Things of Australia

As far as we're concerned, Australia is all about:

Bogans (they're great!)
Coopers Green
Sunburn
Drive-through bottle shops (liquor stores, off-licences, whatever you want to call them)
Eskys
Sharks, dingoes, roos, koalas, lizards, snakes, spiders and crocs
Stubby holders
Flies
Internet subscriptions with tiny download allowances
Swamp donkeys
The outdoor life - primarily sport and barbecues
Double pluggers

And that's it.

Enough Oz, let's go to Asia!

Ben and Debs

<sob> Bye </sob>

So, the time has come to say goodbye to Australia and the Towns, and head out into the big wide world again. We've had the best time here. We laughed, we wrestled fake crocodiles, we (Ben) had lessons in how to wear flip flops, we skurfed, we giggled at Joey and his friends' endless tales of teenage-dom, we listened to some guitar shredding courtesy of Sam, we drank beer, and generally had a jolly good time.

We'd be lying if we said we weren't nervous, but we kick off the Asia leg with a few hours at the Millers, before heading off to Lombok, and then into Bali to meet Andreas and Monica, so we won't be lonely for a while.

Can't wait to get out into the big wide world again. Aaargh!

Debs and Ben

Thong wrong

Not these:

These:


Hate 'em. Can't wear 'em. They just fly off the front of my feet. Everyone tells me I'm weird and I just need to learn how to walk in them ("point and squeeze")... I say bog off.

No thong man me.

Ben

Australia Day / Australia Zoo

Saturday 26th January was Australia Day - official slogan: "Celebrate, what's great!" Unofficial motto: "Let's get bent!"

When in Rome... go down the local and get pissed up with some bogans while participating in the national sports of er... crab racing, thong throwing and pie-eating. And drinking, of course.

We didn't want to seem like party poopers so we slapped on a couple of fake tattoos and a patriotic t-shirt, then got stuck into the XXXX Gold with Stu, Debs, and our new friends from the Fraser Island tour; Dan and Charlotte.

The only minor disappointment was that nobody sang "Waltzing Matilda". However, we did see a few people being kicked out of the pub by the bouncers, and we had a go on the pokies to make the experience 100% Australian.

And then on Monday we went for the double with a visit to Australia Zoo - Steve Irwin's place, where we witnessed the cheesiest show on earth - Crikey! - touched a baby croc, fed an elephant, saw the most poisonous snake in the world, and petted both a kangaroo (well, Debs was hovering more than petting TBH, the scaredy cat) and a koala. Wowsers! God rest Steve's soul, and heal Aussie Debs' for laughing at the memorial drawings and poems..!

Ben and Debs

Dingo patrol

We just got back from Fraser Island - wow! That's 5 days in a row where Queensland gets 10 out of 10 on the fun factor scale.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Although we had been told how amazing it is, we really only expected to see a big pile of sand, so were delighted by how beautiful and unspoilt the place was, and by how much wildlife we saw: a bandicoot, dingoes ("if attacked, defend yourself aggressively") a white breasted sea eagle, lace monitors (lizards), Golden Orb spiders, eels, fishes, a turtle - so many animals!

Ever swum in a mirror lake? How about a barrage lake? We have! This is Ben leaping about in the sand dunes which run down to the edge of Lake Wabby - a deep and splendid oasis which you reach by walking across a mini-desert, then fling yourself into the cool, fresh water, pausing only to say "What the hell is that?!" when a turtle pokes its head above the surface to get a look at you. And yes, it was most probably a turtle; less likely that it was a cobra.

And here's Debs reclining gracefully in the shallows of Lake Birrabeen - super, super clean and clear water on a bed of pure quartz sand. Ideal for exfoliating, which we did with vigour!

This lake was also saw a bit of an emotional moment for Ben, when he achieved his long held ambition to "touch a live fish". It was brilliant. Debs was delighted too - this moment of swimming in the lake perfectly encapsulated how she imagined the year off would be.

Happy people! Happy trip! Oh happy days in Queensland!

Ben and Debs

P.S. Oh yeah, we went with an outfit called Fraser Island Escape. $209 each for the two day tour + $40 each for island fees and ferry transfer. They were good guys! And we recommend the camping option for fun/cheapness over the resort stay.

Pop goes Brisbane

Today we went to the South Bank and took in the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art. It rocked.


Warhol-mania takes over the Blenches!


Also, we bought a dingo. Cool day!

Ben

Modern Australia

We love it!

QLD FTW

It's the final bit of our 2 month mini-tour of Australia... and we're in Brisbane! Seems that a lot of Aussies find Brisbane quite amusing, nicknaming it Brisvegas, and Brisneyland, but we're here to say, "Hey! Lay off Brisbane, all right? It's good!"

We should quickly fill you in on the past week, which saw us narrowly avoid getting rained out of our little tent in a campsite in Coffs Harbour (not a very nice place, wouldn't go back). After that we moved on up to Byron Bay, where we spent 5 days dodging hippies and surfers, but not, unfortunately, their boards - Ben got totally clocked on the head within about 1 minute of setting foot in the surf on Main Beach. Despite this minor injury, we really liked Byron Bay - kinda like a surf version of a ski village, and very nice to get back to civilization after the bogantastic campsites we had been in before. We particularly enjoyed the Railway Friendly Bar with its Coopers beer on tap and excellent pub grub served from a miniature kitchen. Well done!

We arrived in Brisbane by bus (yep, the glamour never ends) on Sunday night and were picked up by Stu and Debs (Deb's Uncle and Aunt).

The next morning Debs escorted us into Brisbane via the City Cat (the best way to catch your first glimpses of the city) and we shot off for our travel doctors appointment and stocked up on drugs for the SE Asia leg (Doxycycline for malaria, drugs for Debs' infected mozzie bites, antibiotics, anti mozzie spray, etc). Here's the two Debs', windswept on the Cat:

Then, yesterday, we had the best day yet in Australia! Now we finally get what all the fuss is all about. Joey took us round to visit some family friends - Karen and Steve - who have a house backing onto the bay, and spent an hour or two skurfing. Whaddya mean you don't know what skurfing is? Haven't you ever laid on a surfboard and been dragged around behind a little boat, trying to stand up and surf, but falling off a lot instead? It's great!


We wound up with a pizza festival back at the house. Entertainment was provided by a trio of teenage boys endlessly talking rubbish - extremely amusing.

Today we're off to catch the Andy Warhol ("Warhol, like hols") exhibition in the centre, and tomorrow we zoom off on a little 2-day trip up to Fraser Island. Keep us in your prayers ;-)

Ben and Debs

Barbershops of the world, part 12

Dunno what to write about this one... a pretty unremarkable beard trim in a bog standard barber shop in Byron Bay.

Not a very chatty barber this time, despite his Liverpudlian roots. He did clamp my head in a good, firm left-hand grip though, which was both reassuring and disturbing (hence the fear factor score).

One thing I haven't mentioned in past posts is how most barbers always miss a bit. Usually around the chin/ jawline/ moustache area. This one left a tufty patch on my right cheek, which Debs later trimmed off with our 1st aid bandage scissors (also Debs' fringe scissors). Sloppy work, clipsters - sort it out!

Cost 5 AUS dollars (EUR3)
Cut quality 6/10
Fear factor 1/10

Here I am doing robotics outside the shop:

Will my next cut be a quick once over in Brisbane, or will I hold out for an adventure in the wilds of Indonesia... stay tuned!

Ben

Camping!

Despite our concerns over spiders and snakes, and no previous experience, we're camping, in Australia, and actually enjoying the experience!

In preparation for this latest adventure, we bought;

40 paper plates

A pack of 6 sets of plastic cutlery

A milk pan (no joke) for cooking beans in

A 3 man tent

2 roll mats

1 sleeping bag

2 plastic mugs

Tin foil to protect our vegetables from the very meaty Aussie BBQs

This isn't much, considering there is nothing except for a kettle and toaster in the camp kitchens, but we're actually doing OK (we even set up our tent in the dark in Coffs Harbour, and Ben is positioning the tent perfectly for maximum shade).

The plan is to spend about two weeks getting from Sydney to Brisbane along the East Coast. We originally thought we would do this by Greyhound bus (a prospect we weren't too thrilled about after our Mexico/ US border crossing experience), but we discovered Country Link train/ bus service was actually cheaper and more convenient, so we decided to go for that instead.

We left Lisa and Darren's on Monday, laden down with luggage, and hopped on the Sydney to Broadmeadow train, then took a bus from Broadmeadow to Forster (inexplicably pronounced 'Foster') for our first adventure. We're already had some interesting experiences (sitting behind a man with an imaginary friend/ wife and kids on the train, and met some great people (like a Jennifer, a seasoned traveller who backpacked through Asia alone in 1975 using the first Lonely Planet guide (wow!) and kindly offered us a place to stay which we couldn't accept because we were already booked up in Forster) so we're really glad we took this route, and decided to go it alone, away from the bosom of friends and family for a bit.

In Forster, we stayed at the Smuggler's Cove (yes, a pirate themed caravan park - great!) and were adopted by our neighbours, a lovely family who turned out to have the surname Charlton, and could possibly be related to Ben (Brett, the dad, has a family legend that says Hadrians Wall was built to stop the Charltons gettnig into Scotland; and Ben's grandma is descended from the Charltons, who were border raiding cattle rustlers. Could there be a connection? We're currently investigating, and hope there is). Here's a pic of us all:

So, now we're at the second of three camping locations - Coff's Harbour, which seems to be full of people who don't want to talk to strangers, but we're still having a great time lounging by the pool eatnig Calippo Gelatos. I know it's cold and miserable there, but if you haven't tried one yet, go to the shops, buy one, go home, turn the heating up, and enjoy the fruitiest, tastiest ice lolly of all time. We kid you not, we love them! Here's Ben eating his fave flavour; Berry, and Debs eating her favourite flavour; Mango.

Yum!

Debs and Ben

I love a good wedding

Hey hey, it's our 100th blog post, and what better occasion to blog about than a wedding?

We were lucky that our trip to Australia coincided with Shelley and John's wedding. Some of you will remember them from Amsterdam - Shelley worked with Ben at Media Catalyst for a while, and John made us a weird lamp because he hated our other lovely one ;-)

We had hooked up with these two lovely people for an evening of garden-fresh spinach and wine in Melbourne (having randomly bumped into Shelley in the street in Fitzroy). That was in mid-December, and they were both remarkably relaxed and excited about their fortcoming nuptials.

Fast forward a few weeks and suddently we're in a car with the lovely Leonie and Ash, on the 5 hour drive from Sydney back down to Batlow, in the Snowy Mountains.

That there's apple country! The wedding was held at John's folks' orchard - a beautiful place to get hitched, and we have to say that the whole thing went off in great style. Both bride and groom looked stunning (John scrubs up nice! So nice, in fact, that we hardly recognised him), the ceremony was the perfect combination of personal, serious and touching, the food was excellent and the speeches were really terrific, all round. Good job!

Highlight of the day (apart from the above) was Ben turning into a dancing maniac in response to Erik's DJing. Debs was absolutely beside herself with laughter, and Leonie kept on saying "Amazing! Amazing!"

Yes, they were both being serious :-) If anyone has any pictures, we'd love to see them, cos unfortunately, Ben had the camera in his pocket throughout his disco workout.

Here's wishing a glorious and super marriage to the happy couple.

Ben

Barbershops of the world, part 11

I needed to trim my beard so I didn't look like a scruff for Shelley and John's wedding. On Lisa's recommendation I visited an ace little barber shop near Bondi Junction, Sydney.

Check out the faces on my cape! We didn't notice at the time... maybe they weren't there, and it's some sort of religious sign. Who knows?

The old gent who trimmed me had been in the business for 48 years(!) - his long experience resulted in an excellent and thorough job. He even got out the old skool manual clippers to do the tough bits under my nose. Debs was most impressed. Very good!

Cost 6 AUS dollars (EUR3.6)

Cut quality 8/10

Fear factor 0/10

Oh, by the way - in more internet stalking weirdness news, some of my barber shop pictures on Flickr have been favourited by a person/entity calling themself "capelover", check em out... heh!

Ben

I am the sun, I am the New Year, I'm the way home

It's the one they show you on the news - New Year in Sydney. You know - with fireworks and stuff...

We loaded up an Esky with Coopers Green and trundled off to the Harbour for a lengthy evening of snacks, drinks, pyrotechnics and chat with Darren and Lisa.

When we arrived, there was some dude in a plane doing some sky writing. This was the best bit:


Then, before we knew it, everything went black and stuff started blowing up (Debs would like to point out that there was no terrorist attack - it's just Ben flippantly describing the start of the fireworks display).

We stole that photo off Peter Morris (our pictures are all up on Flickr), but this shows pretty much exactly what we were looking at from where we were on Garden Island. Thanks to Lisa for sorting us out with the best seats in the city :-)

Happy New Year everyone!

Love from Ben and Debs

Have yourself a very Wangi Christmas

"Where will you be at Christmas?" everyone asked. "In Wangi Wangi" we replied. "Wangi Wangi? Don't you mean Wagga Wagga?" "No, Wangi Wangi" we replied. How we laughed!

Wangi Wangi, 121km North of Sydney, on the way to Newcastle, is the home of my great Aunt Alma (my mum's mum's sister) who I've met a few times before and already had fond memories of, and her daughter Audrey and son-in-law Peter, who are now fully-fledged, patriotic-as-they-come Aussies (definitely not poms anymore) who are making it their mission to tour Australia in their huge and very impressive mobile home.

We spent a week in Wangi Wangi; reminiscing (and crying!) over old photo albums with Alma and Audrey; swimming in the sea at Caves Beach; aqua biking on Lake Macquarie, and generally hanging out with the rellies and getting to know them.

Christmas Day was almost as we'd expected it, except that it wasn't sunny. What?! It was too cold to sit on the balcony unfortunately, but we had a lovely cold buffet inside instead, accompanied by lots of great company and Coopers Green beer.

Ben was in his element in the pool room, and I was in my element playing with Scruffy (who I renamed twice, once to 'Sparky' and then to 'Scratchy') - a cute little dog who was adopted by Audrey and Peter when she turned up on their doorstep, and wouldn't leave.

Although we were made to feel very welcome, and had a Christmas to remember, it was still difficult being away from home, and a very special part of the day was speaking to our families on Skype. The joint Aussie/ Brit rendition of 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' was a particular highlight of mine.

The worst part of our stay was on the 27th, when I got a 24 hour bug. Damn. The puking started at 10am (following bets on when I'd deliver my first puke (Audrey guessed 3pm, Peter guessed 12.30pm, Alma guessed 3pm, and Ben guessed 10.30am) and continued until 10pm in the evening. I still wasn't right the next day, so we delayed our return to Sydney whilst Audrey and Peter generously looked after me and kept Ben entertained with old movies.

Thanks to Audrey, Peter and Alma for making us feel so welcome in their home at Christmas, and looking after me when I was sick (I still haven't quite recovered BTW).

Love
Debs, x

Upside down Xmas

Happy Christmas everyone!


It's really weird being in Australia at this time of year. It just doesn't feel like Christmas should: all hot and beachy... the above photo was taken in New Zealand, by the way, on Fox Glacier - all cold and icy like it should be.

But it's far more Christmassy since we arrived at Debs' relatives' place in Wangi Wangi for a family reunion celebration. We've been treated to some great Aussie hospitality, and today might even see someone chucking another shrimp on the barbie (although it's raining today, would you believe?)

Lots of love to you all!

Ben and Debs

Barbershops of the world, part 10

Statistics fans will be thrilled to learn the following:

It is day 141 of our journey; so far we have visited 7 countries (8 if you count England); this is the 4th full hair and beard combo cut of the trip (1st one in Cuba, 2nd one in Te Rapa, 3rd in Greymouth); a baby can hear tones with oscillations up to approximately 20,000 Hz, but these frequencies become more difficult to hear as people age.

And so to Bronte, a suburb in the east of Sydney. A nice lady who turns out to be from Odessa, Ukraine (where I once got drunk and saw sailors fighting) trims my head and face using clippers, scissors, combs and a cut throat razor! Extra points for that - first one I've seen since Mexico.

Cost 20 AUS dollars (about EUR 12)

Cut quality 8.5/10

Fear factor 2/10 (even though I was able to charm her by speaking Russian, a blade-wielding Ukrainian is nobody's idea of a good time)

This has been my most expensive haircut yet, but get this - it would have cost even more! Me and Debs did our negotiation double act to slash the price from 30 to 20 AUD , then promptly spent the difference on a couple of freshly made beetroot, apple and celery juices from the shop down the road.

Ben

Sydney/Asking strangers to take photos of you

We're in Sydney, staying at Lisa and Darren's house in Bronte. It's hot, and we both have colds.

Central Sydney is just like London - there's a Hyde Park, Liverpool Street, Oxford Street, the cars drive on the left, big concrete buildings, lots of people strutting around in suits etc. The sun is the only exception.

We oriented ourselves by going on a wander around the city, taking in the awesome sight of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge via the Botanical Gardens (*full* of fruit bats - eeew!) and the Hyde Park Barracks.

What is it with peoples inability to take a good photo?! We had to ask three different people to take our pic, in the hope of getting a nice one of us in front of the Royal Opera House, but they're all shit! Why would you take a picture like this?

Or this?

The landmark isn't even in view properly! Tssk.

Anyway. We're still not feeling Christmassey, but the elf dances performed by friends and family are making us smile (thanks everyone!), and we both spoke to our parents and my sister on Skype today, so we're in good spirits. We're looking forward to Christmas in Wangi Wangi, but we miss our families and wish someone would invent a transporter, quick.

Love

Debs, x

E-I-E-I-O!

We went to the Meredith Music Festival with Baz! It's west of Melbourne. 10,000 people on farmland with 1 stage, a few dozen bands and a load of flies.

No chance of getting a coherent account of what went on there, so you'll have to make do with this stream of semi-consciousness instead:

Driving there in the General Lee; great compost toilets; flies; excellent burgers; eskies; some really dreadful bands; ID for booze; flies; a bit of rain; friendly people; Andrew W.K. being surprisingly entertaining - very good crowd work; flies; Art Brut (Top of the Pops!) doing some first class stand up/spiky punk nonsense; the Meredith Gift - a nude 100m dash; ultra-prepared camp-mates - they even had a little paddling pool for foot cooling purposes.

Yes, we got drunk. Duty Free vodka is the way forward. We even took little cups, plus lemons and a penknife to slice 'em up.

In summary: great festival, shame there weren't more good bands on.

Ben

Surfing, Kangaroos, and Koalas

Bit late this one, too busy having fun :-)

We decided to stop trawling around the delightful shops and splendid little urban er... districts/bits - what do you call those mini towns within cities? - in Melbourne, hired a camper van and did a little road trip, on the Great Ocean Road.

The Great Ocean Road runs from Torquay to Portland. We only went as far as Warranambool, then cut back to Melbourne on the Princes Hightway, which was a comfortable 4 day drive, all in all. First stop on the way from Melbourne was Geelong, where we met these wooden lifeguards:

Then it was on down the road to Torquay for our Australian triple whammy: Surfing! Kangaroos! Koalas! We dodged sharks and rode the world famous breaks on Torquay Beach, although I'm not sure we did the waves justice on our 9 foot soft top beginner's boards:

Then we stopped in Anglesea to check out the colony of roos that lives on a golf course. Why? I don't know, but our photos were swiftly picked up by the Flickr "Golf Wildlife" group.


By the way, kangaroos look great when they bounce, but weird and crippled when they walk.

After that we were lucky enough to encounter a couple of dozen koalas over the last day or two of travel along the way. There was a stretch of the road near Apollo Bay where they were just chilling in trees by the roadside, then we stayed in Bimbi Camp, which had its own little tribe of the fat-bummed little eucalyptus munchers hanging around in the trees. We love them, and would have liked to give them a hug, but they never came to see us. Also, they have very sharp claws.

That's pretty much all the good bits. Oh, except the 12 Apostles. They looked awesome. A bit like this, in fact:

One negative was the Backpacker Breezer camper van: cheap, but not brilliant, especially compared to our experience with Spaceships in New Zealand. They started badly by keeping us waiting for 40 minutes before we even got close to seeing our van. When we did get our hands on it, we then discovered that it had no iPod adapter (Debs' quote of the day "What backpacker doesn't have an iPod - that's shit!") - and we couldn't fit our backpacks in the luggage space under the beds). That said, it did get much better once we were on the open road, listening to the latest hits on the radio, and sleeping on the comfortable bed.

Debs and Ben.

The life of a Luthier

Friday night Debs and I took the train out to Bayswater to see our friend Baz in action, making guitars at the Cole Clark factory. I had been looking forward to this for ages, and it didn't disappoint.

Cole Clark guitars are played by the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Ben Harper, Architecture in Helsinki and The Dears, plus some other bands that I don't really like so I won't mention them here.

Baz gave us the red carpet treatment and showed us round the whole operation. He demonstrated his bending press, ran his hands over a Fat Lady's curves, gave an Angel a bit of TLC and even dallied briefly with his latest Mistress.

As you might imagine, the place was absolutely full of wood, with the humidity on the shop floor carefully controlled so none of it started swelling or shriveling at an inopportune moment. And then, of course, there were racks and racks of newborn guitars, serried in ranks like a naked musical army.

The best piece of kit was an amazing Cosmic 6200 5-axis CNC machine - a huge beast with a moving head unit which danced around, swapping cutting bits, shaping and shaving up to 8 guitar necks in a single run. Impressive computer controlled manufacturing process!

After about an hour of breathing in sawdust and perving on the instruments, Baz chauffeured us back to Melbourne in the General Lee.

I would have loved to have picked up an armful of these little beauties to take away with me, but they're slightly beyond my means at the moment... also pretty impractical to carry around when you've got a 15 kilo pack on your back. Plus, I don't really know any songs suitable for playing on an acoustic.

I'll probably just buy myself a new effects pedal when I get home instead. I rather fancy a tremelo.

Ben