Something for the Weekend

Mark and myself hired a 4x4 and took a road trip down to Wilsons Prom. South East of Melbourne by a fairly hefty drive, the Promontory National Park holds some amazing scenery, views and treks.

Arriving just after midday, we lunched on the best pies I've had in Australia. Then we checked out some of the white-sand beaches. One of which; 'Squeaky Beach', is famed for the sand which bizzarly, makes a loud squeaking sound as you place each footstep.

After the novelty of squeaky sand wore off, we headed off on a 7km round trip up Mt. Oberon - the Parks highest peak at just under 600metres above sea level. From here, we could see some of the beaches we'd just visited and far more besides. The speedy winds soon cooled me off and it was time to head back down.

The following day consisited of a far more effortless schedule. The Sun was beating down and so it seemed obvious that we should spend a day relaxing on the beach and swimming in the sea.

We left 'the Prom' early afternoon in order to be back in the city for the Games closing ceremony. It was rumoured that the festivities would be even better than those on the opening night - they didn't disappoint.

I Love Livin' in the City

Melbourne was once named as the "Worlds Most Liveable City". Something that a fair few Melbournians have let me know during my stay here. It has in fact been made quite obvious as to why they achieved this accolade however. Even during what will be the cities busiest month ever (hosting both the Commonwealth Games AND the Melbourne Grand Prix the following weekend) public transport was clean, fast and efficient; generally a breeze to use. The people are as friendly as you could imagine for a large city to be. The shopping, eateries, drinkeries, sports facilities, parks, the sites to be seen both in the city and within several hours drives are all exceptional. The weather is the only thing that could possibly cause any concern. But from an Englishmans perspective, 40 degrees in the Summer, and around the 10 degree mark in Winter - I'd say it was pretty good anyway - despite the "Four Seasons in one day" theology which had made itself apparant several times during my time so far.

The weird thing was, that as soon as the games had started - the weather was at worst 'a little overcast' and at best - 34 degrees. So in the baking sunshine I ventured to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch an evening of Athletics. My first experience doing so, was rewarded with some of the most amazing crowd atmosphere I have ever experience at a sporting event. I got to see: Asafa Powel (the world record holder for the mens 100m) win his race, Dean Macey of England, Essex top the Decathletes overnight table and saw an enthralling 5000m mens final where the Aussie was pipped to first place by a Kenyan; amongst a bunch of other track and field events. I fail to see how any athlete couldn't put in an all time best performance with a crowd like that behind them - the Aussies really go mad for their girls and boys.

To follow up the Athletics, I had an evening of Boxing to go to. But before this I took a trip to the dizzy heights of the Southern Hemispheres tallest commercial building - the Rialto Towers (in the top picture you can see the view from the Rialto's, of the Southern Hemispheres tallest residential building - the Eureka Tower). The 360 degree view was absolutely amazing - and enabled me to see everywhere that I had already been to in Melbourne.

The nocturnal boxing session topped off my audience participation of this Commonwealth Games. It was good to see the English do so well in the Ring, and also good to see and hear some of the less well known African nations supporters.

On Thursday night, I went for drinks with Kev (Scot) and John (Wales) and we met the England Basketball, seething after a loss to the Aussies. They were in good spirits really and after introducing myself, I got to feel like a midget for the rest of the evening. Cool guys - and great to meet the first Englishman that ever played in the NBA.

Common People

My Virgin Blue flight left the Western Australian Tarmac at around Midnight Sunday (Monday morning) and touched down 3 hours later in Melbourne at about 6am. From a 33 degree day in Perth, it was now 18 degrees. I was unimpressed. I got off my tram ride at Beacon Cove, Port Melbourne where Mark was to meet me and show me back to his place where I'd be spending my stay in Melbourne. The sky's opened and chucked it down with rain. I was even more unimpressed. Though after 3 hours sleep it was midday, and the sun was shining, a bit.

The two of us ventured into the Melbourne City Centre and I gained some orientation of the main sites. With the Commonwealth games opening ceremony a few days later, there was a strong festival atmosphere brewing. Flea met up with us, and I got to sample some pretty legendary Gelates.

The void between arrival and the Games opening ceremony was filled with some site seeing, mainly on a trip to Phillip Island, South East of Melbourne. The Island is home to the Australian MotoGP which ran a few weeks previous to my arrival, and for it's penguin phenomenon. The waddly ones flock on to the shores each day at late evening. However, we wanted to be back in time for the Games opening ceremony.

Into Federation Square, the place was rammed with other travellers and of course Australians wanting to be part of the buzz; watching the opening ceremony on the big screens. The teams marched out, the queen said her bit, and the place went nuts with fireworks and much cheering and jubilation. We could see all of the cities sky-scrapers which were a central part of the display.

As the thousands filtered the streets back to the train station, we carried on the part for a while on the Yarra Rivers South-bank.

Day 1 of the games, I started out by borrowing Marks bike to go check out the Triathlon training and some coastline beyond. In the evening it was time to go check out some of the Commonwealth games first hand. I'd gotten tickets for the first night of Rugby 7's where England would play Sri Lanka (and beat them heavily) and then Australia. This match was what everyone had come to see and the Telstra Dome went crazy when the old enemies ran out on to the field. The Australians went one try in the lead, and eventually after half time, England drew level. Our boys then got a second and the Aussies had to chase the game for the final minute or two. They got there try, but with the final kick of the match to even things off, they missed their conversion and the White & Red army made themselves known... 14-12, the final score.

Late in the Day

My extended period of relaxation, work and general laziness came to a halt early this week when I realised I had limited time left in Perth. I decided to get out of the house & city and so took a train ride down to Fremantle - the main port of Western Australia, and as such; a very historic town in terms of Australias short (Western) history.

I'd already been in to Freo for a night out and the beer festival, so a few of the sights were already familiar to me. On foot I took a walk around the market areas and then the marina; checking out the yachts before I stumbled across the Western Australian Martime Museum. As luck would have it, I got there right as a free tour was kicking off. It was really cool to hear the story behind how the Dutch first discovered the land of Oz, pretty much accidentally. The centrepiece at the museum is part of one of the Dutch fleets ships - 350 years old; it gave you a good idea of the size of the all-wooden sea-craft.

On Thursday I jumped on board a tour up to see the Pinnacles. Our first stop was a brewery where we got to sample 3 half pints of the home brews. After tasting the first beer I ever tried that tasted like Cherry Slush Puppy, we walked around the ranch and got a sample of about 6 wines, rather like down in Margaret River - except these were pretty grim. However with that much alchohol consumed in the space of about 30minutes, the tour group was rocking, and were chatting away like they'd known each other for weeks rather than an hour! We left Bassenden (Rolf Harris' home town) behind us and left the city limits; onward through the Swan Valley and out into the bush.

Mid afternoon we arrived near the Nambung national park (17000 hectares!), ordered our grub for the evenings dinner then headed onward into the park to see the Pinnacles. Lying 245kms North of Perth, the natural phenomenon can sometimes make you believe you're on a different planet. The rocks that rise from the ground are made from Limestone and sand, bonded together by Winter rain thousands of years ago when the area would have just been a large sand dune. As the winds blew the sands away, the rocks you can see, were left.

After a drive around the park from the comfort of our seats, we then had nearly 2 hours to go explore the area for ourselves. A couple of the girls on the tour decided they wanted to emulate Billy Connellys visit to this park by running naked around the place. Sadly the rest of the group weren't privvy to this display...

I'd walked a long way and taken more pictures than anyone would care to look at, and all that was left for this amazing place was to see the sunset. The sea breeze closed in and made for a chilly 30 minutes. The final shadows were cast so the group headed back for dinner.

After our food we headed off to get some sleep. The evenings accomodation was some of the best I'd had on the trip so far. A swag bag and sleeping bag formed my matress, pillow, sheets, covers, roof, room etc. etc. The view was simply amazing however, so good, that I only slept around 3 hours before being awoken at 6am for brekkie. Luckily I got no insect bites, didn't get eaten by a snake or pooed on by a wallaby. Result.

Our driver Bruce then took us to the sand dunes at Lancellen. After getting the honour to semi-deflate one of the trucks tyres (he must have heard about Essex boys before) we were ready for 4x4 mode. Bruce hammered the cumbersome looking truck around the windy sandy paths before roaring up to the top of the sand dunes, and tilting the van over a crest, much to everyone onboards nervous surprise.

Sandboarding was next. After a few goes seated on the board, I was feeling adventurous and so had a few goes standing up. It was a little trickier than snowboarding since I was bare-foot on a board with no bindings and much more friction under the base of the board. It was good fun nonetheless, though with sand now occupying every crevass it could find its way to, it was time for for a swim in the Ocean before getting back on the road for our final journey back to the city.

On my final day in Perth, I met up with Nick and his girlfriend Lucy for a funfilled day on Rottnest island. The island lies a good few k's off of Perths shores, and is famed mainly for it's unique inhabitants, the Quokas. This island is the only place on Earth you can see the large rodent looking creatures. The name Rottnest came from when the Dutch first discovered the place and thought it was crawling with giant rats - hence Rott-Nest or "Rats Nest". But they're way cuter and less vermin-like than rats.

So, on to the beach for a quick hours worth of rays and then Nick and I made our way to the dive centre for a West-Coast Scuba experience. We didn't take a camera this time, but barring a couple of cool sites (a large wall of stationary silver-pirahna-looking-fish that blocked most of the entrance to a swim-through archway and some brightly coloured sea slugs), there was nothing to write home about.

A quick wander around some of the island and an ice cream later, the day was over and time to get the boat back to the city. In the evening I was to fly to Melbourne, so I said my farewells to Nick and Lucy.

After finally making the full walk from Perth city centre to my home in Inglewood, I was 'backpacking' again, as I threw all my worldy belongings into my trusty sack. My housemates came along to wave me off at the airport which added an unusual sense of emotion to an otherwise routine task of moving on.

Shake Well Before Opening

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Steve and I went along to Perth International to pick up Nick flying in from Singapore. Re-united, we spent several hours exchanging travel stories of the past month and drinking Jim Beam and Cokes.

Within days of his arrival, I also had an unwelcome arrival in my room - in the form of a deadly Redback spider. With any normal spider, I would have just pushed it into cup with some paper and thrown it out... but I didn't really want to mess with this one. So, after consulting Steve - the resident Aussie, we decided the best method would be to fold up a beer mat and with a swift thud... let's just say he won't be making any more webs again.

The following days consisted of Nick finding his bearings living back in the Western world. I showed him the city and our surroundings in Inglewood. He showed me how to cook curry and Toad in the Hole... very welcome after a diet of oven baked meals and spaghetti bologniase!

On Sunday, we, along with the other housemates went along to the Fremantle Beer Festival. Here was the chance to sample any of over 40 international beers from all sorts of exotic parts of the world: Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Jamaica and Britain! The temperature got to around 40 degrees which made the drinking of so much beer quite difficult. Nevertheless, we managed to make it through 'till dusk when some popular local rock bands took the centre stage to entertain the jovial crowds.

When we were no longer interested to drink any more beer, we jumped in the minibus for the ride back in to Perth. Hungry when we got back, I decided to cook another Spag Bol... Chilli style! Ghetto cooks in da house!!!

Work. Work. Work. (Pub, Club, Sleep)

6 Months ago:

Numerous People: "So will you work when you get to Australia?"
Luke: "Yeah, eventually as and when the money runs low, but I'll stick to my profession, and get something at least loosely related to computing..."

Present Day:

Agency Man during interview: "So have you ever worked in a Chicken factory before?"

After a few weeks of Australian life, I'd noticed a significant drain on my savings. I'd also noticed a lovely pair of Von Zipper sunglasses that I had to have for the remainder of my travels. Only problem was they cost $180 and that was really just a bit too much to justify spending. So I figured I do it the old fashioned way and earn them.

So after the easiest interview I'll ever sit in my life... (I was wearing Jeans and trainers too) I started work the following day at Steggles Chicken Factory, Perth. Once I'd arrived, and donned my groovy overalls, chiller jacket and designer hairnet I was ready to rock. My job - to sling 20kg crates on to wooden pallettes all day long - at least until the cows come home, or in this case; the chickens. 1hour in, I was sweating like a fat man at a fat-fighters club weigh-in.

And so it went, I worked Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before knocking off with a slightly healthier looking bank balance. During my time on the line, I was fortunate enough to have some insightful conversations with the regular workers about such topics as the differing flavours of international McDonalds and crop circles.

Not for the first time on my trip, I found myself saying to myself "Thank goodness for my iPod" as I managed to rig the headphones up under my clothes and up under the hairnet. My sanity was saved and I could hum, sing and dance my way through the otherwise nullifying shifts.

On my final day, I dropped by the Surf Shop in the city centre and picked up my hard-earned shades.