Escaping Adelaide, Leaving Australia

It would appear that leaving Adelaide is rather hard but I think leaving Australia will be harder!

Adelaide, good for four things as far as I can tell;
1) Getting trapped there and not being able to escape
2) The Floater (as mentioned in last e-mail)
3) Talking to semi intoxicated Aboriginals about the state of the nation
4) Getting bloody trapped there!!!

I tried to love Adelaide but having done everything the bible (lonely planet) said it had to offer it wasn't enough! The Botanic Gardens were nice, the beach and the marina were ok, China Town and the city markets were great but exactly the same as any other in any town in the western world. It wasn't enough! So, after almost 3 days in Adelaide failing to get a ride to Perth I booked a train ticket to Perth - of course 30 minutes later I got a text from Andi - a bloke I'd called two days earlier - saying he'd just got my message and there's a lift waiting if you want it, d'oh!

Having tried once to leave and then finding myself heading to Melbourne with George and Fred, and then resorting to buying a ticket I should've known this city didn't let go easily so shouldn't have cancelled the ticket but I did. So, at 10am the next Sunday as I was waiting for Andi when he called to say someone had torched his car, arse.

Thankfully I'd not stayed in Adelaide waiting for the lift and had had a great trip up to the Flinders Range (about 350km north) with a rather random crowd where I was the only Brit amongst 10 of us from 8 countries. I'd managed to spot a yellow footed rock wallaby, climb a small mountain and see a lot of live kangaroos and caught a 2am bus back to get my lift to Perth so the couple of days waiting wasn't wasted but...

So what to do, the car was a right-off, the train ticket cancelled and now fully booked, no buses leaving for weeks and flights (yes I resorted to that) were a fortune. It's obvious, I'd hitch hike! However upon researching this it turned out that firstly I'd have to get about 20km north of the city to stand a chance, and secondly the best chance I'd get would be to be murdered so I resorted to plan B, re-location drives.

I admit it, with escape seeming impossible my faith in being the luckiest man alive was beginning to wane but... Britz/ Maui car rentals came to the rescue, for a dollar a day and with a free $200 fuel voucher I got a four bed luxury Mercedes Benz Camper van and six days to drive it to Perth, oh yes, let the good times roll.

I quickly called Andi (turned out to be great lad, 22, German, surfer) to offer him a lift and found another bloke (Mick, 63, English, bit random) to share the driving and fuel and a couple of days later drove the 3556km from Adelaide to Perth via Port Augusta, the Nullabor, Kalgoorlie and Albany.

The drive was great, the Nullabor was long, flat and barren except for hundreds of dead roos (343 in one day, a new record), Kalgoorlie - gold mining town - had the most random skimpy bars ever (will explain some time for those that don't know) and reaching Albany then Perth and completing my lap of Oz felt like coming home without the rain and having to get a job/ life/ responsibilities!

And I'm back in Perth, ready to fly to Hong Kong for the next leg. I've definitely landed on my feet here as am staying with El (friend from first visit to Perth almost a year ago and she has the nicest house I've been in in over a year). Other important news, the mighty mighty Liverpool won the European Champions League, the world is a good place to be in.

So, with a tear forming in my eye, something like 997 dead roos spotted, the Australian coat of arms (amongst other native creatures) eaten and almost 30,000km driven its time to say"bye bye Australia", it has been sensational.

Laters

Jonathan
Nicest house ever
Perth
Australia


Ps. sorry this was a bit long but it is my last e-mail in Oz!

Its big!

OK, I did have a real reason to go back to Melbourne, in fact I had two,

1) It'll meant that if I get back to Perth I'll of done a complete lap of the country (before I'd missed about 700km between the 12 Apostles and Melbourne)

and more importantly

2) I got to see the worlds biggest rocking horse and Larry the Big Lobster, two classics from Australia's "Big Things" tour and my god they were big!

OK, so I did Adelaide, I have to say not the most remarkable of cities though it does a great floater (beef pie in pea soup) and accidentally wandering around the University administration offices was a laugh!

The road trip back to Melbourne went surprisingly well, the lads had told me they had kitted the car (a 1986 toyota Corona) out with the essentials, "comedy hats, aviator sunglasses, furry dice and an inflatable Kangaroo", all vital for an outback road trip apparently.... Unfortunately they didn't have a battery that worked so we had the fun of jump starting Billy Woo (they named the car after our infamous balcony leaping landlord from Sydney) every time we turned the ignition off but made it safe and well back to Australia's second city.

So Melbourne... great city though to be honest I'm guessing a little on that one as I only engaged in the highly cultural parts of the place, namely...

AFL at the MCG or Australian Rules to you and me. It was the Melbourne derby of Hawthorne (2nd bottom) vs Melbourne (2nd top) and in a mighty battle of catch and against all the ods The Hawks pulled off a famous 128-89 win. Now if you remember the channel 4 coverage from back in the day the game makes a little if any sense but watching it live helps a little. However and very importantly, just like on TV its just one long fight. The first brawl broke out before kick-off but thankfully it didn't delay the game, with 18 on each team 6 fighting didn't stop the initial bounce off. Happy days!

Then there was the casino, the biggest in Australia and possible the worse in the world! Thankfully I had no money at the time so for once didn't loose anything but, for a place that takes in a stupidly high percentage of the tax for the state of Victoria they really could've done a little more!

Then the highlight of my trip so far, well sort of. Neighbours - class, what more needs to be said! After visiting the street on a tour, then trying to follow the 2nd tour of the day in Billy Woo to do it again for free, failing miserably and getting lost I found myself in one of Australia's worst pubs where I met, wait for it... Ryan Malone (Toadie, pretty good right), Alan Fletcher (Dr Karl Kennedy, the legend!) and best of all, Stephan Dennis (aka Paul Robinson, need I say anything more).

Other than that not a lots happened. I've bought myself a cut throat razor, as yet I'm no pro but am still alive so doing ok. I'm back in Adelaide and looking for a lift to Perth and at 12.01 tonight/ tomorrow morning I'll be watching Star Wars III. I'll be one of the first people to see it on global release being almost as far east as you can go before coming west again so there is a good reason I'm on the other side of the world after all!

And that's it so it just leaves me time to say be good and good bye,

Until the next time

Jonathan

Cannon St. Backpackers
Adelaide
South Australia

Back on the road (admittedly via a plane!)

Road kill can't be birds, don't know why that's the rule it just is. Following this simple rule the count for Tasmania was an impressive 88 corpses in just a couple of short days or 613km on the road. This figure included a great combination of the original and still favorite roo but also possums, feral cats, a Tasmanian Devil (TBC) and plenty of furry bloody messes.

Tasmanians, nice but odd, probably should say more but ... (sorry Simone!) Tasmania itself was great and although I was only there a few days I managed to drive almost a complete lap, explore a couple of national parks (Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair NP and Field Mountain NP) which were spectacular and wander around Port Arthur and hear just how badly the British Empire treated their convicts!

I was allegedly driving a car but the Mazda 121 appeared to of had it's engine replaced with a hair dryer, however the poor little thing out performed Brucetta for top speed, acceleration, having a hand brake and god knows what else! Talking of Brucetta I have good news and bad news. Even though I dreamed that her gearbox fell out from under her a few weeks ago I've since heard she made it to Cairns without a problem, unfortunately the lad who bought her off me only gave himself a day to sell it without transfer papers. She came to a terrible end passing away in a wreckers yard for $20, not the end you'd of hoped for for such a beautiful specimen!

Before leaving Sydney I had a couple of weeks after selling death so had a great time working as a counter balance for a forklift, not officially a legal way to spend a day but... and, king of jobs that surpasses even the heady heights of selling deaths, whisky bottle capping machine monitor, oh yes, I watched 12000 bottles of Duncan and Burns Scotch Whisky being capped over a 7 hour period, fun fun fun.

I also managed to find time to take a quick wine tour to the Hunter Valley while still in NSW. The Hunter Valley fulfills Australia's need to name things inappropriately as it really isn't a valley, admittedly there are hills about 30km apart there but... That said I had a great day there with flat mates from Bondi and made a valiant effort to drink too much wine and to throw boomerangs that sort of came back!

Only other news is that I managed quite brilliantly to get my surfboard home for free, would you believe it! I realised I couldn't carry her so on discovering it'd cost $300 to send her home and that I hadn't time to sell her I did my usual cat impression and landed on my feet. The wonderful, beautiful, intelligent and brilliant Jen (flat mate) who was heading back to the UK took her. Even better, as we got to the airport with only 30 min to spare (not entirely on purpose, d'oh!) they rushed her through and the rest is history... Happy days.

And that's me, I'm in Adelaide and was meant to be heading for Perth but instead I'm backtracking to Melbourne partly because I can and partly as I randomly bumped into George and Fred (who I lived with in Sydney) and they have a car comparable to Brucetta so it would be a shame not to give her a go!

Bye for now and stay in touch.

Jonathan

Backpackers
Adelaide
SA (final Australian State to be done!)