some more splashing to find Nemo

The treat I paid myself (which will surely be the last one for this trip) to keep me entertained for the weekend was a toy boat with which I have been playing around at the Lagoon in Cairns. Some people complained but as you can see, it's a fairly small boat:P

Honestly, this picture is not THAT convincing, who am I kidding?

I just spent 2 days aboard the Vagabond, a nice sailing ship with a faaab crew to check out the Great Barrier Reef. We dived in the morning, in the afternoon and the next morning. Simply put, we were all the tme in the water.

I didn't dive, "just" snorkeled but it was GREAT. The next time I'll be around (there will be a next time) I will make sure I have my diving certification and dive in this great reef again.

Besides Nemo and all his friends, I spotted 2 sharks and a turtle. Turtles look amazing, they were my main object of (spotting) desire during this trip.

I learned an important thing during this time, not to sleep at night in the hamac. It may look cool, it may be possible to sleep even, but it sways MUCH more than the boat itself. So me, not suffering from "the motion of the ocean" during the first day, had a more difficult morning. I was almost about to express myself to the ocean, but the spewing feeling passed, I ate and I was top fit in no time, ready to stay under water for another hour and half.

If you never snorkeled, don't think it's just about swimming on the surface of the water with the goggles, snorkel and fins on and spotting the fishes and other creatures from the distance! I dived aaaall the time, but of course not as deep as the divers, I cannot equalize and stay as long under water as they can. I spotted the turtle when I took a dive, waiter for a couple of seconds in the calm and there she came and swam around me and left.

I wish I had bought an underwater case for my cam:(

It all goes like this: jump in the water from the boat and start swimming in the direction of the reef. They can be spotted from the ship, as it's a shallow zone where the waves are different. While swimming and reaching the spot, a massive rock shows up in front of us, it's actualy the reef covered with corals where fishes swim around. If the swell is not too strong, swimming over the reef with 1-1.5m of water is good. In our case, it was not easy and I was even caught in the wave break once while swimming over the reef. Nothing happened, i just did not want to be pushed and pulled around by the ocean like a toy and possibly hit the corals. Once satisfied, just swim back to the boat.

The reef is protected, boats causing damage to them should report immediately to the authorities. Boats do not lay anchor, instead they hold to some ropes already planted there by companies who then sell authorizations to use these. These fixation points are tied to big concrete blocks normally in the middle of a sand bank.

The crew, a skipper, the cook/engineer (also the owner) and the diving instructor were fab! With them, we were 13 people, so a good family environment was easily built and we all chatted along our trips, our dives, etc...

It was a great experience. There is another boat offering a similar experience here in Cairns, I can only talk about this one and strongly recommend them. 220$AUD for this trip without diving. I even had vegetarian meals, the cook prepared them separately just for me. I felt pampered for a while:D

** UPDATE **

Thank god (or who/whatever) I did not get really sea sick. One poor girl had a 2-day journey through hell. The boat does not tumble over, but it felt like it sometimes. That girl spent the whole time with a terrible expression on her face, any "are you doing alright" question was pointless:(

It did not rain nor was it stormy. The current and the wind combined just helped the balancing around A LOT.

This is just my call of warning for whoever felt like this on a boat before and thinks it went away. I guess the solution would be to sleep every time the boat travels:P

We had in fact a FANTASTIC weather. I woke up at 2 in the morning or so from the hamac, stood up, looked around and saw everybody else sleeping on the deck:) The moonlight (almost fullmoon) was SMASHINGLY and beautifully reflected on the sea! No picture could ever pay it credit to the image, so there is NONE to show it:) Just imagine standing up a bit dizzy, looking to your left side of a slowly swinging boat and just freeze in awe...

** UPDATE END **

After a shower in the public toilets next to the Lagoon, I came online to check for my CS possibilities in Townsville and Bingo! Now I need to know where to go afterwards and see if I find other CSers.

If I don't give news in say... 2 weeks, it means that my hitch-hiking idea was not that great:P

Now I need to go to the hostel, have something to eat and rest. I only slept four hours before the boat trip, the pub crawl the night before was more enthusiastic than I expected:P More about that and Kuranda later on.

n.-

Antipodes

The Wikipedia article says it all.
It's such a nice and ugly word that everyone should know.

"The antipodes of any place on the Earth is the place which is diametrically opposite it ...".

I already posted about it, but I felt the need to dedicate a single golden post in honour of where I am and where I was before (geographically).

n.-

The Melbourne Experience

Kudos to Alisdaire, who is the MelbournExperience, a CSer that just thrives on CSing, who was mainly hosting and we could truly feel his drive and energy. He organized a trip down the Great Ocean Road - what better way to thank the soldiers for their effort during the war? Have them build a road, this road! -a place where a car accident is so easy. In a car, the driver has a hell of a hard time to keep his eyes on the road and not on the scenery. It's so beautiful. Well, the initial sensation is great, after a while and many stops, beautiful sceneries composed of a clear blue sky, strong currents smashing against huge rocks are just "one more scenery". Still, looking at the pictures today gives me great pleasure.

This trip was superbly organized and we were 8 CSers sharing 2 cars.

It took us 2 days, monday and tuesday, departing from Melbourne at 8AM and getting back at night. He, Alisdaire, already knowing the place knew where to go and what to see. Following his lead we saw waterfalls, Koalas, the twelve apostles, etc...

We camped somewhere quiet for the night and there we could see how well we all got along. I am not saying we were behaving like brothers (or cousins even) but we got our stuff pretty well sorted out and had our camp was setup in no time and lifted the camp again in no time the following morning.

As I am frequently joking about myself, here goes my own gag.

I went to a barber on Saturday and he was quite prolific with his cair clipper. Let's just say that my head feels fresh right now:) Unfortunately, he left the neck like I don't like, with a square cut and I politely asked him to make the transition smoother... Surprise, I suddenly had a white horizontal stripe at the back of my neck because I am so darn tanned and my skull did not enjoy the sun as much as my neck! Let's just say I was not "going out material". Luckily, H had some cosmetics to cover the... stripe. That surely saved the night and nobody noticed it but I used the trip to GBR to shine some light on that poorly exposed area of my head.

So, yeah, it was great and I'll leave only these 2 pics for now:)

Thanks Alisdaire and the rest of the folks for the great time we spent!

Melbourne is a great city, I truly loved it. Starting with its beach, St.Kilda, reachable by Tram, the bars going from the classiest to the most fucked up ("Cherry" and "St. Jerome's"), the architecture.

Once back, I spent one more night at Mandy's place. She is a great girl, friend of Judd's who in his turn I met in Munich at Ilka's (see the connection?). He was a fuckin' great host! Jesus, that guy runs on atomic power, he's totally unstoppable and would stretch the furthest possible to help me and Heidi getting sorted out in Melbourne. Before Mandy, we stayed at Andrew's, another of Judd's friends and a GREAT guy! He works for a beer company which owns (among others like Carlton Draught) Foster's. I invited him to fly over to Munich, all for the sake of beer market research!

With these folks, we went to some cool restaurants, checked out the Italian neighborhood and its plenitude of restaurants and Ice Cream stores. Met up with mooooore people, invited some more CSers, went to some more cool places. On ACDC Lane (yes, there is one!!!), the Cherry Bar was rocking hard'n heavy on... drumroll.... ACDC!!! but when I left The Strokes came up... oh well, I'll give the joint another go when I move in... oops! Did I just write that?

Anecdote: As the lane's sign was quite often stolen, they replaced it with a painted version:)

The city's more urban than initially thought, the graffiti scene for example seems to be very fruitful with the city hall even supporting artists. Another CSer organized a "graffiti tour" where we ended up checking out some great art on quite a number or narrow lanes.

We happily remained quite a long time close to Brunswick St, an arty/alternative road in Fitzroy where some cool stores and bars can be happily checked out. I loved Bimbo's, a bar with LOTS of couches to chill on, have a pizza, admire the (fu**ed-up) interior decoration. The place's mascot is a baby plastic doll, very often suited with a strap-on, masks etc... groovy baby!

I read that the coffee culture was quite present and it's true, it quite felt like Munich but with less Starbucks. H being a vegetarian, she had a special pleasure eating out, in such a way that she considered the pizza she had at the Vegie Bar the best she EVER had! I have a pic of the place, but it's not available... just imagine a restaurant where I took the pic from the 1st floor which oversees the ground floor, there's a square bar, people, tables and chairs... I'll leave it to your imagination but make it very cool!

Other than that, it was quite easy to find our way through the city (H is so much better in orientation than me) and the tram services are good. Walking home was not a problem either, living on Brunswick makes it easier! (this was the "Lonely Planet" kind of information...)

Back in '99, I was an active ICQ member, and my number was/is 14401843. Aaaaanyway, ICQ had a "find random contact" feature and while I was online at 4AM (back then, I really did not have a life) I met a couple of foreign people, one of them being Keryn! We kept in touch for quite a while with diferent frequency levels but we never met in person until like... 5 days ago. I was tired but it was great to meet her (and Luke) and check out her great appartment in St.Kilda. Guys, see you very soon, most surely in Melbourne!

And here's my contribution to our hosts and all of those we met in Melbourne... a bit of humor please:)

(H, I know you don't like this photo but I just adore it:)... and I hope you don't mind me posting it...)

Thanks again Alicia, Andrew, Stu, Alisdaire, Penny, Judd, Mandy, Matt, Keriann, João, Kelly, Gerard, Paul and everybody I forgot to mention (I am composing this post for an hour or so, so give me a break).

Heidi's still in Melbourne while I flew up north to Cairns. It's the first time I ever went to a place WITHOUT ANY plan! If only Bron could see me, she would be so proud of me! snif snif...

She knows what I am talking about, I usually stress out if there's no plan and I have nothing planned for when I leave the city (Cairns does not look like it but she's one...) on Monday except that I want to hitch-hike my way down to... somewhere. Until then, I'll be checking out an aerial cable car travel over the Rainforest and a 2day sailing cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. Too bad I don't have a sub aquatic case for my camera - I am (still) so happy about it, it kicks some serious ass!

I was thinking about taking a 4day OWD Padi course, but I will leave it for another oportunity. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are so much cheaper:) and they're all on the travel map I want to share with a future travelmate.

n.-

PS: While reviewing this post, I tried logging in to my ICQ account and it still works:) I wonder who's still on from my old contacts! I have an idea I have to write more about later on involving a cheap, light but sturdy film camera and some people I know from around the world I know but never visited.

PPS: Posting with pictures is so difficult! It won't accept line breaks now! Just great!

before posting further

I would like to take a moment and thank my parents.

Chance wanted that they'd pick a name for me that would be so uncommon in the general population, mainly the portuguese one. There are much worse names, thank god I did not get one of those that would get me beaten up at school every day. But it still is uncommon and is normally shortened (like I do) to keep it simple.
So, if it wasn't for my parents, I would not be called what I am.
In its turn, if it would not be for Bron's nickname to be Norb, I wonder if we would ever get in touch like we did in Munich.
If it wasn't for her, I would not have the motivation to fly over to Aus and the impulse to accept her invitation so easily.

The real origin of the name does not matter at all. It splits up in two parts:
- Nor = he/it came from the north
- bert = shining man/thing
It can then be translated to "the shining man that came from the north" or even Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). As I said it does not matter at all, it's just a curious and useless piece of extra information.

What matters is that I have the belief that my life would not be what it is if I was called something else. I am not curious about the "what if?", I am just happy about how it is right now.

So here a word of appreciation.

Thank you mom and dad!


n.-


PS: Would I be english, I would like to be called Steve. It's easy and works so good when ordering a coffee at Starbucks:)

state of the stay

One week to go here in Melbourne and my efforts are directed into two directions:
- find a travel companion/sketch a travel plan until I have to leave Aus;
- see what's to see in Melbourne;

People we met have been supplying great opportunities and search/travel resources.
Unfortunately a hop-on/hop-off bus from Cairns to Sydney is EXPENSIVE, 500$AUD. But there are alternatives. One of them being the return of rental cars through StandByCars. I'll call them to book one of them if still available.

I'd like to just catch up with a travel companion and hitch-hike our way up or down the east coast between Cairns and Sydney. Camping would be cool and cheap but heavy on my back. That is why I am packaging and sending some heavy stuff (books and alike) I brought back to Germany. I prefer to spend some AUDs and spare my back. When we flew from Perth to Melbourne, my backpack weighed almost 18kg...

Other opportunities that really caught my eye are ship crew search portals. The concept is simple. A skipper needs a crew for a cruise/race/etc... and posts in a forum for that request and the details. Crew members have a section to post their availability and expertise. www.crewseekers.net, www.crewplaces.com, www.findacrew.net and www.crewsearcher.net are just some of them.

Interesting that some crew searches state "female" between 24 and 28. Mermaids do look better than pirates, very true! I don't think I will be sailing this time, but the concept is nice. I liked the Mexico -> Australia opportunity I saw on CrewSeekers.

We haven't done much in Melbourne yet. We went up the Eureka building, chilled on the hot beaches at the Bay and St.Kilda, had a meeting with a bunch of other CSers in a cool pub, found a second and a third host for our stay, had some great vegetarian food, met some really nice people (again and again... CS rocks! (PSSSEC too!!))

I am still struggling about the BDO. The only suitable dates would be for the venue in Gold Coast, Queensland (54mi from Brisbane), on 20th of Jan but it's sold out. Then comes Melbourne on the 28th where only the ONLINE tickets are sold out (there is still hope) but some more travels and the so desired delay in the flight back would be involved.

Acknoledgement: The free internet access used to write this post and the two latter ones is provided by the State Library of Victoria (in Melbourne). Thank you State Library! No picture uploads are possible though, at least these computers are pretty well tightened down:D...

over and out

n.-

party in the doof

Here's a new word, doof.
More than a word, it's something I attended, helped build and even danced at. So please show some respect:)
When we got back to Perth, I accepted to join the setup of this doof that was about to be held somewhere in the woods by this crew of cool guys. At least one of the organizers is a CSer and his guests usually join in (to help and enjoy) for such events.
I was definitely willing to help. I just needed to crash that night at their place and help out the next day. All was going so well, the kids were having their drugs, preparing their sets for the party and I had to decide to go to the kitchen!!! (neat-freak someone?) That place was a f**** dump. In order to cook something for us in the microwave, we had to clean a good amount of stuff and I, in my never-ending will to retribute for the hospitality, did the dishes. One of them in particular, a broken glass submerged in the sink water, decided to bite me hard. H ran out of the kitchen, many ppl can't bear the sight of blood flowing out of the skin. To have a passed out girl on the floor with me pressing the wound with the free hand next to her was not an ideal happy scenario.
It basically cut out a little skin cap off my indicator knuckle. The soon-to-be-doc in the house helped out quickly, we desinfected and patched the wound just in time for me to feel dizzy. I did not lose that much blood, my body (brain?) was just in shock... but I am not sure what from as the skin patch is still there, it just bled a lot, still not enough for me to feel like that.
So yeah, the next day, I was restricted (by everybody except me) to press the UP and DOWN button of the truck's hidraulic platform, carry light stuff or do nothing at all.
Not that I did not want to do anything! Just that when I closed my indicator finger, the wound would open and bleed some more.

NOTE: I did not know I could write so much about 1 single injury.

The party was cool (I gotta show the pictures)! Out of nothing, a whole set and dance-floor was created. Music was thumping, drinks were freshly kept in the Esky, the day was slowly cooling off. People started showing up and after a while so did the cops! Everybody was afraid that the party would be ordered to be shut down. The main reason was the risk of a bush fire. But all was good, the organization was prepared and showed that people were given cigarette butt holders among other fire prevention and extinguishing equipment.

I am not a fan. I like music and almost anything with a beat makes me move, so yeah, it was fun! I dared to say it was techno music... but it was psytrance or psychedelic trance:P Whatever, it had to start somewhere and it was back then with Techno... in Germany:)
I made a time-lapse movie (thank you dear IXUS 70) of part of the scenario build-up which I hope they will post on youtube.

We got back to Perth with a guy H knew from another doof, a very cool dude, just in time to take a ferry to Rottnest island.

Right now, I am walking around with a bandage on my knuckle, but the worst is over. I don't need stitches. Had I needed, the doctor would have had to open the wound and clean it up again because I showed up three nights after the fight-with-a-broken-glass incident. Lucky me:)

The last nights we went out, while telling the story of the event, I got to imagine and learn some more colourful variations of it. I either had a fight with a big dude and while punching him in the face, I cut my finger on his eye-brow piercing, or... I setup a great dinner for this fabulous woman and while washing a wine glass, the issue happened...

We're in Melbourne now. It just started, we have a whole week ahead of us and I will still post some pics.

N.-

H&N through South WA

Resuming the tale of the portuguese guy and the finnish girl through WA...

In a chronological order, going down from Perth and back, we spent our nights in Bunbury, Margaret River, Big Brook (Pemberton) and Walpole. Couchsurfing was our friend for the first 2 locations and all our hosts were great in their own way.
As promised, we had a little dive (so-to-say) in Geoff's Spa. The night was cold but the 36 degrees warm water and a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon recommended by G made it all sooo much better. It was the last night of our time at his place, a house where I immediately felt the "neat-freak" hand on. I loved it!

On our way further south, we h-hiked to Pemberton. We asked the retired couple that took us to leave us at the Gloucester tree or the Bi-centennial tree. As we found the bi-centennial one, we had a got at it. It's basically a tree with steel rods inserted in a spiral all the way up to the tree. There is NO security measure whatsoever, under the steel rods is the ground... I climbed up 1/3rd of the tree to the little platform and I immediately felt I should not go further up. Heidi, as Malcolm our "driver" said, has got some monkey in her and she climbed all the way up to the 75mts high platform. For the moment we were on it, the tree was all german. The rest of the climbers were either swiss or german...
Malcolm and his wife were patiently waiting next to our backpacks, they did not want to leave us alone and our luggage unattended which was very sweet of them. So after this little walk in the heights, they drove us further to our intended destination.
Pemberton is a little town where nothing happens but is surrounded by walk tracks, camping places, woods etc... We took the afternoon to walk part of the Bibbulmun track - it's an almost 1000km long track that crosses from Perth to South WA - until we reached the Big Brook Dam and its closeby camping site.
This would be the first and only time we'd use the tent we had with us:) We got settled pretty easily and spent the rest of the day speaking in german to a nearby couple. They're currently travelling through Aus in a motorhome with their three sweet little daughters.
No matter how sleepy I was, not having a foam mattress or alike to sleep on, made me wake up to turn around x amount of times on the unflattened ground:( But it was all good, the sore back was just a reminder of what camping can be/is about. Relatively early in the morning we had a ride from some other campers back to Pemberton where we hh'ed further from to a better located road crossing.

There, the best ride ever shows up! Two guys in a red car stopped 50mts down the road to give us a lift. They were on their way to Walpole which is the closest place to the famous Tree Top Walk. Coincidence enough, they were also to check out that same attraction:) Before going there, we stopped at a cabin next to a lake where these guys (Damien and Ryan) would stay.
So, not only was Damien a CSer, but they invited us to stay at the cabin. In a matter of minutes, we got:

• a ride and company to the Tree Top Walk;
• a place to stay for the night;
• a ride back to Perth, as Damon was driving back um the following night.

After a walk with the boys on the 38mts high metal structure (TTW) we had a blast at their party the same evening and some wind-in-the-face fun boat ride to fish on the lake the following morning. Damo hadn't been hosting for so long, this was in some way a contribution to the CS community and the whole traveller's experience.

For H and I, that week ride down south WA was the chance to enjoy the hospitality and kindness of so many people. Again, people make any place worthwhile. I would recommend hitch-hiking the same way we did. The two difficulties involved are the risks taken and the important amount of time needed.

Heidi is really really a great person and traveler. It was all so easy with her. In the end, it was a great expereince with the things we both brought to the journey.

That whole week was relatively unplanned, we had some markers on our map but no dates, the journey unfolded on the go and I reckon it ended up pretty good:D

That was it, more to write about next time...

N.-