Sweating in the top end
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2007
1
23
39
Trip End
Ongoing
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Monday, January 26, 2009
I had spent 45 mins typing out an entry before Christmas to wish you season's greetings but the fecking computer stalled, froze or did something that wiped out the text. There was probably an easy way to fix the problem but the red mist had descended and rational thinking was out the window. A few frantic mouse clicks later and I admitted defeat and rather than start again in bad form I thought it better to curse and moan to Claire for a while then go for a drink! To be fair we had been Christmas shopping in the city for about two hours more than the pre determined amount on no sign of an end. I was allowed two drinks that night!!
Anyway hope you all had a lovely holiday season and that 2009 brings you peace, luck and love. We missed everyone loads again this year and hope to see you all at some stage in 2009. Its been ages since I posted an entry so this might be a long one so im doing it in word so I can save it and do it in two or three attempts and avoid the aforementioned fiasco! Basically the one before Christmas was about of five months in Brisbane, or Brisvegas as it was soon to become known!
In the last entry I said how we had moved into a cool flat and our mates moved in three doors down in the same complex. We had three sound Galway lads living above us so the whole Brisbane experience turned into a five-month getaway in santa ponsa!! During the week we were normally quite quiet but come Friday (normally Thursday!) the party always started. The Garda landed a few times but they were always sound and even said that we were not making that much noise. We were always full of Irish wit and charm for them too so they always left happy enough. To be fair Matt the landlord, who incidentally is the nicest landlord I have ever known, should have seen what was coming after the first weekend. It was the weekend of the riverfest in Brisbane so we were going in to watch the fireworks. We had noticed a problem with the drain in the bathroom and had told Matt about it who said he would get a plumber in the next day. Happy with that we headed off, gooned up, to watch the fireworks, which were class, drank loads more goon and headed back to the house to see the drain had overflowed and shitty water running down our hall. Sober this would have been a problem but goon has a funny way of making you see things in another light! We called up Matt who called round and what happened next is now known as the 'Shit Party'! We cleaned what we could and when Matt arrived he had two binbags of old clothes to mop the floor. Matt was over apologetic and was amazed that we were taking it in good form and not shouting and screaming at him. We gave him a hand to clean all the stuff while the ipod was blaring out tunes and everyone had savaged the bags of clothes and an impromptu fancy dress party began!! A good introduction to us but matt was great and the next morning he had left a bag of bread and pastries from the bakery up the road for us and the message "thanks for your amazing spirit last night". Little did he know that our amazing spirit would soon become a thorn in his side with neighbours calling him at all hours which is why he told them to call the police!! It was all grand tho and he knew we meant no harm and we smoothed it out with the neighbours too before we left. The flat itself was class. Everything in it was brand spanking new with a flat screen TV to boot. It was a four bedroom flat so eight of us lived there and it was a proper wee happy commune. Each of the rooms had a night to cook from Monday to Thursday so during the week we all had nice big family dinners, which was great, and the food was always top draw. We also had a 24hr BP garage next to our block of units that was heaven sent for midnight munchies! All the staff was sound and knew us all by the time we left and I'd say they are down about two grand a month since we all left!! The suburb we were in was called Ashgrove and was class. It was about 45 minutes walk to the city and 5-10 minutes on the bus, which conveniently stopped just outside our gate. It was really hilly and covered in trees and wee creeks. The wee village was class too and had a wee veggie market, supermarket, takeaways and most importantly an off-licence which always had deals on and a nice wee local pub. So all in all it was a class place to live for a few months. On the workfront it was a tale of two extremes on my part. The first job was hard work. Flat out all day everyday but was also good craic as five of us worked together so we would just slag each other all day until an aussie came along and then we all just went to town on him which was easy as they don't seem to be the brightest race I've encountered. An example being one asked Ross did he speak Irish to which Ross replied 'only a little'. The aussie then asked 'what do you speak then'. 'English' said Ross. The Aussie then said 'if you speak English in Ireland then what do they speak in England?' Thick as feck. Anyway did that job for about 9 weeks and then landed the sweetest wee number ever as a gardener at Government House. The blokes here would make every council worker in Ireland look like employee of the century and how did I fit right in!! It was a forty acre site about 20 minutes walk from my house and apart from the nice gardens around the house and staff quarters it was all native bush and perfect for just walking about nature spotting. We even saved a baby owl one day which was great and I got to see loads of big spiders and lizards but unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, no snakes. As I was working for the Governor who is the Queens representative in the state it meant that technically I was working for the queen too but its ok folks as I stated above I did nothing so in a way I was stealing from the crown and I expect a republican hero's welcome on my return to the motherland!! That was a sweet job as it took me right up to Christmas Eve and then we were leaving on the 5th of Jan. Claire got work in a dept store to start with and then a salon so she was happy enough as well and we just pottered away. We were really lucky again in the group we had living with us. The ones we knew already from Melbourne were great but the people who came and joined us in Brisbane were great too and once again we had a really close and tight knit group which counts for an awful lot when you on the other side of the world from your friends and loved ones. We had Irish, Scottish, Swedish, English and Northern Irish Presbyterians so you can imagine the abuse that was flying around on a daily basis!
Brisbane is a really nice city. Not too big and easy to get around with loads to do in the city and around it. We went to a few concerts, took a few nice drive's but mostly when the weekend came we just had house parties as most of the people we knew all lived within three doors of each other! Although we did sometimes go down to the wee park down the road during the day as it had a BBQ. The worst storm to hit Brisbane in 20 years also hit while we were there and for us it was class but for residents in the suburb next to us it was not so class with loads of damage. However, Colin from upstairs got three weeks work on the clean up so every cloud!! The storms were pretty frequent tho not all severe but the lighting was deadly and it was class just sitting up on the balcony and watching the dark clouds roll in and then the rain and thunder.
We had a lovely Chistmas as well. Will, the American we met on the Trans-Siberian, had come to Oz in November and he came up to spend the holidays with us, which was great. We had fifteen for dinner and everyone did their bit from cooking bacon butties (with chef sauce and Lyons tea from home, thanks Pauline) to starter, main and two desserts. It was a real wee family affair and I think helped everyone miss home a little less than we all clearly were. We put up a Christmas tree and did our own take on the manger. Claire made wee dolls out of old clothes and we cut out our heads from photos so we all played a part in the nativity!! We had a proper turkey and ham dinner, which Claire made to perfection. Having not been fond of cooking back home Claire suddenly turned into Masterchef over here, which is great. However, since she cooks now it means that I have to help with the other stuff like washing and the like!!! Claire was known as MOHA (minister of home affairs) in the house and it was a name well deserved, as I've never known anyone to get a house in working order like her. Even after a party with everyone dying she could get everyone involved in the clean up and with a few points of her finger the place would be ship shape again. Great in a house of eight people but at some stage its just going to be the two of us and it scares the sh*t out of me!!!!! For St. Stephens's day we went to a foam party!! It was class craic and then back to the house for a party until around 11 the following morning. 29 now so I expect maturity is just around the corner but for the minute I think I will keep on the straight and narrow course of uselessness and not bother taking any corners for fear of ditching her!!! Yeeooh!! For New Year we went in to a backpacker bar and watched the fireworks over the river from the beer garden. Not as spectacular as Sydney but a lot less people and lets face it by midnight someone could have lit their farts and we all would have cheered!
So that was about it for Brisvegas and as with every new year promises of no more drink where flying all around the place... apart from Claire, Ross, Jasper, Debbie, Lorraine, Mags and I who had the east coast and all its madness to follow!! Having done the east coast with the boys back in 2004 (yes boys that long ago!) I knew what we were in for as did my liver and I couldn't wait to do it again especially with Claire this time. It started off on a great note anyway as we had decided to rent two cars for the trip so Jasp, Lorraine and I went in to collect them on the Sunday before we left thinking we were getting two ford falcon station wagons like Freddie (O Freddie is dead by the way and gone to that big scrap yard in the sky... well some yard off the Pacific Highway anyway. He blew up on Jasper and James on the way to work one morning! Thank feck I was working for the queen at the time!). Anyhow landed into Hertz rentals and filled out all the documentation and then the woman handed us the keys and pointed to two Toyota Kluger xr something's! In other words two pimped up soccer mum 4x4's that had about 5000km on the clock! Sweet fecking as! Loads of space and pure comfort for crusing up the coast.
First stop was Rainbow beach from were we got our gear for Frazer Island. For those that don't know it Frazer is the largest sand island in the world and is World Heritage listed and is amazing. You get a massive 4-wheel drive landcruiser, all your camping gear and food and are told to go nuts!! We had four English lads from between Liverpool and Manchester who were sound and great craic. Basically you have two nights on the island and you go to the freshwater lakes within its rainforests to swim, sunbath (if your not ginger!) and generally marvel at Mother Nature in all her glory. Then at night you camp up with the other jeeps (five went out on our trip) and get plastered under the stars and beside the sea. Great wildlife spotting too the highlight being watching a sea eagle swoop down and scoop a fish out of the sea. The fish was still flapping about as the eagle soared back up to its nests high up the sand dunes. Class. It was a great few days with loads of sound people and also gave me great memories of doing it with the Monahan massive all those years ago! Next stop on the coast was a town called 1770 named by captain James Cook in the year of...1770. I had not been here the last time so was extra excited about it. Its quite a small place but really beautiful. However, the weather was against us as it rained a lot while we were there which didn't bother me in the slightest but for four girls who NEED tans it wasn't the best! Anyway we had a few good nights in the pub and the three boys did the scooteroo tour, which was brilliant craic. Basically for $50 you get to spin around for three hours on these wee 50cc chopper motorbikes, like mini Harleys! They only have a top speed of about 90km/hr but it's enough for a great bit of craic and the scenery and wildlife were amazing. You stop of for a drink at the beach at dusk and hen ride into the sunset!! Felt like Dennis Hopper and Henry Fonda and even Jasp's bike was painted like the one from the Easyrider movie. Class. Then it was on to the beef capital of Australia, Rockhampton. I was in rockie before with the boys but only after our van had to be abandoned on the side of the road and we had to thumb into rockie to get a bus. Then, as now, Rockhampton is a shithole but we were staying the night on the advice of Niall (a Galway lad who lived with us in Brisbane and who had spent 3 months working in a meat factory up here to get his second year visa). "Stay at the Ascot Hotel for the best steak you will ever eat" was his claim and for once Niall came through as the steak was and in all probability will be the finest steak I ever had. You get the steak raw with spuds and veg down the side. The steak, however, is sitting on top of a piece of granite that has been pressure heated in the oven to 400°C. You turn the steak once and then you carve and cook your meat til whatever way you like it. Small slivers, large chunks, bloody to well done. (Even David couldn't complain although one of the forks had a hair on it so he probably would have!!). The hotel was really a backpackers and we were staying there for the night, which was handy, as I don't think I could have moved far after it. On the owners advice Jasp and I went for the large Porterhouse and even raw your knife just glided through it like butter it was that fresh. It came from a cattle station inland from Rockhampton which was 2.3 million acres in area. The bull McCabe would have had some stones to pick from that field! Bet you all want steak for dinner tonight now don't you! The owner was a great laugh too and he even gave us a couple of crocodile steaks to taste that were lovely. It's a white meat similar to pork. Even the girls enjoyed them. Anyhow from Rockhampton it was on to Airlie Beach and our two-night boat trip on the Whitsunday islands. Again this was a trip I had done with the lads and we were very nearly booked on to the same boat, Apollo, but in the end were booked onto (Brian look away!) The British Defender!!! So here was Claire, Mags (from Cork boy) and I with a northern English monkey and three presbo's from Armagh and Belfast on the British Defender! We tried a mutiny at sea and to raise the tri-colour but were foiled by sharky and george the crime busters of the sea! The boat was the same type of maxi racing yacht as the Apollo and we had great time. For me personally it was a mixed trip compared to the last one, as out of 22 passengers there were only five boys! Four of those had girls with them and the one single Dutch lad scored a German who he knew already! So there were 17 ladies on board without a man. Even Anthony could have scored!!! While you might think this was great, and don't get me wrong it was (the song of the trip was the sterophonics "im just looking, im not buying"!). However, in terms of craic we would have preferred a few more fellas as a lot of the girls went to bed early and were not up for getting on it at ten in the morning as had been the case on Apollo with the boys. Speaking of Apollo we passed it going into harbour on the first night and another tear was shed in memory of the boys! Another thing about this trip, which I loved a little more than the ladies me thinks, was the weather. Apart from a few hours, which thankfully coincided with our time on the glorious whitehaven beach, it was really wet and really windy which made for brilliant sailing. A few boats didn't even go out on their trips, as the weather was that bad but the maxi yachts are made for that type of weather and O did she fly through the water with the wind in her sails. It was class as she jumped over wave after wave like a rollercoaster that never ended and the boat was sitting practically on its side as the wind pushed us on. A few didn't like it so much but I thought it was great and that's all that matters! Had a great night back in Airlie Beach with everyone culminating in another foam party, which was class craic. Magnetic Island was our next stop, which is off the coast from townsville and is a lovely wee place. We just had a nice relaxing few days here and the weather was nice too so happy days. From here we drove on to Mission Beach were we had intended to do a skydive but the weather was again against us and very cloudy so no point jumping out of a plane if all im going to see is clouds so that little adventure will have to wait until a later date... but soon. We went whitewater rafting on the Tully River, which was class. Again I had done this with the boys but it was well worth doing again as it is great craic. Also, because of all the rain in the previous week we got to do an extra 7km than most trips get and were doing rapids that even the guides had not done in nearly a year so happy days. The hostel we stayed in Mission Beach was deadly but again not to everyone's tastes but then I didn't book it so no worries! It was a YHA called the treehouse and was my little piece of paradise. Built entirely out of wood at the edge of the rainforest it had a lovely wee pool, well-equipped kitchen and a ping-pong table! It was an idyllic spot during the day but it was when the sun went down that it came into its own!! The noise alone from the forest would make your hairs stand on edge but only when the bugs came out could you really appreciate it majesty. Moths the size of Pat Jennings hands, insects with antenna longer than there body, crickets and stick insects nearly a foot long. Amazing. They had a chart on the wall showing 'Australia's Giants' with the largest insects in Oz on it and most of them in the area we were in. Needless to say the girls, and Ross, were not impressed, as their room had no window just timber slats that closed over. At bedtime however the bug count in their room was seven and growing!! Claire and I were grand tho as we had booked ourselves a double room for some rumble in the jungle! It was great tho and we saw possibly the biggest spider I seen yet in Oz hanging of a rafter close to where we were playing cards. I took Lorraine's head light and went for a wee night time bug watch and seen loads of cool stuff including this smaller spider spinning it web from start to finish in about 4 minutes. Deadly. From here it was on to Cairns and the end of the of our East coast adventure. We all went our separate ways before we meet again in Melbourne for Paddies Day so it was not goodbye but a brief farewell. Claire and I did the Great Barrier Reef trip, which was class swimming with all the fish, and the coral is just amazing. So it's just Claire and me again and we flew up to Darwin yesterday, as we haven't been up here yet. It's bloody hot but lovely and we are booked on a few nice trips to Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks, which are supposed to be amazing. Going to see some crocs and loads of cool waterfalls before camping out under the stars. Also at this time of year Kakadu receives more lighting strikes than anywhere else in the world so sitting out in the bush watching that is going to be unreal. After that we are either going to head down the west coast or down through the centre and get some work. We would like to work in an outback resort for a month or so but if we cant get that we will hit Perth or Adelaide before going back to Melbourne. Our plans have changed a bit since the economic crisis has hit as we had planned to finish with Oz and go to Asia as we missed it on the way out then stopping at home for a visit before going to Canada to work. However, we have been informed that Canada is not the place to go and look for work at the minute so it looks like we may try and get sponsored over here for another year or so and see what happens. But as with everything on our trip so far you just never know what is around the corner so we will just keep playing it by ear and see where the wind blows us.
So that's about it for now folks. A long one I know so I will definitely not leave it this long again. Just checked the word count there and I've just passed 4000 and am on my 6th page on Word!! I didn't write this much for most of my assignments at collage! Anyway off I go and hope you are all well and good and ready for that steak for dinner! Claire and I are back on the noodle and fruit diet and are going to try and do another month detox with no booze. Both have made a solemn promise to our livers that we are done with the goon but then...
Peace and good times to all.
Noel & Claire
