tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26272244243961941122024-03-06T02:09:18.103+00:00The OzBus DiariesIt all began with the OzBus...the question is where will it end?Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.comBlogger172125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-10570171941038071722012-06-20T04:48:00.003+01:002012-06-20T04:48:49.375+01:00RIP OzBus<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: left;">You will be missed!</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: left;" /><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17612493" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>uk-england-17612493</a>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-14124525450036784442012-03-30T00:17:00.000+01:002012-03-30T00:17:38.715+01:00Sydney 2012<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time for another random post. I am not even going to apologise for the lack of activity this time as I am fairly sure not many people stop by the blog any more and I am probably just talking to myself these days. Still it's therapeutic for me to dip back in and share random thoughts with strangers every once in a while.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, where did we leave off last time? If I remember correctly I was about a week away from leaving the UK to move to Sydney, we are now 8 months in to life in Oz and it has been an experience to say the least! I have moved three times, hopefully I can manage to stay in one spot for a while now, have met heaps of new people and found that Sydney was just as good as I remembered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I feel that me and Sydney are a good fit, the culture and lifestyle seem to agree with my personality and I do not think I have felt more at home anywhere else in the world. Travel is still always in the back of my mind but is now all about great holidays rather than trips of discovery and globe crossing relocations, for now anyway ;-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has not been the smoothest of rides since I got her and a lot has changed in my life but when life hands you lemons, grab some tequila and salt and get on it! (I know it should really be limes for tequila but just go with it, ok?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what's next? Who knows, but I am sure it will be fun and there will be laughter and tears along the way and every now and I again I will remember I have a blog and come back and randomly tell anyone who fancies a read what it is on my mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2012, let's see what you've got in store...</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-46120592696532490342011-07-01T14:43:00.000+01:002011-07-01T14:43:45.913+01:00So what's next for the OzBus Diaries and its author?Hey, see I am still alive, honest, just not been giving this blog the attention it deserves, as usual.<br />
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I am trying to get better at keeping this up to date and as usual I will start my post with the promise to start writing here more regularly and will probably blog again in a couple of months and apologise for not doing it sooner but you all know this part of my charm!<br />
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So what is my excuse this time? Well I have been busy getting on with life and working out what direction to head in. After two and a bit years back in the UK I have decided it is not the place for me. So at start of this year I pulled myself together and went job hunting overseas, my goal was to get a sponsored role in Sydney and move back to Oz permanently.<br />
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I began by researching PR firms in Sydney, trying to find the right fit for me and my experience then got in touch with the top ones and began the process. It was slow going to start with then a couple of months ago a phone interview went well, was followed up with a Skype interview, a couple of tests and before I knew it, a job offer!<br />
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So now I am a week away from leaving the UK for good for a new life in Sydney. This will not be the crazy travelling adventure that the rest of this blog has been dedicated to over the years but it will be certainly be an adventure, anyone who wants advice on emigrating feel free to get in touch and I can share what I have learnt and keep your eyes out for future posts on how life in Sydney is going.Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-55044013134476632952011-03-16T11:57:00.001+00:002011-03-30T14:13:37.786+01:00From then to now....<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I returned from my travels in Feb 2009, over two years ago and rather than just carry on from today without filling in the blanks I thought I would give any of you that are interested a quick summary of the last two years so here goes:</span><br />
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<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moved 4 times in the first seven months before eventually setting up home in Clapham Junction</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Got a rescue dog from Battersea, she is a border collie and will be 13 this May (she was 11 when we got her)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Went back to work in the tech PR industry</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ran the London Marathon</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Turned 30</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did a lot of "London tourism" making sure I had seen all the city had to offer (including the Great British Duck Race)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Went to Germany twice (once for a stag do, once for the Christmas Markets)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Went to Dubai on holiday</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Went to Ireland a lot!</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Won an electric bike and now brave the traffic most days on the way to work (buses and taxis are not my friends)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Went on the Orient Express (to Kent) and got engaged along the way</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Got lens replacement and laser eye surgery meaning I can see unaided for the first time since I was four</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Began planning my wedding, in Sydney, at the end of 2011</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Set up an Australian wine Twitter @boutiquecellar </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lots of other things that I can't remember right now and are probably not that interesting anyway...</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I think that covers the highlights of the last two years and brings me up to date so watch this space for new and hopefully exciting musings on life the universe and everything and I wouldn't be surprised if travel and wine continue to be strong themes going forward.</span></div>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-83208710800484561062011-03-16T11:36:00.000+00:002011-03-16T11:36:26.947+00:00American Invasion<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just before our American Invasion kicked off we returned to Oz once more and went back to Adelaide to spend Christmas and New Year with friends before heading to the states.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had a great Christmas, enjoyed the sunshine, spent time chilling out and generally recharged the batteries ready for what would be the final leg of the trip.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We left Oz in early January and boarded the flight to LA, which is one of the weirdest flights I have ever been on, it was 17 hours long, we took off at 6:50am and landed at 6:30am the same day having crossed the international date line on route, the jet lag was bad to say the least!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We stayed in a motel near Hollywood and took in the sites of LA. We did an open top bus tour, walked down Hollywood boulevard, want to see the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, visited Universal Studios and went to Disney (which was a big disappointment). It was nice to be on "holiday" for a change rather than just backpacking. It was also a little bit of a culture shock after so long in Oz and the food in America left a lot to be desired after the fresh seafood and great restaurants we had left behind in Oz (although I was a fan of the doughnut breakfast!).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After we had sampled the delights of LA it was off to Sin City and after a short flight and cab ride we were checking into Circus Circus on the Las Vegas Strip. We spent a few days eating fried delicacies from various all you can eat buffets, meeting entertaining characters like Prez, our favourite blackjack dealer in Vegas. He taught us the difference between a bitch and a whore, apparently a whore sleeps with everyone, a bitch sleeps with everyone but you :-)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also took in a show at Ceasers Palace where we saw Bette Middler live which was very entertaining. We saw very tired looking lions on display in the middle of a casino, saw dolphins who were apparently being kept for conservation reasons learning tricks and performing for onlookers and a very cute leopard cub called Java.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We tried to do a day trip out to the Grand Canyon but this got cancelled last minute (after a 6am start) as the other people on the trip had got their dates wrong and would not be in Vegas till the next week. After a few hours back in bed we hit the tables again and lost the remainder of our spare dollars before packing up ready for the next stop, San Francisco!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We arrived in San Fran and checked into a hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. Fresh seafood and good food were once again on the menu and we ate our fill while we were there. We visited Alcatraz and toured the city on Segways (you know, the weird two wheel standy up things that were a big fad years ago) which is a great way to see the city and not have to walk up all the hills. We also made sure we visited the sea lions and ran into an old friend from home while we were there, it really is a small world after all (a ride that was not even open when we went to Disney in LA!)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From San Fran it was on to Seattle to stay with my better half's family for a while. We enjoyed home comforts once more, visited the Space Needle, went on a food and, you guessed it, wine tour and learnt about the history of Seattle.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After Seattle we flew to New York and jumped straight onto a connecting flight to Bermuda (along with one of our bags, the other followed about three days later!) where some old uni friends had moved to a few years previously. This strange little island in the middle of the ocean has some interesting little querks and is well worth a short visit. We toured the 22 sq mile island on a hired scooter, visited historic sites, marvelled and the limestone roofs designed to capture and filter the rainwater (the only source of fresh water on the island), enjoyed the night life and had minor heart attacks at the prices of everything ($7 for a pint of fosters!). We stayed a couple of days longer than expected as a gale force win closed the airport but we then took our penultimate flight to New York for our last stop on the world tour.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In New York we visited the out of town factory shops, wondered through Time Square, went up the Empire State Building, visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, caught up with a friend we had met in New Zealand and visited some spectacular restaurants, including one where I had a burger that was stuffed with ribs! So with full stomachs, a new wardrobe and a tear in our eye we boarded the final flight home.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After 18 months on the road, 23 countries and some of the most amazing experiences it was time to go home, I hope those of you who have stuck with me throughout this story have enjoyed reading about it, I know I have enjoyed writing about it. I am sorry it has taken so long to finish but finished it is, the next post will be a quick summary of from when we got home to present day and then....who knows, I have not quite decided on what the future of the OzBus Diaries will hold but I am sure there are still adventures to be had and I plan on having them at some point in the not too distant future....</span><br />
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</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-64038745977477761882011-03-15T16:51:00.000+00:002011-03-15T16:51:56.469+00:00Kiwi Krusades<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next stop on the trip was New Zealand, it had been my job to plan this part of the trip so shockingly enough not much was planned before our arrival! We had immigration issues on the way over with Qantas asking us to do some things that sounded very illegal but we eventually made it across the sea to New Zealand and boarded the Magic Bus (this is a name of a tour company not just a strange turn of phrase).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We spent three weeks touring the country and saw and did a lot of cool things and met some great people along the way, highlights included:</span><br />
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<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zorbing in Rotorua</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black Water Rafting in Waitomo</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wine tasting (for a change)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beer tasting (where we discovered our new American was a huge light weight)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Traditional Maori cooking and entertainment</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Touring Milford Sound by boat</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seeing rabbits being sheared for their fur</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jet boating over rapids</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sailing on Lake Taupo in a boat that used to belong to Errol Flynn</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heli rafting (white water rafting where you get a helicopter to the start of the rapids)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Touring the Lord of the Rings Scenery (more my thing that my better half's)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Swimming with wild dolphins</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seeing a real live Kiwi (not a New Zealander, the bird)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Visting the Ice Bar in Queenstown</span></li>
</ul><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some not so great moment that still made for interesting stories included:</span></div><ul><li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not skydiving cause I was to fat :-(</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having out pillows stolen by the YHA</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not being able to climb the Hans Joseph Glacier due to bad weather</li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The company on the wine tour (the guy had a shaved head and a British Bulldog tattoo all the way down his right arm and a very high pitched brummie accent</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Me not planning very well and us having to pay for a flight to get us back to Auckland to get our flight back to Oz in time</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">New Zealand is a great place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone, if you want to hear more about any of the above drop me a line and I will happily indulge you...</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-78717196718606676862011-03-15T16:29:00.000+00:002011-03-15T16:29:33.766+00:00Sydney Take 2<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So after 13 weeks on the road we got back to Sydney and managed to get a private room at hostel called the Wooduck Woolloomooloo in Sydney free of charge as long as we took on the job of pancake chefs. The hostel offered a free pancake breakfast to its guests and someone had to cook for the 200 backpackers every day. That someone was destined to be us!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We settled into life in the hostel, I got a second job putting up gazebos to bring some extra cash in and just as I got going with this also landed the job of night manager at the hostel so after doing a couple of back to back day and night shifts I gave up the gazebo gig. We sold the camper van for a profit (even after all the repairs), and while we were there the hostel changed ownership and most of the staff left leaving my better half and I to manage the hostel which came with a free room and a pay packet!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We toured the Hunter Valley wine region, climbed the harbour bridge, took part in hostel pub crawls, acted as surrogate parents for a lot of 18 year old back packers and planned for our upcoming trip to New Zealand.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You would honestly be amazed by some of the questions we fielded, like how do I wash my clothes, what do I do if I get cold at night and what do you mean I have to move out if I don't pay? It was a very interesting experience with the breaking up of over anxious, sexually charged backpacker frolics, overindulging backpackers soiling themselves in reception and the glass door at reception becoming invisible to the drunken eye and the comedy walking into doors that followed!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our time flew by and soon we were packing up and getting ready to head on to New Zealand as our 12 month visas for Australia were about to run out, the adventure was still not over but it was entering the home stretch...</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-11928464121375290312011-03-15T16:03:00.000+00:002011-03-15T16:03:47.038+00:00Weeks 6-13 of Sircling Australia<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is finally time for to get the travelling part of this blog finished so I can get back to random musing on life the universe and everything. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As my trip around Oz finished a few years back now I am going to wrap this with a summary of the rest of my trip round the costs of Oz then do a quick post on hostel life in Sydney followed by a summary of our trip round NZ and one more on the journey home via the states. Then one final post on returning home to now before I get back to regular blogging about stuff!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So let's get started, when I last posted (September 2008) we had just pulled into Broome, we spent the night checking out the staircase to the moon, a rather cool effect caused by the full moon rising over the sand flats, enjoyed the festival that surrounds this and chilled out in our camp site for a few days. Before hitting the road again and heading down the West Coast we also visited the the Willie Creek Pearl Farm (www.williecreekpearls.com) and enjoyed some freshly shucked oysters straight out the sea.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now the West Coast is an under visited treasure in my opinion. What it lacks in luxury it makes up for in natural splendour, we spent a couple of weeks making our way down the coast, camping in national parks and of course, snorkelling! The best thing about the West Coast is the Ningaloo Reef. It is easily a match for it's much more famous East Coast cousin but has the advantage of being as little as 50m off shore in some places so no need for 2 day boat trips just to see it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We went out on glass bottomed boats, drift snorkelled, dodged jellyfish and shared our dinner with a very curious wallaby and her Joey. We saw wild dolphins come right up to the shore at Monkey Mia, visited Sharks Bay and loved every minute of the back to basics tour down the coast. If I could change one thing it would be to find a way to have a fresh water shower along the way. By the time we pulled into Perth after two weeks of snorkelling, camping and washing in slat water my skin felt like it was cracking! The fresh water showers at the hostel were a welcome change!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So now we had made it to Perth and decided it was time for bit of culture in the way of wine tour. We booked an wine cruise up the Swan River followed by a tour round local wineries. The guide took an instant shine to me as I am from the Midlands and he was originally from Derby. We had a great day and our guide made sure we were kept well supplied with wine (especially at one of the wineries that had double booked us and asked him to serve for them - full glass tasting is a dangerous game). We returned to the hostel at the end of day a tad worse for wear with several cases of wine for the rest of the trip.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was not a huge fan of Perth but did like Fremantle, which is just outside Perth, and we visited the Fremantle prison while there as well. We also went a trip over to Rotnest Island where we tried our hand at cycling and soon decided we were a little bit too out of shape for this and had a strange moment of fear while snorkelling where we were sure something was out there!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From here we headed down to Rockingham where we took a visit to Penguin Island, you can guess what we saw there! We opted for the Penguin only tour, not wanting to pay extra to see the Dolphins as well, turned out to be a good move as when we got off the boat on Penguin Island there was a dolphin playing in the water right by the jetty!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next came Albany and the Esperance, both nice enough places but not much to report here apart from the fact that Esperance was to be the start of the scariest part of the trip so far.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we headed off from Esperance we decided to take a short cut that would save us a lot of driving and get us to our next major stop, Adelaide, a lot quicker, cutting out a big chunk of the long flat and uneventful Nularbor Plain, which is huge limestone plain. The short cut involved a few 100 km off roading but the track was well marked out and we felt it would be worth it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well we got off to a good start and were making good time, then we hit the first "puddle", which was about half as deep as the car, after narrowly avoiding sinking the car and pulling free we noticed that there were tracks cut in by previous off roaders that missed out these flooded sections of track and having spotted these we were back on track and dodged the waterlogged sections.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was while driving round one of these waterlogged sections that we came to a cross roads and after much debate turned left, we carried on for about 100km then the track seemed to just end. Having miss placed confidence in the track we assumed it had just been overgrown by the bush blocking our path so put the pedal to the metal and went straight through the bush to be greeted by wide open space and no track. Determined to keep going we drove in a straight line hoping to find the track again but after while realised we were in a strange clearing rather than on a track.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We stopped to think about our next move, noticed a large group of Kangaroos circling us and got a suspicious sinking feeling. This turned out to be the car actually sinking as the clearing was in fact a large marsh or bog and whenever we stopped we began to sink. So it was in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia, with no phone signal, nobody expecting us anywhere for a good week and a large 4x4 sinking in the marsh that I truly believed that this may be the end of it all, it had been a good run but it seemed this was it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A minute later I mentally slapped myself round the face and heroically decided to send my better half out of the car, into the marsh with the 6ft tall Kangaroos, wearing flip flops for ultimate snake protection, to find the bush we had driven through so we could get back to the track. She found the bush, was not crushed by a Roo and was not bitten by a snake and a few hours later we were back on the right track with only 200km more to go till we reached the road again!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last 200km were eventful as well, we found a group of people with a large camp fire in the middle of nowhere and considered stopping to stay the night with them until the thought "that's how people die in horror movies" entered our minds. We found a tree covered in shoes and underwear that we still don't really know much about and a Kangaroo jumped over the bonnet while we doing a 110k/h and just missed the windscreen but at some ridiculous time in the morning we made it to a road house, checked into a motel and crashed, thankful to have made it and thankful the worst was behind us....</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next morning, despite concerns from my partner that she was sure the strange mark on the back wheel was something we should look at and that the car looked lopsided I just topped up the air in the tyres, realised we had a flat, changed it and carried on...a few hours later the car started making a horrid noise so in typical man fashion I decided if I took over the driving it would be fine. I chucked it into 4 wheel drive and carried on, the noise got worse...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We pulled into a local town and rocked up to the mechanics, he was on holiday the local Footy team had one the cup and were on tour, he would be back in 3 weeks! So we carried on to the next town. We were about 30km away when the car made a cracking noise, we pulled over to take a look and instantly noticed that both back wheels were at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the car, we would later find out that we had snapped the rear diff and the rear axle while off roading and the rust that had been holding it all in place since it snapped had finally given out.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A local took pity on us an pulled over and arranged for us and the car to be shipped to Minnipa, a very small town with a petrol station, 3 grain silos, a motel and a mechanic. We stayed here for 3 days while the mechanic, who was great, sourced a whole new rear end for us and had it shipped to Minnipa. We became a tourist attraction for the locals, with invites for tea coming regularly as we sat around the mechanics workshop but eventually we were back on the road and raring to go.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next stop was Adelaide were we stayed with friends from the OzBus, recharged our batteries, went on more wine tours and enjoyed staying in a house with running water and a bathroom that was not shared with 20 backpackers.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next step on the lap of Oz was a visit to a little town called Ouyen in Victoria to visit some more OzBus friends, before carrying on to Melbourne to meet up with an old school friend of mine. We visited Ramsay Street and went to the Melbourne fair to see the fireworks (which were cancelled due to wind!) </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We then got to boat over to Tasmania where it seems all the bends from the rest of Oz are hiding as long straight roads were replaced by winding tracks. We went a brewery and prison tour in and visited Tazmazia (a place with lots of mazes..it was awesome). We stayed on a haunted site where I was convinced in the middle of the night that there was someone/thing trying to steal my beer and would not let me other half move till I was sure the beer was safe, it was an interesting night to say the least!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We finished of the 13 week lap of Oz with a leisurely drive back to Sydney, did some whale watching, and got ready for our return to Sydney where we were hoping to land some work in a hostel for a couple of months to finish off our time in Oz, sell the car and plan the long journey home...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So there it is, it took me a long time but there is a whirlwind version of the 2nd half Sircling Stralia, Sydney take 2, Kiwi Krusades and American Invasion coming soon (and I actually mean it this time, honest!)</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-58088358017871211782010-05-26T09:01:00.000+01:002010-05-26T09:01:06.943+01:00Very slow leaf turning process...It seems I was a tad ambitious at the end of March when I promised the imminent completion of my travelling saga, I have not given up on finishing my story and then getting back to regular blogging but life has been busy recently so if you have enough patience and want to know how the trip ended just keep popping back every now and again and one day it will all be here for your reading pleasure...Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-34528102065878913722010-03-31T16:48:00.000+01:002010-03-31T16:48:10.167+01:00Turning over a new leaf<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">So as those of you who still visit this site will know it has become more of a memorial to my travels than anything else but still seems to function as a reference for many of you who are looking to find out more about the infamous OzBus and the experiences of that first group of nutters who embarked on the trip.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Well that is all about to change. Over the next couple of weeks the final chapters of my travels will appear (finally) and a new and improved blog will begin to emerge.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">I am no longer the care free traveller who toured the globe and wrote most of the content you can find here or the angst ridden individual who began the project with his daily musings on life, the universe and everything but that is no reason to stop sharing my unique and often random perception of life with the few people who chance across this site.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Once the travel notes are up to date I will begin to blog on the everyday experiences of life as a working Londoner, this content will range from musings on the world of PR and social media (my day job) through to the things that happen to me every day that I feel like sharing with the world. I am sure there will still be a few travel tales as well but the trips will be a week or so long rather than 18 months!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Expect to see a blow by blow account of the agony that will be the London Marathon including detailed descriptions of the damage I will inevitably do to myself and other amusing stories. I have a trip to Dubai coming up in June and will be sure to bore you all with the vast amount of relaxing and sunbathing I plan to do.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hopefully some of you will find my tales amusing and I will bring a smile to a few faces over the coming months, then it will all be worth it!</div>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-42460618435195494552009-10-21T14:05:00.001+01:002009-10-21T14:07:16.799+01:00London Marathon 2010I am still a rubbish blogger as I have not got round to updating all the bits I need to but in the mean time...I have signed up to run the London Marathon in 2010 for the MS Society so if you feel inclined to donate to a good cause please use the widget on the site.<div><br /></div><div>Thanks.</div>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-16026459401378663782009-08-27T13:10:00.002+01:002009-08-27T13:13:41.090+01:00I am the worst blogger ever - sorry!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">To the very limited number of you who still visit this blog I extend me most sincere apologies, I have let this project get away from me and have been very lax but I can promise you all a re-vamp of the blog and the completion of my travellers tale in the not too distant future.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">In a weeks time I will be moving for the 4th time in 7 months and with the move will come the creation of a work space for me to carry on my writing so hopefully, unless something else comes up to take up my free time new entries will be on the way soon!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Thanks for your patience and see you all soon!</span></div>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-63011267064721074942009-05-07T14:23:00.002+01:002009-05-07T14:35:09.537+01:00COMING SOON!!!<span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Weeks 6-13 of Sircling Australia</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />I did finish the trip but not the blog posts which was very irresponsible of me and I plan to write this wrong in the very near future!<br /><br /><strong>Sydney - Take 2</strong><br /><br />After circumnavigating Oz I returned to Sydney where I somehow ended up managing a backpacker hostel in Woolloomooloo. A short story summing up the trials, tribulations and downright hilarious moments from my two month stint as a hostel worker is on its way over the coming weeks.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Kiwi Krusades</strong><br /><br />After I had used up every last bit of my working visa and had to leave the wonderful world of Oz I hit the travelling trail again aboard the Magic Bus in New Zealand, tales of my 3 week whistle-stop tour of NZ coming soon.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>American Invasion</strong><br /><br />After a brief return to Oz for Christmas I began the journey home but if for one second you think I just hopped on a plane to the UK you are sorely mistaken and have obviously not been reading this blog for long, I hit LA, Vega, San Fran, Seattle, Bermuda (not technically in the US but go with it this time ok?) and finally NYC. The story of the final leg of what turned out to be an 18 month adventure will be coming to a computer screen near you this summer.<br /><br />And that as they say is that, not to spoil the ending for anyone but I am now back in the UK, back at my old job in PR with the agency I was with before I left and getting use to life in one place...<br /><br />...of course this in no ways means my travels are over, I still have a lot of Europe to visit and now it is close enough to visit got a long weekend so watch this space and who know what you will see!</span><br /></span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-23137928544395985222008-09-14T04:05:00.001+01:002008-09-14T04:05:40.219+01:00Sircling Stralia = Week 5<span style="font-family:arial;">States Visited – 3<br />Kilometres Travelled – 3,237 (plus 120km without the car – all will be explained below!)<br /><br />As you can already see from the amount of km travelled this was a heavy driving week but it was also the week where if it could go wrong it did!<br /><br />It did not start off that way though, we began by driving over 1,000km from Mt Isa to Daly Waters, an obscure Northern Territory town that is basically just a pub, but a great one! We had been here before when we came though the centre of Oz on the OzBus so were keen to come back for the Beef and Barra on the BBQ and relive the memories of the last visit, after this we headed on to our next stop which was to be Timber Creek. This had been mentioned in one of our guide books and we decided it would be a good place to stay the night. When we got there we decided this was not the case, it was another middle of nowhere place and we decided to keep going.<br /><br />About 60km up the road from here, essentially in the middle of nowhere the car decides it has had enough of this and stops, dead, the whole instrument panel shuts down and just as we pull off the road to see what is going on the engine cuts our to. The sun is beginning to set and the the very kind people who stopped to check we were ok as soon as we stopped were told we would be fine, “I have a jump starter, I am sure I can get it going” I had foolishly said! After another half an hour we manage to hitch a ride with some fellow backpackers in a VW Combi and make it the 60km back to the Turkey Creek Roadhouse. Being in the middle of nowhere also means your mobile does not work but using the roadhouses payphone I called up 24/7 Roadservices to come to my rescue! I pay my membership fees so they should come to my assistance right, the name 24/7 certainly implies this and the fact they are “Australia Wide” means I will be fine…ha ha ha ha!<br /><br />I was told I was too far from anywhere for them to do anything tonight and that as I was 60km away from the nearest civilisation that the tow back would cost me an arm and a leg and several other body parts! Left with no assistance we had to stay the night at the fully booked out roadhouse in a staff cabin (charged at full rates of course!) and then see the mechanic in the morning when he opened up shop.<br /><br />To say the mechanic in Timber Creek is not the life and soul of the party is an understatement in the extreme, after explaining what had happened and saying that I thought the battery might be buggered (bearing in mind I have the mechanical knowledge of a gerbil on vallium) he simply sells me a battery for an exorbitant fee and sets me on my way! Another 60km hitchhike with a very nice family who were the only ones out of about 8 cars to stop got us and our new battery back to the car.<br /><br />With the new battery in we were back in business and made it to the Kunurra, a further couple of hundred kilometres along the road. We got here with no problems, checked in to the YHA, which was lovely and breathed a huge sigh of relief, we were out of the woods…can you say famous last words?<br /><br />That evening we went on a sunset BBQ cruise on the river, saw the impressive local dam, met some very interesting people and had a great evening, The next morning we packed up and headed out to begin our run to Broome, a leisurely two day drive with a few stop offs here and there, at least that was the plan! This time we were only 6km out of town by the time the car gave up and 24/7 Roadservices came through, the tow truck got to us within the hour and we were soon back in Kunurra which thankfully has much more competent mechanics. Turns out the alternator was shot and it would take a couple of days to fly one in so we were not going anywhere just yet!<br /><br />We had to move to another backpackers for one night as ours was full but it was a little run down so we moved back for our third night and met up with a Canadian girl who needed a ride to Broome so we obliged, for a share of petrol of course!<br /><br />By the time we left this little town we were ready to reach Broome as quickly as possible and once again covered the 1000+km in a day to pull in to Broome on the last day of week 5, we dropped out hitchhiker at a hostel in town and headed for Cable Beach Caravan Park. The highly eventful week ended with a mini reunion as one of our fellow OzBuser’s is working in Broome at the moment so we passed away the evening with cocktails, tapas and pleasant conversation… </span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-6362863053814506742008-09-14T04:02:00.000+01:002008-09-14T04:03:31.750+01:00Sircling Stralia - Week 4<span style="font-family:arial;">Kilometres travelled – 1702<br />States visited – 1 <br /><br />Week 4 begins with out return from the SV Whitehaven to solid ground and after pulling our bags out of storage is it was time to hit the road again and head North once more. After discussing it with several people we had decided to give Townsville a miss and head straight to Magnetic Island, a lovely little spot just off the coast. We booked into a hostel called Bungalow Bay and left the car on the mainland.<br /><br />When we got to the hostel it was a lovely little place, the owners have combined a wildlife sanctuary with a hostel and done it very well. From the wallabies that run around outside the cabins, the possums who come to the bar in the hope of scrounging food to the wildlife park with Koalas, crocs and parrots it was great. We even got a photo with a Koala. The picture I had done showed a very alert slightly shocked looking Koala in my arms. Turns out he was looking shocked as he had just pissed himself on my shirt but hey sometimes you have to go to extremes to get a good photo! Also turns out the Koala was called Dexter and is on Facebook, he is now one of my friends, no really, look up Dexter Koala and you will find him.<br /><br />Baby Echidnas, snakes, parrots eating seeds out of your mouth, bush walks and gorgeous weather finished off our time on the island and we headed back to the mainland in high spirits and headed towards Cairns, our last stop on the East coast.<br /><br />Cairns was more of a practical stop than holiday stop for us, there is heaps to do here but we needed to repack the car, get it cleaned, serviced etc. get all our washing done, etc, etc so we spent a couple of days doing this, hitting the shops and so on and prepared for the long hard drive inland to get to Mt Isa in time for the annual rodeo, in its 50th year in 2008 it is in the biggest rodeo in the Southern Hemisphere.<br /><br />The trip began well, we found a rout from Cairns that by using a 300km long dirt road we could get there without doubling back on ourselves. So we headed off with the plan being to stop at the top of this track for the night and then drive it the next day, sometimes it is a good idea to stick to the plan!<br /><br />We took one look at the roadhouse/caravan park we had planned to stay in and figured we were better to keep going, this would mean driving about 200km in the dark but we decided to give it a go! Turns out the dark was not the problem, it was around sunset that tragedy would strike! We saw the first four and dodged them easily but the fifth kangaroo to jump out on us was not so lucky and despite my claims that he might be ok, honest, I think he is hopping in a better place now. After this we checked the car over and figured our roo bar had done its job and that we were good to carry on. We made it to the end of the dirt road without any more animals meeting there end despite a few close calls and pulled in to a little town called Hughenden. Here we found a motel for the night and discovered how lucky we had been. The dirt road was pretty much straight the whole way but turns out our roo bar was bent in to the point where left and right turns were not really and option! If there had been a couple more bends our tyre would undoubtedly blown out in the middle of nowhere. A couple of chains and a tree later we had pulled the roo bar out and were back on route!<br /><br />We pulled in to Isa and were instantly relieved that we had planned ahead and booked our campsite 6 weeks in advance, the whole town was full! We kicked off with a tour of the local lead mine, had a mooch round the shops then went to the opening parade of the rodeo. It was great, local tractors and trucks done up to make the floats and a really great atmosphere, reminded me a lot of a local St Patrick’s Day parade I saw on a quick trip to Ireland earlier this year and I loved it. The rodeo was great, bare back horse riding, bull riding, wild horse races, barrel racing, beer, fast food and heaps of cowboys and we have a great few days here to finish off week 4.</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-37293752706674220972008-08-19T06:58:00.000+01:002008-08-19T06:59:34.212+01:00Sircling Stralia - Week 3<span style="font-family:arial;">Kilometres Travelled - 939<br />States Visited – 1<br /><br />Week 3 began on the beach; quite literally, we woke up to the sounds of the ocean on the other side of the dunes we were camped behind on Fraser Island. We packed up our gear and fired up the 4x4, we were off to see the island!<br /><br />We cruised along the beach, saw the Mohino Wreck rusting on the shore line, visited Indian Head, one of the three volcanic cores that are responsible for catching the sand that forms the island, saw wild dingoes and had a couple of hairy moments when we thought the car was stuck or broken but we made it through the day. We visited the stunning Lake McKenzie, reminiscent of the lake from The Beach but with much more tourists! It was a lovely sight but was slightly ruined by all the groups of people sat around getting stinking drunk and playing Frisbee and for once this group had nothing to do with me!<br /><br />We camped on the beach again, about 1km from one of the resorts on the island and headed to the bar for a few beers, this was all well and good till we realised that walking back to the van in the pitch black with the threat of wild dingoes jumping us forefront in our minds was not as much fun as you would think! We made it back without incident and after one more night under the stars headed to the ferry back to the mainland and we were soon on our way to Rockhampton, the cattle capital of Australia.<br /><br />In Rockhampton we went out for a day with Capricorn Dave, I can highly recommend the Beef and Reef Tour he does to anyone heading this way. As it was quiet season it turned out that me and my girlfriend were the only people on the tour so we got a personalised day out! We toured round in Capricorn Dave’s van, saw wild snakes, echidnas (which apparently is very rare), heaps of wild roos, had a huntsman spider put on our faces for photos, played with scorpions and much more! This also included doing the Ant Dance, which was featured on Jackass. You have to stand on an ant’s nest and see how long you can takes the ants’ biting your bare feet then dance around like a loony to get rid of them! Steve’o lasted 7 seconds, I lasted at least 13 but ony because my girlfriend took so long to take a picture! We finished off the day with dinner at the Ascot Stone Grill where your raw steak is served on hot stone and you cook it yourself as you go.<br /><br />After Rockhampton it was time for a quick inland detour. We headed through winding hilly roads to Eungella National Park where friends had told us we were pretty much guaranteed to see the Duckbilled Platypus in the wild and we were not disappointed! We got there just before dusk and headed down to the river where we saw several of this undeniable odd egg laying mammal swimming around before bed time. We stayed at a caravan park with an amazing view of the park and left here very pleased that we had gone the extra distance.<br /><br />The final stop of the week was Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands, a gorgeous place but, as we were about to find out a frustrating one as well! As it was not high tourist season we had planned to show up and grab a last minute deal to sail the Whitsundays for a couple of days on one of the many boat trips. We got in to town, found a hostel and headed to the travel desk. The very nice man behind the counter told us about the various boats and one took our fancy. We booked on and headed off to run some errands and then have a few beers and hit the hay before our planned departure the next morning.<br /><br />After we had run our errands we returned to the room to drop some stuff off before hitting the bar and then the trouble began! There was a note asking us to come to reception about our trip. This lead to us finding out the boat we had booked on was cancelled and we would have to wait in Airlie Beach a few days or pick another one. We eventually after much debate chose one that was not quite as suited to what we wanted as the first but still looked good. Plus it was quite a bit cheaper. At this point we were still happy enough so we went ahead and were told that the tour desk could not refund us but that the Oz Adventure Sailing, 5 mins walk down the road would give us back the difference when we checked in.<br /><br />We headed down there and when we went to confirm they offered us the refund, but it did not quite add up, somehow the price had gone up by $40. Normally we might have let this go but these guys had already got our hackles up so after 4 trips back and forth between tour desk and sailing company, several phone calls and about 3 hours we got our $40 back and were booked on the trip leaving the next day. If you are heading to the Whitsundays I recommend booking your boat in advance and if possible not using Oz Adventure Sailing!<br /><br />The dramas of the day before aside we boarded the boat and had a great two nights on board the SV Whitehaven. The people were fun, the weather was gorgeous, the snorkelling was amazing! We saw a whale just after she had given birth nudging her newborn to make him breath. Turtles, Reef Sharks, Rays and tropical fish filled out vision as we snorkelled and Whitehaven Beach was a rare treat with its white sand and clear waters. The sand is so fine you can even use it clean your gold and silver by rubbing it on your jewellery.<br /><br />As week three came to a close we went to sleep on the SV Whitehaven with the sky so clear you could see the Milky Way and shooting stars streaked the sky! With the gentle rocking of the boat easing us off to the land of dreams we fell asleep with a slight feeling of sadness as tomorrow it would be back to solid ground and time to get behind the steering wheel again. The Whitsundays had been amazing and is definitely somewhere I will be visiting again someday…</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-87466510886368346372008-08-14T00:40:00.000+01:002008-08-14T00:42:59.327+01:00Sircling Stralia – Week 2<span style="font-family:arial;">Kilometres Travelled – 731<br />States Visited – 1<br /><br />From Surfers Paradise it was on to Brisbane where we had planned to catch up with an OzBus friend who has settled here but as she was out of the country tending to a family emergency we were left to our own devices. We stayed at a little hostel called Chill Backpackers and apart from a lack of sound proofing and mildly disturbing unisex bathrooms it was a nice place.<br /><br />We visited the Picasso exhibition, walked along the river and enjoyed our stay in this thriving city, we caught up on our shopping, visited the botanic gardens, checked emails, ate, drank and were generally merry. When we had finished our time here we headed out to Beerwah, home of Steve Iriwn’s Australia Zoo, a place I was looking forward to and that my girlfriend was overly excited about from the day we left Sydney!<br /><br />The day began with rain, never a good thing, and as we were camping, this meant a wagon packed with damp gear but we tried to keep the spirits high. By the time we had grabbed some breakfast the rain had given in and the sun shone for the rest of the day. To say that Australia Zoo was a disappointment is about the nicest I can be about it. The shows were not well done, the commercialism of the place makes you feel dirty and the shameless uses of Steve Irwin’s name and his kids to make money is, in my opinion sickening. I expected more from this famous Zoo and left with a definite feeling of having missed something that was once great but has now fallen by the wayside.<br /><br />After Beerwah we visited Noosa, stopping off at the Giant Pineapple on the way, and went for a long walk round Noosa Heads which has some amazing vistas. After this we headed to Rainbow Beach where we hoped to head over to Fraser Island for a couple of nights and really put our 4x4 through its paces. When we reached Rainbow Beach on the Tuesday and were met with rain and lots of it. After checking the weather we discovered that the rain was here to stay with no sign of lifting before Friday.<br /><br />As we have our own wheels and a flexible itinerary we decided to delay our trip to Fraser for a few days and headed to Bundaberg to see the rum brewery there, then back down to Hervey Bay to wait for the weather to break. On the Thursday we were in Hervey Bay and decided to walk up to the shark museum run by a local shark hunter as it looked very interesting. The museum was great but we decided to walk there and underestimated how far it was. As the rain was still constant by the time we got there we were drenched to the skin but managed to keep our spirits up. We finished off our rainy day in Hervey with a trip to the cinema to see The Dark Night and went to bed hoping that the rain would indeed have stopped for our planned trip to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and where 4x4 is the only way to travel as there are no roads.<br /><br />The sun did shine on us on the Friday and we visited Fraser finishing off week two camping under the stars behind the sand dunes in a place that strangely reminds me of Back to the Future 2, where we’re going we don’t need roads…(but they would have helped as the bumpy off road tracks and poor packing caused a few breakages and rattled our bones more than a little)</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-21392599534803073442008-08-03T03:39:00.002+01:002008-08-03T03:44:38.551+01:00Quick Apology...<span style="font-family:arial;">Sorry to anyone who has been checking for updates on the Sircling Stralia trip. While I once cursed the long driving days on the OzBus it turns out without them it is harder to keep up with my blog writing.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I have added more photos to the album on the right and promise to update you all on the trip as soon as it slows down a little...</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-42874257884056397492008-07-22T14:49:00.000+01:002008-07-22T14:50:35.244+01:00Sircling Stralia – Week 1<span style="font-family:arial;">Kilometres Travelled – 1204<br />States Visited – 2<br /><br />Getting off the starters blocks is often the hardest thing to do and the beginning of our lap of Australia was to be no exception. A combination of a heavy last night, Foxtel being the most annoying company in the world, a flat inspection and it taking a lot longer to pack the wagon than anticipated meant our planned mid morning departure was more of an early afternoon one but we were at least underway!<br /><br />We decided to miss out a planned trip to Palm Beach to save a little time and headed straight to Newcastle. Here we found ourselves pulling in to the middle of a giant World Youth Day event with hundreds of people marching down the coast, there were even a few nuns and monks hanging around when we got there. It was an interesting diversion and helped to ease away some of the stress of the day.<br /><br />Next we headed on to Bonny Hills, our planned stop for the first night. Unfortunately by the time we got there the reception of the campsite was closed, the toilets and showers were locked up and we were out of luck! We decided to head on to Port Macquarie and see if we could find anywhere else to lay our heads for the night.<br /><br />Unfortunately by the time we got there we had just about enough time to grab a bite to eat, there was no cheap accommodation to be had and we were too tired to keep going. So we took full advantage of our Wagon on the very first night! We found a nice little parking space by the beach drew the curtains and went to sleep, not the best first day but we were well and truly on our way.<br /><br />The next morning we drew back the curtains to be greeted by warm sunshine and drove out to the lighthouse at Tracking Point to see if the whales that migrate up the coast at this time of year would come and say hi. We were in luck, a particularly energetic humpback jumped out the ocean as we came to the top of the hill! A whale watcher who was already there told us he had been doing so for a while and by the time we left he was on about his 30th jump of the morning. Apparently there were a few other whales about but they were staying under as a group of male ones were trying their best moves on the girls without much success.<br /><br />We then checked out the Sea Acres Rainforest Centre and the wildlife park before carrying on up the coast. Using our camps 4 we had found a rest area with toilets where we could stay for free that night so off we went. After a couple of hours on the road we came close to our stop for the night only to find that road works had caused the rest area to close down. We luckily spotted a sign for a caravan park and headed that way. The reception was again closed but we found a mobile number and managed to get a very nice lady to check us in to a site right on the Bellingen River, we dined on pasta and sauce and relaxed in this lovely little campsite.<br /><br />Monday saw us visiting the big banana, riding a toboggan down a hill, eating frozen chocolate bananas and heading on to Lennox Head to camp near Lake Ainsworth for a couple of nights. The campsite was ok and we were close to Byron Bay so we headed in there for the day. The weather gave ont about half way through the day and the glorious sunshine soon became rain, we nipped in to the cinema, had a few drinks and headed back to Lennox Head decidedly unimpressed with Byron. We planned to go hangliding the next day then head on. The weather was against us the next morning so that idea was off and we decided to press on to Nimbin instead. We arrived mid morning, visited the campsite the guide book recommended, were shocked that anyone ever recommended the place and found another site round the corner.<br /><br />We visited the village centre, learnt about the history of Nimbin, visited the museum, discovered this was also the local weed dealing shop (it is a thriving industry for all ages in Nimbin) and then headed back to the camp site to cook bangers and mash and chill out. I have heard mixed opinions of Nimbin but for me it was not a place to stay long. It had a grubby run down feel to it and the type of people who seem to spend weeks here were not the kind I was really looking to meet on this trip so after one night we packed up again and headed out to Surfers Paradise.<br /><br />Surfers Paradise, where we had planned to just pass through, turned out to be an overnight stay and we had a great night, visited a selection of Irish bars and stayed at a back backer resort called Vegas that had its own resident transvestite who kept calling me sweetheart. While Lennox Head seemed to be what Bryon use to be Surfers seemed to be what Byron is hoping some day to evolve in to and I am glad we stayed longer than planned. So as week two begins we woke up in Paradise, packed the van and headed out to Brisbane, week two begins with a lot of lessons learnt and a fair share of optimism about the trip that lies ahead of us…</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-69801901572984834452008-07-10T04:48:00.001+01:002008-07-10T04:51:50.572+01:00Saying farewell to Sydney for now…the East Coast beckons!<p><span style="font-family:arial;">So it is nearly time to leave the harbour city behind for a while. The seven months I have spent here have been great and there is every possibility I will find myself back here time and time again as my life continues to meander along but for now it is time to move on again.<br /><br />Tomorrow will be my last day at work followed by leaving drinks over at Opera Bar to enjoy the view one last time and say a fond farewell to the friends we have made during our stay. Saturday morning will begin with an early start to pack the last few bits, handover the keys to the flat and head up the coast after breakfast.<br /><br />The first day will include a trip to Palm Beach, where Home and Away is filmed, a late lunch in Newcastle and then a night camping by the ocean in Bonny Hills. Other highlights of our East Coast run will include:</span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Port Macquarie where we will visit the Sea Acres Rainforest centre, pop in to the wildlife park and visit Tracking Point Lighthouse</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Coffs Harbour, the home of the giant banana</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Lennox Head where we will visit Lake Ainsworth, do some 4x4 driving on the sand and maybe indulge in some water sports if the weather holds out</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Byron Bay where we can see the Julian Aquatic Reserve and check out the Cod Hole caves</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Nimbin, Australia’s most famous hippy commune and apparently a very good place to “relax” for a while ;-)</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Brisbane where we can check out what the town has to offer and recharge our batteries with a couple of nights in a hostel</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Noosa, the home of Australia Zoo</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Fraser Island where we will really be putting our 4x4 through its paces on the worlds largest sand island</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Hervey Bay where we hope to catch a glimpse of the whales</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Bundaberg, famous for it rum, need I say more?</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Rockhampton which I hear is real cattle country and I expect we will sign up to play rancher for a day</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">The Whitsundays where we shall try our hand a bit of sailing</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Cairns will be out last East coast stop finishing off a whirlwind tour as we pull in on the first Sunday in August</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;">After the coast is it time to head West to Mt Isa and Australia’s biggest rodeo before we work our way over to Broome on the West Coast.<br /><br />I will do my best to post weekly updates from the road and if anyone reading this has any suggestions of extra places to visit along the way please let me know. Adventure is calling and I for one don’t want any missed calls this time round.</span></p>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-49737629247939146472008-07-08T01:03:00.002+01:002008-07-08T06:15:25.506+01:00Once again it is time for the “last time…”<span style="font-family:arial;">Well here we are again, the last few days before travelling becomes my life again and to say I am excited is an understatement in the extreme. The van is kitted out to the max and ready to go. It even had its first fully loaded test drive today which it passed with flying colours. Our flat is becoming increasingly empty as the days go buy as more and more stuff is collected by eBay bargain hunters, posted home, thrown away or given to charity shops (I haven’t actually done the latter yet but will before I leave – promise).<br /><br />For anyone who has not had to slim there life down to fit into the inside of a rucksack and whatever space you have in your car this can be both a harrowing and liberating experience. When you start to pack up you realise how many luxury items you collect that really do very little other than clutter up your home. Did you really need a wine rack? bean bags? a fibre optic Christmas tree? a cordless phone? They are certainly not much use in a camper wagon. But while it is liberating the harrowing element is that you are deconstructing your life. When you settle somewhere for a while it becomes home and to pack it all up again and leave it all behind can be a sad day. While I was sorting out my keys the other day I realised that once I leave Sydney I will not have a set of house keys anymore! These days there is nowhere that I truly consider to be my home and it is a sad feeling. I am sure in the future I will find home, I thought I had in Sydney but that was not meant to be, not yet. Who knows what the future holds but I plan to enjoy finding out!<br /><br />Now with a few days left I find myself back where I was before I left London on the OzBus, I keep realising I am doing things for the last time. Yesterday was my last staff meeting at work, today is my last in-house day out at Belrose and Sunday was my last dinner at my favourite restaurant in North Sydney. I have rented my last DVD from McMahons Point Blockbuster, fought for the communal washing machine on Monday evening for the last time and have more than likely done dozens of other things for the last time without even realising it. So I will leave you with this thought, if the next time you do something could be the last make sure you enjoy it as much as you can, do it as well as you are able and remember it for as long as possible.</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-71973974868055358562008-07-02T06:52:00.005+01:002008-12-08T21:17:20.235+00:00Pimp My Ride (Pikey Style) – with special thanks to Bunnings, Big W, Supercheap Auto, Spotlight and Howard’s Storage World<div><span style="font-family:arial;">With the date for Sircling Stralia fast approaching I have begun to modify our 4x4 (now named Aero – as in Mitsubishi Paj(<strong>A)ero</strong>) for the trip and watching a mini pimp my ride marathon on MTV at the weekend has certainly given me a few good ideas!<br /><br />We started off with a standard 4x4 seven seater wagon which did not quite go fully flat in the back meaning we were going to be sleeping on a bit of a slope and anyone wandering past could have seen exactly what we were up to due to the lack of window covering. Not ideal to say the least and storage was a bit of a concern as well!<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcAkvM8QgOm4V0GmcgNDvzzgcffLKw6FFErweVUHu_qGLdBasrUHd-TS5SID43EFD4z8GLpuSojGXYxpZyz59jPkJwdeJdSQwcGEP4zj4yzx5Ry7PPvxkLwCNJgQF2sGuilKxstj-gCsXv/s1600-h/Tiger+Print.jpg"><span style="font-family:arial;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218290874403626194" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcAkvM8QgOm4V0GmcgNDvzzgcffLKw6FFErweVUHu_qGLdBasrUHd-TS5SID43EFD4z8GLpuSojGXYxpZyz59jPkJwdeJdSQwcGEP4zj4yzx5Ry7PPvxkLwCNJgQF2sGuilKxstj-gCsXv/s320/Tiger+Print.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">The first job we undertook was curtains, to sleep in a wagon these are essential for keeping the sun out in the day, nosy parkers out at night and keeping the heat in, so our fist stop was Spotlight. We found ourselves some lovely and highly tasteful Tiger print thermal curtains on special and some curtain wire and after a few hours of solid work had them up and ready to go.<br /><br />Next came the issue of power. Most of our travel gadgets (air bed pump, mini vacuum cleaner, car fridge, power inverter that lets us run </span><span style="font-family:arial;">the laptop etc) run off the ciggie lighter socket. This is fine when you are driving but </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKLpk1tnLvP-B481wtnFhKpZB4bu7mDygV-WYOUlBNqPehuL9l5Sp3ZYkzYiGTq3MLMFvfyXtxjecdfqXGRfHX3wz-Piv2WipnMK-UqWNbYKhZ1KgouLYix58ONwWbfZnfLcAGtn_BDZ8D/s1600-h/Jump+starter.jpg"><span style="font-family:arial;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218291353118963826" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKLpk1tnLvP-B481wtnFhKpZB4bu7mDygV-WYOUlBNqPehuL9l5Sp3ZYkzYiGTq3MLMFvfyXtxjecdfqXGRfHX3wz-Piv2WipnMK-UqWNbYKhZ1KgouLYix58ONwWbfZnfLcAGtn_BDZ8D/s320/Jump+starter.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">when you stop can be a bit of a pain. I looked in to a dual battery system but this was far beyond my mediocre mechanical skills but then discovered the wonder that is a Jumpstarter at Supercheap Auto. This self contained car battery can be used to jump start your car when you let the battery run down and can also power 12v appliances independently.<br /><br />So we now have power and curtains. Next on the list was the angled sleeping and storage. We have quite a bit of gear for the trip including a pop up Gazebo that gives us a nice big 3x3m room on the back of the van when we stop but takes up a lot of space longwise even when folded down. The solution to this was to remove two side arm rest sections from the middle seats and remove the back seats completely. This means the Gazebo now easily slides down the side of the wagon and allows you to have the middle seats up or down without having to take it out all the time, result! This of course now removed the back seats meaning there was now nothing for the top half of our air mattress to rest on, not ideal.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_N8eep183h-qghGPazBCuPUKqFZrNVBi52tqDEGnvVLfED_geggOi9zk-1l8hemDQtRIuPNY8l7dZyUfVOqMSroMrTUAU1sviBQlveISh-kD8rZAB-syKRXOUiOb-09hNoXbKEGsFuFc6/s1600-h/saw.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218292583208786370" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_N8eep183h-qghGPazBCuPUKqFZrNVBi52tqDEGnvVLfED_geggOi9zk-1l8hemDQtRIuPNY8l7dZyUfVOqMSroMrTUAU1sviBQlveISh-kD8rZAB-syKRXOUiOb-09hNoXbKEGsFuFc6/s320/saw.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5ARIPMDr4R3Qjcn7Lyfhspk02hMqSFD6F1vL3XOnhqKZEIDNL1KXT8zALABCrvJk5OoqBN6qbepwyaAnL7iLTiCGlHQh4g6QxFziX0ORcKKUQa-NX8uAHoWvvTqzKrwL7NM6WTBr_raD/s1600-h/MDF.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218292103785483794" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5ARIPMDr4R3Qjcn7Lyfhspk02hMqSFD6F1vL3XOnhqKZEIDNL1KXT8zALABCrvJk5OoqBN6qbepwyaAnL7iLTiCGlHQh4g6QxFziX0ORcKKUQa-NX8uAHoWvvTqzKrwL7NM6WTBr_raD/s320/MDF.jpg" border="0" /></a>So the next step would put my DIY skills to the test in a big way. A trip to Bunnings to grab a couple of sheets of MDF and a saw and an evening in the garage lead to the creation of a fixed platform in the rear of the wagon for the bed to rest on and gave us a great storage space underneath it. The addition of another sheet of MDF designed to slide out meant we could store stuff further back than before and still be able to reach them by pulling this sheet forward. An added bonus was the fact that this then formed a handy table at the back of the wagon that is ideal for cooking and washing up on. </span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Big W then provided some nifty storage boxes that slot in to place on the lower shelf to hold our food and cooking gear, Howard’s Storage World gave us an in car bin and some handy car storage bits and after a reasonably low cash outlay we have turned a simple 4x4 into a place that we can call home. Other add-ons include:<br /><br />-20L Water Jerry Can With Pump Tap<br />-Washing Up Bowl<br />-Folding Camp Table and 4 Stools<br />-2 Camping Chairs<br />-Fuel Jerry Can<br />-12v Powered Air Bed Pump<br />-USB doobery to turn my laptop in to a TV<br />-Etc, etc, etc.<br /><br />Now with less than 2 weeks to go all we really need to worry about is getting our stuff packed, moving out of our flat and waiting for the few mail order items we ordered to arrive, there is nothing in the world that comes close to the freedom of travelling and I for one can not wait to have the feeling again!<br /><br />Pictures of the finished product are coming soon!</span></div>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-40932263425700035952008-06-25T02:53:00.001+01:002008-12-08T21:17:20.333+00:00Sircling Stralia – The Beginning<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5215631766192258930" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhquvtzZK0aAzaYli3pBrzb91yWErQnKNENTvLO5EgWjKZPNg0BPLhR5KRmJ0l9GQCIJhHkvHvZzIqmPArZHsbQe97a2zaI2PwsVAce0V_I_cqYUpXC5-VYh1vSYRw3RRTpZwyjr9_dhLPQ/s320/1846_1_m.jpg" border="0" /><span style="font-family:arial;">As I mentioned in a previous post we are heading off on a lap of Australia for our next great adventure and as the departure date draws ever nearer I felt it was time for another update.<br /><br />With just under three weeks till the off preparations are in full swing, we have bought a Long Wheel Base Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4. It is a monster of a truck and is big enough to fit a double mattress in the back and carry all the gear we will need. It still needs some add ons to make it ready for the trip (curtains etc) but we are working on it this weekend to get it ready.<br /><br />We have a 3x3m pop up Gazebo for when we are camping so we can have more space and we are currently lightening the load by selling off all our unwanted gear on eBay. The route is being planned for the 1st month on the road ending up in Mt Isa in Queensland for Australia’s biggest Rodeo in early August. After that it will be a long drive across the top end, re-visiting the Daly Waters Pub on route to pick up a blue stubby holder for a friend, who has lost his since his last visit, before we start on the West Coast.<br /><br />It is an exciting time and I had forgotten how much fun the anticipation before departure is. I now have, excluding today, 12 working days left in the office then it is back to the freedom that can only truly be found while on the road. I will post pictures here soon of the development of the 4x4 from simple automobile to mobile home and once on the road I will do my best to keep the blog up to date.<br /><br />To anyone thinking about the OzBus downunder tour (</span><a href="http://www.oz-busdownunder.com/"><span style="font-family:arial;">www.oz-busdownunder.com</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">) watch this space as we will be covering much of the same ground as this trip will be in March next year so you might pick up some useful tips! </span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-62376483166198693112008-06-05T00:29:00.003+01:002014-11-05T22:17:50.092+00:00OzBus – The Lonely Planet Version (well nearly!)<div align="left">
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<span style="font-family: arial;">While I was on the road travelling from London to Sydney a little travel guide company called Lonely Planet took an interest in my blog and commissioned me to write an article on the trip for their flightless travel anthology, which is due to be published in August this year.<br />
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I worked hard on the article and with the help of the great editing team at Lonely Planet produced a 3,000 word piece on the trip, unfortunately due to the fact that we took a few flights during the trip and some last minute changes to the anthology my article ended up on the cutting room floor.<br />
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To say I am disappointed would be an understatement but that is no reason for the article never to see the light of day. So here it is, in all its glory, the article that nearly got me published by Lonely Planet, enjoy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><strong><em><br /></em></strong></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><strong><em>The OzBus Diaries</em></strong></span><br />
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I am in Kathmandu. Two months ago I was a PR manager in London, about to get on a bus at Embankment that would take me all the way to Australia. And in five weeks’ time I am supposed to be pulling into Sydney on the maiden voyage of the OzBus, a new overland service that belts through Europe before joining the old hippie trail from Istanbul to Sydney.<br />
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In Kathmandu everything changes. The passengers of OzBus 1 take control of the trip in an unexpected way: they quite simply decide not to get back on. Two-thirds of us feel it is time to make our own way for a while and this is when our trip turns into the adventure of a lifetime.<br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><strong>***</strong></span></div>
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The story begins in September 2007 when a total of 41 people (38 passengers, one tour leader, one driver and one journalist) left London on the first ever OzBus, full of hope and expectation. The build-up to the trip had been a long one and we were willing guinea pigs who were prepared to accept imperfections in exchange for pioneer status. This was just as well since our bus, hired by the firm at the last minute due to a mix up with the paperwork, seemed more like the coach that used to take me to Blackpool every summer as a child than something capable of crossing the globe.<br />
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We quickly gelled as a group. Our ages ranged from 19 to 69. Some passengers were travelling with friends, there were two Irish brothers, several couples and a bunch of singles. We had even managed to arrange a few pre-trip get-togethers in London, which enabled some of us to get to know each other before departure.<br />
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We sped through Europe at breakneck speed, braving the rain to tour Prague, taking in the picturesque sites of Vienna and climbing through the winding staircases of Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania. We nearly lost our resident journalist in Budapest when she failed to track down the coach, but she eventually found her way back to us. The back window on the bus was smashed while we were reversing, when a cunningly concealed tree branch took us by surprise; and we got lost more times than I ever thought possible. When the bus broke down we discovered the tool kit on board consisted of a broken screwdriver and some rusty bolts; if there had not been a couple of ex-army guys and a multi-tool on board, our journey of a lifetime would have been over very quickly.<br />
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By the time we left Europe we were all still happy enough; grumbles about the bus were on the rise and faith in the organisation of the trip was now a little shaky, but after only a week and a half on board we were all willing to cut the OzBus some slack.<br />
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In Istanbul we were joined by Andrew, one of the organisers of the trip. He was here to reassure us that the long driving days were over and that the bus was in fine form and would get us to our destination with no problems at all. He also recommended a bar we should visit in Istanbul, the Shah Bar. If you are ever in Istanbul, I can recommend the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, Santa Sofia and the underground cisterns but if, after seeing all of these, you fancy a drink, I would not recommend the Shah Bar!<br />
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After an hour or so in the bar we all seemed to be going through the drink at an amazing rate; it was almost as if every time we put a drink down it was gone. This, of course, turned out to be true. Every time we turned around, the superhumanly fast bar staff were relieving us of our drinks, topping them up and selling them back to us. When we cottoned on (and, I am sad to say, it did take us a while) the staff were faced with a very unhappy group of punters. The bar manager denied all knowledge. Pete, the Irish OzBuser who had taken on the role of our spokesperson, would not back down and it looked like trouble was brewing, but eventually calm was restored with the management’s offer of free booze.<br />
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By the time we left Istanbul we were a little on the defensive so when Andrew presented us with a disclaimer to sign we were justifiably suspicious. One of our fellow travellers with a legal background reviewed this seemingly innocent piece of paper and spotted the implications of signing it (basically absolving the company of any and all responsibility in regard to negligent behaviour). After some discussion we simply refused to sign and Andrew had little option but to back down. At this point we realised that the passengers held the power on this trip, not the organisers.<br />
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The problems we faced and the astounding sights and experiences we shared united the group more strongly. In Turkey we went up in hot air balloons over Cappadocia in Göreme National Park: the remarkable sedimentary rock formations were illuminated beneath us as the sun rose. We visited the underground city of Derinkuyu: it was not really designed for the tall or wide but we all managed to squeeze through the various tunnels and caverns. In Turkey, too, I had my first ‘doxy dream’, an incredibly vivid dream brought on by the antimalarial tablets I had been taking. So the good, the bad and the strange all ran hand in hand; it was just a case of trying to keep the balance between the three.<br />
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After Turkey came one of our most intriguing destinations, the Islamic Republic of Iran. When I told people about the trip I had booked, this was the point on our route that had been met with the most scepticism, and most of us certainly knew very little about the country before we got there. Girls and women had to wear headscarves at all times; and both sexes had to cover their arms and legs. Alcohol was illegal and public drunkenness would earn you 10 lashes in Public Sq.<br />
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In Iran, the rest of the world became much more interested in our little trip. In Tehran the bus finally gave up. Since London it had broken down twice and taken more than its fair share of knocks (including losing a bumper and an exhaust in Turkey, springing a fuel leak in Iran and losing its wing mirror on the way into Tehran). Now it was finally retired. The locally sourced replacement was far from state-of-the-art but it was in one piece and therefore a vast improvement. Losing our original bus did not help the morale of the passengers and there were even late-night talks of mutiny. These were little more than disgruntled conversations but, through emails home and blog entries, the stories seeped back to the UK media and Chinese whispers caused them to be portrayed as more dramatic than they were, with newspaper headlines around the English-speaking world announcing our ‘mutiny’.<br />
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All this drama and intrigue unfolded in Esfahan, which (for other reasons) was undoubtedly my favourite stop in Iran. This stunning city is famous for its bazaar and the large many-arched bridge across the river, under which locals are known to indulge in ‘forbidden touching’ while they think no one is looking. I even managed to pick up a hip flask in the bazaar: quite an achievement in a dry country, I thought.<br />
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From Iran it was on to Pakistan. The first 12 hours after crossing the border were spent driving to the nearest town, Quetta. We had to leave behind the bus hired locally in Iran and were split onto two smaller buses for this part of the trip. The drive took us through barren desert and when the sun went down there was little to see out of the windows beyond our own reflections. About 40 minutes out from Quetta our driver had a lapse of concentration and the bus ended up half on the road and half in a ditch, at about a 30° angle. Although the crash was over-dramatised in the media with phrases such as ‘lives hung in the balance’, at the time it was still quite a traumatic experience. We managed to tie it on to the other bus, empty it out and then, with the help of a local truck, get it back on the road.<br />
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After this exciting beginning, Pakistan continued to intrigue and entertain us. It doesn’t have much of a tourist industry and, with one girl in our group who was nearly 6ft tall and blonde and another with strikingly red hair, our group itself became a major tourist attraction. However, the fact that tourists are thin on the ground here means that the Pakistanis try to look after visitors as well as possible. The police ensured we were safe and friendly locals kept crowds of onlookers at bay. We finished our time in Pakistan in Lahore, where we saw a ceremony for closing of the border that I can only describe as a ‘dance off’ between the Pakistani and Indian border guards, with soldiers from both sides performing complex routines. We also discovered the ever-catchy song ‘Pakistan, Pakistan’, whose title reflects its only lyric: once it is in your head there is no getting rid of it.<br />
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We left our Pakistani guide and buses behind and waded through a mass of paperwork into India. Here we ended up on the worst buses of the whole trip; poor quality roads combined with dodgy suspension led to a rollercoaster ride. When not holding on for dear life on the bus, we saw the Golden Temple in Amritsar, toured New Delhi, where we lost our first OzBusers (one decided he needed a break and another went to keep him company in Goa for a week; they rejoined the group before the mass exodus in Nepal), visited the Corbett Tiger Reserve (unfortunately no tigers were spotted), toured the legendary Taj Mahal and cruised down the Ganges seeing the sunrise, funeral fires, sunken bodies and fire juggling.<br />
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On our drive through India OzBus hit us with a major change to itinerary. The company had been informed by its local tour operator that the Friendship Hwy, the only way we could continue overland through Tibet, was impassable. This meant a promised visit to Mount Everest Base Camp was out, as was reaching much-anticipated Laos. We would be coming back into India after our trip to Nepal in order to get to Thailand. After receiving this news and having to walk about 2km to cross the border into Nepal, we were not the happiest crew. A hefty drive from the border to Kathmandu did not help to raise spirits and we arrived in the early hours of the morning. OzBus had organised a dawn hike for that day (about three hours after we arrived) so, by the time we returned from this, tempers were fraying.<br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><strong>***</strong></span></div>
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When the time comes for the bus to leave Kathmandu it is not a happy one. The few who have decided to continue with the trip are sad to be leaving friends behind, and even those of us who have opted out will not be staying together: 16 of us (including me) will stay in Kathmandu for five days and go white-water rafting, trekking and bungee jumping from 160m (which is one of the scariest things I have ever done); three will head to Koh Samui in Thailand for a beach holiday; and eight will prove OzBus wrong and cross the Friendship Hwy to reach Mount Everest Base Camp (perhaps more of us would have attempted this if it hadn’t been for the £1000 price tag). So, with less than a third of its original contingent, the OzBus heads back through India and on to Bangkok while the rest of us take a break and recharge our batteries.<br />
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When I first booked on the OzBus, friends and family said I was crazy because, with such a strict timetable, you can’t just hop off and wait for the next bus to come along. But none of us realised then that, because buses are far from the fastest things out there, with a little planning you can easily catch up with the trip further down the track.<br />
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With some of us heading to Bangkok after Kathmandu, others already waiting in Koh Samui and the Everest explorers just making it back before we leave Thailand, we are all back on board but with a new sense of freedom, knowing we can get off when we need to and that we will be welcomed back with open arms when we rejoin the group. It costs a bit extra but it’s doable. A new era on the bus has begun: now we are on it because we want to be, not because we have to be in order to get to the other end. An organised tour had given inexperienced backpackers the confidence to be truly independent travellers and now we are ready for anything.<br />
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Of course, once you realise you can be independent, the temptation to do just that becomes much stronger. You begin to ask more questions and work out what you want to do and how this fits round the trip. Shortly after entering Malaysia we are told we will only spend three hours in Kuala Lumpur and then once in Indonesia we will be spending most of the time on the road with few stops. At this news, about 10 of us get off again, enough to form our own little group.<br />
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We stay in Kuala Lumpur for a night, grab a sleeper train to Singapore then hop on to Jakarta then Bali. While we are taking in Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers and the Singapore Night Safari and picking up some surfing tips on the beach, the bus is having its own adventure. The road through Indonesia has been washed out in recent floods and by the time they navigate around this they have dropped behind schedule and eventually catch up with us in Bali a week after we arrived there. Those on the bus have seen some things I am sorry to have missed, like the Bora Bora temple and a live volcano, but I love my time in Bali: we lie on the beach, shop at the stalls, eat in beach-front bars and discover my girlfriend’s favourite drink, the Strawberry Martini.<br />
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From Bali it is a short hop to Darwin where we pick up an Australian bus for the final leg of our adventure. As we travel through the Northern Territory we see jumping crocodiles in Kakadu, gaze across the panorama identified as ‘man’s country’ in the classic movie, Crocodile Dundee, visit the Daly Waters pub and cross the Tropic of Capricorn – quite a lot to accomplish in our first three days in Australia! Before the week is over we have seen a camel farm and I have flown over King’s Canyon in a helicopter; next stop Ayers Rock.<br />
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Uluru, as Ayers Rock is now know, is a spiritual centre for the indigenous population of Australia. People who have taken bits of this rock away with them as souvenirs are said to be cursed. The ‘sorry book’ certainly testifies to that: it is full of letters from people who have had huge misfortune since taking a piece of Uluru away and are now returning it, along with a heartfelt apology, in the hope that their run of bad luck will come to an end. Climbing the rock, which many tourists still do, is considered a huge offence by the Aboriginal people but they still leave the choice about whether to do the right thing in your hands.<br />
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From Uluru we head to Coober Pedy where we see underground houses and working opal mines. We continue on to Adelaide and say farewell to members of the group who call this city home. We camp by the lighthouse from the ’80s show Round the Twist, visit Melbourne, see the south-coast Great Ocean Road and, on our last night, camp in the Snowy Mountains. On our last day we visit Canberra before driving in to Sydney and the end of our journey is upon us.<br />
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So, was this the trip I signed up for? No.<br />
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If I had the chance to do this exact same trip again would I? Yes.<br />
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For me, travelling is not about getting there, it is not about being on time and ticking all the boxes, it is about the journey, the people you meet and the way you deal with it when things go wrong. I had never travelled before this trip; now I find myself watching my bank balance, eager for it to get high enough for me to hit the road again.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
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</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627224424396194112.post-8713847644073715242008-05-29T04:42:00.001+01:002008-05-29T04:42:34.333+01:00The AU$400 Month<span style="font-family:arial;">In preparation for the next phase of my travels I am trying to save up some much needed cash to do this. I am happy to say that I have been fairly good at doing this while I have been in Sydney and have manages to put away a tidy sum over the last few months but to be honest I need more!<br /><br />A woman I work with mentioned something to me back at the start of the year that has stuck with me; she called it the $400 month. The aim is to only spend AU$400 over the course of a month. Essentials such as travel to work, work expenses, rent and bills are excluded but everything else has to come out of your set budget.<br /><br />This sounds fairly harsh and would certainly put a crimp in your social life so why am I choosing to do this? Well the key is to get a group of people to do it and one of the rules is you have to socialise. This results in dinner parties consisting of a goon of wine and beans on toast, amazing cocktails made from the weird booze you have in the back of your cupboard and strange culinary concoctions made up of that stuff you forgot you had in the freezer.<br /><br />I am sure it will prove to be a real challenge but both my bank balance and I will be very pleased if we make it through the other side. I am starting this crazy month on the 10th June and will finish on the 10th July, the Thursday before I leave Sydney to hit the road.<br /><br />Check back for updates as the month progresses and we will see if I succeed or fail; only time will tell…</span>Andy Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01912072942982915736noreply@blogger.com0