Mar 27-Apr 1: Perth

I finally made my way to Perth. This will be the last big city I see for about a month. My first night here, I met a fellow named Billy who was staying two campsites over from me. Billy, a former fisherman had slightly more teeth than fingers, thick glasses and had constructed what he called "the Taj Mahal" - a veritable tarp palace - where he had been staying for a couple of months. Recent storms through Perth have caused an estimated $300 million dollars. The Taj Mahal was unaffected. We had a beer and some laughs, as he told me all about the places I should be visiting over the next few months.

Later I got a chance to meet the Impeys - friends of friends from back home. I was nice to hear some Canadian accents, and to get to know some new friends.

I'll be somewhat less accessible over the next few weeks, as I make my way through and into the bush up towards Darwin. This is the part of the trip I've been looking forward to most, snorkelling off the Ningaloo reef and diving with Whale sharks. I'll post something as soon as I'm able.

Mar 25-26: Bunbury to Rockingham

On my way north towards Perth, I made a couple of pitstops. The first was at Bunbury, where you can watch the dolphins come in to feed. Unfortunately, I got there a little late and missed the show. I did, however, run into Fergal, one of the fellows from the wine tour two days prior... in fact, the fellow with whom I shared the Witchetty Grub experience. It is hard to describe how strange it feels to run into someone you know, when you are on the other end of the world.

I made my way to Rockingham and met up with John and Leony, whom I had met a week earlier on the Nullarbor. They decided to take me out to the town's best pub... the Swinging Pig (in Rocking-Ham... clever...). They had just bought a new house and I had the distinct honor of being their first official house guest.

Mar 23-25: Margaret River

After driving between 6 and 12 hours a day almost every day for the last two weeks, I decided I had earned a break. I was starting to go a little batty without social interaction, so I decided to stop in at a hostel to meet a few new people.

Hostel can mean anything. It could be anything from simple or plain, up to rat-infested or party crazed. I bunked in at a place in downtown Margaret River - the only spot left was a single bunk in an 8-bed room share. Throughout the night, there was constant traffic in and out of the room, lights coming on and off until 4:30am. It was hilarious. 18 and 19 year old guys and girls, too drunk to see, giving each other life advice. There was even a little bit of romance going on the bunk below me. The first alarm clocks went off at 5:00am, as berry pickers got up for the early shift. While I didn't get a solid night's sleep, I would still score this place high based strictly on entertainment value.

The wine tour the next day was stellar. Loads of great people, and some lovely wines. At lunch time, I was one of two lucky souls (readin: one of only two volunteers) who got to try a witchetty grub which tastes surprisingly nutty. Good times had by all :)

Mar 20-23: Esperance to Albany

Esperance is home to some of the more picturesque beaches in the country. The beaches are sheltered by a set of small islands, covered in pristine white sand, and are blessed with calm waters. Pity, my time in Esperance was primarily marred by scattered showers. I took advantage of the downtime to catch up on my reading.

Eventually I made my way down towards Walpole to visit the Tall Trees exhibits.

Mar 19: 4x4ing to Wave Rock

I have a GPS system that I've nicknamed Carmen the Garmin. Carmen has been good to me. Especially helpful in big cities, she seems to know the way most everywhere, can find most anything, and rarely leads me astray.

Except today.

The road to Hyden from Norseman is a wide gravel road, heavily corrugated with loose rock. Huge road trains (trucks pulling two or three huge trailers) fly by at full speed, showering you with an impenetrable cloud of red dust that makes the road temporarily invisible. Somewhere along this dodgy - but relatively good road - Carmen decided to lead me down a shortcut. I use the term shortcut loosely. She suggested I make a left turn off the gravel road onto two tire tracks leading directly into the bush.

Peaches the Pajero (my semi-reliable truck) got her first real taste of 4 wheel driving. Confident that Carmen would steer us right, I veered off road and shifted into gear. We went through sand tracks, across a dried up salt-lake bed, and through several small sets of bushes before rejoining another dirt road roughly an hour later. Save for the strong smell of burning that I have yet to identify, it was a successful adventure.

The Wave Rock was awfully impressive. Whether it was worth the 500km detour is debateable... but it does make for some fun surfing photos.

Mar 17-18: The Nullarbor!

Driving across the southern end of Australia, travellers invariably have to cross the Nullarbor Plains. Famous for having few trees and exceptionally straight roads, it makes for long and uninteresting driving. The driving isn't exactly tough - the hardest part is paying attention.

Doing the drive alone is particularily unsafe. I had prepared myself for the trip with a handful of audiobooks. I got a chance to listen to:

A Short History of Nearly Everything (kept me in it for 8 straight hours),

A Brief History of Time (worst reader ever),

the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (always good for a laugh) and

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).

I found the last one so interesting that over the course of my three day crossing, I listened to the hour and a half episode 6 times.

There were two highlights of the trip worth noting.

First, I met John and Leony, a South African couple who live near Perth who were returning from a motorcycle tour of Tasmania. I planned to meet up with them later as I toured through to Perth. Second, while stopping in the bush to see a man about a horse, I came across a shingleback (or pine cone) lizard.

Mar 15-16: Tastes of the Outback

I decided to head up to the Flinders Ranges, an outback mountain range on the southern end of Australia. It was my first real experience with the interior... the red dirt, and the pounding heat. I spent a couple of nights in Hawker, and did a really interesting hike up through a place called Wilpena Pound. "The Pound" is a rock formation that looks a little like a mountain that was hit by a meteor - it is a ring of mountains that circle a shallow valley.

This was my first experience with Australian flies. More persistent than the ones back home, these guys will swarm around you looking for any sort of moisture. They will land on your mouth, go in your nose, even land on your eye. Over the afternoon of the hike, I managed to trap two flies accidentally: one between my ipod earbud and my ear, the other up my nose.

Mar 14: The eventual and inevitable blog update

After 6 weeks of dragging my butt, and taking shorthand notes, I've finally dedicated a day to updating the blog. It has been a quiet and lazy day as I toured the downtown core, parking myself in public parks to tap busily at the mini netbook computer until my battery would die... then charging it up before repeating the cycle.

Here is the (very loose) plan from here forward:

- Adelaide to Flinders Range [Monday]
Nice hiking in the neighborhood... might as well stop :)

- Flinders Range to the Nullarbor [Tuesday]
The Nullarbor is the straightest road in the world. Imagine if Saskatchewan road builders got to build the Yellowhead between Edmonton and Winnipeg. It takes three days to drive safely. Surrounded by empty desert, the most common accident is people falling asleep and just veering off the road. Sometimes they continue driving for several minutes before they wake up and realize they are off the road. It will be three long days of concentrating very hard on holding the steering wheel absolutely steady. Better swap up the music on the ipod. Maybe this would be a good time to listen to my "learn spanish" lessons.

- Nullarbor to Perth [for 5-10 days]
- Perth to Broome [for 20-30 days]
- Broome to Darwin [for 10-20 days]
- Darwin to Cairns [for 10-20 days]
- Cairns to Sydney [for 10-20 days]
- Sydney to Edmonton [for 1 very long day]

Hope you are enjoying the blog :)

Mar 13: Sweet Adelaide

I have made my way to Adelaide. Based on first impressions, I think Adelaide might edge out Hobart as my vote for prettiest city in the country. Melbourne and Sydney are both exceptional - don't get me wrong - but Adelaide is smack dab in the middle of the wine region, has some great historical structures, and still maintains the small city feeling.

I woke up parked at Maslin beach for the night, and whimsically came to the conclusion that I live in a truck down by the ocean... not at all unlike the proverbial man in the van who lives down by the river. Who'd have guessed? :)

Mar 12: Great Ocean Road... day 2

Continuing up the coast there are more stellar looking rock formations and more impressive coastline bits.

I think I've put about 7,000km on Peaches the Pajero now. She trundles along happily, except on the steep uphill sections, where tiny droplets of escaping oil from the rear motor seal roll down onto the start of the exhaust pipe. If I stop the car at the top of a hill, and crack the hood I am rewarded with a satisfying stream of dissipating black smoke. While originally worrisome, it is starting to make me laugh. No matter how often I check the oil, the level is barely dropping... which seems to imply that the problem is superficial. Based on the parts involved I don't think there is even a remote chance I'm doing damage. It is times like this I wish I knew more about cars. And women. Perhaps the second topic better classified as an ongoing opportunity for learning.

Mar 11: Great Ocean Road

Somewhere between in the middle of the road beween Melbourne and Adelaide is a stretch of highway titled the Great Ocean Road. One of the most famous viewpoints is called the 12 Apostles, where the limestone formations jut out of the ocean.

Pretty fancy. Nice work Mother Nature.

Mar 10: Crossing into and out of Melbourne

I'm in Melbourne again today. I got a chance to pop in to see Leah and Will, and their brand new baby Hugh. I met them only a month and a half ago, when Leah was 8 and 3/4 months pregnant. It is so incredible to see what can happen in 6 weeks.

I also got a chance to meet one of Mick's buddies, who also goes by the name Mick. He was a wonderful host, giving me a great place to crash, and providing some stimulating conversation over morning coffee.

Mar 9: The "plan"

My general plan (which is probably generous nomenclature) has always been to do a lap of Australia. I wanted to go clockwise to hit the best seasons in each region. The van flipping was a small set-back, and I've got some time to make up if I want to complete my tour... so I'm aiming for Melbourne, then Adelaide, and then Perth. Once I hit Perth I will be more or less back on track, and I can explore the west coast at a leisurely pace.

But today, I'm aiming to get close to Melbourne... stopping of course to see the Big Merino.

Mar 8: Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto

Bright and early monday morning, I made the trip to see Steve the mechanic. This is the fourth time I've seen these guys... The guys at the shop all know me by name now. I show up at the door, asking if they miss me yet, noting that everyone shakes their head when they see me.

Steve addresses one of the three main oil leaks, nodding grimly that maybe it will be smarter to drive it carrying a gallon of oil, filling it up periodically than to rip out the engine to fix the other two.. He chuckles as he applies a sealant to the outside of the main oil seal... might work... might not... but it can't hurt...

The afternoon was a nerdy highlight of the trip. For those of you who are under the mistaken delusion that I'm cool, this would be a good section to skip. Oscar invited us to the robotics lab at the University to have a look at his project. He runs experiments with underwater robots surveying the ocean floor. He also let us peek at some of the other robots the other smart kids are playing with.

Mar 7: Sunday Sessions

There is some casual drinking lingo that Australians use that is important to pick up if you're planning to visit:
Shout - a round of drinks
Chunder - spewing chunks
Sunday Sessions - hitting the patio on Sunday afternoon

Back home, we have so few really perfect summer days that the patios are jam packed anytime the sun is out. In Australia, the sun is always shining, so instead of just getting drunk every day, everyone agrees to congregate Sunday afternoons. I'm not sure if it is an after church kinda deal... based on the dress code overall, I would guess that is not the case. Maybe it is related to political houses being "in session"... who knows...

In any event, if you are for some reason stuck in Manly for a Sunday afternoon you should definitely observe the cultural phenomenon that is Sunday sessions down at the Wharf Bar.

Mar 6: Triumphant return to Sydney... 8th time is the charm

I squeaked into Sydney on Saturday evening, just in time to hit the North Curl pool as the sun was setting.

Oscar and I met up with a couple of his buddies, Kev (the Mayor of Manly), and Brian (the Beast). On the way to meet up with them we made an obligatory stop at the liquor store. I insisted we buy some Fosters, since it was the FIRST TIME I SAW IT IN AUSTRALIA. When we actually got to the party, people insisted on taking pictures of the Canadian drinking Fosters, noting that they "didn't know you could still buy Fosters", and wondering if I had "checked the expiry date on the bottle".

Starting from my first flight in... this is now the 8th time I have been to Sydney.

Mar 5: Back on Schedule

Eager to get back to my original plan and escape the unlikely coastal rain showers, I decided to aim directly for Sydney. It would mean a lot of driving: 12 hours in total.

The one place I stopped on the southern tour that I missed going north was Byron Bay. It is easy to see why it is popular. Stellar beaches, and a comfortable "I can wear flip flops everywhere" kind of feeling, Byron Bay is definitely a place I will make a point of seeing as I complete the full lap.

Mar 4: Brisbane... the Edmonton of Australia

Brisbane is often named Australia's fastest growing city. It reminds me a lot of Edmonton. It is a blue collar town, with an undeniable natural beauty, coated by the sweat of hard work. I toured around for most of the day, quietly enjoying the drive up the north coast of town.

Mar 3: Pineapples and other fun topics

The odds against finding rain on the sunshine coast are rougly the same as drawing a deuce from the deck... but my luck in Caloundra had finally run out. Amidst some low scattered showers I trundled over to the see the Big Pineapple and the Glasshouse mountains on the way to Brisbane.

Mar 2: Back at the Ranch...

Back at the Sunshine coast, I lucked out and managed to cross paths with Auntie Gaylene and Uncle Harry. Gaylene is my Dad's younger sister. They happened to be in Australia for a wedding for some close friends of theirs. I popped over for a lovely dinner, where the friendly version of hell's kitchen cranked out an incredible feast.

It was great to see some familiar faces... and to make some new friends.

Mar 1: Great Barrier Reef

The Spirit of 1770 is a twin hulled boat that can carry roughly 200 people out to the reef. They run tours every day. For $160 they will take you to and from Lady Musgrave Island, a coral atoll that juts out of the sea. The atoll had a channel cut into it in world war 2 when the navy considered trying to hide ships there to disguise them from radar. This little lane allows the boat to sneak through, creating a small and safe area for diving and snorkelling.

To say the boat ride out is a bit bumpy, is sort of like saying Edmonton gets a bit cold in the winter, or that Toronto has a bit of traffic... Every seat has two plastic barf bags in the seat pocket ahead, and the tour guide gives light-hearted but thorough demonstration on how to use them before the boat leaves harbor. I am pleased to say I managed to keep my food in me... though not before turning an awkward shade of green.

I'm not really sure I'll do a good job of explaining how I felt about snorkelling the reef for the first time. What do you say when you refer back to your life's todo list, and you check stuff off starting at the tippy top?

I spent about 3 hours puttering around in the water, probably the better part of it touring a turtle cleaning station, a nest shaped formation in the coral, the indentation created as green sea turtles come to rest while cleaner fish tidy off their shells over the course of hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.

Despite my liberal application of sunscreen. I did get a sunburn. It turns out that I have lost some weight since I got here, and my boardshorts have gone from snug fitting to loose. I burned myself a perfect belt-shaped ribbon starting from where the shorts should sit, down to where they in fact slip down to once I start swimming. Hard to complain about it too much :)

A little over 2 months into the trip, and I've completed all (both) of my objectives. I guess this means I've got 4 months left to relax, have fun, and work on my tan.

Feb 28: Searching for Sunshine

Inspired by the demonstration the day before, and as per the instructions in the Lonely Planet, I decided to do our own little kayak tour of the bay. Sadly the camera batteries died mid-trip. Had they survived, I would be showing you photos of enormous homes, opulent sail boats, and action shots of our boat cruising effortlessly through the lake. Intead, you will have to use your imagination.

Checking the rather grim forecast up and down the coast for the next few days, I decided to aim for the only place that where they weren't calling for rain.

The town of 1770 has a population of 221 permanent residents. It represents the second place Captain Cook landed in Australia and takes its name from the year of the landing. While there isn't a lot to do in the town proper, it is the southern most point from which you can take a snorkelling tour of (drumroll please) THE GREAT BARRIER REEF.

Feb 27: Noosa!

Noosa in the sunshine is quite spectacular. I took the afternoon to explore the town... from the fisherman's pier and the tourist boat rentals at one end, to the high-end shi-shi shopping and beach life on the other. I watched an impressive group of kayakers who powered their way in and out through the ocean currents repeatedly. Perhaps they were training for something... or maybe they were just showing off :)

Feb 26: Fun in Caloundra

One of the things Caloundra is famous for, apart for the general sunny conditions, is the kite-surfing conditions. At the river mouth, just off King's beach, where the river meets the ocean and the currents collide there must have been 50 kite surfers flying off the waves, doing their best to do really dangerous looking tricks.

Enjoying the beach, it is important to take some obligatory jumping photos. With the SLR camera taking like 6 pictures a second, it is pretty easy to catch the very peak of a jump... It is kind of like creating an optical illusion. At the peak of the leap, it actually looks like I can jump. If only I knew a similar trick to make it look like I have my hair back...

Onwards to the highly celebrated Noosa.

Feb 25: Steve's Zoo

Just a little north of Brisbane is the Australia Zoo, otherwise known as the Steve Irwin zoo. Though it isn't as large as its sister in Melbourne, it does have one feature that no other zoo can match. The crocoseum! Trainers coax animals to do all sorts of crowd-pleasing tricks. The most popular demonstration involves a crocodile leaping from the water to take food from a brave man's hand.

Eventually I made my way through Caloundra (pronounced Cull-ow-n-dra), a charming little beach town at the southern end of the Sunshine coast. The Sunshine coast is known the world over for getting a lot of sun (some 300 days a year).

If you happen to stop through make sure you test out the restaurant called "Something Blue" where the guy with the moustache who is the host, waiter, bartender, bus boy and general enthusiast teams up with the guy with the moustache who plays live music using only a guitar, a synth pedal and a library of popular hits such as Time After Time. You will never leave hungry. I submit that it is impossible not to have a great time at "Something Blue".