MID LIFE AT THE OASIS

Hi all. My leg cut is healing up well thank you very much, so it’s time to move on and reflect on our longest stay of our trip. We’ve had three (mostly) relaxing weeks in Sydney and manged to see quite a bit of the city and its residents, while admittedly spending more time on their slow transit system than we would have cared to. This extended time has given us the time to explore the city at a slower pace and gain impressions that we might have missed in a 3 or 4 day visit typical of most tourists.

We got haircuts, China visas, and even some new clothes. We shipped our bikes and gear via sea freight (fingers crossed), attended a symphony, and visited two doctors offices. The gloss of a few days as a tourist were replaced by the reality of trying to live a more normal (and car free) life in the city. [o.k. minus the work thing of course] As for my impressions…..well, I don’t feel the strong urge to pack up and move here permanently as it’s not a great place to live car-free, cycle, or even walk for that matter. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a big, vibrant city that has tons going for it and some really cool old neighborhoods on the inner trains lines, and a fairly vibrant culture, but could I live here? Yes. Would I prefer it over SF? No.

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE IN YOUR FACE

Sydney has coastal areas with beaches and landscape that are some of the most beautiful that I have ever seen. Anywhere in the world. (which is bigger now) Absolutely crystal clear and soft water, with good surf if you want it or gentle bays if you want that. If you’re into the water and can afford a place with a good commute, then it certainly seems to rate up there in the quality of life. And enjoy the water we have! Our local beach has the somewhat famous Bronte “Bogey Hole”, which consists of a series or large rocks that protects a corner of the beach from surf and creates a giant outdoor swimming area with fish, rocks, and soft sand. With swim goggles, it’s often like swimming in an aquarium. Of course Bronte also has an amazing actual saltwater pool that is also great to swim in. It’s really cool at high tide when the swell is big as waves break into part of the pool.

BRONTE POOL OVER TOPPED BY WAVES

Our little corner of Bronte beach really is one of the nicest coastal nooks that I have ever seen, especially with so many people near it to enjoy it at all hours a day. It’s no wonder that the Aussie’s have such a spectacular swimming record in competition; as it’s really part of the culture with pools everywhere to fill in away from the beaches. You can see 6 year-olds diving and swimming with goggles like little pros. The ocean and harbour coasts have loads of walkways and paths to explore and provide some very peaceful locations to live as there are many stretches with limited and quiet roads.

ME AND MY (FORMER) BOSS AND FRIEND MIKE ON THE SPIT TO MANLY WALK

Needless to say, property values along the quiet waterfront areas have gone into the stratosphere during the recent property boom here. However, just head over the first ridge from the ocean and the city sprawls to the North, South and West in a often drab and classic suburban pattern that gives the cyclist or pedestrian the feeling of not really belonging. It offers lots of opportunities for new immigrants and my impression is that it is not be a bad place to raise a family. If you have money and can afford to live by the shore, then it is a fantastic place by many measures. However I noticed while biking that the wealthier Eastern suburbs seem to have even more cars zipping around which jams the rest of the city up for the transit dependent and lesser affluent. Another big problem is the lack of pedestrian right of way (by law) and the lack of nearly any stop signs. Cars zip around with the expectation that pedestrians will stay out of their way. To add insult to injury (which are frequent for pedestrians here), you have to push a button at every traffic light crossing in the city: even in the densest downtown grid. It’s crazy as you often just miss a light cycle by a second or two and have to divert left or right to find the button. It’s really nasty for the elderly or mobility impaired. It’s also really uncivilized for such a “developed” country and makes California’s pedestrian rights and drivers look like a dream.

The other problem for me living here is that away from the coasts, there aren’t really that many parks and some of the biggest that we explored either have cars circling around inside (Centennial) or a highway cutting though them (The Domain and botanical gardens). Hyde Park is right in the business district and has some beautiful old trees, but is too small and ringed by traffic clogged streets to give you any real feeling of oasis such as you can find in other urban parks such as Central Park, NY, or even Golden Gate Park. The Botanical Gardens are extremely well maintained, signed, and served with bathrooms and benches which make them one of the most pleasant places to stroll in Sydney. They also connect the waterfront to the fabulous Opera House building which really is an impressive building. We got an even better look at it a few nights ago while attending a symphony performance in the main concert hall. The harbour, quay, and bridge really are one of the most beautiful waterfronts I’ve seen and seem to warrant all the raves that I’ve heard over the years.

SYDNEY SANDSTONE ALONG THE SHORE AT THE BOTANICAL GARDENS

So what does everyone in Sydney constantly talk about? All the time? Rugby and traffic, but not in that order. We hear and see daily the nightmare of traffic clogged streets that just seem to be getting worse by the month. The problem is simple…the fact that almost everyone here buys into the car culture and wants to drive as soon as they can get the opportunity, despite a massive public transit system. They fund transit, but they fund roads and new highways even more. Transit is clearly neglected and not prioritized in the transportation planning the way it should be. Not that the transit system isn’t used, but it is clearly a small minority who use it by choice, especially the buses. The rail lines and ferries are quite efficient and seem to be better run than the buses. This is similar to the situation in hundreds of big cities around the world right now, but he accommodation for cars here is immense and there are highway tunnels everywhere, and new ring highways planned. Again, they have built a new rail line (and one light rail line) in the past 10 years, but that doesn’t really help such a burdened system. They clearly need to limit or charge private autos who are delaying others and give it back to to the one million people who take transit daily here. A congestion charge may be a big answer here.

I also suspect those in charge of transit here may not really understand what people want who depend on transit. Dozens of buses (the system is so confusing) running down loud traffic clogged streets is not a replacement for the old trams they had apparently until the 1950s. Luckily, there is already a call to bring back one of the trams, as these can provide much better street level transit in the well-developed neighborhoods here.

Good Planning? There has been some traffic calming in some of the nice old downtown neighborhoods which has created some very livable streets and even allows bikes to get around in some peace for at least a few blocks. But from my perspective biking, walking and riding the buses for 3 weeks, these efforts fail due to the general accommodation for cars in 99% of the city. Cars are aggressive towards bikes and pedestrians and it shows in the cyclists and walkers behavior.

YES SYDNEY, PLEASE SLOW THE $%&# DOWN!

People dash and cower as walkers, while cyclists are rebellious daredevils, with slower bikes often illegally plying the busy sidewalks to stay alive. Again, it’s really shocking for a western country and has made both Cheryl and I a bit pissed off. If we WERE living here, there would be a new advocacy group started tomorrow! (Cheryl did write the big local newspaper with our impressions as travelers)

Another extremely positive impression of Australians are that they really are exceedingly friendly, just about everywhere, and will go out of their way to help you out at the drop of a hat. However, there is also a huge drinking culture that permeates society, as heavy drinking seems to be a sport of choice for many people here which you can see on the streets and read about in the papers (all the problems). Of course, an 18 drinking age and bars open t’ill 5 or 6 a.m. does not help. It’s rowdy and fun at times, but kinda a big problem for the health of the society.

SYDNEY, I’M SORRY IT’S JUST TIME TO MOVE ON

So that’s all I’ve got for now on Sydney as yesterday we departed Sydney Central on a lovely 2-hour train ride up to the Blue Mountains. We’re loading up a bit on fresh air and practicing our Mandarin phrases and getting in a few days of nice hiking in the sandstone canyons and hills that have served as Sydney’s closest natural park getaway for a 100 years.

GRAND STAIRWAY – BLUE MOUNTAINS NP

Then it’s back into Sydney for a night and off to Singapore on Thursday. As always, a new adventure awaits and this always gets us reinvigorated for the travel life. In addition, Singapore knows how to do transit and I’m sure we’ll be feeling less like marginalized outcasts on their well funded and effective system for moving 4 million people with a very low car ownership rate. And Cheryl has already got the best food courts and street stalls figured out…should be tasty.

So goodbye Sydney; we’ll never forget you, but I suspect we won’t be running back until you give back some rights to people who just want to cross the street…buy groceries without a car, and get across town on a bicycle. What a concept.

So in case you didn’t know, to get emergency services in Australia you dial 000 instead of 911. Luckily, we didn’t need to resort to this yet, but I did have my first incident requiring medical attention in our 10 months of travels. It was a bizarre sort of injury that only happens to a cyclist who spends too much time on a bike, as we have been so lucky so far to avoid any major mishaps in our 10 months to date. We’ve survived auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, open buses, dodgy ferries, and even a night taxi drive in rural India (the most dangerous thing ever by far!), and had barely a flat tire while cycling the South Island of NZ for nearly 4 weeks.

So we were enjoying a nice day out to the Sydney Olympic Park, which is a huge (~1000 acre) reclaimed and redeveloped area about 20k from the city centre obviously created for the massive 2000 summer Olympics. It has dozens of stadiums, centres, fields, pavilions, but best of all, they’ve created the legacy of a usable park for everyone to enjoy which contains bikeways, paths, and natural areas all the along the Parramatta River and its estuaries. Unfortunately, like most of Sydney, it suffers from somewhat poor signage. The bikeways are sort of signed in places, but you frequently come to roads or 3-4 way intersections where there is no clue given. But they do have park maps located at many places, so we got in the quick habit of pulling over to look at these. Unfortunately, I stayed on my touring bike seat and leaned forward to look at the small map and my front wheel dropped into a little depression/hole between the sign and the paved path which was hidden by the shadows. Crazily, my right foot was clipped out and angles sideways a bit just in the line of the dropping outer chain ring. It made an impressive slice into my leg, removing a small chunk of flesh (better clean my chain), and leaving me with a bloody wound that Cheryl and I both agreed needed more than our normal trail side medical attention.

Ahhh….behold the amazing bandana Tourniquet

So we headed to the information center, which was also poorly signed as they still had signs for the old center 1km away in some places just to mess with us I think?!? But as always in Australia, the staff at the info centre were really, really nice and very helpful. They immediately called the park ranger and about 10 minutes later he arrived and pulled my makeshift tourniquet away to exclaim “Crikey, you need to go to doctor, mate!” (Or something to that effect).

THE WOUND BEFORE STITCHES….KINDA GROSS

So the staff called the local medical centers and a taxi and we all decided that it was best to go the nearest ER as the cut needed to be cleaned up and probably stitched. I’m thinking “Crikey, the ER? This is going to cost us $1000.

THESE 3 LINES OF PAPERWORK ARE BRUTAL!

So after almost no paperwork and an explanation that it would cost us AUD$95 (~US 80) for the doctor to see us, we waited for about 20 minutes. I was seen by a really nice young Filipino doctor that we immediately bonded with as he was so relieved to have patients he could understand. He had been born and raised on American English and said he had a really hard time understanding the local dialect, especially since we were in a more working class neighborhood where the accents were really, really heavy. He did a great job stitching me up and even provided some extra bandages for us.

ALL DONE…5 STITCHES! (LARGE IMAGE FOR DR. BRINKMAN’S REVIEW)

And yup, the total cost for everything was the 95 bucks. It’s barely worth saving the receipt to claim, especially since this is our first dip into our $1500 deductible insurance year while travelling. Medical care really is cheaper everywhere but the US. and now I understand why people freak out when they travel to the US and need outrageously expensive travel insurance.

THE HAPPY DOCTOR AND PATIENT AFTER A JOB WELL DONE

My other rather egocentric thought right after the accident was “Oh crap, no swimming for the rest of our time in Sydney”, so I was extremely relived to hear the doctor say, “Yes you’ll need some stitches, but you can swim after 3 days!” So the wound has healed nicely and I’ve been back in the wonderful ocean here the past two days again thinking, “How Am I going to go back to work after this trip…?” The water is so clean, clear, and liberating….tomorrow I get the stiches out and we are going to an evening symphony performance at the SYdney Opera House……How indeed will I go back?

-R

So we last left you in Melbourne as our gracious hosts, Tanya and Eric took us wine tasting in the beautiful Yarra River Valley and to the Healsville Animal Sanctuary. The sanctuary has all the lovable and odd Australian critters mostly out and about in a very nice setting somewhere between a zoo and a wild animal park. Koalas, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Platypus, and a wild raptor show that was amazing.

THE FEARSOME KANGAROOS!

Eric even cooked us some delicious Kangaroo that night, so we got to both cuddle and devour the critters in the same day. (Sorry if this is creeping out our vegetarian friends)

Overall we really liked the vibe of Melbourne and it was extremely easy to get around on both bike and transit, with really nice river pathways that get you into downtown on bike from just about any side of the city. Good food too.

But alas it was time to leave lovely Melbourne and move on again, so we loaded up all our worldly possessions onto our bikes and did the easy ride down to the Southern Cross rail Station to catch the regional Vline train to the Victorian “High Country”. Tanya and Eric had brilliantly recommend this as the perfect stop between Melbourne and Sydney. The V-line from Melbourne was kinda of cramped for a nearly 3-hour ride, but we forgave that as they are very nice to bicycles, allowing you to put your bikes in a fairly large luggage car without the ridiculous requirement of dissembled into a box. Once in Wangaratta we had the challenge to find a place to leave our half our gear for the week while we toured up the valley by bike. No luck at the train station or tourist office, but the nice folks at the clean, comfortable, and retro (unintentionally) Millers Cottage let us leave two duffles there for the week while we rode which was a lifesaver, as we had to do something with our RTW stuff as our bikes nearly sag to the ground under our the full load of our gear.

The High Country is not one of the the most famous of Australian destinations and a bit off the beat and track, and we were probably the only foreign tourists that we noticed up in the area, but there were quite a few Aussies from the region. So naturally we loved it. Of course there is also a great 97 km rail-trail and rail access to the trailhead from Wangaratta, right on the main line from Melbourne to Sydney. We even found some great Thai food.

EXCUSE ME, ON YOUR RIGHT!

Now I use quotes not to belittle the beauty of the area, but to emphasise the fact that it’s just not that high in the high country. The highest mountain is about 2000 meters, while most of the towns are at 300-500 meters. Apparently there is a somewhat brief ski season there from late June to August, although the past few years of drought have not been kind to the area for both farming or skiing. There is also a growing wine and gourmet food industry, with olives, mustards, breads, and cheeses being produced all over the region. And the wine, cheese, and olives we sampled were superb. The Darling-Murray river basin is one of the largest agricultural regions of Australia and produces about 1/3 of their food. Unfortunately the area is in severe drought and farmers are at risk of losing entire crops this year, with major discussions here about a potential long-term crisis blamed primarily on the climate change that is already occurring. Of course, the current federal government here is even more hostile to science and reason that ours, and once again, the individual states are taking it upon themselves to do something about the issue. The State of Victoria has a large wind and solar farm initiative and there are other future plans to reduce carbon emissions. Sounds familiar.

THE BEAUTIFUL DECENT FROM BEECHWORTH

So the cool thing about taking the rail trail up the valley is the fact that biking is the absolutely perfect pace to appreciate this countryside. It’s too vast to walk, but driving it you miss out on the wonderful birds, pungent eucalyptus, and gentle autumn breezes. I thought the countryside was beautiful even in the drought, although I can only imagine how spectacular it would be in late Spring after a good winter of rain. The town of Bright at the upper end of the rail-trail was especially nice and has an alpine feel despite being only at elevation 300 m!? The people were really nice and much of the Autumn foliage was still bright despite the drought. There was also a great rail-trail spur up to Beechworth which is a historic Gold rush town that still has loads of the original 19th century buildings and a very laid back vibe. So we only saw about 250 km of the high country, but I think we got a small sense of some of the interior of this massive continent without having to rent a 4×4.

JUST ONE OF THE HAZARDS OF THE BUSH

When we returned to Wangaratta for our last night, where we had the somewhat typical demoralzing experience of taking long distance rail in a car country (e.g. Amtrak) and had booked ourselves and two bikes on Countrylink, the national rail service of Australia. Despite our train leaving at 11 a.m., we had to get to the train station at 8:30 to pick up two bike boxes and break down our bikes. What we didn’t realzie is that the station buidling actually closed at 9 a.m. and we got booted outside with all our gear and boxes to pack them in the dirty and abandoned parking lot out front.

BOXING OUR BIKES OUTSIDE THE WANGARATTA TRAIN STATION

We then had to drag the bike boxes and our gear to a separate “lower” platform about 300m away and wait for two hours for the train to arrive, as the station building really only served the V-line trains from Melbourne that we had arrived on. As the train approached, we dragged the boxes to the luggage end of the train and loaded the boxes (the agent wasn’t sure which end of the train the luggage car would be) in the roomy luggage car that could have fit 30 bikes if configured correctly, despite Countrylink telling us that they only allow 3 bikes/train and that you must reserve the space and pay for it. (Of course, our total gear was lighter than some of the suitcases that many people were travelling with) Now I don’t mind paying for reserved bike space, but please then don’t make me break dwon my bike into silly and wasteful boxes. It’s easier for everyone to keep the bikes assembled as many transit systems and even airlines have realized. Of course on the other end we had the challenge (which I do enjoy in a thrilling sort of way) of arriving in yert another city at night, assebling our bikes in the train station, and riding across the city to our hotel. We definataley have improved in bike dis/re-assembly as I think we had both bikes together in about 10 minutes!!!
The train ride itself was very pleasant and I must say, the trains are newer and more comfortable than Amtrak. And we were only about 20 minutes late.

NEW WORLD RECORD FOR BIKE ASSEMBLY IN SYDNEY CENTRAL STATION!

So we explored Melbourne to Sydney by bike and train, but much of it wasn’t easy, as everyone expects you to drive everywhere and that is the way the world is set up. Even the rail-trail was designed to be ridden via cars and shuttles for your gear as we were the only overnight touring cyclists we encountered. You know it’s really quite easy to carry gear on your bike, but you just need a little accomodation along the way, such as a safe place to put your bike (good thing we brought locks), and a train that you can ride up to, put your bike on and ride away from across the vast parking lots. It’s only difficult because we as a society have made it difficult.

THESE GREAT REST AREAS MADE THE TRAIL NICE

So now we’ve hunkered down in Sydney for about 3 weeks. We found a great little apartment sublet East of downtown in an area known as Bronte, which also happens to have a nice beach and park about 10 minutes walk down the canyon from our place. The water is stunning and the sandstone cliffs amazingly dramatic, while the bird life just continues to amaze us with its variety.

NEAR OUR APARTMENT IN BRONTE BEACH..WOULD YOU LEAVE?

So we plan to stay in the Sydney area until we fly to Singapore on May 10th. The Sydney area is a lot like the San Francisco Bay Area in that there is plenty to do and see in three weeks that is unique and unusual. We may venture as far as about two hours East by regional train to the nearby Blue Mountains, but one clear side effect of travelling so long, is that we just don’t feel the need to see every corner of the country, and are quite content to see one small corner between Melbourne and Sydney. This will also free our minds to absorb as much of the national culture and psyche as possible (except maybe for the common past time of frequent binge drinking with your mates) So please don’t ask us if we saw Ayers Rock or the Great Barrier Reef when we return, ’cause we didn’t. I’m finally catching up on the photos, so please visit our Flickr site for all the latest Australia photos. Coming Soon….reflections of Sydney (yup, been here long enough to have ‘reflections’!).

Cheers. -R

Greetings Mates…yes we arrived in Melbourne, Australia last Thursday(5-Apr) from Christchurch after ending our 3 1/2 week bike tour and brief 11-day sojourn with motorized transport exploring the South island of New Zealand. There is nothing more exciting than arriving in a foreign country for the first time and putting you bikes together in baggage claim, loading all your travel possessions for a year, rolling through customs, and heading out for an 18km ride across a large city without a map. Oh yeah, and at night too just to add to the fun. If you haven’t tried this, I highly recommend it as it will give you a whole new perspective on Airport travel as well as make you the conversation piece of customs and airport security. It is also an excellent way to test your marriage. We reckon about one in 100,000 travellers does this at most airports, with most settling for the more mundane taxis, buses, or Supper Shuttles. Where’s the adventure in that? Rolling away from an airport on bikes on roadways 100% NOT designed for bikes is so unique that most cars and taxis give you a wide berth, as people clearly relegate you to the category of “insane but on perhaps on parole”!

LAKE MATHESON REFLECTIONS – MT. TASMAN AND COOK IN THE CLOUDS

We had meant to print out some maps (or buy one) that our friends had emailed, but forget in our haste leaving Christchurch. Luckily, a random guy in customs handed us a city bike map for Melbourne which really helped us once we got closer to the city; however, outside this area were relying on some vague directions printed from the Cycle Victoria web site, but still only had to stop once to ask directions from locals. (Of course, a regular road map doesn’t help you as a cyclist much, since it may put you on a scary semi-highway, up massive hills, or run by a glass factory) So we frequently spent a few turns on the many roundabouts looking for a certain road. Of course one of the brilliant things about Roundabouts is that you can circle until you find your exit or at least review your options. Of course, yelling to Cheryl to turn across lanes of speeding traffic was not always successful, but we seemed to make it out of even the gnarliest double roundabouts (yikes), while always thinking “Stay Left, Stay Left, Stay Left!” There were some lovely four lane splits across tram tracks (which are everywhere in Melbourne) and a few construction nasty construction zones, but overall, I have to say the people of Melbourne were very kind to us on the road as we must of looked like confused ducklings trying to cross the rapids and they would always give us a wide berth (or nearly stop) and never honked! To our credit, we mostly rode in a predictable manner and were very well lit with loads of reflective clothing and gear. I emphasize the mostly.

BRAVE EXPLORERS OF THE FOX GLACIER, NZ

So on the New Zealand End, we rode to the Christchurch airport where we had a relatively easy time getting our bikes ready for the plane as Air New Zealand does not require boxing of bikes (thank you!) and we merely had to take off our pedals, loosen and turn the handlebars, and splice two baggage bags together to cover them (certainly not to protect the bikes, but to protect other luggage from grease according to Air NZ) Luckily as we were dropping off our rental car back in downtown Christchurch we stopped at the airport and left a duffel to lighten our cycle to the airport a bit and verified that they would have bags and tape at the airport, something I recommend prior to travelling with bikes no matter what they tell you on the phone! Oh yeah, and if you are going to travel the world with your bikes, business class really helps too, as they were very kind to us every step of the way. We also said goodbye to Robyn, our wonderful Servas host in Christchurch. She and her husband Alan had been so kind to us from our arrival to our departure 5 weeks later with great hospitality, food, and insight on NZ culture. We also got to know about their family and friends and day to day lives, as they couldn’t get rid of us so easily! Thanks again.

We had a brilliant cycle tour with our friends Mike and Nancy as we biked from Christchurch south to Dunedin, rode the Otago Central Rail Trail, and then head onto the Queenstown (when I last checked in with you) area and finally up the rugged West coast of the South Island.

A REST NEAR HOKITIKA ON THE WEST COAST OF NZ

Our 3 weeks of cycling was remarkably uneventful which is a good thing for bike touring as the wind, rain, and occasional double-long sheep trucks were enough to keep us all focused on our next good meal, some Monteith’s beer, and for Cheryl, of course, a bit of that tasty NZ Sauvingon Blanc. Most of all, it was a time for us to catch up with our great friends and reconnect with the world back home for awhile. And it appears we are all still friends, which is a very good thing. The West coast and glaciers were spectacular, and riding along in the thick and wet rainforest was quite surreal at times with the sounds of water and birds overwhelming the senses.

After a somewhat sad goodbye to Mike and Nancy, we decided that we would suave our sore butts for a bit and opted to rent a car for our last 11 days. We loved cycling in New Zealand, but having a car really gave us a chance to do some wonderful hiking, which is probably the Kiwis favorite past time, perhaps short of watching Rugby. We hiked the coast of Kaikoura, little-known “Sawcut Canyon”, a good day on the Queen Charlotte Track in Marlborough Sounds, and Mount Roberts and Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes NP. There is a lifetime of hiking in new Zealand and we only touched the surface, but it was really nice to have the time to enjoy each trail slowly and enjoy all of the amazingly different ecosystems that the little islands have.

As for Australia, we spent four great days in Melbourne staying with a former colleague of mine and her husband. They have a very peaceful new house in the Kensington neighborhood and graciously hosted us for the long Easter weekend. There is lots to talk about on Melboure, the Yarra Valley, and our trip here so far, but I’m going to wait to get some photos for the silly details. Right now, we’re in Beechworth, Victoria in the High Country area which is beautiful right now but quite dry due to the vicious drought they are experiencing all over Eastern Australia. We took the V-line train with our bikes and all our gear from Melbourne and have been riding the Rail Trail (Murray to the Mountains) and nearby roads for 5 days as a stop on our way to Sydney by train on Sunday. We are frantically looking for apartments in Sydney to call home for 3+ weeks to experience a stability and really get to know the other city by the Bay.

Stay Tuned for more on Hong Kong and other tidbits on the wonderful world of Oz.

Peace -R