Australia is a pretty random place. It has some of the harshest and most extreme environments – even a landscape in part that looks like Mars – and yet so many people call it home.
The wildlife ranges from cute and cuddly to vicious and deadly (watch out for those drop bears!). Australia has beaches, mountains, deserts and rainforests; hot weather and really hot weather; big cities, small cities and really, really out of touch towns.
I’ve only seen part of it.
If you could go anywhere in Australia, where would you go (outside of New South Wales)? I need a goal and a good travel plan to look forward to in the not-so-distant future.
For part of my recent holiday, I decided to go the non-traditional route here and avoid the beaches in hopes of getting a little taste of the Australian Outback.
So, I went on a road trip with Patrick all the way out to the farthest Western reaches of New South Wales in order to visit an oasis in the middle of nowhere – Broken Hill. The drive was long – about 15 hours each way – so we made sure to break it up with overnight stopovers in places we hadn’t been before. All in all, it was a journey of about 3000km, 28 kangaroo roadkills and plenty of sunshine.
The journey took us from Sydney to Cobar, Broken Hill, Silverton, Menindee, White Cliffs, Dubbo and back to Sydney. It definitely was not the original route planned, but that’s what happens when you fail to notice that many of the outback roads are not paved and therefore unsuitable for normal cars traveling long distances. Woops!
All in all, it was a week of hits and misses, but still adventure nonetheless. It was a perspective of big and small, a realization of droughts and floods and just a great time to get out of Sydney!
Of course there are a few aspects of the trip I’d like to elaborate on in further posts, but until then I thought I’d give you all a better picture through some photos.
Outside of Broken Hill is a sculpture site where art was made by sculptors from around the world. The site is up on a hill and provides an amazing view of Broken Hill and the desolate lands that surround it.
In order to drive to the top, you have to pick up a key to the park from the information center in town – and then proceed to unlock various gates along the road.
For the view reason alone, it is worth a visit. However, we feel that the sculptures were far from art and that the creators were simply a big group of stoners.
[singlepic id=1438 w=320 h=240 float=left]Funny:
This sign was near some grapevines on a hotel in Broken Hill. It was nice of them to warn people that the grapes weren’t ripe yet, yeah?
I thought so, too!
Anyway, that’s a start to explaining my latest adventure, but stay tuned as there will be plenty more to come!
Now for the final part in the series of “Getting Caught Up” by Brooke vs. the World.
The Entrance: There’s a fishing town up north actually called The Entrance that a bunch of my friends here go to. Someone has a shack up there (basically a run-down tiny house) with loads of beds that everyone can sleep in, so it ends up being tons of fun. Unfortunately, when I arrived on Saturday the weather turned to crap and decided to be super windy with rain. Boo!
The fish weren’t particularly in a biting mood either. This is all Honky caught:
I did finally learn what a refuge island was. Do we have these in the States?
Third Job: Third job finally came through! I am now working with The Furnished Property Group in Sydney and excited about it. Part of the job will include building and writing a company blog for them – Life in Furnished Property. If anyone is thinking about coming to the Sydney area and needing a place (minimum 1 month stay) let me know and I’ll hook you up!
I’m very excited, especially because I have left the tutoring job and my evenings have now opened up. Life is good here!
Moving Places: I have also moved out of my shoebox International House room to a much larger and nicer one on the corner of Redfern and Surry Hills. I love my new place. It is of course with The Furnished Property Group, but I was looking to rent with them with or without getting my new job. I WISH I had known better before I started looking for places on my own because this was an easier route to take that would have saved me many headaches when leaving.
MacGyver Skills: Even though the circumstances surrounding the discovery of my MacGyver skills were unforeseen and stressful, I’m somewhat proud to announce that I am officially awesome. I went back to my room last weekend to clean up and prepare for inspection. I hung my keys on the hook inside and ran downstairs to throw away my coffee cup. Low and behold, the wind, for the first time in nearly two months, actually blew the door to my room shut, which automatically locks it. All my important things were inside – my laptop, purse, money, keys to new place, etc.
The landlord -surprise, surprise- was not answering his phone, so I was stuck. Of all days! My house mates got their laptops and found me the numbers of various locksmiths, but I was determined to figure it all out in some other way. I know the crack at the bottom of the door is very large, but it was still too difficult to get to the key hook way high. So I went through the tiny crack at the top.
I grabbed a metal hanger and straightened it out. After sliding it through the top crack, I bent it and started swinging. It wasn’t doing much at first and Emi was standing behind me dictating the locksmith’s number because she didn’t see this going anywhere. “Ten minutes!” I shouted.
Finally, I did it. I hit the keys and knocked them off the hook to the floor. I pulled my hanger out from the top and twisted the end into a hook. I got down on my stomach and hooked the keychain from under the door. I. was. successful. I. rock.
To make the day even more unbelievable, I was able to use my amazing MacGyver skills to hook the keys stuck in the back door. We have two back doors – one door and one gate like 7-8 feet apart. The gate is locked with a bike lock and the backdoor with a key, but both are one the same keychain. Someone left the keys in the backdoor and proceeded to lock the bikelocked gate door. I attached two hangers together and latched the keys from the lock in the backdoor to save the day yet again!
Thus concludes this three part series on getting caught up. I’m sure I’ve left out loads, but at least now I can start talking about the rest in their own posts. Happy reading!
Was not leaving 110 degree weather
Was not leaving dust storms
Was not leaving behind a crazy landlady
Was not having to take another marshrutka ride
Was not packing up the apartment
Was not saying goodbye to the language school
Was not getting reacquainted with my comfortable, big bed
Was not eating delicious home cooked food
Was not having unlimited high-speed internet access whenever, wherever
Was not being able to flush paper down the toilet
No, the hardest part about coming home was trying to explain to people I just returned from Kyrgyzstan, and it is actually a real country.
Imagine that!
Yep, I decided to come home for a month to recharge and tie up some loose ends. Don’t worry… I have a plane ticket back to Central Asia in early September, and I have plenty of stories to divulge in the meantime from my life back in Bishkek. I’m still not sure what I will be doing when I return, but I am sure thankful I am not doing the dig in Georgia anymore!
After much deliberation, we decided our next stop after Tikal was Rio Dulce. We made our way in the morning to the place in Flores where the guidebook says is a bus stop, but in actuality it is just a travel agency that buys a ticket for you for the bus station in Santa Elena.
The only reason we decided to go along with this route is because the lady helping us said the bus was coming now. How convenient. We paid the guy in the office our money and the lady took off on her bike. Meanwhile, the guy in the office, who was obviously wasted at 9:30 am and still drinking, said we would wait at the office for the bus to come. I made it my job to wait outside with our stuff while Brian dealt with the drunken ramblings of the owner. The really crazy part happened when the guy opened his desk drawer and there was a gun sitting there. After he saw the look on Brian’s face, he responded with, “This is Guatemala. You gotta have a gun.”
Just then, the lady on the bike came back and said we needed to go the bus station to get the bus. Uhmm… ok. They did just tell us that we could wait here for the bus, but not today? They at least paid for the tuk-tuk there. We hopped on our bus, and there we were, on our way to Rio Dulce for something that tops all adventures had thus far.
Rio Dulce makes it difficult to scout out a hotel because the best ones, supposedly, are on the waterfront and require a boat to take you there. We made our way to Bruno’s to see if we could start there when we ran into a strange hippie guy from the states who was more than happy to help us find a hotel. Next thing we knew, we had a place to stay and a boat taxi all set up for us. If it hadn’t had happened so quickly, I can say I probably wouldn’t have gone for it because on the boat ride over to Casa Perico, I just heard the hippie guy’s words playing over and over in my head, “You’re gonna love it. It’s right in the freaking jungle.”
Casa Perico has a very interesting setup. It is run by some Swiss guys and has its own restaurant there (since its so remote) with a rockin’ buffet option (do it! People boat over from the town just for this!). Brian and I literally made ourselves sick by indulging both nights in the buffet! Since it was Friday, we had to settle for a hostel dorm. The dorm bungalow has many beds in the bottom and an upper level with two beds and more privacy. We opted for the upper level, but the catch was it was open-air, meaning there was only an A-Frame roof with two sides open to the jungle outside. Even though we had bug nets, I couldn’t sleep that night. We had already encountered giant cockroaches, heard stories of botfly infections, and the sounds coming in from outside, and right next to my bed, were a bit too much for me to handle. And it was only made worse by the absolute pitch-black darkness that engulfed us out there.
The next day, we made it clear to the owners that we preferred a private bungalow, and luckily we got it. Oh yes! The building has its own bathroom, which meant that when I had to get up late at night to use it, I wouldn’t have to walk a mile of dock with the creepy sounds of things jumping into the water right next to me. Even better was the fact that the private room had 4 walls! The first thing we did was check out the bathrooms in the back to see what we were now working with for an extra $3/night. Brian went to open the shower door and immediately started ducking. Then something came flying out and swooping around. Brian thought it was a bat, but I thought it looked like a bird. I decided to use the toilet at that moment, being careful when opening the door at first. When inside, I took a look around at the ceiling to make sure no bird was hanging around only to find the biggest spider I think I’ve ever seen in my life straight above. There was no way I could use the bathroom there in good conscience! I showed it to Brian and even he was a little taken aback by the size. We started to leave the bathroom area in search of the public ones when we heard a high-pitched screeching noise behind us. We turned around to see a bat hanging out right there by the sink. Brian was right!
It was a very long two days, full of many close encounters. I would have probably slept better the second night had it not been raining so hard! I would definitely recommend Casa Perico to any traveler to Rio Dulce looking for an interesting place to hang out. For us, two days in the jungle bungalows were more than enough, but as hippie guy put it, “You’ll never forget it!”
Here’s a little video of me ranting about surviving the jungle. I claim being delirious from stress, heat, and lack of sleep because its clearly not me at my best. Enjoy!
It’s been a while since my last post since Brian and I have been on the move practically every other day. I believe we left off at Palenque, Mexico – the home of one of the best preserved (or reconstructed) ruins of such a grand size. We heard many stories from other travelers (we were guidebook-less for Mexico) on how the city of Palenque is the pits, and the true charm of the area is found by sleeping in a hammock in a cabana outside of town. I, being completely freaked out by the thought of sleeping out in the jungle, decided we should take a look around town first before resorting to this option.
Luckily, town has a great hotel/hostel area, and, dripping with sweat, we found a place we were happy with, and with cable TV. I’m glad we chose to not listen to everybody else on this particular route especially because we discovered a restaurant with THE BEST nacho chips we have ever had in our lives there!
The following day, Brian and I braved the sweltering jungle heat to explore the gigantic ruins. Being too cheap to pay for a guide, we often found ourselves wandering aimlessly and making up stories about each temple along the way. If you go to Palenque, make sure you hit their little museum (included with entrance fee) because it definitely helps to fill in the gaps. After sweating all day, we thought it would be nice to hit up Agua Azul for some cooling off, but unfortunately, we were unable to find proper transport from the ruins straight there and decided to just call it a day.
From Palenque, we booked a ride crossing the border back into Guatemala and all the way to Tikal. There was the possibility of booking this same trip back in San Cristobal, but for 100Q more. Brian and I both felt good about waiting until in Palenque to set this up. The ride involved a shuttle to the border, a jungle boat ride across the border, and shuttle after straight to Flores (the town that acts as a hub to Tikal). Don’t be fooled by the emphasis on “jungle boat ride” because in actuality it really just felt like taking a boat down a dirty river with little vegetation. Our ride was also saddened by some news we received along the way. We met up with a Belgium guy from our hostel in San Cristobal and he told us how another girl from the hostel, who we had hung out with a few days before, drowned at Agua Azul the same day we wanted to go. It was very sad to hear about. Apparently, there are some very unsafe places to swim there, so please be aware of the warning signs if you are planning a trip to this area.
The trip had a way of redeeming itself when we were dropped off at the Guatemalan migration office. This building was very interesting in the fact it was a) in the middle of freaking nowhere, and b) surrounded by nothing but cows. You could tell these guys were bored by the fact they found such joy in annunciating and nationalizing my name.
Finally, 8 hours later, we were in our hotel in Flores and wanting to crash, but unable to call it a day just yet. We heard about a sunrise tour they do to Tikal on the bus to Flores and were determined to shop around for a better deal. We only found one, but it required you to leave the park at 11am. We didn’t like the idea of being forced to leave at any certain time, so we eventually decided to pay the 300Q for the package, which included
1) the 150Q admission to Tikal (Be aware they recently upped this rate for foreigners. Our guidebook said admission was about $7, but it is now around $20!!!)
2) roundtrip transportation
3) ability to enter the park at 4am to climb Temple IV and watch the sun rise over the park
4) guided tour for 4 hours of the temples and jungle life
Also note that if you are wanting to do a tour like this to buy the packages that INCLUDE your admission fee to the park. The people on our bus that did not pay beforehand were actually skimmed of an extra 10Q each.
The sunrise tour was great, and not so much for the sunrise, but for the ability to sit in silence and listen to the jungle wake up. Howler monkeys, parrots, and crickets filled the air. It was also nice to see most of the park in the morning when it is less busy and a lot cooler. The guide was a great addition because he helped up see wildlife we would not have otherwise – spider monkeys, tarantulas, giant elephant beetles.
That night we slept like babies, only to rise and pursue yet another adventure.
I believe we last left off in Antigua, recovering from our New Year’s celebrating. After a much needed day of rest, we decided to head off on the 2nd to Panajachel where we would catch the boat ride across Lake Atitlan to San Pedro. However, the seemingly simple task of getting on a shuttle to Panajachel turned into a very long day. Little did we know there were many more of these to come.
The hostel owners were supposed to have booked the shuttle to Panajachel for 12:30pm. Because of this, Brian and I spent most of the morning preparing for take-off, dreading the mountainous ride while nursing our current illnesses to a manageable level – I with my slight ear/sinus infection, and Brian with his intestinal distress. We waited and waited, and made many phone calls, until we found out the shuttle was set for 4pm! With this new schedule, I figured we’d probably not be able to take the ferry from Pana when we got there, but decided to take the chance and go.
So after wasting a complete day just waiting for the shuttle, we continued on our journey through dark and windy mountains. I didn’t think twice about the fallen branches and such that lay in the middle of the road at the time – that is until the driver asked us where we wanted dropped off at and all I could see was a pitch black street with people walking up and down.
“This can’t be it,” I said to myself.
I stalled. I was definitely sketched out by the lightless town. Shopkeepers were trying to run their stores by candlelight. How were we ever going to find a place to sleep that night with no lights, especially since the driver confirmed the boats were no longer running at that time. The driver finally had enough of my broken Spanish and basically kicked us out of the van onto the dark, crowded Panajachel streets, loaded up with our backpacks and only one mini-flashlight. We started walking.
Luckily, my spot-the-American game skills pulled us through this tough one. I saw these two guys walking up the street and just knew they spoke English, and when that was confirmed as they walked past with the sounds of English words fluttering about, I flagged them down and asked if they knew of a good hotel or hostel. Well give one point to our team because they took us to their hotel and even bargained a decent price for it on our behalf. Whew.
The two Americans let us know that the power had been off all day there, and also that the unusually strong winds bringing in unseasonably cold air kept the boats from operating since the morning. It felt like Hell. At dinner (yes, we did find restaurants open and operating by candlelight) I just kept thinking about how sketchy the food seems already, but now with the idea of no refrigeration the entire day, Brian and I decided to go vegetarian. Unfortunately, yet again, I was let down because my pasta sauce was full of meat that I desperately tried to pick around. After choking down what we could, we fell asleep at the hotel to the sounds of the tropical storm force winds pounding corrugated siding and rooftops in the darkness.
Morning came and so we made our way to the docks to hop a boat and get across the lake to San Pedro since we at least had a home ready and waiting for us there. We both knew the ride was overpriced, but we couldn’t have cared less because we just wanted to leave Pana. During the boat ride, we heard a British family mention that the blackout was on a national level, bringing chaos to Guatemala City especially. I’m not sure how that made us feel – better or worse – about the current situation. However, we couldn’t dwell on that thought long since we had more immediate concerns, namely the fact that our little boat was getting rocked kind of fiercely by the waves. Imagine our shock when we got to San Pedro and found out that NO OTHER BOATS WERE GOING OUT TODAY BECAUSE OF THE CHOPPY WATERS!
Eventually, we made it to our place at the language school and got settled as best we could. The power would flicker on for a little bit at times, but then go out just as you were eating dinner or finishing a chapter in a book. It was a rough couple of days. We didn’t shower because there was no hot water and it was so cold out. Then yesterday around 1pm, the lights turned on and have basically stayed on since. Brian and I ran for the showers. When the lights remained on through the evening, we figured we were back in business.
All seemed well until after dinner at D’NOZ when something else completely crazy and unexpected occurred…
Australia is a pretty random place. It has some of the harshest and most extreme environments – even a landscape in part that looks like Mars – and yet so many people call it home.
