It's Getting Hot In Here....

Well, I spent abut 5 days in Sydney and found it odd to be back in a place that required me to actually use crosswalks and pay cover charges. Clearly I have gotten way to used to beach towns! Sydney was actually not that bad, and I was able to check out all of the main sights. The first couple of days were great, then my best friend along the East Coast joined me again--RAIN. Really? For one of the driest places on earth, I've had more rain here than in Denver all of last year. I am starting to think that all of the pristine scenes and sun drenched beaches are a hoax to get tourists here. That aside, I managed to walk the city and see the Opera House, climb the Harbour Bridge, and spend plenty of times checking out the local watering holes in The Rocks. I was fortunate enough to celebrate my Australian heritage with about 5 million of my closest friends in Sydney, only about 14 of whom I actually knew, and I'll tell you it was a blast. The streets were absolutely packed, and drinking and eating began well before I got out of bed. Live music everywhere, giant screens for people to display their Guitar Hero skills, cricket games in the street...you get the picture. It was a long day, capped off with an awesome fireworks show over Darling Harbour, with light rain falling. Great day!

The highlight of Sydney was definitely the bridge climb. I went up at night, and while I missed sunset, seeing the city at night was incredible. I have some pictures, but I'll have to get those up later, since they aren't on my camera. For some reason they don't like you bringing your own camera or anything else that might fall onto the cars below. I don't get it! Out side of the city, I took a ferry ride over to Manly Beach for the day along with a group of friends. The beach was, well, a beach, but the town was great. I would love to have spent some more time over there, but unfortunately I had a train to catch. It'll have to wait for the next visit.

I took an overnight train to Melbourne (10.5 hrs), which is where I am now, and will be for a week or so. So far I really like this place, more so than Sydney. It has a ton of great restaurants and bars, great shopping (not that I have the money to spend or the storage space to put anything else), and it has a greater energy than other places I've visited. I even got to go to the Australian Open, where I saw the semi-finals match for doubles. So far there is only one negative: Heat. It is frickin' hot here. Really. Supposedly we're in the middle of a heat wave that hasn't been felt in decades. It has been over 100 degrees the past couple of days; yesterday checked in at 45 C, or roughly 106 F, and today ain't much better. It is impossible to keep dry and want to know the best part? There is no A/C where I'm staying! I love it. I woke up this morning soaked in sweat. It's great!

While there is no set plan for the immediate future, I am hoping to cruise along the Great Ocean Road for 2 or 3 days this coming week, likely leaving the city late next week to head back up to Noosa until my flight to Thailand. Time is certainly flying by, but I'm loving every second.

Also, I am pleased to announce that I have officially joined the 21st century and become a member on Facebook. My page can't get much more basic that it currently is, but I'm working on it! Would you be my friend?!?!?

Cheers!

Life's A Beach

Well, after a ton of rain and some nice flooding, I was able to make it down to the Whitsundays, which is probably one of the most picturesque spots in Australia. I say this because every picture I've seen looks incredible; I saw a lot of rain. For some reason, the weather liked to follow us, as the rain here had nothing to do with the cyclone to our north. Regardless, I was out sailing for a day, got to do some more snorkeling and stopped at a number of beaches along the way.

Fraser Island was my stop a few days later and finally the weather held out. It is the larges sand island in the world and had some awesome views, good hiking trails and a bunch of inland lakes. Wound up taking a walk out to one of them, Lake MacKenzie, and although it was flat, the 6.3 mile trek each way was one that I should not have worn my flip-flops on. My blisters and cuts are slowly healing. The lake was great, and much as I imagine the beaches near the reef would have been like on a clear day. The picture below doesn't really do it justice, but they normally don't.

From Fraser I headed down to Surfers Paradise, which is basically a huge tourist area, and no one from Australia actually works there. Needless to say, the town was a blast. Kind of reminded me of a smaller Miami. Had the whole day free, so the beach was my destination, and for someone who does not like the ocean or the beach, it was nice. Only manage to injure my shoulder minimally when I got sucked under the wave and slammed it against the bottom. The worst part of the entire day had to be walking along the street and seeing a group of people wearing a combination of Yankees and Ohio State gear--I nearly got sick. That aside, the weather looks to have changed for the better!

Leaving Surfers Paradise, my first stop was a wildlife sanctuary, which may sound kind of dull, but was really cool. Got to spend some time with the locals!
After playing with the roos, I made a quick stop in Byron Bay, which is a neat little town. got some great views of the coast from a lighthouse which sits above the town, and although I wasn't too close to the water, was able to get a clear view of a group of dolphins, as well as a shark, which was great, seeing that I was going surfing the next morning.

That night I spent at a surf camp, which is basically a bunch of shipping crates with beds thrown in them. On a scale of one to ten, its at the bottom when it comes to amenities. The place was run by a group of surfers which lived up to every possible stereotype. I can only say that they thoroughly enjoy their job and will not find any satisfaction working in an office. Not gonna lie, I was kind of jealous! In the morning, I was up first thing to catch some waves (spoken like a true sufer, which I'm not)! We started off with a quick lesson on the beach, involving how to position ourselves for the oncoming waves, how to stand up, etc. I felt like I was in the scene from Forgetting Sarah Marshal. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0VrsKyg8Pl4 It may not have been pretty, and I definately spent more time getting tossed off my board and thrown under the water (my nose and throat stung from the gallons of salt water I inhaled), but it was such a good time. The fact that I manage to escape with all my limbs in tact and no chunk taken out of my body from the local sharks was a nice addition.

Currently I'm in Port Stephens, and in a few hours I'm heading south to Sydney, where I'll be for the next 4 nights. Already have stuff lined up, and on the Monday (Jan. 26th) it is Australia day, which basically entails eating, drinking and baking in the sun. I can do that. It is also another excuse for the Aussies not to work. My plan is to head to Melbourne for a week or so after that, then back north to Noosa until I leave the country. It's all very rough, so who knows!

Cheers!

Rocks, Reefs, Grubs and Lap Dances

Uluru (Ayers Rock) was definitely the highlight of The Outback. Sitting in the middle of the country, surrounded by nothing but desert and red sand, it is really impressive. I was able to watch the colors change on the rock as the sun went below the horizon, accompanied by champagne. Apparently, this is something that every person who watches it does, and the group that I'm traveling with was no exception. After 10 days of traveling through the middle of nowhere, this made it all worth it.

My final day in The Outback was spent around Alice Springs, which compared to most of the other 'towns' that I had been through, was booming. At night I went to a steakhouse and got to sample some local foods: Crocodile, Kangaroo, Emu and Camel. Not a huge fan of the croc, but the others were all quite good. Before leaving, I was able to learn a little more about Aboriginal culture, as well as their diets, by going to a bushtucker tour. It is safe to say that the food available to them is quite different that what I am used to, and in addition to native fruits and vegetables, I sampled some other delicacies: Witchity grub and kangaroo tail! Mmmmmm!

Now in Cairns, it is safe to say that I am once again in civilization. And better yet, no flies. I spent yesterday at the Great Barrier Reef, which was awesome! Unfortunately, this area is getting a ton of rain due to a cyclone (hurricane) to the northwest of us, making visability kind of poor. It was not worth diving due to the conditions, but I was still able to do some exploring of the reef through a snorkel, and still got to see a sea turtle, shark and giant clam, in addition to a ton of fish and coral.

At night we went out for a bar crawl around the city, and at each stop there was a compition for some sort of prize. How I got roped into this, I don't know, but found myself standing on stage, my partner for this competition, a female tourmate, seated in a chair in front of me. As soon as the words 'lap dance' were spoken by the DJ, I knew that I was in trouble. Sure enough, I had to give my best dance for 2 minutes, in front of a crowd of 40 or so people, competing against the 3 other teams (all friends). It was a long 2 minutes, and I'm sure for my partner and all those watching, it was not a pretty performance. However, once time was up, the tables turned and the girls had their turn as well, so it wasn't all bad! And, I am pleased to say, we won! In fact, the cheers that made up the voting showed it wasn't even close. I would like to think that my performance had something to do with it, but I'm pretty certain I owe this one to my partner. That is one occupation that I won't be considerting upon returning to the States.

Tomorrow morning I head south to Whitsundays, which is supposed to be having better weather than we are here. My fingers are crossed, as they have some great beaches and I'll be out sailing for a day.

Tonight: Cairns

1/13-1/15: Whitsundays

1/16: Fraser Island

Cheers!

F*@king Flies

Happy New Year! For me, New Years was spent in Darwin which, despite it's remote location, has quite a nightlife. My evening was spent at The Vic, which I know means nothing to most of you, but it has a good reputation in the area. Needless to say, we celebrated in style in the far side of the world. If there was a UBS cord I'd post some pics, but I'm out of luck right now.

The past week has been pretty hectic, traveling through a number of national parks (Litchfield and Kakadu), where I got some great views of the landscape and remote waterfalls from a plane, which at any point could have gone down. On the way down to Alice Springs, I have managed to swim in a number of little watering holes, some of which had unbelievable waterfalls coming down on top of us. I should note that I was later informed that one of them had a 50/50 chance of containing freshwater crocodiles--I am still alive and have all of my limbs, so all is well. Spent a night camping out under the stars at Kings Canyon and took in some amazing scenery. I have seen the landscape change from extremely humid to bone dry, from green and lush to one riddled with huge termite mounds to one of dry red earth. I have also seen first hand the modern Aboriginal, who can certainly be smelled well before they can be seen. Now listen, I know that sounds harsh, but it is true. I have begun referring to their scent as 'Essence of Aborigini' or something of that sort. To give you an idea, it kind of smells like a mixture of extremely bad body odor combined with feces. Seriously, its nausiating.

Today has been spent at Uluru, more comonly known as Ayers Rock, located in the center of the country, where my day began at just past 4 am so that I could see the sunrise over it. Really cool and well worth the early wake up. Tonight I'll watch the sunset with some champagne. Pictures will follow and will be good!

All of this has been good, but there is one thing that summerizes my experience here in the Northern Territory of Australia. Flies. I hate those F'in flies. We all hate mosquitoes, black flies, etc. and have dealt with them, but until you have spent days in The Outback, you have no idea what misery they can bring to a person. I have probably repeated the term "F*@king Flies" more times in the past 5 days than anything every before. They are awful. As I'm writing this there is one buzzing around my head. My hatred and disgust towards them has reached the level of the Yankees and Buckeyes (I'd say it has surpassed it, but I don't think that is possible). Now I have bought a lot of suveniers so far, spending hundreds of dollars on t-shirts, cultural items, etc. but the best thing I have purchased, by far, has been a fly net. For A$8 i have salvaged my trip in this territory. (Thank you, Barbara and Bob, you were definitely right on this one!)

I would elaborate further on all of this, but I was informed that I've been long-winded (Mike), so I'll leave it at this for the time being. My schedule:

Tonight: Uluru
1/9: Alice Springs
1/10-1/12: Cairns

Cheers!