Traveling Around and Coming Home...

So it's been about 6 weeks since I left Perth. I have only 2 weeks left in Australia and I'll be back in the States on the 5th. Time flies. I remember crossing the Pacific and looking down on it from the plane thinking, "Wow, it'll be a while before I cross this again and that'll be a trip."  Well that time is coming up. It feels a little weird to have things coming to a close in Australia. It doesn't even feel like I've been here that long. Most people here are asking why I'm leaving so early when I still have loads of time on my visa. Most people come over for a couple years or so and literally see pretty much everything in Oz, New Zealand and SE Asia. Honestly if there weren't things to come back to in the States in the near future (wedding, seeing friends in Chicago before they move) I probably would just stay for a while. It's a pretty casual lifestyle. You can pick up and move to another spot and land shard job where you save loads of money or an easy job where you casually work and save a little at a time. Then just go chill and do whatever in SE Asia for some months because you don't need to earn money there. I briefly considered doing this in Darwin during the perfect time of year when I met some awesome people but I decided it wasn't worth it. An Aussie dude named Matt I met there summed it up for me. He said when he was in Central America he wanted to stop and stay everywhere but he couldn't otherwise he wouldn't see anything. Truth. Too bad. Sometimes you never know what could've happened if you went that alternate route in life no matter what happens. Major things can be just as much luck as chance and totally random. So I've been off on the road since then, but we'll get to that. My last weekend n Perth was when I last wrote an entry. Well it was a nice weekend. It wasn't mind blowing or the best send off in my life. Actually my send off's from other places have even been more memorable. I liked everyone I met there a  lot and was really glad about the time I spent there and what I did but I haven't regretted leaving once or really wished I was back there and I doubt I ever will. With Chicago, Oregon and Cali yes I have felt that way about those places. Haven't regretted leaving but I miss them sometimes. Basically I found someone to take over for me and I had them take over what was my last night but still got paid for it. OOOOOOOOOOOOO! It's alright, the boss ok'd it. So Vincent (my French co-worker) and I threw a grand finale BBQ that night and just went out on the town! It was fun. My Irish friend Martin ended up getting completely wasted, throwing up on the carpeted floor and getting kicked out but cutting his head on the doorway on the way out. My goodness Martin. I was in pretty fine form as well but nothing that bad. It was cool because a lot of people showed up, even people that I had really only interacted with some at the front desk. The next day I took one last stroll to the beach, but it was Cottlesloe beach which I hadn't been too. It's its own nice neighborhood with an awesome beach as part of it. I really liked it a lot. I sat there for a bit and took one last look at the Indian Ocean while the sun set. My first sunset on the Indian Ocean too. It was a bit cloudy and I've had better sunset but it was awesome and the ocean looked magnificent. Then I hustled back to town because my buddy Patty was back in town from the mines (as well as my buddy Ben) and he was throwing a birthday party for himself at the Witches Hat. Last night there and it was pretty sweet. Got to see even more people and have another night out, not as wild, in the Mt. Lawley neighborhood which was cool. Then on Sunday I went to that Aussie football game I had talked about. It was pretty damn cool. I have really gotten to learn about a lot of different sports since I've been here and it taken off since right around the end of my time in Perth. After having it explained to me a lot I've been watching loads more rugby, rugby league, soccer and especially AFL. They're really interesting sports and I hope I still get to follow them some more when I get back to the States. That Sunday I went with my friend Tom and then I really just went back and packed up to get ready to go on my red eye that night. I chilled for a little bit with some people at the Emperors Crown and then got a ride from my friend Tom to take off to Melbourne. It felt really good to be back traveling again. Plus I was super excited to see Melbourne and check it out. So I had done my research on Melbourne a bit. It's basically a super neighborhoody city lots of culture. I found the vibe to be kind of a mix between New York, Paris and San Francisco but with a bit artistic graffiti influence. So basically it definitely had it's own vibe. If I was going to live in Australia for a while Melbourne would definitely be it. It's a livable city that's multicultural and has easy access for doing anything and everything. I flew the red-eye so I just slept on the plane. I got in early in the morning and the main thing I wanted to do was just explore all the interesting and unique neighborhoods while I was there. Now one day I did a tour on the Great Ocean Road along Victoria. That was kinda cool and it made remember that tours aren't all that bad. It was fun to talk with other tourists and here their stories (where they're from, why they're here and where they've been, etc...). Plus it was an efficient way to see a lot. But let me tell you, overall I wasn't terribly impressed with the Great Ocean Road. The twelve apostles were cool, we saw some koalas which was very cool but other than certain areas the coastline pretty much looked like the Northern California coastline. Still beautiful but something I had grown up with and was used to. Most tourists and locals hate hearing Americans say "Oh yeah. We've got stuff like that in America." so I kept my opinion to myself. The koalas were cool in the wild but my God they're lazy. I saw one stretch out and dangle over the road because it didn't want to take the 5 seconds extra to walk back to a split in the branch and switch sides. 2 English guys and I had a good laugh at that. But like I said, mostly just long walks through Melbourne and different neighborhoods. I explored St. Kilda, South Yarra, Dowtown/CBD, Chinatown, Carlton, Fitzroy, Collingwood, North Melbourne, South Melbourne, North Fitzroy, Brunswick, the Botanic Gardens and the Queen Victoria Street Market (huge street market) all by just getting up and walking from place to place for most of the day. It was pretty awesome. The only one I missed was Richmond. And each place has a little bit of it's own vibe and even food specialty. Carlton had a big Italian influence. Brunswick had more of a Mediterranean influence. Richmond had a big Vietnamese influence. South Yarra was a bit posh on one end but grungy and university like on the other. Fitzroy and Collingwood were heavy on pubs and more English style food. North Fitzroy was more livable and local. Their downtown was cheap hole in the wall places, high end restaurants or hidden distinct dining and drinking places that only locals new about. There was unbelievable graffiti everywhere. Big sports city. Loads of AFL stadiums, a 100,000 person cricket stadium, Rod Laver Arena all next to each other. It was footy crazy the weekend I was there. The Victoria Market had everything at an affordable price. Great clothing and trinket souvenirs as well. I bought a West Coast Eagles jersey there. I loved it man. It was great. Plus I got to meet up with some Aussie girls that I'm friends with from Ireland that live there. We went to St. Kilda for a couple of drinks and caught up. I also met up with a friend I had recently met at the hostel in Perth who totally showed me around for a couple days. Diana and I went and got dumplings in Chinatown and then we bar hopped in downtown to a rooftop bar, a hidden alleyway science themed bar, and through what looked like a mysteriously nothing door into a swanky 20's themed cocktail lounge/bar. I discovered an awesome drink called The Last Call, an old Detroit socialite gin drink. The next day we met in her neighborhood where we cooked a curry dish with her roommate and his gf present and then went to her friend's 30th birthday party where we all got drunk and I had some pretty wicked banter back and forth with these cool Aussie guys. Good week man. But traveling is about seeing a lot of different places and experiencing different things so on the road again. That Monday I flew to Alice Springs. Now I told everyone that I was spending 3 weeks in Alice and they all said, "What? Why?" Well let me tell you why little kids. Cause I'm gonna do some bush walking (hiking). First I got there and started with another tour. It's this basic 3 day Uluru/Ayers Rock tour that takes you to 3 amazing and significant Aboriginal sites in National Parks. They are Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta and Uluru being the main highlight. Very cool all of them and with the driving it was a lot to see in 3 days. On the tour we also saw camels, kangaroos and dingos all over the place. One night we even got to try camel burgers. Delicious really. Tastes kind of like good beef but juicier. The tour was a lot of fun. There was a cool Dutch couple, 2 German girls traveling together, 3 English girls, 2 people from Hong Kong and so on... It was 13 people total which was a nice group size but what brought it all together was Jason our tour guide. Just an Aussie bloke but hilarious. He made fun of everyone for their nationality but in a good way which made people loosen up a bit. By the end of the trip we were all friendly and comfortable with each other and grabbed a few drinks back at the hostel we set off from. The places were amazing too. In each spot we did a nice little hike with Jason and then he would take off pretty much part way through and get some stuff set up. It was the sort of thing where we would help set up camp, cook the food and clean up together as well as hang around the campfire together. Kings Canyon was this giant canyon that was formed many years and just stunning. We walked up and around the whole thing. Kata Tjuta and Uluru were right next to each other and formed in similar ways. See both of them, as well as the mountains in the area were formed about 500 million years ago. Kata Tjuta is a mixture of soil and large rocks where as Uluru is a mixture of fine worn down rocks (kind of like sand) and soil. From the distance they look the same but from up close you can see the smoothness in Uluru and the rocks smoothed together between the hardened soil with Kata Tjuta. Now both of them were spilled of to the sides of mountains from tectonic movements 500 million years ago. But what happened after that was a giant inland sea in Australia was formed the compressed these down and turned them into the sturdy rocks they are today. Most of Central Australia is either at sea level or below sea level. They estimate that 2/3 of Uluru is actually below the ground because of all this. Kata Tjuta is split up into several different cone like mountains where as Uluru is one big rock. Both have/are sacred Aboriginal sites. They hold various ceremonies there, stories of their origins called the Dreamings take place at specific places there which is very important to them and many of them are still practiced today. I learned a lot about Aboriginal culture here and it's relationship with the land and the white settlers here butI still barely touched the surface at times it seems like. Well Uluru was one of the most amazing things I've seen and done before. It was incredibly memorable and just a fascinating, beautiful and spiritual thing to spend time around. It has a tricky relationship with tourists because there has been a chain linked pole placed on one side of it for people to climb up. It's very dangerous and the Aboriginals who own the land ask that you don't do it. The predominate thinking is it's their land so we should be respectful of it. Some Aussie's don't see it that way. The government has taken a stance saying offer more activities such as cultural tours led by Aboriginals and we'll outright forbid it. Needless to say it's complex. I didn't do it. It didn't quite feel right but I also didn't feel like I would regret it if I didn't. It also just doesn't look right to have this big natural and unique thing that you walk around all of the sudden have poles jolted into the side of it all the way up. The entire rock is orange/reddish except for this strip which is completely white next to the poles and chain from humans walking on it. One day the Australian government will probably forbid in maybe 15 or 20 years and I think it will be symbolic of white settlers mark on Aboriginals and how they overcame it. But the climate of their relationship along with all the social problems surrounding it just creates too much tension for thinking about it in that way right now. So back t Alice Springs. Really there's not much to do there except plan the next stage of your journey. So I got to work doing that for the bush walk coming up. Basically I just ended up printing off some maps, gathering enough food for 12 days that would last and arranging my stuff so that I could leave what wasn't necessary behind for the little while. The Larapinta Trail is 232 kilometers and it goes straight west through a long part of what is called the West MacDonnell Ranges. The trail starts at the northern part of Alice so I just started walking from the hostel. There's varying degrees of difficulty and different types of land that your walking through. It's 12 sections and some of the section stops are big tourist drive up points because of some natural wonder to see. Also good for stopping and talking to people and maybe even hitching a ride back. I figured I would just walk and do what I could in 2 weeks and figure it out along the way. I didn't know how tough and seriously remote it would actually be, especially with a 45 pound pack. The first couple days were real tough. What I would find over my time on the trail is that most people were not alone, had better and more advanced camping gear and maps then me, had food drops and had something like a satellite phone in case they got lost. Not only that but the trail wasn't that well marked in some areas. It took me 5 days to do the first 3 stages with a day off and I was exhausted by the end of that.  When I stopped at the end of the 3rd stage I set my tent up and relaxed in it for a little bit, stretching out and yawning and such. These guys in their 60's that were next to me later told me that I was too young to be making those old man noises. I thought that was pretty funny. Now the 3rd stage was more difficult, it really wasn't well marked and I got a bit lost!!! But, I got to the spot safe and sound. That was a hard stage but it was supposed to get way harder and more remote after that. I decided to rest for 2 days and then turn back. No way did I want to risk getting lost in the Outback like that. Ended up being the best decision ever.  So after that I was able to relax more when hiking. I knew the route back and didn't have to look for signs as much so I really got to enjoy the scenery a lot. The 3rd leg honestly looked like the dinosaur time. The mountains have been around for 300 million years or something like that so they're more worn down but they have much more definition and detail from all the wind and water carving over the years. More than I even saw in the Alps in Europe. They've also had a couple of wet years for that region so there was even more green than usual. It was amazing walking up and down those mountains and looking out into those crevasses. It was also along a creek bed in between certain mountainsides. At one point I had to scale a 20 foot wall and shimmy to the side before climbing in between a gap of 3 massive boulders all with my pack. It was a lot of jumping from rock to rock and working my way over, through or around little waterholes. I liked that part the most. The other awesome part was the wildlife. I saw kangaroos all over the place. Big red backs too that we're even as big as me or bigger at times. It got annoying after about the 6th time because they were on the trail and you don't want to sneak up on them or corner them because they will attack you by jumping and scratching you up. I saw about 30 just on the first 2 sections of the trail. There were also dingos, endangered wallabies, hoards of parrots, massive hawks, various spiders, etc... It was good wildlife watching in Central Australia for sure. The only thing I haven't seen thus far is the marine life and crocs which should be coming up. Also relaxing at the Stanley Chasm campground for 2 days was just what I needed. My muscles got the rest they needed so I was burning through the trail after that. I also got to talk to a lot of people coming in for the day and I got to know Ray and Sharon the Irish couple who run the tourist site there on Aboriginal land. We swapped some stories and they told me a lot of detail abut what they were doing out there to improve things. Ray's a very sharp guy too. I bought a little warm food from them and they hooked me up with it a little bit at times. I would just sit by the fire and read too. It was relaxing. I rocked back into Alice 12 days later and I had walked over 100 miles. I just spent the next 3 days showering, shaving my beard, getting a few things set up for Darwin, doing laundry and calling people back in the States. I was glad to be done with it and doubt I'll undertake something like that alone again but overall man, looking back, it was a good experience and a pretty cool thing to do even though it was real taxing at points (physically and mentally).  Well off to Darwin on the Ghan train 3 days after returning. It felt good to be off again. There's really nothing to do there and it can kind of be a depressing place. Plus it w as a long time I was there and in traveling it's really cool to be moving onto new places and seeing new things. The train ride this time around, not as great as the first one. It was cool to see things change and all that but it was just for a day. There was a nice German girl next to me that I talked with for a bit and we talked with these 60 year old Aussie ladies for a while which was real interesting but it was just an ok train trip. I'll tell you what though I was real impressed with how tropical and different the Top End is. It really struck me then part of what was so fascinating about Australia. It's an entire continent with so many amazing but COMPLETELY different climates and environments. Whether it's the tropics of the north (Darwin=more like Asia, North Queensland=more like Hawaii), the popular beachfronts of the east vs. the laid back serenity of the empty beaches in the west, the islands and unique marine life of Queensland, the Mediterranean climate and feel of Perth and the SW, the great sandy deserts in the outback, the red and surprisingly green center, the true bush land of the outback, the beautiful but rugged Kimberley, the snow capped mountains in the SE, the unpredictable rainy lushness of Victoria and NSW, the thick wooded mountains of Taz, the secret cultural hub in Melbourne or the grandness of a global-type city in Sydney you pretty much can get it all here. I mean it is a continent. So rolling into Darwin and it's tropical feel after being in the red center for 3 weeks really hit me. At this point money is getting pretty damn tight as it usually does in a trip. Even more so than I'd like to be honest. But compared to how it affected me and my mood now versus when I was in Europe and Chicago facing this I am much more positive and not as concerned, but it's still on my mind. So what this translated to unfortunately was not being able to see some of the National Parks everyone raves about around the Darwin area. Just too expensive to get out there to be honest. That's alright though. I figured you know what, I'm not working right mow and I get to sleep in and relax in the tropics. How often am I going to get to do that or be in a situation like this. Not very often, so I might as well enjoy it without going crazy. I felt like I got a good feel for the area. I checked into a real nice backpackers called Elkes. Darwin was like Perth in some ways in the sense that a shitload of backpackers are there right now looking for work because the weather is just right and shit everywhere else. The main strip in downtown is full of drunk backpackers like Northbridge in Perth. Elkes was perfectly placed a 10 minute walk from this but not in the heart of it. It's made up of old timber buildings that survived the 2 disastrous things to happen to Darwin amazingly. There's palm trees and a real laid back vibe all over the grounds. So perfect place to chill and that's just what I did. I ventured into the bar strip one night but didn't get anything and barely stayed. It's just not was I was looking to do there. I did explore the city though. I went to Mindill Beach which looks out on the Timor Sea and a great place for a sunset. They also have the Mindill Beach Markets which is a bunch of locals putting on a street market. Cool Aussie stuff and food. Nice local vibe there as well. The water was soooooooo light blue there. It was just amazing. I also went to the Northern Territory museum (free) which was a fantastic museum that had some interesting exhibits on Cyclone Tracy, Aboriginal art and culture and the development of different species in Australia. There botanic gardens were splendid and the downtown had a nice little bustling feel to it during the day. I also took this time to get shit done. Bought my flight to Chicago and looked into travel in the States, I put together a rough plan for managing my money, I regularly followed the NBA playoffs and read countless articles about what's been happening, and I sorted a ride share with 2 French gay guys and a UK girl to Cairns. I figured I should see the Reef before I go. But I'll get into that later.  Darwin is very interesting. It's the Capitol of the NorthernTerritory and it only has about 120,000 people. The Territory has only 200,000 total but it's maybe the size of Texas. So a lot of nothing, yet something. Darwin is actually way closer to Bali than anywhere else of significance in Australia.during WWII it was a big military hub and got completely bombed by the same Japanese air team that bombed Pearl Harbor. The city was leveled by that. But they rebuilt and continued to live in their tropical paradise. In 1974 in between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning a nasty cyclone came in called Cyclone Tracy. They had had a cyclone early that didn't do much damage so Darwin residents didn't think it would do much damage. There were about 1400 buildings and homes in Darwin at that time. By Christmas morning there 400. In the Territory museum they have a room you can step into with recordings of what it sounded like that night. It sounds horrible and to have to have gone through that for 6 hours is unreal. Some people are still traumatized by hearing that noise. But they picked up and in just a couple of years Darwin was rebuilt to new cyclone standards and even more people lived there than before the cyclone. As a result almost none of the buildings date back to not only before 1975 but especially before WWII. Well my hostel was and it was kinda cool. And honestly if I wasn't coming back to the States I would've picked up work and stayed. I liked the chilled out tropical vibe and I met some awesome people at my hostel. This guy Ant stayed at the Emperors Crown in Perth for a while and he happened to be there on his first night when I arrived as well. That was my way in to the happenings at the social table. Ant is giant half Maori (New Zealand's indigenous) dude in his 40's. I met a couple dudes from England, 2 Canadian girls and some Germans. We just sat around having some drinks and talking for a while. It was a good couple nights. Then these 2 awesome English girls (Bella and Lori) came through with their travel mate and Aussie dude named Matt (super knowledgeable but very opinionated guy). Anyways I really clicked with them, especially the English girls. I would have loved to travel with them or stay longer and get to know everyone a bit more but like Matt said, you've gotta move on when you're traveling otherwise you'll never see anything. Touché. So move on I did. So I had 2 ride shares to decide between. One was with this German dude in his solar powered van. He was going to around Cairns he said and looking for work. He was in a group of 4 camper vans and some of them were going down to Brisbane. I could decide when we got to the east coast. Meeting up with him was a fucking hassle. He had no sense of direction and didn't even know simple landmarks in Darwin. I also wanted to meet the other people in the other vans too so I went down to this wharf where they were staying. Again a hassle. He was staying in the most random area and described it in the worst way. He also was so broke that he didn't have any credit on his phone to make a call and was dumpster diving for everything he could get his hands on (including vegetables and fruit). It was interesting seeing a load of about 30 camper vans all on this one wharf looking onto the water. Clearly a unique way to travel. These guys though I clearly did not click with. The other group on the other hand I clicked with pretty well. I only met up with the 2 gay French guys but they had a good sense of humor. They asked me if I was ok with traveling with them even though they're in a relationship and I simply informed them that I was from San Francisco and they had a good laugh at that. So we were off. There's really not much to see on this route to Cairns from Darwin and petrol is more expensive in rural areas because they know they've got you in the middle of nowhere. Still it was only $200 each for a big motor home that the 4 of us were in and 6 days of a lot of driving. It was interesting stopping at some random small town in Western Queensland for the night and just being in the middle of nowhere bogan (redneck in Australia) country. I was just thinking, "Man what am I doing here? How the hell did I get to western Queensland". That's always kind of a cool feeling. We had another interesting experience as well. Our first night we tried to stay in a campground but it was full so we pulled into a parking lot that other big rigs were parked in. One thing I noticed when the Frenchies were driving was we drove by a ton of what looked like strung out Aboriginals next to the campground. When we were getting set up I also noticed a bunch of them walked off into the bush and started making a fat fire in the woods. I also noticed that were placed pretty much in between the only bar in this small town and the area where the Aboriginals were hanging. General rule of thumb, alcohol/drugs situations and Aboriginals don't mix. I kept my eye out and my wits about me but I also knew no one else on the rideshare noticed any of this. As it got dark and we were sitting around eating food outside the Aboriginals started getting louder and walking around where we were more. Then one lady came up and tried talking with us some but ti was clear the whole point of the conversation was about her getting a cigarette or money for cigarettes off us. This is when the others noticed something was up. Right after that an older intimidating dude walked up and I think he was trying to impersonate an Aboriginal police officer. Except this fool was wearing a Victoria police officer hat. I called him on it instantly and his demeanor changed. He knew I wasn't intimidated and then started asking for cigarettes. We told him no but I guess the Frenchies and Chloe noticed that he kept messing around with his hands in his pockets. So at this point we packed up and I told what was going on and we agreed to move down the road. Looking on the map it turned out that we were right next to Aboriginal land and the only bar in town. Oopsie daisy! We carried on though to the East coast and coming through on the other side was amazing right back into the tropics. It's a little different here though. It's more mountainous and kind of like Hawaii where as Darwin was flatter or more like Asia I would say. Either way it was great. We stopped at a hot spring in the Northern Territory but that was it until Townsville and the beaches of the east coast. We also camped one night right next to a scenic beach with amazing islands off in the distance. Apparently it was a pretty croc infested sea area but we stayed away from the actual water. Just gorgeous rivers and sugar canes everywhere. It felt really cool to be on the road again and in northern Queensland. It was a nice group of people to road trip with but I was tired of road tripping with everyone when we got to Cairns. There was a lot of straight guy bashing on the trip which I was getting tired of. Especially because it was hypocritical in that part of their complaints were how straight guys generalize all gay people and then they were doing the exact same thing about straight guys with one sitting right there. But I just kinda laughed the silliness of it off. It was also funny because these guys talked about how they hated gay guys that acted like queens but these guys we're pretty damn prissy. They were still friendly but sometimes I kinda felt like the outsider at times.
(At this point it's been 2 months since I was writing this post. I just got tired of doing things like this but I'm trying to finish it up)
But then I arrived in Cairns. They dropped me off at the hostel. We said our goodbye's, no need for exchanging info we were all past that sort of thing.  Frankly I was glad for it. I walked into Tropic Days and was very blown away with it. Comfortable hammocks outside in a peaceful grassy area with palm trees swaying. An outdoor but covered pool table. I got set up with the little tent area in the back. basically just a flat gravel area behind a fence (next to the pool though) where everybody with tents was all lined up. It was way cheaper and kind of nice actually. It was more like having my own space. So while I was in Cairns there were a few things that I had set out to do. i had to see the Daintree Rainforest, see the Great Barrier Reef and meet up with my friend's Dave and Ashley from Miami (that I got to know in Perth). Plus Miami and OKC were in the finals at this point so I wanted to watch some of that for sure. The Irish woman at the front desk was just the most helpful and awesome person. She set me up with 2 tours that were awesome and exactly what I was looking for. I went to Daintree the very next morning in fact. Driving up the coast of the NE tip of Oz was pretty fantastic. the bus driver we had was pretty jittery because he had just quit smoking but a real genuine fellow. Interacted with everyone well, very knowledgeable made people some, etc. I particularly noticed on this trip what an overwhelming majority of women do tours like this on comparison to men. my initial guess is it's just safer. Basically it was me and 3 teenage Canadian dudes with a bunch of young women from all over the world. Daintree was great. it wasn't exactly what I expected but I'm glad I did it. I think at this point in the trip was when I really first hit the point of not being too excited by  new things anymore simply from traveling too much. The scenery was very rainforesty but I wasn't blown away by anything or loving it. It was just nice for the most part. We went up by port Douglas, (a cool town), had lunch at Cape Tribulation (named because Capt. Cook was marooned there at one point and wrote in his journal that this was the cape of his "trials and tribulations"), went to few different sites to really appreciate the rainforest and it was all pleasant. What I really did enjoy was going on a croc cruise where we saw about 8 active crocs and seeing 2 cassowaries. Cassowaries are large upright birds like Emu's but they look like they're from the movie Avatar. They're aggressive with humans and have killed the most humans for any bird. They're endangered and dying out fast. they can only be found in this one spot of Oz and in Guinea. Guinea has 3 types of these as well. The way we saw it was just in the middle of the road behind us as we were driving. And it was a pair of them as well. That was a long day though.
The other highlight of Cairns was going to the Great Barrier Reef. When I walked down to the harbor where boats set off every morning there were literally about 20 major cruise liners/large boats taking off with at least 100 or more people on them. this is everyday! The one I chose was a giant catamaran. The reason I chose this was because you still get to spend loads of time out there but on the way back they throw the giant sails up and you sail back to the shoreline. That was pretty awesome. After a day of being on the reef we sailed back catching these monstrous waves just watching the sun set and looking at the gorgeous land. Plus an older woman I had met had a coupon for $10 at the bar/food stand so I was slugging down 4 beers for $2 on my end while grasping onto toe side railing, looking at the view and chatting with some pretty cool people. the reef itself was pretty damn impressive. the way they break up which reef to go to is the companies actually have rights to certain areas in the reef. Some parts of the reef are much nicer and those companies cost a whole lot more. I chose a pretty fair priced reef. I didn't think it mattered. The reefs were enormous and I saw probably about 100 different kinds of fish species. I even saw a little reef shark swimming around. it was very beautiful and if I had the money it's something that I would do every year for sure.
Cairns itself...not that great. It's a tourist beach party town without an actual beach. I was getting tired of the normal backpacker party scene and that's just what this was. I met some people that were in town for over a week and didn't even go to the reef because they were just partying their ass off. No better example of this is the hostel Gilligan's. Honestly this sort of stuff made me think more about Europe and how much I doing stuff like that. Although I will say, I made a serious effort to get up early even after a night of partying and go explore the city and the sights for sure! I'm just sure I looked like a moron though to some based on all the tomfoolery I was constantly up to in the evening. Seeing Dave and Ashley was good too. Familiar face in a not so familiar place. We never actually watched a whole game because we always got the time change a little bit off. Too bad man. It was kinda tough though because Dave and Ashley literally ended their 3 year relationship while I was there. I know that was a pretty tough point for them. just happened to be odd timing. I also got to hang out with my friend Nora from Germany (also got to know her in Perth) a few times. Familiar face in familiar place again but I was just tired of talking with people all the time. I honestly was just keeping to myself a lot at this point. The last time I saw her she came to my hostel for a BBQ where kangaroo, emu and crocodile were on the list as well as many other fine options. it was a good night and the guy who was hosting it owned the hostel and does it regularly every week. He made it very personable. There was also a nice Canadian couple there too who actually ended up being on the same reef trip as me.
But I was ready to go. I had a flight to catch in Sydney in a week which meant that I had to get to Sydney. While I was in Cairns i just hopped on gumtree and found a guy the wanted to leave on the exact day I did and had a van all set up perfectly. 6 day trip down Sydney. I met him and he seemed like a nice enough guy. He turned out to be a total twat. he was nice guy but would not shut the fuck up. English guy that told stories about his stupidity at the pub or boring stories about his job. His quote was "I don't do silence." On a 6 day road trip you need to do silence at some point. Overall though we had some fun. We went to this beach town called Airlie Beach on the first night. It's the big jump off spot for the Whitsundays but we just didn't have time for it. We also drove down to Brisbane and spent some quality time there. Actually got to walk through some neighborhoods and go out and see the nightlife a little bit. I was supremely impressed with Brisbane. It's gets a real bad rep because it's not in the same level as Sydney or Melbourne but quite frankly it was awesome. There was plenty to do and some very scenic and beautiful stuff. Gets a vote of confidence on my part. then we drove down to Byron Bay (the true backpackers beach party town) but only to drop someone off and then make our way to a little town called Nimbin. Nimbin is inland from Byron Bay and is mostly known for having a day trip bus that takes tourists there because you can buy weed in just about every form. it's a hippy town of maybe 5000 people but it's got a nice charm. it's inland enough to have that rural feel to it, the little downtown is very small but it's got a cute charm to it. The hostel we stayed at was gorgeous. We just parked our car and stayed in it but the kitchen there was fantastic, there was a teepee as a sleeping area, wallabies were running through it, cows across the barbed wire fence, we got there just in time for a beautiful sunset. it was like staying on a hippy farm. I got to sit on one of the swinging chairs and watch the sun set while drinking some cheap wine and it was pretty nice dude. We ventured into town that night and had some drinks. We watched Ireland get the crap kicked out of them by New Zealand in a rugby match with some of the locals and a couple Irish girls. We were just chatting away. At one point we went outside and everyone was smoking weed. i decided to go next door and grab myself a pot brownie because I figured...as you do. I ate half of it and smoked a little too and I was having a good time. As we left we ran into two women outside that were locals and going to a sex toy party. I kid you not. So of course me and Dave were thinking absolutely! Well it was much more tame than we expected. We had some silly dirty names assigned to us but what ended up happening was I got so messed up and tired that I passed out in the kitchen and Dave was asked to assist me on my way out the door. Not quite a happy ending I'm afraid. So we woke up the next morning and split. I should say that we drove a lot on this trip. We drove about 2900 km's in six days. I got to drive on the left side of the road with the wheel on the right. it was pretty interesting. Stick shift as well. Before Sydney we stopped in a nice little town called Newcastle a little north of it. it's a college town, and a port town with a nice downtown. It was kind of like a New England college town. if I had to compare it to anywhere I'd say similar to Providence, RI. It was pretty cool and fun to explore for a few hours. Right on the Pacific as well. We made our last egg, hashbrown and toast meal in a McDonald's parking lot and then headed back to Sydney.
Arriving in Sydney was pretty sweet actually. I was really looking forward to this. Not even staying in a 32 bed dormitory called the church dampened my mood. Actually I thought it was hilarious and ironic. Overall an interesting experience. Since I had started out in Sydney getting to come back right at the end of the trip for a couple days and be there again was real nice. I explored the other parts of Sydney that I didn't get to see before and it was pretty cool. i went for a long ass walk through the eastern suburbs and explored multiple cool areas then, including Bondi Beach (the most famous but not best beach in Australia). Winding through those hills in the eastern part of town and occasionally looking back and getting an amazing view of downtown Sydney and all it's monuments was fantastic. I also got to walk along the cliffs on the Pacific Ocean with a specially built cliff walk path. That was great too. Just peering out, watching the massive waves crash against the cliffs and slowly make their way into Sydney harbour, and thinking about how the States is just that way and I'm about to be heading back over the Pacific. I also walked though downtown and all the scenic stuff you see there again. Going by the Sydney harbour to see the Opera house and the bridge again was just great. I went by their 3 times this time around. Getting lost in the inner western suburbs and finding all these different cultural neighborhoods that I knew nothing about. I quickly understood why people said that all the stuff you get in Melbourne you can get in Sydney, you just have to look for it more. Truth, but there's way more of it in Melbourne. And I really did all this without a map. That was pretty sweet. But doing all this stuff really put a nice finishing touch on my trip in Oz. I really felt like I had done everything that I had set out to do. Comparing my beginning time in Sydney to my ending time was nice. I just felt like I had really accomplished what I set out to do. I really felt like I had seen so much. Not just in the last few months but the last 8 years. I thought about all my experiences, where I had come from and how having experienced all that I was ready to be more serious and excited to come back to the bay. I honestly felt open to wherever I may end up or be. At other times I've had plans of when this or that will end but that was the first time where I really felt like I could end up almost anywhere and be totally content with it. I was ready to come back after that time in Sydney for sure. The only issue was there was this country Fiji that I was supposed to stop off in. I really didn't feel like doing that all. I kind of wished I was going straight back. part of it too was that my money situation was pretty dire at that point. Thank God Fiji's conversion rate is heavily in favor of the US dollar.
Fiji ended up being pretty awesome. I was there for 6 nights and quite frankly I wish I could've spent more time there. I had a blast there. Some of the coolest travelers I met, I met there. The hostel I was at was $6 USD a night. The people that worked there and a few locals from nearby would come and hang out with the tourists so it was totally intermixed equally. Everyone chatting with everyone, just relaxing about man. Every night there was something called a kava circle. There's a tree root called kava. they grind it up and mix it with water to make kava. It's a drink that totally sedates you. We drank it pretty much every night. Man I got some fantastic sleep with it. We would sit around for 3 hours while the local guys/employees had a jam session and just chat with each other for a while. We might throw some cheap beers in there but it was super relaxing. It was getting pretty cold in Oz at that point cause it was there winter but it was right hot again when I was in Fiji. Since I was short on dough I just stayed at the hostel mostly. Lounging around I really delved into my book which was a 600 page bio of Obama. I only got through about half of it before I decided i needed to change books. Sleeping in, going for a walk, lying in the hammock and maybe playing some ping pong/volleyball was what I did at this perfect setting. One night a Welsh guy, Irish guy, Aussie guy, Dutch girl and I did the 60 shots of beer in 60 minutes and it was easier than I thought. Although we were all super drunk by the end of it for sure. That was a fun night. The Fijian guys kept asking us to be quiet and try as we did it just wasn't making the cut. The guys were cool though. Trent the Aussie was by far the loudest. We went to the kava circle after that and Trent was damn near yelling by accident several times. Those guys and I had met the day before when we all helped make what's called a lovo. Basically this guy Rico grabbed us and had us help him prepare the dinner for the night. We walked to the beach with a machete and cut of some branches from a tree. then we carried them back and chopped them up even more. We cracked open coconuts with the machete, drank the water and ground about 100 of them down to get the milk and use the shredded coconut in a dish. We also skinned some pacific island vegetables while the cooks prepped a bunch of meat. This whole time a fat fire was burning with large rocks in the middle of it. When the fire was done the rocks were piping hot. We then put the food all wrapped up on the rocks, dug a hole around it, put coconut leaves on it, wet cloth over it, dry cloth over that and then covered it on dirt to cook underground for 5 hours. It rocked! And we got the first sample of some of this stuff.  the other thing I did was get tricked into going to a state fair type thing which was total crap. It was with the same people I did the power hour with. This town north of where we were was full of Indians (the country) and I got a little bit of a lesson about them and why they were there. It was supposed to be a cool fair that we paid to go to but really not the case. We just walked around for about 3 hours trying to get Sophie some ice cream. Me and the guys really just laughed about it for the next couple days. The first night was a wild one too. Some of the girls convinced me to go out with them in downtown Nadi and I did. Frankly it was pretty run down but a cool experience. I was mostly with the locals and it was pretty sweet but I got dooped into spending too much money. That's kinda what happened with every city I went to the first night I got there. Just the sheer excitement of being there made me wanna go out and have some fun. I definitely had fun that's for sure. The only real regret I have about Fiji is when our buddy Rico offered to take Trent and me up to the north island and stay with him in his village for a week. It wouldn't cost anything and we would just help with all the daily preparations and lifestyle stuff there.Unfortunately Trent and I were on the same flight in 3 days for the States so we had to pass. It was great! I have some good memories from there. One local guy named Simon who was an unreal fire dancer was at the kava circle one night. He always was and got way kava'd out and had a deep Mufasa type voice. I was sitting at the circle with my sandals and he said, "My friend, we have only 2 rules here in Fiji. Don't wear your shoes inside the house." I immediately apologized and he then said, "My friend it's alright. You did not know so it's not a sin. The second rule is follow the first rule." We had a quick laugh and I took my sandals off. Then he turned to me and said, "In the old days, we would have eaten you for this." Lol. Man that funny and totally true at the same time. Quite a memory. So Trent and I had to leave at 9pm to catch our flight. We got one of the locals we had gotten to know to give us a ride to the airport for free. We sat down for a couple more kava bowls before we left. The guy running it found out we were leaving and started giving us "high tides" which were bowls full of a lot of kava and then 2 bowls back to back right as we were getting up to leave. We were sent off with everyone there waving, saying goodbye and wishing us luck. In the cab Trent and were talking about how that was one hell of a send off. And it was. I didn't want to leave. But the States was waiting and it was time to get back. So we hopped on our flight and took off. An hour and a half late, but that's Fiji time. And it felt good to go across the Pacific again.