Well I have covered some miles and seen some amazing things since my last email, so It's about time I put some of it down for you.
Firstly as promised I went the the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin, and as expected he was nowhere to be seen, There were plenty of Steve alikes giving talks and feeding the crocks, but dissapointlingly none of them were carrying 3 month old babys whilst doing this.
Most notable is the fact that Steve Irwin is considered a bit of an embarassment by most Australians, who having taken pains to build the image of sophistication in a highly civilised and cultured country over the past two hundred years. Have been slightly undermined by a guy who has let the cat out of the bag that everyone here is living in an Indiana Jones Movie! Foreigners used to come to look at the Opera House, now they want to see Steve wrestling his infants from a giant croc. Anyway, all things considered Australia Zoo is still a fantastic day out, and the sight of an eight foot croc jumping almost clear out of the water to snap at a piece of chicken is pretty impressive, and it's not just Crocs, there are Tazzie Devils, Kangaroos, Koalas, Snakes, Spiders, Cassowrys and heaps of other dangerious Australians, and thats just in the Car Park.
I also took time out to tour the most famous symbol of Queensland, the XXXX brewery, and after watching all the little stubbies and cans spinning down the conveyors being filled and labled and packaged and pasturised at the rate of about 20 a second, you really develop a healthy thirst, then off to a cinema with a giant screen for 15 minutes of the XXXX signature tune (I feel a XXXX coming on), close up images of glistening bottles of cold beer being enjoyed by beuatiful people. I went down to the bar to taste the complimentary samples with a zombie like gaze. I can safely say that the four beers allowed as part of the tour were the best I had ever tasted, and due to a stroke of luck in that Renaye knew the sister of the Girl who gave the tour, we enjoyed the subsequent four free beers not normally allowed as part of the tour even more......I can't remember much after that.
Yes That's me!
For those of you that are jelous, you should not that it is pretty hot here, over the last few weeks they have broken numerious records like hottest minimum temperature at night (27 degrees) hottest day in 80 years, highest humidity etc. Yesterday I am told it peaked at 41 degrees (thats 106f for you oldies and americans) and feels like opening an oven door. I am told in this heat it is not uncommon for car windscreens to explode! I have also seen unlit candles melt of their own accord!
Later today I will catch a bus that will take 10 hours to reach a town called Augathella, pretty much half way to Alice Springs - from there I will be picked up for the hour or so drive to the cattle station I am to call home for the next few weeks. I have allready borrowed some jeans, brought some Blundstone riding boots and a cowboy hat so I will look the part, Untill the horse I am on starts to move at which point I will look like an IT guy from London. Still if all else fails I am told they are having problems with their computer! (oh and they don't have air con, and it is even hotter out there! - no wonder they have computer problems)
I'm off to buy a net for my head (to keep the flies out of my mouth)...and I'm not joking...
Wish me luck
Eric
Updated Pictures Here :-
http://groups.msn.com/kumuka/ericseigthalbum.msnw
¶ 1:19 pm
My mother wanted to know who all these ugly people were?
So I took the obligatory trip from Byron Bay to the small town of Nimbin, and for those of you who have never heard of Nimbin, or have forgotten about it for any reason let me explain.....Some time in the 70's - spurned on by the growing population of American Draft Dodging, tree hugging, flower wearing types, the then struggling milk producing town of Nimbin decided to hold a rock festival.
Through the resulting, pungent blue marajuana smoke that settled over the 5 or so thousand revellers, those few people who were still able to see straight, could just make out the entire local police force (Consisting of two) backed up by the local Mayor, NSW's chief of Police and his Deputy, surveying the happy and peaceful crowd. The then, chief of Police, suggested that his officers should turn a blind eye to the presence of contraband, purely due to it's ubiquity over their own scarcity - and unwittingly set a legal precedent that exists to this day. IE it is difficult in Australian law to permit something one day, and then return the following day and make an arrest, it is genarally belived that any such case would be thrown out of court.
So to cut a long story short, Nimbin is a thriving tourist attraction despite having nothing to see other than a lot of glassey eyed smiling hippies selling cakes and cookies on every street corner.
Obviously, in the interests of providing good copy, I figured that as I was in Rome, I should don a pair of tight trousers, and duly purchased some cookies from a lady in a tie dye skirt and washed them down with some water from the local rain water tank. Unfortunately they had no effect.
The bus journey back to Byron was quite strange. For a start the bus on the way had consisted of 30ish quite normal looking backpackers, the bus on the return journey was by contrast full of over 600 of the most colourful, musical dancing people from the 7 corners of the earth. We sang and laughed while we drove over bright green hills and through purple valleys, waving at the pixies and fairy folk on the way, marvelling at the colourful birds that would fly alongside the bus and smile at us, at the clouds that would form the shapes of dinosoars and at the driver who was dressed as Napolien Bonapart, He would stop occasionally at various shops so we could stock up on buscuits and mars bars. This return journey took us three days longer than the initial journey, and yet we were still back in time for a lovely cup of tea.
So my advice to anyone going to Nimbin, is avoid the cookies as they are clearly a waste of money!
Me and Renaye are off to see Steve Irwin feed his kids to the Crocks now - hopefully I will get some gory photos for you!
Crikey
Eric
¶ 11:12 am 0 Comments
