What is Deb up to?

Our trip on the London bus around the blue mountains became something of a magical mystery tour due to the thick fog cloaking everything from sight. The blue mountains are named this because the eucalyptus trees emit a mist of oil particles which filter the sun’s rays. The next day however, was bright and clear. We walked down into the forest where steph and i were attacked by leeches. they are unaturally stretchy when you try to pull them off your skin!

I got back to the city to meet up with mum, i went to see her at her hotel on the night she arrived – how strange it felt to see her over here. 

Wandering around Sydney together, I mentioned to mum that a friend of mine was living in the city and how i regretted not getting in touch with them. We joked that maybe we’d just bump into him. Then (just like it happens in Hollywood) there he was, walking down some steps near the opera house. How strange when things happen like that.

First stop up the east coast was South East Rocks, a quite place. At dusk we went to Trial Bay where there is an old ‘humanitarian’ experinmental gaol… we saw a family of kangaroos grazing right next to us and they began to do some boxing. It was really interesting to watch how they sit back on their tails and kick each other. I cursed myself for not bringing my camera.

The next day we stopped at Byron Bay and went out for the night. We found a place with a band playing and lots of local people – agin hippies and suchlike. I made mum stay in a YHA dorm room. It was a boiling hot night and i don’t think either of us slept well. The next day was my birthday which i began in style with breakfast of a huge plate of pancakes….mmm… then shopping for a while before we set off for brisbane and an ant-infested hostel before our flight to Alice the next day.

Mum says Alice was the highlight of her trip. Its definately one of mine too. I asked her to try and explain why… was it the fact that we’d been told not to walk the streets at night, to stay away from the dried up river bed (a lot of drunken people roam the streets and sleep on the river bed), the sweltering heat, the red dust, the flies constantly trying to get into your mouth (and occasionally succeeding)? Maybe it was all of these things. But maybe because it was a little edgy… and very real. We spent 3 days on a camping safari to uluru, kata tjuta and kings canyon. I slept in a swagbag and woke up under the stars (we had early starts). We learnt a lot about aboriginal culture and legends. I loved it, I thought it was perhaps like a miniature society. We made dinner together, it was interesting to watch the group dynamics; who took charge, who did the work and who sat about dong nothing.

There was not much in the way of drama, a huntsman spider was found in the girls showers, but our brave and intrepid guide went and annoyed it until it left. when these spiders get cross they rear up on the back legs. Like an angry tiger….sort of… Watching the sunset and sunrise in the outback is difficult to put into words. I suppose just the scale of things here can remind you how tiny you are and puts things into perspective. Always a good thing.

When we got back to brisbane, we were somewhat subdued. We decided to get the bus straight to noosa where we spent a few days in an unexpectedly lovely apartment with a big balcony over looking the sea. Our window faced the east and we were woken at about 5.30 each day by the sun’s heat and light. So there was no point in staying in bed,it felt good to start the day running down to the beach and swimming about for an hour or two.

Next we travelled up to hervey bay where every night, at dusk, thousands or maybe even millions of bats flew over the town. We did another camping safari on fraser island, we saw goannas, eels, kingfishers and during dinner a dingo came to watch us eat. it wasn’t dangerous though. Fraser island has more sand than the Sahara. Apparently.

 

Then I made mum get on the overnight bus to airlie beach. 13 hours in all. But rather than an ordeal it was actually quite good fun, especially when the hysterical laughter began.

We decided to do a couple of day trips of the whitsundays, we did snorkelling, had lunch on whitehaven beach and went to the great barrier reef.

 

I did some snorkelling with a marine biologist who explained about coral and all the fish. I saw a turtle, and a huge maori wrasse that likes to be tickled.

It was here of all places, whilst removing my stinger-suit on the diving platform on the Great Barrier Reef that i had my first experience of feeling broody: a ‘baby changing table’ sign. I suppose it means something that is was a line-drawing which made me broody rather than an actual, moving child of any kind but it was a really powerful feeling. Mum says the baby looks vacant and as if it has a cleft-palate. I think it is the most beautiful thing in the world…

I am really proud of mum, she carried her backpack up hills and down slopes sometimes in pitch black night without complaint. It will be strange to be back on my own again – i’ve got used to company and staying in nice twin rooms and having someone to share the decision-making with.

I have one month left in Australia – what shall i do next?

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.