Traveling in a Fried-Out Combie

For all my worry and fuss in the days leading up to our road trip, it was a success. Not simply a success, but decidedly one of the most singularly important events of my life. You learn a lot about yourself when you take away everything you've taken for granted. If you have nothing but what you thought you might need the day before, little plans, and even fewer resources, then you're forced to call on your own abilities. To learn what you are capable of at your root is to understand yourself. But enough philosophy already, I have to write down everything that happened and everywhere we went before it all becomes a blur... I'll get to the interpretation later, after all you can't analyze it until it's history.

We left on Friday morning, 8:00AM sharp. We'll we're still college students and not yet hardened travellers so sharp was more like 8:35, but close enough. There are two ways to go from Melbourne to Sydney, inland around the mountains, or along the coast. Since we were eager to cover ground and figured we could see the pretty rocks on the way back home, we took the inland route which is about 4 hours shorter. If you ever want a 10 hour drive that looks exactly the same the WHOLE way, drive from Melbourne to Sydney. There's something quaint and pleasent about the rolling hills, rounded plains, and sparse misshapen trees that cover the grazing lands in Victoria and southern New South Wales. That wears off after about 2 hours and you just wonder if you're making any progress at all.

I can only speak about the roads in southeastern australia, as that's where we've been, but I've made some interesting observations. The strange turn that I noticed in one of my first posts is actually a manuever called the "hook turn" and it is only present in the CBD of Melbourne, where the most difficult driving in Australia is to be found. The purpuose of the hook turn is to avoid blocking the path of the tram system which runs through the streets. Melbourne's highways system has a strange contemporary art look to it that includes steel statues, artistic sound barriers, and even frosted glass in some places. Especially at night when the roadsides are lit up with purple and yellow lights. There are more goverment public service announcesments about staying awake and alert on the road than there are all other signs combined on Australian highways. I guess falling asleep at the wheel is a real killer out here, and as you travel for 10-14 hours at a time without a change in scenery through Victoria, you can see why. Australian highways use speed cameras more than police officers to control speeding, which makes sense given the minute population density. It may be that, or it may be the Australian "I'll get there when I get there" attitude, but in general people obey the speed limit religiously. The highway speed limit ranges between 100 and 110 km/h (62 - 68 mph) and people usually travel about 5-10 km/h below it. This was good for us becuase the 15 year old van could just barely make the limits without shaking itself to pieces.

Friday night we parked at Manly beach just north of Sydney. Spent all day Saturday showing my commerades around Sydney, the same places I'd been on my last trip, and we were soarly dissapointed. The weather again was not particularly favorable, and to be honest, the city did not much interest us. Too many people doing too many things, there wasn't much opportunity to make friends. Saturday night we tried to get as close as possible to Bondi beach. One of the most famous beaches in Australia about which there are rescue and drama TV shows (Similar to Baywaytch). We couldn't really get a view of the shore but it didn't matter much, the ugly weather persisted. Also on saturday night we decided before going out that the lot of us really could use some showering. Fortunately Bondi has a few beachside spigot showers for rinsing off after getting out of the water. Unfortunately it also has beachside restaraunts and we found ourselves showering parhaps 200 feet from the all glass 180 degree view window of a rather exclusive looking resaurant with an even more exclusive looking dinner party happening. HAHA take that high society.

Sunday, dissapointed with what we found in Sydney, we began to make our way up the coast and things got a little brighter. We had a spot of good weather so we took a tourist drive and spent a good portion of the day off the highway and around the area of Avoca beach. A beautiful sandy spot with about 100 feet of beach seperating a freshwater lake from the ocean. There we discovered that the sand on some beaches here squeeks. I surmise it might be a high silicon content, but really I don't know what I'm talking about and the phenomenon is rather hilarious. Cloud cover sent us on our way though and we found a delighful state park south of Old Bar to camp for the night. Ocean front views from the parking spot and a clean bathroom within walking distance.

Monday was a relaxed day and we only made it a little further. We stopped at Nambucca heads where there were lovelly beaches and some incredible lookouts. To our good fortune we headed during the evening for what we unanimously decided was one of the nicest places along the way, Byron Bay. We parked right at the beach front of the Eastern-most town in Australia. The evening life was a bit slow, and we received an $80 parking ticket for being in an area clearly marked no parking and no sleeping, but that as we have learned, is the Wicked lifestlye. Tuesday morning I learned to surf, we spent 3 hours on the beach just south of where we parked, and rented the equipment. Will and Greag have both been surfing recently, they learned while they were here, but I have had a brief introduction before from a friend who lives on the Cape during the summer. I managed to stand up 3 times, but I won't tell you how many times I failed. Then we made our way leisurely to Surfers Paradise, where we checked into our hotel room at the Crown Plaza. A clean hot shower was a welcome change from the Van, but it is sort of a cheat in the lifestlye of a road trip.

For me, Surfers Paradise was by far the best part of the trip. Although Byron Bay was a nicer atmosphere, I learned a lot more from the social experience at Surfers Paradise. There's a lot to say about it so I'll include in my next post. Only that we stayed for two nights and on Thrusday morning, bright and early, we set off on our way. It might be good to mention that at this point I had successfully learned to drive a manual. I started at Old Bar and at Nambucca heads I was able to to a 3 point turn on a 45 degree angle on my own. Unfoturnately, in my confidence, I was a bit rough on the gear box and as we drove south from Surfers Paradise in a tradie town called Ballina I shoved the shift stick right through something and got the transmission stuck in 3rd gear. We were towed to a service station and had to stay overnight in order for it to be fixed. A tradie is the general term for skilled labor in Australia. Anyone who builds, fixes, makes, or destroys something is a tradie. They're all unionized, and they all wear the same uniform. Navy shorts, and a polo that's navy on the bottom and either flourescent green or orange on the top. Most have the name of their emploer embroidered on it, but they're all in a brotherhood. So when we found a tradie pub to wait for the call from the grage fixing our van, we got some interesting looks. They're Australian, so they must be kind hearted, but curiosity has a mean way of presenting itself in grumpy old laborors.

Friday morning around 11:00 AM it was fixed and we checked out of the pleasent Sun'n'Fun Motel and rocketed for the remainder of the trip. Staying overnight in the beautiful Royal National Park next to a waterfall which we didn't have time or light enough to appreciate, then driving over the incredibly scenic Illywara highway taking pictures out the van window, we made it back to Melbourne by 8:30PM on Saturday night. Tired, stinky, and out of money, but happy as clams.