The Outback

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  Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hello everyone! I made it through the Outback alive!!! Actually there was never a really rough moment for me unless you call riding bitch for 1500 next to a chain smoker, or shivering all night camping out under the stars in the Outback roughin' it. I did it all, transportation-wise: ride share, hitch-hikin' and train. I read Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller, a classic. Banned in the US for decades. Pick it up if you want something challenging and honest as a book can get.

Quick recap:
Ride share - met Alex, nice girl from Austria, through a ride share website (Gumtree.com.au) in downtown Adelaide to meet others about a ride share. Wasn't working out, too expensive. then Alex got a call from this dude from Kimberly named Kevin that gave her a ride from Melbourne to Adelaide the day before. He's the kind of guy that scares most people when they meet him cause he is loud and a bit rough & tough in appearance, but was the coolest guy. She asked if i was interested to ride with him and I said "Hell yeah!" He was hauling a hover craft and a camper behind that so we were an official "truck train" or whatever tey call the 2-4 trailers being hauled by semi's through the Outback. Since she was the contact, I got to ride in the tweener seat in the truck. Far from ideal, cause as you've probably guessed, he was the chain smoker. He was pretty polite about it, but after 3 days, my lungs were temporarily damaged. They got betta. It was really cool cruising through the Outback with someone from Western australia. I asked him all the tough questions, once we had a few beers together and started opening up a bit. He was a straight shooter and I really admired him for the tough road in life he's had and has come to a pretty good place. Awesome experience. Those first couple of nights in the Outback we had an awesome time drinking a bit, I bought a bottle of Jameson the second night, which we finished easily. One day when i'm a famous guitar hero, they will know that they were te first, besides the scratchin' i did in front of Ingrid, which doesn't really count. They were the first for me to play songs in front of. My first concert! It was fun...for about 5-10 minutes...to them...but i had found my stage then, and they couldn't turn me off! No way, no how. Those saps. They had no idea the pandora's box they opened when they coaxed me to play. I had the perfect buzz...it was on! I did pull out the harmonicas and passed the guitar so both could play a bit, but it was my night! I even took the harmonica up a notch!!! No more timid blows and sucks, I was on fire! Good times. Sweet as.

I decided to get off at the turn off to Uluru (famous big red rock in the middle of the Outback). Here is where i would hitch hike for the first time in my life. Alex wanted to try it as well, because if you go all the way into Alice Springs, you add about 400km extra to head back out to Uluru. I was a little disappointed, because i wanted to travel by myself, the whole purpose of my SOLO trip, but you soon realize, it's very hard to be alone when you are travelling. She understood my predicament, because i told her all about Ingrid and the purpose of the par tof our trip, and said if i needed to go solo now, she'd understand. In the end, i figured i owed her, cause it really was good luck to get the lift from Adelaide to Uluru turn off. It's pretty difficult to hitch hike out of a big city. She wouldn't hitch hike on her own, understandably, and would have had to go all the way into Alice Springs and figure a ride back to the area. Anyways, I'm waiting in the rest stop for her to come out of the bathroom,  and a guy passes be me heading in the direction we want to go, driving a big 4 seater truck. I'm was like, great, we may be stuck here a while. Not a lot of traffic heading in that direction at that time of the day. I was a little upset, but soon got myself in a good place. You gotta put a good vibe out in order to have good things happen, and this really was pretty damn exciting, my first attempt at hitch hiking!! So we meandered over to the corner of the road and Roadhouse and put our stuff down, and i pulled out a sign i made. I saw a small truck coming with into the turn going our direction, with a guy by himself! I waved my sign to get his attention and he swerved over got out, asked if we were going to kill him if he gave us a ride, and i said "I won't if you won't." That was it. It took all of one minute, after i set my bags down. Crazy. I taked to a guy here in Darwin, who hitch hiked around and the quickest was 20 minutes and he had a day where he spent over half a day trying to get a lift and had to give up until the next day. I got angels, what can i say. Thank you all! Maybe he stopped for the girl though...hmm.
Anyways, Alex #2 was really cool as well, except for the last night with those two in Alice Springs, he got me drunker than i've been in years! My first hangover in a very long while...thought i was going to hurl...didn't, only ditched them, actually the bouncer said me and another dude couldn't come into the casino cause we looked to drunk, so luckily i was paying attention during the cab ride and ran the 2-3km home, faster than if i'd have been sober...seemed to me at the time anyways, then came into the completely quite and still hostel grounds, walked over to the swimmin' pool, stripped down, and did a nice nudie plunge, or more like a sink... Did i tell you guys i like air breezin' on me balls and the water floatin' my schmeckle? Yeah, but i'm not a nudist. It's true. I like it, but i prefer to do it by meself or with my special girl, Ingrid...it was kind of fun with a group on the bike, but not so much the before and after, really. Anyways, bach to the story. The Alex's were really cool, After Uluru and before the party night, we camped out off a dirt road in the middle of the Outback. No one for probably 200 miles. Awesome. I spent most of the night and morning in self reflection. We had a nice small meal and made a fire, then the beauty and awe of the Outback takes over. Speechless we were. In between that, i froze me bawls off, as i said earlier. Lucky for me though, cause i got up at the first speck of light and got the fire stirred up again and enjoyed the sunrise for an hour or two before they stirred. I wouldn't call myself a desert lover, but i really do cherish the time that i spent in the Outback. I went through it a little faster than most do, but i don't really feel at home there. This is why everything fell into place, a sale, timing and ease of access. I took the Ghan. My first REAL train ride, that i remember. It actually was perfect. It left the night of my hangover, and went for about 16 hours. We stopped in Katherine, spent half a day at the Gorge then came the rest of the way to Darwin. Total time of about 28hrs. I didn't talk to anyone on the train, or on the Gorge trip. I sat next to a very nice, talkative Canadian on the trip over. I was brief. This was my time for me. In Darwin we ended up at the same hostel, actually many of the people from the train ended up there. Six of us in the same room. After a few days i started coming out of my shell and now i've been hanging with some of them. It's been very nice. I felt so unhealthy in the Outback. It was nice to be in one place and just cleanse myself. I've been doing that for about 5 days now. I feel like a new man!

I wanted to go to Bali next, but the tickets are $600 one way! SO i'm flying to Singapore, cheapest close destination, then figuring from there. I may try to overland travel from there. The next adventurous step. Keep the angels or dreamtimes comin' my way!

Big shout out to my travelling soulmates Devin and Chris! Thank you for your constant support and keeping up with us and visiting us! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

PS sorry if there are typos i'm being kicked off as we type@!

Heath

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