Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Chasing the Southern Cross Pt 2.
In the morning we woke up and had a look at the river mouth surf break which looked promising once a lower tide moved in. Addie and I found a place to rent surf boards and later in the day got boards and ended up surfing for about 3 hours. The wave was a real fun wave, it broke in a cove and went both ways meaning you could take off and go left or right. The left was a steep barrel and you basically had to hold on to your rail tuck up and let the lip of the wave curl over you then get slammed when it shut down (broke). The right was a real fun line that held it’s shape and you could actually do some maneuvers on it before it shut down. Best part was it was not very crowded. After we were surfed out we ate lunch in the car park (parking lot) then showered up and decided to go to one of the wineries and or breweries nearby. Neither of us being big on wine we decided on a brewery, I may have been a little bit insistent upon it, but it was a great time, practically had it all to ourselves sitting out on the lawn watching the sunset drinking great beer made on the spot. You really couldn’t end a great day any other way.
The next morning we woke to building surf conditions, the main point break at M.R was breaking at what looked to be a good 10-12 feet. We decided that the river mouth wasn’t holding the increased conditions very well so we went to another spot called Redgate and it too had about a 6 foot wave break in to the bay there but it was holding up reasonably well at either end of the small bay. You had to take off nearly on the rocks to get a good right hand wave or vise versa on the other end of the bay, I managed to get into a couple fun waves, After a short 1.5 hour surf we had to return the boards. We found out the surf was building and the next day should be pretty big and impressive at the point (Surfer’s Point as it is called). It was this day that we set off to a national forest about 1.5 hours away, and hiked through some nice short trails to a waterfall and a beautiful lake that was so still it was practically a mirror. We also found a hard packed dirt road that led us through the majestic Karri forests, Karri trees can grow up to 250 feet. By the time we got back from the forest we were too tired to make a meal via camp stove so we went to the pub in M.R and had true Australian Pub night. It was a Saturday evening and apparently on a Saturday night everyone meets at the Pub children grandma and all. A pub here in Australia is not like going to a pub in the states where you would go to drink, here they act a social network where you can eat and drink watch Footie (Australian rules Football, not soccer), forget Face Book, here it’s Pub Presents that you catch up with your mates on. We spent nearly 3 hours in Pub and that is about standard it seems.
We awoke the next morning to expectations of gnarly surf and we not disappointed in the least. We got showered and packed up the tent and all the gear and then drove the 2 minutes to the point look out. The parking loot was jam packed, apparently you don’t need to go the movies on a Sunday in M.R when the surf is raging, you just go and watch the surfers. We found a spot to park and made our way to the look out and were afforded a magnificent sight, !0-12 foot surf with light offshore winds blowing mist off the breaking waves like a lace veil being swept back over the face of the waves. There were probably 15-20 surfers out with an estimated 50-70 people watching from the cliff. We sat for a couple of hours watching the surf in awe of the power and grace the Mother Ocean can summon up, and surfers who’s prowess can meld seamlessly with the her. After lunch we sauntered our way on back to Perth stopping in a sea side town called Busselton, where they have a 1.6 meter pier. The pier was very impressive although unfinished, when finished it will have a train or tram system (something with tracks) to take you to the end if you don’t feel like walking. We had a sea side snack then finished up the drive.This was also the weekend that led up to my 27th birthday and I can tell you it will be a birthday I will never forget. If you ever find yourself in Western Australia do yourself a favor and find your way to the Margaret River area, you won’t be let down no matter how you envision it in your head. I plan many more trips down there to surf, also the grapes vines had not sprung into their full potential beauty but rest assured that when they so I will be down there to photograph them. If your curious as to the title of this series, the Southern cross is one of the most prominent star features in the Southern Hemisphere, also it is on the Australian flag. The Cross was very noticeable down south while we were camping and I felt it was a good title, it also represents an ideal, a state of mind I find myself in here in Australia. Once again I thank everyone who has taken the time to read my blog, and look at the photographs I have taken. Were it not for you guys I wouldn’t be inspired to share my experiences. Cheers - Brough
Friday, September 24, 2010
Chasing the Southern Cross Pt 1.
Driving in wine country last weekend, bathed in splintered sunlight, passing huge estates with grape vines sprawling from the side of the road down rolling hillsides as far as the eye could see. I couldn’t keep from pinching my self. I had to reassure myself that I was indeed in Australia, Western Australia, in the Margaret River area to be exact and not just having an incredibly vivid and picturesque dream. The south west part of Western Australia was everything I had hoped it would be. Honestly I tend to have high expectations for places I have only heard of. Most of the time, like any time one fantasizes too long about a place, you over romanticize it in your mind and it often than not doesn’t hold up to what you hoped it would be. The Margaret River area was everything I hoped it would be and more.
My visiting friend Addie and I left Perth with a beautiful 3 hour drive down south, through farm country past rolling hills covered in yellow wild flowers shining in the sun. Every now and again passing all types of cows grazing lazily, sheep and goats milling about in the mid afternoon sun. We reached the town of Margaret River (M.R) had a nice stroll down the main street and popped in to some surf shops to scope things out (the main surf break is about 15 minutes from town.) M.R has a very artsy small town feel, many boutique shops, camping type stores and surf shops, seems an odd mix but there you have it. Australia. We then proceeded about another 30 minutes to Augusta which sits on Cape Leeuwin (pronounced Lewin), there they have a stunning white lighthouse which placed against the backdrop of the deep blues of the ocean makes for amazing photographs. Cape Leeuwin is the point where the Indian Ocean rounds Australia and meets the Southern Ocean (Antarctic). I of course had to slip off my sandals and have a bit of a walk in the Southern Ocean, I can now say that of the 5 major Oceans of the world I have had my feet in 4 of them. After roaming the lighthouse grounds we found a place to camp, a nice little “caravan park” which had tent campsites right on the other side of the dune from the Southern Ocean. We photographed the sunset made food and lit a camp fire (the most stubborn camp fire I have ever started in my life, took about 1.5 hours to get and stay lit.)
The nest morning we got a 10am start on the day, which encompassed packing up the gear and driving 30 minutes north with a quick stop off in M.R for food and a brekkie (Breakfast). We were on a mission to explore one of the many caves that over time have been eroded in to the limestone coastal landscape.We went to the Nigili Cave, where while waiting for a guide to lead use in to the cave I discovered while sitting on a bench that a 3.5 to 4” spider had placed him self on my chest, just about where you would place you hand for the national anthem (American). See photo. I quickly jumped up and flung him from my person and then as any good photographer would do, I photographed him or her. Come to find out that of all the poisonous insect in Australia this was not one of them. Wildlife seemed to be the theme of the day, after the cave exploration we were driving along the coastal road to the other tip of the cape where another lighthouse stands when we noticed that the under growth of the forest and randomly sprouting in fields were clusters of Calla Lilies, thousands of them, everywhere, We decided to drive down one of the roads that leads to a look out over the ocean to take pictures of the lilies. After we grabbed a few shots we proceeded to the lookout where we saw in the ocean below a pod of 8-12 dolphins, eating and playing in the waves right below us. After about 40 minutes of watching and photographing the dolphins we moseyed on to the Naturaliste Lighthouse on Cape Naturaliste. At this lighthouse we went up to the top with a guide who had a pair of binoculars and told us if we looked out over the cape we might see whales, well we did and when it was my turn to look at the whales I saw one breach out of the water slap it’s tail and then surface while splashing it’s fins in a waving motion. I am not kidding. After trying to get some whale shots we left and found our way to the main surfing area, we camped at another park to wake up and try and surf the next day.
to be continued......
check out the flickr photos up to the left.
My visiting friend Addie and I left Perth with a beautiful 3 hour drive down south, through farm country past rolling hills covered in yellow wild flowers shining in the sun. Every now and again passing all types of cows grazing lazily, sheep and goats milling about in the mid afternoon sun. We reached the town of Margaret River (M.R) had a nice stroll down the main street and popped in to some surf shops to scope things out (the main surf break is about 15 minutes from town.) M.R has a very artsy small town feel, many boutique shops, camping type stores and surf shops, seems an odd mix but there you have it. Australia. We then proceeded about another 30 minutes to Augusta which sits on Cape Leeuwin (pronounced Lewin), there they have a stunning white lighthouse which placed against the backdrop of the deep blues of the ocean makes for amazing photographs. Cape Leeuwin is the point where the Indian Ocean rounds Australia and meets the Southern Ocean (Antarctic). I of course had to slip off my sandals and have a bit of a walk in the Southern Ocean, I can now say that of the 5 major Oceans of the world I have had my feet in 4 of them. After roaming the lighthouse grounds we found a place to camp, a nice little “caravan park” which had tent campsites right on the other side of the dune from the Southern Ocean. We photographed the sunset made food and lit a camp fire (the most stubborn camp fire I have ever started in my life, took about 1.5 hours to get and stay lit.)
The nest morning we got a 10am start on the day, which encompassed packing up the gear and driving 30 minutes north with a quick stop off in M.R for food and a brekkie (Breakfast). We were on a mission to explore one of the many caves that over time have been eroded in to the limestone coastal landscape.We went to the Nigili Cave, where while waiting for a guide to lead use in to the cave I discovered while sitting on a bench that a 3.5 to 4” spider had placed him self on my chest, just about where you would place you hand for the national anthem (American). See photo. I quickly jumped up and flung him from my person and then as any good photographer would do, I photographed him or her. Come to find out that of all the poisonous insect in Australia this was not one of them. Wildlife seemed to be the theme of the day, after the cave exploration we were driving along the coastal road to the other tip of the cape where another lighthouse stands when we noticed that the under growth of the forest and randomly sprouting in fields were clusters of Calla Lilies, thousands of them, everywhere, We decided to drive down one of the roads that leads to a look out over the ocean to take pictures of the lilies. After we grabbed a few shots we proceeded to the lookout where we saw in the ocean below a pod of 8-12 dolphins, eating and playing in the waves right below us. After about 40 minutes of watching and photographing the dolphins we moseyed on to the Naturaliste Lighthouse on Cape Naturaliste. At this lighthouse we went up to the top with a guide who had a pair of binoculars and told us if we looked out over the cape we might see whales, well we did and when it was my turn to look at the whales I saw one breach out of the water slap it’s tail and then surface while splashing it’s fins in a waving motion. I am not kidding. After trying to get some whale shots we left and found our way to the main surfing area, we camped at another park to wake up and try and surf the next day.
to be continued......
check out the flickr photos up to the left.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Perth Perspectives
It is a beautiful sunny late afternoon as I write this entry, on the deck with a beer and an amazing view of the city of Perth stretched out before my eyes. What better circumstances than this to write about the city of Perth and it’s surrounds. I like Perth, that may in fact be an understatement, I’m in love with Perth. This city is unique, wonderful and quirky; in essence a perfect place for me. I have been living with friends in the town of Kalamunda up in the hills over looking Perth now for 6 weeks. I must honestly say since being in Australia I have only been to Sydney, Adelaide ( for 3 hours) and Perth, but Perth feels like home, it did a week into my stay, there’s just something about it.
Perth is a big sprawling city with just a clump of tall buildings constituting it’s downtown area. I think of the high rise office buildings downtown as a part of the city that if the city had a say it would do with out ,but it has a downtown because convention states that it should, after all Perth is the capitol city of W.A (Western Australia). The communities that make up the metropolitan area are very unique as the surrounding terrain varies greatly, you have the ocean side communities and the flat land inter city stuff, if you go East a bit you get into the hill communities, and beyond those are the valleys where they raise horses and have orchards of all kinds of fruits. Honestly think of L.A and the lay out is similar but converted into Australian. The people fortunately are nothing like those in L.A. No Perth has the mindset more so of Denver, very outdoorsy people, very laid back. Weekends are spent in the parks or at the beach, walking the dogs, or sitting outside at the pub.
There is much to do and see in and around Perth, oddly enough what I have seen the least of is the actual downtown area, all this may soon change as I have an urge to wander around downtown and may indulge that urge within the next week. Close to the city center of Perth the Swan River meanders through in no real rush to the Indian Ocean and it is beautiful to drive along, they have a nice large expanse of grassy park on each side which seems real inviting to walk along or jog as many people do. Out here they have a real fondness of Parks and open spaces which I greatly respect.
12 miles south of Perth is the small port city of Freemantle, which was the first place people settled in the 1800 when’s they arrived in Western Australia. It is also the place I enjoy going the most on a Saturday or Sunday. It is about 45 minutes on the train from the Hills to Freemantle (The train portion of the public transportation system in Perth is another thing I enjoy about this place.) There is just something about Freo as it is affectionately nicknamed, it’s artsy and hip (not always a good thing but here it works well) they have a large indoor-outdoor market where you can find every thing from clothes, exotic coffee or even a Reese’s peanut butter cup at the international sweets booth. They do not have Reese’s cups here which is one of the things I miss about the good ole U.S of A, we have great candy. But back to Freo, it’s a great place to wander along back alleys taking photographs, they also have a lovely harbor side area with fishing boats docked and restaurants to sit and enjoy a sunset at. My favorite places to frequent are the two good breweries, the only place I feel like I am not being ripped off by paying 9.50 for a pint of beer.
It is here in Perth that I have fortunately found a job (even more fortunate that it doesn’t start till October) as an assistant / second photographer for a photography firm that handles everything from commercial shoots to weddings. I am very excited to see an Australian wedding, I have heard they are very interesting, and am sure I will have lots to blog about once I get started with those. Tomorrow (9-15-10) I am going camping down south in the Margaret River area which I have heard nothing but good things about and am looking forward to it, I might actually get to surf down there and shoot some great photos, so expect a post on that trip in about a week. It feels different being here on the other side of the world not as a constant traveler like I was through Asia but as a semi permanent resident, I do truly feel at home in Perth. I dig it!
As always thank you for your interest and please check out the photos at Flickr
Cheers - Bryan Brough
Perth is a big sprawling city with just a clump of tall buildings constituting it’s downtown area. I think of the high rise office buildings downtown as a part of the city that if the city had a say it would do with out ,but it has a downtown because convention states that it should, after all Perth is the capitol city of W.A (Western Australia). The communities that make up the metropolitan area are very unique as the surrounding terrain varies greatly, you have the ocean side communities and the flat land inter city stuff, if you go East a bit you get into the hill communities, and beyond those are the valleys where they raise horses and have orchards of all kinds of fruits. Honestly think of L.A and the lay out is similar but converted into Australian. The people fortunately are nothing like those in L.A. No Perth has the mindset more so of Denver, very outdoorsy people, very laid back. Weekends are spent in the parks or at the beach, walking the dogs, or sitting outside at the pub.
There is much to do and see in and around Perth, oddly enough what I have seen the least of is the actual downtown area, all this may soon change as I have an urge to wander around downtown and may indulge that urge within the next week. Close to the city center of Perth the Swan River meanders through in no real rush to the Indian Ocean and it is beautiful to drive along, they have a nice large expanse of grassy park on each side which seems real inviting to walk along or jog as many people do. Out here they have a real fondness of Parks and open spaces which I greatly respect.
12 miles south of Perth is the small port city of Freemantle, which was the first place people settled in the 1800 when’s they arrived in Western Australia. It is also the place I enjoy going the most on a Saturday or Sunday. It is about 45 minutes on the train from the Hills to Freemantle (The train portion of the public transportation system in Perth is another thing I enjoy about this place.) There is just something about Freo as it is affectionately nicknamed, it’s artsy and hip (not always a good thing but here it works well) they have a large indoor-outdoor market where you can find every thing from clothes, exotic coffee or even a Reese’s peanut butter cup at the international sweets booth. They do not have Reese’s cups here which is one of the things I miss about the good ole U.S of A, we have great candy. But back to Freo, it’s a great place to wander along back alleys taking photographs, they also have a lovely harbor side area with fishing boats docked and restaurants to sit and enjoy a sunset at. My favorite places to frequent are the two good breweries, the only place I feel like I am not being ripped off by paying 9.50 for a pint of beer.
It is here in Perth that I have fortunately found a job (even more fortunate that it doesn’t start till October) as an assistant / second photographer for a photography firm that handles everything from commercial shoots to weddings. I am very excited to see an Australian wedding, I have heard they are very interesting, and am sure I will have lots to blog about once I get started with those. Tomorrow (9-15-10) I am going camping down south in the Margaret River area which I have heard nothing but good things about and am looking forward to it, I might actually get to surf down there and shoot some great photos, so expect a post on that trip in about a week. It feels different being here on the other side of the world not as a constant traveler like I was through Asia but as a semi permanent resident, I do truly feel at home in Perth. I dig it!
As always thank you for your interest and please check out the photos at Flickr
Cheers - Bryan Brough
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Do's and Don't of Australian Lingo
Having been in Australia just over 3 weeks I can say that I do really like it here very much. It’s funny when I traveled through Southeast Asia there really were times of culture shock. However here in Australia things are not really all that fundamentally different than back in the U.S. Yes they drive on the other side of the street, what really got me was they also walk on the other side of the side walk and escalators are on the opposite side too, which has lead me into on coming pedestrian traffic on several occasions. I also forget to look in the correct direction when crossing the street which has almost gotten me run over. They do talk funny over here, much more English than American, but they are an English colony after all. Basically this post is about the differences in speech compared to back home, some I knew before coming over and some I had no clue about upon arrival.
First off you don’t figure something out you, “sort it out” such as lets sort out this situation. Australians reckon a lot as well, which is a bit of a taste of America however they use it a lot and it sometimes feels like I’m in Texas just with even funnier accents. You don’t clean up you “tidy up” and I know we use tidy in the states but they use it as a constant substitute for clean, you “tidy up” the house, a car is listed in the paper as being “tidy in and out”. You do things “straight away” here not right away. You don’t ask how are you doing, instead you ask “How are you going” some times with a “mate” thrown in at the end. The first time I was asked how I was going was on the train and I miss understood it for where are you going and my response went something like “Perth, just like everyone on the train”. They take a “Holiday” where as we go on vacation. You don’t go hiking you go for a bush walk. The letter H is actually pronounced “Haych”. Oh and all of you out there who thought the last letter of the alphabet was Z it is not, it is actually pronounced “Zed” if you’re an Australian, Canadian or from the U.K.
They have weird and off the wall names for food here as well, most of which I don’t understand in the least . They aren’t sugar, salt or pepper Packets, here they are “sachets”. Snap, Crackle and Pop don’t pimp out Rice Krispies over here they sell “Rice Bubbles”. You can’t find a red or green bell pepper over here they are called Capsicums. Although you can buy raisins most people know them as Sultanas they are even sold side by side and at the same price as raisins. If your child doesn’t like what you have prepared for dinner and decides to whine about it you would in fact tell him not to “grizzle” about it. As I said in a previous post Burger King is “Hungary Jack’s”. On T.V commercials McDonald’s is not Mcky D’s like we know, it is nicknamed “Macker’s” over here. Yes vegemite is as disgusting if not more than what you have heard, it taste like seaweed and a pound of salt blended together, or perhaps earwax, but I have never tasted earwax. When I was done trying vegemite I couldn’t throw it in the trash because over here it goes in the “Bin”.
They like nicknames for things over here as well, most things are not very creatively nicknamed they basically just put an “ey” or “ies” at the end of words. Your shades (sunglasses) would be your “sunnies” your board shorts are your “boardies”, your rash guard is your “Rashey” You don’t refer to bikers (motorcyclists) as such instead they are “Bikies”. There are a thousand more that I just can’t think of at the moment or haven’t had the fortune to learn yet, As I learn’em I will share them with you all (all y’all) they don’t use Y’all here either.
The next is a paragraph of animal related randomness as I am not sure I could do a whole post on any one of these topics.
They have amazing wildlife over here, especially when it comes to birds. They have birds of all shapes, sizes and colors; amazing colors combinations I have never seen. My least favorite bird is what I am told is a magpie they look like crows and are to me the most annoying sounding bird I have ever had the displeasure of hearing. When it is sitting on a limb it makes sounds like a sick cat, or a crying child which ever is more annoying to you, for me it is the sick cat noise, when it takes off to fly it makes a noise like a goat throwing up… eeehhhheehhhhwwwaaaahhhh. Kangaroos are all over the place out here which is really cool when you are on a drive or out hiking and you run across them, they are similar to deer and just like deer whined up dead on the road. It turns out those cute little Koala Bears (which are marsupials not bears) sit in trees all day not because they are cute and lazy they are in fact( in my mind) malnourished, the leaves they eat do not have much nutrition and they sleep all day to conserve their energy (which I guess they need to eat more leaves).
I know this sounded like me griping about a lot of things but in all honesty I think all those things make for a truly unique Australian experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Thanks for reading, my next post will probably be me updating everyone on what I have been up to over here. And as always please check out the flickr page with the photos on them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28522437@N05/
First off you don’t figure something out you, “sort it out” such as lets sort out this situation. Australians reckon a lot as well, which is a bit of a taste of America however they use it a lot and it sometimes feels like I’m in Texas just with even funnier accents. You don’t clean up you “tidy up” and I know we use tidy in the states but they use it as a constant substitute for clean, you “tidy up” the house, a car is listed in the paper as being “tidy in and out”. You do things “straight away” here not right away. You don’t ask how are you doing, instead you ask “How are you going” some times with a “mate” thrown in at the end. The first time I was asked how I was going was on the train and I miss understood it for where are you going and my response went something like “Perth, just like everyone on the train”. They take a “Holiday” where as we go on vacation. You don’t go hiking you go for a bush walk. The letter H is actually pronounced “Haych”. Oh and all of you out there who thought the last letter of the alphabet was Z it is not, it is actually pronounced “Zed” if you’re an Australian, Canadian or from the U.K.
They have weird and off the wall names for food here as well, most of which I don’t understand in the least . They aren’t sugar, salt or pepper Packets, here they are “sachets”. Snap, Crackle and Pop don’t pimp out Rice Krispies over here they sell “Rice Bubbles”. You can’t find a red or green bell pepper over here they are called Capsicums. Although you can buy raisins most people know them as Sultanas they are even sold side by side and at the same price as raisins. If your child doesn’t like what you have prepared for dinner and decides to whine about it you would in fact tell him not to “grizzle” about it. As I said in a previous post Burger King is “Hungary Jack’s”. On T.V commercials McDonald’s is not Mcky D’s like we know, it is nicknamed “Macker’s” over here. Yes vegemite is as disgusting if not more than what you have heard, it taste like seaweed and a pound of salt blended together, or perhaps earwax, but I have never tasted earwax. When I was done trying vegemite I couldn’t throw it in the trash because over here it goes in the “Bin”.
They like nicknames for things over here as well, most things are not very creatively nicknamed they basically just put an “ey” or “ies” at the end of words. Your shades (sunglasses) would be your “sunnies” your board shorts are your “boardies”, your rash guard is your “Rashey” You don’t refer to bikers (motorcyclists) as such instead they are “Bikies”. There are a thousand more that I just can’t think of at the moment or haven’t had the fortune to learn yet, As I learn’em I will share them with you all (all y’all) they don’t use Y’all here either.
The next is a paragraph of animal related randomness as I am not sure I could do a whole post on any one of these topics.
They have amazing wildlife over here, especially when it comes to birds. They have birds of all shapes, sizes and colors; amazing colors combinations I have never seen. My least favorite bird is what I am told is a magpie they look like crows and are to me the most annoying sounding bird I have ever had the displeasure of hearing. When it is sitting on a limb it makes sounds like a sick cat, or a crying child which ever is more annoying to you, for me it is the sick cat noise, when it takes off to fly it makes a noise like a goat throwing up… eeehhhheehhhhwwwaaaahhhh. Kangaroos are all over the place out here which is really cool when you are on a drive or out hiking and you run across them, they are similar to deer and just like deer whined up dead on the road. It turns out those cute little Koala Bears (which are marsupials not bears) sit in trees all day not because they are cute and lazy they are in fact( in my mind) malnourished, the leaves they eat do not have much nutrition and they sleep all day to conserve their energy (which I guess they need to eat more leaves).
I know this sounded like me griping about a lot of things but in all honesty I think all those things make for a truly unique Australian experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Thanks for reading, my next post will probably be me updating everyone on what I have been up to over here. And as always please check out the flickr page with the photos on them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28522437@N05/
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Bryan Vs The Train
“All Aboard!” they really do say that still before the train pulls away from the station. I think air travel would be a lot cooler if they said something catchy like that before the plane takes off instead of the boring safety briefing which if you’ve flown more than 3 times in your life you can recite from memory. I honestly had no idea what was in store for me when I booked the train ticket that would take me across the entire continent of Australia. It was a 3 day journey that would take 65 hours of travel make 2 stops a day, of which you could get off the train and breathe fresh air on and introduce me to every extreme of Australian landscape. The train was called the Indian Pacific because it links the two oceans which boarder the west and east coasts of Australia. It should have however been called the Retirement Express because I have never been surrounded by so many old people out side of a Hospital or Nursing Home in my entire life. I thought it would be packed full of young backpackers taking the cheap way across the land but no.
Here’s the scene you have this massively long train probably half a mile, said train is broken up into Platinum, Gold, Red Sleeper and Red Seat services. As you can probably guess I was in the Red Seat service, which consists of 25 rows of 2 seats on each side of the train. Now these seats are fairly comfortable, have ample leg room and recline to about a 130 degree angle for sleeping, not shabby for a young person to deal with for 65 hours but picture a multitude of 80 year olds who presumably hate to fly and there you have about half my train experience.
The other half of my lovely time was spent listening to the Australian equivalent of a white trash mother and her two unruly children (roughly 4 and 2) run up and down the aisle, squealing and yelling at each other, while not once did the “Mum” try to discipline the child, all she would say (and this is engrained in my memory till the day I die, I’m sure) “Jacob, Zachary” in her twangy rural Australian accent sounded more like “Jayyyccob, Zaaackery). Oh did I mention she sat in her seat and listened to music stored on her phone at full volume for all the train to hear, all 4 songs played in a loop for like 8 hours. The kicker of course was that her and her 2 children must have each gotten up to use the bath room or throw something away in the “Rubbish Bin” which was two rows behind me about 11ty billion times, bringing her phone with her each time. I had a great stoke of luck in being sat next to a younger German guy who hardly talked at all, he spoke English perfectly but I guess was just not a talker as we had about a minute long conversation every morning, afternoon and evening. He was also small in stature which was nice as he didn’t take up much space.
The scenery leaving Sydney was beautiful, once you get out side of the city you get in to some farm land and then pretty quickly ascend into the Blue Mountains which are stunning and some what Blue Ridge Mountain-esk. I would have loved to have traveled through the Blue Mt area during the day time however I did get to view a lovely sunset from atop one of the mountain passes. Fortunately for me and the entire train the woman and her kids got off the first morning followed by a majority of the elderly that afternoon once we arrived in Adelaide. Adelaide was lovely, very nice city with very pleasant weather being that it is down South in Winter time. After a 3.5 hour stop over in Adelaide we re-boarded the train for the second night. We picked up new passengers in Adelaide that would travel all the way to Perth, which packed out the train, the day before the car was only half full. This new barrage of passengers were the younger backpacking crowd I had been expecting, mostly Germans and other Europeans.
After leaving Adelaide and traveling over night you wake up to the Eastern fringes of the Nullarbor Plain which literally means “No Trees” in Latin. The majority of the plain consists of small scrub grass and if there is a tree here and there they don’t grow above what appeared to be 6 feet tall. The Nullarbor Plain is the World’s largest single piece of limestone, so says wikipedia. It takes about 8 hours of train travel to cross it heading east to west. There is a stretch of rail on the Nullarbor Plain that is the longest straight stretch of railroad in the world and it lasts for 302 miles. We stopped once in those 8 hours at a now nearly deserted railroad town called Cook were presently 3 people live, solely to service the train. Cook is essentially as about as the middle of no where as one could expect, unless that person was Australian in which case they could site a number of towns more remote than Cook, I‘m sure.
The train did have a Red Service dinning car which was nice to escape to for a reprieve from my seat. There were not many tables in the dinning car so people would ask to sit with you if you were on person at a 4 person table. This lead to many conversations with the old folks aboard the train, them telling me stories of Australia gone by and of their travels to the states or stories of the children, you know pretty standard old person gab. We also stopped in a mining town the night before we pulled into Perth, this town call Kalgoorlie which is the 5th largest town in all of Western Australia with a population of roughly 30,000. I’m told they have a huge open pit gold mine called the “Super Pit” which is 2.2 miles long by 1 mile wide. They also I am told have legal prostitution and a street you can walk where the woman stand in the door ways or windows or something like that. I went for a walk to find something to eat and was join by the guy who sat a seat behind me who looked like an Australian version of a young Bob Dylan with the Afro and black wool coat, give him sunglasses and a guitar and he would have won any look-a-like contest in the world. He turn out also won the title for most socially awkward Australian Bob Dylan as holding a conversation with him was like pulling teeth, he was very quiet and very nerdy it turned out. Either way we found an ok pizza place and had a meal. Then got back on to the train where on of the elderly contention decided to step off the train for a smoke at the ripe old age 120 and missed her step even though someone was assisting her over the gap in the platform and fell between the train and station platform resulting in a not to serious scrapped knee. She was then taken by ambulance to the hospital where it was agreed she would spend the night and take the morning train. Did I forget to mention that the paramedics were being filmed for what I can only hope was Western Australia’s very boring version of mining town “Cops”. After that was all sorted out we got the train rolling for the last over night journey to Perth.
It was amazing to see the landscape change over the entire journey from Metropolis into farmland, rolling hills, 6000 ft mountains back to rolling country side with sheep grazing everywhere then into fertile farm land full of crops and sheep then slowly into scrubby forest land then desert looking forests then straight desert scrub for 800 miles then back to scrubby forests and then farm land and finally back to suburban sprawl. I can also say that the twilight of Australia is like nothing I ever seen in 26 years. The sky turns from blue to deep blue into indigo and then fades to black from the deepest purple I have ever seen, if I tried a hundred years I don’t think I could describe it perfectly enough to do it justice.
The chance to experience Australia at a glance from a train was amazing, it was like reading the “Cliffs Notes” on Australian geography. I can’t really say that I would do it again however I would recommend it if you were ever given the opportunity to do it. But I am the type of person who can sit for hours on end and stare out a window, while trying to read a book or listening to music. Also much to my annoyance I did not see one wild kangaroo, camel (yes Camel) or Dingo. All though I was told they were out there.
Now I am in Perth staying with my very gracious friends Jesse and Dawn and their son Owen who have invited me to stay at their home for as long as I like. In Perth I will try to establish my self for a few months, work, play and explore as much of Western Australia as I can. My blog post will probably get a little less frequent but I will try to maintain regular entries. As always thank you for reading and scope out some photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28522437@
Here’s the scene you have this massively long train probably half a mile, said train is broken up into Platinum, Gold, Red Sleeper and Red Seat services. As you can probably guess I was in the Red Seat service, which consists of 25 rows of 2 seats on each side of the train. Now these seats are fairly comfortable, have ample leg room and recline to about a 130 degree angle for sleeping, not shabby for a young person to deal with for 65 hours but picture a multitude of 80 year olds who presumably hate to fly and there you have about half my train experience.
The other half of my lovely time was spent listening to the Australian equivalent of a white trash mother and her two unruly children (roughly 4 and 2) run up and down the aisle, squealing and yelling at each other, while not once did the “Mum” try to discipline the child, all she would say (and this is engrained in my memory till the day I die, I’m sure) “Jacob, Zachary” in her twangy rural Australian accent sounded more like “Jayyyccob, Zaaackery). Oh did I mention she sat in her seat and listened to music stored on her phone at full volume for all the train to hear, all 4 songs played in a loop for like 8 hours. The kicker of course was that her and her 2 children must have each gotten up to use the bath room or throw something away in the “Rubbish Bin” which was two rows behind me about 11ty billion times, bringing her phone with her each time. I had a great stoke of luck in being sat next to a younger German guy who hardly talked at all, he spoke English perfectly but I guess was just not a talker as we had about a minute long conversation every morning, afternoon and evening. He was also small in stature which was nice as he didn’t take up much space.
The scenery leaving Sydney was beautiful, once you get out side of the city you get in to some farm land and then pretty quickly ascend into the Blue Mountains which are stunning and some what Blue Ridge Mountain-esk. I would have loved to have traveled through the Blue Mt area during the day time however I did get to view a lovely sunset from atop one of the mountain passes. Fortunately for me and the entire train the woman and her kids got off the first morning followed by a majority of the elderly that afternoon once we arrived in Adelaide. Adelaide was lovely, very nice city with very pleasant weather being that it is down South in Winter time. After a 3.5 hour stop over in Adelaide we re-boarded the train for the second night. We picked up new passengers in Adelaide that would travel all the way to Perth, which packed out the train, the day before the car was only half full. This new barrage of passengers were the younger backpacking crowd I had been expecting, mostly Germans and other Europeans.
After leaving Adelaide and traveling over night you wake up to the Eastern fringes of the Nullarbor Plain which literally means “No Trees” in Latin. The majority of the plain consists of small scrub grass and if there is a tree here and there they don’t grow above what appeared to be 6 feet tall. The Nullarbor Plain is the World’s largest single piece of limestone, so says wikipedia. It takes about 8 hours of train travel to cross it heading east to west. There is a stretch of rail on the Nullarbor Plain that is the longest straight stretch of railroad in the world and it lasts for 302 miles. We stopped once in those 8 hours at a now nearly deserted railroad town called Cook were presently 3 people live, solely to service the train. Cook is essentially as about as the middle of no where as one could expect, unless that person was Australian in which case they could site a number of towns more remote than Cook, I‘m sure.
The train did have a Red Service dinning car which was nice to escape to for a reprieve from my seat. There were not many tables in the dinning car so people would ask to sit with you if you were on person at a 4 person table. This lead to many conversations with the old folks aboard the train, them telling me stories of Australia gone by and of their travels to the states or stories of the children, you know pretty standard old person gab. We also stopped in a mining town the night before we pulled into Perth, this town call Kalgoorlie which is the 5th largest town in all of Western Australia with a population of roughly 30,000. I’m told they have a huge open pit gold mine called the “Super Pit” which is 2.2 miles long by 1 mile wide. They also I am told have legal prostitution and a street you can walk where the woman stand in the door ways or windows or something like that. I went for a walk to find something to eat and was join by the guy who sat a seat behind me who looked like an Australian version of a young Bob Dylan with the Afro and black wool coat, give him sunglasses and a guitar and he would have won any look-a-like contest in the world. He turn out also won the title for most socially awkward Australian Bob Dylan as holding a conversation with him was like pulling teeth, he was very quiet and very nerdy it turned out. Either way we found an ok pizza place and had a meal. Then got back on to the train where on of the elderly contention decided to step off the train for a smoke at the ripe old age 120 and missed her step even though someone was assisting her over the gap in the platform and fell between the train and station platform resulting in a not to serious scrapped knee. She was then taken by ambulance to the hospital where it was agreed she would spend the night and take the morning train. Did I forget to mention that the paramedics were being filmed for what I can only hope was Western Australia’s very boring version of mining town “Cops”. After that was all sorted out we got the train rolling for the last over night journey to Perth.
It was amazing to see the landscape change over the entire journey from Metropolis into farmland, rolling hills, 6000 ft mountains back to rolling country side with sheep grazing everywhere then into fertile farm land full of crops and sheep then slowly into scrubby forest land then desert looking forests then straight desert scrub for 800 miles then back to scrubby forests and then farm land and finally back to suburban sprawl. I can also say that the twilight of Australia is like nothing I ever seen in 26 years. The sky turns from blue to deep blue into indigo and then fades to black from the deepest purple I have ever seen, if I tried a hundred years I don’t think I could describe it perfectly enough to do it justice.
The chance to experience Australia at a glance from a train was amazing, it was like reading the “Cliffs Notes” on Australian geography. I can’t really say that I would do it again however I would recommend it if you were ever given the opportunity to do it. But I am the type of person who can sit for hours on end and stare out a window, while trying to read a book or listening to music. Also much to my annoyance I did not see one wild kangaroo, camel (yes Camel) or Dingo. All though I was told they were out there.
Now I am in Perth staying with my very gracious friends Jesse and Dawn and their son Owen who have invited me to stay at their home for as long as I like. In Perth I will try to establish my self for a few months, work, play and explore as much of Western Australia as I can. My blog post will probably get a little less frequent but I will try to maintain regular entries. As always thank you for reading and scope out some photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28522437@
Friday, July 30, 2010
Sydney
“Flight attendants please prepare for landing” was the sweetest phrase in the English language at 9:30 in the morning Tuesday when we finally landed in Sydney. Jet lagged and wondering how Monday was for the rest of the world I stepped in to Sydney’s international terminal and zombie shuffled my way through immigration, which was a breeze with the exception of the woman giving me a hard time for not declaring my snack food because it had peanuts in it. The peanuts were perfectly fine to have and they did not take them from me, I guess they just wanted to know I had them? I am currently staying in a Hostel in the Downtown section of Sydney, and stay in the hostel is all I did Tuesday, except to wander around the block and find some food. The weather the first two days was crappy but didn’t stop me from getting out and exploring the city a bit. Thursday I awoke to blue skies and went out picture taking and found the harbor area and the beautiful Botany Bay. I also found my way to the stunning and shining Sydney Opera House of which I and the constant throng of tourist photographed from ever possible angle.
For a city in a foreign land Sydney has a very familiar feel to it. While walking around the city I kept coming across features that made me think “wow this looks like…”. I could easily compare parts of Sydney to New York City, Seattle, Boston, Singapore, Chicago, Portland, Bangkok and the list could on as I keep exploring. However although Sydney does resemble these other cities it has an identity all it’s own. The people hustle around and around but everything opens kind of lazily late around 8-9am, If NYC is the City that never sleeps then Sydney seems to be the city that sleeps in. In the botanical gardens which line a part of the harbor loads of people can be seen running at all times of the day, I saw more people running through the park than I have seen running in Central Park. It’s also a very easy city to get around in, tons of train stops, bus stops and ferries to take you wherever you want to go, awesomely convenient!
There are some things about Sydney and Australia in general that I knew about before coming over that still I find funny and some I find dumbfounding. There are a T-O-N of Asian people running around here, this I knew before hand but didn’t expect to see this many. I find it hilarious when I hear an Asian Australian speak with an Australian accent (mate) probably always will. Not that all Asian people should sound American or just simply Asian. Things over here are really and truly expensive and some ridiculously so, A bottle of Gator-aid is $4.50, Mc-esk cheeseburger 2.50. Burger Kings are call Hungry Jacks, I find that odd. However the burger was good. It’s winter over here and they dress it, problem is during the day it is a very pleasant 65-70 degrees. I understand that the summers pretty much stay in the 100’s so I understand where they are coming from but still think it’s funny. Also instead of saying thanks they say Cheers.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I leave on a 3 day train journey across the continent from Sydney to Perth, this has the potential to be the coolest thing I have ever done or the worst decision I have ever made. Tune in in about 5 days to see how that went. Thanks for reading everyone and I would really appreciate it if you told everyone you know about this blog and got them reading as well. Also don’t forget to check out the Flickr site for the photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/28522437@N05/ - Bryan
For a city in a foreign land Sydney has a very familiar feel to it. While walking around the city I kept coming across features that made me think “wow this looks like…”. I could easily compare parts of Sydney to New York City, Seattle, Boston, Singapore, Chicago, Portland, Bangkok and the list could on as I keep exploring. However although Sydney does resemble these other cities it has an identity all it’s own. The people hustle around and around but everything opens kind of lazily late around 8-9am, If NYC is the City that never sleeps then Sydney seems to be the city that sleeps in. In the botanical gardens which line a part of the harbor loads of people can be seen running at all times of the day, I saw more people running through the park than I have seen running in Central Park. It’s also a very easy city to get around in, tons of train stops, bus stops and ferries to take you wherever you want to go, awesomely convenient!
There are some things about Sydney and Australia in general that I knew about before coming over that still I find funny and some I find dumbfounding. There are a T-O-N of Asian people running around here, this I knew before hand but didn’t expect to see this many. I find it hilarious when I hear an Asian Australian speak with an Australian accent (mate) probably always will. Not that all Asian people should sound American or just simply Asian. Things over here are really and truly expensive and some ridiculously so, A bottle of Gator-aid is $4.50, Mc-esk cheeseburger 2.50. Burger Kings are call Hungry Jacks, I find that odd. However the burger was good. It’s winter over here and they dress it, problem is during the day it is a very pleasant 65-70 degrees. I understand that the summers pretty much stay in the 100’s so I understand where they are coming from but still think it’s funny. Also instead of saying thanks they say Cheers.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I leave on a 3 day train journey across the continent from Sydney to Perth, this has the potential to be the coolest thing I have ever done or the worst decision I have ever made. Tune in in about 5 days to see how that went. Thanks for reading everyone and I would really appreciate it if you told everyone you know about this blog and got them reading as well. Also don’t forget to check out the Flickr site for the photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/28522437@N05/ - Bryan
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