The End

Well I'm happy to say that I am once again home. A safe journey back over many many hours to end up at home with my own bed close by, and the cat abeing just as needy as ever. Thank you all for reading along, and commenting with me on this trip, it made me feel like I wasn't doing everything solo. I hope you had some good laughs along with me. And you can count on more good stories straight from me now, but that also means you'll get the long version, so maybe you want to stick with what you already know. I'm sure I'll see everyone fairly soon, even the Winstar crew. And thanks to Tom for getting me flights across the globe, and to Paul for not letting the house burn down and keeping the cat alive. Finally, thank you to everyone encouraging me to go out and actually do this. I would have been much more reluctant without a little nudge.

Guy

Back to the beginning

Well I'm back to where my trip began. After Brisbane I made the short trip to Surfers Paradise. Very cool place. The beach was beautiful, lots of cafes, shops, everything. I wish I could have stayed a bit longer, and I probably could have, but I played it safe and gave myself the extra day to get to Sydney, which I didn't need. Surfers would have been better if I had someone to go out and enjoy the night life with, but by the time the sun went down, I'd already seen everything twice, and I wasn't feeling to good. That's okay though, I was on the beach, and my room over looked the main strip.
That was tuesday. So weds. I made for Newcastle, which is about 130km north of Sydney. Everything was going great until 9:30 in the am when my camera decided it was done for the remainder of the trip. No, not battery or memory issues. I appears to be something with the lens. Which I can live with, except that no one gets to see the lighthouse I stopped at, or the most easterly point of australia (not so suprisingly 1.5km from the lighthouse), but it was a great view of more rugged coast, and a little town with its great sandy beach. So I'm sorry but these pictures are the last ones. But you've seen everything from Sydney, so not biggie.
I guess I was a little in the zone driving wise because I bypassed Newcastle and was in Sydney 11 hours later. I've learned that you can climb one of the bridges over the harbour. A little spendy, but I could be worth it. I'll at least check it out. Otherwise I'm just planning on enjoying my few remaining hours here before heading home. I'll do a finaly post then so people know I"m back. Until then...then.

And this would be the last museum I visited. I found the Ripley's Believe It or Not in Surfers Paradise. Very amuseing place, and far better than the fun house I went to later on. Maybe even better than the round of mini golf I played later that day.  

I think if I ever have the chance to do something like this again, I'm gonna get me one of these. What could go wrong... 

When I think of the movie Mad Max, this is what I think of. Big grille protector, windshield screen, dual intake ports, and flood lights. 

Here's another huse spider I found. Keep in mind this is from about 15 feet away. It was big enough for me to catch a glimpse of it from across the street. The web spanned between 2 lightposts. Not sure what its caught there, but I'm sure it was big too. 

Here's the really cool, and big, hostel I stayed at while in Brisbane.  

Here's another questionable road I happened upon. It led up this hill to a wonderful view of the countless sugar cane fields in the area.  

Ah yes, the long awaited picture of a kangaroo, or roos as there are 2 of them. These little guys were at lucky bay outside of Esprense. I would have gotten closer, but they didn't seem to like me so much, and I wasn't in the mood to have to run for it with everyone on the beach watching. As a side story. I meet a guy for the UK, Neil, would was actually chased by a couple of sheep in New Zealand. I guess he was chased quite a ways until he got back to his car. I guess I didn't want a similar story to be able to share. 

Here is a pict. of the latest and greatest ride. Not to shabby even if it is a ford. Like the holden, it does well on the petrol, and has enough geddy up to make passing fun. It was nice and dirty but it rained last night, so it's a bit less impressive. 

So here is a picture of the 200+ foot tree previously mentioned some time ago. This would be looking down through the trap door about 180 ft. up. It was a lot easier, effort wise, to get up and down than I thought it would be. I was just really really sure about every hand and foot placement! 

Well it's been an adventurous past few days. Driving by more sugar cane, banana, and mango plantations than I care to admitt. Killing wildlife too small to dent the car. And back to wandering the streets of Australia's fine city centers. Today I went to the Brisbane autoshow. Very interesting. Sat in a couple different models of the smart car. Saw companies I've never even heard of. And had the pleasure of trying to figure out which cars were what back in the states.
Another cool thing is the public pool system. It's divided into 3 parts, all with sandy boarders as one would find at the beach. All free, very well planned, and in the middle of a park that was the location for the 1988 worlds fair I believe. Also wandered into couple more museums. It's just so easy here, especially because of the heat combined with the humidity. I know...poor guy has to deal with all that warmth, that must suck. Well I'm sorry, it's hot. Even the locals think so.
Tomorrow off to surfers paradise, and maybe just sitting on the beach. Haven't done that too much yet. But who knows what will really happen!

Brisbane

I've made it to Brisbane and have already takena quick foot tour. Like Sydney and Perth, this is a nice place. A good mix of modern and older buildings. I found a hostel downtown, and I must say it pretty cool. An 8 level hostel with everything you need near by. Even a car park right a cross the street to house the new ride.

East coast

Well I made it to the opposite side of the country with no problems. Got into a really nice hotel in Cairns. What's a couple bucks when you live in style? LEt me tell you about Cairns, think jungle. Very humid, and pretty dang hot, perhaps even Florida in the summer. And the rest of the coast hasn't been much better, weather wise anyway. After not much interest in Cairns, I wandered down to Townsville by way of the mountains. A great drive with switch-backs, blind turns and what not. My reward for the detour was a nice place to eat overlooking a crater lake. Unfortunately townsville wasn't any better, but who cares. Friday it was my task to get farther down the coast to Mackay. That was a bit better. Maybe because I found a Irish pub to sit at for a bit, then went on to some Mexican food. Both were fine choices. Today, saturday, I've pushed a bit farther down the road to Marysbrough. A quiet little town, not much happening and I"m very suprised to find an internet cafe, let alone an open one. Tomorrow I'll head to Brisbane or Surfers Paridise. Haven't decided yet.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. So I'm a nature killer here too. For some reason either I have some unconsious thing about birds, or they get suicidal around me. A week ago, I hit a parrot because it thought it would be a good idea to fly right infront of the car. He didn't make it. Today it was something a bit bigger. It was going after some road kill when it ran into my lane, jumped high enough to clear the grill, but not high enought to clear the hood. I got it, feathers everywhere. I saw it land about 5 seconds later in a heap off the road. I'm sure the driver going the other way had a good show.
All right, enough for now.

Guy

Next step

Well, western australia has been great, but it is time to move on. After a few relaxing days in Perth, today I fly to Cairns, which is on the north east coast. Then I can spend some more quality time in a car driving back to Sydney. I can only hope that this new ride will equal the Holden now placed in road trip lore. See you on the other side.

Dream world

I have to share this with everyone cause I woke up laughing. If you don't know the people I am talking about, it doesn't matter, just insert your own friend who fills in nicely. The dream went something like this...

I was at Nate B's house with John, Susie, Nate, and someone I can't remember. We were enjoying a bbq and a bonfire. Everything was going great, when susie the pyromaniac decided the bonfires could be bigger. The problem being there was a lot of surrounding trees and bushes, and it must have been fall cause I remember lots of dried leaves on the ground. So sue is creating more fire and John, Nate and myself are commenting on how that wasn't the best idea, cause we'd had problems before with large bonfires getting into the trees. And wouldn't you know it, one tree caught fire, then a couple more, then the bushes and the dried leaves. With things getting out of hand, I saw water spiggot not far away and run over to turn it on, this got the sprinkler system going and it was enough to quench the flames. Even the ones in the trees. I know go sprinklers, it was a dream cut me some slack. So with the spriklers going, susie and whomever was making fire with her try to help by grabbing a garden hose. She steps on the hose which turned it on and all the sudden it was going nuts like a out of control fire hose in some cartoon. Sue reaches for the hose when as it went by her hands, whacking her in the head, where she pinned it holding on for dear life. Then I looked over at John, who is now doubled over laughing at Sue's 'Tom & Jerry' like situation.

Okay, perhaps not as funny to everyone else, but I was amused during the dream, and when I woke up. Probably more funny because all of those things could have really happened to Susie. Alright, I'm off to go enjoy another day of great weather! Sory you're all stuck in the cold and snow.

Guy

This is wave rock, called so for obvious reasons. It's 15 meters high, so a big wave indeed. 

Here I am at the whaling museum waiting for the 3D movie to start. Crappy animated movie about whales and what not. Two thumbs down. The previous 2 movies were much more interesting 

One of the roads that I maybe shouldn't have driven down. But not scratches, dents or fluid was lost. Just think of the things I could have done with 4wd! 

Here I am about to start a self guided tour of Mammoth cave. You were provided with a MP3 player and dorky headphones.  

This is from lake cave, and one of the few cave pictures that turned out . As you can see there's a bit of water about. This is a true table supported only from the ceiling. The lake is really a stream that is 2 or so feet deep over a 250 foot by 30-40 foot section in the cave. So it does act like a lake. They used some cool lighting effects to show off the cave's other features. I was told I could drink the water, but declined cause I'm a wuss. 

Had to take a picture of the ride. A fine little car if I do say so. Over 30 miles to the gallon (9.21 litres per 100km) with a peppy V6. Fairly comfortable, and it went everywhere it wasn't supposed to be. 

Here's an action picture. Gives an idea of the major road ways here. I could have driven though this kinda scenary for days, unfortunatey, the landscape changed, andit bacame horribly uninteresting.  

Here is the exciting town of cook. The other direction is much the same. I was standing in the middle of town to take this shot. That's our train off to the left. There are houses behing the trees, but no one was in them. Much have been out and about...to where, I'm not sure. 

This is the town of Bunbury. At least I hope it is. I'll have to double check that on a map, but we'll just say it is for now. I'm perched atop the town's look out tower for excellent viewing. As you can see, it's a colorful little town. I did a little exploring here, but couldn't find to much to look at. Had a fine lunch here though 

This is the lighthouse on the southwestern tip of Australia. Despite the cloudy morning, it was great, and I was the only one there.  

I hope you can make this out. There's a really large spider in the center. It was hard to get close and not lean into something else that may have gotten a hold of me, and drug me into the large plants of the botanical gardens. It would seem now that I look back, the garden was as dangerous as beautiful. What you don't see in the pict. is the 2 other spiders also located in this really, really big web. 

Here's me on the train. It's not crowded...yet. 

A blurry picture of the scenic blue mountains just west of sydney. I would have asked for the train to stop for a better shot, but there were afew other passengers to consider.  

When I was walking through the Botanical gardens something from above caught my eye. A couple of large bats is what it would seem to be:) 

pictures soon to come

Okay, I've found a converter so I can plug my camera in to charge the batteries, so I can A) take more pictures, and B) give you something new to see, hopefully later today. And that's a good thing.

Perth anyone...

Whew...well after a long and disappointing afternoon sunday I'm back in Perth. Everything started off so well, went to some more beautiful beaches at a national park close to Esprence then shipped off to Hyden to see the wave rock. It was a 5 hour drive, it was hot and desolate, but I figureed I'd see this rock, get a room and hang out. Well, I saw the rock, it was cool, not 5 hours of driving cool, more like 2.5...maybe 3. I tried to go for a little hike, but it was still too hot out at 4pm for that kinda nonsense. Then I spy a sign for a cave, and some kinda dam. Why not right? Went to the dam first, either it didn't exist or it was buried aways back from teh fence that was out in the middle of nowhere, so I didn't get to see that. So off to the cave, looked like another bad deal so I skipped it in favor of the sign promising some sort of hole in the ground. Well, after some walking, being tormented by a couple of flies, and some more brutal heat the result was nothing. Very disappointing. The bright side was seeing the largest collection of lace in Australia. It's out in the middle of nowhere, 100 yards from wave rock. Couldn't figure that one out, but hey! Has to go some place right.
So off to Hyden to get a place to crash. More disappointment. One hotel in the town which was packed, the hotel not the town. Not even a place to eat, so I break out the trusty little map to see what's around, hit the gas station and make like a banana and split. Well sorta...I got stuck at the gas station talking to a really nice older gentlemen who was informing me of the very non-democratic elections taking place in Iraq, and how he didn't like the U.S., British, and Australian governments. I finally get to pay for my petrol, and I stop to bid him farewell when he got me again. This time about the differences between their education system and ours, specifically the system in Hyden, KY. While talking to this man, someone tries to back up to the gas pump my car was at, and proceeds to rearend my parked ride. Awesome. But no damage done, I got away from my new pal and make tracks back to Perth cause there was nothing else to do. And that's kinda nice cause now I can venture around Perth city, and relax not in the car.