Tuesday 11 August 2015

Aussie Update (Ignore bad formatting)

Well I cant believe its been four months since I last updated any of you of my travels, I guess some punk stealing my iPad kinda hindered my uploading abilities, plus my screen on my phone is smashed in a million places which makes even typing the simplest of messages an irritable task.

So wow, four months, what have I done?

So in April me and Andrea (Italian Stallion) finished up our work at the hostel in the Blue Mountains, we had a laugh, it was a decent place and didn’t have to do that much work for free board. We partied reasonably hard with the other residents even though as we we’re repeatedly informed “This is not a party hostel”, eh they didn’t seem to mind our countless games of ‘Ring of Fire’ with the wonderful German couple who also worked with us, we had a nice group and many a good time.

It's been a laugh here in katoomba. I found extra work for a month as a handyman’s assistant, learnt some new skills (stump grinding, laying a driveway, painting, removing oil fireplaces, strimming, gardening, lots of lifting and loading trailers) met some crazy people some wonderful folks and some alright kids.


A friend of Andreas flew out at the start of April and we acquired a van, the ever faithful ford econovan. We set off on an adventure with no real set path but we were headed north, towards Ayr/Bowen sorta direction so we pulled out our maps, our travel books, and used our trusty friend google to plot a route that would take us through a ton of cool places on the way up the east coast.



We set off on the 7th of April if I recall, the plan was to hit nimbin by my birthday, in 2 days time. We set off for Port Macquarie and parked up by the beach, it’s quite a nice place to be fair and we really wanted to go see some koala’s; it just so happens there was a koala hospital just outside of town so we took a trip over to see the little cuties who were on the road to recovery.




We made our way to Nimbin, on the 9th, a lotta driving but we had the ipod and the ever faithful Cure playing us some real gems, we didn’t actually get to nimbin until quite late in the evening so only had a couple of pints on my actual birthday, I did manage to nab a $10 steak which was bloody tasty, we got talking with a few of the locals and they convinced us to stay another day so we would be able to experience the legendary weekly drum circle, where everyone just gathers in the streets and plays music, throws fire, dances with hoops and has a good time, of course we stayed for that. The evening of my birthday there was this lass playing at the hotel we were drinking at, her name was Kazya (still remember her even after 4 months) and she was doing a solo guitar/singing biznitch, her last song, I kid you not, was ‘The Lovecats’ by The Cure. I literally couldn't contain my excitement and sang along, she loved it.


We took a day trip to Minyon Falls which was pretty damn cool, nice little walk, beautiful scenery and an awesome waterfall which seemed pretty deadly when we made it to the bottom, then in the evening we went to the drum circle, its was brilliant. Drinking and partying in the streets until the late late hours when the police shut us down. One of the elders gave a wonderful speech at the end, I couldn’t even try and repeat it but it was truly heartfelt and I would definitely recommend a friday night in Nimbin if you’re ever in the area.


After a cool few days in Nimbin we headed for byron bay. We drove up to the lighthouse, and back down right after (parking was super full yet they still let people up) fantastic views of byron from there I tell you now! We parked up a little bit away from the lighthouse and walked down to the beach for a swim, enroute we heard screams of children running down the steps behind us, and to our surprise as we turned around to investigate there was a giant, 3 metre long Goana, just strutting his stuff following us all down to the beach. Crazy ol’ G.

The next few days I find hard to recall but we did a hella lot of driving, we passed Boonah, Stanthorpe, Dalveen (crazy star filled sky abovedalveen, so clear and so starry!), Surfers Paradise and stayed overnight usually in the van parked up in a free camp site or just in a sly spot off the road. We’d driven well over 2,000km by now and the motor was doing us justice.

I must say now, the locations and orders of such may not be at all in the right order but it’s been a while and I am trying my best to make sure it’s correct-ish, plus It’s not like you are actually bothered on specifics and accuracy right? thought at much..

We arrived in brisbane and a friend of Carlotta’s (italian wench we shared van with) let us stay at his apartment right next to central brisbane, we walked around the uni campus and botanical gardens, which were pretty sweet. I got attacked by a random bird who flew and tried to steal my hat, to be fair there was signs to say watch out for rogue birds, which of course I laughed at and thought it a joke. We got a little tour of brisbane CBD and we went for some tasty tapas and one of the local restaurants, tapas and sangria, how can you go wrong. We took a day trip outside of brisbane to the natural arch, and some caves and whatnot, we actually got lost on the way and yelled at by a guy for being on his property, he drove up in his 4x4 screaming off his head, then when we said hello he calmed down and drove us to the way out and even scribbled us a map, he’d been having trouble with hooligans stealing off his property so was in his right mind to flip out at us. I remember this one wild turkey who wouldn't leave us alone, it was like a rhino turkey, it kept charging at us. The only way to stop it was to lead it away with a trail of grapes, I guess they like grapes?

After a few days of relaxing in Brisbane we packed up shop and made our way further north-east, we visited Mooloolaba, Sunshine coast, Noosa Heads, hervey bay, bundaberg,rockhampton, and parked at a lovely campsite in St. Lawrence. When we woke up there was tons of kangaroos just hanging out, right by our camp. This was amazing for me, It was the first time I had seen a kangaroo in straya, not in a zoo, or dead on the road(seen far too many!). I managed to get within about 20feet before they skeptically skipped off, theyre funny animals and it was awesome to finally meet some in the wild, of course I grabbed a few snaps.


We headed for bowen, which is kind of a desolate town, don’t get me wrong it’s beautiful and has some cracking beaches but the center of bowen is all it has to offer, and everything else is a long way away, you definitely need a car if youre in bowen, theres like 2 or 3 busses a day. Fun fact, the film Australia was filmed in bowen, you learn something new every day eh!

We stayed in an awesome campsite right by the sea at Rose Bay, We booked in for a week whilst we drove around farms in search of farm work, we spent 2 full days driving between about 30 farms, packhouses, the lot, signing our names to get some work when the season picked up. We had a little accident in the van when it was just me and carlotta, the satnav directed us down this road which looked like there would be a river to cross, but we had realised by now the river was all dried, so it was a river of sand, we pull up and it’s like 100-120m across, and I just go “We don’t have a 4x4 but it looks like the track here is solid enough” It really wasn’t. We were doing so well for the first 30-40meters then we started to feel the wheels slipping and next thing our van is wedged in a good foot or two of sand, stranded in the middle of knowhere in the middle of this sandy river. Carlotta was seconds away from a breakdown I was just stood outside of the van trying not to laugh trying not to cry, wondering how the hell we’d get out of this situation, then out of nowhere these two locals rock up in a 4x4 laughing at us, we nodded in shame when they offered to pull us out, I hooked the tow rope to the front of the van and the other guy hopped in to steer. It was pretty smoothly done, the van came out with little effort. But we would have been screwwed had those lads not rocked up when they did.

We spent the next few days chillaxing with all the french and italians at the campsite, and chilling down the beach, fishing, rockclimbing, and exploring.

We hadn’t heard back from any of the farms and we were all starting to run low on cash so I arranged to stay at a friend of friends in Airlie Beach, Carlotta moved back to Brisbane and Andreas kept the van in Bowen. I rocked up at a random address I was given by a friend, who said their friend said I could stay. This is where I first met the crazy wench that is Cassie, she’s a fucking legend, she has an 8 year old Jasmine, who is just adorable. I spent a good few weeks in Airlie chilling and just hanging out, then started to pick up odd jobs helping locals with a helping hand or IT help, this is when I was contacted by a lady who lived with her husband just out of town at Mount Marlow, so I moved out there for a couple of weeks to help around the house and yard in return for a double bed, xbox, dinner, and some pocket money. They had three dogs, and a bird. Kenny was a cool little bird and would always come and sit on my shoulder in the evenings as we were sipping home brewed rum and listening to music.

I moved back to airlie and carried on doing odd jobs and offering my services to the locals, work was pretty frequent, I didn’t make a ton of cash but I made enough to get by, get a few bevs in and have a good time. Since I’ve been in Airlie I have met some amazing people, I’ll list a few as it’s only fair.

Firstly we have Cassie, who is like a big sister to me now (even though the kids on the block thought I was her son, oops) shes amazing, has a wicked personality and sense of humour, it’s been a right laugh living here with her and I’m very appreciative for her taking me in and looking after me, then we have lil Jasmine, she’s a bit of a nutter, she can be nice and friendly and cute, then she can be angry, whingey, and crying, it’s ups and downs with her but she’s a good kid and the 6am wake ups weren’t too bad.


We’ve then got Janay, she’s prettymuch the queen diva of the pack, absolutely stunning with a cracking personality, we’ve had our fair share of drunken gatherings, she’s got the voice of an angel, that lass is going places!

        

I helped another lass with some tech support, fixing up her computer and whatnot, it turned out she was actually a nice woman, so I hung out a fair bit with her and her three kids, it’s been a nice few months chilling with Christine and her little anklebiters, gonna be a shame not being around anymore when I leave but i’ve been enjoying every moment here in airlie.



Cousin Reece was down for a couple of days on his tour between boat trips and island tours he was in airlie and we got to hang out, safe to say we had a few bevs, played some pool, did the pub quiz(badly), we came second from last with our amazing 3man team “pleasantly surprised” with some yankydoodle, we still won a jug of beer..?.

   

The rest of my airlie time was work, sleep, work, play, binge on tv shows, work, drink, sleep, drink, drink, drink. There’s been a ton of other locals, backpackers, and randoms who I’ve partied, slain zombies, done all nighters, and gotten up to some crazy debauchery with. All in all my time in airlie has been pretty damn good.

(Camera battery died and I lost the charger so have tons of pics still to upload but no way to upload until I replace it)

The Reef festival was the other week so I met up with some other backpackers and we had a few jars, watched the fireworks and had a pretty chillax evening, this past week I’ve been helping this fella down in airlie with his mac (using it now to type this up shh) he’s in his fifties and somehow completely wiped the whole thing, I managed to fix it. He also had a broken laptop which I'm currently working on as I type this up. This guy Mike, or William which is his real name is such a character, people look at him wrong and judge him for the tattoos he has and the badass way he looks, but the guy is awesome, he’s lived life, he’s seen some shit, done some stuff, and is possibly one of the best poets I have ever had the privilege to meet, he’s got one of those amazing poem reading voices which convey the emotions within and every poem he’s read to me so far has been touching and meaningful, I’ve said I would copy his scrapbook onto the computer if I have time this week and he was very appreciative to my offer. He has the most adorable Chihuahua too, she wears a little tshirt.

My plans now are to fly to sydney this weekend where I meet my buddy Arika and then drive to hers in Queanbeyan, south of Canberra, spend a few days there then hopefully get work at one of the local farms i’ve been looking into. I guess that’s in for now, see you in another 4 months?

3 comments:

  1. Airlie is gunny miss you cuz so will me and jassy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Airlie is gunny miss you cuz so will me and jassy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad you're having such an excellent time there, I'm English so Australia really looks like a different world, I would really love to visit one day!

    ReplyDelete