Zoo Land(er)

Just to put all your minds at ease, NO, that koala did NOT plummet to its death after clinging for dear life on that eucalypt tree. What’s frustrating, though, is that the part not caught on video was even more impressive, as the hanging koala swung himself back up on to the tree and launched himself three meters through the air like a giant flying squirrel to another branch – which  almost snapped – and then scurried down the tree with the instigator koala in hot pursuit. Rest assured, though. In the end, no koalas were harmed during the making of the film.

Continuing right along with the wildlife theme here, we’ve been watching exotic animal species (to us) walk-off against each other and strike a pose left, right and center since we started camping in Oz. First it was camping with koalas (a novelty that wore off rather quickly due to the fact that the males continued their mating call – which sounds exactly like “the Predator” from the movie – all throughout the night). The next place we went had a family of friendly kangaroos hanging around our campsite for us to marvel at all day. Adorable. We’ve seen possums galore (turns out they’re even more of a pest than raccoons), and heaps of exotic birds. Unfortunately, all the exotic birds have equally exotic bird calls that tend to get a bit tiresome after a few weeks. Some birds sound like they’re all laughing at some inside joke that you’re not allowed in on (what the hell is so damn funny you bastards!!?), while others sound like that baby you get stuck sitting next to on the plane that just won’t shut up. Brutal. I mean, I don’t have anything against crying babies (or birds) per se, but it’s not a good thing when you sleep in a tent and these sounds creep into your dreams at 6 am every morning!

Enjoy some more animal pics!!

-G

Koalas Can’t “Bear” Each Other’s Company

WTF is up with Australia these days? What is supposed to be a scorching hot country where bush fires are the main environmental risk has somehow become the Country of Eternal Rain (I’m sure you’ve all heard about the deadly floods lately). Well, we aren’t in any danger of being washed away in the streets (parents: breathe sigh of relief now), but the rain seems to be following us nonetheless. We took my buddy Scott and his (pregnant) wife Hannah on their first camping trip in Australia along the Great Ocean Road. It rained and rained, which sucked, but at least there were heaps of koalas perpetually perched above our campsite. Elise was completely smitten with these real life teddy bears; I almost had to hold her back from climbing up a eucalypt tree to cradle-rob a baby koala! However, instead of seeing the koalas cuddling with each other up in the trees we saw turf wars galore. Watch the video below to see some Planet Earth series-calibre animal behaviour. It’s pretty awesome, although my camera’s SD card maxed out right at the wrong time, so it’s a bit of a ‘cliff hanger’ (you’ll see what I mean).

-G

Scott and Hannah mistakingly brought a little pup tent which couldn't even fit their air mattress, let alone their bodies! Luckily, the air mattress did fit in the back of our wagon so they had the honour of sleeping in our car!....rookies.....

The Great Ocean Road

The first stop on our camping trip was the Great Ocean Road, a 250 km stretch of road east of Melbourne.  This road follows the coast, and also goes inland past rolling farmer’s fields and forests.  It is a very beautiful drive, but somehow we found that it was lacking a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ that we couldn’t put our finger on.  Then we realized it – Australia’s cliff-hugging ocean-side highways just have nothing on the ones in Eastern Europe and South America.  A road wide enough for two, or even three cars?  Signs warning of tight curves and road hazards?  Guard rails?  Where’s the fun in that?   And everyone drives so politely and slowly – like they actually value their health and lives.

Another observation about the Great Ocean Road is that every second vehicle is a 20-year old camper van or station wagon, packed to the brim with unwashed backpackers.  So I guess we’re not really blazing any new and unprecedented trails in Australia, we’re really just stuck on the same old backpacker trail.  It’s actually nice to be following the crowd for once.  And camping in Australia is great – because it’s free!!!  There are little camp areas and rest areas everywhere where you can just park your tent for a night or two, and not pay a dime.  The only problem is the lacks of shower facilities – hence the unwashed-ness.  I can say from experience that there is something undignified about standing in your underwear in an open field having your boyfriend pour water on your head while you try to rinse the conditioner out of your hair.

-E

Our first campsite

The Twelve Apostles

The London Bridge (or what's left of it)

Heff...I mean Gully... chilling in the Grotto

Our campsite buddy

Gully enjoying his new board and wetsuit at famous Bells Beach

(Way) Down South

So, we bought the car in Wollongong, and the next day we jumped in and drove it 900 km to Melbourne.  It was trial by fire for the new (actually not-so-new) wheels.  The Magna made it in one piece, so her initiation into our family is complete. 

Our motive for heading down to Melbourne was to reunite with Gully’s long lost friend Scott and his lovely wife Hannah.  And, of course, to find fabulous surf beaches for Gully to try out his new board at.  We weren’t really planning on doing much sight-seeing, because we figured Melbourne was ‘just another big city’, which is pretty much exactly true.  But we did actually manage to see a lot of it, as we drove around collecting camping gear to pack our car with.  It is a very nice city, and it was so great to be able to drive around without the fear of imminent death.  In fact, it couldn’t be more opposite.  The driving is so orderly and polite and as a result, the traffic stoplights are soooo long as everyone waits to take their turn.  Kind of makes you wonder what’s better – possible death or waiting 5 minutes at a stoplight?  I guess South America’s system wasn’t so bad after all.

We spent 5 nights in Melbourne, gathering camp supplies and hanging out with our hosts, and it was good fun.  (On another note: I’ve been told that Canadians use too many superlatives, so I’m trying to get in the habit of using Australian understatement, like saying ‘good fun’ when I really want to say that is was ‘AWESOMELY FANTASTIC!!!’)  But now it’s time to hit the open road.  We suspect that Australian camping is a little different than both Canadian and Euro-camping, but you’ll have to tune in to next week’s episode to find out……

PS As for finding surf beaches, plans were foiled when we got down here and stuck our toe in the ocean and cried ‘YOWSER! This water is A LITTLE COLD! (aka f#$%ing freezing!!!)’.  Now we must search for the perfect wetsuit before the search for the perfect wave can continue.

New country, new roadkill

A pleasant city street in Melbourne

Finally, a road sign to celebrate Gully's good looks

If you've made it this far, chances are you don't need a sign to remind you...

Chapter 3

The marathon trip around the world continues. We arrived Down Under nearly two weeks ago and it’s been pretty much work work work since we got here as we had NOTHING planned in advance. Even so, adapting to the Australian lifestyle was pretty easy since Australia is pretty much just Canada with palm trees. Seriously. My new name for Australia is Bizarro Canada. Here’s why: they drive on the other side of the road (yet another driving challenge I conquered when we rented a car in Sydney). It’s summer in January and winter in August. Instead of the icy arctic hinterland they have the steamy-hot outback. Instead of forest-dwelling grizzly bears they have ocean-dwelling sharks. Instead of playing hockey on frozen lakes in sub-zero temperatures they surf on warm ocean water under the tropical sun. And oh yeah, the water turns the other way when you flush the toilet. Nevertheless, other than people not pronouncing the ‘R’ in certain words and adding an ‘R’ in words where there isn’t one*, you might think you were back in Canada when you walk around town.

Now for a quick update on what we’ve been up to lately (for our curious parents…). After a few days of doing the Sydney thing spent a couple days in the Blue Mountains region (near Sydney, not Collingwood) hiking in the rain. Then we went to a paradisiacal seaside hamlet called Stanwell Park, south of Sydney, where we spent a few days with the second cousins of a good Troglie friend of mine (heaps of shout-out here to Sox and the Forsythe’s, aka the Nicest Family Of All Time). Even with the constant rain (DON’T WORRY, we are VERY far away from the flood region!), I managed to get some surfing and tennis in with 16-year-old Liam - ahhh.. to be on summer vacation from high school again...

And now for our big announcement: we have a brand new member of our travelling family (no, Elise is NOT pregnant!). I’ll give you a hint: it’s another Mitsubishi. It’s a bit older and bit bigger than the Mitsubishi Space Star we bought in Eastern Europe. This one is more of a family car, really. Actually, it’s more of a mobile home in our case. Who buys two cars during their trip around the world anyway?

-G

*for example, ‘Melbourne’ becomes ‘Melbun’ while ‘pawn shop’ becomes ‘porn shop’.

Nature

More nature

And more...

Famous Manly Beach 

Us and pro surfer Big L

See below for what that pile of cash bought us

Our new baby! (Man, I need to cut that 'fro!)

South America on a Shoestring

It’s that time again – time for me to look back on our time in South America and obsess about how much money we spent.  Here’s the breakdown of what we spent for 111 days in South America:

We spend a month in Argentina, 6 weeks in Peru, and 5 weeks in Brazil.

Lodging: $2615

We stayed in hostels, bed & breakfasts or cheap hotels pretty much 100% of the time.

Food (including alcohol): $3196

Most of the time, breakfast was included with our lodging, so we mostly only had to pay for lunch and dinner.  Cooking for ourselves was a lot more challenging in South America compared to camping in Eastern Europe, so we ate out more – probably about

75% of the time.

Entertainment and/or Activities: $2446

This includes our Inca Trail hike, which cost just over $1000.  Also, lots of surf rentals and a few tours.

Necessities (clothing, shampoo, internet, sending packages home etc): $1738

Transportation: $2929

No car for this leg of the trip, so transportation was buses, taxis, and flights.

All for a grand total of $12924…

If you look back at our post about our expenses in Eastern Europe, you’ll see that we spent $12521 in 94 days.  We were actually really surprised that South America ended up costing so much – we thought it would be much cheaper.  Peru was very inexpensive, but Brazil was only marginally cheaper than Canada, and Argentina was not too far behind.  But it was definitely worth it. 

Let the adventures in Australia begin!!!

All Good Things...

Well, the Buzios dream had to end at some point. After living in the lap of luxury with Elise’s family in a cottage in “the Hampton’s of Brazil” and with the whole country on the verge of New Year’s eve climax, Elise and I took off to Australia. The first leg of our journey was a flight from Rio to Sao Paulo, our plane scheduled to land just after the stroke of midnight. Let me say this: spending New Year’s on a plane is not necessarily the miserable, party-less experience you’d expect it to be. Ok, it was party-less (they didn’t serve any bubbly!), but even though our plane was early, we managed to see hundreds of fireworks peppering the Sao Paulo skyline as we landed. Pretty cool sight. Then I slept on a table in the Sao Paulo airport since our flight to Buenos Aires wasn’t until eight in the morning. I mean sure, I’ve slept/passed out on flat, hard surfaces in all my clothes on New Year’s before, but this time I had exactly zero drinks in my system from our virtually non-existent New Year’s celebration, thus making the bright, noisy airport environment a little less tolerable.

Anyway, our flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney was neither transatlantic nor transpacific. Instead, it was transantarctic. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so we were never able to actually lay eyes on the Frozen Continent. What’s more, my compass was stolen in Peru so I couldn’t watch the needle to see what happened as we crossed the South Pole. Bummer.

Now we’re in Australia – what a relief to be back in the English-speaking developed world where we don’t have to worry about eating bacteria-ridden lettuce or brushing our teeth with tap water!! In fact, being in Australia is probably the closest thing to being home in Toronto right now – minus the slushy streets and 4:30 pm sunset (and the NHL season L!!)

-G

How 2011 began for us

Classic Brazilian Santas: thumbs up and wearing flip flops

I've had worse

Sea ice off the coast of Antarctica