Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Note: Everything is updated here with pics from my farm stay in Carnarvon included.

Well where have I been and what have I been doing? I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since I last updated this but sure enough it is so here I go.

Well after my disastrous wwoofing at the McKenny’s farm I felt quite jaded to the whole thing and wasn’t quite too sure I’d do it again. I spent $50 on the wwoofing book but I have to say the experience that I had at the West’s farm worth it. What I resented most about the McKenny stay was being accused of being a snoop, something that I am not but it’s all seemingly ancient history now and I look back and laugh.

Anyways, I ended up stay in Geraldton for 2 more nights and pretty much slept and chilled out. Geraldton is an industrial town so there wasn’t much to see and do there but they did have a pretty cool hostel with quite a few cool people staying there. I met 3 other Canadians there so that was pretty cool as I really hadn’t met any since I got here.

After Geraldton I headed up further north to Kalbarri which is a national park and small town of about 5000 people. My first day there I rented a bike and went biking for the day along the coast which as I was told is what you want to see. Now it’s been extremely windy here and the further north I’ve gone it’s gotten windier and windier. It’s become quite a nascence and has really been a downer at times but regardless I set out for the day. I was told by the lady at the hostel that it was about a 14 km ride out to this place called Nature’s Bridge and that it’s where you want to go. 14km, pff, no problem I figured, I did that and them some out on Rottnest Island. Well that was 14km uphill and against a wind that at one point nearly blew my pants off, I kid you not. I only made it out about 8km but it was killer. The hill I had to climb was huge and again, the wind, my god the wind.

I did manage to make it to a couple of the recommended turn offs and spent quite a while climbing through the canyons and cliffs of one in particular which was as far as I went. I don’t think I was suppose to go that far back off the trail and climbing along the cliffs like that but… It was probably a little dangerous too but I’m young and invincible plus the lure of what was over the next cliff really got a hold of me. Some of the rocks along the shore looked they had been cut by a machine they were so smooth from the constant waves crashing onto them. I had a really good time climbing around out there and took way too many pictures for sure.

Yeah there’s no one in these pics because it was just me.

After all that climbing and all that biking to get there I was getting pretty beat. I wanted to go on but was out of water and started to make some stupid mistakes when trying to find my way out of the canyon. The way back was easy, down hill and with the wind was a joke.

When I got back to the hostel I met up with some other people that said they went all the way out to Nature’s Bridge and biked back. I was amazed. Now I like to think I’m in pretty good shape and have been consistently working out while traveling so I’m thinking these people must train biking or something. Well it ends up there’s a shuttle bus that takes you out to Nature’s Bridge and from there you can bike all the way back, avoiding the hill of doom and constant onslaught of the wind. Nice.

The next day was a pretty stressed day involving sleeping in, working out, eating, reading, listening to music and taking a nap which was all tough business. I was a bit beat up from the day before so a day of not leaving the vicinity of the pool was welcoming.

The next day I went out on a hiking, canoeing and swimming tour of Kalbarri National Park. It was probably the nicest day weather wise that I’ve had thus far in country, holding around 30 with get this, no wind. Big shocker. We were taken out by bus and driven out to a few scenic spots like:

Z-Bend

Nature’s Window

After that the hike started. We hiked probably about 7km in land to a “river” that was inside of the canyon. Since it’s the summer down here the river wasn’t flowing on the surface and you could only go so far before you hit land. From there we had a swim, had lunch and went about canoeing. I was teamed up with this German fellow, Roger who was pretty experienced at canoeing so we were one of the few people who actually canoed the full length of the river which was about 5km I think. After canoeing we had another swim. I’m such a terrible swimmer; I gotta watch that especially in the ocean. All in all I think it was a 13km hike and then a 10km canoe we did so again I was pretty beat up after all that.

The hike in.

Canoeing in the canyon.

More pics of the national park.

The next day, again was another rough day of recuperation involving lots of reading

There were plenty of cool people staying at the hostel so I met quite a few people and had a good time. There were two really young “English” guys that came in on the bus with me that were alright but a little offset. What I mean by “English” is that they were very proper and seemed like they came from a very refined background. I ended up sharing a room with them and a Scottish couple, Chris & Karen who I ended up traveling and hanging out with for a bit. The night I went on the canyon tours I went back to the hostel, worked out and pretty much went to bed completely exhausted. I put on my eye covers and a pair of ear plugs to ensure I get a good nights sleep and good thing I did. I slept soundly for a good 10 hours and the next morning when I woke up I had everyone that I was sharing the room with coming up apologizing to me for being so noisy. I guess the two English guys got a bit drunk and words were exchanged with Chris and Karen and a fight just about broke out in our room but I didn’t even notice.

The busses out to Kalbarri were pretty stupid so I and a host of other people ended up getting stuck out there a little longer then we anticipated which was a good thing as it gave me time to chill out and have some down time. The days were pretty much spent sitting by the pool and playing this highly addictive card game that Chris introduced to anyone willing to play. It’s was something like poker but Dutch. Played a little too many games of that with a couple Aussies Shayne & Joe and an English guy named Daz, it was good fun.

I ended up having a really good time in Kalbarri getting there Wednesday night and leaving Monday night, so 5 day’s I spent there.

After Kalbarri I headed up to Denham on Shark Bay which is a UN World Heritage site. Now on the way up there we had a stop over at a “Roadhouse” which is basically a truck stop in the middle of nowhere and by the middle of nowhere I mean the middle of nowhere.

450km between Denham and Kalbarri and what was in between the two town? Two Roadhouses. That’s it. Nothing. No farms, no small little hamlets, nothing.

Overlander Roadhouse. A very bizarre place.

Denham

Chris & Karen and Shayne ended up heading up that way too and I again ended up sharing a room with Chris & Karen. Now, I thought Kalbarri was windy but when we got to Denham I swear we were in the middle of a hurricane it was so intense. We didn’t get into Denham until late so we didn’t have to deal with the wind much save getting to our rooms.

The next day, again, windy as hell but that didn’t stop us from having a little fun. Chris noticed a couple canoes sitting along the shore and asked if we could use them. “No worries”, as they say down here “but not until 4.” Well after sitting around in the sun being bored we noticed that the ores were stored next to your dorm house so we decided to give the canoes a whirl.

A couple things about the Shark Bay area; It’s a World Heritage site with the towns Denham and the resort Monkey Mia in it. There’s suppose to be tones of wildlife in the waters there and in the morning you can go and hand feed the dolphins at Monkey Mia. The water is beautiful and extremely shallow. I think at the deepest point it’s only like 5 meters or something like that plus it’s very protected by the reef so there’s pretty much no waves or current.

Anyways, we go canoeing in this crystal clear, shallow water with the only thing to contend with is the wind. So we buddy up, Chris & Karen in one canoe, Shayne and I in another. Now the boats were the most seaworthy vessels and with the wind it made some decent sized waves that had us taking on a bit of water but we managed somehow.

We noticed Chris pointing out to something and trying to get our attention to something in the distance about 400meters away from us. It ended up being dolphins or what we assume are dolphins jumping in and out of the water so we make haste and start paddling towards them. Now Shayne and I get pretty damn close to them and try and try to get closer but they can move a lot faster than us in our shitty canoe.

Meanwhile, back at the other boat with Chris and Karen; Karen, who has been watching a lot of documentaries on TV about sharks the last couple day’s starts to freak out a little. The last show she watched had some guy proving that some sharks can and will jump out of the water to attack a prey, namely the great white and tiger shark, pretty much the two that will attack people. So Karen gets a little jumpy and demands to go back to shore. When they get back to shore Chris jumps out and runs over to Shayne and me wanting to get in. The boat says right on it that it’s safe for 3 people and we figure 3 people means faster to chase dolphins. We’re in about waist deep water at this point and Chris tries jumping in but with the waves and wind we roll right over into the water. Next try things work out great; all three of us are in and ready to go. We start paddling along but only get about a meter away when a bit of a wave hits us and that’s all it takes for the entire boat to take on water and sink like a rock. 3 times we try this and each and every time we go under. By then the dolphins were long gone and we couldn’t see them anymore so we headed back to shore.

There were tons of stuff to do in Denham but I ended up only staying one day. I managed to get a hold of a wwoofing host family in a town called Carnarvon, a little north of Denham that sounded like a pretty good deal so I figured I best get back on the horse and not let my past experience hold me back.

The busses this far north are running arriving at the stop points at really crappy times so I figured it would be better to get to Carnarvon at 9:15AM then 10:30PM and have to look for a hostel that late at night plus I had a whole ton of errands to do which I figure I needed a day and a bigger town to do. Carnarvon is only like 7000 people but it’s a hub compared to the likes of Kalbarri at about 2000 and Denham of a couple hundred.

The bus left Denham at like 5:15 and again with a stop over at Overlander and a whole lot of nothing in between.

Carnarvon

Pics of my stay.

Carnarvon is a bit of a dump, not too much of a tourist town, especially this time of year and the guy who ran the hostel was a seedy fellow charging deposits and fees for just about anything he could from sheets to dishes to holding your bags after you check out. There were probably a dozen people at most staying there so it was pretty much a ghost town. Luckily I stayed only one night there and managed to get a hold of the wwoofing hosts the next day and was out of there a.s.a.p.

The farm that I stayed at is called Homestay Plantation and it’s a certified organic farm, growing mainly bananas, mangos and a host of other veggies. The main things in season right now are bananas (which are year round actually), pumpkins, turnips, green peppers swiss chard and a couple other little odds and ends. The mangos weren’t quite ripe yet and the bananas are actually picked green for shipping.

The farm is owned by a couple, Chris and Ken but is run by a guy named Howard who I worked with. Chris is a psychologist for the town crisis center and Ken runs his own backhoe and transportation business. I didn’t really spend very much time with them, especially Ken as he was out of town most of the time but they were both really nice people that pretty much let me do what I wanted.

It was a pretty nice little setup I had there with my own trailer or “Caravan” as they’re called down here with all my food provided for me to cook on my own. I was given all the eggs I could eat, steak, chicken and was told, “Help yourself to anything in the garden.” Nice. I ended up finding quite a liking to the pumpkins; cooked with cinnamon or else curry and mint is amazing. Always thinking with my stomach…

It was great to have your own space for a little while in the caravan and open up your pack, unpack everything and have your own quite little area. I worked from 8-12 everyday and had the rest of the day just to chill out. As much I enjoy my time hanging out with other people and meeting other travelers it’s great to have quiet time and your own place to relax and clear your thoughts.

That’s the caravan on the right. Yeah it looks a little “rustic” but it was all mine for a week.

A look inside.

There I am with a big bowl of eggs and a plate of chicken and beef right in front of me

There isn’t a huge RV craze out in Australia like there is in Canada. There’s no 5th wheels, very little motor homes and trailers and what few that are around are on the older side, that’s at least what I’ve seen. No 10 acre lots with nice, bright, shiny new $100 000 RV’s in perfect sales formation.

Howard took me on a tour of the town and other plantations that were in the area. The town isn’t much to look at but the farming area on the outskirts was pretty nice. The river, where all the farmers get there water from was a bit of a joke. I wish I got a picture of it but I forgot my camera but basically it was just a big barren stretch of sand. Right now it only flows underground but in a couple weeks time or whenever a cyclone hits in the north it’ll be flowing like mad. I saw some pictures and it looked like the Mississippi.

For work I pretty much picked weeds and then planted stuff afterwards. Since its 100% organic there’s no use of chemicals of any sort so the weeds have to be pulled by hand. It’s a crappy job but someone’s got to do it. Who would have thought that pulling weeds would be so tough; my body was hurting good after a couple days pulling the tree sized weeds out.

Howard got the tractor and made some big mounds for me to plant sweet potatoes in. I leveled them all off, set up an irrigation system on them, made cuttings for the plants and planted them. It was a pretty cool to learn how to set it all up and get things going like that. The next day I made cuttings out of basil and chives and planted them in between the sweet potatoes as they act as a pest deterrent.

Sweet potatoes in.

Chives and Basil next.

I also planted some water melons, pumpkins and corn and did other jobs like weed whacking and helped make deliveries to the distribution company. And then I picked more weeds. Weed picking is a tough crappy job and did a fair amount of it. My lower back and hamstrings were killing me after a couple days of hunching over in the fields all day. It was a very monotonous job and made the day drag on unbelievably at some points. Fortunately I had my Mp3 player with me and managed to find a kick ass radio station down here. Triple Jay it’s called it’s the government funded youth station that’s broadcasted across the country. Really good stuff and it puts the CBC to shame as far as I’m concerned.

The wind that I so much hated and complained about settled down quite a bit so some of the days got to be pretty sticky. One day I’m cursing it and the next I’m begging for it. It does do major damage to the crops though so I guess no wind is good. Howard said he saw on the news that the temperature the day before got up to 39. I say it didn’t feel like it was 39 but at the same time I drank 6 liters of water in 4 hours and felt like passing out after my workout. Chris mentioned that I should put a little bit of salt in my water just to replenish my electrolytes and I found that that helped quite a bit. Other then that one day it’s been a consistent 29 here pretty much all week with an alright breeze. I imagine the wind is stronger along the coast as we’re about 8km inland.

Carnarvon does have one pretty cool thing; the Space Observatory.

It was made specifically for the Apollo missions (moon landing missions) and was the station that they beamed down all the information to including the first moon landing. Now it’s pretty much abandoned and all caged up. They’ve tried to get it up and going as a tourist attraction but keep on running into snags, NASA says they might start using it again too.

How fitting that it was a full moon that night to go along with these pics.

Here’s a bunch of pics of the area around there. Note, you’ll probably ask, why the hell did I take so many pictures of junk? Well I have people interested in junk that read this. Allen there’s a “Fordson” tractor in there I thought you’d like to take a look at.

Here’s a section of land that I levelled with dirt, setup an irrigation system, planted corn and then watermellons in between the corn.

So I’m having a pretty good wwoofing stay here in Carnarvon, save for all of the weed picking I feel it’s a pretty good experience. The week here has really flown by and I can’t believe it’s already over. I find with these wwoofing stints, it makes you appreciate the time you spend doing nothing and chilling. I’m hesitant to get a job fruit picking or something like that now because I can see how miserably boring they can be and for the cash that they pay I don’t know if it’s worth it. Two of the Canadian’s that I met in Geraldton put it in good words saying that there are plenty of good paying jobs that don’t require you to work for peanuts in the hot sun for some asshole farmer who will treat you like shit. Point taken but at the same time it’s all about the experience… I’m thinking as of now though to just travel for the next couple months, and if what I was told is true that some of my contacts could hook me up with a drafting job no problem on the Gold Coast, do all my working there. But hey, that could easily fall through.

As for my next move, I’m heading up to Coral Bay for Christmas on the beach. After that I’d really like to go up to this national park called Karijini but I don’t know if it’s going to happen. The bus doesn’t go there, only to a town just north of it and as it’s the summer here it’s the off season in the north and it doesn’t look like there’s any tours going there. From what I’m told your best bet is to rent a car and go there. I guess I’ll see when I get there. After that I hope to be up in Broome for new years and after that I have no idea. I hear Broome will be stupid hot so I’m thinking that I might do a rental car relocation back down to Perth or perhaps towards Adelaide. I was also thinking about flying to Alice Springs but as of right now I really don’t know.

A couple random thoughts and points:

The nights in the southern hemisphere are insanely dark. I mean like blackity, black, dark. I have to walk from my caravan to the bathroom and if I forget to turn the garage light on and the moon isn’t out I’m pretty blind, it is unreal. That said because of that darkness the stars are just amazing. When I was in Narrogin and on the West’s farm we were pretty far outside of town so there was zero light pollution and the stars are something else. I can’t even put it into words of how intense the night sky is. They don’t have the northern lights and the moons are pretty crappy though.
Western Australia is like Alberta in the sense that it’s the economic power house of Australia, putting in more money than any other state or territory in the country so from what I’m told there’s also mumblings of WA separating from the rest of the country but I really haven’t heard much. Albeit it is a large country, it isn’t split politically or culturally like Canada is. From what I’ve seen the entire state is booming big time especially around Perth and Carnarvon is pretty much on the brink of exploding from what I’m told.

Race riots. You’ve probably seen it on the news that there have been race riots in Sydney and I see today that the Canadian government issued a warning to stay away from the Sydney beaches. Not surprisingly it’s caused quite a big stir down here and I saw on a new poll said that something like 75% of the population say there’s an underlying racist tone and I’d have to agree with it. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it’s definitely there. Things that some people have said make me raise my eyebrows, some of the political parties, there stances and objectives plus some of the political talk shows that I’ve seen makes me think/realize that Canada is a lot more harmonious, of course that’s coming from a middle class white male that was raised in small town Alberta.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
I got this book from the book exchange the day before I left and I finally finished it in Kalbarri. I didn’t think it would have taken me this long to read it but I did read “The Zone” by Barry Sears in there too, which I recommend.
The book is pretty much a look into values as a guy and his son travel across the country on a motorbike trip and was based on a true story. He makes comparisons with repairing and up keeping his bike with life and its many philosophies. At times it was boring as a hell and I really had to drag through it especially when he would get into ancient Greece philosophy and Plato, Socrates and the whole bunch. In the end though, I felt it conveyed a really good message on life and how the individual can make the world just a little bit better of a place. It also had a pretty interesting surprise ending, that of which being true.
I give it 3.5 out of 5 and would recommend it.
As for now I just traded in Zen and the Art, at the local book exchange, for the only book that that they had that looked of any interest called “When the war was over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution” by Elizabeth Becker (sorry Dan, couldn’t find the Lance Armstrong book you recommended). It’s basically the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and subsequently the 3 million people that died under its power. So far I think it’s great and can’t put it down.
I’ve also been reading the bible a bit; pretty interesting stuff.

So that’s that. I’m having a good time and in good health and spirits. Christmas alone for the first time should be pretty interesting. I hear Coral Bay is super nice though so I’m looking forward to that. No huge feast this year but instead it’s back to tuna, oranges and peanuts. I ate really good on my wwoofing stint so I really don’t care at this point, I’ve had my fill.

Safe Travels

Troy

Tags: Australia

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.