making up syllables: August 2013

apparently i said something about wrapping up england in my last blog post? well check out the view from where i'm currently typing up this post and tell me i should write again about london?

a better question would be why am i even on a computer overlooking a beautiful harbor when i could be enjoying the beautiful ocean waters? well its full of marine stingers that's why. and because i don't feel like swimming particularly. and because you should mind your own damn business, reader, that's why!

anyway, a few small words about returning to london. i had dinner with connie and francois, two fellow teachers from south korea. we had korean food and overpriced hite beers. it was a wonderful time that i feel remiss in glossing over but i doubt they read this thing so who cares really? i also hung out with abi and her co-workers who made quite a mess of themselves, sometimes literally tripping over each other. the night was a mix of various degrees in embarrassment, which is to say it was a pretty good night.

but sweet jesus how am i still going on about england? did you see that view? which, by the way, is from the lagoon at airlie beach in north queensland. lagoon, in this case, is not a naturally occurring body of water but a man made salt water pool that is separated from the actual sea by only a few hundred meters. most major cities we've passed through so far have had these, mostly due to lack of natural beach or because the waters are infested with dangerous seafaring creatures, such as marine stingers or saltwater crocs. they're all uniquely laid out and offer the natural pleasures of a beach in a safer setting, and you still get all of the magnificent views of the genuine waterfront.

but let's rewind to the beginning of our aussie adventure. we arrived into cairns about midday on the 14th. i couldn't really tell if i was supposed to be tired or awake, hungry or full, as our travels kept us in constant guessing. it felt as if we were being constantly fed, like i had dinner 3 times in a row at one point, and when it was dark in the plane it was almost definitely light outside and vice-versa. but with any landing in a new country the adrenaline that comes from setting off on something new probably kept us up that first day and we've no doubt been playing catch up ever since. a weird thing in that regard is that although it feels like summer here, with temperatures consistently around 70 to 80 degrees, the sun sets on a winter schedule so it's dark around 6:30 p.m. this often leaves us at a loss of what to do, particularly at campgrounds when its just us and our camper. generally, we make dinner, eat, have a few beers and then turn in around 8:30 or 9 p.m. of course this is useful when on the road because we can be up and about around 7:30 and on the road before 10, but i hope i can shed this grandpa lifestyle by the time i reach the big city.

so, where were we? cairns! cairns is weird. it's a town clearly built to support a tourism industry and as such doesn't really feel authentically australian, whatever that should mean to me at this point. i guess i say that because it doesn't feel authentically anything. because it caters to tourism, in particular to backpackers, it is often staffed with itinerate workers, ie. the very backpackers to which it caters. it is therefore a town that seems to consist solely of tourists. the bars are full of foreign bartenders, the tourism booths full of foreign agents, the hostels full of foreign cleaners. which is fine because cairns is basically just a hub. to the north of cairns is the daintree national forest, to the west and south are the tablelands, and out to sea is of course the great barrier reef. just for quick reference, we're on our 6th day of driving down the coast and we still haven't left the great barrier reef area and probably won't for another couple of days. it wasn't until our last day in cairns that we actually made it out to the reef. we spent most of our days at cairns version of the lagoon - lounging, reading, swimming, working on going from ghostly white to brown, or more likely red in my case. we were also quickly working out how expensive it was going to be to live in australia. i had a vague idea based on the cost of beer alone but just a quick rundown of some price points: a six pack of cheap beer costs about $10 (equivalent to bud light, craft beers are more around $24) while cases of 24 will run around $40; a burger with a little side salad is generally around $15, in one restaurant a quesadilla was costing $24; a steak at a chain restaurant will cost no less than $40; grocery goods are fairly reasonable but you're still paying a dollar or two more than what one would be accustomed to; and gas is going for about $1.57 per liter, which sounds alright until you realize it's per liter and not gallon (1 liter is a little more than a quarter of a gallon, so the cost equivalent would be about $6 per gallon). so even though the exchange rate is slightly in the us dollar favor, the price point is definitely not. i have a feeling once we start getting paid it will probably feel less daunting, with the australian minimum wage currently at $15.96. that means i could work at mcdonalds for about 30k a year, not that i'd ever do that.

sufficed to say we've been trying to watch our spending, particularly jamie who makes a note of every single purchase he makes. we are at the exact opposite spectrum when it comes to noting our finances – he anxious follows every cent while i anxiously hope i haven't run out. our first large expense was the reef trip, which at $150 wasn't really all that bad, particularly considering the experience. i didn't pay for the underwater camera (see above) but if you do a google search for great barrier reef its no wonder why it's such a great (no pun intended) experience. even if you're just snorkeling, which we did, the reef is so shallow everything is right there in your face. at times you have to worry about paddling your fins in fear of hitting the coral. our trip included two stops on the outer reef, tea and snacks for breakfast and departure, and a really nice buffet for lunch. if you're in cairns it's really a no brainer.

our second big expense was our camper, or campa as the australians choose to call it. we went with a jucy grande campa, which sounds a bit like a meal a fast food chain, but is a (supposedly) four person van that they've retrofitted into an all-in-one sleeper/kitchen/driving type deal. you can check it out in action here. for better or worse, this is to be our home for the next month as we drive down australia's eastern coastline. but first we made a quick trip north to the tropical daintree national forest. this is probably another no brainer if you're ever up in cairns. the drive alone features some of the most beautiful beaches i've ever seen, most of which you can't actually swim in due to saltwater crocodiles, but still, really breathtaking, particularly in the evening. the sunsets really bump things up several notches. in fact, i'm going to go hyperbolic once again and say i'm not sure I've ever seen a more beautiful sunset than on the beach our campground was set in daintree. aside from its beautiful beaches, daintree is also home to a massive rainforest, where you can go on boardwalk tours and even ascend to the canopies for walks through the treetops. the north australian rainforests are also home to the cassowary, one of the largest, if not the largest, birds in the world. although there are signs about every kilometer warning you of potential cassowary crossings we never did catch sight of one. bummer, as the cassowary is probably the closest thing living to a land born prehistoric creature. i'm saying that without having verified it on the internet, but just based on looks alone: they're massive, slightly reptilian, have a big bone growing out of their head, and have massive claws.

from daintree we drove south and inland to the tablelands of queensland, so called because they're an inland plateau. mostly a grassland used for grazing, the tablelands also feature an impressive number of waterfalls and hot springs. at this point in our trip we're mostly hopping along from campsite to campsite, moving back and forth from the pastoral to the tropical, trying to find little detours along the way. one such detour was paronella park. at first i wasn't too excited by the prospect, mostly because it's one man's recreation of ancient spanish castles built into a natural rainforest. for some reason artificial antiquity always sits poorly in my estimation. however we ended up not only catching the day tour but camping there for the night and checking out the night tour as well. it's not just that the grounds are nice, which they are, being what is essentially a botanical garden, but what the park really sells is the idea of a dream. paronella park was the vision of an oasis and getaway in the middle of nowhere. a destination carved out in the australian jungle. there's a sort of magical realism of it - a ballroom featuring a cinema, an ice cream parlour with refreshment lounge, a massive waterfall lit up at night - it all felt like something in a gabriel garcia marquez novel. like this man was creating a world of his own fiction, which, if i'm to be honest, is something that i've always desired to do.

from paronella we drove back east, along the tropical palmerston highway, to re-meet the coast at innisfail, art-deco capital of australia, from which we've been driving south along the oceanfront, stopping at mission beach to play some football on the sand, passing through the north queensland capital of townsville, and eventually making our way to airlie beach where i am typing this post. airlie beach is the gateway of the whitsunday islands, a seaside playground, however we opted out of the many fun offerings because hey what are we made of money?? our aim is to be in brisbane somewhere close to the second weekend in, or about a week from now.

and before i wrap up this post i just want to once again thank everyone for their hospitality in england. it was a fantastic three weeks and you were all a great help and company.