further up the east coast

In Mission Beach, I saw a rare sight: A cassowary in the wild!  I had never heard of cassowaries until I saw one at the zoo in Sydney a couple months ago.  I remember thinking, why haven't I heard of this thing before?  It's more endangered than the koala... and apparently less popular - so it gets less press - even though cassowaries are a critical part of the rainforest ecosystem (they disperse seeds that other animals can't to regenerate the forest).  Although these birds are known to move quickly, this particular cassowary took its time crossing the street, sauntering in the rain in front of our car.  I was lucky enough to see one further north as well, in the parking lot for a rainforest walk in Cape Tribulation.  That one moved much faster - by the time I jumped out of the car (fyi not recommended, as they can be aggressive), I barely had time to pull out my camera before it disappeared into the forest!  But I did manage to get this shot... :)

I saw a lot of beaches on the east coast, and my favourite was Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas.  It wasn't the most beautiful but it offered something the others didn't have: Yoga on the beach.  As a hot yoga addict back home, I'd been suffering from withdrawal for some time...  And although this wasn't in an infrared heated room, yoga with the ocean in the background sounded pretty appealing, so I went to a class.  I'm happy I did!  Lying on the beach in Savasana, listening to the sound of the waves coming in, I noticed something - or perhaps more accurately, the absence of something.  Other than a few traces in my jaw, there was no tension in my body.  This was a new experience for me - and one I wasn't expecting to have on this trip!  Or ever...

There were a lot of rainforests to visit in northern Queensland, and after hiking through a few of them I opted to gain a new perspective by going jungle surfing in Cape Tribulation.  I saw the Daintree Rainforest up in the canopy, zip-lining from platform to platform.  This rainforest is the world's oldest - and at 135 million years old, it was around at the same time as the dinosaurs.  The tour guides managed to keep our group in line, and entertained, by calling us the names on our helmets...  Mine was Stiffler's Mum :)

Penelope and I tried to be strategic about selecting a second WWOOFing experience as the last leg of our east coast trip.  After scouring through the host listings, we categorized the possibilities into definitely, probably not and no way.  (We'd learned from Valerie during our previous experience that "mulching" meant handling manure, which didn't sound like something we'd enjoy, so this was a key criteria in our evaluation.)  We tried to book a couple of more appealing places further in advance, only to find out they were unable to commit to our requested dates at that time (for one place it was way too early, for another it was way too late)...  We also had some communication issues, with a few unreturned phone calls/emails...  Then we forgot about it for a bit, and all of a sudden it was just a few days before we'd planned to WWOOF.  And nothing was booked.  In a bit of a panic, we started making phone calls...  We had communication issues again, this time from the phone booth randomly hanging up in the middle of calls...  Some people weren't answering their landlines or mobiles...  Things from the probably not list started to slide up into why not?...  When we called, Russell answered - and had space for us!  After all that strategizing, in the end it all came down to who was there to confirm availability when we needed to book something, and host us for the timing we had in mind :)

So our last stop was in Mt Surprise, 300 km west of Cairns, for some WWOOFing with Russell.  His listing said that he had a small farm incorporating a museum, campground, restaurant and reptile demos.  Work would include planting, harvesting and selling of organic produce (and no mulching! :) ).  I was excited at the prospect of eating healthy for a week - based on the last experience, I was under the assumption that WWOOFing hosts live off their land and eat what they grow.

Arriving in Mt Surprise certainly was a surprise, in many ways.  Russell hadn't planted his organic garden this year as he'd been too busy... hosting a camp for 15 construction workers who were building a bridge nearby!  There was temporary housing set up on Russell's property for these men to live in - these long, portable-type things called dongas that had individual rooms for everyone.  We had to negotiate our responsibilities, as what we were expecting to do was no longer a possibility.  Russell wanted help looking after the crew, mainly in the form of doing dishes after breakfast and dinner.  He told us we could help out Cindy, the lady who ran his café, during her working hours, supporting her efforts to look after the construction workers.  It turned out that his restaurant - and our diet for that week - had a typical outback menu (meaning meat, burgers, fries, toasted sandwiches) rather than the organic veggies I'd been craving.  The café menu items are all things I typically don't make at home, and felt I shouldn't make if we were going to charge people for them, so I informed Russell accordingly.  He said he didn't have any expectations for us to do any food preparation - that he'd cook breakfast and dinner for the construction workers, and that Cindy would take care of the café during the day.

Shortly after our arrival, Penelope and I found out that another WWOOFer - Sachika, a young woman from Japan - had just left Mt Surprise unexpectedly that morning.  She'd left a note for Russell and Cindy saying that she couldn't get used to this environment, and got up early enough to avoid saying goodbye in person.  Apparently there were a few events leading up to this unexpected departure:

- Sachika wanted to call a cab while she was in Mt Surprise to get around town.  With a population of 70, this town doesn't have any cabs - or need any for that matter!  There's nothing close enough to go to that you can't walk to in less than five minutes.  Everything else is really far away.
- The night before, Sachika had found what looked like mouse droppings on the sheets, freaked out and stripped the bed to sleep directly on the mattress.

Who knew culture shock could be defined by taxi availability and gecko poo?

Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to learn about and handle snakes.  Russell is a man dedicated to clearing the bad rap snakes have by default with the general public, and his informative snake show is filled with stories that help clear the misconceptions.  I've handled snakes before - reluctantly, with fear - but after spending a week there I was no longer uncomfortable with snakes...  In fact, I was surprisingly fond of some of them.  Funny how quickly things can grow on you!

I also had the opportunity to get to know some of the construction workers quite well.  Not since Stampede last summer have I seen such a concentration of men seeking female attention!  They were all happy to share their life experiences and lessons with me, reinforcing the need to be true to yourself while respecting others.  There isn't much to do in the outback, so after getting back from work a lot of them would start drinking and end up having a bonfire after dinner.  Every night.  Although they were full of wisdom, they were also full of alcohol and a couple of these men brought new meaning to the term stupid drunk - the morning after Penelope and I decided to brave the campfire, we found out that three of them decided that it would be a good idea to go hunting for wild boar in the middle of the night.  They were already quite drunk when I'd left at 1 am and had apparently continued drinking until they decided to leave for the hunt at 3 am.  The hunt entailed driving around the outback in an open vehicle with some of them hanging out of it with knives and other sharp objects so that they could try to spear any prey they came upon.  I cannot believe they thought this was a good idea!  Fortunately no one got hurt.

On Sunday nights, the pub in town doesn't serve food so more tourists than usual come wandering into Russell's place.  When a group of hungry tourists came into the café after the construction crew had finished eating, I asked Russell if he could make them something.  He suggested I heat up some leftovers from our dinner that I'd just packed away.  I looked at him incredulously, wondering how many times I'd been served leftovers in small town cafés.  It wasn't that the food was bad or old - I'd literally just put it away - it was just that it was, well, leftover!... not made to order.  "You do know how to do that, right?" Russell asked, clearly concerned that I might not have the skills to support this request given our earlier conversation about cooking.  "Yup, I'm on it," I replied.  I prepared and delivered dinner to these four tourists - reheated BBQ'd steak and sausages as well as multiple salads.  Russell supplemented this with a batch of fresh french fries.  After dinner, they couldn't stop complimenting the food!  Success!!  Our responsibilities evolved as the days passed, and I actually did end up making quite a bit of food throughout the week - sandwiches in the café, pizza for dinner, plus dessert several nights in a row, which was an unusual treat for the construction workers.  Needless to say, they didn't want us to leave when it was time to go.

After Mt Surprise we spent another night in Cairns before flying back to Sydney, where I experienced a bit of culture shock myself.  Although I'd been in Sydney twice already and seen that it was filled with the hustle and bustle of a big city as well as tons of people, this time it struck me that these people were mostly strangers to each other - strangers who couldn't be bothered interacting with each other as they tried to get on with their busy days.  It all of a sudden felt surprisingly empty compared to Mt Surprise.  Thankfully we were staying with another friend of a friend, who gave us a warm welcome...

up the east coast

July and the first half of August were spent between Sydney and Cooktown, with a few ventures inland.  Now that I have some time and internet access, here are select experiences from the east coast road trip...


Before leaving Sydney, Penelope and I signed up to be Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF).  This program allows you to work for 4-6 hours per day in exchange for room and board, and we decided to do this twice on the east coast - once at the start and once at the end.  Our first WWOOFing stop was in Willina, northwest of Newcastle, with Bill and Jilliana - medical herbalists who operate a wholesale plant nursery as well as a holistic health practice that manufactures herbal medicine and beauty products.  Their listing said: If you're interested in health, natural healing and disease prevention, amazing Greek vegetarian food then you will enjoy our paradise.  It also said: You will live in our barn house as part of our family.  After a few years of naturopathic treatment to optimize my own health, this place sounded pretty intriguing, and Penelope and I felt like we'd lucked out when we confirmed they had availability to host us.  After the excessive proportions of meat in the outback diet, I was also ready for a digestive break and excited about Greek vegetarian, thinking about veggie moussaka and Greek salad (mmm... feta).  I was also curious to see what living in a barn would be like, although a bit apprehensive about it at the same time - would I be sleeping on hay?  I would soon find out.

It was interesting to see how Bill and Jilliana described their lifestyle in the listing compared to my experience of how they actually live...  We left Sydney in the evening and drove straight up to Bill and Jilliana's 400-acre property, arriving quite late at night.  It was dark, but I could see that the house looked like a giant shed.  Bill met us outside and lit the way for us to quietly climb up the stairs into the loft that housed our beds.  The next morning we woke up to find Valerie, a 19-year-old university student on exchange from New Jersey, and a fellow WWOOFer, in the third bed in our loft (which was surprisingly comfortable and cozy for a barn/shed!).  She gave us the lay of the land: Bill and Jilliana only ate organic food; didn't eat breakfast (to give their digestive systems a break); didn't drink water (to reduce the amount of work their kidneys had to do); and only ate properly food combined meals (too much to explain here, please google).  This meant that they only ate 2 meals per day, one primarily consisting of fruits and the other one was usually made up of vegetables and beans.  My visions of vegetarian moussaka vanished into thin air.  Bill later informed us that their diet was based on the ancient Greeks.  It was like doing a detox by default - which, in the end, I actually quite enjoyed, even though it was unexpected... I was just happy that my own quest for better health had already at least introduced me to some of the concepts Bill and Jilliana lived by.  Otherwise it probably would've been too much of a shock!  Especially with the physical labour...

Penelope and I helped Bill and Jilliana with both of their businesses, with the majority of our efforts focused on the plant nursery.  We weeded in the nursery and packed up plants on two trucks - one for each of the Sunday markets that Bill and Jilliana attended as vendors.  As someone who packs frequently, I have to say that Bill and Jilliana took the concept of efficient packing to the next level!  Plants were stacked tight and staggered at least 3 pots high.  We packed the trucks a day early and then got up at 3 am on Sunday to do the 2 hour drive to the market with Bill.  It was still dark outside and on the truck while I was unpacking, so I had to be careful not to drop pots of plants as I pulled them out - which was actually surprisingly challenging!  We were set up and ready to go well before the market opened at 8 am, at which point Bill asked us to help out during the market as well.  Tasked with selling plants, I felt like I was on The Apprentice - except that rather than competing to win the opportunity to work for Donald Trump, my prize would be having less plants to re-pack onto the truck on the way home - which all of a sudden was oddly exciting!  I was not equipped for the job...  I gave away all my plants a few years ago to avoid killing them (since I was never home), and consequently I lacked the product knowledge required to support the inquiries of customers striving to make an informed purchase.  I decided to focus on supporting customers who'd already made a decision, and getting those who needed info access to Bill.  It worked well - when the market closed, Bill said that sales were higher than usual given the time of year.  We still had quite a few plants to re-stack on the truck, but I was happy to do it - and that he trusted me enough to allow me to contribute to his livelihood.

Right after leaving Bill and Jilliana's I found myself in Hunter Valley - one of Australia's wine regions - eating and drinking at a micro-brewery just hours after leaving their home.  The next day was occupied by a wine tour.  It's funny how quickly and dramatically things can change - and how easy it is to adapt! :)

You can feel the energy in the air when you get to Byron Bay!  This was the first stop on the east coast where I got that sense of relief that you get when you arrive at your vacation destination after a particularly stressful and busy period (even though I can't say that I've been stressed or busy lately!).  Byron Bay welcomes visitors with sunshine, beautiful beaches, great food, alternative therapies and interesting people - some of whom told me things I already knew.  I totally get why some people never make it further up the east coast.  After some surfing lessons...

...I decided to get a picture of my aura taken.  I was actually tempted to perform a very, um, scientific experiment of getting my aura cleansed (a service readily available in Byron Bay!) and then getting a second photo taken to see the difference.  After my first aura photo I realized there was no need to go any further, as the reading felt accurate.  Red represents vital energy, grounding, passion, determination, will and focus.  My reading revealed that I am:


- Considered trustworthy, competent and determined by people who meet me
- In the middle of a cycle
- Capable of committing to a cause to effect change
- Sometimes overly focused on others/external things and for this reason need to make sure I take care of myself


I was also informed that I need to get clear on what I want for the future - which, ironically, is the reason I decided to take some time off in the first place.  It's exciting when life gives you confirmation that you've taken a step in the right direction... regardless of the source :)


When I was in Hervey Bay I called Neil and Claire, friends of a family friend in Toronto.  I had never met these people before.  They didn't know I might be contacting them either so until I picked up the phone and explained our mutual connection they had no idea I even existed - and even so, they excitedly invited Penelope and I to stay with them in Bundaberg for a night.  We arranged to visit them a few days later and I have to admit, some of my initial excitement was not just at the prospect of meeting these people I'd heard so much good stuff about, but also because of the idea of not living in a hostel for one night... showering in flip flops and sleeping with things you don't want people to steal in your bunk bed gets old kinda quickly.

When we arrived Neil and Claire welcomed Penelope and I with typical Aussie hospitality - meaning, they told us to feel at home in their home and actually meant it.  And I did feel at home, right from the start - how can you not enjoy being in a house designed with a special nook for happy hour?  We first met up with Claire at the Bundaberg Barrel and went to the house to meet Neil, who had come home to greet us between work and his evening commitment.  Neil and Claire are avid travellers and we immediately bonded by sharing our various adventures, getting into a conversation about the realities of travel that left us all erupting with laughter.  I was laughing so hard my cheeks hurt and it felt like my abs had gotten a good workout.  Since we'd blocked in Neil's car on our arrival and he needed to get out, I went to move our car.  After I got in I finally stopped laughing, looked up and found myself in the front left-hand side of the car - the passenger side down under. I smiled and started laughing again: "Well, I guess I better get in the other side." Neil replied: "I was wondering what you were doing!" Instinct is a funny thing, and can kick in when you least expect it.

We were having such a good time that we ended up extending our visit in Bundaberg, and the rest of it was equally fabulous and entertaining!  We toured around the area, shared some more of our experiences, ate some authentic and traditional Aussie treats - homemade meat pie and BBQ - and used the happy hour space daily :)  When it was time to leave I didn't want to go...  I was hoping time would somehow just pause so that we could hang around a bit longer without compromising the rest of our desired itinerary.  Unfortunately that never happens.  We had to move on.  The day we left, Claire woke us up to say goodbye before leaving for work.  Neil came home between his morning commitment and work to say goodbye to us.  The night before, Neil had thanked Penelope and I for treating him and Claire so well, saying that it isn't often that they have the opportunity to connect with people from our generation at that level.  He reinforced that sentiment again that morning.  After we said our goodbyes and Neil left for work, I felt completely overwhelmed...  I couldn't help it... I started bawling.  Uncontrollably.  These people, who days earlier had been complete strangers, had generously invited us into their home and graciously hosted us for a few days - and they were the ones thanking us for treating them well!  It seemed to me like it should be the other way around.  I've realized that although it was hard to go, this was the ideal parting - how often do both parties think they got the better end of the deal and express gratitude for it?  Not often enough I'd say...

A few more stops down the road, Penelope and I were at Airlie Beach.  It seemed a bit cold to go snorkeling, so we opted to see the Whitsundays via a scenic flight on a seaplane.  We booked a plane ride for the following afternoon through our hostel shortly after our arrival.  When the booking agent was explaining logistics, she told us the airport was 10 minutes down the road.  Penelope and I nodded in recognition - we'd just driven by some signs for the airport turn-off on the way into town.  I was excited - I'd been on a seaplane for a work trip between Vancouver and Victoria a few years ago, which had been pretty amazing.  And that was for utilitarian travel!  A flight designed for touristic purposes in a part of the world known for breathtaking views would surely be at least equally enjoyable.  The next morning we walked around and tried to fill up our day before the fight, wandering around a market and making some phone calls home.  We hopped in the car early and started driving to the airport.  Ten minutes down the road, we hadn't seen any signs for the airport.  Although I'd been going the speed limit, I wondered if I'd been driving too slowly.  Maybe that was why we hadn't seen them yet?  Five minutes later, there were still no signs... the airport turn-off was further out than either of us remembered it being.  We discussed, and eliminated, the possibility of there being more than one airport in the area - Airlie Beach, with a population of less than 3,000, was simply too small to support 2 airports... right?  When we finally got to the turn-off, I was feeling a bit unsettled...  Why had it taken us so much longer to get there than it was supposed to?  And why was it not in the direction of water?  I was still optimistic, guessing that perhaps the plane took off from land and landed on water (a convertible seaplane? how cool!)...  The additional travel time meant that we were no longer early, so Penelope jumped out of the car to run in and tell them we were there for our flight while I went to park.  When I got into the building, Penelope was running out - there were two airports, and we were at the wrong one!  My cell phone rang.  It was the scenic flight people, to ask if we were still coming.  I quickly explained our predicament, only to find out that they couldn't wait for us to get from one airport to the other.  The plane was going to leave without us!  After spending the morning trying to figure out how to kill time before our afternoon flight, we were going to miss it...  We debated sticking around for another night to catch a flight the next morning but ended up opting against it - the time felt right for us to move on and I think that I just wasn't meant to be on that flight.  (They also kindly refunded our deposit, since it was an honest mistake...  Whitsunday Airport vs. Whitsunday Coast Airport - who named these??)  So the Whitsundays - a "must-do" in Australia - will have to wait until next time... 

More to come!  Stay tuned...

and i quote 2

Expanded to include some additional sources...  Enjoy!

"Are you guys normal backpackers?" - Travel agent in Byron Bay, when Penelope and I were unwilling to book a day trip through him 10 days in advance, as that's way too much advanced planning these days for that type of thing.  (We've since established that we are in fact not normal backpackers... but for other reasons :) ).

"You're just another tree to him!" - Tour guide at the Bungalow Bay Koala Village on Magnetic Island, to let the people who'd paid the $14 surcharge to hold the koala know that unlike the humans, the animal would not be emotionally attached after this experience.

"F@#%!! I was waaay off on that one!" - A bouncer's expression after it changed when he found the date of birth on my Ontario driver's license after carding me to make sure I was old enough to enter the establishment in Airlie Beach.

"Anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated." - Beach Hotel bar coaster in Byron Bay.

"You'll see it," and/or "You can't miss it." - Every single person who has provided me with directions in Australia.  These often refer to things like "a big tree/rock/field on your right" as there regularly isn't signage to refer to.

"Looks like they've set up a bit of a minefield for me." - Russell, a resident of a small town in the outback who gave us a lift, as he swerved to avoid the cattle dung while we were driving on an unfenced road...  It had rained the day before and apparently cows prefer wet asphalt to wet ground, making it a bit more challenging than usual.

"We're just going to cuddle... non-sexually." - Laura, one of my hostel dorm roomies, to let the ladies in our female dorm room know that a man would be joining her in bed. (I found out the next morning her statement was not true for the entire night, and was thankful I'd invested in noise-isolating earphones before leaving home and then fallen asleep wearing them that night.)

you live, you learn 2

- It really is a small world!
- You can't tell how heavy a plant is just by looking at it. You need to actually pick it up.
- Although tipping isn't customary in Australia, every credit card receipt I've had has included a tip line (even the one from the travel agent for the outback tour!).
- Some days, you actually do need a winter jacket in Sydney during winter.
- Blogger formatting doesn't always post the way it appears in preview mode.
- Penguins are found exclusively in the southern hemisphere.
- To minimize tearing while chopping, rinse an onion in water after removing the outer layer.
- Female kangaroos are able to freeze development of an embryo.
- Rembrandt painted mostly on hemp.
- It's all relative.
- The swipe on my emergency replacement MasterCard doesn't really work even though it reads the number. You need to punch in the number for the transaction to actually go through.
- Things get lost in translation.  Sometimes even when you speak the same language.
- To make banana ice cream: 1) Peel ripe bananas and cut into smaller pieces. 2) Put in freezer for at least 24 hours. (Freezer burn is ok.) 3) Put into blender or food processor.  If consistency is icy add unfrozen ripe banana. 4) Enjoy!
- If something is truly important to you, you will create space for it in your life.
- Most wines are not vegan friendly.
- You can select an automatic check-in option for domestic flights within Australia.
- Labelling roadways is optional over here, both on maps and on street posts.
- It's actually possible to have too many hours in a day.  Who knew?

road trip

I'm in Bundaberg right now, on a trip up the east coast.  After renting a car in Sydney and learning how to navigate the other side of the road and car in rush hour traffic, Penelope and I started heading north.  We've made a lot of stops along the way, both along the coast and inland, and it's crazy how many places the scenery has reminded me of - Ontario's cottage country, rural Alberta, the Maritimes, California, Florida, Hawaii, England - who knew Australia's east coast had so much to offer?

It's been really interesting for me to see how Penelope and I relate differently to navigation.  She prefers having turn-by-turn directions and a detailed map for everything, and gets antsy if she's not sure where to go.  I can relate to that because I used to be like that too, but now, not so much.  Unless we're in a big city, I'm happy just having the destination in mind and a general sense of where that is compared to where we are now.  Then all I have to do is just get in the car and drive, and look for signs along the way to help guide the journey.  I'm not really worried about wrong turns because sometimes you find something way more interesting than what you were looking for in the first place, and I know that eventually I'll figure out how to get where I want to go.  I can't help but wonder to what extent this relates to real life.

and i quote

Another great thing about travelling is the interesting conversation! Here are some of the best lines of the trip so far, based on entertainment value, storytelling capability, insight and/or randomness...

"There aren't many things you can trust an Aussie with, but a barbie is one of them." - Amy to our Australian tour guide Brett, as he was cooking us an Asian noodle stir-fry for dinner on the BBQ.

"You're a good dancer but not the best." - Mick, the bar and hotel owner in Quorn, to me after all the ladies from our tour group got down from dancing on top of the bar.

"How did the animals get the best real estate in the city?" - Sarah, a hotel employee, after I told her we'd spent the day at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney which boasts views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

"Long time ago."- Miss Korea 1987, without looking up from painting my toenails at a nail salon in Sydney, after I asked if the framed pictures from the competition on the wall were her.

"Oop! We got one." - Dan, our tour guide, after a big thump then bump turned a wallaby into roadkill as all the women on the bus shrieked, en route to the campsite where we were going to have kangaroo for dinner.

"You look like you could be German... or at least European." Anja, a 19-year-old German traveller, to me after Roscoe, the hostel manager, guessed that I was German out of a group of 6 people, 3 of whom were German.

"Your pants are on fire! Your pants are on fire! Your pants are on fire!" - Marshmallow provider for our tour group's bonfire to me, before I realized my pants were in fact on fire, resulting in a small hole and 2 tiny burn marks on my leg.

"I have a question. Can you tell me what highway we're on?" - Me to gas station attendant late at night after I thought Penelope and I might've missed a turn on our way up the east coast.

"That's a good question. It depends. What highway would you like to be on?" - Gas station attendant to me in response to my question above.

"Welcome to my office!" - My tandem skydiving instructor Wade, shortly after the parachute opened.

the outback tour

Here are select stories and images from the outback tour the last couple of weeks...

We learned a lot about Aboriginals on the journey. It's pretty amazing how they live - truly off the land and with really no environmental impacts. On a cultural tour, we were given the official welcome... Steve - shown in the photo - welcomed us all by drinking water from the nearby billabong and proceeding to spit it out in a kiss-like contact with the top of our foreheads. I was lucky enough to go first in our group and have zero warning of what this welcome would entail. After he finished, I stood there unsure how to proceed: Do I say thank you? Is it rude to wipe the water off my forehead? Luckily he moved onto the next person quickly before anyone noticed my confusion...

Accommodations were included in the tour, and included hostels, camping and sleeping in swags. That's me in a swag on the left - it's basically this bedroll thing that has a mattress on the bottom and a cover on the top that you put your sleeping bag into. We slept in these for 2 nights when we were visiting Uluru and Kata Tjuta and although it was freezing outside (I was wearing 5 layers of shirts, 3 layers of pants, in a sleeping bag with a liner and then the swag and still cold) this was by far the best accommodation... falling asleep and waking up to shooting stars... AMAZING!!

Speaking of accommodations, I have to address the whole hostel thing. It had been awhile since my last stay at a hostel - think it was a few years back when I backpacked through Europe after school. I had prepared myself for shared rooms, grimy bathrooms, squeaky bunk beds, sketchy roommates and interrupted sleep. But the night we got to Darwin, I was definitely not prepared for... We arrived in Darwin in early evening and went to check in at reception. This place was so disorganized it took them a good 10-15 minutes to find our booking and figure out whether or not we'd already paid. After putting a deposit down on the room key, we went to our room and found something that looked like it belonged on Hoarders or Buried Alive. There was stuff everywhere - it looked like several suitcases (or backpacks!) had exploded. The room Penelope and I were in was a 4-bed dorm, so 2 bunk beds. Two of the beds were covered in clothing, and a third bed was covered in change. After assessing how many occupants there likely were based on the variety of clothing around, we determined there were at least 3 - one larger man, one smaller man, and a woman. Figuring they had probably put us into the wrong room (given the organization skills observed at check-in) we went back down to reception and asked to be put into another room. The lady came out from behind the desk and paused for a second to ask: "Do you smell something?" I wasn't feeling great - think I had mild dehydration - and not in the mood to play games. I responded: "What do you think you're smelling?" She replied: "I thought I smelled some pot." I couldn't smell anything and informed her accordingly. She went on: "I thought it might be you girls. No?... Ok, come along, we'll get to the bottom of this!" I have checked in many times in my life - probably many more than most people - but this one was by far the most entertaining... never before have I been accused of being high as a reason for a check in glitch! When we got to the room she informed us that 2 men were checked into the room (apparently it was a mixed dorm), cleared the change from the bed and offered to bring a new bedsheet (which never materialized). I began to wonder if perhaps the smaller man in the room was a cross-dresser. In the middle of the night when our roommates returned I woke up to find out there were actually 3 occupants - 2 men and 1 non-registered woman - and 2 of them were sleeping in the bunk above me. When I opened my eyes I could swear the bottom of the top bunk was closer to me than when I went to sleep. I thought back to engineering, trying to remember just how big those weight load safety factors typically were. Double the anticipated load? 10 times? 100? I couldn't remember but figured it must be at least double. I lay there thankful that I'd remembered to get travel insurance before I left home and tried to get back to sleep so I'd be rested for our early morning start...

We saw a lot of really cool things on the trip, including Uluru, Kata Tjuta, all the stuff along the Great Ocean Road, Katherine Gorge, King's Canyon, lots of national parks... the list goes on and on! This is me at Devil's Marbles - supporting one of the big stones ;)

In terms of activities along the route, in the northern part where the weather was warmer we visited a lot of waterfalls, swimming holes and thermal pools inside some of the national parks. Here's a picture of our group at the Pinnacle in the Grampians - this was by far the best view of the tour and totally worth the challenging hike to the top.

We visited Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world. The highlight of this stop for me was definitely the stop at the kangaroo orphanage. That's me with Francesca (7 months). There were 4 red kangaroos there and I learned that not all red kangaroos are red! One of the four was blue grey. I couldn't help but wonder if the blue grey one felt like an outsider... which led me to think about whether or not kangaroos have body image issues. They're beautiful creatures and are quite small at the top and very large at the bottom.

We found several abandoned cars along the route. I'm not quite sure how exactly you can abandon a car in the outback - sometimes you're literally 100s of kms from anything.

One night while going to our campsite, some time after turning off the main highway our tour guide admitted we were lost. We were trying to find a horse farm that had camping grounds, and our guide had only been there once before. It was pitch black and we came upon a patch of light green coloured bags in the dark. As we drove further, there were more and more patches. People on the bus started to freak out - especially since our lunchtime discussion that day had been about Wolf Creek, an Aussie horror movie about backpackers who get killed in the outback by a psycho and is based on multiple true stories. I asked the driver to stop as several people had expressed interest in taking pictures of the bags, since we had no idea what was in them and our speculations were causing a lot of nervous anticipation. When we stopped, I was the only one to get off the bus. I walked to the back of the trailer and managed to take this shot before my heart was pounding so much that I had to run back onto the bus... As you can see I was still quite a distance from the bags and that was more than enough! After circling around a few times because it was too dark to tell we were choosing the same turns over and over, we finally managed to find our campsite. I wonder if anyone slept well that night...

Ok, so this wasn't in the outback but it was part of the tour... The night we arrived in Melbourne was my birthday. We were staying at a hostel and this place was known to be sketchy. At check-in, we found out that there was a possibility to upgrade to something called a sanctuary room - a room for ladies only that was supposed to be more secure and posh than a standard dorm. I asked the man behind the counter if he'd consider upgrading us as a birthday gift to me, and after suggesting that I carry around ID that shows that it's my birthday for each day of the year (which actually, for this kind of trip, wouldn't be a bad idea!) he upgraded me and my friends to the sanctuary. It wasn't actually posh - the main difference I noticed compared to other hostels was that I didn't have to make my bed - but along with the upgrade came some free champagne from the bar downstairs! Score!!