Business in Brizzie

12 July 2013

We haven't done much of the usual touring around type of stuff, because we've been busy dealing with the business side of travelling.  One needs to do the usual life maintenance stuff, even when on the road.  In fact, sometimes things are more complicated when you're a rolling luggager, because when something breaks you can't just order it online to be replace.

Case in point - my Birks broke.  Again.  When we camp, we often walk on damp morning grass - the dew gets in between the layers of shoe - the moisture somehow makes the glue separate from the straps - the straps pop out.  This happened in Darwin, and I had the sandals repaired at a little kiosk, where the man glued the inside ends of the straps back into place.  Well, three months later, here we are in Brisbane and the outside ends of the straps pop out.  And, because we're in a small town outside the city, there aren't any cobblers or the Mister Minute kiosk - no, out here there is twice weekly pick-up of shoes at the news agency, with a three to four day waiting period to get the repaired shoes back.  So we did some online research, found the downtown shoe repair (another Mister Minute), and within half an hour the Birks were good to go.

Then my sunglasses broke - just the screw came out - that was easy, find an eyeglass place or optometrist, get the screw replaced.  Easy.  Except in the US it's usually free, and here there's a $1 charge - minimal, not a problem, just, different.

But the worst - the camera is still not working.  Turns out the sensor is worn out, or shot, or something.  So we went to a camera store, found out it will cost about as much to fix as to buy a new camera - so I'm looking at new cameras.  Not as easy as it sounds - there's the issue of the outlet and plug for the modern rechargeable cameras and their batteries.  Because cameras (and all electronics) sold in Australia have plugs for Australian outlets.  And yes, I have a series of adaptors so I can use electronics in any country in the world - except the input end (where I plug in the appliance) is ONLY for US plugs.  Right.  If I buy an Australian appliance, I would need an entire OTHER set of plugs.  

Anyway, I'm working on that part of it, trying to find a camera I like that takes good old-fashioned AA batteries.  

We met up with Gordon, friend of friends in the USVI, and who also lived in the USVI years ago - had a wonderful evening talking nonstop, sharing stories, having a great time.  Turns out he and Richard were actually at the exact same concert in New Orleans some time in 1970 or 1971 - what an amazing coincidence, what an amazingly small world!

We've also taken care of getting medical testing needed for our medications, refilling toiletries, other exciting things.  We've had some wonderful warm and sunny days, but also some rainy days - fairly typical for a Queensland winter.  Hard to believe that this is winter, but the nights are cold even when the days are warm.  (And when the days are cool, the nights are even colder.)

And, possibly more important than all that, we've been talking to travellers and travel agents and trying to figure out where to head next - we have to leave Australia by 16 August, and most of the Asian countries and Pacific islands expect people to arrive with an itinerary to leave the country - so we have to plan ahead.  It gets complicated - once we have a plan, we'll let people know.

The errands are pretty much finished, and we can now play and explore and do all the things we like to do in a new place - even ride the ferries on the river, visit the art gallery, things like that.

These are the boring things you don't think about when you decide to live life on the road - what happens when the only nice white shirt you have becomes stained?  Or your one pair of black slacks gets a huge hole for the second time?  Or your one pair of sandals falls apart?  Or your camera (or computer) dies?

Well, I've scrubbed the shirt with a bleach stick, mended the slacks once again, had the sandals and sunglasses repaired, and I'm in the market for a new camera.  And we're working on a travel plan.

And that's just how rolling luggagers roll, I guess.

 

Queensland - Finally!!!!

8 July 2013

We had three lovely days in Brunswick Heads, camping by the river and listening to the waves on the shore, just beyond the jetties protecting the marina.  

We enjoyed a local market, as well as a drive out to Nimbin, a town nestled in the hills and known best for its Aquarius Festival back in the 1970s, and being the center of the pro-marijuana movement in Australia.  It definitely was a blast from the past, as Richard describes it.  You know those movies where someone time travels back to Rome, or the Middle Ages?  Well, this was a time travel back to 1968-74, where all the stores are selling tie-dye or ethnic clothing, lunch takes about 30 minutes to arrive, ladies on the streets are selling Alice B. Toklas cookies, and the scent of marijuana smoke lingers in the air.  It was a trip!

Today, we finally left Brunswick Heads and drove the nearly 200 km to Brisbane, leaving New South Wales and entering Queensland.  We have now been in every state of Australia:  Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territories, New South Wales, and Queensland.  The only place we skipped was the ACT, the Australian Capital Territory, sort of the District of Columbia of Australia.  And we'd have gone to Canberra if it hadn't been so wet and cold when we left Sydney - heading south (colder) and to the hills (even colder) didn't sound like a great plan.

Of course, we don't drive directly - we took a few detours to see the ocean, drive along the coast, stop at the self-proclaimed world-famous pies of Yatala (and the berry apple pie was quite tasty, but nothing like the Village Inn pie place along Interstate-5 in Washington State) - because we aren't tourists, we're rolling luggagers, and the journey is as important as the destination.  So we enjoyed our drive north, and managed to find a nice caravan park just 4 km from the central business district.

A sidebar - we had an address for this caravan park, in a suburb or neighborhood just west of Brisbane.  I figured we'd see an exit from the main highway and just take that.  No, this is Australia, where roads don't always make sense and signs aren't for the unknowing.  Suddenly the M-1 (motorway 1?) ended - just flat out ended! - and we were on Coronation Drive, in Brisbane!  We found a gas station and pulled in, because gas station crews always know how to get anywhere, right?  Wrong!  The young woman cashier was so clueless, she pulled out a street directory for the Sunshine Coast, handed it to me, and said I'd find the map there.  Well and good, but Brissy is on the GOLD Coast, not Sunshine, so it wasn't even in the book she gave me!  We gave up and went outside, found a wonderful man putting gas in his ute (utility vehicle) - he had a Brissy directory, looked it up, showed us the maps, and even drove part of the way there with us following so we could find this place!  Plus, he sells and installs Yakima car roof racks - made in Yakima WA!!!!  Where my brother lives!!!!  Where all of our stuff is in storage!!!!  How bizarre was that????  

Anyway, so here we are in our camper van, in a very comfortable caravan park (the Newmarket Gardens Caravan Park, http://www.newmarketgardens.com.au/) - all set to take care of business tomorrow.  Get the camera repaired, if possible.  (Because this caravan park has wonderful murals on the amenities buildings, and I'd love to get some photos of them!)  Get medical tests so that my doctor will renew my medications.  Get a few things checked out.  Figure out where to go come mid-August, and probably book tickets.  Figure out if we'll return to Australia, or move on to another continent.  Come up with a vague plan for mid-August.

And of course explore Brisbane for a few days.  Hold a koala!  Take a river cruise or tour or at least a ferry ride!  Meet up with Gordon, friend of very dear St. Thomas friends, who recommended this caravan park and sounds like an interesting person.  

So - that's the excitement in our lives.  Time travel and actual travel.  And can you believe we've been travelling for over ten months now?  Wow!

Like, wow, dude!

No Camera!

5 July 2013

You know that saying up a creek without a paddle?  Well, I'm up a beautiful beach without a camera.  Camera has totally died, and I can't share photos with you all.  And as an artist and art educator, somehow a blog without photos just is boring.

So - the quick summary is that we spent one night just south of Port Macquarie at Lighthouse Beach, at a lovely holiday park full of friendly permanent residents, as well as a resident lop-eared black rabbit, and a koala high in a tree.

We headed north and spent one night just north of Coffs Harbour, at Moonee Beach - again, a nice holiday park with campers, residents, and a gorgeous view of a river full of sand bars feeding into the ocean, complete with the roar of waves all night.  Beautiful views as we drove along the coast, blue blue skies, and the weather is warming up as we head north.

Tonight, we're in Brunswick Head - we tried a campground in Byron Bay but it was packed with families, and the remaining campsites were far from the amenities - it's hard enough to make those middle-of-the-night runs to the bathroom without having to go some 100 feet in the dark, and down (and back up) a steep hill.  Just wasn't going to work for the rolling luggagers.  Maybe in our backpacker days, but not now.  So we headed north just a bit more, to Brunswick Head, and found this spot - we're backed into an isolated site opposite the amenities at this end of the camp - in back of our camper is the estuary and marina, and in the distance we can hear the constant roar of waves on the beach.  We probably will stay here a few days, to explore and relax and unwind.  Monday will be a long, 200 km drive to Brisbane, where we'll spend another few days to deal with things like getting my camera fixed, and such.  

That's about it.  No major excitement, just enjoying the small towns of east coast Australia, along with the quirky sense of humor that has developed in this country.  An example:

The National Parks Service has published a series of brochures on living with some of the animals of Australia: the dingoes, emus, kangaroos, etc.  Our personal favorite is Living With Magpies and it discusses how magpies sometimes dive bomb people, especially men.  It continues, "Try to look the magpie directly in the eye to discourage it from swooping down over your head.  It may not work, but at least you will see the bird coming at you."

This is in a published document!  From a department of the government!

We fell over laughing!

Anyway, that's life in Australia.  And our take on it.  And, I'm sorry, but I can't capture the beauty of this part of the world to show you, so please take a moment to do a google image search of any of those places, and you'll see the rich dense green forests, golden beaches, white crashing waves, and turquoise blue waters.  Really, we come around a corner on the highway and there will be an amazing panorama spread out it front of us.  Beautiful.

People assure us the best is yet to come!

Website for the Koala Hospital

I forgot to include the website for the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie - I like to include that information just in case someone wants to visit, or even better, make a donation.  Or adopt a rescued and released koala, as I did.  

Here it is:  www.koalahospital.org.au

Check it out!

Visiting the Koala Hospital – It’s a Mitzvah!

4 July 2013

I spent my morning at the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie, NSW.  They’re the place that rescues, saves, and rehabilitates koalas from all up and down the east coast of Australia.  They have a koala ambulance, they educate the public about things they can do to help koalas in their community, and they take in about 200-300 injured or abandoned koalas every year.  Every year!  It’s enough to make you cry.

Some of the koalas are injured by cars, or dogs, or who knows what.  Others are injured in the many brush fires that Australia is prone to – and it’s amazing how many koalas are saved after they’re found with burns from a fire.  Baby koalas (joeys) are sometimes abandoned, usually because something happened to the mother.  And there are normal koala illnesses, as well as problems with aging.  Because koalas sleep so many hours in a curled up position, they’re prone to scoliosis and other spinal problems as they age.  If they develop an infection, the carers have to be very careful about giving antibiotics, which can kill off the intestinal bacteria that enables a koala to survive on eucalyptus and gum leaves.  So it’s all very complicated and takes specialized care.

Only part of the hospital is open for public viewing, and that’s the pens where koalas are outside, recuperating and being rehabilitated, prior to release back into the wild.  The indoor part is the intensive care unit, surgery, post-op, all that – the part that I really wouldn’t want to see, because it’s so difficult to think about these adorable and sweet little animals being in pain and suffering.  

 

The koalas I saw outside were a few who, for one reason or another, won’t be released back to their home areas – one has severe scoliosis, another had to have a leg amputated (but she still was up at the top of her tree), and so forth.  And most were sound asleep except Barry, featured in these photos – he was wide awake at 10 AM and was eating and posing for photos.

And then the joeys – imagine normal koala cuteness multiplied by about 100.  These little guys were just little chubby balls of fur with cute little baby faces pasted on – they were whatever is beyond adorable!  There were three joeys, two boys and one girl, all in the same pen – 
one came  
hopping down the tree, backwards, little roly-poly body bouncing along as he/she clung to the tree with those long sharp claws.  It climbed over the roof of the feeding area, climbed down, and proceeded to eat the leaves set up for breakfast.  We oooohed and aaaahed over the little guy – and then another baby woke up, stretched way up in the tree, and came bouncing down as well – he/she backed down into the feeding area and bumped Joey #1, who took umbrage at being bumped out of the feeding loft and scampered back up the tree, curling up between a few branches and falling asleep again, back to looking like a tiny ball of fluff sitting way up in the tree.  Joey #2 was okay with being the only one eating, and he/she buried itself in the
leaves and ate for over 20 minutes – I finally had to leave!  I talked to it and it would periodically stick its head out of the leaves and look at me, as if paying attention to what I was telling it (how to avoid cars and dogs), cute little face studying me as if it were memorizing my words.

The third joey stayed way up in the tree, folded up like a tiny furry Buddha, balanced in the crook of thin branches that barely looked as if they would support that little fuzzball.  But they did, and it slept through the whole meal. 

Unfortunately, my camera decided it didn’t want to take any more photos, and started doing weird things – so my apologies for some of these photos, and I lost a lot of potentially good ones.  The camera will go to the Camera Hospital when we get to a larger town. 

 

I chatted with the carer (what they call the caregivers here) who said that these weren’t related joeys, but they’ll be released together when they’re a bit older, so that they form sort of a family bond and won’t be alone in their new environment.  Koalas might live alone in a tree, but they aren’t necessarily solitary animals, they usually live in a loose family group.  And while adult koalas are familiar with their territory and thus are usually released back to their home (unless it presents a danger, such as after a fire), the joeys can be released pretty much anywhere that’s safe, since they don’t have a home territory yet.  So there’s hope for these little ones.

On the way out, I signed up to adopt one of the released koalas – not that I get to physically adopt it and take it home with me – no, it’s kind of a symbolic adoption, where the funds help support the rescue center and I receive a packet of information about the little koala.  Except, as a rolling luggager, I don’t have a mailing address, and the center doesn’t send out the information by email.  So I did the next best thing, I signed up my dad to be the recipient of the adoption papers.  (Happy Father’s Day, Maury!)  We’re the proud parents (and grandfather) of Koolabong Paula – each koala is named with the place they’re from, and a name.  She had a face I just couldn’t resist. 

The Talmud says that each person who visits an ill person makes that person 1/60^th better.  So I figure it must be a mitzvah to visit rescued koalas.  

Continuing Along the Coast – or – MORE KOALAS!!!!

3 July 2013

We spent a second day in Tuncurry – the sun finally, FINALLY, showed up, so that things can dry out, and we can see the beauty of this part of Australia.  Our second day in Tuncurry was partly sunny and a lot cloudy, so we took care of travel business on the road – laundry, finishing our taxes and sending that off, dealing with renewing our prescription meds.  Boring stuff that needs to get done to continue on.  (I still think we need to find laundry fairies who come in during the night to wash, dry, and fold the dirty laundry, so that I don’t have to spend a few hours doing that.  I did meet some nice women at the campground laundry – but still, there are so many things to do and laundry just isn’t on the top of my list.  On the other hand, considering how soaking wet my clothes were from my hike to the lighthouse, it was nice  to get them washed and finally dried.)

Today we drove north, first along The Lakes Highway (weaving among more of the great lakes here); then along the Pacific Highway, which is inland a bit; then off to the Ocean Highway, which runs, obviously, close to the ocean.  The inland part, near the lakes and than along the Pacific Hwy, is surprisingly green – so much of Australia is desert, scrub, dune, sand, the Nullarbor (yes, as in no trees) – just solid red or beige ground and little growing on it.  So the green of New South Wales is a pleasant shock.  Although, with all the rain we just had, it makes sense that this area is bright green, reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest USA, or the British Isles – places that have more rain than most, along with mist, drizzle, sprinkles, and of course fog.

There were fields full of cows, horses, one pasture full of camels!  And of course, the occasional newly-mown field full of wallabies nibbling on whatever looked tasty.  Field after field of wallabies!  But always next to a wooded area, so they could run and hide.  (There are approximately 60 million wallabies and kangaroos in this country – that’s about three times more kangaroos/wallabies than there are people! Can you imagine that many roos and wallabies????)

Then there were huge tall hills, towering over the highway, full of trees and probably koalas, because there were koala signs all around – slow down, koalas for the next X km, and koala rescue hotline numbers.  I kept looking in the tops of the trees, hoping to see a koala or two, but didn’t see any at all!

We drove over rivers – this part of the continent is WET! – and past lakes, and then the ocean!  We stopped at Rainbow Beach, a long beautiful stretch of beach, along the Tasman Sea, or maybe the Pacific Ocean, depending on which map you look use.  Gorgeous turquoise water and golden sand, the beach with a very slight slope so the waves come rolling and crashing in row after row, looking so orderly and organized for water.  Absolutely beautiful!  I picked up fish and chips that we shared sitting on a bench by the lifeguard chair, watching the waves and one crazy surfer way out trying to catch a wave.  These weren’t monster waves, but they were pretty big, maybe 5 ft or so in the area he was trying to surf.

We traveled onward, until we came to Lighthouse Beach – this is just a few km south of Port Macquarie, tomorrow’s destination, so we decided we may as well stay here, rather than in the big town.  Our holiday park is in a very wooded area, the beach maybe 4 or 5 minutes down the road but close enough so we can hear the constant roar of the waves.  Well, when the parrots and lorikeets and cockatoos aren’t squawking at each other as they fly from tree to tree to lawn, squabbling over food and prime space on the best branches.  And when the kookaburras aren’t laughing their truly demonic and maniacal laugh, which seems to go on and on like a demented mechanical clown, really almost creepy – very Bellatrix Le Strange, for my Harry Potter fan friends.

But the piéce de résistance (excuse the accent ague rather than the accent grave) is that there are koalas here!  In the neighborhood!  In the park!  People have seen koalas hanging out around here, there are signs to drive slowly (with various cuddly koala images on the signs, from realistic to cartoonish), and this is koala country!  Eucalypts and gum trees all over!  YAY koalas!

 After we plugged in the van, popped the top, transferred stuff to the cab, I went out for a walk to find the koalas – I met several of our neighbors, all of whom live in this park full-time, in some of the houses that are built around the edges of the park.  They look like quaint little Victorian cottages, but I’m sure they’re reproductions.  Anyway, everyone had different suggestions of where to look and what kind of tree the koalas prefer, but basically I looked in each and every tree.  I did meet a black lop-eared rabbit who people feed, and who is probably an escaped pet who now lives in the park.  I also met a woman who works at the koala hospital in Port Macquarie, which we’ll visit tomorrow.  But my favorite was the man who has lived in this park with his wife, over 20 years, and really enjoys the community as well as the quiet.  Very friendly people, and very helpful in my quest to find a koala.

And then, there he was!  High up in a tree, in the middle of a yard, not far from the road – one lone koala snuggled up into a furball sleeping soundly!!!!  YAY koala!!!!  I tried talking to him, but he slept on.  (I think it was a boy because they have bigger noses, and are generally bigger than females – and this was a pretty good-sized koala.)  I may go see if he’s walking around later in the evening, though I don’t want to shine a flashlight into his face.  Yes, I tried to take photos – but he was pretty far up in the tree, and it was late afternoon so getting somewhat dark – the photos make him look more like a large termite nest rather than a koala.  That grey blob is my koala.  But yay, my first koala totally in the wild, not in a reserve, not fenced in, just living his koala life!!!!  

I think the only uniquely Australian animal I haven’t seen is the platypus – and while interesting, they aren’t as cute as the koalas or wallabies – they just don’t have the same cachet.

That was the most exciting event of the day – finding my wild koala!  Okay, yeah, they don’t get too wild and crazy – they sleep about 18-20 hours a day and focus on eating eucalypts and gum leaves when awake.  These are not wild and crazy guys – they’re just cute and cuddly koalas.

Sugarloaf Point and Tuncurry

1 July 2013

It's so hard to believe it's July already - we've been living on the road for 10 months, and having a wonderful time.  And somehow having winter in July just doesn't compute - while we know intellectually that the Southern Hemisphere is on an opposite seasonal schedule from the Northern Hemisphere, well, years and decades of experience and habit say otherwise.  Cold weather and sweaters in July just feels so wrong!


Plus it's still very green here, despite the cold.  I know, cold is relative - what feels cold to me feels balmy to a Minnesotan.  Around here, 60 F (15 C) isn't cold, it's just a little chilly.  The trees seem to agree.  

I think just as the trees have adapted to wet cold climates and retain their leaves, showing a certain toughness and hardiness, so too have the Australian people adapted to the cold wet climate.  We're wearing jeans, sweatshirts or sweaters, rain jackets, and closed up shoes.  We see all kinds of Australians running around in shorts, or tee shirts, or short skirts, and the ever-present flip flops - as if it's summer!  I suspect the harsh terrain and weather, where 3/4 of the animals are some of the deadliest in the world, has led to an attitude of toughness, grittiness, fortitude, even maybe a kind of machismo.  The Crocodile Dundee Syndrome, we could call it.  The unforgiving land, deadly animals, and weather that provides either droughts or floods has created survivors, people ready to meet the animals and the elements on their terms, people determined to win.

So, as a pseudo-Aussie these days, I braved the elements and the dingo-warning-signs and walked to the Sugarloaf Point lighthouse.  It was roughly a mile or so hike, through lonely and dense bush, dripping from all the rain, and cold (for me).  But a beautiful hike up and down the coast, with views of treacherous rocks and rushing waters and isolated beaches and dunes - and finally the lighthouse, pristine white and ready to shine its light and warn ships and sailors and pirates of the rocks.  I walked up, despite the clouds in the distance, and of course it began to pour.  Actually, I could see the rain coming, but by that time it seemed crazy to NOT go up to the lighthouse, after the hike in, and considering how wet I was by that point.  And, more of course, the lighthouse was locked.  I still walked up the stairs for wonderful views, although in the pouring rain I could only see in one direction - the one with the rainbow.  Perfect!

I eventually walked back down the hill and back to the car.  Somewhere partway down, my rain jacket decided it was only water resistant, and no longer waterproof.  Soon I could feel cold rain seeping across my shoulders, down my arms, and of course dripping off the jacket across my jeans.  By the time I got to the camper, I was soaked to the skin.  

The good part about having the camper is that my dry clothes were right there, so it was easy to dig out some dry clothes and change.  The bad part about a camper in the rain is that there isn't really any convenient place to hang wet clothes.  We managed.  And we drove onward, following the Lakes Road, weaving along peninsulas and bridges that make up the network of saltwater lakes along the east coast. 


We saw a wallaby family walking around the front yard of some house, complete with the joey poking his/her head out of the pouch.  Such fun to see the wallabies, no matter how many I see they are still exciting!  No dingoes, despite the signs.  No koalas, despite the quantity of gum and eucalyptus trees.  Just some wallabies, watching the cars go by as they ate the grass and bounced around.

We're moving northward slowly, trying to get behind this storm that hit us while in Sydney, and that has slowly been following us up the coast, heading to Queensland.  So we decided to just head up to the inlet that feeds the Wallis Lake complex, another of the great saltwater lakes along the coast.

There are two towns, Forster and Tuncurry, one on each side of the inlet and connected by a long long bridge.  We headed there and, after consulting our maps, decided to head to the Tuncurry Beach Holiday Park.  The campground is situated on the landward side of huge dunes, which lead to Nine Mile Beach.  

On another side of the campground is the inlet, with a long rock jetty to protect the mouth of the lake, and prevent shipwrecks - apparently a change in wind direction or sudden gusts, and ships would be blown out to sea or onto sand bars.

We went out exploring at sunset. Even though we were facing every which way except west, there still was a lot of color in the sky and on the water.  As well as numerous rain clouds, letting us know that this weather system was not finished with us.

We saw a bunch of people trying to surf (and they didn't seem to be in the area with the most waves, but they probably know something about the beach that we didn't).  My favorite were these two, a young couple, maybe even teenage, who seemed to be on a sunset surf date!  So romantic! 

After our walk across the dunes and back, we walked over to the local bowling club (lawn bowling, not bowling alley with pins bowling) for a little pokie time, just for something different.  There isn't a lot to do in a holiday park except hang out with other campers or hang out in our van.  And after a day of driving, even half a day, it feels good to get in a decent walk.

We're settled in now for the night, and will make the bed and make plans for tomorrow.  We may stay here and explore Tuncurry, we may move on.

Such is life when the plan is to not have a plan.