Yesterday I flew from Adelaide in SA to Cairns, in Northern Queensland. Cairns is the major starting point for backpackers making their way down the East Coast, which is famous for, amongst other things - the Great Barrier Reef, Whitsunday Islands, Fraser Island, Gold Coast and non-stop parties. I plan to enjoy/see all of the above over the next six weeks!
Upon arriving in Cairns I met Seva, my latest Helpx host - it turned out I am her first helper and she is absolutely lovely and v. undemanding with regards to chores. Anyways, I had met this girl on the plane to Cairns who was running somewhat short on cash so when Seva mentioned she had a spare bed if Rachel was interested I went back into the airport and dragged Rachel along. Since it was evening when we arrived, last night was just a relaxing night at Seva's.
It is'THE WET' in Cairns at the moment and so it poured last night by the bucketful, but I get the impression it is a good thing it rained as the climate here is tropical and without a rain it can be sticky, muggy and unbearably hot.
I was supposed to head to Port Douglas tomorrow morning, but I've decided to stay in Cairns for a couple more days as Seva is so nice and so I can sort out what I want to do with regards to touring the Daintree rainforest.
I can't believe I am leaving Australia in less than 2 months!!!
Note to all at home (PEI) - if you know of any jobs/places to rent in Ch'town please let me know, I will need both a place to live and a place to work when I get back in June.
'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.' Robert Frost
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Back in Adelaide
Free at last! Yay - Sara and I left the vineyard this morning and made the trek back to Adelaide. We're spending two nights here before we part ways (sigh) - I head North East to Cairns and she heads West to Perth. We are looking forward to eating and drinking well and having some free time to ourselves.
To be perfectly honest, the vineyard was getting a bit old over the past few days. No need to go into details, this is about my adventures not my misadventures!
In any case, we did have some enjoyable experiences on the farm - namely when we left it to explore the area. The highlight by far was last Friday when we were given the day off (yah - but we worked 10 hours the next day doing cooking/catering).
We decided it was the opportune time to do our cycling tour of the McLaren Vale cellar doors. Cellar doors for those of you who are not familiar, are vineyards where you are invited to sample many, many wines grown locally.
For some reason I figured we would be able to handle six or seven. Sara just laughed at me and rightly so, because after our first stop I was in dire need of some bread to soak up the alcohol. It didn't help that it was 11 in the morning, I hadn't drank in two months and we had just finished a 10 km cycle! Anyways, we cycled on from Penny's Hills to Richard Hamilton/Leconfield Winery where we sampled some lovely wines then on to the town of McLaren Vale where we took a well deserved break from drinking and turned to almond sampling and lunch.
After lunch we hit up Hardy's, Beresford's and Hugh Hamilton's amaszing vineyard with 360 degree views of the area. By this time my ability to cycle 'may' have been slightly compromised. We headed back to Leconfield so I could pick up a bottle of Merlot then raced back to Penny's Hills so Sara could buy Almond Liquer (mmmm!).
Back in Willunga we decided a couple more drinks couldn't hurt us before we made the final leg of our journey home!
In total I think we cycled around 30 kilometres on our tour and drank at least 9 full glasses of wine. It was totally worth it...and it was absolutely free :)
Other highlights from our time on the farm include learning how to make pasta from scratch, making pizza crusts and doing a catering stint at one of the Fringe Festival shows in Adelaide. We also shovelled a lot of cow poo, which, it turns out, was surprisingly light and non-smelly. In fact, the shovel was much heavier than the poo so we all started picking it up with our hands (gloved!).
Well, time is wasting away and the sun is shining so will love you and leave you all for now.
Ooooohhhh - just a note - if you want to read more about our adventures or maybe see a pic or two, just click on the link to Sara's RTW Blog (see panel to your right)
To be perfectly honest, the vineyard was getting a bit old over the past few days. No need to go into details, this is about my adventures not my misadventures!
In any case, we did have some enjoyable experiences on the farm - namely when we left it to explore the area. The highlight by far was last Friday when we were given the day off (yah - but we worked 10 hours the next day doing cooking/catering).
We decided it was the opportune time to do our cycling tour of the McLaren Vale cellar doors. Cellar doors for those of you who are not familiar, are vineyards where you are invited to sample many, many wines grown locally.
For some reason I figured we would be able to handle six or seven. Sara just laughed at me and rightly so, because after our first stop I was in dire need of some bread to soak up the alcohol. It didn't help that it was 11 in the morning, I hadn't drank in two months and we had just finished a 10 km cycle! Anyways, we cycled on from Penny's Hills to Richard Hamilton/Leconfield Winery where we sampled some lovely wines then on to the town of McLaren Vale where we took a well deserved break from drinking and turned to almond sampling and lunch.
After lunch we hit up Hardy's, Beresford's and Hugh Hamilton's amaszing vineyard with 360 degree views of the area. By this time my ability to cycle 'may' have been slightly compromised. We headed back to Leconfield so I could pick up a bottle of Merlot then raced back to Penny's Hills so Sara could buy Almond Liquer (mmmm!).
Back in Willunga we decided a couple more drinks couldn't hurt us before we made the final leg of our journey home!
In total I think we cycled around 30 kilometres on our tour and drank at least 9 full glasses of wine. It was totally worth it...and it was absolutely free :)
Other highlights from our time on the farm include learning how to make pasta from scratch, making pizza crusts and doing a catering stint at one of the Fringe Festival shows in Adelaide. We also shovelled a lot of cow poo, which, it turns out, was surprisingly light and non-smelly. In fact, the shovel was much heavier than the poo so we all started picking it up with our hands (gloved!).
Well, time is wasting away and the sun is shining so will love you and leave you all for now.
Ooooohhhh - just a note - if you want to read more about our adventures or maybe see a pic or two, just click on the link to Sara's RTW Blog (see panel to your right)
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Wallabies, Winding Roads and Wine
Apologies for the lack of posting as of late, but I've just been soooo busy with holidaying I've not had a chance to relax and take a breath! OK, sorry that isn't nice b/c I know most of you are probably reading this whilst sitting at your cubicles or office desks, wishing you were somewhere else - maybe somewhere where you could walk outside in shorts and a t-shirt, somewhere where vineyards line the road home, somewhere where your biggest decision of the day is whether to have a shower before breakfast or after.
Mwwwahhhhhahahahaha - I am LOVING the Life of an Unemployed Traveller..aside from, of course, the dwindling bank account, which I wouldn't be so concerned about except that the Australian government has royally screwed up my tax return and so I wait impatiently every day for a cheque that I should have rec'd in mid-February.
Ah - but for the record, in the first 42 days of my travels I spent an average of $23.08 PER DAY. This includes everything except my airfare (two flights at $130 total). All food, accomodation, other transit, sights, toiletries, etc. I am v. proud of myself as this is below the budget I set for myself.
OK, enough of that - here are the highlights from the last couple of weeks:
TASMANIAN ROAD TRIP
Sara and I left our Helping job in Launceston on Friday morning (Feb 23) to meet up with AMo & Craig, who'd come from Sydney for the weekend - friends of mine but all of a sudden I was outnumbered 3:1 by British people. Egads! We picked up our car hire and headed East, towards the coast. Our destination for the night was a small town called Bicheno, one of the many places on the east coast where you can see 'little blue penguins' or 'fairy penguins' come ashore. We had booked a penguin tour and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the penguins as the walked around us and into their burrows.
Saturday morning we headed to the nearby Natureworld so we could see some Tasmanian Devils. I didn't think it would be v. enjoyable, but it turned out to be a huge highlight because there were wallabies (small kangaroos) and kangaroos walking around freely. They would approach us looking for food - so we bought some and fed them by hand - awwww!!! We also got to touch a really cute wombat named Elsie and a Tasmanian Devil and saw emus, ostriches, koalas and snakes.
We headed south to Freycinet Park where we endured a 4 hour hike (11 kms) so we could see Wineglass Bay, which was lovely despite the grayish skies. After that we were all pretty knackered and happy to sit in the car and drive 3 hours to Hobart. It was Saturday night so we headed out for a bite to eat and the Brits for a few gallons of beer, while I sipped my Diet Pepsi (darn New Year's Resolutions!). - sidenote for the record - still not eating junk food or drinking alcohol but seem to be the same bloody weight anyways!!
Sunday we took it easy because some of us (read the hungover ones) really couldn't handle much more than sitting in a car. We drove back to Launceston via the Great Lake route - due to drought it wasn't so Great anymore and seemed to have divided itself into a few Less Great Lakes.We said our goodbyes to Amo & Craig then headed to our hostel on the mountainside (brilliant!!).
Monday we drove to Cradle Mountain (v. famous mountain in Tasmania) and hiked around Dove Lake (6 kms). By the end of that we were pretty tired of hiking and headed back to Launceston to get a good night's rest before our flight the next morning back to the mainland.
THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD AND ONWARDS TO ADELAIDE
The Great Ocean Road is one of the world's greatest driving experience due to the amazing scenery sculpted into the coastline of VICTORIA by seas from the Antarctic. I have to admit, it was pretty breathtaking, although the highlight (12 Apostles) wasn't quite as enjoyable through the fog & mist we encountered.
We were to spend 3 days and 3 nights travelling 1,100 kms along the Great Ocean Road and to Adelaide. We decided we needed another person along for the drive, so I had put up a notice and an English guy the same age as Sara & I ended up coming along - he was good company and Sara enjoyed having another beer-drinking buddy. My favorite part of the trip was from the first day when Sara was driving along a winding road and slowed to a stop because there was a koala just plodding along on the road. EXtremely unusual - they are always way high up in the trees. Anyways I got out and was only about four feet away from it. Did I mention it had a BABY koala on its back???? By this time a few other cars had slowed down to a stop - we were afraid it was going to get hit. It stopped walking and just sat down smiling (Sara insists it was frightened to death but I like to think it was happy for the attention).
We spent a night in Apollo Bay, then saw the big sights on Day 2, spent the 2nd night in Mount Gambier (which rests at the base of a volcano - dormant) and the third night just south of Adelaide in Victor Harbour.
WINE IN MCLAREN VALE
On Friday morning we arrived in Adelaide and said goodbye to our buddy James. We then got picked up by our Helpxing hosts and taken to their home in McLaren Vale, where we are now staying. The area is beautiful - vineyards, olive farms and almond trees everywhere. The family is really really into making good food and we are working it off every day by cycling to the library(for Internet) and doing 4 hours of dragging brush and tree branches from here to there. I am sore all over.
By the way - I will be back in Halifax on June 4th. If anyone has a job for me, it would be much appreciated! Or a place to live..in Charlottetown.
Mwwwahhhhhahahahaha - I am LOVING the Life of an Unemployed Traveller..aside from, of course, the dwindling bank account, which I wouldn't be so concerned about except that the Australian government has royally screwed up my tax return and so I wait impatiently every day for a cheque that I should have rec'd in mid-February.
Ah - but for the record, in the first 42 days of my travels I spent an average of $23.08 PER DAY. This includes everything except my airfare (two flights at $130 total). All food, accomodation, other transit, sights, toiletries, etc. I am v. proud of myself as this is below the budget I set for myself.
OK, enough of that - here are the highlights from the last couple of weeks:
TASMANIAN ROAD TRIP
Sara and I left our Helping job in Launceston on Friday morning (Feb 23) to meet up with AMo & Craig, who'd come from Sydney for the weekend - friends of mine but all of a sudden I was outnumbered 3:1 by British people. Egads! We picked up our car hire and headed East, towards the coast. Our destination for the night was a small town called Bicheno, one of the many places on the east coast where you can see 'little blue penguins' or 'fairy penguins' come ashore. We had booked a penguin tour and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the penguins as the walked around us and into their burrows.
Saturday morning we headed to the nearby Natureworld so we could see some Tasmanian Devils. I didn't think it would be v. enjoyable, but it turned out to be a huge highlight because there were wallabies (small kangaroos) and kangaroos walking around freely. They would approach us looking for food - so we bought some and fed them by hand - awwww!!! We also got to touch a really cute wombat named Elsie and a Tasmanian Devil and saw emus, ostriches, koalas and snakes.
We headed south to Freycinet Park where we endured a 4 hour hike (11 kms) so we could see Wineglass Bay, which was lovely despite the grayish skies. After that we were all pretty knackered and happy to sit in the car and drive 3 hours to Hobart. It was Saturday night so we headed out for a bite to eat and the Brits for a few gallons of beer, while I sipped my Diet Pepsi (darn New Year's Resolutions!). - sidenote for the record - still not eating junk food or drinking alcohol but seem to be the same bloody weight anyways!!
Sunday we took it easy because some of us (read the hungover ones) really couldn't handle much more than sitting in a car. We drove back to Launceston via the Great Lake route - due to drought it wasn't so Great anymore and seemed to have divided itself into a few Less Great Lakes.We said our goodbyes to Amo & Craig then headed to our hostel on the mountainside (brilliant!!).
Monday we drove to Cradle Mountain (v. famous mountain in Tasmania) and hiked around Dove Lake (6 kms). By the end of that we were pretty tired of hiking and headed back to Launceston to get a good night's rest before our flight the next morning back to the mainland.
THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD AND ONWARDS TO ADELAIDE
The Great Ocean Road is one of the world's greatest driving experience due to the amazing scenery sculpted into the coastline of VICTORIA by seas from the Antarctic. I have to admit, it was pretty breathtaking, although the highlight (12 Apostles) wasn't quite as enjoyable through the fog & mist we encountered.
We were to spend 3 days and 3 nights travelling 1,100 kms along the Great Ocean Road and to Adelaide. We decided we needed another person along for the drive, so I had put up a notice and an English guy the same age as Sara & I ended up coming along - he was good company and Sara enjoyed having another beer-drinking buddy. My favorite part of the trip was from the first day when Sara was driving along a winding road and slowed to a stop because there was a koala just plodding along on the road. EXtremely unusual - they are always way high up in the trees. Anyways I got out and was only about four feet away from it. Did I mention it had a BABY koala on its back???? By this time a few other cars had slowed down to a stop - we were afraid it was going to get hit. It stopped walking and just sat down smiling (Sara insists it was frightened to death but I like to think it was happy for the attention).
We spent a night in Apollo Bay, then saw the big sights on Day 2, spent the 2nd night in Mount Gambier (which rests at the base of a volcano - dormant) and the third night just south of Adelaide in Victor Harbour.
WINE IN MCLAREN VALE
On Friday morning we arrived in Adelaide and said goodbye to our buddy James. We then got picked up by our Helpxing hosts and taken to their home in McLaren Vale, where we are now staying. The area is beautiful - vineyards, olive farms and almond trees everywhere. The family is really really into making good food and we are working it off every day by cycling to the library(for Internet) and doing 4 hours of dragging brush and tree branches from here to there. I am sore all over.
By the way - I will be back in Halifax on June 4th. If anyone has a job for me, it would be much appreciated! Or a place to live..in Charlottetown.
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