We say Goodbye and We say Hello!

Well, our time in Oz is coming to a close. It is our last weekend here and we leave for England on Friday. Since our last trip the time has absolutely wizzed by, I mean really flown by, it is quite amazing. Since my last entry we have been really busy. We entertained some other exchangees (Kirsty from Scotland, Marc from Netherlands and Julie from USA) in mid October. Julie visited my school for a day and I went to hers in the Melbourne suburbs a few weeks later. It was interesting to compare and contract an urban and rural school. We went to the Victorian coast (St.Leonards) for a Halloween party in the heat and with the flies. We walked in the Dandenong Hills near Melbourne, which was nice too. In mid November Sarah and I travelled down to Melbourne by train to attend the Victorian Education Department's leaving do, where we had some amazing views of the city, in Rialto Tower. This was a sad time as we said our goodbyes to the other exchangees. At the end of November we visited the Great Ocean Road and had some great walks along the coast, in the temperate rainforest and we swam in the bracing Southern Ocean. It was a relaxing weekend. The following weekend we flew to Adelaide to visit our friends, Simon and Fiona, who recently moved there from Echuca. This was again another relaxing weekend, where we enjoyed some Aussie, Russian, Chinese and Korean tucker. It was also good to catch up with them as we had not seen each other since September. Now, in the final few days down under, we have been saying our goodbyes to the various friends that we have made along the way. We are both quite sad to be leaving. Looking back it would be nice to have the exchange last for another 3-6 months, as, in hindsight, it took us a good 3-4 months to start to feel really settled. It was really from when Sarah got work in April that we began to feel more settled. We have also been meeting more people all the time and now not having the opportunity to get to to know them better. But still feeling sad about leaving is a good sign, because it means that we have enjoyed our time here. Now I will sign off, probably for the last time in Australia, as packing and tidying and more goodbyes loom. Adios Amigos for now.

Reef and Rainforest

We drove north up the Tropical Queensland coast to the village of Mission Beach. The hotel we had planned to stay at cocked up our booking but eventually it was sorted out. That evening we had a lovely freshly cooked pizza enjoyed with German beer at a bar by the sea. The setting of the town was amazing with palm trees on a long, almost deserted, sandy beach. The major drawback in the summer months being the very poisonous jellyfish, or stingers, in the warm, tropical but deadly ocean. Fortunately for us we were here about a month prior to 'Stinger season'. For the three nights and two full days we were at Mission Beach we enjoyed the sea, walked in the rainforest and ate and drank in the bars in the evenings. One day we went to the Atherton Tablelands, a hilly area inland from the coast. We enjoyed a pleasant walk around a large lake. However on the last day, just as we were about to leave Mum developed an itch on her shoulder. It turned out to be a big green tick that had burrowed its head into a pore and had its back legs sticking out. It still makes me shiver just thinking about how gross it was. We had to visit the local doctor who took it out with the help of vaseline. Ticks are a big problem in the north of Australia and can regularly kill sheep and cows and if not dealt with properly can kill humans too!

Our next port of call for the following five nights was the picturesque town of Port Douglas. As we travelled up the coast the landscape changed as more and more sugar cane plantations appeared. We passed the outskirts of Cairns and drove along the windy hilly road to Port Douglas. After checking into our townhouse our first port of call was to book a trip to the Reef. We arranged one for the following day as the forecast was for the weather to get progressively worse as the days passed.

The next day was probably the highlight of my time in Australia so far. We boarded on the boat with Calypso tours and headed out to sea towards the Reef, early in the morning. It was a perfect hot sunny day. We stopped at the Reef at three different places over the course of the day and it was simply amazing snorkeling on the reef. The colours and the wildlife below the surface were wonderful and it was remarkable how the reef was so close to the surface in places and how deep the surrounding ocean was. I could have spent all day in the sea and my back suffered later as it was red raw due to me snorkeling on the surface and looking down. I dived down a bit too and the pressure became quite powerful the deeper you went. Most scientists reckon the Reef has not got long left due to the warming of the oceans because of climate change, so it was extra special seeing it. It is shameful that this habitat will be destroyed because of humans. The Australian government does not care about saving it as they have failed to ratify the Kyoto treaty, which is probably too little too late anyway. They say that the economy comes first over the environment but so many tourists visit the Reef and if it is destroyed, will the tourists come and bring revenue into the country, Mr Howard?

We spent the next day at Mossman, an area of tropical rainforest north of Port Douglas and made a further trip the following day to the Daintree Rainforest. We had to catch a boat across the river in order to get there, which was interesting. The Rainforest boardwalk was extremely informative too as we spent a good few hours here. Later in the afternoon we got the boat train on the river and we spotted a female crocodile sunning itself on the bank. The guide on the boat train was brilliant and very knowledgeable and passionate about the conservation of the river. Highly recommended.

We spent the last two days mainly in Port Douglas visiting the sunday market and swimming in the sea as the weather, as had been correctly predicted, became wet and windy and very humid. We also walked in the Mossman again. We left for our flight back to Melbourne from Cairns early on the 3rd October. It was cold in Victoria when we landed!

My parents left for the UK a couple of days later but not before we had visited Kyabram Fauna Park and a parrot took a great interest in mum's handbag and emptied its contents all over the floor, which was amusing for all except the parrot as it found no food for its efforts. I then prepared for my last term at school down under and the last few weeks here in our rapidly dwindling year.

Reflections of a footy season down-under and it's hot up north!

After patiently waiting for my ribs to heal up I managed to play in the last 2 games of the soccer season. I was particularly pleased with my final game for the Raiders as we won 3-1 and I got 2 assists and the man of the match award, a lovely way to finish off what was a highly enjoyable season of footy on the bottom of the world. Sarah too enjoyed her first season of league football for the women. Joining the team has been extremely rewarding for both of us on many levels. We firstly had a great time playing the matches and participating in training and also we both got fitter too. Secondly we met some great people who we will keep in contact with in the future. Thirdly as a result we have had a good social life on the weekends we have been in Echuca. Lastly through Sarah's contacts at the Club she has managed to find work and now works for a minimum of two and a half days a week. In country Australia it really is who you know in order to obtain employment. This is because when we first arrived earlier in the year Sarah sent her CV and a covering letter to a few organisations, most of which didn't even respond to her. When we joined the footy club she got talking to people and was recommended by a couple of people and got work instantly. So it has helped us financially too. It is also nice to meet people outside of my work and the exchange programme and to socialise with people from other walks of life. So all round we thoroughly enjoyed being part of Echuca-Moama Border Raiders Soccer Club.

As Winter turned to Spring the weather became warmer by day although it still remained cold at night with temperatures hovering around freezing in the wee hours and up to the 20's on some days. In the penultimate week of Term 3 I went down to a town called Maldon with the grade 4 children and that was an interesting experience, particularly with some of the people I met when down there. The last week saw my parents arrive. We met them at the train station in Bendigo and they occupied themselves around Echuca whilst I completed the last few days of the term. On the first sunday of the Spring holidays we drove down to Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne to catch a plane to the Tropical North of Queensland. We arrived in Townsville in the evening and the weather was hot and muggy. The following day we took a boat to Magnetic Island which is off the coast of Townsville. It was a hot and sunny day and we took a bus to the north of the island. My Dad and I then walked across a large hill in the wonderful landscape, which took around about an hour, to be rewarded with a near deserted sandy beach in a cove. We swam in the sea and sunbathed on the sand for a couple of hours before returning the same way before visiting a bar. That evening we had a lovely meal of Aussie steak in a steakhouse. The following day we left our motel and after visiting a rather non-descript wildlife place on the outskirts of Townsville headed further north into the Tropics. More of this next time.

Bush Dancing with Broken Ribs

The following day after coming back from our trip to the Outback, Sarah and I ventured down to Castlemaine to play footy for our respective teams. In the game I got an elbow in my ribs, which to cut a long story short resulted in me breaking two ribs. And yes, I did give a 4X about it. However I did not find this out until 10 days later, when my male ego failed me and I eventually decided to go the the doctors because it was painful for so long. But the weekend in between saw me play through the pain barrier and net a goal for my team in a 2-2 draw. The injury forced me to miss all of August's fixtures, and resulted in me being quite miserable because I could not do much in terms of exercise.

At the end of July Sarah's Mum, Sue, and her partner, Pete, came to Oz to visit us for a while. We fed them with wonderful Aussie steak on their first day here and sampled some of the local wines too. We took them to a wildlife park as Sue was desperate to see some kangaroos and other Australian flora and fauna. They then went up to Darwin to get some winter sun before finishing their trip down under with another stay with us in Echuca. Their last night here saw us visit Bendigo on a trip organised by the International Teachers Association for a local bush dance. It was good fun and I had to join in, despite my ribs, which probably put my recovery period back a little.

The last weekend in winter saw us visit Melbourne for the weekend and Sarah and I went to the Science Museum and Planetarium, which took us on a trip through a Black Hole. We also visited Vic Market and lots of shops, so Sarah could buy some clothes (yawn!) for her birthday.

Apart from day trips here and there such as to Shepparton, Heathcote and Beechworth, in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, we have not done too much else because of the rapidly dwindling money supply. However Sarah has managed to get some more work recently, which will be good for our last big trip at the next school holidays at the end of September. My parents are planning to come and visit and we are planning to go to Queensland for a while then. Something to look forward to.

To the Outback - Part 3

The next day we set off for the relative short drive of around 4 hours to our next abode, a cattle station around 100km east of Ayres Rock, called Curtin Springs. We checked into our portacabin(!) before heading off to the Rock for the afternoon. We had decided to stay here because at $120 a room a night it was around 4 times cheaper than the cheapest hotel accommodation at the Rock. At Uluru (the Aborigine name for Ayres Rock) we were charged the rather dear price of $25 each to get into the park that surrounds Uluru and told not to do this and not to do that, including not to climb up the Rock because of the wind, which had risen to the hurricane-like proportions of a slight breeze! So Sarah and I walked around the Rock dodging the bus loads of Japanese tourists (although we did get some good pictures of the monolith) and managed to get to the sunset viewing area just before sunset.

The views were magnificent, albeit for only around 5 minutes as the sun set. Here is a rather different view of the Rock I took. Incidentally I was sober when I took this photo. However we were slightly disappointed with our visit to Ayres Rock overall. It was expensive and there were so many restrictions to what you could and couldn't do. The positives were that we managed to fit it in in the afternoon and that freed us up for a whole day to explore Kings Canyon and the surrounding area the next day. That evening we ate at the 'restaurant' at the Cattle Station and had a beer in the bar/shop. It was a very interesting place and was literally a cattle station with a small bar/shop, a campsite and a few portacabins for guests. The staff were mainly German backpackers who stayed there for a few weeks or months to earn some cash to travel around Oz. They could save their money up too, as there was no where to spend it, except for Uluru a 100km away, if they could get there that is. After our meal we got in the car and drove about 5km out of the Cattle Station to look at the night sky. It was amazing we could see so much, the milky way was like transparent cotton wool and we saw a few shooting stars. That night we were frozen in our portacabin, it did have a heater which were turned off because it was too noisy. It was so cold that the beer and wine we had brought with us was still very cold the next morning as it sat on the table in the room. You have to remember it is winter here and being in the desert it freezes at night while the days are very pleasant indeed.

On the Tuesday we drove to Kings Canyon and after filling up with petrol at near-UK prices we set off to hike around the Canyon. The views were breathtaking and we had a good 4 hour circular walk. It was warm and we dreaded to think what it would be like with temperatures of above 40 degrees in the summer months. We stopped at another couple of uneventful places on the way back to Curtin Springs. That night was not as cold but this time the cows were mooing all night which resulted in a disturbed nights kip.

The following morning we headed back to Coober Pedy and had to slow right down to 110km an hour as we crossed back into South Australia. We checked into the same motel and indeed the same cave. In the evening we went for a tour of the night skies. Not in a spaceship unfortunately but through a telescope. There were seven of us on this tour: myself and Sarah, a mother and teenage boy from Adelaide and an American man and his young daughter of around 8 years, as well as the tour guide. We drove in a mini-bus to a spot around 10km outside Coober Pedy. The night was really clear again and we could see 2 other galaxies low down, we also saw the colours of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, orbiting satellites and interesting zodiac and aborigine star formations. You have to remember that Coober Pedy is in the middle of desert with no other settlements near it for hundreds of kilometres, so the views were amazing. Yet the Yank kept on asking stupid questions such as which way is Coober Pedy? Despite the lights of the town being pretty obvious. He also asked does Coober Pedy have an Astronomy Club? To which the guide wittily replied, "yes-me". I think the American's daughter was embarrassed by him. And the Yanks wonder why they get such a bad name around the world! Still it was funny and it didn't ruin a fascinating evening's night gazing.

We set off before 8 in the morning the next day, very early for us. This was going to be the longest stretch of driving at around 950km. Mid-morning we stopped at one of the many rest areas at the side of the road and I wandered down to a lake that we could see. It was a 15 minute walk or so to reach it, only to discover that there was no water in it at all, just hardened salt. It was really interesting as it looked as it if it had rippling water but this was just salt whipped up by the wind presumably and hardened over time. We reached civilisation (if you can call Port Augusta civilisation that is) at around lunchtime and continued south down the coast towards Adelaide. The weather became considerably colder and there were frequent showers. We finally reached the German settlement of Hahndorf, south-east of Adelaide, at dusk. We checked into our normal above ground motel and went straight for a German meal of saurkraut and sausages accompanied with large German hand-pulled beers - delicious. Hahndorf and other places in the Adelaide Hills were settled by Germans in the mid-nineteenth century and despite being forced to hide their Germanic roots a couple of times in the twentieth century, have since thrived on it and have become popular weekend destinations for Adelaide folk. The last full day of our holiday saw us hiking up and down some incredibly steep hills, more like mountains we thought. We also visited an Australian animal park, where I found I still had the charm as I had a couple of Birds eating out of my hand. Old talents die hard, hey? Sarah also fed the fat, lazy kangaroos and wallabies, some of which could barely lift their heads to eat more food given to them by the visitors. Sarah forced me to visit another winery on the way back to Hahndorf, where we got chatting to a nice couple again, although this time we didn't stay the whole afternoon. Instead we went into the spa and the swimming pool in the motel before having more German fayre in the evening. Sarah and I also watched the Aussie football team lose to the mighty footballing nation of Iraq, where we made up exactly half the number of people interested in watching their nation participate in the world game. There were many more people watching the oval shaped version of football on another screen. Incidentally the Aussies were moaning about all sorts of things like the heat, facilities and the preparation for the Australian national team in Thailand for the Asian Cup. The Iraqis had just a few more problems in their preparation for the tournament!

The next day we visited a few boring places such as a toy factory and a craft market, where Sarah got talking to a retired racist Scottish pensioner for ages before we headed back to Adelaide Airport. After we had checked in and gone through security Sarah had remembered that she had left our 4 CD's in the hire car. We rushed back but it was too late, the car had gone. (However we did get them back through the post later). The flight back was delayed for about an hour and we arrived in the rain of Melbourne before heading back to Echuca in the late evening. At a place called Kilmore I was stopped to be breathalysed again by the police. Kilmore Police!!! We finally got back at around 11 at night. It had been an action packed and eventful trip.

To the Outback - Part 2

After our first night in the cave in Coober Pedy we set off to explore this Outback mining town. First we checked out the Tourist Information place and we decided to partake in a tour of the town and surrounding area. Before we did so we visited the old timers mining museum, which showed us the history (relatively recent) of mining in the area. In the afternoon we boarded a mini bus with a few others and visited the mines, where we noodled for opals. (We did find a few small pieces). We also checked out an underground church, the cemetery (where there were quite a few Croatian graves and I found out that there is a large(ish) Croatian community in Coober Pedy) and most interestingly a cave where a local character used to live (he passed away last year). His home was used in the filming of Mad Max and it contained 'gifts', such as flags, knickers and memorabilia from visitors from all over the world. He used to dig parts of his cave out if he suspected that there was opal there. Next we went to see the local golf course, where they don't have to worry about watering the fairway (see picture). We then drove outside of the town to a group of hills named 'The Breakaways', which stood out like a saw thumb in the featureless landscape. The have important Aboriginal meaning to them. We also visited the Dog-proof fence, a very long fence that stretches from the Queensland coast to the southern Western Australian coast in order to keep the wild dingos out from the sheep pastures of southern and eastern Australia. Finally we saw the Moon Plain, an area of the countryside that is so barren and dry that nothing at all grows there and hence that is why it gets its name. It was a very eye-opening tour overall and we felt that it was like visiting another planet because life in this dusty hot outback town was just so different to life elsewhere. It certainly had its own charm.

After stocking up with water, food and petrol we set off on the next leg of our outback adventure, the next morning. Sarah and I shared the driving as we continued north to the state border and Alice Springs. As we crossed into the Northern Territory the speed limit changed from 110km to 130km and so did the price of petrol, which had been steadily increasing the further from civilisation we got. The cost was around 125c a litre in Adelaide, Coober Pedy was around 145c and the first petrol station in NT hit 165c. (Later in our trip we were paying 177c in Kings Canyon, it was so expensive it was almost at British levels! 177c a litre works out at around 80p incidentally). With our increased speed we reached Alice at around 4pm and we had a stroll around the city to get our bearings after we checked into the hotel. The following day, a Saturday, we climbed Anzac Hill, a hill in the middle of Alice and with great views. We then visited the Olive Pink Botanical Reserve and walked around there for a bit before venturing to the Telegraph Station, where the first colonial settlement was established in the 1860's, I think. Here is a picture of me standing in the middle of the local Todd river. It contained about as much water as the Coober Pedy golf course had grass. That evening we dined in a restaurant where we indulged in some of the local cuisine. We shared a starter of Crocodile before Sarah had the Barramundi and I had Camel. Both Crocodile and Camel tasted similar to Chicken in my opinion. Our last full day in Alice saw us visit the Alice Springs Desert Park. We enjoyed looking at the local flora and fauna that we spent around 5 hours there. In the afternoon we drove to the West Macdonnell Ranges and visited Elery Big Hole, the largest waterhole in the area and we managed to squeeze in Standley Chasm before it got dark. This was a fascinating bit of local geography and we wished we had more time to explore it and climb up the chasm but alas the failing light forced us to go back.

Alice Springs is a strange place, we found the locals to be unfriendly and generally the people in the bars and restaurants were miserable and unwelcoming. Perhaps this is because they are miles from anywhere else, although Coober Pedy is even more remote and the locals were not like that there. They certainly were much more friendly in Adelaide and surrounding area and indeed in the rest of Australia, so it really did stand out in Alice Springs. Also with problems with the local Aboriginal population in the area in the news we were expecting them to hassle us for alcohol, money etc. But this was far from the case, we found the Aborigines to be polite and unassuming generally. We even felt that they felt inferior to the white people because they would not look you in the eye or would move out of your way if they were near you. Overall we felt sorry for them as there seems to be a social divide in the city.

That evening we had a couple of beers and watched Australia scrape a last minute draw to the mighty Oman in the Aussie's first game in the Asian Cup. Then back to the hotel to pack our stuff in preparation for the next stage of our journey, Ayres Rock.

To the Outback - Part 1

Term 2 came to a close on 29 June, after a busy finale with mid-year reports to write and parent-teacher interviews. Sarah and I then went for a meal at the Border Inn to celebrate making it half way through our Oz experience. We went here for our first meal when we arrived in Echuca on my birthday, 30th December last year. It was a time to reflect on the first half of our journey and wonder where those 6 months had gone, as it seemed that they have flown by.

In Echuca itself the implementation of the third set of traffic lights appears to have gone well and both locals and visitors have accepted these multi-coloured traffic controllers as part of everyday life in this picturesque Northern Victorian outpost. Indeed it seems that they have always been here and perhaps, over the course of time, will be accepted as a vital part of the community of the city. Future town planners could even consider adding further traffic lights at road junctions, as the city expands, which will give the opportunity to future generations to become aroused by the wonder of modern technology playing an integral role in the control of vehicular access around this settlement. Who knows?

As July arrived so did the rain and the cold, as my footy team played in appalling conditions to a very unfortunate defeat. Unluckily I had to come off half way through the second half with a twisted ankle, which fortunately, despite some pain, did not ruin our forthcoming trip to Adelaide and the Outback. We drove down to Melbourne Airport on 2 July and after a really easy and efficient process in parking the car, at the long term car park, we were off on a relatively short hop west to Adelaide. When we got there, in the rain, we picked up a hire car and drove for an hour to a town called Tanunda, which is in the heart of the famous wine producing region of the Barossa Valley. We stayed at the Caravan park, which was cheap and quite centrally located. The following day we started by driving to the outlying wineries with the intention of finishing with a walk around those in Tanunda itself, in the afternoon. In true Croatian and Scottish fashion we were drinking before 11 am! As afternoon arrived we dumped the car and walked (or hobbled, in my case and staggered, in Sarah's case) to the Tanunda based wineries. As we were about to leave the first one we visited here we got talking to some people (2 Aussies and a Pom) and stayed for the rest of the afternoon sharing some of the Barossa's finest tipples. A relatively early night followed.

The following day was going to be a biggy in terms of driving and distance. We set off to drive north and to the Outback. Around midday we arrived at a town called Port Augusta, where we refuelled the car and ourselves before hitting the Outback. As soon as the last house passed us in Port Augusta we were driving in the Outback heading for the mining town of Coober Pedy. The drive in the Outback, although long, was far from boring as the scenery was always changing from areas with many small trees to areas with many shrubs, through flat land to hilly parts, through parts with lakes (of water and just dried salt) through parts with a few hardy plants, to areas with absolute nothing but red earth and dust. It was really different. We eventually arrived in Coober Pedy just before dark, the journey had taken us 9 and a bit hours and almost 900 km. We were staying in a cave. Who said romance is dead? Me protect woman in cave! Seriously, many of the places in Coober Pedy are underground because of the immense heat in the summer months where temperatures approach 50 degrees. Also the winter nights do get cold out in the desert as we were due to find out. To be continued.