Travelling Post 34 - From Esperance to Margaret River via a few places

After Kalgoorlie I hopped on a 5hr coach south to the coastal town of Esperance. After a night there Charlotte and Nicole, whom I met working in Mildura, arrived after a wonderful drive across the Nullarbor - a really, really, long, boring road. After another night in Esperance, due to the weather, praying for the rain to stop we headed an hour back East to Cape Le Grand National Park.

The Cape is a coastal National Park with around 3 or 4 beaches, which were the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen with lovely turquoise ocean water lapping upon their shore. Sadly for us it was late Autumn when we visited and there was a definite chill in the air so swimming was out of the question. But the beaches, oh the beaches. They were amazingly white and so fine that when walking upon the wet sands it sounded, and felt, like we walking on snow. This is a definite hidden gem of Australia not being well publicised at all, but I suppose that keeps it pristine unlike the Eastern Australia beaches. When, or if, I return to Australia I want to revisit this whole South West Corner in the summer.















































Not quite sure which beach is which but above are a few pictures of the beaches we came across in Cape Le Grand. As you can tell the weather wasn't brilliant.






































We walked up a really big rock/hill and this was the view I got of the National Park.

After a nights camping in Cape Le Grand we headed West to Albany and then onto another nights camping in a national park near Pemberton. Between Albany and the campsite we paid $6 for the pleasure of a tree top walk, which was a good few feet below the tops of the tallest trees, but still the views were good. We then headed half-an-hour-or-so down the road and paid $0 for a tree climb. The Gloucester Tree is the tallest tree in the area standing at 60 feet and some bright spark decided to build a tree house at the top with spiralling metal poles horizontally stuck into it going all the way from top to bottom. If I had reached this first I wouldn't have even bothered paying for the tree top walk, this was a far superior experience with far superior views.





































The Gloucester Tree, and the view from the top.

After camping near Pemberton we headed straight to Margaret River where, after staying a few nights in the YHA we moved into a cabin at the local caravan park. Margaret River is pleasant enough but it is very small, there is no cinema and the pubs shut at midnight on the weekend. There are dozens of vineyards in the area so for the last couple of weeks we have been wine tasting on Sundays. Having only started pruning a week ago, but working since my arrival, I plan to stay till the end of the month saving a little more dough before heading North to Perth and warmer climates.

So now I'm finally up to date with my blog I'm sure I'll post again before I leave though. Wish me good vines to prune.

Travelling Post 33 - Kalgoorlie and the richest strip of land in the world - a post without photos sorry

From Adelaide I jumped on the train, thankfully not missing it this time, for a very long journey across half a continent, a journey that includes the longest stretch of straight rail tracks in the world. The journey lasted around 26hours and was mostly uninteresting, I saw very little wildlife and the bush was new to me for around 10 minutes then the view got repetitive and boring, I also made a couple of new friends but I've still to email them several weeks later.

My destination for this journey was Kalgoorlie, a gold mining town around 600km East of Perth, in the middle of nowhere.

Upon my night time arrival I was a little wary of Kalgoorlie, currently being the only (or at least one of the very few) places where prostitution is legal and brothels are plentiful - you can even do day tours of some of the older ones. This detail lends itself to make a person think about the type of occupants the towns people are (not that I ever pre-judge people!) Add to this already wariness the information that my hostel was on the same street as the brothels - but it wasn't one in case you needed clarification - unless they changed the meaning of YHA without telling me. When I left the train my wariness was not appeased, I walked down a poorly lit road with boarded up shop windows searching, without success, for the correct street. After passing right by my street I had to ask for directions to the hostel from a visitor information centre security guard where my reason for missing the street became apparent. The police station and the brothels are all on the same road, which wasn't really suitable, and so they changed the name of the street halfway down and I read the sign for the road that the police station was situated.

Now, set on the right course, I entered Hay St, the brothel and hostel street, and started walking. It was then I saw a pink neon lighted building and thought, that's definitely a brothel, or the pope's not catholic. In the dark I saw what looked like a path that skirted the edge of the road and was a good distance from the brothel withthe large security guard manning its entrance. In the light, the following day, I realised it was a very wide storm drain. The security bloke obviously spotted me and shouted over to me explaining that I was on the right road for the hostel, quite obviously laughing at me on the inside and shouting to me to point out that he knew I was avoiding him and the brothel. I comfort myself by thinking I am not the only wimpy-ass backpacker and the security man was well trained at spotting backpackers like me(the backpack is a big clue.)

After finding my hostel and getting a good nights sleep I decided to look around Kalgoorlie, there isn't much to see. I had one and a half days to look around it and with only three sights that interested me, The Super Pit, the Mining Hall of Fame and the Flying Doctors Visitor Centre, I believed I could walk to them all. I was wrong.

The walk to the Super Pit took far too long, I can't remember exactly how long, but it as most certainly too long. By the time I arived back into town I only had time to visit the Western Australian Museum, which was OK but nothing exciting. A nyway back to the Super Pit. The Super Pit is publicised as the richest strip of land in the world and is a huge open pit gold mine, and when I say huge I mean really, really, big, the photos I have don't do it justice so I'm not posting them. The Super Pit was nice for about ten minutes and then I left, there were some displays about which i read but quickly forgot.

The next day I had to choose between visiting the Flying Doctors and the Mining Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame looked nearer on the map and so after about a 1-2hr walk I arrived. It was worth the walk, far superior an attraction than looking at a big hole in the ground, even if it was really, really, big. The Hall of Fame had an information centre with signs chronicling mining in Australia over the years with a look to the future (asteroid mining!) and situated behind that was an old mining village set up for tourists to stroll around. I got to see gold being poured, although it was actually copper as gold is too expensive to use, and I went down a mine shaft on a tour of an old mine. I could have spent longer there, panning for gold, reading more signs but the walk took longer than I anticipated and so had to be off for my bus to Esperence which will be next weeks chapter.

TTFN

Travelling Post 32 - Adelaide

Whilst I am in Margaret River I will endeavour to catch you up on what I have been up to since Melbourne. I am not sure what may parents meant by being 'otherwise occupied' but the main reason I have not updated my blog of late is that the Internet costs a pretty penny in places I have been staying at recently, and also I have been busy travelling - and travelling and updating is not always easy.

Now back from the defensive, my travels led me from Melbourne to Adelaide. After a night of drinking in Melbourne, causing me to miss my train I arrived in Adelaide at a ridiculously early 5.10am, the morning after I wanted to be there. Arriving this earlier meant I had to wait at the bus station for 2 hours before the any hostel reception opened. After checking in I went to sleep before enjoying a picnic with friends I had met in Mildura - the girls I am living with now.

On my second day I visited the pretty port of Glenelg where I got to stand on the site where South Australia was proclaimed a Province and visited Rodney Fox's fascinating Shark Museum. Rodney Fox is a shark victim turned advocate who is now a leading world expert on sharks, particularly the infamous Great White Shark, his attacker. Whilst the museum is not big it is great value and was cram packed with information and lots and lots and lots of shark jaws, plus an interesting video on the life and work of Rodney Fox.

Above, the jaws of Jaws himself, the Great White Shark,
Below, a close up of the teeth of a Shortfin Mako Shark.

My third day was spent on wandering around town where I took in the sites of the botanical gardens (I have made it my mission to visit the botanical gardens of all the major cities I visit.) I also visited the Tandanya Indigenous Culture Centre, this was an art gallery with documentaries on the modern way of life of some of the remaining tribes. The documentary was insightful into another culture's way of life and followed a Northern Territories Aboriginal man, looking at his life throughout the 5 seasons of a year.

Before I left Adelaide, I had to visit the Zoo (another mission.) Adelaide Zoo was not as large as its Sydney or Melbourne counterparts but was still enjoyable enough with an excellent nocturnal creature exhibit. I got to see lions and other big cats being fed as well as a Sea lion feeding, plus an interesting look at the history of Zoos. What was advertised as a display on why the zoo does not hold elephants - because of space - was in fact more of a brief development of zoos throughout history. Charting how they used to be cruel habitats created for the entertainment for humans to becoming educational tools and vital to research in the fight to protect many endangered species. Sorry no pictures of animals this time.

The City of Adelaide was, as the Lonely Plant Guide described, more of a big town without a whole lot to do, especially if you have come straight from another city. That said I did like it, and it was a friendly and relaxed city, but I don't think I'd like to return unless I had a car and could tour it's surrounding regions.

Coming up in Chapter 33 - Kalgoorlie and the richest strip of land in the world.

Travelling Post 31 - A continent mastered

It has been over a month since my last update, when I left Melbourne. Over the past month I have been to Adelaide, jumped on a 26 hour train West to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, bussed it to South Esperence where I got picked up by a couple of girls, drove to Cape Le Grand National Park, headed to Albany then further West to Margaret River where I am now, working on the vines to save up money again. More on all that in later updates, I'm only using thw internet on weekends at present and this is merely a quick update. An update on the most important event, travelling wise, that has occurred since I first stepped foot on this mighty continent.

On May 24th a single event, with an importance that equals any of the great threequels out at the cinema this year, took place. I reached the most South Westerly point in Australia, the point where two Oceans meet and the point where I crossed a continent, from East to West, via land. Now how many people can say they have done that?

Above, at the top of Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, with the most South-Westerly tip to my left.

Below, stood in No Man's Land, with the Southern Ocean to my East and the Indian Ocean to my West.

Travelling Post 30 - The Great Ocean Road

Many Backpackers hire a car then take three or four days to drive along the Great Ocean Road. To do this Many Backpackers would have friends to travel with who can split the cost of petrol and car hire. For those who do not have the advantage of friends that Many Backpackers has, there are day tour options that you can take. I took one of these.

The whistle stop tour along the coast line was excellent taking in an Aboriginal Culture Centre and the light house from an old Aussie children's programme 'Round the Twist' before even getting to start point. Along the Great Ocean Road we took in many sights including 12 Apostles, The Razorback, Loch Ard Gorge and London's bridge, we passed through local towns with strange names such as Torquay and Anglesea and undertook and arduous 30minute walk through one of the many isolated rain forests in the area.

Apart from being the worlds largest war memorial the Great Ocean Road probably keeps a vast majority of Melbourne's car hire places in business, and with good reason. This long windy road just begs to be driven upon (something, should I become like Many Backpackers, I want to do) plus this coastal road has some of the best views any road in the world has. In some sections the Ocean attacks the coast with a ferocity that makes you think She doesn't like Land. The rocks are constantly beaten on a daily basis which serve to reshape them in such a fashion that if you visited every year the differences in their shape would be noticeable. If anyone ends up in Melbourne and leaves without seeing the Great Ocean Road, then they left without visiting the best thing about the city, its proximity to this road.





















Here I am at the lighthouse where Round the Twist was filmed.

















Here I am at the start of the Great Ocean Road
















And here I am at a viewpoint looking out over The Great Ocean and it's Road.
















Oh look, me again, this time stood down on the beach after walking down Gibson Steps
















Once more, me, and here stood with the wonderful backdrop that is the Twelve Apostles - although only 7 remain.
















final picture of yours truly at our penultimate stop, Loch Ard Gorge.

Travelling Post 29 - Melbourne (or how I finally ended up in Prison)

Having planned to spend just 5 days in Melbourne I've ended up staying 9, and am leaving this Tuesday. I have been on one day trip 125km away and go on another to the Great Ocean Road tomorrow, so it really has been only 7 days in Melbourne itself. I have taken my time in visiting Melbourne, you could easily do the city in a week, including the 2 day tours, but i didn't want to hurry, nor after two and a half months of hard labour did I have the energy.

After an 8 hour journey from Melbourne to Mildura, I simply ate and went to sleep. My first full day was spent just wandering and looking around like the gormless tourist I was. I first headed to where my Lonely Planet guide recommended me to first head - the Visitor Centre, and arguably the most well put together visitor centre that I have yet been to. Set on the edge of Federation Square this underground centre is part of a specifically designed, highly stylised complex housing a variety of galleries, museums, cafes, restaurants and bars. It is an example of the amazing variety of architecture on show in Melbourne's Central Business District.. and I have no photos of it.

I picked up a pamphlet on exploring the old Eastern Suburb with its Victorian architecture so decided to amble along this short 2hr walk, which took me though the Treasury Gardens and Fitzroy Gardens, passing Cook's cottage before heading around the Eastern suburb. I didn't take many photos as these Victorian houses were still lived in, although I did take this photo of a converted Church, which is now a set of flats. As you can see it was a bit cloudy, it has been a bit cloudy all week.

Cook's cottage, which was Captain Cook's parents home in Yorkshire. It was dismantled and rebuilt in Melbourne's Fitzroy Gardens and if it weren't for the skyscraper in the background you might think I'd sneaked back home and not told anyone. I haven't.

On Monday I visited the Chinese Museum in Chinatown, whose exhibts chronicle the history of Chinese Australians. It was interesting enough, but had a bizarre display on Chinese criminals in early Australia, why? I just didn't understand.

On Tuesday I checked out Victoria Markets, which were not as good as Paddy's Market in Sydney, and then headed to the Botanical gardens via the Shrine of Remembrance. The Shrine is a war memorial to all those Australians, particularly from Victoria, who have fought to protect their country. It offers a fascinating insight into individual soldiers rather than heavily detailing specific wars. It is also worth the entrance price alone (a donation but I would have willingly paid for a ticket) for the views of Melbourne.

Above, a view of Melbourne's CBD from the Shrine, below the Shrine itself.

On Wednesday I went on a day tour to the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island, with a very enthusiastic tour guide. The company was recommended by IEP, through whom I got a wonderful $9 discount (every cent counts!) Our first major stop was wine tasting and then we went off to Maru Koala and Fauna Park where I got to stroke a wombat, feed a Koala, an Emu (which was dangerous) and Kangaroos (again.) I also saw a Tasmanian Devil, which look nothing like their cartoon counterpart, in fact they are pretty ugly creatures and have jaws that will snap your bones in two.

The Penguin Parade was an up close, natural, wildlife, experience; there was a specifically built platform heading into the Little Penguins habitat and I got to see them come out of the ocean and waddle to their homes. It was amazing, these Little Penguins swim 20-30km out to sea then return to the same spot at sunset in waves, there are around 60,000 penguins in on the island including the 6,000 or so that lived in the habitat open to public viewing. To be that close to nature, that wasn't a zoo or a wildlife park, was great and something very different, at one point there was only a wire fence that separated me from the penguins waddling home. It was a shame that photos were prohibited but understandable.

Above, a wombat at Maru Koala and Fauna Park; below, I got to feed Kangaroos again; just a bit further below, a Koala bear.

I spent Thursday amongst even more wildlife at Australia's oldest Zoo, Melbourne Zoo, I even got my own personal tour guide, it is amazing what you get if you just ask, and had a great day.

Above. a Tree Kangaroo,

Above and Below, Melbourne Zoo had the most amazing Butterfly Palace I can ever imagine entering. I got to walk amongst hundreds, if not thousands of Butterflies, and with a tour guide I learnt how they were kept in the zoo. I'm not telling how though, you'll have to visit yourself - oh what's that? You're several thousand miles away? Tough!

Below, a family of Simiangs

Now onto Friday, I didn't do much. Yesterday I visited the immigration museum which is pretty self explanatory as to what it is. Today, my final day touring Melbourne City, I went to Gaol, well I had to end up there some day and I'm just glad it wasn't Thai and they let me out after a couple of hours.

The Gaol was, arguably, the best museum I have been to in Australia. It was an Melbourne's oldest Gaol having been built in the mid 1800s. The displays were informative and interesting but importantly brief, keeping to the point without wandering, thus keeping my attention. This was the same prison that Ned Kelly that infamous outlaw was finally hanged, but despite this tourist pulling fact there was nothing glorifying him (except in the shop), which is unusual for Australians. They could have done with giving a discount to backpackers though, they did give one to students after all!

This was taken on the top floor with the only night light the inmates would have had would have been from those neon 'Exit' signs. Dead give away for escapees if you ask me.

Melbourne has a European vibe to it, but I prefer Sydney, I can't tell you exactly why I do I just do. It is not a logical thing, but there seemed to be more to do in Sydney and it does have that iconic status with that bridge and that opera house. Preferences aside, I still really like Melbourne as a city, verdict: - I'd come again but wouldn't necessarily want to live here.

Tomorrow I'm off to do a a day tour of the Great Ocean Road and then next stop Adelaide.

p.s. I found a picture of Federation Square, or more accurately a number of the buildings that it is comprised of, they are at the bottom of the picture below.

Travelling Post 28 - Six months in, a mini review

On November 2nd 2006 I nervously and excitedly left Heathrow Airport, and with it Britain, behind. My destination, the world. On November 3rd I arrived in Hong Kong, after two nights I left Hong Kong on November 5th and arrived in Sydney, Australia on November 6th. It's now six months and four days later, I've been away from home for 26weeks and 3 days or 185 days and I'm just over one third of my way through my trip.

Since I arrived in Australia I have visited four cities in three states. I have spent 92 nights in Sydney, 2 nights in Canberra, 1 night on the road, 78 nights in Mildura and am about to spend my 9th night in Melbourne. Despite that amount of time (it has flown by) being in Australia, this far away from home, still seems a little surreal. Technology today makes it difficult to imagine the distance between Australia and Britain, I have text, emailed, instant messaged, sent messages through Facebook and spoken to family and friends back home using that new invention known as the telephone, and all at relatively little cost. If I wished I could even set up web conversations and see who I am talking to via the miracles of the Internet. This is truly a small world (even if it is the biggest thing I will ever step foot on) and getting smaller, but not so small that there aren't any differences between countries and people.

The weather is always a good place to start when talking differences and Australia certainly has different weather. Not only are the seasons at different times of the year (summer being winter, spring being autumn and vice-versa) but the weather within those seasons is different, the most obvious being that the seasons are hotter and (when you're not in the sub tropics of the North) drier. Currently Australia is in a ten year drought, the worst in a hundred years, and water could run out in the Southern states in the next decade or two unless the drought breaks or another solution is found, many dams are down to 10-15% capacity. I had written a long critique on how the Aussies may have left fixing the shortage too late, it pointed out that some of the problem solving methods that have been suggested will just harm the environment even more and by being the biggest producers of CO2 gas per person in the world doesn't help the situation, but I decided against doing that and thought about pointing out to the wider world how global warming, caused by the entire world, was affecting this one country where water may soon become a commodity like oil. And just leave it at that.

The climate thus affects the landscape and Australia is far less green and lush than home, fields are often red, yellow, brown, grey and light green rather than a strong green colour that covers much of Britain. Some of this is due to the drought, much of it is natural though. I find the green grass something I miss more than I expected. What I also wasn't expecting was to notice the difference in the sky at night. I knew that the star systems seen from the Southern Hemisphere were different but I never thought I would notice it, I can't name more than 2 or 3 star systems in the North and rarely just stare up to the sky but one of the things that became apparent quickly was how different the night sky looks. However I don't miss our Northern Sky.

Now onto the people, well they talk a little different down under, they sound very similar throughout the regions I have been to but they do use different phrases, for example if you are visiting Sydney you are not very likely to hear 'g'day mate' but if you're in the rural areas, such as Mildura then you will, regularly. I've also heard Aussies use the word 'chucker' for 'food!' They have different names to us for various food items, courgettes are known as zukinis, peppers are called capsicums and eggplant is their name for aubergine. Some brands have changed their names, Galaxy chocolate is known as Dove, Walls ice cream is branded Streets, Vauxhall cars has changed to Holden and Cillit Bang (and the dirt is gone) is now Bam (and the dirt is gone). What is something I shall never understand is how they call flip flops, thongs! They also have a term for the English they like to call us Poms or Pommies which stands for Prisoner Of Mother England, this is a friendly phrase although it takes a little getting used to as pommie is often followed with a swear word.

So throughout the past six months those are some of the things I have observed, I have noticed other differences but forgot them as I haven't wrote them down. Six months on I'm still having and I'll leave you with these fun facts about Rob's trip so far - although they aren't very fun but I'm gonna post them anyway.

(Not so) fun facts
Since I left home I have:-
been to the cinema 18 times,
watched 27 films on DVD,
read 17 books (and am on my 18th),
been on 4 day tours (going on my fifth tomorrow),
been on 1 overnight 'camp'/safari,
won at poker 0 times,
posted 22 times,
visited 4 zoos/wildlife parks,
visited 4 gardens, botanical or otherwise,
visited too many many museums,

I spent my 1st day in Australia in Sydney,
I spent my 181st day in Gaol!

Travelling Post 27 - I'm in Melbourne

This morning I left Mildura by coach and 7-8 hours later I arrived in Melbourne by train. And I shall miss (some of) the people and the poker and.... yep that's it. If Mildura was a person who died then I surely would not be the right person to give a eulogy. It is great to not be there. My plans are to spend all that money I have saved over the next few weeks travelling to, from and around Melbourne, Adelaide, Uluru, Perth and the West Coast. I shall attempt to regularly update my blog about by exciting adventures, endeavouring to make you all jealous.

Travelling Post 26 - Easter in Australia

I'm still in Mildura, and I'm still working hard, but over Easter I had had a 3 1/2 day break and suitably both Friday and Saturday night were taken up with going out drinking. On Easter Sunday I took up my boss' invitation to Sunday lunch with his family which was a spit-roasted lamb plus a lot of Mediterranean dishes.

Now many of you know my fondness for being particular with what food I eat, otherwise known as fussiness, and have already been surprised with what I have eaten on my travels well be prepared to be shocked and shocked again. Not only did I eat lamb, I also enjoyed it, and I also tried all those various Mediterranean dishes, one of which contained spinach which I also enjoyed. There were many other dishes I tried whose names are unpronounceable and forgotten by me but they also contained foods you wouldn't see me going near my mouth on normal occasions and apart from a beetroot/onion/garlic dish I enjoyed them all. Desert was best though.

After they thoroughly stuffed me with the main buffet, a short break was held before desert where I had no choice, yes I was indeed forced, to try many Greek cakes and short breads. My favourite was, I believe, baklava, but I couldn't really tell you for sure because I'm not too positive which of the sweets was baklava- I just remembered the name so it deserved a mention.

After an enjoyable lunch, where I was given 2 plates of cakes to take home, I ended the day watching Peter Pan on DVD in one of my friends rooms (yes I have some before any smart arse decides to post something questioning this.

This was a very different experience to an Aussie Christmas with friends, but having a meal with a family was not all that different to having one with my own. Just the food and the weather was different.

Today was back to work though, oh well not long left before I can make everyone jealous again. (p.s. if there are any errors in the post it is cos I sat at a computer with a fuzzy screened monitor so cannot see what i am typing properly-and my space button isn't working very well.)

Travelling Post 25 - "I got a tat down under"

Now there are only a few people that will get the joke of that title, should their memories be good enough and should they still be reading, but it is self explanatory in it's meaning. So what do you think? - and look at that tan line!




















now for a closer look




















Actually it's only a transfer I just couldn't keep up the ruse, but I had you all fooled into believing that I really got a tattoo, not yet maybe in NZ rather than Oz. I got the transfer at Mildura Mardi Gras, which was held a week last Saturday, on the the same day that Sydney held their more impressive Mardi Gras. Mildura's Mardi Gras wasn't in any way what many people associate with a Mardi Gras as there wasn't any representation for Gays and Lesbians in the 60+strong parade of floats and displays, neither was it held on Pancake Tuesday, or as a further meaning described on Wikipedia it wasn't even the end of a Carnival but the start of a month long Arts Festival. However miss-named the festival was it, was still a enjoyable to watch all the floats go by from the hostel, and it ended with a grape crushing contest. The Riviera Backpackers entered two teams, I wasn't in any, which is probably why none of them won, probably















There were a number of floats with a fruit theme.















The local Library sent representation in the form of the story 'The Hungry Caterpillar,' I think that was the books title it has been a long time since I read it.















Many local businesses were represented, from pubs and restaurants to this gentlemen who sells manure at a bargain price.















The two Riviera teams in the grape crushing contest.

and on the poker front
On Monday 5th, I came in the top 18 and on the final three tables. Then on Friday 9th I came second in the losers game. Being on the losers this may not seem like much but there were 16-18 people in the losers game and I purposefully put myself on it by betting on cards that I didn't even look at, all because I'd had a bit too much to drink. On Monday 12th I came in second again on the losers table, which is the closest I've come to winning a cash prize, if I'd have won I'd have won $130, so close yet so far.

Whilst at the poker i saw poker kits for sale, a 500 piece set costs $122, so I have decided that before I leave Mildura I will treat myself (as if 18 months abroad is not treat enough) and buy myself one and post it home. Those thrifty ones amongst you would point out that I could save on the $30+ postage and purchase one at home upon my return, but I want a keepsake of my time in Mildura, and there pretty much is nothing else to buy.

Travelling Post 24 - 6 countries, a stapler and a thumb

Rob and staplers do not got together, especially not the awesome strength of a three foot high, foot pedal powered, monolith used for stapling cardboard boxes and... my thumb. Only me!

I had been using this giant stapler for a while, already having 'built' 150+ boxes when, as my leg was in the air about to press the pedal down, a pesky fly buzzed in my face, with my left hand i tried to swat it away. As I did this my foot went to the floor and my right hand moved slightly to the left, this was followed by a flow of obscenities from my mouth and I think a disapproving scowl from one woman until she saw the staple, stuck in my thumb. I tried to remove it, but couldn't bring myself to do it, too painful. One bloke suggested pliers or the outpatients care. I was up for the pliers but luckily the boss said hospital and his father dropped me off.

At hospital the service was great, I was seen immediately, and was out in 2 hours after a tetanus shot, x-ray and after being given prescription for anti biotics and painkillers.

Today, after the painkillers, I'm doing OK I can type and open doors with my thumb, tomorrow I'm back to work, maybe I'll see if I can avoid the stapler...

So the 6 countries reference in the blog title refers to where next. I'm staying in Mildura for a couple of months, as I have a well paid job where I drive a quad bike and staple thumbs, and that, I can tell you, is not something to give up lightly. In May I'll move on to probably Melbourne first, the Adelaide, Uluru and Perth before finding another job. After visiting the rest of Australia I'll move onto New Zealand either in December or September. I need to work until the last possible moment as I'll have 4-5months of earning no money, this means that I have to extend my visa in Australia and stay for an extra month, or leave Australia a couple of months earlier so I can find work in New Zealand. My plan is to spend Christmas and New Years '07 at Sean and Nicki's in The Bay of Plenty, but I have yet to ask them about that one. Then after New Years I'll move on to Fiji for 2 weeks then spend the next 3 1/2 months in America, Mexico and Canada. I plan to be home for May the 2nd 2008, which gives me a nice round figure of 18months travelling.

I was planning to go to Malaysia and Singapore for a couple of weeks around August time but I can't afford that so I'm gonna take my Lonely Planet guide into the book exhcange and get rid of it, this means my around the world trip is limited to just 6 countries. I perhaps shouldn't use the word 'limited' as three of those countries and in the top 6 largest countries in the world. How this plan will work out I don't know but it's gonna be fun finding out.

Travelling Post 23 - Poker

I have discovered that rather than nothing to do in Mildura, there is in fact poker, 6 nights a week of it in 6 different venues, 4/5 nights are free to join and 1 or 2 have a mere $10 buy in, all have cash prizes. I don't think I have mentioned this before so I will now, Australians are gambling crazy. Whereas in Britain most pubs or bars will have one gambling machine and a quiz machine, bars in Australia tend to have one or two rows of gambling machines. Those machines don't tend to interest me (unless it's one in the Masons Arms and Matt helps me win some money from it.) Yes the machines can be fun to put a couple of quid in one every now and again but it's not like you can make a night of those machines (and if you can please call Gamblers Anonymous.) Poker on the other hand is a great way to socialise and win money and thus I have taken an interest in this Australian past time and in the past two weeks I have played 6 or 7 times. I haven't won yet, in case you were wondering. These 6 or 7 games have opened my eyes to a new hobby and when I get home, poker nights shall be arranged, thus, below, I have posted the rules to Texas Hold'em Poker, for which all my friends and family should learn for my return. I will be taking your money, it beats getting a career.

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Preflop: Each person is dealt one card, starting with the person left of the dealer as with most card games. Then a second card. Both cards are face down. After everyone receives their pocket cards (the two cards face down just dealt), then betting occurs.
Betting: Once the cards have been dealt the betting begins. The person to the left dealer places down the blind (a predetermined amount that this person puts down regardless of the cards that have been dealt to them.) The person left of the single blind places down the double blind (which is double the blind.) The person left of the double blind starts the actual betting by matching or raising the bet, and so forth until the betting gets back to the double blind. The double blind is given the opportunity to re-raise and if not he checks and all bets are placed in the centre of the table. If a player does not want to bet then they fold and their cards are placed face down in the middle of the table.
Flop: The dealer burns one card (places it face down) and then turns over three cards in the middle of the table (called "the flop"). These are community cards that each player can use to create the best hand possible out of. Once again betting occurs, this time starting with the first player to the left of the dealer still remaining in the game.
Turn: The dealer burns one more card and then turns over another card making four community cards. This fourth card is called "the turn." Betting occurs again.
River: The dealer burns another card and turns over the fifth and last community card. This is called "the river" or "fifth street". Betting occurs for the last time.
Showdown: The remaining players in the hand show their cards, if there is only one person left then they do not need to show their cards. Each player uses his two cards, and the five community cards to create the best hand (5 cards total). A player can use any combination so even if one card from his pocket cards and four of the community cards creates the best hand, it is fine. When all five of the cards in the community make the best hand then the remaining players splits the pot. This is called "the board plays". Also note that in any time during the game a player can fold and get out of the hand. All bets will be lost at that point.

Rankings: Highest to Lowest (no suite is classed as being higher)
1. Royal Straight Flush - 5 cards all of the same suite, ten through Ace.
2. Straight Flush - 5 cards of the same suite ranked in succession
3. 4 of a Kind
4. Full House - 5 cards of which there are three of a kind and a pair
5. Flush - 5 cards of the same suite, if two or more flushes appear in the game, the person with the highest card wins
6. Straight - 5 cards of different suites ranked in succession
7. 3 of a Kind
8. 2 pair - The person with the highest pair wins should 2 pairs appear
9. 1 pair - The person with the highest pair wins should 2 pairs appear
10. High card

Travelling Post 22 - As I left Sydney, stuff to (hopefully) make you jealous

On Tuesday 6th February at around 13:30 precisely 3 months and a couple or so hours after my plane landed in Sydney airport, I left Sydney on a Greyhound bus. My destination - the rest of Australia, or more exact Canberra for 2 nights and 2 days and then Mildura for some exciting fruit picking work. All that you know about but I wrote the start of this post before I arrived in Mildura and liked it, so didn't change it.

I do need to tell the story of how I got to Mildura, but I'm gonna jump around with the narrative and talk about my last weekend in Sydney. On Friday you all know I went to the cricket, I just wanted to point that out again (and we won the triangular series which is pretty fantastic), on Saturday all 6 of my housemates and I had a barbie in a local park. We tried to have it by the beach but it was too busy so we walked 2minutes further along the coast. What was great about it, apart from the company (I now have new readers so felt the need to compliment them in an effort to keep them reading), was that the BBQ was free - sadly though not the food. The local council provide free, electric BBQs to all and sunder to come along and use, I think that is a novel concept and use of public money, plus the picnic tables there have company so aren't so lonely as their British counterparts.

On Saturday night Eleanor and I went to watch Michael Parkinson present the Sydney Symphony Orchestra play music from the movies. From the moment the SSO played the Parkinson theme tune as Parky entered the Concert Hall I knew I was going to enjoy myself. It was such a relaxed atmosphere even with the place packed, I didn't notice an empty seat. Parky was his usual charming self, except he did swear once which was all well and good he was talking about his first newspaper article in which he was given a byline and there was a miss print of the word electronic clock at the end, it was then he, albeit briefly, mentioned sex toys. I did crack up laughing but I was also disturbed. He told other stories about his father, and Dudley Moore, his love of cinema and the music of cinema but the star of the show was the Symphony. They were simply superb, and they were there as entertainers and knew it. By this I mean I was expecting a barrier between the Orchestra and the audience, I was expecting and uptight conductor that would create some sort of imaginary wall between us and them. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many musicians (and yes I know I am generalising) do have superiority complexes. Instead what we got was an overly friendly and smiley conductor, thoroughly enjoying his work, bouncing about in his podium and even getting some audience participation - we whistled when music from the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Great Escape was played.

Well I was gonna detail my trip to Canberra and how I came to Mildura but that can come later.

Travelling Post 21 - "I'm living in a hole but it's ok for now" he says as he begins an awfully wordy & probably not very grammatically correct post

On Tuesday I left Sydney for Canberra, then on Thursday I left Canberra for an overnight 12 hour(!) coach ride to Mildura, North Victoria to the Riviera Hostel. (I shall blog about the rest of my time in Sydney and Canberra later, Mildura is small so I don't think there is going be much for me to blog about, although I could be wrong. There is also a pretty good story on how I came to be at Mildura and not somewhere else I may blog about that later to, or I may not) Let us firstly say that Mildura is a nice small, place right next to a river with a population of just 40,000, it is very different to Sydney and there isn't much to do here.

My accommodation is different to Mildura on one aspect, where it is small and there isn't much to do here other than poker games and BBQs, it isn't nice. When I arrived and saw my teeny tiny room for the first time, I wasn't overly excited about the prospect of staying and when I saw the kitchen, well it took me time to get over that one, let's just unless I eat out I won't be eating very healthily here, it's gonna take me a little while to get used to the kitchen.. I arrived at 9.30 in the morning and after a sleep and a shower I did slowly settle in but at one point I really did think what am I doing here, I want to go home.

The reason I came to Mildura was for work, the promise of a possible $80-100per day with little to spend my money on. Luckily it seems I have come up trumps on that, if not on decent accommodation, but I'm not fruit picking. Instead of fruit picking I am the Cart Man, it is my job to go along with the boss, who drives the tractor and his son and collect the buckets which the grape pickers fill. His son and I take it in turns between stacking the tubs up on the trailer and being the person passing the tubs to the stacker. We then take the tubs and lift and empty them out on to racks of chicken wire shelves where they dry out and begin their transformation from grape to, I believe, sultana. The hardest job is passing the buckets to the stacker as these are 20litre+ buckets packed full of grapes, all this lift with your legs stuff doesn't count when you are moving at speed so a lot of the weight is on my back. The trailer holds 82 buckets and today we did around 10 runs which meant I lifted around 410 buckets twice. The boss wants to get this up to 1500 buckets a day which will be possible but I am going to have to work so much harder. This is also a 7 day a week job for 3-4weeks oh and when it is hot it can be in the mid 40s and it is much harder than fruit picking and and I have to get up at 6am. At this moment if i stay still for too long my muscles get stiff and I'm not used to it. On the plus size it is invigorating and I can see that feeling lasting for maybe 3 days, we do get given free coffee and home baked cake and the father and son are a hoot. Dave, the son, works a 40hour job supervising a week at a juice factory and takes his holidays each year to do the harvest. His father is an Italian who has been living in Australia since he was 22 and has owned the vineyard for 40years who is a really nice bloke but is barely audible and swears a lot. The bickering between the two is something to make every son think twice about working with his dad.

There is one another advantage to this Cart Man work and that is the money, it pays hourly rather than being piece work and if I do enough hours I could earn $600-$700per week. I'm also now a driver so I don't have to pay for my transport which saves me $35per week that means with my main expenditure being $125 for this horrible accommodation, a bit for food, a small amount for alcohol and and some money for books, as there really isn't much else to do in Mildura, I might be able to save up to $1,000 in this 3-4week period, but my target before moving on is $1,500.

I thought I would give you this information for all you people jealous of me, whereas at present this job is OK, after a few days I can see myself really suffering with the work. Maybe what will happen is I'll get used to the accommodation and begin to hate the work.

Travelling Post 20 - 3 months in and I finally watched the Cricket

Friday the 2nd February was an important day for two reasons, firstly it marked the moment I have been away from home for three months; secondly, and arguably more important, England finally beat Australia in a convincing win at the Sydney Cricket Ground - oh yeah and I was there to watch it. Oh look, there I go making people jealous again. If you wish to be made more jealous continue reading and look at the pictures from the night on bebo http://rhino-rob.bebo.com

Pete, an IEP staff member, is a gold member of the SCG, or rather his Dad is and we borrowed their passes and snuck in to the members area of the ground, and it was amazing, I would have paid for this, you know if I needed to. The atmosphere was so relaxed and friendly for the first innings. During the second innings the atmosphere and excitement jumped up a notch from the word go as Plunkett bowled a Golden Duck and Australia struggled to even reach 200.

What I find quite amazing about cricket is that other events taking place off the pitch excite the fans almost as much as the match itself. When various members of the audience started making beer chains (long chains of empty plastic cups) and were promptly stopped by stewards the crowd cheered almost as loudly as when Plunkett bowled his aforementioned golden duck. Then there are those crowd members on the other end of the spectrum, those who do crossword puzzles. Having never seen any other sport at any other stadium I can't comment on whether this crossword behaviour goes on elsewhere, but i can't imagine any gentlemen leaning over to the guy in front 'What's another word for...' at a Manchester United game. In addition to that, you have those ticket holders who come in after work when England had already batted or because they heard England were actually doing well and so drove down to watch the rest of the match. In last night's rugby (England triumphs again) would there really be fans coming in after half time depending on the score, i don't think so. Bill Bryson isn't a fan of Cricket, but this travel writer-wannabe certainly is, the nuances that I describe above make Cricket unique amongst sports and so appealing.















Above, England up to bat first, below Australia get their turn.















Below, I bought some Aussie sprinkle-coloured donuts. For those who think I'm a traitor for eating them, they had ran out of The red and blue English coloured sprinkles and I got a discount on the ones I did buy.

Travelling Post 19 - "if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot"

For the uneducated in film amongst my readers, the above quote comes from the film Sideways, about an engaged man and his friend going on a week of wine tasting before his wedding. This expletive containing quote is the appropriate title for my post for two reasons and none of them being that I nor my friends are engaged but firstly because a week ago yesterday (Monday 15th Jan) I went on a wine tasting day in the Hunter Valley (where Lindeman's comes from) and secondly, whilst there I tasted Merlot and it is a bit crap.

The day started like any other getting up at 6am to be at the coach pick up point for 7am. Eleanor, Stacey, Sam K and I all went on the tour entitled 'Wild Wine Tour' - wild not because of the fun we'd be having on the coach after the wine tour (lots of sleep actually) but because our first port of call was the Australian Reptile Park. After taking a photo under the giant lizard entrance we wandered into the park where we went straight to the Koala Bear enclosure to stroke the marsupial and have our pictures taken. This was totally unexpected and a great start to the day, normally it is $15 or so to have you picture taken with a Koala in a zoo, but this was included in the very reasonable $85 cost of the tour. Next up we wandered to the picnic area for tea and biscuits where Kangaroos and Emus wandered about freely. The guide gave us puffed wheat to feed the Kangaroos, again an unexpected surprise, and an hour to look around. The rest of the Park was interesting, although our visit felt a little rushed and, ironically for a reptile park it was the marsupials which I found to be the most entertaining and memorable part of the park.






























After a look around the park it was off to Hunter Valley. We arrived at our first of three wineries, Ivanhoe Wines, at midday. Then we went to lunch, followed by a tour of Drayton Family Wines then a tasting session at the end and finally a third tasting session at Tulloch Wines. Throughout the day I tasted 11 white wines, 3 Roses, 6 reds, 3 ports and one chocolate liquor. At least I think that was what we tasted, I forgot to take notes at the last winery so have had to go off memory. My favourite wine would have to be either the Gewurztraminer from Ivanhoe or the Treminer Riesling from Drayton Family Wines. Both were sweet desert wines, The Gewurztraminer would probably have been a bit sickly after a few glasses, but i will never know I ended up not buying anything from Ivanhoe as it was the first winery we visited, I did though buy the Treminer Riesling from Drayton Family Wines and will let you all know how easily it went down when I drink it. Ivanhoe definitely had the best Rose, and Tulloch probably had the least favourite of all the wines I tasted, the Merlot - I think I prefer port to Merlot. Ivanhoe also had the best tasting session as we were sat outside on the patio with a beautiful view of the valley.
















Above I look for clarity and consistency, below I taste it.















The whole day was fantastic, I really enjoyed myself and am thinking of going to the Barbarossa Valley on another Wine Tasting tour when I am in Melbourne or Adelaide. It is at Barbarossa where they produce Jacob's Creek.

The following Wednesday Ed and I visited the Australian Natural History Museum. The idea was to visit the Eaten Alive exhibit, about predators but that was actually for pre-teen children, even big kids would have difficulty enjoying it. We did have a look around the rest of the museum and was most impressed by the Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibit (done in conjunction with the BBC) and the skeleton exhibit where I met one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
















Yesterday I revisited the Powerhouse Museum during the day to look at the Great Wall of China Exhibit - which was impressively detailed and informative. In the evening Eleanor, Stacey and I went to watch Stranger than Fiction at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs Macquaries point. Expected a field, similar to an American Drive In Cinema, there was in fact a grand stand and surround sound. It was brilliant, what you would expect to be distractions, the lights of a plane high above, or the sound of a boat coming close to the screen before turning around and leaving us only added to the atmosphere, making it one of the best cinematic experiences of my life. The film was also one of the best I have seen in a long time, with a spot on cast, superb direction and a witty, original script it is well worth going to see, open air or not.




























































Above, the screen opens up with a great moonlight background.

Travelling Post 18 - and into the New Year

And so on to New Years Eve. I was working all day until 6pm with Sam K at the cafe. The other 6 housemates had gone to Mrs Macquaries Point at 10am to get a good seat, with the plan being that Sam and I would join them after work. Sadly Mrs Macquaries point has a limited capacity of 25,000 and at around 5pm 10,000 stormed the joint meaning that we could not get in when we arrived at 8.30ish. After much pondering over what to do next we thought we would head over to the rocks. What would normally take about 15minutes to walk took over an hour as we pushed our way through people holding on for dear life and only stopping for breathers and to stare at the 9pm fireworks. When we finally arrived at the rocks, I queued up for beer and we sat down to wait for the fireworks.

The atmosphere was amazing and on the whole pretty friendly, I don't recall a time when I have been any where with so many people about. At midnight the fireworks went off, I tried to film them on my camera but realised I was missing out so put that down and just enjoyed the show. Easily the best fireworks display I have ever seen. T he view I had placed the Opera House in front of me, the Bridge to my right and the skyscrapers to my left. The fireworks were timed so well, so that when they stopped at the Opera House they started on top of the Skyscrapers or the Bridge. With a dozen or so other points where the fireworks were set off you can see they had some precision work going on there.

There was no 6am drinking for me, after the fireworks it was straight home to bed as I was shattered after a long day - it took 2 hours to get home anyway so it was not exactly an early night.

On New Years Day morning I rang the Mason's Arms and spoke to friends and family, in the afternoon I watched the Barmy Army get defeated by the Fanatics (Aussie Cricket Fans) in a life-imitating-art kinda 20/20 at the Coogee Oval, then watched a couple of DVDs in the evening. This was made all the better because I was supposed to be working that day but at 8.30am Sam came and woke me up (a habit that many people in the house seem to have) saying that Issac (our boss) had text saying he was not opening the Cafe today, not quite believing her I turned on my phone and received the same message, along with half a dozen text messages from Britain wishing me a Happy New Year. Quite Simply a great start to the year (if only the Barmy Army had won.)

After working the rest of the week, I spent a relaxing Monday off walking around the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour with Sam K and Stacey. For a very reasonable $9.50 we got entry into the gardens with tea and scones at the end. The Gardens had been built for the Bicentennial celebrations and designed by members of the Guangdong Government of China. This was one of the most relaxing days I had spent in Sydney and this is thanks to the highly deliberate nature in which the gardens had been designed. I suppose you could call the gardens picturesque, but not in an English countryside way, but in a very different manner. I went in expecting the extravagance and colour you see in Chinese buildings and dress, but their gardens are not like that all. They are simple, elegant and purposeful full of greens, browns, water and stone as opposed to reds, yellows and all the colours of flowers you might find in a British garden.

Above - various views of the Chinese Gardens.

Last Friday I visited the Powerhouse museum in Darling Harbour. The two exhibits that stuck out to me as being the best were Designtech and a display by Chinese-Australia artist Guan Wei. The work by Guan Wei was a Chinese interpretation of Australia, and was pretty magnificent, with large wall covering muriels and art that I could appreciate, there was also information on the Chinese Treasure Fleet of the early 1400s, explaining how Chinese explorers had landed on the Australian shore long before the Europeans but had abandoned it, and their abandonment of their exploration of the oceans in favour of following traditionalist ways. If they had not abandoned this exploration then the world could have looked very different. The second display that I found intriguing was Designtech, a celebration of the genius of New South Wales students in their ability to design objects from clothing, to furniture to a patent pending tracheotomy device. Never before had I seen a museum celebrate the youth of the area in which it is situated so well.

Anyway that is all for now, in my next chapter you can read all bout my exploits in the wine producing area of Hunter Valley.