Part IIIa
So as we drove, Ian told me stories about his youth, living through the war, how desolate Australia used to be, how the Americans helped them out during the war, and more about his travels stowed away on the ship. He was so proud of this part.. So he wasn’t supposed to steer the ship at night, and the Captain said he never wanted to see him again, which, as far as Ian knew he did a good job staying out of sight. But when the dat day came that he went to get a reference from the captain he said to come back later, and that he saw him steering the ship every night. When he did..the letter read that he was a stow away and upon being found became part of the crew and worked harder than any man on the ship. He was so proud, he ever remembered the date, word for word the letter. Later he joined the English Merchant Navy.
ANyways, so we finally got to Noosa, which was great, because Ian actually drove over 20k’s out of his way to drop us there. We drove up to these two guys sitting on a bench outside of this Persian rug store and asked them where a good place to pitch a tent was. They tried to explain where but weren’t familiar enough with the area, they were just working there for the week to set up this shop. So, they invited us to sleep in the shop with them on the rugs! Ian said, well, that’s good enough for me, so this is where I’m dropping you. The young guys were pretty cool, they finished their work and then started to pass around Goon and we stayed up late just talking…a lot about politics actually. They were both Muslim, one a white aussie and the other a guy that came from Iran. The Iranian guy was so pompous and errogant and he kept trying to challenge me on my knowledge of world issues and the war and anything anti american. He was just the sort of person he was trying to peg me as an American for being, racist and ignorant. i knew more about every topic he tried to bring up, so eventually he shut up. Regardless it was awesome to get taken in, and despite all that, they were very hospitable, and we stayed for free again!
So we wanted to go to Noosa, which is a little over an hour north of Brissy, because it has beautiful beaches surrounded by National Parks where we figured we could inconspicuously camp for the night. We found this one amazing spot but you had to do a 4k hike through the rainforest and then another 2ks or so on the beach, which was exciting! The rainforest hike was absolutely amazing..but the clouds started to become a deep grey and thunder was looming in teh distance so we started to quicken our pace to get to the beach at least. By the time we did reach the beach however, lightening started to strike. I began to get scared because I of course was holding the tent poles which were sticking into the sky out of my backpack.
After we made it to the beach, we decided to go towards the mountain to the south because there were supposed to be caves there. I was getting grumpy because I didn’t want to die by either lightening or by drowning in a cave but we didn’t have too much choice but to at least walk so I followed Louma up the mountain, which was a much harder climb than all the others, it was over jagged cliffs in the ocean, getting hit by huge waves splaishing spray up and then over steep narrow paths to reach more trees that were blowing like they do when the hurricane starts to blow in. So as the lightening began to strike more, I am very grumpy and tell Louma how stupid this is and I”m not carrying the tent poles anymore, so he takes them and drops them on the rocks. We make it to the other side of htemountain which is a beach town called Sunrise beach (shown above). We decide that we should go to this gorge that Louma had been wanting to climb into instead. I follow him down this dangerously narrow/steep path to a small beach. There is one large boulder and tons of tiny rocks. Just as we get there, the rains starts to fall and the lightening flashes, (which is why we thought we should go there instead, because lightening was coming and we didn’t want to be on top the mountain). So we are sitting huddled underneath one poncho in the “shelter” of this one boulder waiting for it to pass. we are still in good spirits, my grumpiness passed because I was no longer a lightening rod and the whole situation became funny. But anyways, I started thinking that it wasn’t a good idea to be in this tiny little beach because it was probaly inaccesible as it was beacuse the tide comes in so far, plus you could tell by the remnants of sea life washed up so far on shore. By this time, it was dark, so we then had to bust out the worst camp light in the world and make our way up the treacherous path. Louma lost his flip flops and we had our packs in plastic bags, which made it harder to climb up. I went first and almost fell backwards when a giant iguana scurried past me when I put my hand up on the rock he was on. So we are walking through the dark, through rocky narrow slopes down the mountain, because to Sunrise beach was easier than going back to Noosa. We are lost on the beach once we walked down about a million stairs and couldn’t find the exit to the neighbor hood. We found a great spot to camp, but…we had no tent poles and couldn’t go back anyways for them. The storm had passed by now, but it was completely late and dark. (It gets dark around 7 here and it was going on 9, that’s how much of this adventure was in not just stormy darkness, but just plain night) So anyways, after wandering the beach we find an exit to a neightbor hood. Luckily we had a map and start to make our way down the hill to get to town. As were walking a Wicked Camper stops in a park. (Wicked Campers are rental vans with beds in the back, if you spot one, you’ve found fellow backpackers.) So I say we should stop and make freinds. I just had a feeling. So we stop and start to cut open our mangos..oh yea, that;s another thing. Mangos…grow everywhere here and we got a HUGE bag of them for $5. In cities, they go for $2 each… needless to say, our diet consisted of mangos…mangos…and mangos at every meal, somtiems all we ate. But I’m not complaining..it was delicious! Ok but anyways, so the two get out and start to eat as well and we offer them mango to fish ethem in..no can refuse mango. They were a really awesome couple from England doing a quick road trip. We told them of our perilous story and they offered us to actually sleep in the van with them, which was very nice, but at the same time, impossible because those are made for two. So we asked if they’d drive us to a hostel, which they did, but it was past nine and everything was closed we decided to at least sleep in the front seats of the van, but Louma is crafty and particular, like most Europeans, about everything. He wasn’t going to sacrifice a nights sleep, so he rigs up the tent with shoe laces and rope to a tree. It was really impressive actually and funny as well. I wish I had the pictures, but the English kids have them and I lost their email. But turns out, they were going to Brisbane anyways! So how perfect! the Next day we rode with them down to Brisbane stopping along at beaches along the way, swimming and sun bathing. when we got to Brissy we bought them lunch for their hospitality and went to the Forest, which will be the next chapter…phewwww..so much writing for one time!
Part III will consist of Hitch HIking Adventures..and then maybe a seperate one about the people who picked us up.
One of the basics of hitch hiking is to one, of course, be outside of town, on a highway. Two, start early. It was nearing 3 by the time we finished saying bye to Levi, which lasted a few hours. We jsut kept sitting there saying bye and starting a new conversation, then group hugs, good byes, a new conversation. On top of that, we hadn’t any supplies, so we had to wait for the hostel bus that goes into town, then shop, then take a bus to the outskirts of town to start hitching. It was 4 oclock. The worst time to get anywhere. People just get off work and want to go home, no time for travelers, trafficky, and not a good place to camp right out of town in the suburbs where we got dropped. We stood there for over an hour with no luck. I made up a song and a sign that read “anywhere but here”. Here’s my song: “Party people…..give us a ride, party people…let us inside, Party peoplel, everything’ll be fine, party people…we’re gonna have a great time!” each day I made a new verse, but can’t remember the rest. Anyways..after an hour of waiting, an older man, in his fifties but whose youth shone past his age pulled over. He was accostumed to picking up hitch hikers and although he didnt’ take us more than 40k’s outside Cairns, dropped us off to a camp site on the river right on the highway. Perfect! We had prime real estate..mountain view right over the river! We were so wiped out from waiting in the sun the night before and also the previous night’s going away party that we didnt’ get to the highway until noon! We ended up meeting a German couple also hitching south. We were there first so had the right of way (hitchin ettiquette states that they had to wait hidden so that we could get picked up first) Anyways, took about 30-45 minutes before we got picked up, maybe even an hour. A painter on the way to a job picked us up. Made room for us and said he could only take us to Innisfail, which is about an hour away. So it seemed that the first day was like that, short lifts. It’s tiring. You have to wait in the Australian heat and sun and then just drive a short way to do it all over again… but then you get the rides that make it worth it, which is the only things worth sharing. My favorite rides, not to say that some of the people weren’t cool enough, just for my patience in typing, I’ll only type the best ones. Let’s see…Im losing the order of people and places…it happened a while ago…Let’s see…I’ll just say, we finally started to get really great rides, going a few hundres K’s..got dropped off in Makay (Mack-eye). We went to Maccas (McyD’s) for free wifi to look at a map of the city and find a place to camp. We had so much gear that we decided to borrow the Cole’s shopping cart (pictured) and carted our loot around town. We were starting to feel homeless at this point…”bathing” in pools, living in a tent, making breakfast by the side of the road with utensils taken from 7-11’s…begging for rides…lol. true nomads and loving it! Anyways, we were strolling our shopping cart of our only possessions through town towards dusk when an old man, his wife, and small child stopped us. They were asking us where we were going, why, and if we knew the dangers of Makay! They were so convinced that if we put our tent somewhere in a park that I would be raped and Louma stabbed by the aboriginal people. (Racism is atrocious here)They were adament about even paying for us to stay in a hostel, which was very generous, because they themselves said they “knew what it was like to be like this” (meaning, homeless like we were) we tried to tell them that we were travelers, wanting to camp, would be safe, and Makay is not like a huge city with crazy gangs… But I was getting scared ,thinking of the trouble I had in Cairns, so we walked to the hostel. Upon arrival, we spoke with the owner who said Makay was completely safe and showed us where we could pitch our tent, just about a twenty minute walk from where we were. So, even though it was dark, I felt much safer and we went to a camper park off the highway. We didn’t want to pay to put our tent in a feild, so we had to wake up at sunrise again. I think the next was Townsville where as soon as we got into town it began pouring. Oh, another thing about hitch hiking…if at all possible..try not to in the “wet” which is the rainy season, lol. It rained all afternoon by the time we got there so decided to go to a hostel, where we stood outside a Lowes type place and got a ride to the YHA. It was nice to finally have a shower, real meal (not tuna) and a real bed. The next day we needed to get out to the high way but had missed the bus, because exhasuted as we were, we weren’t going to get up at 5:45 to get a ride just “close” to the highway. We saw a man packing his car and asked for a ride to a hitch hiking spot. He said he’d move things around and wait for his wife. They were about 40 something and so awesome. They were traveling for three months around the country visiting friends before they were to move to England. Louma and I were squished holding our huge bags on out laps, we had no room to move our toes even…but even though we were just supposed to get dropped at the high way, we had such great converstations, the wrife and I, about art, racism, traveling, life, everything, that they drove us all the way to Gimpie, which is a few hours away. They dropped us off and from there we just for a few short rides, one after til this kid dropped us off, late, in the middle of nowhere, in front of a farm..dusk approaching…nowhere to camp. We kept trying, (another rule to hitch hiking is just as you are about to give up, make food, or set up camp, you’ll get a ride). So as, we were about to do one of the above, I was sitting back makign a sign and Louma was in front a few yards, a tiny red car pulled over. An old man gets out of the car and he was exactly how an old Aussie man should look. Tough as nails yet friendly, like your neighborhood grandpa watering the lawn in knee socks, bushy white eye brows, and a youthfulness that suggests he doesn’t realize he’s eighty instead of 25. Ian was quite a character, the first thing he says to us was how he wouldn’t have stopped had he known there was two of us, that he just thought it was the one “ugly bloke, wink at me” but let’s find room anyways. Side note, an aussie saying, is “G’day, Where yous goin?” There version of yall is yous. So we heard that a million times a day, kinda like it. Anyways. we get in the car and Ian tells me he picks up hitch hikers often, he doesn’t smoke and that if we try anything dangerous, the car is going to run into traffic, killing more than just him. Then he got on with how nice it was to have a pretty lady to talk to and he told me his life story. He’s a really interesting person, someone I could see Dad talking to for hours, although, it might’ve been hard, because I think Ian would give Dad a run for his money as far as who can have the longest running monologe..
He said at teh age of 18 in 1948 he brought a duffle bag a 1/3 full of rice, one pair of shorts, two tshirts, and no shoes, “because I never did like to wear shoes” (so Aussie!) and stowed away on a ship heading to England. His father was from Scottland and he said he’d take him one day, but never did, so he stowed away. He told me of how he hid for two days and then decided to give himself up, how they delayed the ship for hours looking for him but he switched the lightbulb from 40 watt to 100 or soemthing so that when they can in from the dimmness they couldn’t adjust their eyes enough to look thoughrouly in the room where he hid in between a table and two chairs. He was taken to the captain and told not to get in his way, because he called him Skipper instead of Captain, which in oz is respectful, but the captain was English and that was insulting…so he worked 7-5 on deck and at night, just because he liked it he took over a shift for one who was steering the ship. He also worked as a chef, took over amonth to get to south america because something was broken, and they could only reach so many knots. He remembered so many details I can’t write them all down..I could write a book out of it. But anyways, he’s a really interesting person and I was completely captivated by the stories of his adventures. I will write more later…I’m over it for now…
Part II
So Louma and I decided to catch a bus to Kuranda, we had to get out of Digger Street. By this point, Levi had a new job, working twice as much (he’s a tour guide in the Daintree!!) James and Sarah were staying at Kate (James’ and Levi’s mom’s house) and Sarah was also working, so we needed to get out and away. Unfortuantely the markets were closed by the time we got there. But our main goal was to join the locals on a river cruise anyway. Oh, I forgot, Levi met us up there for lunch, but he then decided to go home. So we made it to the river and we were th only non locals on teh boat. But everyone was kinda boozed up and they were cool with it. It was a fun little cruise, everyone just chatted and played music while we went up and down the river, in the middle of the rainforest. We brought out tent, thinking we’d camp out by the river that night and this one lady made it her life mission to help us find a spot for out tent after the cruise was over. She sought us out after the cruise and walked us all over town (its tiny…way smaller than GB proper even!) showing us where wee could pitch the tent, then she wanted to show us the one bar that the whole town was going to that night. We weren’t completely sold on camping in Kuranda that night, as much as we wanted out of Digger Street, it was “Digmas”, the Co Op’s Christmas party so we told her we would just hitch a ride home. On the way to the highway, she said she had a secret she wanted to show us…we thought…man this is weird, but ok. We followed her to a fence and she opens it up to rows of huge cages full of koalas!! BEST SURPRISE EVER! As we walked past she told us their names and then she opened one of them up and handed them to us. It was so cool! I paid for that a few months ago! But koalas are so beautiful. They are smart too, even if they sleep over 17 hours a day. They are like dogs, even. They know their individual names and come when they are called. When one wanted to be held, like a pet, it started to climb to the lady, and if it didn’t want to be handled, shied away. It was so cool! I love koalas, I wish I could bring one home, just for you, Jim ;)
Caught a ride home within 1 minute of being on the road, got dropped off at our back door and joined the festivities of Digmas which was a bunch of older artists jamming and drinking and talking about…art. It was good.
A few other nights we’d have parties just our group and it was fun. Our last night before Louma and I decided to hitch hike down south we had one and painted our faces in blue war paint. Done with cairns, next post will be about hitching and the amazing people we met.
Part I (Sorry this is so very late..here’s the rest of the Daintree trip)
We camped on the beach, right in the middle of these two mountains sloping into the most serene and clear blue, a blue I’m having trouble describing..other than serene.. There were palm trees lining the beach and just beyond those were gum trees, eucalyptus, all the other typical aussie trees. The scene looking from the water back onto land actually reminded me exactly of swimming in the South China Sea at camp Permai in Malaysia. So beautiful, only there’s no monkies in the trees but there are kangaroos that can actually climb to the top of these massive rainforest trees, amazing!
But..let’s see…so that night we just stayed up all night, we brought some beers and waited for the tide to go out, it went out so far that we walked out to where the rocks that were usually 4 1/2 feet under water started to be land level. It was amazing to walk out that far into what just a few hours before was the ocean, well, it was until I stepped on some Fire Coral. Cut my toe and it burns unbelievably.
Next morning woke up to the most neon sun I’ve ever seen. It was a mix between neon pink and orange and it reflected almost perfectly the colors onto the light blue ocean. It was the most colorful and amazing thing I’ve seen, and I’m sorry I can’t share it with you but that night I dropped my camera in the sand in the midst of a photo..Louma fell out of his chair and we were snapping pictures, and the regretably, in mid pass or something, completely opened it dropped into the tiny granuals of sand.. It gets so unbearably hot as soon as the sun is fully crept over the horizon that you can’t do anything, even the shade is dreadful. So, despite the dangers of Stinger/Bluey/Jelly fish season (the huge deadly ones) we decided to go snorkeling! BEST DECISION EVER. I think if I weren’t me, I’d want to be a fish in the Great Barrier Reef. I saw so many fish that Dad would have love to have seen. All the fish he paid all that money for, (just for that stupid arrow crab to eat..) Saw all of them in schools of fish swimming around. It was the most beautiful site! I saw coral, sea aneomes, pin fish, those Dora fish, huuuuge fish, I don’t even know the names of all the fish I saw, and we weren’t even out far, just as far as I would swim, which was pretty far, but nto like we took a kayak out or anything, I can’t imagine what would be out just a little further even. Levi and I even did a swim through, where there was a rock cave, so we swam through from one side to the other. Made me nervous but I’m glad I did it. Oh, and while I snorkeld Levi cast a line, and twice I got caught by the stupid thing. Not because he cast it towards me but beacuse I swam too close to him while we were swimming between rocks. I got nervous of the jellies. ANyways, snorkeling is my new favorite activity…at least until I get to scube dive!!
After swimming we went up the mountain more, very steep, very beautiufl trees. They are HUGE and then whats even more beautiful is that a white vine, sometimes as thick as the big trees themselves, wrap themselves up teh tree and make absolutely beautiful weaving patterns. The texture and color greens of the different levels of trees against one another going up the mountain is the most beautiful color palat you could imagine for one color. That is why green is my favorite. But I digress..so we set up camp next to a river and made some lunch and decided to go explore up the river. It was so fun to hike up this river which was draped with trees and filled with small stepping stones of rocks in some places, boulders in others, and tiny cascades in other places. As we walked along the river we made it a game to see who would fall first, then in what order, and then who fell the most and most dramatic because the rocks became so slippery. Somtimes it was just easier to walk on the rocks with our hands even though the water was only a few inches deep. At other points it was a refreshing 6 feet deep in which we would stop and swim for a bit. I was finally having the adventure that I pictures myself to have while here in Oz. We went all the way up the ricer until we reached a perfect little “spa”. Huge boulders on either side of the river created a tiny cascade and there just so happened to be boulders just perfect for sitting and having your shoulders underneath the falling water for a mini water massage. I wanted to spend the rest of my time climbing up the river, all the way to the top…but Sarah was waiting for us a few minutes up river, she had had enough of the rocks, so we went back to camp and hung out, watching the birds, trees, and clouds. Nice evening. Then we set up fire and cooked veggies on it, well, they cooked kangaroo. Next day hopped on the bike with Levi and made that awesome ride down through the mountains, the road hugging along the coast line. At one point we passed a truck that had a HUGE boar hanging from it. The guy had hunted it, it was about six feet long. That’s all about that though. We stopped on the edge of the forest at a beach and James and Levi went fishing, no luck.
The rest of my time in Cairns was spent hanging out with everyone, WWOOFing for Digger Street, and..that’s really about it. WWOOFing= Willing Workers on Organic Farms, basically, I stayed and ate for free at Digger Street as long as each morning I worked a few hours (its an art Co Op) So I cleaned the kitchen every morning, helped cook, worked in the garden and made a silly litttle shower mister with Levi. I didn’t really like it thought because I felt like I was taken advantage of a little… ie.. working in Oz minimum wage is $17..about. It broke down the hours that I “worked” versus what I “made” in terms of cost of living in the house for other members was about $10…and othere than that I felt like people expected me to clean after them and cook for them, so I quit. I have an awesome story about the day Louma and I went to Kuranada, a little village in the mountain above Cairns (pronounced Cans btw) Not sure if I shared that..
Life in Cairns
I arrived here a little over a week ago, sorry I haven’t written anything, but I’ve been enjoying it here so much and I’ve made really wonderful freinds, the kind I’ve been waiting to make. I took a twelve hour bus to get here, it wasn’t a bad trip, I read a whole book and it was much better than I thought it was.
Sarah found a ride share so I was waiting for her to arrive at te ebus station to pick me up so that we could move into our new communal living, Digger Street. While i was waiting for Sarah this aboriginal man who was very drunk and hostel started to go around yelling, getting all in a hussel and using reallllllly strong language and even a bit violent. I had a bad feeling about him, but I wasn’t sure what to do. For the first time I was nervous that he might see my light skin and try to hurt me. I took a few steps back, leaving my stuff on the bench, which also made me nervous but I figure if he knocked that off, it was better than me. He was yelling at me the whole time, about being a white female and this and that, I wasn’t listening, I was treating him like a rabid dog… back away slowly, avoid eye contact.. he started to approach me and kept walking towards me as I was walking away. I was so scared that he would get violent because I saw him put his hands on the older black guy that was trying to calm him. And he obviously loathed white people.. I shouted..”will anyone help me here?!” so many people around and the only one to help me was a young guy. Which was nice ,but I saw a dad and mom walk by, (not with their kids) and another older man, and I thought surely they would intervene. A young guy, about my age did. The abbo backed off and the young guy helped me grab my bags and walked me down the street. That is teh first scary thing that has happened to me. I actually started to cry, but I got over it. I think that kind of thing is somewhat common around here. It’s not the first story that I’ve heard of such things. But now I have an amazing group of freinds and i have no worries.
The next day, sarah and I spent all morning, an exhaustingly hot morning, posting signs in all the backpacker spots stating we want a ride to the Daintree Forest. we came home, overheated and feeling defeated. We are sitting at the table when Levi, Louma, and James rock up. They are celebrating because James, Levi’s brother just moved here from Darwin (3000 k’s awaay) and jsut got here that day. We were supposed to go play volleyball with them, told them we’d meet them at the pool in twenty minutes..but can’t remeber..think we ate lunch with the community and arrived as they were leaving, so 20 minutes somehow became a running joke of sorts.. Apparently Sarah and I are “dominate” personalities. We heard they were planning a trip to the Daintree and also going out that night…sooo. we decided to become their friends and invited ourselves along! And a freindship was formed. awhhh. It took over an hour to get there because we spent forever around teh table drawing silly drawings and cracking jokes on eachother. We literally jsut met them, but it felt like being with old freinds.
The next day, we packed James’ car with camping gear because we were going to Innisfail to see their mom play at a blue’s festival. I rode on the back of Levi’s motorcycle, its over an hour away and a beautiful ride through banana feilds and mountains. It was the most beautiful day and riding a motorocyle around Australia is something that was high on my awesomeness list! Innisfail is a podunk tiny faming town..nothing there… The blues fest was awesome. Their mom, Kate, is a really cool woman, she plays drums and her freind plays harmonica and guitar. We danced and joked, and fire twirled the whole night and had a great time. With only a few hours of freindship between us, we had not stopped laughing since we met. And on top of that, we are all goofy people and just had banter the whole time.
Let’s see…Sunday we just hung out…laughed, played volleyball and swam…because on MOnday we were going to the DAINTREE RAINFOREST :)))) Levi and I rode the motorcycle again, and it was the most amazing ride I’ve ever been on. The rainforest literally cascades from the mountains directly into the most serene blue ocean I’ve ever seen. You look in front of you and you see mountain after mountain rolling into the sea on your right. On teh left are massive trees and rocks along the mountains. It was amazaing. I was smiling the whole time and didn’t even realize it. We get into the rainforest and the trees are just beautiful. Oh, and to make things even better, Levi is a professional tour guide through the Daintree. He knew all the best spots to camp. Day one: camping on the beach. we walk through cocnut trees, paper bark trees, eucalyptus trees to get to the water, where you see multiple jungle covered mountains falling into the ocean. the water is so calm and clear. We immediate
This post is over a week old, I just hadn’t been around to load it online. The pictures are of Fraser Island which I will write about tomorrow when I have a day long bus trip to get from Airlie Beach to Cairns.
I’m am currently on the bus heading north to Hervey Bay from Noosa. This week I am finally going on the Fraser Island four
wheel drive tour. I have six weeks of travel before I have to be back in Brissy for the Woodford Folk Festival where I am
volunteering with half of the people from the Forest. Its going to be awesome because its over New Years.
Our time spent in Marcoola was good. Spent some time at the beach, attempted to surf one evening, no good. Went kayaking in
Noosa, awesome. Went to Eumundi markets…kinda lame. Cooked some really good meals for our hosts. Oh, and went couch surfing.
Let’s see..on Monday Vera and I packed up and decided to hitch hike to Noosa. We weren’t even on the road for thirty seconds
when a car pulled over for us. He was a young guy, going to Coolum to check the surf, which was no good so he went ahead and
drove us all the way to Noosa. It is a strange feeling, standing on the side of the road with your thumb up. Hitching is my
new favorite means of transportation. When we got to Noosa we spent a few hours on the beach but its so freakin windy here
that its near impossible to enjoy the beach unless you are in the water, which is amazing. We still weren’t sure where we would
stay that night, the guy from couch surfing, Justin, said he wouldn’t know until after six whether or not we could stay with
him. So we locked up our bags and walked up the hill to the grocery store. Vera and I are pretty different. More on that later.
But, she didn’t want to walk down the hill back to the park with our groceries so she stuck out her thumb and not even a minute went
by and a guy pulled over. Erin is from cali and actually we arrived to Oz on the same day. He’s really cool. He invited us
to have a picnic with him, which was perfecet since we were on our way to do that as well. So we sat in the park and shared dinners.
We then went to have a drink at a hostel bar and met some Canadians who I may do the Whitsunday tour with. Erin even drove us
back to Peregian, about 15 k south to Justin’s house, where turns out we could couch surf.
Justin is a nice kiwi guy we stayed with. We didn’t get to spend much time getting to know him because he was working during the day
and I got the itch to travel really quick. The wind is too wild at the beach and makes it a miserable beach day so I knew that
I wouldn’t last long in the Sunshine coast, nothing to do. Brian, from Georgia, whom I met in Byron and again in Surfer’s and Brisbane,
came up to Noosa. I would like to travel with him but he istoo slow for me. I’m always a few days ahead of him. He feels obligated to
travel with people he meets. I don’t. I have no obligations to anyone and I prefer it that way. So we usually met up for dinner and
drinks when our time overlaps in a city. We hitched rides up and down the coast the whole time. Its so easy and you always get picked up
by nice people because they worry that a cook will get you, so they end up picking you up to protect you. And yes, it can be
dangerous, I understand. In fact, I took the bus which means that vera had to hitch alone, and I am alittle worried about her.
But she has pepper spray, and it really is more likely a good one will pick you up. But that isn’t the point I wanted to make..
Oh, so we had another Goon night with Brian in the park. Watched the most amazing lightening storm. Now I’m driving through the most
beautiful green rolling hills and valleys. This is so sporadic. What’s funny about the night out with Brian is that both of us
have been nicknamed Tornado. So the storm blew! And we had a good time. But now I have a creak in my neck from cramming three
people in a single bunk bed. we hitched a ride back to Peregian, packed up, and hitched back to Noosa. A nice lady who owns
a backpackers picked us up and was full of info on employment. Too bad I’ve no time for work! ;)
The Forest was by far the coolest place I stayed so far. It was just a bunch of kids living together, hanging out, laughing, fire twirling, just being young together. At one point I had said that I wanted to have a
bike to ride, so Diego and I spent a morning dismanteling other bikes we found beneath the house and building one for me. It was hot in the sun and took some work, but finally we got a bike together that only had front breaks.
I had a good little bike ride around St. Lucia but it was so hilly I was nervous to ride too much beacuse of the breaks and I was also unsure of how well the gears worked. A few guys working on a house noticed me walking my bike
up the hill and called for me to ride up it, in which case I asked if they wanted to be the ones to test the gears and breaks fo rme. They did and it again it was ok. That was a good day for me actually. Diego built me a bike
and Mikey taught me how to fire twirl. It’s not nearly as complicated as it looks and I wasn’t even nervouse with it ablaze. I haven’t written during my stay there so its hard to recall everything.. I’ll just recap the highlights.
One night Vera and I decided to go into the Valley to meet up with Andrew and Brian. We didn’t quite make it that far because The Forest had already started to drink and we had a bit too much, rode the Fairy into town, did a few
laps around the CBD and came back, got in trouble of the Fairy and I went to bed. The next day sarah, Vera, and I wanted to go across the river to the West End to get produce for Juevos rancheros for dinner that night. We were having
such a great time talking that we got on the wrong fairy, went all the way to New Farm, which is about a 40 minute ride in the opposite direction. No worries though, because we had a great time and its so easy to spend all day everyday
in the Forest, so when you manage to get out, you remember how nice it is to be in civilzation once again (but after a while you just want to return!) Let’s see..each night is about the same there, we make a delicious meal together, meals like
Veg Curry, Pasta bakes, grilled out foods, everything was so gooooodd! Home made tiramasu! Home brewed beer! Nearly everynight we’d have home brewed beers, Janne makes the best beers I’ve ever had. I spent some time hanging out with Drew and that was
always a good day. He is a great person, really intellegent, the nicest guy in general, and just has a great calmness to him, but he’s still loud and fun and goofy when he wants. He is leaving soon to go on an adventure through Asia. We may meet up in
Noosa this week for a camping trip but not sure what will happen with our travel plans. Some night last week we all hung around the Forest and then caught the Ferry to the West End. dollar taco night! There is this place called the Shire which is an
awesome spot, The Shire. They play live music and don’t sell alcohol, so its BYOB. The venue gets packed, its mainly outside, people spilling into the street. its just there for the community, not to profit. Really cool hang out. That was a fun night out, the
whole household went. At that point there was a few new couchies. By the end of my time in the Forest I began to feel like a house mate rather than a couchie. Sarah, Vera, and I didn’t even sleep in the couch surfer room by the end of our stay, lol. The Forest
is amazing because you became a family. The three of us girls became quite good friends and I of course became good friends with Drew and a few others. People always return to the Forest and I will be back there by New Years because we are all going to volunteer
at a Folk Music Festival together.
After about three weeks at the Forest, we decided we should head north. Vera came with me and now we are in a small town south of Noosa couchsurfing with some really nice guys, Che and Nakol. Vera and I took the bus here. It was quite an adventure. We were
a bit late so had to take a different train to then catch a bus, which threw off our whole travel plans and took a few hours longer than we wanted. When we were catching the bus to Nambour there was a young kid drunk off his ass waiting for the bus along with us. All the old
ladies and just everyone just kinda chuckled at his stupidity and thought nothing much of him because for the most part he was staying to himself. At some point on the ride, he took a swig of his Jack daniels which caused the bus driver to get a little annoyed. He told him it was
illegal and then the kid asked if he wanted a drink himself. THe driver just told him to sit down and put it awawy or else he’d get off at the next stop. The boy threw out some harmless banter and was about to slump into his own world again but this “agro” man sitting across from
the kid got up and just started at the boy’s neck, which of course provoked the kid into self defense. That’s exactly what the older man wanted. He had to have been a little drunk as well, or just crazyas, because he had the most evil look in his eye and for about 15 minutes held
the young kid and at one point was choking him a little. The bus driver refused to stop and the old ladies on the bus were screaming for him to stop and for the old man to let him go. The problem just escalated because the more the boy struggled under the old man’s weight, the more
the old man wanted to abuse the young kid. At one point the boy was trying to stand up to get away from his grip and the two slammed into the asile of the bus. Vera and I were sitting in the handicap seats right where they were and we were so scared that one of them was going to get
thrown onto us. It was so scary and sad but there wasn’t anyone who interferred at first. But what could we do? It was mainly older women, the two of us, and then the two animals fighting. They wasn’t even a trace of civilized humans to be found within their eyes at that point.
Finally two men from the back of the bus came to do something, but I felt that the man that came to help was siding with the vicious older man and was still roughing up the kid, who was retardly drunk, but still needed protecting. At one point, the two were in a standoff of strength near the door
and the women were screaming bloody murder for the bus driver to stop so the boy wouldn’t fall out the bus. My heart was in my chest the whole time. We got to the next stop and the driver kicked them off. The fear and tension was still permeating the bus because we were scared that the older man
would stay nearby and seriously hurt the boy who was passed out at the bus stop. I hope to God he is alive and well. I hope that is the worst thing I’ll experience while here.
Che picked us up at the bus stop then drove us out to Nakol’s house. Che is a professional photographer and has traveled the world doing free lance photograpghy. Just the other day his photograpgh was front and center of the national paper, equvalent of USA Today. Impressive. Anyways, he’s so nice,
he brought us two surfboards to try to surf that night. The water was warm and it was beautiful as the sun set over the trees. Neither of us were that great at surfing so we played frisbee instead. That night we Balderdash, a great game!!! TOday we woke up and Che brought us to Noosa where we went sea kayaking,
surfed the waves with the kayak and hiked a little up the mountain. These guys are nice. Its cool to be out of the Forest as much as I miss it and everyone there, its nice to do something else. Vera and I want to travel a little, maybe start to do some farm work, and be in either Fraiser Island or the Whitsunday’s
within the next two weeks so that we can do all those excusrions with Sarah. That’s a quick catch up for now. Sorry that I rarely write and that when I do, its pretty cut and dry. I am experiences some great things that could make a great story, but I don’t have the patience to write it out that great.
So I wrote that a few days ago… didn’t proof read..sorry. Since then, we went to the Eumundi markets, which were boring and expensive, the beach, made dinner for our hosts, and that’s about it. Today we are heading to Noosa, these guys are nice but kinda not our people type thing if that makes since. Oh the pictures I’m adding are of my favorite quote on the wall at the Forest, the boy from the Forest that everyone is asking about..and then us couch surfing with the Sunshine Coast hosts. We saw this couch sitting on the side of the road on our way home from the beach. Later that night we deicded to put it on skatboards and ride it to the beach. We ended up leaving it there atop a dune. So many people have sat there to enjoy the view, I feel we did something nice for the community…
Happy Halloween!! Hope everyone has a great time! Friday was a good start to a fun weekend. I waited around the Forets to say bye to Drew and some of the travelers. They went to a music fest, Island Vibes on Stradbrook island. i was kinda sad I couldn’t go, and I kept getting crap for not going, but when I told them I was skipping out to do a burlesque dance, all was right in the world. You should try that excuse some time. Everyone loves to hear it. Anyways, I was way too nervous.. I was thinking there’s no way Im getting up to do this dance I hardly know in such skimpy clothes. Jellaine is so determined that I had no other way..we took a shot of rum and rushed into the city. Turns out it was inside the library instead of outside in the center city square…and it was at a poetry reading…and it was all weird artsyt and gothic people so I wasn’t embarassed anymore. And..it was crowded and hard to dance in the small space provided. None the less, I am fortunate enough to say, I performed a burlesque dance in front of a live audience during my stay in Australia!!!! That is one huge thing for me..
Saturday CJ and I went down to meet Jell and the West End Markets. Its an awesome market place and they said that it ws a perfecet place for me to live; lots of artsy/hippie/uni kids!! So maybe I’ll look into apartments there…
For Halloween, there was no way in hell I was going to wear the burlesque outfit again and it was great, Jellain got super excited and handed me a small batman shirt. TUrns out she had bought if for her massive dog last year, but it didn’t fit..it was a little boy’s costume! So I took it and made my own bat ears and mask by cutting up my leggings..good thing its summer! My cape was cleverly made out of my one and only black skirt that I safety pinned to a thin black string! I caught the bus into town to meet her, and went to the MJ party. It sucked and it cost ten bucks so I went down stairs and asked for my money back. They were really nice and more than willing to help me out, with a phone, money, whatever. They must like American batwomen.. actually..everyone seemed to like American batwomen. WHen I would walk past people in the streets they would start singing the theme song or ask for a pic. So many people came up to me. I think because every guy grew up liking batman as a kid and to see a girl pull it off made their day. I am one tough batwoman though. One guy asked to take a pic with me and I was like..if you can walk and take it, im not stopping. hahah..that is pretty much the jest of all my reponses. When I met up with Jellaine, she had come from a work party and had a few glasses of wine. We danced at Birdie Num Num’s and had a great time.
I’ve had a really great past few days. I went on a spur of the moment trip to Surfer’s with the Australian kid, Cal for his bday. He and his friends kinda get annoying, but my friend Kyle, who is probally my favorite person in Australia, the Canadian, was there for the weekend, so I caught a ride and met up with him. So I went to hang out with Kyle and glad I did, but was realllllllly over the whole trip other than that. When we finally got back to Brisbane, I got dropped off at the hostel in the Valley, where my friends Adam and Andrew are staying only to find that they were full. THey called the hostel down the street and reserved a room for me. had no clue where to go, had to ask the cops for directions, only to get there and find that they had double booked my room…garhhhh. And it was dark and no one likes carrying their pack through the city, so heavy. Lucky enough however, I had previously asked to couch surf with some Uni kids. Best decision yet.. Well, it took my over an hour to catch the bus, find the right bus stop, and then finally trek up to their house where I walked in and felt a sense of PHPness to the place, and it was great!!
I will try to take pictures of the Forest, which is what their home is called. (One of the forest dwellers’ mother came over and declared the house was a forest and that his sister shouldn’t come over anymore, hence the nickname stuck). But this house is awesome. I love it. First of all, you walk in and there are a few couches, plenty of room for surfer’s. They have a porch that overlooks the backyard which is sick, it has a huge shed and hammoc and mattresses on the ground, where people jump off the balcony onto. The whole house, walls, ceilings, tiles, fridges, everything is covered in art, quotes, lyrics from previous surfer’s leaving their mark of wisdom. You never get bored there, because first of all, all the visual stimulants and then second of all, because at any given time, there will be a group of people hanging out somewhere. Currently there are…about nine or ten permanent foresters, and about that many couch surfer’s. It’s so great!! So much fun. Its like living in a commune. We cook giant meals, whoever didn’t help cook will clean. This morning after coffee, a group of tackled the kitchen and scrubbed it clean and another American and I are talking about making some traditional southern food for the Forest. Everyone in the house is so cool. I love being in this atmosphere more than anywhere else I think. The guys that live there are all going to Uni and so they are all intelligent and involved in politics, art and literature. I love being around people who can have good conversations and discussions about things that matter. Drew is a journalism major and got to intern at the Olympics in china for photograpghy. Yanni got his degree in Zoooglogy and wants to get his PHD with his research being the evolution of snakes due to climate change, Ben is a complete anarchist studying art and teaching, everyone in the house is jsut as interesting as these guys. The Forest has its own time and often the couch surfer’s get sucked in, for example, Mikey, Becky, and Adam have been here for times ranging between a few weeks and two months. And no one cares, because everyone chips in with money, food, chores. It’s great.
The first day I was there we did the Zombie walk and I think it was the most fun I’ve had in Brisbane. We covered ourselves in red glucose corn syrup and dyed oatmeal and noodles red for brains and drenched each other in it. We caught the bus into town and some people had no idea what was going on, so that made it even better. There was a little under 2,000 participants I’d say and everyone marched into the Valley where there was a music festival. It was great, because the whole town kinda shut down waiting for the march to pass through. People were smearing blood and brains all over designer store windows and harrassing the cars as they passed. Everyone and everything was fair game. So much fun. They we came back to the Forest and drank Zoon and Drew and I went swimming in the neighboring apartment’s pool. The next day we just went around the city, ate some good Hari Krishna food and hung out. I love the Forest, it reminds me of life in Jax. PHP quality for sure.
Tonight I am going to meet Jellaine in town where we’ll have our last Burlesque dance class before the performance…I have not practiced once..where am I to do that? But we’ll see how it goes. I am tempted however, because the Foresters are going to a beautiful place, Stradbrook Island for a music festival and its really tempting..I should stick with my original plans though..but we’ll see how things pan out.. Enjoy the pics (more on facebook)
gain
I’ve been in Brisbane for going on a week, its funny that I find myself calling it my homebase, its a wonderful city, but my favorite is still Melbourne. But I am comfortable here and I love having Jellaine as a friend. She’s just so awesome and inspiring. Her business is doing so well, that she may quit her job soon and just work on Cherry Blooms and travel the world..how nice..
Let’s see..the first night I was here in stayed in the city so that I could hang out with some friends, Brian and Andrew, whom I met in Byron. That was kinda a slow night, just had some Goon and played cards..oh and they made me take my first shot of absenthe..ew, not a fan. This past weekend, I stayed with Jellaine and read a bunch and helped her pack up her things, as she will be traveling the next few weeks on and off and then to Europe and then she’ll find a place of her own. We Went out in teh Vally one night, she got me all fancy and dressy and did my makeup, (she’s much girlier than any of my girls back home, and its fun) Then I cam back to the city…let’s see…had a picnic with some Scottish people at Kangaroo Point…and….I even…ate the tiniest piece of kangaroo…. it took me a while before I woudl do it, then I did, and reconfirmed that i DO NOT want to eat meat. But as an aussie staple, thought I should try it. I was hoping to leave town next week, but can’t. I just have too many things going on! This Sunday I am going to participate in a Zombie walk, from one end of the city to another. We dress and act like zombies :) THen TUesday I have a burlesque dance class…hahah!! Yep, Jell and I joined a dance class and we are performing at the state library (hahah) and some theatre this dance next weekend!! I’ll take pics and post the video..if I actually do it. It’s completely out of my element..but thats what life is about, saying Yes more to things you never thought you’d do! Thats another reason why I love Jellaine. She’s always doing something new and anything she ever wanted to do, she just does it. Love that girl. So today I am going costume shopping wiht some friends and the burlesque costume will also suffice as my halloween costume for when Jell and I go to a Michael Jackson’s Thriller themed Halloween party!!! WHOOOHOOO for an awesome week to come.. I know this is a rushed entry, but its a beautiful day. I am sitting in this beautiful New Orleans style home, two stories wiht balconies overlooking the city street. Its awesome, its the only “home” admist these gigantic skyscrapers. And on top of that, it is a charity based cafe and art gallery with proceeds going to single moms trying to start their own businesses. The only down side: I ordered a chai tea and its disgusting…kinda tastes like green bean casserol….lol how gross. But I had an awesome run and workout this morning. Ran to south bank to kagaroo point and did strength training and ran back. I know that means nothing to anyone outside Brissy but its a good workout and I feel great!! Well, will post pictures soon. I dropped my camera about 6 inches and now its very tempramental so pictures may be less these days..sorry!
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