: Click Me!
Temp: 39c
Music:
Audio book - Artemis Fowl - The Arctic Incident, Eoin Colfer

Day 19: Alice Springs - Tennant Creek

Two hours out of Alice, a hop, skip and a jump over the Tropic of Capricorn, we passed a hand written road sign:

"Mango Ice Cream, Yum!"

Even if it was only 10:30AM, we thought it would be rude to pass it by. We stopped at Red Centre Farm and picked up some hot mango chilli and, of course, a teeny tub of mango ice cream... yum YUM! It was delicious and so is the chilli. Who said never trust advertising?!

A few km further up the road, we went to the Red Sands Art Gallery where we spent two hours browsing and then trying to pay for the two pieces we chose (there was a problem with the debit card swipe). The gallery is wonderful and definitely the best indigenous art we have seen, I would love to go back one day and buy some more.

Oly was having a nap in the passenger seat when I noticed aliens running towards the road. We had arrived at Wycliffe Well, the UFO capital of Australia. We popped in to have a nose, under the guise of buying a drink. Oly blew our cover as soon as he walked in and said... "so when was the last time you had a UFO here?" the man in all seriousness said the 1st of October was the last time they had extra-terrestrial visitors. Now that was one weird place.

Our intention was to stay at Barrow Creek. Ol took a quick picture inside of the bar and left, we just didn't fancy it. About 10km north of Barrow Creek is where Peter Falconio went missing. It was very quiet for the next 30km.

Our next stop was Karlu Karlu, the Devils Marbles. These formations are over a million years old and were once a solid mass of coarse grained granite caused by molten magma. Over time they have cracked and then eroded to form round and oval balls. There are so many strange rock formations in Australia and these are just as fascinating and awe inspiring as Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We did the short 400m walk around a cluster of them and moved on to Tennant Creek.

And here we are...

Em

Miles: 500km
Time: 8 hours
Location: Click Me!
Temp: 36c
Music:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
Audio book - Artemis Fowl - The Arctic Incident, Eoin Colfer (We like the narrator)

Thank you

We want to say thank you to all the people who are leaving messages and encouraging us to continue this blog.

We are writing this blog partly for ourselves but mainly for our friends and family who we miss a lot and think about every day when we log on to check to see if anyone has posted a comment.

Plus it saves us from having to send out 100's of emails ;)

Please keep them coming, it means so much to us and brightens our day.

Emelie & Oliver

Day 18: Alice Springs

It is freezing!

There is no pleasing some people...

The weather is still overcast and has had another burst of rain. I am wearing a fleece and we will have to get the duvet out tonight. Last night we huddled together under the sheet. The duvet was in the tent and it was pouring down. We chose to suffer instead.

We are still in Alice Springs as we were a bit lazy yesterday and did not do the things we had planned. Those being the Flying Doctors visitors centre, the reptile centre and the School of the Air.

The Flying Doctors visitors centre was not very exciting... we walked through it and didn't wait for the tour. The reptile centre, on the other hand, was fantastic. We couldn't have arrived at a better time, they had just finished the informative talk on reptiles and were up to the handling part, so Oly dived in head first and I tentatively petted from afar. Then it was time for the feeding of Terry the Northern Territories crocodile. We stayed there so long we didn't make the school.

Tomorrow we are off again and we doubt if we will get internet or mobile access for the next few days. We won't be travelling on any unsealed roads and there should be plenty of roadhouses on the way. We are carrying spare fuel, water, food and a new jack... don't worry, (you know who you are and your not the only one!) we are taking precautions and will be safe...

I think its more worrying that tomorrow night we are stopping over at Barrow Creek...

Em

Temp: 30c

Oz Life (III): Bugs (OJG)

Compared to the UK there are definitely a lot of bugs in Australia, I am not even going to try and say anything to the contrary. What I will say is that the vast majority of these are completely harmless, and mostly small.

Being someone that probably has the slightest shiver of a phobia towards bugs, and probably double that shiver when talking about spiders, being thrown into Australia has done me the world of good. It's like the saying goes, we are afraid of what we don't know. Well I am getting to know them, and my confidence with them is growing exponentially.

Having said all that, we have been driving all over the outback, and even though I have been searching at the roadhouses, I have thus far found only one dangerous bug; a red back spider. She was not easy to find!

In the city, the worst we saw were cockroaches, which seem to be in most areas. Of course Mosquitoes are also in big supply but they get their very own blog entry later.

In the outback, flies are a nuisance, but nothing more. A hat and a few whacks will usually discourage them from bothering you for too long. Of course whilst you are trying to change a tyre in the afternoon heat, that nuisance can escalate!

In some of the outback toilet areas I have seen huge beetles, giant ants with wings, enormous cockroaches, and large grass-hoppers. In all cases the bug was clearly trying to get away from me, I guess a potential predator!

One last bug I have to mention is the Goliath Stick Insect that we saw in a glass enclosure at the Desert Park in Alice. I can remember seeing, even playing with stick insects during biology classes when I was 12, perhaps like many of you. This stick insect (herbivore by the way) must have been 20 times the size (they can be over 25cm long)... I suddenly felt like I was Jason and Argonauts, and that some terrible special effects were being used to make it look bigger than it actually was... it simply could not be real. It was.