Dr.Unk's Office... in the Territory

February 16, 2011

Cyclone Carlos....never thought my first would be a Carlos....

So it looks like I'm about to experience my first cyclone. Some tropical low has finally got it's act together after talking to its guidance councilor and decided it wanted to up its intensity and become a cyclone. Well done Carlos, now you have a name.

I've also participated in my first excursion of panic buying. I'd finished work and had a beer out the front of the pub, watching the rain and winds strip branches off trees and create puddles that flowed west at one point and then were seen flowing east, 10 minutes later. I decided that I should probably pick up some supplies (mostly cause I was running low on beer and mix) so I stopped in at the local Woolies. It was quite a sight. There wasn't a ton of people there, but the evidence of constant shopping could be seen. It seemed like every stock boy/man/woman/person who could be called was frantically working to stock shelves. Not knowing what I'd like to be eating if I was forced to be stuck in a storage closet, I stuck with flavoured cans of tuna. That, and a healthy supply of long-life (needed for coffee....and cocoa-pops). I was confident of the number of cans of pasta sauce and vegetables at home, so I took the opportunity to pick up a 4L tin of olive oil for the missus - she loves the stuff and it was a great deal....not really cyclone related though.

But back to Carlos, or as he was known at that time - Tropical Low 2. He must be stoked that he finally got a name. Like a pilot getting a callsign....wonder if there will ever be a Cyclone Goose? Goose is dead Mav....(one of the few times ever that most men will cry)

So we haven't seen the full brunt of Carlos yet. He's still thinking of doing that night course through the community college and may yet reach that level 2 and maybe get a payraise as well. He's moving up in the world.

It's getting a little more windy now and there were some big gusts the other night. We lost a big palm tree that now covers the back lawn and my hopes of free bananas were dashed as the banana tree fell over as well. Why do Cyclones hate bananas so much?

Work closed today cause of leaky roofing, business closures downtown and other factors, so I'm now contemplating using my days off for a roadtrip. Not much to do in Darwin otherwise.

More updates to follow if the old interweb and suppliers hold up.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

July 22, 2010

Pub Nature

Working in pubs, you get to see people in a slightly different light. As every person comes to the bar for a drink or food or simply to ask a question, a relationship, however brief is struck between the patron and the bartender. And just like all relationships, it can positive, negative, memorable or simply exist for the five seconds it takes to crack a bottle of beer and handover exact change.

In Australia, it is a practice to shout your mates a round and vice versa. If it's a particularly unique combination or shout - like 3 rums, vodka OJ and a Jim Beam w/no ice (in Oz it is also assumed that in the case of most rail spirits, if it is not mentioned the mix is cola by default), then there's a good chance the barman/maid will remember it and the price. In this case, if the first person to order it was friendly, everyone else will likely be treated well. On the flip side of this, if the first person to shout your group was annoying, or impolite, you're likely to suffer from their bad first impression.

Now, this might sound like it's a little more in-depth of an analysis than it deserves, giving that hundreds of people come through a pub on a weekend, and multiple bartenders are going to be working, but it only takes a smile and maybe a few quick pleasantries to ensure you'll be getting better service than the self-absorbed idiot who is waving the $50 bill at every bartender. By the way, what is he thinking? Everyone at the pub most likely has money - people don't tend to window shop for pints and cocktails. It's nice when people have their money ready (nothing is more annoying than someone complaining how long they've waited at the bar and then not knowing what it is they want or not having money ready) but there is a fine line between holding it in your hand and waving it in the air cause we [bartenders] just don't care....for that.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2010

Updated finally....

I apologize to anyone trying to view the site within the last 4-6 weeks. There were some technical difficulties with my hosting company and communication to the DNS mob....for those of you finding that confusing (as I do), consider it to be my doorbell being disconnected from the butler. Hence, you weren't getting an answer from my site.

Now, I haven't paid much attention to my blog lately, in both terms of updating and aesthetics. This will hopefully change in the near future as I once again have reliable access to the internerd.

For the moment, I'll just let all know that Nat and I are back in Australia again. With a job offer she couldn't resist, we gave our notices and finished work in Jasper. We packed up our lives there, sold off what we couldn't pack and travelled back 3500km to see the fam in Onterrible (it's not that terrible, but that's just what Albertans call it). Three days on the road and we got back to the 'Frew. Some quality time and then we were flying out of Ottawa to Adelaide via Vancouver and Sydney. Couldn't push it off any further cause a day earlier or later woulda meant at least $1000 more in combined airfare. Caught up with one of my best mates Adam in VanCity (too short a time) and then with our mate Dan in Sydney before arriving in Adelaide. A day and a half there with Nat's 'rents and we picked up Rusty the heeler (not initially happy to see us, but eventually happy to be part of the family again) and flew to Alice Springs. More catchin up with mates there and picking up the 'Cruiser before driving 1500km north to Jabiru so Nat could start work.

What a journey! Nothing like somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000km of travel - flying and driving, in about 12 days time. Good to finally be grounded again.

So, if you find yourself in the Top End of Australia, let us know and we'll make sure to have some cold beer ready.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2010

A change of pace and a change of scenery

Well, a few things have changed (other than the infrequency of my posts) - Nat got a job as an interpretive ranger in Kakadu National Park. This led to a rushed exodus of Jasper, a 3500km drive to Renfrew and a flight from Ottawa to Adelaide, followed several days later by one to Alice Springs. From there a 1500km drive North to Jabiru, the township in the midst of Kakadu NP.

Long story short, we're back in the Northern Territory of Australia - this time in the Top End. Visiting the Red Centre was great but a change is needed and our time up here was cut short last time so now we'll put down some roots and see how it treats us.

Not sure yet what's gonna keep me occupied but Darwin has a solid pub scene so I'll head there to check out some opportunities. Should have some new photos soon and hopefully finish the Yukon trip section....eventually.

Oh yeah, the Rustbucket is back and after a couple hours of her cold shoulders for leaving her for almost two years, she warmed up and was happy to get in the ute (after hopping on Qantas for her first flight ever).

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

February 7, 2010

In the meantime....

So, as most readers will notice, I am way behind in new entries on the blog. It's not that I've been overly busy just that I haven't managed to finish the last several days of our Yukon Ho vacation diaries. I'm still hoping to finish those off soon but as there are more recent experiences in memory I'll touch on those instead.

Snowboarding: Marmot Basin was blessed with a ton of early season snowfall so I've been partaking in that quite frequently, racking up (to date) about 45 days of riding. I've picked things up pretty well, riding the toughest terrain Marmot has to offer and have even managed to land all types of 180's. The 360 is still pending, but I've had some close ones.... it'll come (cut me some slack, I'm not as young as I used to be).

Nat has switched to skiing this year and enjoys it much more than the snowboarding learning curve that dissuades so many. She rode her first black diamond run last week and hasn't looked back.

Yesterday, me and some mates went on a hiking adventure. The first couple hours hardly felt like adventure at the time but they were an investment with a big payoff. We snowshoed up the Signal Mountain fire road to the first campground and then swapped snowshoes for our snowboards for the way down. Near the top, the trail was wide and we were able to get in some pretty good turns in untouched powder but the lower section was more intense as much of it was overgrown and was simply a packed, straight trail descending through brush that threatened to ruin your ride if you ventured more than half a meter off of the trail. Three hours and 15 minutes up for a 35 minute ride down. Very reminiscent of the bike ride up to Mt. Fitzwilliam campground last summer.

Not a lot of excitement but it's hard to justify writing blog entries when the weather is nice and the spare time can be spent up here.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 7, 2009

Day Twelve

Friday September 25, 2009

Our southbound journey continued on this day as we took a slight detour to Carcross to visit the Carcross Desert, which is one of those appearance based names cause it's not really a desert at all. It looks marginally like a desert as it sort of has dunes and does have lots of sand but in no way has the limited precipitation and humidity needed for a desert. The 'desert' is actually sand that was deposited by the remnants of several lakes from the last glacial period.

From Carcross you can continue south to Skagway or head east (as we did) to meet up with the Alaska Highway once more. We continued east until we were almost at Watson Lake and then turned southwards on the start of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. This highway travels through northern British Columbia and is surrounded by incredible mountain landscapes and very few towns or other signs of people with the exception of old logging roads and abandoned (or somewhat abandoned) mining operations.

We arrived at Boya Lake Provincial Park just before sunset and only a week before they were closing for the season. Our camp was set up on a site overlooking the lake, and it may not have been summer, but the temperature was much more comfortable than what we'd left in the Yukon. I'll run the risk of sounding like a broken record but there is nothing quite as relaxing as having your camp set up and a meal made in time to watch the sunset.

End of day twelve.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

Day Eleven

Thursday September 24, 2009

Brrrrrrr. The comfortable temperatures that greeted us to Tombstone the previous night had disappeared quickly. The temperature had dropped overnight to -5 Celsius and the tent was covered in a thin layer of ice when we woke up. The gloves were pulled out and we packed up camp after I made coffee. I wouldn't say that I'm a complete coffee addict but a nice warm mug in your hands certainly makes waking up to sub-zero temperatures (in a tent...) a little easier.

We left Tombstone Park and spent an hour driving before we said farewell to the Dempster Highway. A fuel stop at the crossroads and we were back on Highway 2 heading south to Whitehorse. Our previous night's camping in cold weather was a good slave driver - the whip was cracking as we sped southwards in the hope of finding warmer weather.

The scenery was beautiful, the colours of the landscapes still a spectrum of golden birch, emerald spruce and pine and glassy lakes. We considered several side trips, possibly to Keno or a hike to the Five Finger rapids but we'd seen enough in the past couple of days to satisfy our curiosity and we desperate for any sort of warmth that the south might offer so we pressed onwards.

As it turned out, that warmth was not to be found in Whitehorse, or at least not camping there, so we found a cheap hotel and checked in for the evening. Coincidentally, when we parked and got out at the hotel, Nat pointed out that the truck next to us was the very same one that we'd passed on the Dempster Highway just south of Eagle Plains. There was definitely evidence of the rollover but the 'OK' message in mud had disappeared from the driver's door.

End of day eleven.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2009

Day Ten

Wednesday September 23, 2009

This day started early with the hopes of putting some serious km's behind us and getting back to warmer climates and the benefits of camping and cooking our own meals. We left Inuvik with a beautiful sunrise over the road south and good weather presenting good driving conditions. We made quick work of the ferry crossings and were soon back at the foot of the Richardson mountains. The conditions here were much better than on our previous travels. Much of the snow had disappeared and the cloud level was slightly elevated giving us a further view of the surrounding landscape. It also helped that the graders had been out on the highway, smoothing out ruts that had slowed our travel northwards several days earlier.

The Yukon/NWT border is a place that seems to be forever harassed by windswept snowbanks and a biting gale that would have you call a thermometer a liar. This observation is only based on the two crossings that I've made (and so is surely false) but it is how I will remember it. Even a brief opening of the truck window for a photo left a chill in my bones that took minutes to subside.

There was virtually no animal sightings on the southbound journey except for the odd flock of ptarmigans. The formations of clouds that threatened to overtake us and dump snow, rain or anything else conceivable were, however, quite frequent. We were luckily in that the weather near the road remained pleasant and we were left with only unique photos of the bad weather that someone or something was experiencing in the distance.

One of my favourite photos from this section of the trip was at a point south of Eagle Plains where we could see a valley that had been previously hidden in a blizzard on our northward journey. It was quite visible this time around, except that there was a low-lying cloud cover that had a very defined elevation - an effect that seemed to produce an atmospheric censor bar. The valley was clear but half-way up the surrounding hills, everything was hidden from view; another first for me.

The tundra-covered lands north of Tombstone Park beckoned, yet again, for photos and several stops produced some great vistas: a mountain reflected in a lake, another lake being touched by a lone ray of sun poking through the cloud cover and a mountain range framed by a hole in the clouds and the Dempster approaching.

We made it to the campground at Tombstone Territorial Park and set up for the night accompanied by the sounds of the North Klondike River rushing past.

End of day ten.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:05 PM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2009

Day Nine

Tuesday September 22, 2009

After a relaxing evening of comfort, we got up late in the morning and went exploring. We drove around town and checked out some stores and gift shops, looking for a memento that wasn't too cheesy and wasn't too expensive. I've always enjoyed the NWT 'polar bear' license plate so I picked one up - expensive, no; cheesy, yes...

We stopped in at the tourist bureau in town but found out it had closed for the season. This was typical of our journey, but a sacrifice that meant for the most part a lack of tourist-flooded roads, no shortages of fuel at any stops and more time to actually talk to people. There was a sign in the door directing travelers to an office downtown where they could receive a certificate for driving the Dempster. We'd already chalked one up for reaching the Arctic Circle (they hand them out at Eagle Plains) so we figured we should continue the trend. Downtown and on a second floor we found the tourism office and walked into the middle of a coffee break. Everyone in the office insisted we weren't intruding and given the conversations that ensued, I realized that they had welcomed the exterior influence as it was a great excuse to extend the coffee break. Very friendly people working up in Inuvik, and quite a mixture as well - a local, a Quebecois, a Newfie and an Albertan.

An interesting thing that most people notice about Inuvik is that all the utility pipes (water, sewage, etc) run above ground as a way to deal with the permafrost. This in itself isn't terribly unusual until you start to consider the influence that this change in infrastructure has on the rest of the town's layout. Pipes being above ground must be insulated against the extreme cold that is experienced this far north. You don't actually see the pipes running around town as you see the heating conduits that surround the piping. These, in turn, influence the streets as some roads must bridge over the heated piping. There's a lot to consider in a town where no one has a basement.

As part of our cost saving endeavors we decided this night to cook for ourselves. We found a day-use area with some picnic tables and firepits overlooking the Mackenzie Delta. We received a few strange looks from passerby's given that we were eating dinner on a breezy five degrees Celsius evening, but hey, it was tons better than the $30 Chinese dinner we'd splurged on the night before.

After packing up the campstove and equipment we drove around town a little more just looking at whatever caught our eyes. When the chill of the evening arrived, we retired to the hotel for some comfort and drinks around the fireplace.

End of day nine.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

October 4, 2009

Day Eight

Monday September 21, 2009

The weather to which we awoke at Eagle Plains was much more pleasant than that to which we had arrived. The sun was shining through a veil of cloud cover and the temperature although cool was pleasant. We packed away a solid breakfast and a healthy dose of coffee and once again hit the road. This time the road was more forgiving as it had frozen up a bit and been freshly graded to the north.

The first stop, only about 30km north, was 66° 33' 39"N, otherwise known as the Arctic Circle. It truly felt special to be able to pass through that level of lattitude, something that Canadians hold so true and integral to our identity. I wish that every Canadian had the opportunity to make the same journey, to cross the same imaginary boundary, to see the great endless expanse of our north...

Whoa, got a little deep there. We took a few photos at the Circle and then hopped back into the truck as we were greeted by the cold breath of the north. Pressing on, we happened upon the second of our grizzly sightings. This one seemed larger than the first and was happily devouring the leftovers from a gutted animal, most likely a caribou taken by hunters. The only company the grizzly shared was a brazen raven partaking in a tiny share of the offal (term I learned from Nat, referring to the entrails of a butchered animal.

Just after driving through Wright Pass (there's a plaque in his honour - he was a highway engineer who surveyed most of the Dempster) we came to the last of the border crossings we would make on the trip, Yukon/Northwest Territories. At this point we'd already seen Alberta/BC, BC/Yukon, and Yukon/Alaska. There was a good deal of snow being blown around and drifting at the pullout, so in addition to taking some photos I took to cleaning off the headlights and the brakelights of the Tacoma. After the Yukon portion of the Dempster and the previous day's rain and snow, there was a significant coating of mud over everything. On top of using some snow, I pulled out the plastic dustpan to aid in scraping away the muddy coating.

Traveling further, we came to the end of the Richardson mountains - the most northern section of the Canadian Rockies. From the last set of foothills we were given a spectacular view of the Mackenzie Delta and Peel River valley. The snow dusted hills disappeared and were replaced with endless forest skirting wide rivers flowing north. We descended into the valley and crossed on the Peel River ferry. A few km's up the road we stopped in Fort McPherson for some needed supplies - especially windshield washer fluid.

The landscape in this northern section of the Dempster reminded me a lot of Northern Ontario. The trees were smaller, of course, but it was that similar forested, swampy land broken only by lakes and the occasional camp or exploration track leading out into the wilderness. After a final ferry crossing, this time of the Mackenzie itself, we were on the home stretch to Inuvik. It should be noted that on such large rivers with vast amounts of water flowing by, the landing berms for the ferries are constant works in progress. Even in Dawson City there was earth moving equipment on hand at the ferry landings to be able to rebuild as needed. The difference between the river at Dawson and the Peel and the Mackenzie was that the equipment on the larger rivers was nearly constantly running to ensure a proper landing zone for the ferry. With fresh gravel and water seeping in from below, there was usually a need for a touch of gas to stay out of trouble when loading and offloading. I was amazed at how easily some of the semis were able to load and offload. Experience obviously counts for a lot.

Before we could celebrate our arrival in Inuvik we were flagged down by a gentleman heading back to Fort McPherson. He'd pulled up with a flat tire in his work truck, a long one-ton, and discovered he had no jack. We lent him the new 20 ton bottlejack we picked up before leaving Dawson and he was back on the road in 20 minutes. Although we'd prepared for the worst conditions ourselves, it was definitely paying off for a few others lacking our good luck. We arrived late in the afternoon to Inuvik and stopped to admire the sign notifying the end of the Dempster. We had made it without major dramas and were left with the debate, "what to do now?", and "do we camp or find a room?". After another long day of driving and near zero temperatures, the decision was easy - spoil ourselves with a comfy bed and warm showers.

End of day eight

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:40 AM | Comments (0)

Day Seven

Sunday September 20, 2009

With a cloudy sky and cloudy heads, we packed up camp and headed into town for some breakfast/brunch....come to think of it might have been lunch when we finally made it into town. There was a great little cafe open and we were lucky enough to catch them on their last day of the season (we seem to have a knack for that). After the meals and what had to be five or six cups of coffee, we headed past 'Authors on 8th' (the cabins of Robert Service and Jack London; we didn't see Pierre Berton's) and left the historic downtown to venture up the Dome, a rounded peak overlooking the town with an access road right to the summit. Unfortunately, like the Top of the World, the peak was so high up that when we got there we were surrounded by cloud cover. Descending halfway down the mountain to a pullout gave us a view of the giant caterpillar-like piles of gravel left from the dredge's search for gold.

Before finally leaving the last traces of services and stores for several hundred kilometres, we made sure to stop in at one of the great general stores of the north. These places truly carry on the name and the role of the ole time general store. They carry groceries, tools, automotive supplies, and sometimes booze. Our reason for shopping was a second jack. Our experience with helping change a tire on the way to 'the Junction' and the prospect of driving the lonely expanse of the Dempster was enough to convince me that a second jack was a better investment than trying to count on wood or rocks to prop things up while relocating the OEM jack to a lower lifting point. It all sounds a bit redundant but I've changed tires in every sort of weather from the scorching heat of Central Australia to the cold rain of a Canadian autumn and I can honestly say that digging in dirt and mud to fit a jack under a lift point is time consuming and the quickest way to ruin a good travelling day.

Enough preaching though - back to the day's travels. A 30km drive from Dawson is the beginning of the Dempster Highway. Naturally we stopped to get that classic photo of the Dempster sign and read about some of the sites on the info panels....we also had little choice as two large trucks were coming off the highway and the bridge was only a single lane. The first section of the Dempster looks very much like the rest of the Yukon. Hills and mountains, a gravel road following a fast-flowing creek and the bright oranges and yellows of birches in autumn. After 45 minutes or so you enter Tombstone Territorial Park.

Tombstone lies in a transition area. The road wound its way up through the hills, leaving the forested valley behind. What lay before us now was an open tundra plain, skirted by red-coated mountains and filled with low-lying shrubs and lakes. The Demptser Highway, on its 2m berm base, snaked off into the horizon presenting us with a point B barely visible and a thousand picture opportunities ahead of point A.

After many km's of driving and many pictures, the tundra plain was left behind us and we crossed through a range of hills that were snowcapped already. The road descended into another valley, this time framed by black shale cliffs on the westward side and a winding river towards the east. It was at this point that we had our first grizzly spotting. It was a medium sized bear that was foraging for berries or grubs at the side of the road. We drove by slowly and the bear was happy to pose for a few shots.

We continued on and once again the landscape changed as we climbed up towards Ogilvie Ridge and we found ourselves surrounded by rolling hills sparsely covered in short, scraggly conifers. The weather changed dramatically at this point as well, with rain and snow trading turns at pelting down and turning the road to a mess. The previously beautiful, hard packed gravel was replaced with two slushy ruts and a center island of dirt that threatened to scrape at the undercarriage. Visibility was low and for the sake of added control we drove for the first time in 4WD. We plodded along at no more than 60km/h but it paid off where others had issues - a Dodge Ram was spotted off the road, a victim of a nasty slide and a rollover. In the mud coating the driver's door was a simple message - "OK". We eventually made it to the Eagle Plains roadhouse where 5cm of snow and sub-zero temperatures easily convinced us that the price of a room (although expensive) was much better than camping.

A stop in the pub found us chatting to the bloke who'd had the rollover as well as an Australian who'd made it to the Arctic Circle on his motorcycle but been forced to cut short his journey to Inuvik due to the inclement weather. Apparently it is a sketchy situation when ice on a hill leads to a bike sliding downhill on an uphill journey. I did not envy his trip, although I give him kudos for attempting it.

End of day seven

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:38 AM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2009

Day Six

Saturday September 19, 2009

After lots of coffee and waffles we left Tok and headed up to the settlement of Chicken. Rumour has it when gold was discovered and lots of men went in search of their fortunes, many servived by eating Ptarmigan. The town would have been named that, except that no one could spell it, so Chicken sufficed....so the rumour says. When we got there, everything was shut. Closing down for the winter. We did, however, have a great chat with one of the locals. He leaves in Chicken for the warmer months and then heads to California to ranch for the winter. He reckoned he didn't have the same mindset as the 4 or 5 permanent residents of Chicken who spent the winter there despite the roads receiving no maintenance and no plowing from the 1st of October til spring.

We didn't plan on staying for that long either so we got back in the truck after a few photos and made our way up into the hills on the Taylor highway. This road winds its way through the hills and in, around and over several creeks that were running more like rivers due to the recent rainfall.

The highway eventually climbs to the top of the hills which by this point were quite broad and sparsely forested. Although not quite at the US/Canada border where the 'Top of the World' highway officially begins, this was the start of its style of landscape.

Now I'd love to be able to write about the incredible or dramatic views available from the Top of the World...except that we were at the Top of the World on a very cloudy/foggy day. The road itself follows the ridgeline of the hills leaving only a brief view of the hillsides as they plunge away into the foggy abyss. Occasionally, the cloud cover lifted long enough to get a glimpse of a valley snaking off into the mountain range. In the midst of this cloudy kingdom sits the American and Canadian customs building. Built on one of the highest elevations on the highway, it certainly brings to mind a lofty castle and a mighty ruler granting rights of passage through his kingdom.

Coming down out of the clouds, the highway gives a great view of Dawson City and the valley. We took the ferry across the Yukon River and headed into town. Dawson City has done well at keeping its historical feel - there are still wooden plank sidewalks and most of the streets are still gravel. We checked out the info center, found out that we were just in time to catch the last show of the season at Diamond Tooth Gerties and drove around town for a bit and then took the ferry back across the river as we realized that the government campground was again the best choice. A good meal and a few beers later and we walked down to the ferry to once again cross the river to town. Our first stop was the Downtown Hotel to get warmed up and try out a relatively now-famous shooter - the Sourtoe Cocktail. If you wanna learn more about it try here, but the short story is the bar has several human toes (kept in salt and essentially mummified) that are used. The cocktail is drunk with any choice of spirits 80 proof or greater. The toe is added and when the shot/cocktail is taken and the toe must touch your lips. Needless to say, we indulged (when have I ever not indulged in something new and alcoholic?) and became members of the Sourtoe Club. Now, whenever we go back, we get to have the toe in our drinks for free.

After the drinks with apendages in them we decided to head to Diamond Tooth Gerties for the last show of the season (which we would have missed had we been able to drive our itinerary as planned). It was a grand-ole show of song and dance with enough racieness to earn maybe an MA rating. Happy hour started when the last show did - midnight, which was great timing and kept us enjoying the review. The photos are of poor quality but that reflects the choice of spending time to find a good setting on the camera and a steady point on which to rest the camera OR whether to finish a happy hour pint and get another one....

End of day six

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2009

Day Five

Friday September 18, 2009

The morning was a lazy one in Haines Junction. We got up late...cause we could (on vacation after all). We headed into 'the Junction' to an RV park and had showers and enjoyed the warmth of the laundromat while we did a load to briefly rid our clothes of the 'eau de campfire'. The weather was much nicer on this day and we eventually got back on the road and headed deeper into the majesty of Kluane National Park.

This was a beautiful drive. The mountains seemed much more isolated and worn compared to Jasper and the range of colours was a completely different palette. The intense greens of the conifers in Jasper was replaced with fiery reds and oranges of of the brush as well as golden browns of dying grasses.

The first stop along the way was at the Tachal Dhal (Sheep Mountain) interp center...which was closed. It sits at the foot of a series of mountains/hills that are a form a preservation zone for a large herd of Dall's sheep. They even have a spotting scope mounted there permanently to help view the sheep high up on the hillside. The center is bordered by a flood plain that has formed where the Slim River flows in Kluane Lake.

The highway follows the edge of Kluane Lake westward and passes through Destruction Bay, a small settlement built around one of the encampments created when the highway was being built. The next spot we stopped at was Burwash Landing. It's hard not to stop there as there is a giant goldpan located beside the museum. Giant landmarks are something that Canadians seem to be good at creating; they also seem to work well as I distinctly remember being at Burwash Landing 15 years ago when I was last touring the Yukon.

The weather was perfect for this drive and with blue skies and a bright sun we were able to see some of the taller mountaintops that form the northeast boundary of the St.Elias Mountains. These would have to suffice as Canada's tallest mountain, Mt. Logan (5959m), can only be seen from the air or from a day or two's hike inland.

Canada's most westerly community, Beaver Creek, was another stop and also another great spot to get cinnamon buns. Just head to the tiny little place on the north side of the street. It's got self-serve coffee, a slanted floor (so the drunks can walk as well) and of course, tasty buns.

We spent a few minutes at the border, mostly hopping back and forth between Alaska and the Yukon, before moving on and passing through US customs....always a pleasure (anyone remember the HTML code for sarcasm?).

It had been a long day of travelling (cross the border and get an extra hour to travel) and it was drizzling down by the time we reached Tok, Alaska, so we skipped out on camping and stayed at the Burnt Paw Cabins. Great decision as it was warm, quaint, had a northern theme (our cabin's was Bushpilot) and came with a complimentary breakfast of Belgian waffles with homemade jam.

End of day five

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2009

Day Four

Thursday September 17, 2009

From Teslin it was just a short drive to Whitehorse. The wind was blustery and the clouds hanging quite low so we weren't in much of a touristic mood. We'd had such a good experience with the Liard Hot Springs that we decided to try out the Takhini Springs north of town. Unfortunately, they were closed when we got there (we found out from the friendly owners who invited us back that they open at 4pm). We set up a quick camp and cooked up some brunch and then headed back to town.

Still craving the springs we decided to check out the activities center which was built in 2005 and in 2007 hosted the Canada Games. This place was incredible. Modern, functional and housing a tremendous diversity of equipment, it would certainly provide a way to pass the long, cold winter of the North.

After being refreshed in the hot tub and steam room, we headed back to town for some shopping and a trip to the visitor's center - a requisite stop for all tourists and travellers. I add that second category in as I refuse to be bunched in with the larger, and sometimes more ignorant group that is 'tourists'. Having learned (in Watson Lake) that the border crossing on the Top of the World Highway was closing on the 21st, we now appreciated the information available to travellers. That same information meant that we were now heading through Alaska first, before attempting the Dempster and the trip to Inuvik.

Having picked up most of the supplies we needed, we left Whitehorse knowing that we would return and have more time to enjoy what it has to offer. The road westward beckoned and we started tracing the way on the map to Haine's Junction. We didn't make it very far before we turned off onto a pullout to enjoy a majestic view of the mountains and the incredible colours present in the Yukon autumn. It turned out that this urge for a beautiful photo was good fortune for a young family with tire problems. They were returning home from Whitehorse (with a tire recently fixed for their truck) when a tire on their van blew out in roughly the same area. Two tires in two days - not a good 48 hours for them...and did I mention their jack was broken? Having heard of their plight we grabbed our jack out of the truck and got to work on their problem. It was also good fortune that an older gentleman with an RV was there as well as he provided a second jack (a nice 20 ton bottlejack) to get the van high enough off the ground for the tire to be removed.

I'll say this - the little jack provided in a Toyota is useful, but not practical on its own. It's not short enough to get under the frame when a tire is blown, and when it is, it can't provide enough lift to get the vehicle up high enough to put a new tire on. With a single jack, the options must include something to hold the vehicle propped up while the jack is moved to another lift point. Much easier with two jacks. Back to the story.

We got the donut tire put on, and after tightening all the wheelnuts, Nat kept the younger kids (4 boys under 10!) busy with a donut from Tim Horton's (Mmmmm, Timmy's). The tire was looking pretty flat so I checked it and it was sitting at 17psi - not great with still 30km to drive home. I brought the truck up beside the van and gave the newly installed compressor it's first test. A minute later and the donut had 47psi, the family thanked us and we watched them limp off homeward bound. We now had time to get that photo that was the original intent of our pullover.

A few more pulloffs for photos were needed on the drive to 'the Junction' but we did evently get there and in time to set up camp at Pine Lake (another great Yukon government site) in daylight. It's such a refreshing feeling to set things up, have dinner and a beer and then see the sunset, instead of doing all the above with headlamps on...I know, I know, I should stop rambling on about that....I blame Led Zeppelin.

End of day four

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

Day Three

Wednesday Sept 16, 2009

This day wasn't so nice when we got up. It wasn't raining or snowing but it was pretty dismal. We hit the road and spent the next hour it seemed climbing in elevation. We thought at some point we were traveling through a fair bit of fog, but it turned out to be clouds as the road broke through them and we suddenly had an understanding of the height of the road versus the height of the hills around us. The road wound up through the hills and down again finally finding a path along a river in the valley below.

It was here that we saw a sign reading 'the best cinnamon buns in the galaxy' so naturally we had to stop and verify this statement. The location turned out to be the Tetsa River Outfitters - a quaint general store/cafe/gas station. There was a very hospitable lady who invited us in for coffee and gave us the 'just right' heating instructions for one of the largest cinnamon buns I have ever seen. We spent almost an hour there enjoying coffee and the bun and some nice conversation with a couple from Texas building a summer home in Homer, AK. I would have to say upon reflection that their advertising was pretty spot on....

The next big item on the itinerary was Liard Hot Springs. They're located in the BC park of the same name and are a tremendous blessing for the weary traveler. There are two pools located about 700m from the parking lot. The 'beta pool' was closed as a bear was in the area but the 'alpha pool' was relaxing enough. Hot water is forced up through porous limestone and mixes with cooler water to create the hot springs with a range of temperatures. On a generally cloudy and blustery day, the springs were a little piece of heaven on earth.

A few more hours on the road found us in Watson Lake, home to the famous 'Sign Post Forest'. The original post was placed during the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 and the trend has continued on with people being encouraged to post their own signs. The result is a collection with more than 60,000 signs. I spent a brief couple of minutes their and could not imagine how much time would be needed to properly explore and appreciate the variety there.

Aside: I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos yet, but I've decided in the spirit of the 'playoff beard', I shall grow a 'vacation beard' for the 2+ weeks that we've got off. But back to the regular story line....

We pressed onwards as we tend to do and made it to the Yukon Government campsite just past Teslin. The site was right on Teslin Lake and other than the sound of trucks coming down the highway the only sound we could hear was the lapping of waves against the beach - peaceful....except for the trucks.

End of day three

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2009

Day Two

Tuesday Sept 15, 2009

We awoke to a beautiful morning in Peuce Coupe with a frosty nip in the air but some warm rays of sun in the sky. As mentioned earlier, we had an appointment in Dawson Creek so we packed up camp and hit the road. By a great stroke of luck, we arrived early and discovered that the Tim Hortons in town was right across from the Toyota dealership. A couple of double-doubles later and we pulled up to Peace Country Toyota. We dropped off the truck and hopped in the courtesy van for a trip to downtown Dawson Creek.

The driver, Ron, gave us a quick tour of downtown, including the Zero Mile Post of the Alaska Highway, and then dropped us off at Cafe Europa. This was a nice little place that made a heavenly cappuccino and a nice grilled ham and swiss croissant. So far, it was a great start to the day. Alas, that was about as long as it lasted. We spent the next 2.5h trying to find someone accreditable to witness a statutory declaration. The copshop was busy, city hall didn't do it, the provincial building pointed us to the sheriff's office where nobody was home. Two law offices were too busy at the time and luckily the third time was the charm...as was a $30 fee for the service. The next 45 minutes was spent at Canada Post trying to send documents and a t-shirt to Australia. A pretty brutal morning spent in Dawson Creek.

Things did perk up a little when we decided to celebrate our accomplishments with a beer. The Alaska Hotel wasn't open yet but we finally found the 'local' that was - Silver's. Located in the Silverado Inn, it was a dark, pool hall/nightclub kinda place. Not much to look at but full of character and it was Toonie Tuesday at the time. Who can argue with $2 for a glass of draught? Not me, even if it was Canadian.

After finishing a few beers we called Ron up and headed back to the dealership. Now, if you'll recall from some previous posts, I'd had the idea to ask the guys at Toyota to try and finish up the install of the dash switch for the ARB compressor that I'd mounted. Bad idea. Turns out it took 1.4h for the guy to do it. 1.4h at the current rate for dealership work of....(drumroll please)...$120/h. Yeah.....not happy. It was done, which was nice, but at that cost, I'd have been willing to buy a multimeter and put in several hours of my own time and I think I woulda come out ahead. The truck was in for a major service which also turned out to be a kick in the pants as prices quoted did not involve supplies or that nasty tax rate that is so much higher in BC than AB. Needless to say, I earned a lot of airmiles with the plastic that morning.

The afternoon was spent driving and we decided to push all the way to Fort Nelson to visit one of Nat's co-workers. We shared in some beer, pizza and Call of Duty 4 before taking a suggestion and camping at a trailhead in town. Anything is better than an RV park. Not to slight all of them, just most of them don't have a great atmosphere for camping. Oh yeah, another night of setting up camp with headlamps.

End of day two

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:09 AM | Comments (0)

Yukon Trip - Day One

Monday Sept 14th, 2009

The day got off to a slow start as I was attempting to install the ARB compressor that morning. I had finally decided on a location under the hood and had through the installation manual three or four times already (got the compressor four days before Nat returned to town with the truck). It seemed like it was going to be a relatively easy task, or at least that was what I must have convinced myself given that I was attempting it the morning of departure.

The first thing that went awry was the coupler that allowed the pressure switch and the quick release to be connected to the compressor. The threading wasn't manufactured to very good specs and wouldn't screw in well to the compressor's pressure housing. By the time I'd worked out that it wasn't going to work, I'd done a bit of damage to the threads in the housing. Next step was go looking through the garage in hope the landlord had a tap and die kit - luckily, he did. I cleaned up the threads I'd mangled, as well as the out of spec ones on the coupler and obtained a decent seal using a healthy amount of teflon tape. Ready for the next drama.

Everyone should have an auto electrician for a friend. Somebody with the patience of Job and willing to do the odd job for a case of beer... cause everyone else's sanity would benefit from that. Unfortunately, I've convinced myself that I'm able to do basic wiring and that there is little difference between having an understanding of what's laid out in installation manuals and the actual ability to perform cet tasks. Prime examples of my lack of hubris usually involve feeding wires through firewalls....as was the case here. I probably spent an hour trying to feed four little wires into cab through the firewall. I'd get one so far in and then only be able to get a fingertip on it from the cab side. The worst thing at that point was realizing that I knew the exact tool that would make everything go smoothly (a long handled pair of needlenose pliers) and also knew that I didn't have it. Every wire eventually made it to where it should but I can't say that they were coaxed there by kind words alone. The next step was mounting the compressor to the inner fender, which went well, as this time I had the proper tools - portable drill, socket set, the last of my patience. At this point, the only thing left to do was wire up the switch in the dash but I'd run out of time and it was well past the lunching hour (and I'd not even had time for a coffee yet). I left that job with the hopes someone at the Toyota dealership would be able to help.

Tools were packed away while tents, eskies (coolers), jerry cans, and duffel bags were packed into the truck. We stopped by the Jasper Brew Pub for lunch and finally hit the road around 2:30pm. The journey to Hinton was similar to our previous ones with the exception that we knew we were going much further down roads unknown - and that felt gooooood.

We turned off the Yellowhead and onto Highway 40 North. I was pretty surprised at how much elevation the road gains leaving Hinton. It seemed like the first hour was one long uphill. The scenery was refreshing with plenty of rolling hills, deciduous trees changing colours and a snaking river that danced loosely in step with the winding road. We thought of stopping in Grande Cache for a coffee but by the time we'd decided we'd already passed the last exit...so we were heading to Grande Prairie non-stop. Although beautiful, the scenery on the way to Grande Prairie is quite monotonous. Lots and lots of trees, with the occasional dirt road branching off, winding its way into the bush to an unknown number of camps for the oil or gas workers out frakking. The distance ivolved and the lack of substantial development reminded me a lot of the drive through Northern Ontarion and our journey cross-country last summer. We stopped in Grande Prairie and had a coffee and figured out our game plan for the afternoon/evening as we had to end up near Dawson Creek as the truck was booked for a major service at the second last Toyota dealership in the north. We had sunlight left so we decided to press onwards and northwards. The Northern Ontario deja vu appeared all the more accurate once we passed through town and arrived at the area that the town was named after (or something like that). To the west of the city is a helluva lot of beautiful, open farmland. It was like leaving the forests on Ontario, driving into town and then out onto the prairies of Manitoba.

We headed for a BC Provincial park called Swan Lake in hopes of dusting down for the night. But I'm jumping ahead cause I should mention that we filled up at the FasGas that's located just before the Alberta/BC border. This is the last place you'll find fuel prices that don't make you gasp. Onwards to Swan Lake - which we discovered after 5km's of dirt road was closed for the season. Really a shame, cause even in the dusk light it seemed a beautiful spot. In the usual habit that I always try and avoid but never do, we proceeded to drive on in the darkness to find a suitable spot for camp. We drove into Peuce Coupe and Nat pointed out a private campground that had $11 camping. Sold! The couple that runs it, lives there and they were quite nice. We were sent to a nice spot down by the creek/river and set up camp in the dark (I really hate setting up in the dark, Petzl lamps or not..).

End of day one

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:06 AM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2009

Wheels are in motion

The vacation time is booked. The destination is set. The list of equipment and provisions is slowly being assembled.

ROADTRIP NORTH!

View Larger Map

Nat and I are headed to the Yukon and beyond. Roughly speaking, the plan is to drive North quickly, get to Inuvik and budget the rest of the vacation time from there.

I will be hopefully writing a lot on the trip, and should be posting it here as well as on Expedition Portal, a great site for truck buildups and adventure travel.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:06 PM | Comments (0)

June 5, 2009

Departures...

One of my favourite shows on TV right now is Departures on the Outdoor Life Network. It's two guys from Brantford who travel with their other friend the cameraman and travel the world doing a great mix of typical tourist things as well as the out there adventures. I'd try and explain it some more but it really is the type of show you should just watch yourself. Some people will just see two guys traveling around avoiding the real world, but those who have ventured outside their own comfort zone before will probably appreciate the beauty and the experiences being shared a little more.

For those who have traveled before and are currently stationary, it is a show that reaches inside you and plucks a chord that awakens the travel bug from its hibernation. And why wouldn't it? Come home from work where the recession and cutbacks and budgets are all that people seem to be talking about right now. Money can weigh on your mind a fair bit at these times but like the old adage says "it doesn't bring happiness". A little perspective can be found watching two (sorry, three...don't wanna forget the camera guy) fellow Ontarians on the Mongolian-Russian border spend several days with a community that farms reindeer. A place where money has little value, where you work hard to live, where others come to appreciate your lifestyle, your landscape....

All a little melodramatic, especially with the realization that I'm not traveling anywhere like that soon....so I'll compromise. I'll appreciate the incredible beauty that lies close by. I'll hit the trails for the early morning and escape the real world for a while. Clear my head and play that travel bug to sleep for a while.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2009

The seasons they are a changin....

So I just spent an excellent three days off of work. They nicely coincided with the last weekend that Marmot Basin was open. We had two beautiful sun and snow filled days (almost a quarter of what we had all season long) and I caught one of my top three rides of the season.

I hiked 3/4 of the peak with a buddy and dropped into the Peak Run following only two previous sets of tracks in some beautiful powder. It was sunny and hot for that section and as soon as we made it down to Charlie's Bowl we ran into a whiteout. The timing could not have been any better. The last day was another beauty with lots of snow falling and the farewell to the Kiefer T-Bar.

The next day off I spent on the bike trails with another buddy and had the first fall of the season. Skills are a little rusty from the winter off and I hesitated on a downhill and went off the side. A few minor scrapes and bruises to inspire me to improve or say farewell to the skin on my shins.

This week I'll pack the winter gear away and continue the rollout of frisbees, baseball mits, rollerblades and bike accessories. Here's hoping work doesn't get in the way of all the play!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:03 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2008

Collection of new pano's

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2008

Adventures in the hills

With the cold weather arriving my adventures in the hillls around Jasper (at least of the biking nature) have dwindled of late. Now I won't use this as some metaphor for changes in my life or anything close to being poetic. Instead, I will tell a tale of some time spent on the trails... shit, that was poetic.

Back when I was riding three to four times a week, I decided to put my life in Jay's hands and follow him on a ride around the Saturday Night Loop. In retrospect, I'm glad I did it but I should have realized at the time that it was going to be a rough one given Jay's sadomasochistic affection for roots and rocks and muddy trails.

We left town around 11am and headed off into the wild. I was already cursing when Jay led the way up a trail north of town. Jasper sits at an elevation of around 1070m. North of town, there is an area called the Pyramid bench which is the starting point and location of some of the best trails in the Jasper area. Unfortunately, the bench lies at an elevation of around 1200m. That means that the start of most mountain biking treks is a decent climb in a short time. Once I'd finished cursing we headed up past Mina Lake and towards the start of the Loop. Now I didin't realize it at the time but the first half of the Loop is all climb. High Lake at the halfway point sits at an elevation of around 1500m and it certainly felt like that if not more. At one point several hours into the trip I found myself so exhausted that I stopped in the middle of a hill, sat down and ate a banana and a cereal bar. I eventually caught up with Jay, who was enjoying a nice long break at the time. Through some hard work and perseverance I did make finally up to High Lake which provided some excellent views and a serenity rarely found in Jasper's tourist season.

The trek back to town was much easier with the majority of it being downhill. That said, I was still struggling to keep up with Jay who has and addiction to speed as only an ex-bike courier can enjoy. There were a few moments where I found myself looking skywards and asking the treetops where I went wrong and whether my bike was still rideable but in the end we made it back to town....myself the worse for wear.

The whole trip had lasted around 4.5h, covered 30km roundtrip and included a climb in elevation of nearly 500m. The only unfortunate part of the day was returning to town and realizing that I barely had an hour to wind down and prepare for work that night. Needless to say, it was a slightly stiff and immoblie shift at the restaurant.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

September 7, 2008

Life in Jasper

So, I'm actually getting settled into Jasper life now and it's not bad. The downsides are of course, living in a tourist town where the cost of things is reflected by the demand of travellers. I will, however, refrain from complaining too much about tourists as they are the basis for the majority of employment in the area.

Jasper is a beautiful town. The architecture varies from 1970's ski chalet inspired motel/lodges to classic swiss mountain buildings with steep roofs and round stone walls. The town is very clean and virtually every window has a mountain view. Living in a national park is a boon for recycling. The garbage bins around town are bear proof and most houses have added several tiers of rope to their property fences in an effort to save their flower beds from the elk that frequent the safety of town (wolves like the taste of elk but dislike people).

There are two and a half seasons in Jasper - tourist season, ski season and the several week-long lull in between. Tourist season is hectic. The town swells in population, with workers from across Canada and the world (mostly Australia) filling the hospitality jobs that provide for all those extra guests.

In winter, locals can enjoy the quiet beauty of a mountain town... at least until the weekends when Jasper becomes Edmonton's playground. The Marmot Basin ski hill is only 20 minutes out of town which lends itself to incredible accessibilty for Canadian Rockies skiing.

Summer may have been somewhat unpredictable this year with many rainy, miserable days, but we seem to be receiving some of those sunny days now as if they'd been banked up (with a Canadian bank.... an American bank would have gone bust lost our sunny days already). With that in mind, I've been spending most of my time out on the trails with some crazy riders learning how much I've still got to learn. The sun and the trails are calling so I'm outta here.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2008

Trip West Part II

Day Five - Spruce Woods, Souris and Moose Mountain

Manitoba is very much full of canola. After leaving Winnipeg, we headed west and took a southerly detour to Spruce Woods Provincial Park. It is a very popular place cause it's got a river and trees...which tend to be lacking in that area of Manitoba. From there we took the Red Coat Highway west, weaving our way pleasantly across the province stopping at a little joint called Souris. It just happened to be that time of day where we felt like a stop and Souris was there. It also turned out that Souris has a very long swinging bridge. I cannot recall if they may have claimed it to be the longest in Canada or not but it was pretty long. I told Nat we had to check it out as, being from Renfrew, I am automatically a swinging bridge connaisseur. Most people from Renfrew may not know it but they also qualify to be a connaisseur if, at some point in your childhood, you jumped up and down on the bridge causing a wave-like motion to scare the shit out of your mother. Needless to say, I am almost an expert. I had had hopes of refreshing my qualifications but as you can see (or struggle to see in the picture), Nat chose to remain on solid ground.

Not knowing where you're going can sometimes be a bit of a drawback for a roadtrip. We had a destination: Jasper/Mt.Robson. Luckily, we didn't have much of an idea what route we were taking other than it being westerly. I'd have to say that this can be a very positive component of a great roadtrip due to the element of surprise inherent in rockin up to places you've never even heard about. Moose Mountain was one of those nice surprises. It is a Provincial Park based around a series of hills containing lakes created by the last glacial movement. Again, it is one of those things that is appreciated more in the prairies where lakes are not as plentiful as Ontario. I can also appreciate this from living in Central Australia where the only lakes are salt flats and if you can find a waterhole that doesn't smell like manure, it's perfect (chances are, you've swam in it anyways before you've discovered if it's aromatic). Kenosee Lake has been a vacation spot for a long time. Back in the day, when the wealthy went holidaying, they usually headed for ocenfront. The aristocrats of the prairies didn't exactly have that option so they built holiday homes around Kenosee. My only comments: nice campground, wish I could have checked out the golf course and thoroughly enjoyed the canoeing evening.

Day Six - Dog River and Moose Jaw

Looking down the map, or westerly at least, we noticed that with a slight change in lattitude we could enjoy a nice stop in Rouleau, Sask. Now, if you don't care about the home of the Dog River River Dogs, skip this paragraph. For the rest of the fans of Corner Gas who already know where we were headed - enjoy. Driving into Rouleau, you see a sign saying 'home of Corner Gas'. The next big icon is the Dog River grain elevator sitting right next to the iconic Corner Gas and the Ruby. We parked up to take some pictures and were met by a member of the Dog River Police Department, ie. security. Nice guy. He let us know where we could take pictures and what was out of bounds. It turns out that they were filming that day (on sets downtown) so there were limits on where we could walk around. After that, he sent us on our way, but not before signing the guestbook presented by the DRPD. After getting some great shots at the Ruby and the station we headed into Rouleau to find some other iconic buildings. There was the FOO_MAR__T, and the Dog River Police Station, which was previously the Scotiabank in town. It is only an exterior set, but a smart entrepreneur has set up a cafe inside and sells some great Corner Gas swag (paraphenalia, not aussie style swag). We had hoped to have a pint at the bar in town as well, but they were filming at the time so the taps were not flowing...for us, at least.

After saying goodbye to Dog River, I mean Rouleau, we headed off to Moose Jaw. I'd never been to Moose Jaw before and had no idea of its seedy past. From several tourist posters, I'd gathered that there was some connection between Moose Jaw and Al Capone. Now, since returning to Canada I've been hearing on the radio that Sleeman's in Guelph also had some sorta loose connection to Capone so I reckoned that this one was worth checking out. Downtown Moose Jaw is quite an historic place with plenty of old buildings and classic architecture. Tunnels of Moose Jaw is a tourist attraction that has been rated one of the best in Canada. We decided to check it out and found that there are actually two different presentations to try. There is the Chicago connection or Passage of Fortune, which deals with asian immigrants and their struggles. We decided to check out the gangster one. The tour starts out in a cafe across the street where you meet your tour 'guide'. Now, this type of tour involves a guide who dressed in period dress and interacting in character. It is not for everyone but does add a little entertainment to the information. I won't spoil the tour for anyone, needless to say it is quite quirky and enjoyable with some very interesting architecture. After the tour we stopped for a beer and checked out the local news. I couldn't help but notice an ad for Watchtower Glass. It was the address that caught my eye - 420 High St.; I shit you not. Turns out they are glass blowers by trade who had an existing business and had some mates who were constantly harassing them to check out a rental property they had. Fate it was.

After Moose Jaw, we hit the road to take advantage of the long summer's daylight. We were hoping to get as far as Medicine Hat, to stay as close to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump as we could but that plan was 86'd by some tornado warnings in the area. When the storm started looking real bad we took the nearest exit and bunkered down at a motel in Maple Creek. We spent the night sharing some pints (and tequila shots) with some local cattlemen. Great bunch of blokes, including a gentleman by the name of Tad Minor. Tad was an auctioneer who spent some time in Australia and had some great stories.

Day Seven - Recovery from Tornado....and Tequila

We were supposed to catch up with Tad around lunchtime but unfortunately, I could not find the cattle yards where he was working. We continued on through Seven Persons and saw some of the damage left in the wake of the tornado. Pretty chilling to see grain bins and tremendous lengths of irrigation pipes tossed around like marbles and pickup sticks. Those farmers had a much worse hangover than I did at the time. We settled in at Fort Macleod which turned out to be where Brokeback Mountain was filmed.

Day Eight - Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump and Cowtown

I was really looking forward to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, being a UNESCO heritage site. My tastes in tourism have changed a lot since I was younger and now major historical sites or incredible geology and nature tend to top my list of favourites. We started exploring the area in the cultural center, a large concrete structure built directly into the bluff side and spanning several floors. It was full of information on the buffalo, the culture of the first nations people that inhabited the area and of course, the standard rape and pillage of the land by the white settlers. The highlights of the center would definitely be the movie detailing the practice of the buffalo jump (careful enticement of herd of buffalo into stampede off a cliff) as well as the photos of white buffalo hunters standing upon a mountain of buffalo skulls. That put the scale of the near extermination of the plains buffalo into perspective. After the cultural center we headed outside to walk some of the trails. We walked the clifftop one first, which provided an incredible view of the plains spread out below the bluff. Walking the trails below the cliff you could almost imagine the thunder of hundreds of hooves and bellowing of buffalo as bodies rained down over the cliff. We finished up our tour of the Buffalo Jump we headed to Calgary where we caught up with Thudds and Harden.

Rest of the Trip - Calgary to Jasper

The next day Thudds took us out to Canmore to have a look around. It provided some breathtaking scenery as we headed up a mountain road towards some glacial lakes. You could not ask for a better day (as the morning's rain had subsided to sunlight) and we were lucky enough to have a mountain goat pose for some great pics. The tour of the area ended at the '88 Winter Olympics park. It is still an athletics hub of Calgary and proof that ski-jumpers are insane. When you see the height of those towers in person and the drop in the hill below, you really wonder how they ever decide that it is a sport and not just a very unsuccessful form of suicide. We hung out with Marc and his roommates for the rest of the weekend before we finally got back on the road and made it to Jasper. The icefields expressway which winds its way through the mountains from Banff past the Columbia Icefields and eventually to Jasper is an incredible drive. A few of the mountain passes provide some hair-raising switchbacks that provide a breat

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 3, 2008

First half of trip west

Yeah, I know it's way late for this but it ain't easy depending on internet cafes and finding time between beer, job hunting and splitting firewood.

Day One - Bruce Peninsula

We left Waterloo around lunchtime and headed down Erbsville Rd to see where it would lead us. Mostly in circles was the answer I found (choosing not to include Nat in the preposition regarding my navigating). When I did manage to stop the zig zag across Ontario marathon, we were greeted by either road construction or even partial highway closure. I was not impressed. We did eventually get onto the open part of the highway and made it to Bruce Peninsula National Park where it promptly decided to start pouring rain the instant we commenced our first attempt at raising a new-to-us 8 man tent. The rain continued its attempt at drowning our spirits by remaining throughout the dinner we cooked and even through most of the night. At great start to our trip out west.

Day Two - Manitoulin Island

We got up and packed up camp, managing to fit everything back in the ute (sorry, truck) again. I wasn't sure if it could be done or not. We raced to Tobermorey to get our ticket for the ferry and then had enough time to sit down for brekkie. The ferry ride was great (and not just because it's licensed) and gave some good views of some nearby lighthouses (Nat's dad loves pics of'em) while also impressing upon us the extent of the Great Lakes.... and we were only on Georgian Bay at Bay at the time. Once on the island we stopped at a little market garden and picked up some fresh veggies for dinner. Then it was on to Ojibwe Cultural Foundation in M'Chieeng for our educational experience of the day. If we weren't on a roadtrip out west, we would and could have spent several days on the island, camping and hiking. Unfortunately, we had somewhere else to be and a lot of km's to get there. We continued north and crossed a series of bridges and islands to return to the mainland of northern Ontario. We stopped in Espanola for some essential supplies - beer, tarps, groceries, beer, ice, did I say beer? Beer will point the way when lost; the guy at the Beerstore was kind enough to inform us of the nearest campground - Chutes Provincial Park just outside of Massey. We set up camp right next to the trail that went down towards the rapids. Chutes sits on land previously owned by a logging company. The river was used to float logs south for export and processing. Back in those days, there was a log chute built to allow the logs to bypass the rapids where they might entangle or break...hence Chutes Provincial Park.

Day Three - Lake Superior and Sleeping Giant

From Massey we continued west, stopping in Sault St. Marie for Tim Horton's. Don't let anyone tell you that the Sault is good for nothin'...it's at least got a Timmy Ho's. There was a fair bit of rain in the area but it managed to let up for our first sightseeing stop of the day - the Agawa Rock pictographs in Lake Superior Provincial Park. The glyphs consisted of a series of paintings on a vertical rock wall facing the lake. There was only a narrow ledge on which to stand and a ranger there to suggest safety. Luckily, it was a calm day on the lake and other than the tremendously minute chance of a rogue wave, I had nothing to worry about when taking the pictures. We lunched in the parking lot and then made a long haul towards Thunder Bay. I was hoping to make it to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park but was worried we'd be left setting up camp in the dark (never fun and an irritant of Nat). With good roads, however, and the blessing of T-Bay being so far west in its time zone we managed to have plenty of time to set up camp and cook. Oh, and most importantly we had time to peg down every available rope on the tent and the fly....which proved most provident when what sounded like a hurricane (sorry, it may also have been a wolf of the big and bad persuasion looking for pigs) passed by that night.

Day Four - A Bear and...and...the 'Peg

Before leaving Sleeping Giant P.P. we decided to drive up a winding trail to a point overlooking the lake and Thunder Bay. On our way there, we stopped to photograph an adolescent bear with confidence issues that was snacking beside the road. How did we know he had issues you ask? Well, after a few photos but before we moved on, a small deer came running out of the bush, almost straight at the bear. As a counterpoint to the old argument "does a bear shit in the woods?" - well not when he's scared shitless. The bear immediately started scrambling up the nearest tree before realizing he should assert himself as the hungry one of the prey/predator relationship at which point he jumped down and started chasing the deer. Quite reminiscent of a looney tunes episode or even the Han Solo and Chewy run towards the Startroopers. The lookout was beautiful even with a low cloud cover. The trail takes you all the way to the top of the Sleeping Giant...there's plenty of cliff face below to convince oneself. Back on the road, we stopped at the Terry Fox monument/lookout. It is really quite humbling to read about his accomplishment and the determination and perseverance that drove him as far as Thunder Bay. I urge everyone to find out where the Terry Fox Run is being held in your area. Make a difference on September 14th.

The next stop was at Kekabeka Falls. They don't impose as much as Niagra but are still loud and impressive. On an intersting sidenote, there is a contract between Hydro and the Park to ensure that there is a minimum amount of flow during the daytime throughout the tourist season. I wish there more to say about the next bit of Northern Ontario but alas, we were tired of still being there so we took the quicker way through Dryden and Kenora stopping really only for food. Again, a cold rain does not encourage stopping for sightseeing. We entered Winnipeg without a plan, other than finding a hotel and food. No left turn from Main St. to Portage St. left us with a slight detour. Once bearings were found again, we ended up on Portage and spotted a hotel right beside Red Lobster. I considered this lucky which might seem strange except that I knew at that point that Nat had been craving Red Lobster for weeks. Now that that piece of info has been brought to light you can also consider that lucky. After checking in we had a lobster dinner with pint's of Keiths...in Winnipeg...definition of a relatively homogenous Canadian economy.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:57 PM | Comments (0)

July 7, 2008

Back in the land of beavers and beer...well Cdn beer...

Nat and I are back in Canada. We flew Adelaide to Sydney to Taipei to LA and eventually Toronto. A few stopovers along the way to try and gain some sense of sanity and we finally made it.

The last couple of weeks have been spent catching up with mates in Waterloo, Toronto and Renfrew. Throw in a wedding in Woodstock...Congrats Kate Shippey....uhhh, Kate Gertzbein,(wow, now Shippey only refers to Meg) and a trip to Niagra Falls and we've been quite busy.

Luckily, we've also been shopping and getting prepared for a roadtrip out west. We're driving from Waterloo to Mt.Robson (just west of Jasper but on the BC side) and gonna be partying, camping and sightseeing along the way. Keep this in mind if you know us and have a bit of grass we can throw a tent on. Hope to see you along the way!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2008

Finke Desert Race 2008

So this is the third time that the Finke Desert Race has been on while I've been in the NT. The first time I had just started working at Bo's and was fairly new to town (maybe 2-3 weeks in at most). I spent the Finke that year working and met a lot of the competitors on the monday night after the race; they were very thirsty. The second time around Nat and I had moved up to Darwin but of course got caught working in Daly Waters for a few months. We ran into a few of the teams heading back north or back to WA. Again, they were quite thirsty.

This year, I made it out to the race. It rained the day and night before Finke which was a mixed blessing. The wet kept the dust down but also made for some interesting track conditions...not to mention the state of the Old South Rd.

There's not much to say about Finke, except that the whole town of Alice pretty much shuts down for the weekend and everybody is camped out besides the track. It'd be a good sight to see from any flight coming from the southern cities - half the town spread out around campfires for the 200km+ stretch to the community of Finke. I've got some more info on Finke but you'll have to read about it later, although it occurred at an earlier date....confusing, eh? That's what happens when I write up posts but don't get the time to computerize'em.

In the meantime here's some race photos.

The whole set can be found here

Posted by Dr.Unk at 4:59 AM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2008

Primeval Red Centre

Driving out to remote communities really gives you a feeling for the true soul of Australia's arid heartland. It's easy to forget when you're living in Alice Springs with an airport, pubs, shopping centres, internet and all the other amenities of home. It's a similar situation with the majority of tourists who visit the Rock or do a three day tour of it and King's Canyon. They see all bitumen roads with not much in between, other than enough roadhouses along the way to keep some semblance of civilization in the backs of their minds.

The "campground" at the Rock that the tour companies use has running showers, toilets, kitchens with electricity (for charging phones and ipods, etc), and even an internet terminal. I reckon they don't know what they're missing. If you're thinking of visiting the Red Centre, make sure you take some extra time and get off the bitumen - choose the path less taken.

It's only then, when you're driving down a red dirt road, surrounded by srub and grasslands running the full spectrum from yellow to the deepest of greens, and an infinite ocean of sky above that you can appreciate the nature of the Red Centre.

In trying to describe the feeling, the experience I'm at a loss for coherence. The only suitable word that comes to mind is 'primeval'. The red of the earth, green of the plants and blue of the sky... basic colours that paint an ancient landscape - almost dinosaur like. The majority of the rocks around were formed well before suitable life was around to be fossilized.

Erosion has had a long time to work out here. Hills and mountains seem to rise from flat ground and are typically all that remains from larger ancient ranges. Simply look at Uluru and Kata Tjuta which now stand as remants of several alluvial fans of sediment deposited by millions of years of erosion from the ranges to the west. Humans have been standing in awe of the landscape here for somewhere around 40,000 years give or take. Primeval..... almost an understatement.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2008

Easter at the Aileron Bush Rodeo

For the second year in a row, I spent my Easter weekend at the Aileron Rodeo, camping out and partying at the rodeo. For the second year in a row, I spent the Sunday of Easter weekend hungover at the rodeo.... but it was worth it for a great party on Saturday night. I don't really have any pics so you'll just have to use your imagination. Here's a few hints - lots of cowboy hats, a country band playin, lots of eskies full of beer and rum and a helluva good messy night.

The rodeo was a little slow going (that's what the beer is for), but when the action was on it was some bloody good entertainment. There were a few stellar rides from the ringers around town and it'd be safe to say that a few of the bulls came out on top as well.

I'd have to say that my personal highlight was seeing the Easter Bunny come close to goin eight seconds on a bullock. That and a few more good pics below:

Posted by Dr.Unk at 7:23 AM | Comments (0)

March 3, 2008

Same ole work, new projects on the side

Again, it appears that my blogging habits have fallen into disarray - any fewer posts and you'd have to go to Lahey's blog to find more recent news. Lahey, I jest. If I was out running marathons and triathlons and accomplishing half as much as you, I wouldn't bother with a blog at all. Kudos to you.

So now it is evident that I am not running triathlons. Sorry to disappoint anyone that thought that that was where this post was going. In fact, I am relatively inactive of late, mostly due to the weather being stupidly hot. When it's 40+ outside the last thought in your mind is "I'm gonna go for an hour long challenging bike ride." In fight between that one and "grab a cold beer outta the fridge and sit in the aircon watching a DVD", it seems to lose almost every time. But again, I say, do not fear for my health. The weather is getting better here in Alice; cooling down to comfortable at night and the days are at most mid 30's so I shall be getting back into shape.

It's kinda funny that although the seasons have completely reversed (in comparison to Canada as they are looking forward to spring while I am anticipating a lovely autumn) the same months have been sluggish for me... except I'm used to the snow and cold making me lazy as opposed to the heat.

Bush Bus continues to be busy and I get out on the road around once a week. Not quite as often as it was before, but I welcome the work in the shed as there's always new things to learn, especially about engines and mechanics. I spent a bit of time welding the other week which brought back some memories of the tree nursery in Bundaberg where I started work as a labouring backpacker and was promoted to handyman for several months. Good times spent earning money as a problem solver. Those types of challenges every day keep a man's mind sharp and his work enjoyable.

So if that was enough babbling on about nothing, I'll get to the point. I started building a canopy for my ute as a personal challenge and something to keep me out of trouble for a while. I'm hoping to have it down for Easter weekend as the Aileron Bush Rodeo is on and it's always handy to have the extra shade in one of the sunniest places on earth. I'll hopefully be recording this for posterity so the photos can be good for either a gloat or a laugh depending on how it all goes down.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:41 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2007

Yet another Aussie Xmas

So, for the third year in a row, I will be celebrating not a white Christmas, but a white hot one instead. Christmas in Australia shares some similarities with the North American variety. Both for instance, usually involve gifts or 'prezzies' as some Aussies call them (you'll recall that this continent loves to shorten [sometimes not evening shortening the word at all] words and just add a y or ie to the end). Most of the time around the holidays is spent with family...usually involving alcohol to keep the spirits merry and the inevitable blue (see 'fight'), when spirits become too merry.

What I do find strange is that some of the same carols are used. I'm dreaming of a white xmas is forever a dream down here... unless it's xmas in July...and you're down in Adelaide or Melbourne or somewhere much closer to Antarctica then Alice Springs. There are some xmas carols that have been modified to something closer to what most Aussies will experience:

Dashing through the bush
In a rusty Holden Ute
Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It's summer time and I am in
My singlet, shorts & thongs
CHORUS:
OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE

Engine's getting hot
Dodge the kangaroos
Swaggy climbs aboard
He is welcome too
All the family is there
Sitting by the pool
Christmas day, the Aussie way
By the barbecue!

CHORUS

Come the afternoon
Grandpa has a doze
The kids and uncle Bruce
Are swimming in their clothes
The time comes round to go
We take a family snap
Then pack the car and all shoot through
Before the washing up

CHORUS

courtesy of Jaybee's Entertainment!

Given that the differences in climate or so drastic, it being a whole other season and all down here, I reckon the old man Claus should be upgraded a little....after all, he's bound to get heat stroke dressed as such:

Something much more suited to the hot Aussie climate would be more inclined to keep the season merry.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 3:50 AM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2007

A few Bush Bus pictures

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:40 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2007

Some photos compiled

I love panorama photos...here's some of my fave's

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

I've been everywhere man...

Even Johnny himself would have difficulties writing a song with the names of some of the places I've been. Kintore, Titjikala, Docker River, Pipalyatjara, Amata, Yuendumu, etc. I've had some pretty long days driving for Bush Bus, but it's hard to argue with the scenery - endless red dirt roads, sweeping mountain ranges, scrubland that stretches past the horizon. It can seem like a lonley land, but it's always refreshing to know that there's some places not yet touched by suburbanization and the endless sprawl found on the east coast and down south.

As it stands, I'm about 3/4 of the way through the process to keep me in the country. I'm now positive that in terms of the creation of bureaucracy and endless paperwork, the department of immigration was a key founder and certainly helps in its procreation. Easy to see how immigration agents make their money.... but not from me.

Can elaborate any more as time is money - especially in an internet cafe.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2007

the beauty of Kakadu

The weekend before we left Darwin, I made sure to make the most of my days off - I went on a camping trip to Kakadu National Park. I would not dare apply my own cumbersome words to describe Kakadu as much as I would use crayons to try and show you the Mona Lisa. I'll just let the photos do the talking.

You can find the whole set here

Posted by Dr.Unk at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2007

Back in Alice

Well, Darwin was lovely but the build-up was approaching...so in an effort to stave off going Tropo, Nat and I have found ourselves back in Alice Springs again. For all those who said we'd be back, please RSVP for the 'I told you so' party to getstuffed@wedontcare.com.

We're staying with friends at the moment and Nat has already been back to work. I, meanwhile am in limbo, with the possibility of leaving at the end of October or staying, hanging in a delicate balance. I wouldn't suggest taking any bets on the outcome - the only race that would be harder to call would involve all horses having greek names and an announcer with a nasty stutter.

But these are the situations that make life interesting and provide those surprises that send you off down uncharted roads...usually for the better.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:56 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2007

....knee jerk response

So things have been interesting around here lately. Nat has aggravated an old injury and is hobbling around on crutches with a brace on her knee. She had wanted some time off work, but definitely not this much time.

At some point I must have made a joke about it, cause within several days, I ran into a knee problem of my own. I still haven't figured out what event trigured it, but over a period of a day and a half, I found myself barely able to walk around and even worse, on the borderline of not being able to drive. Luckily, it's been improving drastically day by day, and with a weekend off, I now find myself back to work with a knee that's at least close to 75%.

I'll keep this short cause I'm now dedicating heaps of time to delving through the bureaucratic maze of information on immigration for both Canada and Australia as these knee problems alter schedules of both travel and savings....

Catch you on the flipside when I've conquered something better than the boredoms of work.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2007

One year and one puppy

On Friday night, Nat and I celebrated our one year anniversary with a dinner cruise around Darwin harbour. The weather could not have been better with calm water and a light ocean breeze. The dinner was a lovely spread including a seafood buffet of oysters, banana prawns and the most succulent smoked mackerel I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. There were, of course, various salads followed by steaks and sausages. The snags seemed a little out of place. Everything else was high class but the sausages were the average australian greasy meat tube...guess I'm just spoiled living in Waterloo eating Oktoberfest sausages piled with sauerkraut and hot mustard...mmmmm.

But anyways I digest...I mean digress. A lovely sunset over the ocean and some delicious James Squire India Pale Ale wrapped up the evening. We returned home to play with Rusty, our new puppy....

...did I forget to mention that?

The night before I'd been working at the bottleshop and some friends of my manager had popped through with this cute little red heeler cross puppy. They mentioned that they needed to find it a home or else it would be going to the RSPCA. Nat and I had talked about a puppy before and the timing couldn't have been better. The next day (Friday morning) I dragged Nat downtown to 'pick something up'....surprise! A puppy.

It's been a while since I've had a puppy and that didn't work out the greatest. Anyone reading remember Ryely and 207 Erb St? Well, I'm applying my lessons learned from him and dedicating heaps more time to Rusty to help her housetrain and ensure the safety of all the shoes in the house. She couldn't be more adorable.

pics to come.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:24 AM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2007

Pics to Come

I don't have internet at home in Darwin yet, so be patient and I'll manage to get the rest of my pics from Daly Waters and roadtrips online within the week.

Check out some new pics here

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

Driving to Darwin

Our first night we camped at Leylin (Edith Falls), north of Katherine. A beautiful little spot, it was actually full when we arrived. The ranger managed to squeeze us into a large lawn that had heaps of room for our swag. The ute stayed out in the parking lot, but that was no drama. Once set up we had an American and a Kiwi invite us over to the firepit they were sharing with a Swiss couple. When we'd checked in, we'd bought a bag of ice to chill our beer - we were instantly popular. A little booze to get the stories flowin, debates started and a great night 'round the fire was had.

A bacon n' egg sanga for brekky and we were off again. The next stop on the way was Hayes Creek for an iced coffee and onwards to a liquid lunch at Adelaide River Inn. The .303 bar is home to Charlie the Buffalo, of Crocodile Dundee fame. It was a nice little pub, but we dared not stay long in case we got recruited again. This trip we vowed to actually make it to Darwin.

Now before leaving Daly Waters, our last caravan park caretaker and mechanic, Russell, looked at the ute and diagnosed a few minor problems and was going to make some suggestions for spare parts to carry in case of emergency. We never got around to that conversation but I'm sure it would have included something like 'always make sure you've got spare radiator hoses and fan belts'.

I had thought about this briefly before leaving and even more briefly when we'd stopped in Katherine for dinner. The conclusion I'd come to was do it in Darwin, lots more shopping options and probably cheaper.

Bad idea.

Four kilometers south of Noonamah, the timing belt light went off as well as the battery light. I started slowing down, thinking to myself 'oh shit'. Twenty seconds later, an explosive spray burst from underneath the bonnet. I pulled over, thinking stupidly that the battery had exploded. It turned out that the fan belts had snapped and the explosion was the radiator hose blowing off of the engine when the pressure had built up due to the water pump not running. It was all logical, but I wasn't thinking very logically at the time.

Luckily, we had phone coverage to call for a tow, and weren't too far from town. An hour later, we'd limped into Darwin on the back of a towtruck. The garage, Offroad Autos, was great, getting the fan belts fixed quickly and topping up my coolant. We were off again.

Heading to the Adventure Tours depot, we dumped off some of the stuff from the back of the ute. Nat sorted out her new roster and we headed to Cullen Bay where we stayed for a night in a beautiful apartment overlooking the harbour - thank you Adventure tours. We met up later on with a friend of Nat's for a beer at the Beachfront Hotel with a view of the sunset over the ocean. I reckon I can handle Darwin for a while.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Leaving Daly Waters

Our time at Daly Waters Pub finally came to an end. Nat and I finished our last shifts and sat down for some beers, knowing that we didn't have to be on the other side of the bar the next day. After working for 8 weeks straight (Nat took 3 days off and 4 for myself), it was a great feeling to be unemployed. A full day was spent packing and drinking... well, mostly drinking.

Not having a timeline to get to Darwin it was nice to be able to sit down and relax. We were able to have a nice dinner, catch Frank's show without having to be on a glass run or doing salads. Our good friends Stew and Jacky had already left as well as other friends who had finished their times at Daly, but there were still heaps of goodbyes to be said....and many a drink to be had.

The next morning we got up for a great brekky and finished packing up the ute. There was a little less stuff this time around so the job was somewhat easier. A room cleaned out and a full truck meant only the open road between us and the next set of jobs...that and a few pots of beer with Knocker, the old bloke who rocked up into Daly four years ago in a bus with no brakes, saying "I'm retired and I'm here til I die." No one better to share a drink with - he's never sugar coated anything in his life. No bullshit is a great relief when you work in bars for long periods of time.

Before leaving Nat and I played with Grizz and Buff for a while, we couldn't leave without saying goodbye to the most lovable father-son dog couple. Kyle might not have so much love for Buff after a love bite to the ass, but that's another story....one with the moral, don't disturb a dog on a chain.

Fuelled up, with a clean windscreen, we made our final 'au revoir's. Quite an emotional moment for everyone. It may have only been 8 weeks, but with the intensity of work and intimacy of a town with a population of 14-18, strong bonds are formed. We were ready to leave but that didn't make it any easier. Our greatest thanks to Robyn and Lindsay for having us - a better set of bosses would be impossible to find. To everyone else at Daly Waters, take care and best of luck in your future travels.

Another beer Knocker?

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)

July 1, 2007

The roadtrip that almost didn't happen...a couple times

A simple plan. Kyle arrives, roadtrip the next day to Gregory National Park and some 4wd adventures with some scenic views of the Victoria River. That was the original plan that had to be altered after we received some 71.8 mm's of rain. This being unusual of course as we are in the middle of the dry season in the Northern Territory.

Lots of rain and dry soil makes for bad washouts. I rang the Timber Creek Ranger Station and was disappointed to find that all the 4wd tracks were closed as the rain had done some significant damage. Day negative two and the destination had to change. Checking the NT road conditions website, I found that the Nathan River Road was still open so I decided to make a return trip to Limmen National Park. This was the park that Nat and I had driven through when we did the Mataranka, Roper Bar, Cape Crawford loop. It was a nice dirt road with some creek crossings and there was still the Western Lost City to explore via a 4wd track.

When Kyle hopped off the bus, I greeted him with a Labatt Blue (did I mention that I'd encountered some liquor rep's in Alice that imported Canadian beer?) and explained the change of plans. Other than the change of destination, the rest of the plan would remain the same...unplanned other than drive somewhere, see some interesting scenery and camp and drink beers.

On Saturday morning we fuelled up, packed up and headed out, managing to leave by 9:30am which I consider an accomplishment. Once on the road, I realized that I forgotten the Landcruiser manual, which I immediately took as a bad omen. The one trip where I don't have the book that describes how to fix problems - is bound to be riddled with problems. 110km from Daly Waters, on the Carpenteria highway, a foul, burning smell began eminating from underneath the bonnet (aussie for hood). Upon pulling over, I discovered that the pulley on the air conditioning unit had seized (possibly a fault with the magnetic clutch) and the belt was spraying rubber everywhere. At this point, I took several minutes to contemplate the situation. I'm not a big fan of working in and around hot engines, so I did what any sensible man would - sat down and had a beer while everything else cooled off. Once I'd wrapped my head around things and sorted it out, the problem was solved by simply removing the belt. I hadn't used the aircon since Alice Springs and we didn't need it for this trip so the roadtrip would go on!

After 2.5h of driving we reached the Heartbreak Hotel in Cape Crawford. From here, we headed north and onto the Nathan River Road. It was a nice afternoon's drive with picturesque creek crossings, cattle on the road and good tunes on the stereo. It really is impossible to adequately describe driving in the outback, with nary a cloud in sight and Blue Sky Mining by Midnight Oil blaring through the ute.

When Nat and I travelled this road (in the opposite direction), we had stopped at Butterfly Springs and were surprised to find a tour bus and a campervan already there. Being the beautiful spot that it was, I had planned to camp there on Saturday night. A nice secluded spot with swimmable water and BBQ pits supplied. This was not the trip where things went according to plan though. When Kyle and I arrived at Butterfly Springs, the place was packed with 4WD's and campervans. There wasn't a single campspot available. Turns out there was a tagalong tour staying there and that accounted for 10 of the 14 or so spots. It was a pretty interesting concept - The guides drive ahead in a Landcruiser ute loaded with supplies and food etc, while a convoy behind them enjoys the scenic drive without worrying about going out bush alone. This particular tour was doing a 24 day round trip tour that started in Alice Springs and was heading up through Arnhem Land.

Not wanting to cramp the style of a bunch of grey nomads (with a slightly more adventurous taste than their bitumen ridden peers) gone bush, we headed further north to the Ranger station to ask advice. It used to be the Nathan River homestead and the old cattle yards are still visible on site. The old homestead was converted to an office and was surrounded by tall, immaculate gum trees and a vibrant, green lawn. Other than the isolation (a partial cure of satellite internet and tv was evident), it was the ideal home out bush, with echoes of John Williamson's classic:

I've been around the world a couple of times, or maybe more,
I've seen the sights, I've had delights on every foreign shore,
but when my mates all ask me the place that I adore,
I tell them right away.

(Chorus)
Give me a home among the gum trees,
with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a ka-kangaroo.
A clothes line out the back, verandah out the front,
and an old rocking chair.

You can see me in the kitchen cooking up a roast,
or Vegemite on toast, just you and me, a cup of tea.
And later on we'll settle down and mull up on the porch,
and watch the possums play.

Chorus

There's a Safeway up the corner, and a Woolys down the street,
a brand new place theyve opened up where they regulate the heat,
but I'd trade them all tomorrow for a simple bush retreat
where the kookaburras call.

Chorus

Some people like their houses with fences all around,
others live in mansions, and some beneath the ground.
But Me, I like the bush, you know with rabbits running 'round,
and a pumpkin vine out the back.

Chorus x2

Asking the Ranger for advice (he's gotta be kept in practice, it would be far too easy to become complacent in that paradise) we found that there was another campground just past the Limmen Bight River crossing. We again went north and found the spot empty and peaceful. A fire was started, and a nice steak dinner cooked and enjoyed with some barley pops and stories of what everyone back home was up to.

Sunday we headed back to the Ranger station and collected the key for the gateway to the Western Lost City. It wasn't actually that dramatic but you need some exaggeration on a roadtrip. We had been following our path on the GPS maps and the 4wd track seemed to weave in and out of ones shown on the map. After about and hour and several points where we were almost convinced that we'd missed a turn or hadn't got the punchline of some bad joke where the Western Lost City was actually lost, we arrived. Well worth the trek in my mind. Without a gravel road and Park signs or barriers present, it actually felt like we'd found something lost...despite the fact that there were already some adventurous nomads (slightly grey) there taking pictures.

Kyle and I hiked up to a crest where we could have a look around. The back end of the formations was a shallow valley that spread out to the horizon where other hills and ranges stood guard. After some mild freeclimbing, I'd managed to cross a few crevasses and arrived atop the actual formations. Looking down to where the 4wd's were parked gave a sense of scale and also isolation as they were the only visible signs of man's presence. It was a moment that although short, seemed to stretch on and on. I could have stood there all afternoon just drinking in that type of isolation. It was the type of feeling that would only resemble a faint echo of that felt by early explorers first coming across such landscapes.

Shaking myself out of the dreamlike state, I realized I hadn't seen Kyle in a while and we had a long drive back to start. I climbed down with a few good pictures and found Kyle down at the ute.

The drive back was much like the drive there. Lots of blue sky, red dirt and savannah like bush and scrubland. Relatively uneventful until a soft bang about 15km from Cape Crawford. I yelled at Kyle to pull over and went to survey the damage - the rear left wheel had blown. Not just a flat, a blown sidewall. Now this shouldn't have been a major drama. I keep two spare wheels with me cause it's not uncommon to run into problems offroading. The problems arose when I pulled out the factory supplied jack. I managed to have a good laugh in spite of the difficulties. The jack was essentially the same one that my parents have for their Camry.

It was adequate enough in strength to lift the 'Cruiser, but came up quite short in...you guessed it - length. Even with several large logs under the cooking plate/jack base, it would only lift the frame enough to barely get the rim of the wheel off the ground. The problem was that lifting the frame just took the weight off the springs which were free to expand. Eventually we sorted it out and backed the 'Cruiser up onto a small berm so the rim was sitting above the road level. Then we had to dig underneath the plate where the springs are bolted to the axle, as the short jack was too tall to fit under that ideal jacking point. From there things went a little smoother. With the 'Cruiser jacked up, we were able to remove the blown out tyre and fit the spare on (once enough dirt was removed from under the wheel).

Packed up, we headed to the Heartbreak Hotel again to grab a pie for dinner. The rest of the trip back to Daly Waters went without event... other than the calf and 8 or 9 kangaroos that I barely missed... and the one kangaroo that I didn't - ouch. Another roadtrip in the books and a great Canada Day story in Oz - told over Kokanees, Labatt Blue and even a Crown Royal and Coke.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2007

New toy...

I've found a new toy for the travelling man - a gps receiver. There's nothing new about GPS. It's been around for years and more than a decade or two in the military. But until now I've never really thought about gettting one. I've never done much camping, hiking or driving where I was that far off the beaten path that I'd need satellites to get me unlost, found, or out of quagmire.

So why did I get one now? Well, I borrowed Stu's GPS to play around with and took it on some bike rides down the surrounding station's fencerows. When I got back I had a complete track of my ride and a better idea of distances travelled and what directions I'd set off in. This was helpful as the first time I'd ridden off in search of new things and adventure I ended up 2km up the Stuart Highway. Stu's GPS was several years old and still worked quite well, so I convinced myself that in getting a relatively nice one now, I'd have something to use for years to come. It's always easier to justify buying a new toy when you can amortize it over several years.

Being in Daly Waters and the middle of nowhere has led me to step up my use of eBay. Found a good deal online and within a week I had a brand new Garmin eTrex Legend CX to play with.

Along with spending a bit of time mapping out bike routes along fencerows, I've also been having a look at satellite images of Daly Waters, the old airport and the surrounding area. A view that originates in outer space and shows a bike ride is quite the testament to our technological advances. Google Earth is a great program to use and if nothing else provides the party trick of 'let's see what your house looks like from space'. Apart from that it's also a very powerful tool that can be added to and modified by its users.

Stuck on dialup internet, I don't quite have the freedoms to explore multimedia blogging that broadband provided. I am going to attempt some rough combinations of gps, photos and blogging. With a camera, gps and google earth, a whole trip can be plotted and recorded with the photos taken attached to a location on earth. There is some new word for this like geoblogging or geophotography, etc. I'm not sure if it will work very well but I'm going to see what I can put together.

So keep an eye out for some geocrazy stuff going on in Dr.Unk's Office.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:09 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2007

There is hope after Bush...

I don't follow the US presidential race too closely, especially this early into it, but I really do hope that some US voters or even politicians read this article.

How to restore America's place in the world

If Churchill managed, in the middle of a world war, to steady a nation - "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself", then maybe Barak Obama or Hilary Clinton or even someone else can do the same in a country that isn't getting bombed daily, isn't suffering economically, infrastructurally, etc....

The world will benefit from a US president that can show strength through wisdom not through force.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:02 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2007

Couple days off....roadtrip!

So after a month of working 7 day weeks, Nat and I finally got a few days off. We had originally planned for just a day off, but in this part of the world, one day won't get you very far unless you're flyin'....literally.

After a relaxing morning knowing there was no work ahead, we piled some clothes and the swag into the back of the ute and headed for Katherine. It's the nearest town of any size and we had a list of provisions to pick up for the staff (mostly hair products and a few other nessecities). After an afternoon spent in civilization, we headed south again to spend the night at Mataranka.

Mataranka is home to a series of thermal springs which are located just a few kilometres out of town. Nat and I headed to Bitter Springs in Elsey National Park, to catch a warm swim at sunset. The water was pleasantly warm and perfectly clear, with a bluish tinge that hinted at something mystical. We swam for awhile, watching the light disappear and the first stars come out to shine. It was at this point that I began regretting the fact that I had left my towel in Daly Waters. Although the springs were quite warm, the night-time air was not. Getting out of the pools was painfully chilling and drying off was done with a floormat/blanket, the only thing that we'd brought resembling a towel.

Moving on, we headed to the Mataranka homestead, a caravan park/resort that provided access to some more thermal springs (ones that we avoided as usually full of families with little runts splashing around). There we grabbed a meal from the bistro counter and a few beers from the bar. Some good times were had as we met up with a couple that we'd shared drinks with at Daly Waters the morning before.

We swagged out that night and packed up the next morning and headed to Roper Bar. The drive out was pretty cruisy, with the single lane bitumen lasting until the last 40km. The road turned a bit corrugated at that point but flying 110km/h in the 'cruiser eliminates most of those bumps.

We lunched at Roper Bar and then headed down the Nathan River Rd through the proposed Limmen National Park. I'm not sure what was still proposed about it as it had all the signs of a real park. Nat reckoned that it was just paperwork or a bill to pass legislation so it will probably be a proposed park for a while if the parliament here is anything like back home.

As we headed east along the Roper River, we were surprised to turn a corner here and there and find a fishing camp. It's a very popular spot for Barra fishing which was evident as anywhere you could drop a boat into the river there were 15-20 camping trailers, motorhomes or vehicles. These camps disappeared once the road turned south away from Roper River and loosely followed the coastline of the Gulf of Carpenteria (no scenic views though, we were still 30-50km inland).

Travelling south we came across controlled bushfires - set to reduce buildups of fuel that would allow natural bushfires to wreak havoc. There were also plenty of creek crossings and a few river crossings, all complete with crocodile warning signs. Alas, none were in view despite the warm afternoon sun (morning sun is preferred, I guess). By mid afternoon we'd made it to the turnoff for the Limmen Blight fishing camp. Dropping in crossed our minds but we had a tight schedule to maintain as we were both back to work the next day and at that point there was still 500-600km of road back to Daly. We pressed on, and stopped in at Butterfly Springs late in the afternoon. Pulling in to the campgrounds we were surprised to find a tour bus and a caravan. 'Twas popular place considering we'd only passed two vehicles on the 200km of road leading up to it.

Butterfly Springs is the one place in the park where they reckon that you can swim as it's not connected to any waterways that crocs inhabit. It's formed from water running off the ranges that surround it. It's also plainly evident why it's named as such - the rock walls surrounding the water were coated with thousands of butterflys soaking up the afternoon sunlight. The air was chilly and so was the water so we opted out of the only swimming opportunity (although an older couple braved the temperatures).

From there we continued on, turning off to check out the Southern Lost City. The Lost Cities are sandstone formations where erosion has left towers of rock whose silhouettes eerily resemble the products of a lost civilization. Up close, they are impressive towers reminiscent of Easter island's statues, their half-faces glowing in the last bits of light from the setting sun.

By this point we were getting thirsty and according to the maps, were only 130km from Cape Crawford and the Heartbreak Hotel. We hopped back in the ute and drove on as the last light disappeared and the 'roos and wallabies came out to play. The spotlights (sorry, spotlight - still need to replace one) worked and we managed not to run over any marsupials that bounded along the road.

We made camp at Cape Crawford and enjoyed a warm meal and cold beers. Supposedly the Heartbreak Hotel was built by a bloke who'd given up living when his missus died. He was convinced by a mate to hold on to life and build something beautiful. So he built the pub. Of course, immediately after hearing that story another local reckons the story he'd heard was a little different where instead the bloke's missus had run away with his mate and the pub was built so old man would have a place to drown his sorrows.

A quick snack in the morning and we turned onto the Carpenteria Highway and headed west for Daly Waters and back to work. Another successful roadtrip.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)

June 1, 2007

The internet is everywhere

So as most people who follow my travels know, I'm in a very small town - no, make that community, working at the Daly Waters Pub. The logistics of everything here are unique as it's a fully operational pub and restaurant that is 270km from the nearest town with provisions. The truck comes once a week with supplies, another fruit and veg truck comes on another day, but again once a week. You certainly need to understand the market and inventory when planning for the week ahead.

The week that just passed was a busy one for us. The caravan park was chockers (ie. full) every night. Lindsay was pumping out 80-100 beef and barra meals off the barbie and Robyn was doin an additional 25-40 meals from the a la carte menu. By the time the beer delivery arrived this week we were down to only 3 of 6 draught beers.

And yet through this all, I'm still connected to the net. I'm working through dial-up right now which is why I haven't updated my photos lately. That will hopefully happen as soon as I figure out how to easily patch in or network with the satellite internet on Pat's computer. A little highspeed action should provide a few more glimpses into the pub. Till then try the Daly Waters Pub site.

We also just won the NT's Best Wayside Inn for the the 3rd year running!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2007

I guess Alice wasn't remote enough for us...

So Nat and I finally left Alice Springs. We packed up our stuff on the back of the ute, or should I say, I packed my golf clubs and three bags and then Nat filled the rest of the space, and we headed off. We spent the first night in Tennant Creek with Jason and Jess, some mates of Nat's who run a motel there. The next day we were headed for Mataranka and the hot springs but it was not to be.

We took a pitstop in Daly Waters, a little wayside pub with the oldest liquour license in the Northern Territory. After a beer, we noticed that there were some help wanted signs posted. Nat and I joked that we should just stop here and give up on Darwin. Another beer and we started talking with some of the staff who'd finished for the day. They said it was a pretty cruisy job, with tons of hours and a good chance to save a lot of money.

Nat and I decided to crash at Daly for the night anyways, cause the sun was goin down and Mataranka was another 1.5h up the Stuart highway. A few more beers followed, a talk with the owners and by the time we woke up the next morning we were employees of the Daly Waters Pub.

Daly Waters was named after the Governor of South Australia, Sir Dominice Daly, by John McDouall Stuart. The area was where Stuart found fresh water on his successful South to North crossing of Australia. Daly later became an important stop on the telegraph line as well as a pitstop for cattle drovers. The pitstop tradition continued as Daly Waters was a refuelling stop for early international flights, and a dispersal point for UK mail. During WWII Daly was a base for Mitchell and Hudson bombers as well as a fighter squadron.

The Daly Waters of today is a little more quiet with the Pub being the only business in town. Needless to say it is still a favoured pitstop for caravans and backpackers. Photos, shirts, hats, bras, underwear, licenses and cards of all sorts line the walls. A plaque commemorates the pub as the shortest lived MacDonalds (1 day) with the most limited menu as well.

And this is where I will be for the next couple of months. 270km from the nearest town, living and working in the Daly Waters Pub. So if you're travelling the North Stuart Highway, be sure to drop by for a beer and continue the tradition!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:47 PM | Comments (0)

May 1, 2007

A boggy adventure with a mate from the 'Frew

So this entry should probably have come before the farewell that precedes it but it will require a lot more recollection and effort, hence I've procrastinated and left it til now.

For around a month, Will and I have been planning a trip to Boggy Hole. I'd heard it was a good 4WD trek and one that was off the beaten path to most tourists. Originally we'd hoped to get a group of 7-10 people together and bring a second vehicle but no one really committed to it so in the end it was Will on his bike and Mike (good mate from the 'Frew) and I in the 'Cruiser.

Mike had to fly back to Sydney before the next weekend so we looked up some flights on Webjet and found that it was actually gonna be cheapest to fly from Yulara (airport at the resort near Uluru) so the plan changed such that Mike and I would continue on to Uluru after Boggy Hole and Will would just loop back to Alice.

We left on Sunday at noon and made our way to Hermannsburg where we left the bitumen (type of pavement) and followed a dirt track 10km where it met up with the Ellery Creek riverbed. This led us south where it met with the Finke river, a currently dry riverbed 250 million years old, with 100 million years spent travelling its current path.

Another 5-7kms down the riverbed we found Boggy Hole. The water level was somewhat low but it did not spoil the beauty of the waterhole. Boggy Hole is one of 6 permanent waterholes that reside in the West MacDonnell ranges. I've been to Glenhelen gorge, Ellery Big Hole and Ormiston Gorge (not having seen Redbank Gorge or the last of the six) and although the swimming was better at most of them, Boggy Hole was definitely more picturesque and secluded. We were the only people for tens of kilometers and only the dingoes rivalled us in our laughter.

The swimming was a little on the cold side and a little manky (fair amount of weeds and muddy bottom) but we had the company of several black swans and a plethora of ducks and other birds.

We cooked up a good feed for the night with snags for entrees and steak sandwiches and an onion/spud mix for mains. Desert was, of course, more of the beer that we'd already beeen drinking. It was a great night under an almost full moon, which as I hinted at earlier was saluted to by many a dingo.

A breakfast of more snags, some eggs and toast was prepared rather sloppily with the help of a scraper/flipper made from the carton of XXXX that we'd almost finished off. Note: if camping with a hot plate or any sort of frying instrument, always remember a spatula of some sort. Attempting to use cardboard as a replacement may alter the taste of certain foods and most likely will result in burnt knuckle hair.

The next part of the trek involved criss-crossing the riverbed a fair bit before finally leaving the Finke Gorge National Park and continuing on through the Tempe Downs Station. The tracks through Tempe Downs were pretty cruisy, dirt tracks allowing us to make up some time and keep up with Will on his bike where previously he'd left us in his trails. The bike floats across the rocks in the creekbeds which demand more care in driving with the 'cruiser.

Once we made it to the Giles Track, Will pumped up his tyres and filled up on petrol. We parted ways and he headed east to the Stuart Highway and we ventured west to the Luritja Highway. This would lead south to the Lasseter which we took out to Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park.

Once at the park we headed to the campgrounds to see which tourguides were out. Ran into a few that I knew, so we chatted to them before heading to the Rock for a few pictures, visit to the cultural center and eventually sunset. It was nice to have some clouds in the sky for the sunset as my previous visit had been a cloudless day. The photos of Kata Tjuta were spectacular which the clouds feathering the setting sun. Colours I hadn't seen before danced across Uluru before the clouds and setting sun muted them.

That night, we chilled out with some of the guides and their groups before making camp for the night. Having seen so many clouds at sunset, we should not have been surprised when a few drops of rain woke us up just before sunrise. Sacrificing a few minutes sleep for being high and dry turned out to be a good idea as we made it to sunrise to catch a rainbow. We cruised around the Rock and checked out the Mala walk and the Kantju waterhole. Getting up early also provided enough time for us to visit Kata Tjuta before Mike flew out. On the drive out there, it started pouring rain. When we got there, it was far too wet for either of the hikes. We took some nice photos and headed back to Uluru to admire it in the rain.

Since first visiting the Rock and seeing other photos of it, I've always wanted to see it in the rain. I will tell you this; it did not disappoint. The downpour had produced numerous waterfalls that were cascading down the Rock, disappearing into crevasses and reappearing further down only to fill depressions, creating temporary pools that would eventually overflow, producing more waterfalls. It was truly a powerful moment that I was lucky to witness. When parked on the road encircling Uluru, we even witnessed the pool at the top of the Kantju waterhole overflow and the rainwater's first descent into the sacred place below.

After plenty of photos from around Uluru, we headed back to the resort for a quick bite to eat, and I dropped Mike off at the airport to send him on his way to Sydney. I headed east en route to the Stuart highway and the rest of my 4.5h voyage back to Alice Springs. A better 4WD trek/road trip I could not have asked for.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 7:10 AM | Comments (0)

Kev/Earl/Logan/Chops/Andy...etc says goodbye to Bo's

It's official - as of last Saturday night I am no longer an employee of Bojangles Saloon. The working holiday visa states that you cannot work for one employer for more than six months. I managed to work at Bo's for ten (spaced over two visas). I had an awesome time, made some incredible friends and will never forget how all the regulars made me feel at home despite as they called it, my 'North Americanism'.

I thought about personally thanking everyone but there's far too many names to list and, besides that, the one person who ended up reading this would surely be the one whose name I'd somehow forgotten. If I've served you at Bo's and weren't a c#$t, thanks for the memories and for making it a place where everyone knows your name....or at least one of six to seven nicknames...

I will truly miss Alice Springs so don't think you've seen the last of this canuck in the heart of Australia. I will be back. There's no telling when cause it will most likely depend on some working visa trickery. Just don't be surprised if sometime down the line you see a guy that looks like Earl having a drink or two in Bo's and around town.

The next stop on the Australian adventure....

Darwin

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:40 AM | Comments (0)

April 9, 2007

A weekend in Aileron...

Recipe for a good weekend - camping, beer and bulls. I finished up work on Saturday at 5pm and swung by to pick up Will and some beers. We drove 130km north to Aileron (avoiding several 'roos on the way) and spent the next 45 minutes driving around trying to find where Bull and Jess and the crew were camping. Lucky for us, Bull and Robbie were driving around looking for jumper leads (their generator wasn't starting) and we spotted Bull's ute and they pointed us in the right direction.

Setting up camp was easy; unload esky, toss swags on ground (flat if possible) and then commence drinking. The night progressed to the dance, which consisted of a band in a big shed, BYO and a $5 cover charge. It seemed like half of Alice Springs was at the dance (or at least half of Bo's regular crowd).

The next morning i felt a little rough so I reckoned that a Bloody Mary (I'd kill for a Caesar but there just aren't any visionaries who have combined tomato and clam juice in this country) might be a good idea. It wasn't a great one after all cause the only vodka we had was some 42 Below Fejoia flavoured vodka. Now it's a very very good vodka but I've now learned that flavoured vodka should not be used in Bloody Mary's, with the exception of pepper vodka.

The afternoon was filled with a lot of lawnchair action - sitting, watching the rodeo and alternating beer and water. The bulls put on a good show; not many of the cowboys made the eight second mark. But really, it's always more exciting when the bull comes out on top. It's like NASCAR - everyone wants a good race but really they crave the crashes more than anything.

After the rodeo action was over, the BBQ action began. A giant bowl full of marinated steaks, some more beer and that's what I call a sweetazz camp dinner. Sunday night was a little more quiet with a smaller crowd but still tons of fun. All in all a good weekend at a bush rodeo. Happy Easter everyone!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:43 PM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2007

No water, no rubies...

Last Monday, I finally got the ute where I needed it - fully functional and ready for some 4WD tracks. It was a week late cause the leaf springs that I needed didn't get delivered the week prior. They arrived last week and were installed so Nat and I decided to head out to the Eastern MacDonnell ranges. Not quite as well known as the West Macs but just as beautiful and less tourists (always a bonus).

We left in the early afternoon and made our first stop at Trephina Gorge. It's a lovely place that would have been a great place for camping had there been a little more water flowing in the river/creek. We hiked for a bit looking for a suitable waterhole but found nothing deep enough for a decent swim. The only thing I discovered was that the majority of the water was flowing under the sand in the riverbed - hence I'm standing in the picture with one foot on top of the sand and the other down on the river bed.

After Trephina, we headed to Arltunga, an old ghost town that once supported a brief gold rush in the late 19th to early 20th century. It now stands abandoned except for a visitors center/ranger station and a pub. How the pub pays it's bills I do not know. It's fairly far off the beaten track and is only open from Mar - Dec, Thurs - Monday, 12-9pm. That said, we would have been customers had we not completely been trapped in the 21st century with only cards and no cash on hand.

The night was then spent back 40km at the Ross River Resort, who did accept modern forms of payment. It's a nice turn of the century homestead that has been refurbished to its original form. I believe that it played a part in the filming of Quigley Down Under..

The next day we headed again to Arltunga and checked out the visitors center. Not much different from other gold rush towns other than this one wasn't as plentiful and the hardships were even harder. I also found evidence of Canadian industry with an old Ford motor

From Arltunga we headed out a 4WD track to Ruby Gap. After a while, the graded dirt road ended at an old station and a sign to the left directed us down a much more rugged track. This last 20km in to Ruby Gap was slow going. The path was rarely more than two tyre tracks crossing various washouts and often followed dried up creek beds for hundreds of meters. After an hour of toiling we made it to the dried up bed of the Hale River - not anything like the posters describing its previous flooding. We headed up the riverbed in search of some waterholes that the ranger had described. No such luck. All that was to be seen was lots of rock, sandy riverbed and some knee deep water inhabited by a few leeches and tadpoles. Even though the river had flooded last month, there was little evidence other than the debris that the water had scattered everywhere.

The trip home was alright. I was satisfied in knowing that the ute handled alright under relatively hardy conditions (nothing stressful but quite bumpy) but wasn't quite happy with the lack of water. That's the one column where the Western Macs seems superior - nearly yearlong waterholes.

Next big trek - hopefully heading to Boggy Hole via the Giles track or Giles via Boggy.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:41 AM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2007

Camp oven cookout

Nothing better than a good ole fashioned cookout to work out the kinks after a St.Paddy's day. Bull, his mate Hat and I headed out with the ladies (Nat, Jess and Mel) to a little creekbed about 20kms outside of Alice. Hat and Bull pretty much had the feast prepared when Nat and I arrived (late, as Bull's directions only included a turnoff and a riverbed). It was a meal fit for a king, or at least a king who was grounded enough to eat a succulent (sp?) beef and lamb roast with pumpkin, squash, and taters cooked in some pots buried near the ashes of a fire. Other than a few grains of sand in the gravy, you'd hardly be able to tell how it was cooked. Cheers to the beers lads, a better Sunday in Alice is hard to find.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2007

For Canucks abroad get your Cherry dose every week!

I do manage to catch the occasional NHL game down here in Alice Springs on Foxtel. Unfortunately, it's rarely a Canadian team playing and I've yet to see the Leafs play. Two fingers crossed: the Leafs make the playoffs and get some coverage down here.

Being a Canuck overseas is usually pretty easy. We're not American, so most people like us. The polite bit gets us by, others dig our accent cause it's almost like television and movies. The hard part is missing Canadian stuff - like Hockey Night in Canada. It's tough without it. For a while, I used the theme song as my ringtone. Just thinking about it almost brings a tear to my eye.

Luckily, I can get my weekly dose of Don Cherry through the lovely people at the CBC. They've kindly brought him to the web with the magic of technology. So when you're feelin a little homesick, put on some Don (and Ron!) and think back to those Saturday nights spent with family and friends on a cold winters night and hearing that music start up and everyone run into the living room to sit down for a double header of hockey.

Find the latest Coach's Corner here

Or some familiar tunes:

Classic verison of the 80's

Jazzy version by the shuffle demons

Shoot out the lights

Current'ish version

If any of the owners of this copyrighted material would like me to remove it I will. I only post it to provide Canucks abroad with a taste of home. Keep the true north strong and free, be patriotic and proud to be Canadian!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:56 AM | Comments (0)

March 9, 2007

My New (to me) Ute

This is what I'll now be rollin' in - a '92 Landcruiser trayback ute. True Aussie style. It still needs some work done and some cleanin up but she's a beaut ute and she's gonna take me the rest of the way 'round Oz. I'll be sure to add some pics of any work I get done; I'm currently looking at building some roofracks over the cage (not in the pictures) so it can support a canopy.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 4:49 AM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2007

Familiar faces from a land far away...

I'd been chatting recently in a few emails to Carolyn and Joe as I'd noticed that their journeys around the east coast had been bringing them closer and closer to Alice Springs. We exchanged numbers and I told them to ring me when they found themselves in the area. I got a text message last week saying that they were in Mt.Isa, were leaving soon and that they'd see me in a few days. Of course, if you've read their blog, you'll probably already know that they ended up spending a few more days in Mt.Isa dealing with the campervan.

Three days later, I got another text saying that they were leaving, and this time it wasn't a joke. True to that, they showed up in town after just a few days of travel (pretty good timing for a campervan from Isa to Alice). It's always pretty sweet to see good friends again and meeting up with friends on the other side of the world.

I set them up in our backyard which is easily spacious enough to accomodate several vans, let alone their lonely '78 Hiace. Almost immediately Joe set about taking apart his engine to find an exhaust leak that had been robbing their van of performance, not to mention blowing out more hot air than a speaker at the Republican convention.

I was doing a week of night shifts, which worked out well, cause it gave me a chance to show Joe and Carolyn around Alice. Twenty minutes later (joke), we sat down and had some beers, which is easily on par to a town tour - or at least a cultural one.

It's been good times having them around. We took the opportunity of a nice cool morning to climb Mt.Gillan and even had it done and breakfast cooked by 10am. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you get up at sunrise. Personally, I've always preferred accomplishing lots by the time the sunrises, not afterwards.

The 'freeloaders' as Max calls them, took a 3 day tour down to Uluru, Kata Tjuta and King's Canyon and are back now, preparing to venture forth on their tour of Oz. I think they're leaving early Tuesday morning, which of course means that we're having a big ole BBQ on Monday night.

Good luck on your future travels, guys, and maybe I'll catch up with you on the west coast!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 5:03 AM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2007

One Big Day Out

A nice little coincidence with the timing of our trip was that we were able to hit up the Big Day Out. It's a giant music festival that tours Australia with a ton of stages and pretty much a range of artists to satisfy even the most eclectic of musical tastes.

We started partying at one of Nat's friends' places around 11am and headed to the showgrounds for 1pm. The first act we caught was the Herds, an urban funk/hip hop (maybe, I'm not too good with all the definitions of style in today's music....damn, I'm getting old) band that I'd heard of (pun intended, add a rimshot if you have your own drumset handy) on occasion. They do a cover of a song called "I was only 19", which was done originally by Redgum and is a brilliantly written song about the tragedies of war and stemmed from Vietnam I believe... Anyways, we were lucky enough to see the Herds cover it along with the writer and lead-singer of Redgum. It was pretty powerful.

After that, we headed down to the larger outdoor stages to catch My Chemical Romance, Eskimo Joe, and the Killers. From there it was back to the Boilerroom for the Streets, and back to the main stages to catch the final acts of Jet, Muse and Tool. All I can say is that Tool rocks. Any band that has a giant flaming hand shooting 20-40m fireballs from the fingertips, knows how to put on a fucking rock show.

They ended at 10pm so we moved on to the Green stage where Violent Femmes were finishing up. They may look like a bunch of old men on stage, but they rock just as much as when they were 80's icons. Missed Blister in the Sun, but heard Add it Up and Gone Daddy Gone. They finished at 10:30pm so obviously we moved on again, back to the Boilerroom for the last couple tracks spun by the Crystal Method DJs.

At the end of it all, we sat around mobile phones ablaze with text messages and intermittent calls trying to round up everyone outside the gates of a venue emptying 35,000 people. Let's just say that took a few minutes.

A little after party til the wee hours of the morn and that was ONE BIG DAY OUT!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:17 AM | Comments (0)

Trip to Adelaide for a week

So I'm currently on vacation. The first day of which was spent driving the 1540km from Alice to Adelaide with Nat. We switched every couple of hours so that the other person could relax or nap or just zone out without consequences. This is pretty much required because the driving is so monotonous.

The actual road itself (South Stuart Highway) is in pretty good condition and has very few bends or dangerous curves. The real danger in driving the outback is the wildlife. At dawn and dusk, you will encounter more 'roos, cattle, camels, emu and other animals then at any other time of the day.

Taking that into account, once out of the danger zone (insert Top Gun theme music here) you can cruise along at a decent pace cause the landscape is flat, other traffic can be seen close to hours away and in the Northern Territory the speed limit is 130km/h (new this year, was previously unlimited..). The crossover to South Australia doesn't change the scenery much but the legal speed limit decreases to 110km/h.

We stopped for petrol at various places along the way, most of which have populations that include dogs, cats, cattle and sheep and are written on chalkboards to ensure you've got info from the latest census (most likely had at the pub the previous night).

Lunch break was in Coober Pedy, the source of 90%+ of the world's opals. It's an interesting place that slightly resembles an alien planet. There are heaps (pardon the pun) of mounds of white dirt piled up everywhere from the mining around town. The word around town is that although mining in town is prohibitted, most houses have anywhere from 5-50 rooms in the basement as 'renovations' tend to pay for themselves.

After that, the landscape added a few more rolling hills and the occasional salt lake which tended to be water-filled as the region had received some hefty rainfalls over the holidays. Port Augusta was the first major city in SA that we cruised through and was an alright town considering the smell of industry dominated the fragrances wafting through the open windows.

Having left at 6am, we finally arrived in Adelaide around 9pm local time, which translates into a 14h journey all up. If you wanna do the math and find an average speed please realize that everything is approximate and we did try to respect the speed limits at all time...

So nice to see a beach again.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:57 AM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2007

No knock on my door....yet

I woke up this morning to a text message from Will warning me to "if you don't want to get stuck in Alice forever stay away from the Todd like the plague". So I got up, of course, and headed straight for the river. Not because I wanted to establish my "localship" per se, but to see the Todd flow. It's been raining for a couple days now with last night's downpour capping it off. I could tell that the river was going to be raging.



Rory and Earl's Todd River Rafting company ain't just a pipe dream...check out some of those rapids!




And by the way, Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, I'm still waiting on my citizenship...it's been like an 1.5h since I've seen the Todd flow for the 3rd time....what kind of speedy and efficient government bureaucracy are you?

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2007

A day off to recover

It's been fairly quiet around Alice now that Christmas and New Year's are over. I went up to Tennant Creek on a few days off with Nat. She does a trip every couple of weeks for Bush Bus, essentially an aboriginal greyhound service for the outback. It was an early start goin around to the camps in Alice Springs to pick up passengers and some cargo.

There's not a lot to look at on the trip to Tennant except for trees, rocks and the occasional dry creek bed. That said, the recent rain meant that everything had greened up a lot so although it was barren, it was green. Green plants, red earth and blue sky is a striking combination.

This trip pushed my northern boundary of exploration a little further - Tennant is roughly 450km north of the Tropic of Capricorn. The trip also offered me my first glance of the Devil's Marbles; The north Stuart Highway cuts right through them. The Marbles are a formation of eerily round rocks that sit balanced on other rocks. You can't really see the formations as the postcards depict so I reckon I'll have to stop there sometime when I get a chance.

When we were in Tennant I did finally get a chance to photograph one of the roadtrains that makes its way from Adelaide to Darwin and vice versa via Alice Springs.

Other than that it's been mostly work - I'm doing dayshifts now. It's good to get some nights off to myself. The golf game has suffered because of it (still been too lazy to get up for 9 holes before starting work) but I should have more inspiration to get out now that Max is back from holidays. An early wake-up is always more likely if you know that someone is waiting for you and suffering the same type of morning. Like they (you know - them) say, it's for the love of the game (and always will be for me, cause my golf game is crap).

The Todd River flowed again so I'm wary of that. They (again...) say that if you've seen the Todd River flow three times you're on your way to becoming an Alice local. Maybe I can use that if I talk to immigration. I'll tell 'em I've seen the river flow 3 times so now they've gotta give me citizenship. They could turn it into a quest. Come to Australia and see the Todd flow - become an Aussie.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:05 AM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2006

Rory and Earl's Todd River Rafting Tours...

It rained and stormed for a while the other day and rained a little bit more today. What happens with all that rain in the desert? Surprisingly, it doesn't all seep into the dry ground. The rain up north pooled together and for the first time that I've seen it, the Todd River flowed.

You may remember the Todd River from another post - the Henley on Todd, the dry river bed races. Today, the Todd was a far cry from the dust bowl that sported tug-o-wars and bottomless boat races. It was a meandering, flowing river, nowhere near full, but containing water. When I found out that it was flowing I was skeptical (it was only 4.5h after I'd gone to bed) but it was a sight I couldn't miss. I got up reluctantly and rode down the street with my camera in tow to catch the mighty Todd in action.

It was a semi-impressive (there are stories of much more raging waters occurring) and seldomly seen sight that turned out to be worth the wake up call. After riding upstream along the bike path to the telegraph station for some photos I returned home with an idea.

RIDE SOME TUBES DOWN THE TODD

It turned out that Rory was game for the adventure so we went and bought some inner tubes from a tire (they spell it tyre here) shop for $5 and got Nat to drop us off at the telegraph station.

With enthusiasm we rushed to the river only to find it too shallow. A few hundred meters downstream however, it deepened and the river rafting run began. It was never a complete run as the shallow stretches appeared occasionally. That said, there was more floating than hiking done and we considered it a successful trial run. Other conclusions arrived at were that larger tires (maybe tractor) were needed or several strung together to improve performance in the shallows. A floating esky was also determined to be a necessity for the next trip cause if you're planning on putting yourself up a river without a paddle, there might as well be a beer in your hands!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2006

It's just hockey...you shouldn't have to imply it's on ice

So I've discovered that I'm not totally 'sans NHL' down here on the other side of the world in the middle of the desert. I may have mentioned it already but Foxtel down here carries two games a week. Unfortunately, being Fox, they tend to be Phoenix or Atlanta or other crappy American team games. Every once in a while I can catch a Canadian team play or at least an interesting matchup like the battle of Pennsylvania, where Crosby took the league lead in scoring and the Pens marched all over the Flyers.

On top of that, it's also come to my attention that the conglamerate of Youtube/Google/we wanna own the part of the world that isn't Microsoft has struck a deal with the NHL to show highlights of games. Sweetazz.

Nothing like NHL highlights available anywhere the internet is! For more updates just bookmark/favouritize the home of hockey on Youtube - NHLTube

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)

December 5, 2006

Rainstorm and a new lawn

It doesn't rain a whole helluva lot in the desert but when it does...lookout. We tend to get a lot of rain all at once as evidenced by the flood on our back porch in the pics below. The water was well needed though and did a good job of brightening up our new lawn which actually makes the backyard a living space as opposed to a dead and barren piece of dirt occasionally crossed when getting to the house/other rooms/etc.


The rain was also welcomed by another group who enjoys their lawn - golfers. I, being a golfer (or at least doing an impression of one), was happy to see the course looking a little more green. Definitely helps the greens look healthier and slows them down a bit so it's not ridiculously hard to putt on them. I'd like to say that it's improved my game but it seems to take the same amount of strokes whether the weather is hot, cool, sunny, cloudy or..or....duststorm? Haven't had to play in one yet but I've seen a few dust devils meandering along the fairways once in a while. It's always nice when you don't have to leave town to golf and yet there's still all sorts of wildlife and scenery around.

Old Lawn	New Lawn

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:59 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2006

Such a small world...

I know I've said it before and I don't care if you're tired of reading it...it's a very small world. The newest case - while working last night I saw a girl at the other end of the bar who looked familiar. I took a longer glance, bordering on staring and finally walked up and said "Kate?".

It was Kate Scott, a friend from high school who has been down here with family and was on one of the many tours that go through Alice and tend to stop into Bo's. I knew that she was in Australia and she said that she'd heard I was working in a pub in Australia but that was the extent of either of us knowing each other's whereabouts.

We had a good chat and caught up on as much as we could while I had the time (on break). It little surprises like that that make travelling so unique; and yes, I realize that I haven't and won't be actually travelling anywhere for a few months...but that doesn't matter, travelling can be a passive experience as well.

Enough of me blathering about, if any more little coincidences and run-ins happen to me, I'm sure you'll find me in some Douglas Adams novel. For now, I bid you all adieu from the pub at the end of the universe (or in the middle of australia, almost the same).

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:11 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2006

Worthy cause for your charity Mo-ney

In Australia, they have the common sense to appreciate a nice beefy 'stache, or as most call it - a sweetazz Mo.

Some smart gentlemen down here have capitalized on that and started a program called Movember to draw awareness and raise funds for male health causes. The premise is that you go clean shaven at the start of the month and then proceed for the month of Movember to grow a nice Mo and get sponsored by friends, family and philanthropists.

Alas, I was too late in learning of the challenge to do the clean-shaven start, but of course, I am still sporting a great Mo as I usually do. If you'd like to help out or learn more check out Movember

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2006

A green backyard

Had a BBQ the other night to celebrate, well it wasn't really celebrating anything other than a day off work and....I guess our green lawn. We've been spending some time raking it and seeding it down and watering it a little to encourage the grass to grow back.

It's now quite green and only a few bare patches remain to be fixed and re-sown. I winced a little at how much water we used to revitalize it but with an actual lawn instead of a dustbowl, I'm hoping that it will keep things cleaner and thus eventually reduce other water consumption. Probably not, but I need to justify it somehow. That and it keeps all the roommates happy and was a good project that everyone could join.

My next act of domestication is maintaining a compost cage that I've built in the backyard and the construction of a greenhouse (hothouse to some Aussies) for growing veggies and herbs. If anyone has any good advice on greenhouses, please let me know cause I haven't done any research on it yet. The idea mostly sprung into mind when I noticed we've got some old windows lieing around the backyard.

I guess we'll see how green my thumb is soon...

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)

November 7, 2006

Life is good

Hope everyone back in Canada appreciated your summer, cause I'm back on track at extending mine. It's spring in Alice and that means low 30's and sunny. Spent most of today just lounging around the wading pool Rory has set up in the back yard. Can't complain about spending an nice afternoon having a beer and floating in a pool (no matter what the size).

Monday I got out to the Alice Springs Golf Club and played the front 9. It's a beautiful course that's rated #6 in the world (for desert courses) and overall #62 in Australia. That means it's pretty nice. It also means that if you haven't played a desert course before, there are some things you need to prepare for. One example: in Canada when you stray off of the fairway, you get punished by having to hit from longer grass or rough. In Alice Springs when you stray from the fairway you hit off of less and less grass. Far enough (which doesn't turn out to be far) and you're hitting off of dirt. Which is why I bought an old demo Calloway 6-iron to use as a rock iron. I should be heading out for the back 9 tomorrow morning so I'll maybe try and grab some pics.

You really need more than words to describe golfing in the desert, with the MacDonnell Ranges in the background and the occasional kangaroo hopping across a dogleg right.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:55 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2006

All the airport bar needed was a pianoman....

So I survived (barely) another going away Trews concert. I'd just like to thank everyone who helped me celebrate my champagne birthday...26 on the 26th.

I'd also like to thank Dave and P-Fedy for driving me down to the airport. It was cheaper than the airporter, gave me an extra 1.5h of recovery time (much needed) and was a pleasant drive. Needless to say, airports are getting more efficient and I found myself checked in and ready to fly a good 2 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave. I wasn't in top form due to the previous night's festivities so I popped over to one of the airport bars for a Caesar. They don't have Clamato in Australia so it was nice to enjoy one last one.... or two as the case may be.

Airport bars are great places to hang out. Everyone is travelling, usually pretty happy about things and willing to have a quick chat with a perfect stranger. The first guy I talked to was a machinist from New Brunswick who was flying to Calgary and then heading up to Fort McMurray. We got into some good chats about the stupid things we did as youngsters (mostly drinking at bush parties and other outdoor events) as well as the merits of a good tradeskill when the job market is flooded with university grads.

As he and I sat there putting back some drinks to numb ourselves for the long flights ahead we met up with a British gentleman who was on a 10 day vacation in Canada. He was flying with his wife to Winnipeg and then later on that day to Churchill which is on the Hudson's Bay coastline in the far northern regions of Manitoba. They were spending 4 days there in order to see the polar bears congregate before the Bay waters froze and the bears returned to their lonely lifestyles. A ten day vacation to come to Canada to see polar bears. I love how you see things so differently when you're visiting countries outside of home.

By this point my hangover was pretty much gone, or at least postponed. And I really can't complain about anything that was going on in my life cause there was a woman in the bar who had lost her husband....literally. They were having some drinks before their flight and he left to go to the washroom and he never returned. She'd had him paged and was waiting for a long time with no luck. Now that is a bad day...

The flight to Vancouver was alright. Air Canada doesn't have all the private TV screens like Cathay Pacific did but the overall flights were going to be shorter and there is a possible stopover in Hawaii on my return. That and Air Canada is slightly more spacious; more legroom which makes a big difference when you're trying to sleep.

The changeover in Vancouver was a royal pain. I had to ask for directions a ton of times and was never really sure if I had to pick up my baggage or not. Turns out I did, but then only had to carry a few feet to put it through US customs (as I was flying through Hawaii). This was nice cause I had the opportunity to pick up a bottle of Crown Royal and put it in my checked luggage. The new security measures for Canada and the US are such a pain. I also learned that when travelling to any US destination, you cannot bring lighters...at all. Not even in checked luggage. You can bring firearms in your checked baggage as long as you declare them and they're unloaded but no lighters...f'ing strange. So that little mistake cost me the operational portion of my zippo. They were kind enough to let me keep the case.

Honolulu is a cool airport; half of it is an open air concept with little zen-like gardens. I really wanna stop there on my way back.

Ten more hours of flying finds me in Sydney where I'm writing this and waiting for a flight to Alice. It's been 29h since I left Canada and I've come to the conclusion that hangovers and drinking are the best ways to cure jetlag or prevent it. Just keep your body confused all the time and changes in timezones will be welcomed as long as there's a comfy bed at the end of the day....whenever that is.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:53 PM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2006

Big update

So it's been a while since I've posted and it's mostly due to how busy the last couple weeks have been. Essentially I worked my last couple of shifts at Bo's (I'm taking a month off), my parents arrived in Alice Springs, me and the Bo's gang rocked the Henley on the Todd (bottomless boat regatta), I took the 'rents on a tour down to King's Canyon and Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park, then we flew to Adelaide and toured the Fleurieu Peninsula before cruising the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne. So you can see how little time I've had to both upload pictures and talk about what I've been doing. Taking pictures has also been the priority (more than 500 in a couple of weeks) so it'll take some serious internet time to get caught up on uploading.

Here are some updates in order then:

Henley on the Todd: A great charity event that has been going on for years. The major river that runs through Alice Springs is the Todd River, which happens to be dry almost all of the year and sometimes for years straight. Nevertheless, this was not enough to stop some Territorians from starting a regatta. It just happens to be a bottomless boat regatta where teams of competitors carry their boats to a buoy and back....buoy - read barrel. Tons of fun with sand skiing, sand shovelling, tug-a-wars and other events adding to the day of fun. Being Australia, there is of course beer involved all day long, which lead me to have no complaints with the event. The day wraps up with a battle between three giant warships launching water balloons, high pressure streams of water and explosive fired sawdust munitions that can only be described as a wet, dirty, drunken melee that would have made Nelson proud.

Driving the Mereenie Loop Road: This is an outback road that starts near Hermannsburg (site of an old German mission and home to Albert Namatjira, a famous Aboriginal artist) and sometimes requires a 4x4 to make it through to the highway near King's Canyon. Luckily for us, it never got too rough except for some heavy corrugation in parts. We cruised through it in style thanks to Shane and his wife who had lent us their Landcruiser for the trip. Along the way we stopped to check out Gosse Bluff, the remnants of a crater created from a comet colliding with the earth. We cruised on and eventually made it to Kings Creek Station where we were staying for the night, my parents in a safari tent while I swagged it underneath an old desert pine.

King's Canyon: A beautfiul early morning 6km hike. This is what I convinced my parents into undertaking. I had heard that there was an initial climb called 'heart attack hill' but had no idea what it actually represented. I may have assumed that it was a big exaggeration as my tour guide roommates did mention that there were stairs to use. Boy, was I mistaken. It was indeed a large climb, albeit over stairs that were cut and constructed into the rocks in the hillside. At this point, I was reintroduced to my mother's fear of heights. She was fine once we reached the top of the canyon but wasn't terribly comfortable with any part of the climb where you could see a dropoff nearby...essentially all of it. But she soldiered on, kept her eyes on the stairs in front of her and made it to the top without a falter. Good on her! It was well worth it cause the views from the top were incredible. A breathetaking 300m to the canyon floor and a section called the Garden of Eden where the diversity of flora and fauna was brilliant considering we were still surrounded by desert. After we completed the trek around the canyon we popped back into the Landcruiser and headed south and then west on the Lasseter Highway to Curtin Springs Station where we would be spending the night after heading to Uluru for sunset.

Uluru and Kata Tjuta: We drove 90km from Curtin Springs to Uluru to catch the Rock at sunset. We were a little early for it so we stopped in at the cultural center and then took the circuit road that encircles the Rock. The picturesque views that everyone typically sees of the Rock give you no indication of its actual dimensions. It's huge. Not only in height but in footprint as well. You see the pictures and don't realize that it extends far back behind what you treat as the face. It's a 10km walk along the base trail that surrounds Uluru. It's also freaky cause with the exception of some boulders here and there it is one single rock... which explains its title as the world's largest monolith.

A few stops for pictures and taking in the magnificence and we headed to the sunset viewing area. This is the spot where everybody gets the pictures of Uluru that you see in magazines and tourist brochures. Now that's not a terrible thing cause they do turn out to be incredible pics especially if you can catch all the different nuances of colour that dance in the shadows as the sun disappears over the horizon.... poetic oui mon cher? What you do have to put up with are tons of other tourists taking in the scene. We stopped in the tour group and coaches (buses) area cause Nat had a tour there so we met up with her. There were at least 1000 people in this parking lot in the middle of the desert, all there just to watch the sun go down over Uluru... mindblowing. My roommate Panky was there with a group as well and he reckons that one night it was so packed there woulda been 4000 people there!

A nice dinner with the folks at Yulara (the resort that services Uluru and Kata Tjuta) and we went to Nat's campsite to meet up with her. I ended up crashing there for the night and sent my parents on their first solo adventure - driving back 90km to Curtin Springs after dark. They managed quite well, avoiding hitting a kangaroo and timing the drive better than a little rental car which hit a black steer several hours earlier just outside Curtin. They returned for me in the morning and we had a coffee round the campfire and set out for Kata Tjuta.

Kata Tjuta means many heads and is as mysterious as Uluru. The largest of the formations is 200m taller than Uluru. All this and the two formations are only 40km apart... in the middle of the desert. We had some breakfast at the viewing area and then headed in to do the 'Valley of the Winds' walk. It was a 7.4km hike that I mistook for a walk. I had no problems with the difference but after convincing my parents that it was just an easy walk in the park compared to the previous days canyon hike, they were not impressed... or at least my mother wasn't. But again, she pulled through like a trooper...good on her! The views were impressive, the rocks were incredibly unique. You did not need any knowledge of geology to recognize that fact. The giant hills rose out of the ground at incredible rates and looked like giant termite mounds or beehives. They seemed to be composed of a natural cement - thousands/millions of smaller rocks held together by a reddish iron mortar. Like many parts of Australia that I've seen it was a foreign, almost extra terrestrial-like landscape.

After the hike, we headed back to the cultural center at Uluru for a picnic lunch. To finish off a big day we went on the Mutitjulu walk (yes, an actual walk, no hills or hiking involved) to see a waterhole in the shadow of the Rock. Along the way we saw Aboriginal cave painting as well as sacred sites involved in the Dreaming (Aboriginal base for religion, law, behaviour and education).

We drove the 5h back to Alice Springs mostly along the Stuart highway. One night back in my own bed was the only rest I'd get though cause the adventures continued the next day with a flight to Adelaide...

Posted by Dr.Unk at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2006

Travel the world....get a nickname

Number of nicknames back home: 1
(barely, if you count using my last name - Clelland)

Number of nicknames acquired travelling: 10
Earl
Andy
Chopper
Chops
Lambchops
Kev
Canuck
Canada
Thightickler
Logan

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:14 AM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2006

Where the f@#$ is Alice?

Alice Springs is very close to the geographical center of Australia. It is not 'right by the Rock' like many people believe. Uluru (Ayer's Rock) is a good 500km away.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2006

Mt Gillen, piece of cake

Yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 8am (yes, doesn't seem that early, but I worked til 1:30am the previous night and the morning is also the coldest time of day here) my roommates Chris and Ceri and I hopped in a cab, picked up Toddy (Chris' mate) and headed out to Flynn's Grave. It's at the base of Mt.Gillen and a great place to start adventures from (it's also where the Simpson's Gap bike trail starts).

We started trekkin around 8:30am and made it to the actual peak around 9:40am. It was quite a quick acsent and we thought we were gonna just cruise through the rest of the hike... which we did. Of course, the hardest part was behind us and apart from a few stops for Toddy to catch his breath (he was suffering from the flu...he's such a troopers) and for Ceri to overcome a slight fear of heights, we'd made great time. The view from the peak (not really a peak in mountain terms, just the highest point of the ridgeline) was incredible. Being Alice Springs, there was not a cloud in the sky, so you could see for km's all around. The MacDonnell ranges stretched off into the West and the East, Alice Springs lay before us to the North and at the base of the cliffs that were precariously nearby. A glance to the South revealed the long slope of the ridge that ran out towards more hills and the South Stuart Highway that crisscrossed past the airport and past the horizon. A whole lot to try and breathe in before even 10am.

The rest of the four hour hike was spent trekking along the ridgeline towards the radio towers near Heavitree Gap. There was a fair bit of trailblazing needed which worked out alright except of course for Ceri's battle with a giant Spinnifex plant. The views continued to be breathetaking and I really got the sense of how isolated Alice Springs really is. It's just this little city in the middle of nowhere. Rolling hills and small mountains provide some landscape around it but past those is a seemingly infinite stretch towards the horizon and the next ouposts of civilization.

These are the experiences that many people miss out on. Until you go to those extremes, your experiences are limited to the road and city streets. I hope to do the trek again next week with Nat when she gets back from tour. It might be tiring when you first start out but afdterward you really do feel infused with a new vigour and lust for life...

I've been sitting in front of a computer too long uploading photos, pardon the melodramatism of the previous paragraph. I'm going for a bike-ride. Maybe watch a sunset.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2006

Getting back into shape...

Not to say that I'm in bad shape, cause I don't snack very much anymore and I walk or ride everywhere I need to go. I just haven't done anything sporting-like recently so that type of training is lacking in my weekly regime. But better to start with what got me back into biking....

For the first month or so I was in Alice, I didn't do very much tourist like stuff. Number one, I don't really enjoy tours cause I prefer to explore things myself, number two, I was broke when I arrived in town and number three, walking was my only form of transportation. Now that I've put together a working bike out of my housemate's old one and spare parts from a few old bikes left outside of the pub, I've got the mobility to get places around town and the outskirts that were way too far to walk to before.

One of those places is Simpson's Gap, a place west of town where water (in river form only when in abundance) has cut through the tough quartzite rock that remains as hills in the area. It's a bit of a tourist area having campgrounds and usually lots of campers and caravans parked there with kids running and old people walking around. Either way, it is an impressive geological display and quite a unique landscape.

The real beauty of it though was that it can be accessed by a bike trail that cuts through the outback. The trail starts 7km out of town, just past the desert park and at the point of Flynn's Grave. From there it winds its way for 17km out to the Gap. That means a return journey of 48km from my house at minimum. So far I've tackled it twice and thoroughly enjoyed both trips (although the first one was a wakeup call to start doin it on a regular basis to get back into shape). Took my camera on that first trip and got some great pics including sunset over the MacDonnell ranges. I hope to keep up the fitness rides as well as to keep me occupied in the daytime. Otherwise I'd just be sitting at home playing Tiger Woods '05, which I still do, just to a smaller extent. Another plan is to tackle Mt.Gillen soon. It's not huge but it's one of the tallest in the area (987m above sea level) and should offer an afternoon of cardio and a great view of the area.

Stay tuned!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:03 AM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2006

Rain in the desert

The other week it rained in Alice Springs. And by rain, I mean it poured. For nearly 6 weeks it had been rare for me to even see a cloud in the sky and suddenly one day I woke up to tons of rain. It rained so much that there was even a little bit of water in the Todd River... I know that may sound like an odd comment being a river and all, but it's not. Whenever you ask someone when the last time the Todd River actually flowed, they'll usually answer using a calendar, and probably not one that anyone's using anymore.

I also had the pleasure to witness the Camel Cup. Definitely a wicked-as experience. Camels are not known for their speed, but can definitely get up to a decent pace. They are also not known for their obedience. Half the time the camels don't get up (they start in their kneeling position) and a couple of times they even started going backwards. This was not a day for the weak of heart either. Camels are known as 'ships of the desert' as they rock back and forth when they walk. This is due to the fact that they lift both feet on the same side to move forward. Now imagine this at a running pace....quite bumpy. Several riders were thrown off their mounts and I believe one was somewhat trampled (with no major injuries) to add to the excitement. Cause that's the way it is with races, the more carnage, the more excitement. Think how boring (even more so than the mind-numbingness that it is) NASCAR would be without crashes.

It's also starting to click in that my year in Australia is coming to an end. It's still a few months off, but the deadline is there. No longer just an open ended journey, there is a date and a flight booked. Weird.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 3:02 AM | Comments (1)

July 5, 2006

Canada Day

I managed to survive my first Canada Day away from the greatest nation on earth. Turns out there's plenty of Canadians in Australia and even in Alice Springs.

Spent most of the afternoon sitting in the backyard listening to the Hip drinking beer (sadly nothing Canadian, had to settle for some XXXX Bitter) and prepping for a tasty BBQ.

After that we lit off some firecrackers which can only be bought on two days of the year here. Luckily, Territory Day coincides with Canada Day so there was lots of explosive fun to be heard round the town.

Of course, having booked off the night in advance I had to pop in to Bo's for a bit to celebrate and to meet up with some 'jolie filles de la belle province' that I'd met earlier in the Todd Mall. Much dancing and meeting fellow canucks left, right and center was the name of the game with a loudly, and most likely off-tune O Canada sung as well.

I'd have to consider it a success! Not close to a good day in the Byward market and Parliament Hill, but the best that could be done with the situation at hand.

Happy Canada Day to all those back home.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:53 AM | Comments (0)

June 24, 2006

Harriet, I barely knew thee

Just spent some time checking the CBC website cause I like to keep up on news at home, and world news for that matter. It's sort of odd then, that I found out about some Australian news through the CBC site; part of the magic of global media and the shrinking world. The CBC tipped me off to the story but I decided to check out the Australia Zoo site for some more details.

From Australia Zoo
Media Alert –23rd June 2006
AN AUSTRALIA ZOO LEGEND DIES
Harriet, Australia Zoo’s 176-year-old Giant Galapagos Land Tortoise has passed away today. Harriet held the Guinness World Record for being the oldest living animal in captivity. It is believed that Harriet was collected by Sir Charles Darwin in 1835 from the Galapagos
Islands which resulted in his scientific research of the Theory of Evolution. Harriet has been a major attraction and resident at Australia Zoo since the mid-eighties after a colourful and historic past. Her favourite food was hibiscus flowers. Steve Irwin said today on the passing of Harriet:

"Harriet has been a huge chunk of the Irwin family's life. I have grown up with this gorgeous old girl and so have my kids.
“She is possibly one of the oldest living creatures on the planet and her passing today is not only a great loss for the world but a very sad day for my family. She was a grand old lady."

I was lucky enough to have visited the zoo several months ago and did indeed get a chance to briefly meet the world's oldest living animal (in captivity). It might not mean anything to a lot of people and it's not going to change my life or anything like that, but to someone who enjoys science as I do, I consider it a rare privilege to have shared some time with an animal that did the same with Charles Darwin.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:35 AM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2006

Filet Mignon...yeah, that's right

Last week I ate filet mignon three nights....and damn was it delicious! Just a little bit better than the 2 minute noodles most backpackers are stuck eating. It may be stupidly expensive (when you have to pay for it) but I'd suggest everyone try a filet mignon at least once. I will warn you though that it will probably be the best steak you've ever had.

I'm also planning a Canada Day party here in Alice Springs so if you're stuck (hahahaha) in Australia swing on by and we'll drink rye and ginger (Canadian Club of course) and listen to the Hip!

I'm trying my best to remain Canadian at the moment, listening to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs over the net. At the moment, the Oilers are down 2-0 in the second period but I've got faith that they can stage a comeback. Go Oilers!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:28 PM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2006

The tastes of the outback

Our department made our labour budget this week, so all of our staff meals can be ordered off the regular menu. I took this opportunity to try the Territorian Shaslick, a sampling of meat not normally found in your everyday restaurant. Skewers of crocodile, kangaroo, emu and camel served with a quandong sauce (native plum). It was definitely a new experience. Lots of people say that croc tastes like chicken...I'll agree to a certain extent, except that it's more like a cross between chicken and fish. Kangaroo is a very lean meat, and thus quite healthy, with similarities to beef. Emu, a giant bird, tastes absolutely nothing like any other bird I've tasted. It really is anything but fowl...(rimshot please), more like red meat. Camel is a little tough but can you expect anything else? I'd say it comes across as a bit of a mix between venison and moose meat. At the end of it all, it was a delicious sampling of outback offering.

The next shift I worked I went with the barramundi and prawns. I've never been a huge fan of seafood, but this was definitely some of the best I've had. Barra, as it's known, is a typical white fish that's still quite tasty. Tiger prawns done in a nice chili sauce...mouthwatering.

On a side note: if you tend to enjoy a few drinks (alcoholic in nature) here and there I'd suggest you also indulge in some coffee. It's not just a great hangover cure, it might also reduce the damages of the bender you're recovering from.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:51 AM | Comments (0)

June 6, 2006

New Home

Finally moved into a new place. I have a room to myself which is tons better than living in a hostel where all the roommates are getting up to go on tours at ungodly hours of the morning... which of course, were coinciding with times slightly after I got home from work.

It's not the flashest place, but it's only a $100 a week, no bills involved and I can still walk to work. That and I live with a bunch of tourguides and other cool people.

Yes, I realize it looks like a bit of a trailer park, and I'm ok with that.

I haven't got many photos of Bo's yet so I'll just post a few ones that I've got so far. It will literally take me a couple of hours to document the amount of cool paraphenalia that occupies the walls of my place of employment. I've got this Thursday off so chances are I'll be in having a drink or two...which means if you're feeling generous you can log on to the website and actually shout me a drink! Ain't technology grand?

Posted by Dr.Unk at 3:22 AM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2006

Oooo yaaaa....that feeels good!!

So although it was my third shift at Bojangles last night, it was also my first busy shift (with the 1st State of Origin match on) and the first one where I worked til close....and damn, did it feel good. I had completely forgotten how much I enjoyed working in a bar. Good music playing (the mixture would be similar to a Bomber Wednesday with a lot less dance, more rock and a healthy dose of country thrown in), tons of patrons having a grand 'ole time and some kickass people to work with. It feels good to be back at it, and I'm being broadcast world wide web wide!

The only thing that could have made the night better was if Queensland had of won that first game of the State of Origin series. As if NSW, in the 78th minute, kicks a goal for a one point win. Bloody blue bastards. We'll get 'em in QLD at the next game!

And for a little sports from home, GO OILERS GO! I'm also in search of someone who will be willing to set up a webcam in front of their tv or stream their tv directly so that I can catch some NHL Stanley Cup finals. It's not that hard to do, and I'm sure someone out there is willing to help a Canadian on the far side of the world not miss out on playoffs...come on, I'm desperate here. I haven't seen an NHL game in almost 2 years! So do your part to help a hockeyless Canadian abroad.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:44 PM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2006

Now this is Australia

On Saturday I flew into Alice Springs. It was sunny and pleasantly warm out, somewhere in the mid 20's. A ton of improvement over Melbourne already. As I may have mentioned before, Alice Springs is known as the 'Red Centre', which is quite appropriate. From the window of the plane, all that I could see while landing was miles and miles (you just can't say kilometers and kilometers of..) of red earth and short trees. This is the stereotypical Australian landscape, and I'm fine with that.

Checked in at Annie's Place, nice little hostel that used to be a motel. There's a pool and a pub/restaurant that has the best $5 dinner specials. Later that night I enjoyed a great kangaroo goulash pie with side salad and chips. You really can't beat that for five buckaroos...except maybe that it's only $16 for a dorm bed.

Had an afternoon to kill so I decided to check out my future pub of employment. Bojangles Saloon, otherwise known as Bo's is so authentically Australian, you'd take it as a tourist trap if it was located anywhere else in Australia.

My immediate boss wasn't there but I was introduced to Chris, the owner. He's sitting around havin a few with a bunch of the locals to whom I was immediately introduced. It was at this point that I realized I had finally found that true sense of Australia. I literally felt like I was in that pub from Crocodile Dundee. I met Dennis a.k.a. 'Dingo', Ozzy, Daz and Dazzler, just to name a few. During the next couple of pints, I took the piss (Aussie for a friendly ribbing, to be made fun of) for my accent, for my hat and for my facial hair. Can't wait to start work already!

If you've checked out the Bo's website, you'll notice that it has live webcam coverage all the time, as well as email music requests. SMS music requests are supposed to be coming online next month. Not exactly the norm for a saloon with guns in the bar, Ned Kelly at the door, triumph motorcycles, boots hanging from the ceiling, pelts, buffalo horns and the skin of a 17ft croc. And that's only a brief summary of the decor. I'll be sure to get some pics up so you can see the extent to which this bar oooozes Oz at every level.

I reckon I'm gonna be in Alice for a few months, so if you're travellin round down undah, stop by Bo's for a few, it'll be my shout!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

In limbo no more...

My time in Melbourne is done. I have booked an immediate flight to the Red Centre, the 'Alice', as it is often called. In a couple days I'll start working at Bojangles Saloon. I'm looking forward to getting back behind the bar, it's been far too long.

If you're wondering where the hell I'm headed, it's pretty much the center of Australia, the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by the outback with not much to do other than work, save money, and hopefully do productive things with my time like get in shape, or write a best seller or establish why Canadians are so awesome at partying...no really, it's true, we are really really good at it. I may also try and build my own satellite dish so I can have some hope of watching the Stanley Cup finals.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

May 13, 2006

Another great afternoon on free internet

I'm not entirely sure what I'm writing about today. I had thought about discussing how people walk and why at drastically different speeds, but it seemed strangely familiar. So I looked it up and realized I'd already blogged about it a long time ago, complaining about slow walkers.

And yet, here I am still trying to work out another topic. This is what free internet access does to me. I'm so used to paying absurd amounts ($4-5/h) that when I get this unbounded access I ramble on with very little to say. And why? Cause I can. It's almost a North American consumerist view in literary metaphor (please step in and tell me if I've totally blown something there...it's been a while since I've had to/attempted to use a literary device). I do it cause I can. I use 32L of fuel to drive my kids to a soccer game in my Ford Explorer/H2/tank/whatever. Brings back Dennis Leary-esque 'Asshole' connotations... sucking back quarter pounder cheeseburgers in the non-biodegradable styrofoam packaging. Great song.

McDonald's sure has come a long way. I remember those styrofoam containers. Now everything is wrapped in semi-waxed paper. And they even have started putting the nutritional information on the packaging. That was an unpleasant surprise. Fun facts I've learned? A regular cheeseburger contains 12g of fat. That's for all you Bomber staff out there who used to go for the cheap cheeseburgers after a Wednesday night of work. Nothing like consuming 24-72g of fat before bed. They also contain 5g of sugar. That cannot be good. Half as much as your typical coffee...where you are physically putting the sugar into the drink! Those were just the stats for the burger. Put it into a combo and you might as well buy your own defibrillator. That said, I just had the cheeseburger combo for lunch today. What can I say, I'm human, I have weaknesses...I was hungover and needed the grease.

Back to the fuel thing. It's quite funny that so many people are complaining about fuel prices. How could you not see this coming? How can you actually complain when you are using a non-renewable, limited resource. Of course the price is gonna go up! I'm pretty sure I didn't need my economics degree to figure that one out. Besides, it could be worse. Try buying petrol in Europe and then you can complain about the prices. It is a little different there as the distances aren't quite the same.. I believe it's said best in a line from Eurotrip, "Paris, Paris is like a suburb of Berlin. That's why the Germans and French have always been such close allies..". Great movie.

Read a book while I was in New Zealand. Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed by Jared Diamond. Big book, shouldn't have bought cause now I have to cart it around (yes, I realize I could just leave it or sell it, but it's one of those books I really want to hang on to) in my pack. The book discusses several ancient societies from Easter Island to the Aztecs, and how the choices they made (mostly with respect to their environmental impact) affected their survival or demise. He then draws parallels to several modern situations such as Haiti and Australia. It may not be for everyone but it's the type of book that everyone should glance at, at least to understand what type of stress we (as in our species we, the really really royal we) put on the planet's resources. One fact that I recall is that if China's population were to consume resources at the rate of North America's population (on a per person basis) then the world would double it's resource consumption!

Great book. Great afternoon. Great blog with no apparent initial topic.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:36 AM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2006

Melbourne...a state of limbo

It hasn't been a great week. It's not like anything overly bad has happened, it's more like a surf of little frustrations eroding away at my sanity. Not enough to do damage yet, but a few frayed threads are starting to show.

Still haven't found a job yet, although I'm now looking at doing some fruitwork in Mildura, northwest of Melbourne on the Murray River. That, or head west to Perth. I've got contacts out there and a guaranteed job on a tree nursery if I want to get back into agriculture. For now, I'm still sorta hangin out in Melbourne. There are two interviews tomorrow so there's promise, but it's one of those things where even bar work, although enjoyable, might have to be sacrificed for the long hours of harvest work (cause with long hours comes bigger paychecks).

The work dilemma isn't what's nagging the most though, it's the spare time. I really don't know how the unemployed cope with their time. I've walked around the city tons, seen most of the statues and fountains and other artistic things that are plentiful in Melbourne. I've wandered around the little shops and malls and spent time in museums. But at the end of the day, I'm running out of things to do, and I've seen every DVD that plays at the hostel. Still being unemployed I've budgeted for maybe one night out a week so it's not like I can party away the time. Internet costs money, so rants like this come at a premium. Do you feel privileged? Hahahahaha....

It might just be time for a change of scenery. I guess it will have to wait to hear back from some places concerning interviews...

That's where the beauty of fruitpicking lies. You show up, work as much as you can and leave. There's no period of sitting in limbo while they decide if you're qualified. Just work your balls off and get paid for it. Long hours equals little time to spend on worrying if you're bored or not.

What's gonna win in the end? Stay tuned to find out...

Or don't, cause there's probably better things to do in the meantime. Unless, of course, you're the Big Brother fan type. Then I know you've got nothing better to do, cause only the mental capacity of a cat (on catnip) can explain why people watch that crap.

ps: I've been so bored that at one point, that I tried to sit down and watch it... I nearly shot myself. Think I found it more amusing to go and take a nap.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 4, 2006

Ex-Backpacker, this is for you...

If you're having trouble adjusting to the real world, use this set of tips to re-aclimate yourself. Thanks to Lindy for forwarding me something useful for once. Sorry babe, I just can't stand forwards....cept this one. Hope you're taking your own advice as well.

1) Replace your bed with two or more bunk beds, and every night invite random people to sleep in your bedroom with you. Ensure at least once a week a couple gets drunk and shags on one of the top bunks. Remove beds one by one as symptoms improve

2) Sleep in your sleeping bag, forgetting to wash it for months. Add some bugs in order to wake up with many unsightly bites over your arms and legs

3) Enlist the help of a family member to set your radio alarm to go off randomly during the night, filling your room with loud talking. This works best if the station is foreign. Also have several mobiles ringing, without being answered. To add to the torture, ask a friend to bring plastic bags into your room at roughly 6 in the morning and proceed to rustle them for no apparent reason for a good half an hour

4) Keep all your clothes in a rucksack. Remember to smell them before puting them on and reintroduce the use of the iron SLOWLY

5) Buy your favourite food, and despite living at home, write your name and when you might next be leaving the house on all bags. This should include mainly pasta, 2 minute noodles, carrots and beer

6) Ask a family member to every now and again steal an item of food, preferably the one you have most been looking forward to or the most expensive. Keep at least one item of food far too long or in a bag out in the sun, so you have to spend about 24 hours within sprinting distance of the toilet

7) Even if it's a Sunday, vacate the house by 10a.m., and then stand on the corner of the street looking lost. Ask the first passer-by of similar ethnic background if they have found anywhere good to go yet

8) When sitting on public transport (the London Tube would be ideal) introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you, say which stop you got on at, where you are going, how long you have been travelling and what university you went to. If they say they are going to Morden, say you met a guy on the central line who said it was terrible and that you've heard Parsons green is better and cheaper

9) Finally stick paper in your shower so that the water comes in just a drizzle. Adjust the hot/cold taps at regular intervals so that you are never fully satisfied with the temperature. Because of this frustration, shower infrequently.

These simple but effective instructions should help you fall back into normal society with the minimum effort.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)

May 2, 2006

Xavier Rudd in his element

Last weekend, Sarge finished up his Oz trip and got back into Melbourne. We decided to wrap up his adventure with a concert. We heard Xavier Rudd was playing in town and there really could be nothing better than seeing him at home in Australia. The show in Melbourne was sold out and the extra show they had added was the night of Sarge's flight back to Auckland. We did however notice that there was a show in El Dorado, Victoria. I looked it up and El Dorado was only 3h northeast of Melbourne, and the show had free camping. The original plan would have been to take the Landcruiser up for a good ole roadtrip, but that's another story that I'd prefer to forget (refer to previous blog entry).

Needless to say we rented a car and headed up to El Dorado to see the show. The extent of our camping would be reduced to sleeping in the car, but it's not like we were popping any cherries with that practice. Thus, without an actual camp to set up, we were way ahead of schedule so we stopped in at Glenrowan, site of the final battle between the law and the infamous outlaw Ned Kelly. It was a crazy small town with the most outlandish tourist trap shops and museums. So off-the-wall it was awesome! Read up about Ned Kelly; he holds a strange place in the minds of Aussies, not quite a hero, as so much a well-liked criminal. The story has Robin Hood connotations but lacking the purity of character.

We drove through El Dorado, not seeing any signs for the Bilyana Natural Amphitheatre. There was two other cars on the road (most seen since the highway) so we just followed them. Eventually we ended up on a gravel road weaving our way through the hills...believing we were lost. But, no, this was in fact the way as we soon came to some clearings in the bush where a ton of cars were parked with tents being set up. A parking spot was found and we toured the area to find out where the concert was gonna be held.

What a surprise, it was essentially a stage, surrounded by old carpets, rugs and about 50 couches. The whole area was also surrounded by poles supporting sheets that served to isolate the area. From these poles hung xmas lights and other silk decor and crazy shit to add atmosphere. It truly was the type of place where you'd expect to see a one man show (playing didge's, harmonica, lap guitar, and a stomp box) with opening acts ranging from Dallas Fresco, an aboriginal dance troup, and the lead singer of Epicure.

Still having some time before the actual show started, we wandered some more, encountering an old shed full of used furniture. Not wanting to be left out, we grabbed an armchair and loveseat to create our own little camp beside our vehicular tent. Queue up some 800ml bottle of VB and some vodka staminade (seriously serious stuff!) and our night started with a bang.

The show started just after sunset, so we finished up the booze and some snacks and checked it out. Wickedazz concert. Some parts are a little fuzzy, but it could not have been better. I've got some good and terrible pics of it, as well as a ton of video clips that I'll try and get online.

The morning wasn't so nice as Sarge and I woke up at 9am (in order to get the rental car back in time) and wondered where the redbulls went, and concluded that they ran away with the rest of the vodka...

Definitely an aussie experience.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2006

There's a sucka born every minute...

...and I'm one of them. Somehow I'm reminded of that poker saying (yes, I realize that everything now is related to poker, blah blah blah) that may or may not be referred to in Rounders, great flick. Right, forgot to actually quote it there, "If you can't spot the sucker in the first half an hour at the table, then you are the sucker".

I recently bought an '84 Landcruiser off of some Germans who were moving on. I looked at it, took it for a drive, and noticed some wear and tear and some things that needed to be fixed, but I'd talked them down from a higher price so I figured I'd go for it. When I took it to the garage to get checked on, I got back a list that filled a page of necessary repairs. I'm now stuck with the decision of investing a ton more money to make it drivable or sell it and take whatever loss results.

I'm actually taking the situation pretty well considering how much it's probably gonna cost me. when looked at as a life lesson, it's easier to handle. Buying a used vehicle is a big decision and should be researched thoroughly. I thought I'd done enough but was wrong. In the end, it's in your best interest to fork out the cash to have a mechanice look at the vehicle.

So I've been given (well, actually more like sold) a lemon. Now I'm stuck trying to make lemonade. Who knows what I'll do, but chances are I'm gonna spike the lemonade with some booze. Always easier to swallow that way.

ps: The picture is from Bell's Beach, when the truck worked. Also possibly the most expensive road trip ever taken.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2006

Rug expert

Another day in Melbourne. Spent the majority of my day dealing with rugs. That's right, I'm working at a rug liquidation sale. It may not be glorious but at the moment it's a lot of hours, cash in hand and a job that only required a phonecall to secure.

I'm in the midst of trying to find barwork, but it is as it always is, hit and miss. Not many places seem to advertise online or in the paper so I'm forced to hit the streets in order to get my resume (known as the classical CV in oz) out. Unfortunately, being quite broke, I haven't been out much in the city and therefore do not know where the hell all the bars are located. But don't worry about me folks, I'll survive. I can usually sniff out a good pub within a few blocks. A great skill I've developped over the years.

For everyone out there who believes I'm living the glorious sunshine life right now...I wish. Melbourne is in winter or springing there as we speak. It's cool, with even a sunny high of only 23 degrees. I'm hoping it stays sunny cause if it gets colder here than it is back home I may have to move to warmer climates. I didn't come halfway around the world to be upstaged by Canadian weather.

Hopefully the next entry will find me with a barjob...cause the number of crude jokes involving carpets, rugs, shag, etc is getting to me. I need a cleaner environment.....

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:33 AM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2006

Such a small world..

The one thing that I've come to appreciate about backpacking and travelling is that the people you meet and the friends you make will keep popping back into your days.

Today was one of those days. On the tram from St.Kilda to downtown I saw a girl who looked very familiar. I thought she was from the Whitsundays cruise that Wardo and I went on but wasn't 100% sure. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I knew if I didn't find out I'd be thinking of it all day. Got talking to her and turned out I was right. Nothing like a random encounter 5 months after making aquaintances.

The second encounter was less random but still surprising. The Canadian nurse that I met in New Zealand, Leah, stopped me in the street this afternoon. I knew after NZ she was returning to Sydney and eventually coming to Melbourne but had no clue as to exact dates. Crazy the people you meet just a walkin down the street....I'm not sure what song I quoted and I don't really want to know cause I'm sure it's cheesy and from my parent's era. Unless it's Billy Joel. Billy Joel rocks.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:59 AM | Comments (2)

April 13, 2006

The east coast and the hospitality of Timaru'ens

From Invercargill I headed to Bluff in the morning to see one of the most southern points of New Zealand...mainland at least.

Then it was off to the Catlins, and cruising up the east coast. Not a lot to see there...it's beautiful country and all, but mostly just farms and hills. Without mountains, the drive was a lot quicker but a little more mundane.

I didn't stop in Dunedin, but from what I saw it was a beautiful small city. I would definitely stay there a while if I return to NZ. It's a lot like Waterloo; 100,000 population with 20 of that being students. That with beautiful, Scottish architecture just begs me to open a pub there...assuming I win the lotto.

Made it all the way to Timaru that night, where I spent several days relaxing and hanging out with some friends I'd met in Bundy. Special thanks goes out to Emma and her family for the incredible hospitality that I was shown. Kiwis will make you feel like you're one of their own.

Alas, my journey in NZ came to an end. I returned the rental car in Christchurch and spent the day uploading pics and meandering through the streets. Nice city as well. A 7am flight meant the easiest thing to do was just catch a nap in the airport overnight. A couple more hours of napping on the flight and the next thing I knew I was in Melbourne. Let the next set of adventures commence.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

Te Anau in the rain

After the morning in Milford Sound I returned to Te Anau for an afternoon of off road adventure. It was pretty sweet, ripping around the back fields of a farm on a 4-wheeler. I was worried at first cause I figured the tour would be tamed down to the lowest skill, but it turned out I was the only one goin so the guide let'er rip. We headed to the top of a hill in the back 40 for a look out over the valley. It was pretty good and would have been amazing if it weren't for the ton of rain and fog at the time.

After that, we cruised through some more fields and went balls to the wall in some deep muck. A nice coffee and muffin kept the warmth up and we headed back. It was awesome being the only one on the tour cause the guide even gave me an extended tour down some more challenging routes.

When the day was done I grabbed a quick shower, some eats and headed down to Invercargill, a small city on the southern tip of the south island.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)

April 9, 2006

Milford Sound

My day started off badly...to say the least. I spent a good half hour ripping through all my stuff trying to find my camera. Eventually I found it inside another bag in my backpack but the relief was short lived as I was now a half-hour late for my trip to Milford Sound. Luckily, it was still only 7am and the road there was not as bad or filled with traffic as many claimed. I cruised up there, doing my impression of Mario Andretti at times (just in flying around corners) and made it with minutes to spare. The drive is pretty crazy once you get near Milford as it is ridiculously hilly, the roads are narrow, and there's Homer Tunnel, which is awesome. It was carved out with only basice tools and over its 1.2km length it drops 120m in grade. Doesn't sound like much but a 10% grade is quite noticeable when you're driving on it.

Milford Sound is incredibly beautiful. It's actually a fjord, an area carved out by glacial movements that has now been filled up to a certain extent by ocean water. Visually, this means that you are constantly surrounded by cliffs and waterfalls. It's also a place that receives over 7m of rain annually and has 200+ days of rain every year. I was lucky in the fact that most of my tour was rain-free. It was cloudy when I was there but that only added to the almost ghost-like atmosphere of the place. The mountains climb right out of the water and keep going with some over 1600m in height! The waterfalls tumble down from 200m heights while dolphins swim by the edges of the cliffs.

The depths of the water is incredible. In the middle of the Sound it can reach 300m and there are points where travelling just a minute or two across the Sound results in 100m+ changes in the bottom. Even when almost close enough to the mountain walls to touch them, there was still 30m of water below the boat. As it happens often in this country I'm really at a lack of words to adequately describe the beauty. The pictures can hardly do the experience justice so I won't bother writing anymore.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)

April 8, 2006

Wanaka, Queenstown and onto Te Anau

Woke up, had a coffee to deal with a small hangover and headed south. It was a pretty long drive, but again in New Zealand it's always a beautiful one. You can pretty much stop anywhere, take a picture in some random direction and 90% of the time it's worthy of being on a postcard.

To break up the driving I stopped at a nature sight called the Blue Pools. They're a section of a river where the cold as ice water has an eerily blue colour to it. Pretty cool as you had to cross a swinging bridge over the river to see them. The bridge reminded me of home (one of the only real touristy things in Renfrew is a pretty long swinging bridge). It's always nice when the hike there is worth the sights. Plenty of times I've pulled into a carpark and saw on the sign that it was a 40+ minute hike there and back and said 'no way'.

I stopped in Wanaka to use the internet and briefly looked around. Nice little town on a lake, wished I had more time to visit. Onwards to Queenstown! The drive there was pretty cool as it snaked through rolling hills of pasture and sheep. Near the end of the hills, I came to a lookout that was postcard worthy...to the extreme!!! (said with monster truck announcer reverb). Well, it wasn't quite that extreme but it was definitely New Zealand-esque. The road continued onwards but was forced to zig-zag down the hill, full of 25km/h hairpin turns. The town of Arrowtown was visible to the right and the valley floor was covered in farms and fields dotted with sheep. I took some pics that should make a fantastic panorama as well as a couple that look like they should be in a car ad in a magazine.

Being incredibly hungry I pushed on to Queenstown. Now, normally I would have stayed and partied in town as it is one of the best places in the South Island for this but I took a look at my budget and realized it just wasn't feasible. Have no worries, Queenstown, I'll be back when I've got a job and more time with which to go crazy. By the way, when I stopped for food I ate at the worst Subway I've ever encountered. normally a great eating experience.
#1: it was way too expensive, a footlong sub running almost $10. #2: it was dirty and the 'sandwich artists' were slow and lazy. #3: two things wrong is already enough to blemish what is
Once fed, I gassed up (petrolled up just doesn't sound right) and made for Te Anau. I checked into the hostel and went out to doing some surfing on the interweb. When I got back the power was out so I enjoyed a fabulous roast lamb dinner with a jug of beer. Met up with a Canadian and his friends and enjoyed a few more beers and some great stories. By the time we stumbled back to the hostel the power was back so I crashed cause I was scheduled on the 9am cruise in Milford Sound (requiring a 2h drive there, thus a very early departure from Te Anau).

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

April 6, 2006

Of ice and women..

March 31st: Woke up and hand a wonderful coffee. I’ve come to enjoy instant coffee here as it is simple and made the way I like it. I forget if I’ve mentioned it before but the majority of Australia and New Zealand don’t drink filtered coffee. If you want a coffee it gets made using a machine and comes as a flat white, short black, espressomoccachinolatte…. This can be nice every once in a while, or for those who enojoy Starbucks (hmm, Lissy!) you’ll be right at home here. For me, I like a coffee with two sugars and one cream.

Toured out of Hokitika and headed south down the coast…now, before I get into details of this part of the trip, I’ll tell you of some things I’ve noticed about NZ other than their coffee. A lot of people claim the Scottish are notorious for being penny pinchers and cheap. I know believe that the kiwis could easily rival them for such a reputation. It is the only way I can possibly explain the rampant numbers of single-lane bridges in this country. The way it works is that there is a sign explaining which direction of traffic has the right of way. If you reach the bridge first, you cross while later arrivals wait. If you both arrive at similar times then the person with the right of way crosses while the other vehicle yields. There are hundreds of bridges like this in NZ, mostly on the west coast of the south island and north of Auckland everywhere. But the real reason I believe the kiwis may rival the scots for their thriftiness was found between Greymouth and Hokitika. By this point, I’d crossed enough of these one lane bridges to get a handle of how they worked….until now. It can become a little hairy trying to figure out right of way when sharing a one lane bridge not just with oncoming traffic but with a TRAIN AS WELL! Yes, this one lane bridge (on the major coastal highway) was also used by the railway. Luckily, I had arrived there when there was no other traffic (rail or otherwise) around. Of course, no matter who gets there first it’s pretty obvious that the train has the right of way….and will take it.

…back to my travels. I cruised through and old goldmining town called Ross and took the time to see some sights. After that, it was onward to Franz Josef, a town solely devoted to supporting the tourist trade provided by the glacier of the same name. I hiked up to see the glacier and took a few photos. After that, it was on to Fox Village, a town 23km down the road that also catered to its own glacier and tourists.

I decided to go ice climbing at the Fox Glacier. Great idea! It’s slightly less touristy at the Fox Glacier (in comparison to Franz Josef) and as it turns out, the Alpine Guides take you out in a smaller group so you spend more time climbing and less watching others climb. Now, before you get illusions of me reenacting the movie Vertical Limit, I’ll stop you because there was no jumping across huge gorges only to dig in to a sheer ice wall with ice axes and no broken bones…although I did climb and use ice axes and crampons and bear a striking resemblance to Chris O’Donnell (if he was actually cool enough to grow wickedazz facial hair like my own). The full day of climbing was easily worth the money spent on it. A full day hike would be cool as well but the difference was clearly illustrated when we passed a group of hikers who were ascending a staircase cut into the glacier and we simply walked down the 45 degree slope beside it, courtesy of the crampon-improved traction.

Originally, I had planned to move on to Wanaka or Queenstown that night, but that idea was quickly changed when our group decided to meet up afterwards to enjoy some happy hour handles of beer (a handle is like a mug or about 14oz/425ml) at $2.50NZD a shot! Needless to say I stayed that night in Fox Village. It was a blast as the other guy in my group, Cameron – a vet school student from Glascow, was on tour in NZ with a bunch of classmates. This was a grand ole time as I got elbow deep (vet joke) in drunken conversations with a bunch of Scots. Who’d have thunk that’d I be on the opposite side of the world, talking about the differing milking practices between Scottish, Canadian and Kiwi dairy farms.

On a side note, I met my first Scottish chicks. This may sound like a funny statement to make, but I’ve been traveling for six months now and have met a bunch of Scottish guys but never any gals….sorry, lasses. For a while it seemed that Scottish women were like dwarf women…..

Gimli: “It's true you don't see many dwarf women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for dwarf men.”

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

PIN's and Needless worrying...

March 30th: After Kaikourra, I headed across country via the Lewis Pass. This was a beautiful trip framed by snaking rivers and rolling hills covered in sheep. Around seven o’clock I stopped in Springs Junction for petrol (a.k.a. gas). At this point I realized that anywhere in New Zealand outside of the major cities ran a little differently. The gas station, was open 24h, as long as you used a card for your purchase. I tried my Mastercard which wasn’t accepted and then my bank card (they call Interac, EFTPOS over here) which also didn’t work, as it was connected to an Aussie account. So I sat there with maybe a quarter of a tank and the map, trying to figure out if I had any chance of making it to a major city. Normally a quarter tank will get you relatively far, unless of course you’re driving up and down mountains. I really wasn’t sure if I could or not so I took off anyways, knowing that I could at least make it to Reefton, 43km away. Upon arriving in Reefton, I discovered that this petrol station was exactly like the other and would only work with a swiped card. Damn!

I sat there for a few minutes trying to find a solution to my situation, and could only come up with two alternatives. One, I was going to try my cards again at this station hoping that it would work this time. Two, I was going to go to the local pub and just drink there til I got tired and then sleep in the car til the petrol station opened in the morning. Now the second alternative didn’t actually sound too bad at the time except that I’d hoped to make it to the coast for the night so I could drive down and have time to check out some things that afternoon.

At this point, I’d like to tell another story. It would normally be something that I’d have forgotten because it was quite minor and irrelevant. I’ve had a credit card for a while (technically, several cards – but that’s another story) and when it arrived in the mail, I threw out the PIN number associated with it cause I didn’t want the ability to take cash off my card. The last time I was at my home bank branch I thought maybe it might be a good idea to have a PIN for my Mastercard so I could pay it off through direct deposit. I chose an easy one to remember (or so I thought) and that was that.

Fast forward eight months to a point where the previous story gains its incredible relevance. The petrol station EFTPOS machine thankfully accepted my M/C and was now asking for a PIN….shit! This is my most desperate hour. Help me, PIN; you're my only hope...

I wouldn’t want you to die of suspense so, yes, I remembered the number first try and pumped the little Suzuki full of petrol and made it to Hokitika for the night, which was awesome. I stayed at the Railway Hotel cause it was the only place open. I checked in with the bartender and ended up being the only one in a four share unit with ensuite bathroom, TV, mini-fridge, kettle, coffee, tea, the whole shebang. All for a reasonable $25NZD. SCORE!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

Whale of a tale...

March 29th: The first destination I cruised to on the South Island was Kaikourra, a little town about 2h north of Christchurch on the coast. I wasn’t in any hurry to get settled in when I arrived having just spent several hours in the car, so I headed to a nice little lookout on the peninsula. It was incredible. There were a few seals just sort of hanging out on the rocks and around the retaining wall. A little hike up some coastal hills revealed a tremendous view of the whole peninsula and the town itself. After that, I headed back into town and found a hostel called the Dusky Lodge. It was a great place, with a real homey feel to it. That, and the fact that it had its own Thai restaurant poolside; heated pool at that, as well as a very nice spa onsite.

The next day I ventured out for the primary reason that most people visit Kaikourra – whale-watching. This part of the New Zealand coast is pretty cool cause within just a few kilometers of the coast, the continental shelf drops down to a relatively deep trench (800-1100m). This is home to a large number of sperm whales that prey on fish and squid living at those depths.

Whale Watch Kaikourra has two boats, 18m long catamarans with jet propulsion. Definitely makes for an interesting ride when you hit 1-2m swells on the open ocean. You’re cruising along at 23 knots and fly off a big swell only to come crashing down, all the while the crew explaining that they gave a motion sickness warning for this trip.

The two ships work together sharing information about sightings and soon we had our first experience. It’s hard to visualize the size of these beasts cause you can really only see from their blowhole to their dorsal fin, but the crew helps out when they explain that the whale we were currently looking at was roughly the length of the ship we were on. The sperm whales (all bulls, as only the males have enough blubber to withstand the cold of NZ at such depths) dive to incredible depths, often as much as several kilometers, to hunt for squid, sharks and fish and then return to the surface where they rest and replenish their oxygen supply for the next trip to the bottom. This is where we are privileged enough to share some time with these incredible animals.

After 5-10 minutes on the surface the whale, known to the crew as Tahiki, prepared to dive and we were treated to a giant wave from his tail as he plummeted towards the bottom. Over the next couple hours we had four sightings with three individual whales identified.

Having seen more whales than expected (considering that a single dive usually lasts 30-40 minutes at minimum) we headed closer to shore to check out a huge pod of Hector dolphins that were frolicking about. Some fun dolphin facts: they mate sometimes 10 times a day and are the only other species known to have sex for pleasure.

Oh yeah, and here’s some advice. If you’re not used to the sea, don’t play tough and sit in the worst area of the ship (the front). I managed to get through it for 99% of the trip but had a minor incident about 20 seconds from shore on the return…some more advice – don’t eat pb&j sandwiches followed by several cans of tuna immediately before sailing!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

April 3, 2006

Avoiding big cities like the plague...

I tried waiting out the weather in Taupo but the rain just kept up so my dreams of cheapazz skydiving went down the drain. Next stop Wellington.

Normally I would have dedicated more time to a nice capital city like Wellington but I've finally learned my lesson after both Sydney and Auckland....big cities are backpackers black holes ebbing party-filled money sucking gravity. They will never show you what a country is truly made of.

Besides that, when I got into Wellington it was cold and windy...and I mean windy. The winds were easily on par with those found at the top of the Tongariro Crossing...I shit you not.

I stayed at the Downtown backpackers... mostly cause it was right across the street from where my bus arrived.

In the morning I caught the airport bus for my flight to Christchurch. Now, a lot of people will tell you that a few minutes here and there don't matter and that you should enjoy yourself and relax while travelling. They're somewhat right except that every minute can count. For instance, I couldn't find where the bus was going to stop. I finally took the time to ask some guy at a magazine stand who pointed me in the right direction. I saw an orange bus off in the distance so I jogged for a minute to catch up with it. I had to bang on the window so it wouldn't take off without me but I caught it...luckily. It was lucky cause it got me to the airport right in time to catch my flight. So that minute of jogging was worth it. Of course, the real moral, which I reveal in embarassment and for your learning purposes, was that when I glanced at the bus schedule in the hostel, I should have noticed both the gap in bus service for the half hour around which I needed it as well as the actual time that the bus arrived at the airport. Catching a bus on time is important...but catching a flight is paramount!

When I got into Christchurch I found the cheapest rental car possible - a little Suzuki Swift and headed out of the city. Money sucking black holes they are!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 5:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2006

Mt.Doom and the Tongariro Crossing

Taupo, home of NZ's cheapest skydiving, their largest lake, beautiful parkland and of course, one of Canada's most sarcastic exports...Chris Lahey.

The Tongariro Crossing is a day hike of about 7h which is part of the larger Tongariro Northern Circuit, a 3-4 day hike of 70km. My day started at 5:40am (yeah, apparently it exists in NZ as well) with a pickup from the hostel. The bus, carrying backpackers from around the city then carted us 40 minutes out of town, to the start of the trek, at the foot of Mt.Ngauruhoe a.k.a. Mt.Doom of Lord of the Ring's fame. It's not the same without digital lava and hot magma F/X but still quite ominous in its silence.

I ran into Leah, the Canadian I met in Rotorua, as well as her friend Saskia. We resolved to conquer the trek together and so began the adventure. The hike started out with a gentle slope and then quickly moved to some more difficult terrain - the devil's staircase. This provided some amazing photo op's as well as getting the heart rate going and keeping warm...essential as the wind picks up the higher you go. I estimated it was probably about 30-40km/h at this point. Further up, the South Crater provides a nice rest as it is an incredibly flat walk with a pleasant break from the winds. After that, it's more vertical trekkin eventually leading us to the Red Crater, the highest point of the Crossing at 1800+m. You can get higher if you climb to the summits of Mt.Tongariro or Mt.Ngauruhoe, but the weather wasn't in our favour for these extra treks. The view, although clouded that day, was still spectabular to coin a new, useless word. The descent to the next crater was steep and supplanted by the emerald lakes in the background. The sulphur from the volcanic activity renders them a greenish hue that seems unnatural. We stopped at the central crater for lunch and then proceeded to the Blue Lake and the remaining hike to Ketetahi Hut. A quick break here was followed by a leisurely but lengthy hike downhill traversing open ground and eventually forest and creeks to end up at the car park where the bus was to pick us up. Overall, an incredible hike, and a great way to enjoy New Zealand without blowing a lot of cash.

I spent the rest of my time in Taupo trying to get pics uploaded and some more updates posted. I had hoped to do some cheapazz skydiving but the weather was not my friend for it rained the remainder of the days there. Luckily, I did get a chance to enjoy some drinks and a marvelous dinner cooked by Lahey. He's got a sweetazz pad in Taupo so if you're in this hemisphere make sure to stop by and say g'day.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:14 PM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2006

Rotorua

The trip to the north of the island finally gave me enough momentum to get the hell out of Auckland. Great city but it's like all big tourist cities, a party all of the time and a huge drain on the bank account. I hopped a bus to Rotorua and arrived near midnight and in pouring rain. I prepared my pack (it's conveniently got a rain cover) for the 3 block walk in the rain to my hostel which I'd seen on the way in. The bus driver at this point asks where I'm staying, I respond 'the Hot Rock'. 'Oh, I could have dropped you off there when we came into town', thanks for the info....might have been useful about 20 minutes ago...

So I checked in with the bar, reception being closed. From what I saw, it was a busy place...always my downfall. Can't refuse a nice pint in a nice atmosphere. Ended up talking to some to some Pom who was drunk and kept rambling on about how to never trust a man who eats more fish than a bear, or fishes more than a bear...unless he's working on a boat in Alaska...a surreal conversation that was too much after a 4h busride.

The next day I wandered around town catching up on some internet and enjoying a great meal at an irish pub. $10 got you a pint and a shepherd's pie that was incredibly filling. Best meal deal I've had yet!

That afternoon, I headed to Te Pui, a Maori cultural experience that started with a tour of the geothermal area on their land. It was pretty cool to see the geysers shooting out of the ground and pools of mud bubbling up like miniature volcanoes.

The night concluded with a ritual Maori concert. We were greated into the Pa (a fortified village) by a Maori warrior who greated our group in the traditional way - a show of strength intended to assess the size of our group and establish our intentions as peaceful or aggressive. Taking the boring route, we arrived peacefully....come on, how funny would it be to show up for a tour and dinner and instead plot a mock attack! Ok, so not really feasible...but hilarious none the less. We entered the hall and were treated to a spectacular show detailing many aspects of Maori culture. The performers were good in every detail except that they weren't terribly intimidating in their haka; they were more my size then the ginormous proportions of the Maori's who play rugby or work as bouncers throughout NZ and OZ. Those guys are intimidating! The night wrapped up with a hangi...a dinner cooked underground on stones heated by a fire. As they run several tours a day, they're cooking facility is modernized (not quite the traditional hangi as seen in my pics) but the results were incredible. The dinner was easily worth half the price of admission. It was buffet style with a seafood salad bar (I enjoyed the chowder), as well as a long table of veggies (the kumara was delicious, a sweet potato like tuber) and corned beef, chicken, pork, all cooked in the modern hangi. Finish it off with a desert table with fresh fruit, chocolate mousse and cake with custard....I piled my plate to the top and paced myself well. I couldn't move for at least 10 minutes afterwards.

While waiting for dinner I ran into another Canadian, Leah, a nurse from Calgary who's been working in Sydney. We chatted over dinner and found out that we were headed in the same direction so you can guess that she may turn up later in a post...well, you're right. But that's in Taupo and another story.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2006

Road Trip to the tip....of NZ north

The times in Auckland were awesome. Made some incredible friends and had some great parties....unfortunately there's a ton of New Zealand to see and very little time left for me to do it. Of course, I really didn't want to say goodbye to the friends so in a drunken epiphany (one that was actually a good idea for once) we planned a road trip north. I'd read some cool stuff in the Lonely Planet about the Bay of Islands, Cape Reigna and the Kauri forests so we rented a van, packed mysef, Paffrath, Dave (Irish guy), Annik (German girl), and Maeve and Sue (Irish girls) in it and headed north.

Only 45 minutes out of Auckland and you get a true sense of New Zealand...rolling hills, beautiful coast and farmland full of sheep. We left around lunchtime and got into Paihia and the Pipi Patch Resort around 4pm. Nice little place associated with the same company as ACB (Auckland City Backpackers). We checked in and for an extra $10 we got a delicious bbq meal and a free pint of Export Gold. Don't let the name fool you though....it tastes nothing like Molson Export and like most Australasian lagers, the Gold designation means it tastes like water. If you want a truly tasty kiwi beer, try a Tui.

After some time in the hot tub (mmmmm, it's been entirely too long since I've been in a hot tub... may have to rent one for my welcome back party in October...or maybe rent a house first....details..) we ate, took a nap, toured Paihia at night (everything was closed) and crashed.

In the morning we did some sea kayaking...well, sort of. We went up the river to play in some waterfalls. After that, myself and Maeve headed on a hike for a great view of the bay while the others kayaked out to an island.

After a quick stop on a hill to grab pictures of a ceremonial flagpole (where the treaty of Waitangi was signed) we booked it north to Cape Reigna to try and catch the sunset. This turned out to be a race against the sun which we barely won. The road from Kaitaia to the Cape was incredibly winding with the last 20km being a one lane gravel road barely fitting of someone's laneway. We arrived just to catch the last bits of light leaving the most northern point* of New Zealand. We spent the night at the most northern accomodation, the Waitiki lodge, which has the nicest pool tables I've seen in the southern hemisphere.

The next day we rented some boogie boards and headed to the dunes near 90 mile beach. Awesome time. We were all knackered (pommie [aussie for POME {originally Prisoner of Mother England - ironic cause it originally denotes the convicts...ie Aussies}, slang for the british] for tired) after climbing the dunes and boarding down them but well worth it for the views of the dunes and the ocean.

After that, it was another race with the sun, this time to get to the Kauri forest before sunset. We cruised past Kaitaia and headed south on the most winding road I've ever driven on. It felt like a go-cart track, just constantly turning left then right and 40km/h felt deathly fast.

Eventually we figured out that we couldn't make a ferry crossing in time so we took sort of a shortcut. Note: if a map has a road on it in NZ and it's not a major or regional road....do NOT take it. Earlier I mentioned the road that was barely a laneway...this one was barely a strip of gravel through some bush and fields...but it did get us there on time. Score another one for the amazing driving/navigation skills of me.

Arriving at the Kauri forest before sundown we got to see Tane Mahuta 'God of the Forest', a 2000 year old Kauri tree. It wasn't really that tall...at least it didn't seem so....but it was fat! Huge girth...(that one's for Shippey).

We stayed the night at a holiday park in Dargaville that was only $20 and had TV's in both rooms of the cabin and a nice little kitchenette. If you're ever in Dargaville...I don't know why...stay there!

One helluva good road trip with the Auckland gang. Cheers guys!

*note: apparently North Cape is the most northern point, but you can only get there by hiking.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

St.Paddy's

For the first time in several years, I spent St.Paddy's day drinking, as opposed to slinging the booze. The day started off a little later than usual (12pm as opposed to 8-9am), but only due to a previous night's warmup that got a little out of hand. I may have been away from Bomber for the first St.Paddy's in 6 years but you can never really get away...I partied it up with Haley, Sarge and Paff. A little Bomber staff reunion on the other side of the world.

I headed to an Irish pub called the Muddy Farmer which had an outdoor party set up on a closed street. It wasn't the Bomber but was still a grand ole time. Live music....which I've been depraved of for a while, Guinness and Kilkenny with a healthy steak on a bun. The irish bands (or good impersonators) were lively and despite the fact that between the two of them they played Whiskey in the Jar twice and didn't play Black Velvet Band once.

Note: the two Irish girls I was partying with had never heard this song before. Does anyone if this is solely an east coast Canadian thing or are they just crazy Irish too drunk to recall a great tune.

After entirely too many glasses of Guinness we headed back to Globe bar. This was to take advantage of the glorious happy hour where $3NZD pints abound...that's like $2.40CDN....it's just so good once it hits your lips.

Now, everyone was pretty dressed up for St.Pat's, wearing green, Irish flags and face paint...but Sarge takes the cake. Think Sharky O'Toole....yes, the famed shark suit returned. Shark attacks in Auckland for the time....on land at least. He terrorized several streets before eventually sweating his ass off and running out of batteries. Funniest shit ever.

The last place we ended up at was Fiddlers. A tiny Irish pub where the previous Tuesday night, Paff won the karoake contest with renditions of Eminem and Milli Vanilli. One last Guinness and I called it a night.

And that's the beauty of the Irish...they've got pubs all over the world and for one day a year they don't look like alcoholics...in fact, everybody celebrates it!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:30 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2006

Sweetazz Bro!

So it's been a while since I've posted and a lot has happened. I'll try and recount the first week I spent in Auckland. Keep in mind that I'm writing this on the 22nd about events that transpired starting on Mar 10th.

I got off the plane at 1:00am local time and was met by Sarge and Haley who promptly handed me a beer. They then informed me that Jay was arriving 4h later and since we were there anyways (and since I had some nice duty free liquour) we should just hang out in the airport til Jay landed. This ended up getting a little messy as killing 4h in an airport is quite boring. We all got caught up on what we'd been up to lately and then murdered a couple McD's breakfasts when the place opened at 4:30am. Jay lands, gets off the plane and is sort of wandering aimlessly out of the gate (as he's trying to figure out how to orientate himself in a city with just Sarge's address) when we pounced and surprised him. Needless to say some more booze was drank and the rest is sort of a blur with a bottle of Crown Royal (love the taste of home) being attacked sans mix in the taxi to the hostel.

The next couple of days were equally crazy with no real tourist like activities other than acquanting ourselves with the local pubs. We stayed at the ACB (Auckland City Backpackers) which is essentially the kiwi equivalent to the Sydney Central YHA, complete with the Globe pub/club underneath that is a blast 7 days a week....quite reminiscent of Scubar.

Eventually we settled in with a good crowd of people around the hostel and hung out for a week, even managing to tour the city a bit on the free Stray Tour bus.

Highlights would have to include the Minus 5 bar where Haley works. It's a bar completely composed of ice...including the glasses you drink from. You can probably tell that this is a bull in the chinashop scenario waiting to be told. I'll leave that for the pictures to tell. Jay had his camera there to record the carnage as Paff and I ate glasses, ice sculptures and almost the bar...

The nights partying were a blast and I may describe them in more detail after I take a look at my pics to help jog the memories. Til then the next story will have to be St.Patty's...Slainte!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:09 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2006

My faith in people is restored...

So, you may notice if you're a regular reader that an entry has been deleted. In it I may have discussed the end of an era and my hat being stolen. Well, have no fear, cause the women who had borrowed my hat could not find me to return it but knew I would be back to the pub the next night and brought it then. The hat is back!!!!! I am cowboy yet again. There are still good people left in this world.....and they are quite attractive ones at that. I'm such a sucker for a beautiful woman.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2006

Wow, tired of working...

Yeah, it's official, I want to be a tourist again. No, wait that's a little drastic. I hate tourists. I want to be a backpacker again.... on the move meeting new people every couple of days. Unfortunately, my bank account dictates otherwise. However, I can now see a specific point in the future where I may return to travelling -- March 9th. My flight is booked. I'm heading to New Zealand for a month. Gonna be an awesome time.

Sarge and Haley and Lahey are there, as well as some kiwis I've met on my travels. My apologies to any dislexics out there, Haley (Lyons) and Chris (Lahey)....different people.

Til then of course, I'm still working at the tree nursery. It should give me some sweet hookups cause the company's got other nurseries around OZ, one in Darwin in the NT and one in Donnybrook in WA, so I may have more work if I travel around. Guaranteed work is good cause I really really hate trying to find jobs...

Know anything or anyone in NZ? Let me know and I'll visit him/her/it/there...

Oh yeah, Happy Valentines to all the ladies...both domestic (hold on, not insulting) and international.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 3:54 AM | Comments (1)

January 27, 2006

F@#$ the fruit....

So I've stumbled upon a job that does not involve fruit in any way whatsoever...which is a good thing cause I'm only now recovering from a rash that was courtesy of picking mangoes (which I haven't done in a week and a half). I'm working at a tree nursery....or what will become a tree nursery once we finish building it. It's pretty sweet work, making slightly more than fruit picking (like $0.41/h) and it's somewhat enjoyable. Doing all sorts of creative stuff like building and welding and using my hands.

Hopefully, I should be able to keep working there, making (and saving, fingers crossed) some money so I can head to New Zealand for a couple of weeks near the end of February.

I haven't really seen much of Australia yet, so it'll be a little weird to leave here, if only for a few weeks. As I thought about how much there still is to see here and how much time I've already spent working, it occurred to me that it wouldn't be ridiculous to just extend my visa and stay the 2nd year. I'm sure it would crush all of you back home to go without me for another year, but I keep on imagining my return as those people who time travel and come back to a world strange to them. I'm not saying that that much will change or that I'll change that much but I left as the last of my friends were finally leaving school or accepting their fate and joining the 9-5 zombie world. I don't want to come back to that. I prefer my brains intact not being eaten by some slave-zombie boss....yeah.....mmmm-kay!

Ok, lost it there for a second. But you can imagine if it was like that...yikes.

Who knows, many things can change in a few months so I'll probably write something in a few weeks that will completely contradict this. And that's alright....you know why?.....Cause this is my blog and my site and I reserve the right to be as hypocritical as I want.

"Sounds like somebody's got a case of the mondays!"

Fuck off, it's friday. I'm off to the pub for half price everything.

PS: Happy belated Australia Day...it was yesterday.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:00 AM | Comments (1)

January 15, 2006

Back in Bundaberg

Yes, the title says it all. I'm back in Bundaberg working again. The 3 weeks off work was nice but as with all good things it came to an end...or I should say my funds came to an end. I'm picking mangoes now for a month, maybe 5 weeks, and then hopefully heading to New Zealand for 3 weeks. It was supposed to be quiet here in Bundy but it turns out I wasn't the only Bundy veteran to run out of money. There's a ton of other party animals from my first session here back for more work so there's a good chance that I'll be partying it up some more with the crazy backpackers at Central!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:00 PM | Comments (1)

January 6, 2006

The most chill place in Oz...

is definitely Agnes Waters/Town of 1770. We came up here cause of that reputation and the word that there may be some jobs in construction that pay alright. We're currently staying at Cool Bananas, by far the best hostel I've ever stayed in. It's like a beachhouse resort with sweet gardens, a fire pit, free boogeyboards, a hands on owner and a vibe that screams, "relax man...nah worries".

I'll be hangin around here for a week, hopefully finding a decent job and maybe chillin around here for a month. Wish I could tell everyone more but I'm busy sipping on a beer relaxing in a hammock and maybe reading a book later on.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 3:18 AM | Comments (0)

Fraser Island again....

So I quit my job driving the courtesy bus after about 9 days. This may or may not have coincided with Jesse and Joel arriving in Hervey Bay and/or having my afternoon shifts changed to New Year's day morning at 7am.

So I booked in Jesse and Joel for a trip to Fraser Island for the second time in as many weeks. Well worth it. Ended up in a group with one Israeli, a really bad driver who hung out mostly with himself, and me JE and Joel and a family of 5 Canadians. This was Bob, prototypical Cdn dad always with a beer in his hands, Wendy his wife, his kids Amanda and Dallas and Amanda's bf Alex. Dallas was amusing being the 30 year old who most resembled a 3 year old at play. We saw a lot of the same sights as my first trip but without the pressure of taking pictures. Most of my pics are from New Year's Eve where all three trucks camped together along with 4 kiwis and one truck from Escape. It was a grand ole party that even included several games of twister. Ended up waking up at 7am cause it was too hot to sleep. The tides were up so there was nothing to do but hang out til noon. I went and hung out with the kiwis (they had a sweet ass sun tent) and it turned out I still had beers in my cooler so I finished those off in the morning. I'm pretty sure hangovers are something that either only occurs when you're working or when you're on the mainland cause they didn't exist on Fraser.

At some point during the weekend a joke started about how Joel was just going to roam free and stay on the island like the dingos. This of course lead to more jokes and the eventual "don't feed the Joel" comment. I don't expect anyone else to even find it half as hilarious as we did, but I think the pictures will at least attest to how funny it could be if you were actually privvy to the inside joke.

The second night was another good party with the three trucks from our hostel. The other Canadians stepped up their game and pulled out a 40 (1.14L) of Crown Royal which was then worshipped all night. We played a good game of Roxanne; a game where you've got two teams and one stands and drinks when the Police sing Roxanne, and the other team stands and drinks when they sing Red Light. It doesn't sound like much til you catch the chorus at the end that lasts for a few minutes before it fades away.

I still have tons of pictures to upload but it takes awhile so hang in there and eventually they should be up.

Cheers

Posted by Dr.Unk at 3:08 AM | Comments (3)

December 27, 2005

Fraser Island trip....finally

Alright, so I did the Fraser Island 4WD self-drive tour on December 19-21, but I haven't had the time to write about it til now cause I now work at the hostel.

The preparation for the trip started the day before as we had a meeting with our group to hear about some of the dangers of driving on the island, our basic itinerary. Then we planned our meals and a couple of us went shopping. Turns out Ravid and Verad, the Islraeli couple that were on my Whitsundays trip were also in my Fraser tour group. Verad and I headed off for the most stressful shopping ever invented. It's not fun to try and buy food for 9 people for a 3 day camping trip on a budget of $20 per person. In retrospect, we did rather well cause I've since seen other groups try it (it's part of my job to take the shoppers over to Woolworth's) and they take much longer and actually look more stressed out.

The first day of the tour was an early one, up at 6am to pack up the trucks and watch a video of some of the accidents that backpackers have caused while on the island. The speech is a little over the top but does the trick cause there really is no better recipe for disaster than 9-10 backpackers cruising along the beach in a 3.5 tonnes Landcruiser with the roofrack loaded up with gear and food.

We drove down to Rivers Head to catch the barge over to the island. After a 30 minute cruise they dropped the gate and we drove off into the sandy wilderness. Driving on the island is a blast. The Landcruisers are tough, beefy 4WD with a 4.2L diesel engine that's got heaps of balls. The first stop of the day was Lake Mackenzie, a freshwater lake created by water being forced inwards on the island. The seawater is filtered by the sand leaving lakewater so clear that 10-15m visibility is possible on a calm day and the water is relatively drinkable. On top of that the sand is so white and fine that the beach easily could compete with Whitehaven beach for beauty. We did up some sandwiches for lunch and were off to the east coast of the island for our first taste of beach driving.

Once we hit the beach at Eurong we cruised along the water's edge (cause that's where you find the hard sand) up to the wreck of the Maheno, a cruiseliner built in 1905 (second largest in the world at that time) and washed ashore during a cyclone in 1935. It's a pretty cool sight as over the years, more and more sand has been washed onto the island so the wreck is being covered with more and more sand. I only noticed it when looking at older tourist photos of the wreck and noticing how different they were from mine. It was also at this point that I realized how crappy it is trying to take peaceful, serene photos of a tourist attraction. You want to get a nice pic with the wreck sitting in front of the endless stretch of beach or with the ocean in the background, but there's always somebody running around the wreck or walking in and out of the frame, ruining a nice shot. I hate tourists....(and yes, I realize the irony of it, that doesn't mean that they/we are any less annoying).

After the Maheno we cruised up to Dundubara to the campground where we were to spend our first night. Typical camping stuff ensued - the heavenly 'pssshhht' sound of beercans being opened, tents were set up, a fire started and food prepared. In the end, that whole $20 per person for food turned into $23/pn but that was alright cause we ate really well. The first night was corn on the cob, sliced spuds (more Aussie slang) done in garlic butter and steaks marinated in a little salt, pepper and worchestershire sauce.....if it's spelt wrong I don't care cause no one pronounces it the same way in Canada so I'm sure the Aussie pronounciation is completely off the wall. A good time was had that night around the campfire.

Note: Camping on Fraser Island, you will discover that sandflies are quite annoying. They are, however, a little on the slow side so it's always fun to catch them and feed them to the very, very large spiders that seem to be everywhere....including the men's urinals...always a shock when you're half awake taking a leak and discover a 10cm spider only half a meter from your face.

The next morning we packed up camp and headed to Indian Head, a giant point on the east coast where you can see mantas, sharks, turtles and dolphins...although we only saw some manta rays and a few turtles. From Indian Head we cruised up to the champagne pools, where waves crash over the rocks creating pools of seawater that are safe to swim in (you can't swim on the beach because of the sharks and a killer riptide). Stefan (a German in our group) and I had a good time climbing up on the rocks and getting pounded by the surf. In the pic below (coming soon), you can barely make out where I am, and Stefan is completely engulfed by the water...which also carried him a couple solid meters away when I looked around after the wave hit. Rockin good time...yes, that pun was intended. After all, it's something cheesey that my parents would say, so I figured if there reading this as well they'll enjoy some humour for the old...er.

After hanging around the pools for a bit we headed back down the eastern coast to Eli Creek, a freshwater creek that dumps 4 million litres of water out to the ocean every hour. They've got a boardwalk set up so you can walk 500m upstream and then body surf out to the beach. Another lunch spent there and then south again to Rainbow Gorge to check out the massive dunes. It was breath-taking to see so much sand. Closest I've been to a desert...except that all around us were trees. Fact of the day:....hmmm, scratch that, Rumour of the day: it is speculated that there is more sand on Fraser Island than in the Sahara Desert.

Pictures are worth a thousand words so they say...(who is 'they'? if me and some mates got together, we'd be referred to as they, could we then come up with a saying like Canadians are damn sexy....so they (now being us) say?)....wow, I just lost myself. I think I was trying to say, just look at my pictures cause it's damn obvious I'm not eloquently descriptive in my writing.

The second night we camped out in a little spot just off the beach and chilled out with some other groups that we camping there. Another good feast, this time chicken chili pasta. We weren't allowed a campfire (Dundubara is the only one where fire is allowed) so we went down to the beach and chilled out under the almost full moon. It was pretty sweet, with the only light coming from the moon, a few ships far off on the ocean and the occasional flashlight needed to find where we set down our beers. Almost forgot, there may have been some light provided by flashes of flaming sambucas....

Another early morning breakfast of cornflakes and we were off to Lake Wabbe, which turned out to be a 2.5km hike inland. Well worth it to see a giant sandblow encroaching on the island's deepest lake. Spent a few hours just hanging out in the water and on the dune and we were off to catch one last glimpse and swim in Lake Mackenzie before catching the barge at 2:30pm.

The trip on the barge back to the mainland was filled with mixed emotions. It was an incredible trip, even though we didn't see any dingos (the campsite beside us did, but we didn't) or sharks or dolphins. But there was something missing, I don't know what it was but I just felt that at somepoint I had to go back to the island. Which is why I'm still in Hervey Bay working for the hostel that sent me to Fraser the first time. I will be going back, cause I want to see those dingos.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 7:18 PM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2005

Back to work

So I'm now driving the courtesy bus for the Fraser Escape hostel in Hervey Bay. I did Fraser Island Monday through Wednesday and liked it so much I got a job at the hostel on Thursday. It gives me free accomodation and some cash in hand (not enough to save but good enough for food and drink). I still haven't got around to getting my Fraser pictures up yet but they're coming along with a full writeup of the trip and stories.....really, I mean it.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:34 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2005

Whitsunday Islands

Wow, what a trip. I can't believe it was only 3 days and 2 nights. Airlie Beach was the departure point for the trip - a nice little touristy town, sorta like Grand Bend; one main drag and lots of pubs and hostels all around. Australians have a really good sense of irony and sarcasm, cause there isn't really much of a beach in Airlie....although they do have a lagoon which is nice.....and open 24h, which I found out after the trip can lead to late night shenanigans.

First night out in Airlie, Marc and I took it easy cause there was no way I wanted to be hungover on a rocking boat...even if we didn't leave until 4pm. That being said, Chris (worked in Bundy with us) got half price drinks with his Seaview hostel connections so there may still have been a few bourbon and cokes dranken (sp.?). By the way, Nick Cake, you would get along well down undah cause the Aussies love their bourbon.

We hit up the bottle shop the next day and prepared for the boat trip. We thought we were relatively well prepared with 73 beers and a box of goon between us. Wrong. Best prepared on the boat but our shipmates turned out to be less skilled in the party aspect of the trip. The exceptions were the Irish girls who put back their fair share.

For those back home, Goon: a very cheap vine, usually sold in 4L box for roughly $10. Note: when the bag of wine is finished, it may be inflated and used as a cushion or pillow....but I digress.

The first afternoon night was pretty much a straight up boozefest, sailing in the sun, drinking beer and laughing at some of the people who were slow to adapt to sealife (and who should have saved the $5 or $6 they spent on lunch). The meals on the trip were incredible. Steak dinner the first night with mashed potatoes and gravey and peas. Delish. The sunset at sea was breathtaking. When the pics are up you'll believe me. Basically the partying continued til midnight or so and most people just ended up sleeping on the deck under the stars. Quite nice, despite the fact that you'd think a hard, wooden shipdeck wasn't comfortable....easily changed by 20 or so beverages.

The next morning was an early one, up by 7am for breakfast and off to Whitehaven beach. Words can barely describe it so I'm not gonna even try cause if I could I'd be writing for Hallmark, not picking fruit. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It was pretty cool cause we spotted a few small reef sharks and a ray while swimming. You'll notice in the pictures that everyone is wearing full stinger suits...they're goofy looking but a necessity when there's jellyfish about.

After that we had lunch and headed to the spot where people could do their diving. I, being graced with incredible facial hair, learned it tends to interfere with a snorkelling mask, and thus I chose to stick with a bit of snorkelling (probably wait and do a dive in Cairns). I need to become a little more comfortable underwater first as well. I'm the type of person who prefers his water in frozen form and surrounded by rye and coke.

After finishing up the water activities for the day, we went back to the boat and our hopps and barley activities. The second night was a bigger party night then the first with everyone being more comfortable and friendly; there's really not much choice with 34 people sharing such a small space. Good party until Marc and I realized we were gonna run outta beer and hit up the emergency goon.....luckily our palette's had already been wetted so drinking goon mixed with coke somehow didn't taste like complete crap. At one point in the night, one of the Irish girls starting singing "She's my Lady in Red", which I thought was crazy that she knew it. To which she responded, "yes, I know it. You thought it was crazy last night when you sang it and I knew it...". Ooops, good indication that it was a good party. So I asked if I'd sang 'in Green. Turns out I hadn't so I fired that verse out to many moans and groans....classic.

The second morning was not quite as easy as the first....which was evident when the ship's cook came through the bunk area banging a pot and pan to wake everyone up. The last day was pretty chill and mostly a recovery day. We were hanging out at a beach near Hayman island, home to a resort frequented by Tom Cruise and other celebs willing to pay $4000 a night. Quite hilarious when they pay $200 to get a boat to bring them to the same beach we were at....when our whole trip cost about the same.

A half day of sailing later we were back in Airlie and on dry land...which was strange cause I still had sealegs. Most of our boat met up that night at Magnum's bar for some jugs and stories of the trip. Couldn't have asked for anything more. The crew was a crazy bunch with a superman speedo sporting kiwi related to Ned Kelly and some other great party animals.

The lagoon was fun too.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 5:19 AM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2005

Happy Holidays

Well, the tomato season is done and my bucket boy career with it. Instead of doing something productive like more work, I'm heading to the Whitsundays for some sailing adventures. I figure it's the holiday season so I may as well take some time off since I've been working 7 days a week for the past two months (may have had 3 days off in there somewhere). Warden is taking off back to Canada next week so one last adventure/piss up together will be good.

I finally made it to the beach last week...yeah, I know, two months in Australia and I hadn't been to the beach. There's some good pics up on my flickr site so check em out. Ship, I know you said no more ass shots, but Marc and I couldn't resist the Canadian Beach Bums shot. Besides, you always loved my ass.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 5:49 PM | Comments (1)

December 7, 2005

long time no update

I know it's been forever since I've updated this thing but that's because I've been busy working tomatoes...and partying, cause there's not much else to do in Bundaberg.

I did manage to get some more of my pics uploaded so make sure to check them out here.

The new pics are mostly of the beer gardens at Central (that's aussie for patio) where a lot of our down time is spent. The crew pictured are most of the solid party animals who I've been spending the time here with...guys/gals, I love all you drunks so keep in touch! Great times in Bundy!

But alas, all good things must come to an end and slowly over the past week and through next, most of us are going our seperate ways, some to Sydney and south, others to Thailand, some back to homes around the world....and me? Who knows? Probably try and get back to Brisbane or Byron Bay for Xmas and work things out from there. I know Lahey is supposedly in the country so if you read this you lazy bastard, get in touch.

It's gonna be a strange Xmas that's for sure. Sort of different for a Canadian to have a white Xmas....as in white sandy beaches and plenty of beer (a Canadian is still a Canadian no matter where he/she is!). Happy holidays to everyone back home, and remember if things get to stressful there, swing by the land down unday and we can chill together!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:42 PM | Comments (4)

November 15, 2005

A little hello from Bundy

Warning: this post contains images not suitable for those who may be jealous of my statuesque form.

Warning for the preceding warning: contains toxic levels of sarcasm that may cause choking incidents in those suffering from a decent sense of humour.

Bundaberg is not a bad place to hang out. The bucket boys and I are having a blast at work. It's decent work and great cash. We usually grab a 700ml of Toohey's New for after work and drink it in the park.

That's Mark, Me, Scott and Marc at the Central Hotel pub, pretty much the favourite watering hole for backpackers in Bundy. And now, what the warning was for, as requested by Shippey, evidence of my tanline. The sun here is damn hot. I wake up early every morning to apply sunscreen and I've still managed to get a decent tan (and one burn from the first hot day that I didn't have sunscreen for). If this keeps up, I'll either look Cuban or Abo after a few months....

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:43 PM | Comments (3)

November 3, 2005

Life as a bucket boy..

...is tough. Wakeup is at 3:30am to get ready to start work just after 4:30am. We're working 7 days a week, no days off (yet, at least). I can tell that some people are reading this and laughing, wondering how the hell I'm getting up that early when I have trouble getting up at 11am most days.... Let's just say that money has a certain way of convincing people to do things...

Like convincing my lazy ass to work in the hot, blistering sun of Queensland, spending every day of the week passing out buckets into tomato rows and lifting, catching and throwing 30+ tonnes of tomatoes (~3000 buckets @ 12-14kg/ bucket). Luckily, I'm working on a contract system. There's 10-12 of us bucket boys - I prefer the term bucketeer, and we get a commission for every bucket that we collect and eventually load onto trucks. Doesn't sound great but it's the best money around. We loaded 10 trucks today, worked about 9h and made $200 (after tax!). I started last friday and worked 5 days so far for a 1st paycheck of $867.

Bonus in Aus, you usually get paid weekly.

It looks like my posts are gonna be far and few between for a while. Work is pretty tiring and the partying is low-key cause the workday starts so early. Current plans are to work tomatoes til the end of the season which should be around Xmas time. The season is just starting to ramp up so the month of Nov should cover my M/C bill and Dec will be gravy money for more travelling and the transition to being a tourist again.

I'll see what I can do for drumming up some interesting stories in the future. It'll most likely end up being one of the $4 jugs nights...not a bad deal, even though they are only 40 oz...

Cheers mates!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 3:38 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2005

Off in a new direction

So I made it to Bundaberg.....via a party night in Brisbane (good night life for a Tuesday night) and a 7h long busride. Went out for a few drinks with Warden and when we got back Scott (the Scot) found out he had to be ready for work at 5am....bit of a shocker.

Bundaberg is a pretty nice city...it's more of a small town with a lot of people living in it though. The pubs are alright, although some of the locals are quite...interesting. And not, the crazy guys from the bar in Crocodile Dundee interesting, more like alcoholic fat-lady getting kicked out of a bar interesting. At the same time I can't argue with $4 jugs, even if they are only 1.14L

Picking fruit is a boring and monotonous job...that said, it pays decent money. I've only done one day so I can't really add much more...maybe after a week of picking I'll be able to comment.

It's a small world after all....no, I don't mean that somewhat annoying catchy song that you've just gotten stuck in your head....HAHAHAHAHA!
I mean, there's a new hostel in the Bundaberg called the Cellblock that used to be a jail. We heard it was pretty nice and for happy hour they had $6.50 jugs til 7pm, so we toured up there last night to have a gander. We (Warden, Scott and a lovely Finn named Johanna) walked in and headed towards the bar. I stopped and realized that Carla (friend of Nesbitt, Joncas and long-time Bomber faithful) was sitting at one of the tables. We greeted and hugged and tried to figure out how completely random it was to meet in a hostel bar in Bundaberg....odds are up there. So no matter where you travel, you're probably gonna meet up with someone from Uni or your home town.

Another tip for travellers: Everything in Australia costs more...except for sugar, it's only $1.10 a kg.....great news for all you backpackers hummingbirds!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 1:31 AM | Comments (1)

October 16, 2005

A quiet night in

Taking a night off from partying to save some cash and my liver....hahaha

Just finished watching some movies at the hostel. I totally forgot how hilarious parts of Kingpin were...a solid Farrelly Brothers flick. The second movie was a lot more intense. The Machinist stars Christian Bale in what has got to be the most disturbing alteration of body size for a movie since Stallone gained 40 pounds for Copland. I'd recommend the movie if you like stuff like Memento, Fight Club and other movies that require deep thinking.

In my quest to get my job eligibility up, I've gone and gotten a haircut. Yes, I've sold out to the man.....slightly. It's only about 1.5" shorter so it's still a decent shag, but somewhat businesslike.....and no, Joe Kennel, it's not a mullet. Sorry.

Spent the start of Saturday night at Telstra Stadium. It's part of the Sydney Olympic site and home to some big rugby matches. Two weeks ago, it was where the Wests Tigers beat the Townsville Cowboys for the NRL Grand Finals. Big stadium, with about 80,000 capacity. There wasn't even half there Saturday, but they wouldn't have been happy anyway. We watched the All-Blacks beat the 'Roos for the first time in years. It was the kick-off to the tri-nations tourney that continues in the UK. It was pretty crazy how many Kiwis were there cheering. We ended up with tickets in the section that was filled with them. A really good match altogether, with the Kiwis jumping out to a 18-0 lead before the Aussies came back to tie it at half. The second half had some big breaks with the All-Blacks coming out on top, 38-28.

When I went to extend my stay at the Sydney Central YHA (a Monday morning checkout is really more attainable than a Sunday morning) it turns out that one of the desk attendants had attached a note to my record "coolest facial hair ever". Yep, still got it!

Anyways, gotta get my shit packed up for tomorrow's departure. Gotta check in with my tax file number (typical government speed, still haven't mailed it yet) and find a job picking fruit somewhere. That'll satisfy mr mastercard....

More pics on the way, but I only had my phone at the match so not sure what the quality is gonna be like.

Cheers mates!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 7:25 AM | Comments (1)

October 14, 2005

How time flies....and money

So I've been in Sydney for a couple weeks already...crazy!

It's got some great pubs and some horrible banks. Spend 45 minutes Friday afternoon waiting to open a new bank account. And after I finally got it done, they can't even give me a bank card right away, they've got to mail it. What kinda system is that?

Man, I miss hockey. It's fun learning how cricket is played but at the same time it's got the same excitement factor as baseball. Rugby, that's a different story.

Spent the last week at the Sydney Central YHA...a tad expensive but a really classy place - almost hotel-like. I think the next thing on the to-do list is find a job, either in Sydney or fruit picking or whatever....just need somebody to give me money for services rendered. Here's some advice for travellers - do not spend more than a week in Sydney. It's expensive and there's always a party going on somewhere and you'll always meet new people to party with. I met up with a Scot named Scott and we've been partying hard for the last week....hence I now need a job.

Nine Mile is down here touring with Xavier Rudd, they start in Tazzy next week, so I may just try and tour around with them...working on my roadie skills.

If you ever find yourself in Sydney, head to Scubar. It's a little bar in the basement of the Central YHA and always a good time. Cheap jugs on Mondays (although the Aussies use a 40oz/1.14L jug) and supposedly world famous crab racing...I was more impressed with the barmaids myself...

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

October 7, 2005

Climbing the Blue Mountains

WOW.

Just got back into Sydney after spending the last three days in the Blue Mountains climbing several different crags. Polk and Heidi have been climbing for a while so they offered to drag me along for an adventure. Best thing I've done so far. Guided tours might be fine for the average tourist, but I'm a horrible tourist. I'd much rather experience things hands-on, down and dirty.

We Started out at Mt.Piddington and hiked down to a set of crags there. Jamie's friends, Andy and Evan, joined us for the day. Beautiful country; even just getting down to the climbing spot was a bit of a trek. By the time we got to the bottom my knees were a little weak....I wasn't sure what to expect of the actual climbs after the descent. Of course, Polk and Heidi throw me straight on to a class 15 climb, the Carthaginian. I was pretty nervous at first, but once you're on the rock, you really only think about where your hands and feet are going next....and making sure you don't fall. I was tied in at all times and a fall is never further than a couple of meters, but at the same time it's a lot of pride to do it in one shot. After that, abseiled down the face of Eternity, a class 18 crack that is the most obvious climb in the world. I tried my shot at it later on, but hadn't recalled enough of my technique (it's been 3 years since I'd done any climbing, and then only indoors stuff) to get more than a third of the way up. Thus ended day one of climbing.

The second day, Polk and Heidi and myself picked up Polk's friend Chris, who later proved to be the craziest, most skilled climber I've ever met (Polk's stories of him were unbelievable...then I saw how he climbed). Chris took us to the Cosmis County crags. Another great hike down to the crags with some crazily narrow paths that only a mountain goat could love. Spent the start of the day on a route called 'How much is that doggy in the window', a nice class 14 climb with a beautiful view of the Megalong Valley. Did pretty well on this climb and got to test out my harness at one point when my hands decided I'd tested them to far....but with a little coaching from below and a change of strategy, I made it up after that. The rest of the day was belaying as Polk lead a class 18, 'I'd rather be sailing' and Chris conquered a class 21. Heidi tried to start a class 16 that looked alright but had the crazied overhanging, no-solid grip start that in-the end foiled everybody. Chris lead a class 19 with a similar start and ended up making it to the top, albeit with some sketchy gear placements that had us at the bottome in awe....he's really a crazy, good climber. The sun was setting so after that, we headed back to the car with headlamps guiding the way.

That night we camped at Mt.York so that we could make it to Leura early in the morning to climb 'Sweet Dreams', a relatively easy, but exciting climb that provides an incredible view of the Three Sisters, the postcard landmark of the Blue Mountains.

Again, there was a pretty crazy descent that had me thinking of the climb to come, even though it was mostly a class 10 climb. Just before we got to the bottom of Sweet Dreams, we had to cross the 'Death Traverse', a section of the path where you have to clip two draws onto a steel cable cause there's basically no footholds to help you get across. I thought it was gonna be a bit unnerving but it was way too cool to be able to look straight down with nothing but cliffe below you. We got to the start of the climb and commenced our ascent. It was a pretty sweet multi-pitch climb (you stop at several belaying stations while someone starts with a new rope clipping onto the next section of gear and bolts). The first two pitches were pretty much straight up through some cracks, followed by the third which was a huge 30m traverse across an open cliffe. These, along with the fourth pitch (20m upward climb), all had great holds which made for easy, but still exciting climbs. After the fourth pitch, we stopped for lunch and took some videos of the climb and the Three Sisters. The last pitch, a class 17 (Polk insisted we take it instead of the class 14 crack beside it) was pretty tricky. After Heidi lead the way and planted the gear and hung all the bolts, I followed, with a light rain starting. There was a tricky section where I fell a few times (somewhat scary when it's only a rope holding you up above a 200m cliffe) but eventually triumphed in my toughest climb to date. It was a pretty awesome feeling looking down and seeing a 120m cliffe that we'd just climbed.

Back in Sydney, I checked into a hostel in Glebe and just crashed out of exhaustion....a solid three days had done me in.

On today's schedule - playing some cricket, drinking some beers and a going away party for Polk and Heidi; they take off for more climbing in Thailand on Monday.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 9:14 PM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2005

Last coupla days spent with some Frew boys

So it was some good times spent on the UWS Penrith campus with Clayton and his friends. Not really a hardcore Aussie experience cause at least half of the people there were non-Aussie...and one of his friends, Gloria, went to Laurier, and another, Katie, was from Kitchener.....almost too small a world.

But good times! Watched the NRL Grand Finals which was a blast. The Wests Tigers (western suburbs of Sydney) beat the North Queensland Cowboys 30-16. The cowboys were the underdogs so I figured I'd cheer for them....figures. Just realized that NHL starts tomorrow....hopefully I can find a place to catch a game or two.

Spent last night at a BBQ hosted by another good ole 'Frew boy...Jamie Polk. Must say props to Heidi Collins as well, a proper lass from the valley.

I had talked to Jamie earlier in the day, and he had invited me to a BBQ at his place in Glebe (Sydney suburb). I knew the address so I finally dragged my ass out of Penrith and headed back to the city. This took some work as the express train wasn't running cause of trackwork, so there was a couple buses involved...bit of a pain but I made it in the end. I hiked it from Central Station to his place on Bridge St (haven't got the hang of the bus routes yet and didn't mind the exercise). I had called Polk a couple of times on my way with no luck, but didn't have a backup plan so I trudged onward. Got to his place and nobody was home. Sat on his step for a few minutes when luckily his roommate Rachel showed up. She was kind enough to let me in and even made me a grilled cheese sandwich while I waited. The hospitality down here is incredible..... I love it.

Eventually Polk returned home and we sat and reminisced and caught up and the news, who's doin what now, who's gonna be a father (...Lecuyer). Met Polk's girlfriend and his roommates...most of whom (like Polk) are obsessed with climbing. Jamie had just gotten back from the Adelaides, doing some wicked climbing there, so I was treated to some good stories about the adventures. He might be going to the Blue Mountains to do some climbing this week so I'll probably end up tagging along. I've heard it's some beautiful country up there so stay tuned for some good pics!

I finally made it to an internet cafe that has USB connections so my pictures of Sydney will be up by the time you finish reading this. You can find them here

Posted by Dr.Unk at 8:50 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2005

Different but still the same....

Couple days later and still alive...although the hangover this morning hinted otherwise.

Spent all of Thursday just walking around Sydney seeing the sights. I didn't realize it til later on in the afternoon but I went on a huge fucking trek. Started off just walking down George St. then headed down towards Darling Harbour. Crossed over on Pyrmont Bridge and went down the Wharf. From there I ended up walking through the Rocks and around and under one end of the Sydney Harbour bridge....two words - mass, ive. Just kept strolling along the boardwalk which led me to the Circular Quay. It's where all of Sydney's public transportation comes together - train, bus and ferry. Pretty cool place with chique little restaurants and stores running along the boardwalk.

Ate some fish'n'chips for lunch and struggled to keep my hat on with the fiesty gusts of wind that were a blowin. Eventually I gave up and just carried my hat. That was just after the wind knocked over my half-can of coke and blew it away faster than I could catch up to it with my pack on. To the residents of Sydney, I apologize for littering but it was not my fault....really. To my astoundment, the wind gusts got stronger around the Sydney Opera House. It really is an architectural masterpiece. Well worth all of the fair words it receives.

After that I walked around the grounds of Government House and then around Farm Cove and Mrs. Macquaries Point. The parkland in Sydney is incredible. The downtown is a lot like Toronto....except nicer because of all the parks. It was getting late afternoon by this point so I took a little siesta near the Royal Botanical Gardens.

When I woke up I called up my buddy Clayton Garlough who's down here at the U of Western Sydney. Finally got a hold of him and decided to spend a few days partying with him. Having bought a Travelpass earlier (thanks for the advice Moose-y), I hopped the train out to Penrith to check out the place. From what I've seen, the University is small. Like real small. They've got a huge campus but they're not even as big as Laurier, population-wise*. Garlough was at the gym so his roommates picked me up at the corner of campus. Great people. Mostly non-Aussie (there's a ton of int'l students here), but just as friendly as everyone else down here.

We ended up boozin and then hittin up their campus bar. Spent most of today lounging around watching TV and movies. Chillaxin. We're buying some kegs for tonight so it should be another good'ole gongshow.

Probably spent most of the weekend here, then head back to the city (Sydney) for Sunday. Supposed to be meeting up with Firth to watch the NRL finals - Wests Tigers vs North Queensland Cowboys. Might end up having a couple beers that night as well...

Posted by Dr.Unk at 2:39 AM | Comments (2)

September 28, 2005

Greetings from down undah!

So here I am, in one piece and on the opposite side of the world and the opposite hemisphere.

The flights are long! Wow. It might also have been the fact that I was still pretty hungover from the Trews show and the previous week-long bender that was my send-off. The first flight (TO - Hong Kong) went through Anchorage, Alaska for refuelling and lasted 19h... luckily it wasn't a full flight so I was able to lift an armrest and stretch across two seats.

Hong Kong airport is huge. It's the one where they filled in part of the bay to make it. I've got some alright pics of the terminals and the crazy roof. I'll post em when I get some USB access.

The flight from HK to SYD wasn't as long, only about 9h, but it was sorta full so I was limited to one seat. On the plus side, I've caught up on some movies I wanted to see. Longest Yard - not as good as the original. Penguins in Madagascar - hilarious. Angelina Jolie in Mr. and Mrs. Smith - scha-WING!

Once in Sydney, I realized that I didn't have any plans for the night...so I did what any foreigner does...walk around the airport for a bit, buy a mobile (if you want the #, let me know but it's pretty expensive for minutes around here so be prepared to be quick and concise).

I then tried to get a hold of my contacts in Sydney...but of course, none of them was home. I did, however, have a nice conversation with a girl I assume was Clayton Garlough's roommate who was kind enough to tell me the best way to get into downtown (the train), and where to go to find a hostel (George st).

Once I got to George St. I found that the two hostels I had come across were only open til 10pm at the latest...no help there. And what does Clelland do when he finds himself possibly out on the streets for the night......

You guessed it! He hits the nearest pub, Paddy McGuire's! I saddle up to the bar and run into Joe, a 55 year-old social worker from Edinburough (sp?) who's down here to visit some friends he hasn't seen since 1972. I grab a pint of Victoria Bitter (lager, light in taste) and sit down with him for a pint. We get talking and he tells me that he's staying at the Railway Square hostel a ways up the street and it's open 24h. Perfect! Problem solved, so I grab a pint of Carlton Draught. Another lager, decent tasting but eventually I'm gonna have to find myself a quality ale down here.

We head up to the hostel which is a pretty cool place. Has a nice little deck out front and is literally right on the railway. I check in and share a coffee with Joe before crashing for the night...in a room that's been converted from an old railway car!

That brings me right up to here. Telling this story with absolutely no clue what I'm doing today. Hopefully get a hold of Firth or Garlough or Polk.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2005

T-Minus 10 days....

So I'm sitting here in the Bomber this fine friday lunchtime, firing out emails and doing a bunch of internet crap in preparation for my trip. It's finally starting to sink in...I'm gonna be in Australia in two weeks.....wow. What caused this sudden realization? I'm thinking of everything I need to accomplish before I leave.....and it's a pile. Go buy a pack....suspend my cell phone contract...buy travel insurance...change my address back to my parents' place.

I'm going to try and keep up the blog as much as possible when down undah but I see the possibility of my posts becoming longer in between and in content. I'm using Flickr to hold my pics so you can find them here, and there's now a link on the side for them as well.

Again, I'm putting out an APB for any contacts that people have down undah. Anything from a couch to crash on for a night to just someone who knows the area and can point me in the right direction for sites to see, fun to be had, etc.

I guess I've never really mentioned it but I can be contacted at mail@andrewclelland.ca

Posted by Dr.Unk at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2005

Bedouin Soundclash

Thudds put on a concert in Hess Village last night. Great show! Jeremy Fisher opened for Bedouin Soundclash. Hess Village is a street in Hamilton that's full of houses converted to pubs and clubs. Sort of a closed down market like atmosphere. So Moose and Ace and I and some of his buddies headed down to the Hammer to check out the show. Met up with a bunch of Molson's people (they were having a staff party or something)....and fun ensued. The outdoor stage setup was pretty sweet and the sound quality incredible. We had VIP bracelets courtesy of Marc so we ended up with a great view and access to the afterparty at Elixir. The only downside was that Hess thinks they're a lot closer to T.O than they are....Moose bought a double rye and a coors for a grand total of $17.25! Ridiculous!!!!

One of the reasons I love the hospitality industry....everyone is friendly and a blast to party with!

Posted by Dr.Unk at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2005

Like I needed any more encouragement to go....

From the Ottawa Citizen via my good pal Will Hamilton...

Paul Chapman
The Daily Telegraph

July 28, 2005

WELLINGTON - Australia and New Zealand are suffering a "man drought''
caused largely by the love of foreign travel, according to a report
published yesterday.

New Zealand is particularly badly affected because many of its young
people also migrate to Australia, according to the author, Australian
demographer Bernard Salt.

As a result, a 32-year-old woman in New Zealand today has as much
chance of finding a partner her age as does an 82-year-old woman, Mr.
Salt said.

"The reason is 82-year-old men are usually dead and 32-year-old men
are not in New Zealand. They're in Australia, they're in the U.K.,
they're in Europe.''

While the shortage of men is being felt across all age groups, it is
the thirtysomethings who are hardest hit.

It appears that Australia and New Zealand, nations which pride
themselves on a heritage of rugged 19th-century colonial pioneers
digging for gold and breaking an untamed land, are now suffering in
reverse.

Britain gets a large share of the blame, along with other
skill-starved northern hemisphere countries, accused of "sucking''
large numbers of bright, well-educated youngsters into their
higher-wage economies, said the report which was compiled for
accountancy firm KPMG.

Latest figures show that Australia, with a population of 20 million,
has 20,000 fewer men than women in their 30s, which contrasts starkly
with 1976 when there were 54,000 surplus men.

In New Zealand, population four million, the imbalance is even more
marked, with 24,000 more women than men in their thirties.

Over all age groups, New Zealand had a shortfall of 66,000 males last year.

Although young women travel too, they are more likely to return home
after a couple of years, unattached.

"The problem is that at 23 or 24, a young male is going to form a
relationship. The male generally stays in the home country of the
female, or he falls in love with an English girl and brings her back,
so you've still lost a single male,'' Mr. Salt's report said.

It added: "The man drought is having an extraordinary impact. It is
leading to a shift in consumer culture.

"Both New Zealand and Australia might have to look at defensive
migration strategies over the next 10 years to limit both the impact
of the brain drain and the man drought.''

Posted by Dr.Unk at 4:56 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2005

Where women glow and men plunder?...

That's right, I'm headed to a land down under. The flight's not booked yet or anything but that's details....

The plan, as it stands, is to grab a working holiday visa and head down undah, possibly via New Zealand. The rest of the trip will be a mix of tourism and work...hopefully in some hospitality areas to add some variety to my Bomber experience.

I figure the whole thing will last 8-10 months or so but I really can't predict what will happen if I catch the travelling bug. My experience with backpacking and the like is pretty slim so I welcome all advice and suggestions from the pros (Reuben, I'm thinking of you).

As well, I'd like to put together a list of contacts for the trip, so if you know of people kicking around down undah, pass on their emails and locations.

Posted by Dr.Unk at 6:14 PM | Comments (2)