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I had been lying awake for nearly twenty
minutes listening carefully to every little noise when I heard
the swish of the fabric of Lisa's sleeping bag. Seconds later
she shook my arm to wake me and whispered, "There's something
outside."
"I'm awake", I whispered back.
A scuffling sound in the dry Eucalyptus
leaves outside our tent and we both held our breath. Fortunately
for me, I had heard its not so subtle approach about 15 minutes
earlier; the distinctive noise of a large kangaroo crashing
through the forest cruching the dry leaves and twigs under
its weight as it hopped along. How Lisa could have slept through
that I will never understand.
It was a little after 4:00 AM. "It's
the little unexpected surprises that make a trip so memorable,"
I thought to myself. Afterall, how often does one get to experience
the sheer terror of being woken up by a kangaroo sniffing
at their tent in the middle of the forest at 4:00 AM?
It was then that the cold reality of our
ignorance of kangaroo behavior washed over me. Of course we
had seen a few shows on National Geographic or the Discovery
Channel about kangaroos. But I also recalled that male kangaroos
can be quite territorial and can do considerable damage with
those massive leg muscles. Not knowing what else to do we
rolled the dice and turned on one of our headlamps illuminating
the tent from within.
Everything went silent. The kangaroo, which
seemed to be 20 feet tall weighing 500 pounds and hungry for
human flesh, paused motionless. Our eyes darted around inside
the tent, the only parts of our bodies that dared move. We
desparately hoped our marsupial miscreant would just hop away.
It wasn't working. Blinded by the sides of our tent we didn't
know from which direction the attack would come.
So there we were....In the middle of a national
park somewhere about halfway between Melbourne and Sydney
in Southern Australia lying face up safely zipped up inside
our tent along side an old logging road camped out next to
our car. If it had been a lion outside our situation would
have been the equivalent of his stumbling across a neatly
packaged plastic tray of T-bone steaks.
Encouraged by a strong desire to go back
to sleep I slapped the inside wall of the tent as hard as
I could with the backside of my hand. It made a sound but
not a particularly intimidating one. The kangaroo shifted
his weight and hopped off into the dark forest of dry Eucalyptus
leaves. Relief washed over me and we shared a moment of celebration
before slipping back to sleep.
Four days earlier, On February 26, we had
arrived into Melbourne, Australia from New Zealand. After
a few days exploring Melbourne we set off on a ten day journey
in our tiny rental car to Sydney. The plan was simple: there
wasn't one. The idea was to take in the farmlands, mountains
and coastline of Eastern Australia with plenty of time to
explore side roads and allowing ourselves to get lost along
the way. We hadn't done a scrap of research aside from collecting
several maps at the visitor's center. We didn't know what
we would find, whom we would meet, or where we would spend
the night. There was nothing linear about our trip, zigzagging
from north to south and east to west.
It wasn't long before we realized we had
been driving in the wrong direction for the last half hour
and we changed our course for the Great Ocean Road, a portion
of highway that connects Melbourne to Adelaide.
After sighting six Koala's lethargically
chewing Eucalyptus leaves up in the trees along side the road
we agreed we should at least head in the right direction.
We turned our little wonder car into the wind and pushed the
pedal to the metal reaching breakneck speeds of almost 90
mph in our whining 4 cylinder rental car. Nightfall was an
hour away. Two hours later we whizzed by a police sobriety
check-point along the highway and realized the hour was getting
late. We aimed for the next biggest dot on the map and decided
we would find a caravan park and throw up our tent for the
night. $18 AUS and another hour later we were inside our tent
as the rain began to fall. It was a wet night but we were
so tired we drifted off to sleep with the hard ground biting
into our hips. Our minds were at ease as our tent had proven
her water-proof capabilities in New Zealand.
Having seen the monotony of Australian farmland
we agreed on some mountain scenery the next morning as our
rental car digested our camping gear into the trunk and backseat.
We made our way along the coast but the winds had kicked up
a fierce gale and so we turned inland to the mountains. Along
the road we noticed fewer and fewer cars. Soon we were on
a long stretch of road in Kozcuisko National Park. It was
a weekend and our fear of finding a prime camp site faded
as the confusion washed over us. "Why is there nobody
here?", I asked Lisa several times. "Where are all
the cars? Isn't it a weekend?" We were distracted by
a mob of kangaroos roadside and the question was forgotten.
As we progressed inland we noticed patches of forest that
looked like they had recently burned.
By the time we arrived at the fork in the
road to our intended campsite along the Snowy River, we had
grown silently confused as the green Eucalyptus forest had
transformed into a wasteland of burned out trees. For miles
and miles and several hours on the narrow mountain roads we
turned a corner to see another few ridgelines covered in blackened
tree trunks and barren earth. The answer to our earlier question
slowly presented itself to us. Last year this had been the
site of one of the worst wildfires in Australia's history.
And here we were with delicious anticipation of being the
first ones to arrive at a peaceful mountain campsite next
to the river. We saw no other campers and now we knew why.
As the sun fell lower in the sky the burned out forest, absent
of any birds, began to take on a very sinister and creepy
feeling. Without much thought we draped our map over the hood
of our car and sketched out an alternative.
It was to be a two, maybe three hour drive,
by our calculation. An hour later we realized that the windy
mountain road was hindering our speed and we would need to
find a place to camp for the night. As we left the burned
out forest behind us we came upon a couple of large kangaroos
peacefully munching grass along side the road. Seeing this
as an omen, we decided it was time to choose a campsite and
make the best of it. Luckily we found a really nice campsite
nearby, deserted of campers except for a couple from Western
Australia. We set up our tent, made some soup on the camp
stove and had a light dinner of soup, apples and crackers.
The next day, a sunny warm summer day, we
made a diversion to the tallest peak in Australia. Pretty
lame compared to the dramatic mountains of New Zealand through
which we had tramped less than a week prior. Our visit was
cut short by a nagging sense of boredom. Now that we had seen
what Australia had to offer in terms of mountains, we changed
our minds and allocated more time for along the coast. A brief
visit in Canberra, the sterile capital city of Australia,
and we headed down from the central plateau towards the ocean.
Large mobs of kangaroos shared fields with horses and cows
and the occasional roo carcass along side the road reminded
us to keep our speed down and be aware.
Again we misjudged the distance and found
ourselves buzzing along at nearly 10:00 PM. Quite late to
be looking for a camp site. We located several caravan parks
in a National Park along the coast but the office was closed
and the gate locked. We would have to get creative. We drove
around and found several vacation homes near the beach. Mobs
of young kangaroo were busy munching the well watered lawns
and paid little attention to us as our headlights illuminated
their banquet. It was then, in a moment of desparation, that
we located an old logging road through the National Park.
We kicked up quite a wake of dust as we searched for a place
to call home for the night. Sometime shortly before midnight
we just pulled over at a wide spot and set up the tent in
front of the car. The dark silhouettes of the trees in the
silent Eucalyptus forest seemed creepy. But inside our thin
nylon tent we deceived ourselves into a false sense of security.
All that changed at 4:00 AM when the kangaroo came crashing
through the forest.
The next morning the forest seemed much
more gentle as we packed up and drove to the end of the road
to find a beautiful beach complete with camp sites. Lisa gathered
shells and I examined kangaroo tracks along the sand. We decided
a visit to a nice relaxing beach was in order after our ordeal
so we headed north to a popular beach where we would have
a picnic lunch of random items from our feeding trough in
the back seat, a large box with all our food stores.
We knew the sun was intense in the Australian
summer but we thought the locals on the beach were a bit paranoid
wearing long sleeve shirts and big hats. We hadn't much of
an opportunity to spend time in the sun in New Zealand with
all the unsettled weather we encountered so we decided to
lay out here and get some sun. Ten minutes in the sun and
you knew something wasn't right...It just felt different.
We decided to play it safe and returned to the car with fifteen
minutes sun exposure front and back. As we returned to the
highway to continue our journey toward Sydney I could feel
my skin reacting to the intense sunlight. We'd been told that
the ozone hole over New Zealand and Southern Australia is
a real threat and that skin cancer is very common in these
parts. Such a problem it is that children are required to
wear long sleeve shirts and hats with flaps down the back
to cover their necks. "Fascinating!" I think as
I examine my reddening skin.
We spent the next few days bouncing around
the roads that lead to Sydney and then drive north to NewCastle
and the famous Hunter Valley wine country before circling
back to Sydney. One night in a crowded caravan park in the
blue mountains, a night in the YHA hostel in Newcastle and
one dewy night in our tent in a caravan park in Hunter Valley.
A week of car camping and we're ready for the big city. We
drove just under 3,000 km from Melbourne, taking the long
route where we could. Summer down-under was quite nice and
we looked forward to the comfort and convenience of the big
city.
We learned that our visit to Sydney coincided
with the largest tourist attraction in Australia's history,
drawing even large crowds than the 2000 Olympic Games. The
Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade would be held on Saturday
night. Oh Boy! Well we decided to make the best of it and
being from the San Francisco area, we're pretty open-minded.
Unfortunately a storm rolled over Sydney and dumped several
hours of rain creating quite a mess. The gays and lesbians
who had traveled from all over the world got their parade
rained on. We watched some of the parade but the umbrellas
blocked the view and so we got bored and went to sleep instead.
The next day was sunny and warm and we headed to the Botanical
Garden next to the Opera House, a Sydney "must-see".
We visited the Opera house and treated ourselves
to concert tickets. Gilberto Gil of "Girl from Ipanema"
fame would be playing on Sunday night. It sounded fun. We
spent the rest of the weekend wandering around Sydney. We
were able to visit the aquarium, do some shopping, visit the
top of the AMP tower and discover some great restaurants before
the concert on Sunday night. When we arrived the Brazilian
fans of Gilberto had taken over the foyer of the Opera house
with drums and dancing. It was very festive and reminded us
of when the Brazilians took over Los Gatos when World Cup
soccer was palyed at Stanford. We had a really good time.
Several days later we took a shuttle to
the airport to fly to Cairns for our adventure on the Great
Barrier Reef.
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Pictures of Australia
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