My last night in Australia, I had a nice stroll around the Opera House in the pouring rain.






Beijing, Forbidden City, so so cold. I am sporting the classy touque I bought there.




Back home in Canada, quadding with my brother

Beijing was quite the adventure. My plane arrived 2 hours late, at 2am, and the cabby was still there waiting for me, which was nice. I was plannig to spend the night in the airport, but I am glad I got a real bed. The hostel was beautiful in downtown Beijing. It was an hour away from the airport and I was just exhausted by the time I got there. Then the hostel people wouldn't accept my US dollars as payment, and they had problems with my passport since I didn't have a visa in it. So eventually I got to go to sleep. I woke up early the next day to go off in search of the Bank of China so I could pay the hostel people. I wandered around lost for an hour, turns out I kept going the wrong direction out of the hostel. Eventually I figured it out and found the stupid bank, and got some rmb. Then since McD's was right next door, I stopped in for a much needed grease-ball breaky. Only $2 for an extra value meal, what a steal! Then I wandered around Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City for a while, until I was frozen solid. I had packed a nice mini skirt to wear in China, thinking it would be nice and warm. Was I ever wrong. It was -5C when I got off the plane. I had to buy a touque there because it was so so cold. Eventually I made it back to the hostel and to the airport, and home sweet home. I had a nice Christmas back home, though the weather is bizzar. There isn't even enough snow to ski!

My group at King's Canyon


The Olgas rock formations


Ayers Rock at sunset


The Olgas from a distance at sunset


Ayers rock at sunrise



I can cross another natural world wonder off my list now, since I have now seen Ayers Rock. I just spent 4 days out in the Red Center, as it is called, checking out rocks and canyons. The first day was spent just driving out there, but the second day we did a hike around King's Canyon, which is quite nice. 6.5km bright and early in the morning, starting with "heart attack hill". Luckily there was a bit of a breeze, so the flies and the heat weren't too bad. Afterwards we heading for Ayers Rock area, and on the way all of a sudden a high-pitched weezing sound came from the bus, and the smell of burning rubber. Turns out there was a broken belt hanging out of the engine. So a few of the guys tried to fix it, but had no luck, so there we were stranded out in the desert. Eventually help arrived, and determined it was only the air conditioning belt, so we sat there for hours just for nothing. Then back in the bus for a very hot and sweaty next couple days!! The temp was around 40C the whole trip, and you can only imagine what it is like in a non air conditioned bus in that heat. Opening the windows only blows hot air in, there is no escaping. So the next day we went for an 8km hike around Kata Tjuta, also called the Olgas, which is a really neat pile of huge rounded rock formations. This was a rather exhausting hike due to the temp. Luckily I had a bag of wine gums to keep me going. It is hard to drink enough water when doing such activities in this heat. That afternoon we checked out the cultural center to learn about the aboriginals and their ties to the Olgas and Ayers Rock. The Olgas are so sacred no one is allowed to climb them. So finally on the last day we got up at 3:40am, yes you read that correctly, to watch the sun rise on Ayers Rock. Sleep deprivation had really started to set in, as we had been getting up at 5am the other mornings in order to do the hikes before the heat of the day. So after watching the rock change colours as the sun rose, we went for our 10km walk around Ayers Rock. I was hoping to climb it, but it was closed due to extreme forcasted temperatures. The Aboriginals prefer that no one climbs it though, since the climb is a sacred walk they do as an initiation into adulthood. There were lots of areas around the rock where photographs are not allowed since they are sacred areas as well. After completing the perimeter walk, We did yet another walk, only a km or 2 checking out some aboriginal art and cultural areas of the rock. So a pretty exhausting 4 days, walking 25km in the desert with flies constantly buzzing around and trying to get in your orifices, all with very little sleep. It was a cool experience, and I really enjoyed seeing all the rock formations and learning about the aboriginals and their ties to the land. A good way to end my vacation. Now I am off to the motherland tomorrow, and should be back on native soil by the 15th. I have one more night in Sydney, and one day in Beijing on the way. I had an awesome time down here, I met a ton of interesting people, and saw a ton of places, and had a ton of fun. I am ready to head home for Christmas though, living in hostels does take its toll of you after a while, and the heat is getting a bit much. Home sweet home for a 60 degree temperature change!

A 5m high mound of sand-eating termite poo


Yes, a solar powered phone booth in the middle of nowhere


2864km of driving straight into the outback on dirt roads in only 3 days! My road trip from Cairns to Alice Springs was awesome, I had a ton of fun. It was really nice to get away from the touristy east coast. I am now in the middle of the desert, never again to see an Aussie beach... well for a while anyways. The last 3 days were some of the longest of my trip, getting up at 5am each day, and driving for 12 hours a day through nothing. I think we passed through 2 towns on the way, and quite a few cattle stations (ranches). Unfortunately due to flooding, we had to bypass porcupine gorge, and backtrack down the east coast a ways before heading west into the desert on the first day. We stayed the first night at a little pub in one of the 2 towns between here and Cairns, played a ton of pool. The next day we stopped to check out some aboriginal art in a canyon on the way, and stopped in town number 2 at some point. We spent the night on a cattle station... hotels and hostels are a bit scarce out there. The cattle station was only a small one, at 40,000acres, some of them are a million acres out there. I was attacked by a black sheep trying to get to the bus, as soon as I walked out the gate he put his head down and took a run for me, and head-butted me right in the thigh, it hurt. There was a cow licking my leg as I was eating dinner and a kangaroo laying next to me. Up at the crack of dawn the next morning, for our last and longest leg of the drive, we left at 6am, and arrived at 7pm, and passed through zero towns on the way. Nothing but red sand, red kangaroos, and heat exhausted cows. My thermometer read 46C where we stopped for lunch, so a bit toasty. It is really hard to breath in that heat, each time you inhale the hot air evaporates the moisture in your airway. The heat was a bit more bareable than the coast since it was a dry heat. So after an exhausting trip, the whole sleep-deprived bus met up for a night of partying at the hostel bar last night. I won another didgeridoo playing contest there, and got a t-shirt. Apparently I am a pro. Now I have 2 days to explore Alice Springs before taking off for 3 and a half days to see Ayers Rock and some more of the desert.

Cape Tribulation




Some miscellaneous shots from earlier in my trip:

My first week of surfing, way back in October


Koala on Magnetic Island


The Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains



Cape Tribulation is probably the closest to paradise I have seen. Rainforest meets empty white sand beach meets the turquoise waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Captain Cook named it so because all his troubles started as he was sailing around the area. I spent an afternoon and a morning burning up on the beach there, just relaxing and enjoying the view. It was especially great because there were barely any people there, just a nude girl who had to lay down right near me. I also did an exotic fruit tasting the evening I arrived. I tried tahitian lime, breadfruit, jakfruit, jaboticaba, black sapote, sapodilla, mamey sapote, rollinia, soursop, and miracle fruit. My favorite was the miracle fruit, it was a red berry, and after sucking on it for a minute, it desensitized the sour taste buds. I had some lime slices right after, and they just tasted like sugar, even a glass of water taste like suger, it was cool. None of the fruits tasted particularly good, they were all very squashy and sweet. I only spent one night in Cape Trib, then one night in Port Douglas. I did a crocodile cruise down the Daintree river, where I saw one croc laying in the mud of the coastline. I also went to Mossman Gorge and hiked around a bit. Port Douglas was rather touristy, not backpackers either, but old people. I explored the town for the day, and lounged around the hostel pool for quite some time. Now back in Cairns, I had one last hurrah last night with the people I have been travelling with for the past 2 months. It is wierd to think how much time I have spent with these people, and I will most likely never see them again. I will definitely miss them though. I leave tomorrow at 5:50am for my 3 day bus ride straight into the outback on non-paved roads for something like 2000km to Alice Springs. They better play some movies. It will be nice to see something other than the beaches for a few days.