Mr. Tom Gets Around

As some of you may know ourpurchased vehicle in Austarlia has been given a name. Wahnita the Phantom Goddess of the Nite with her Princess White coat has  to date driven us 6849kms.  She’s a Ford Falcon GL from the 80’s (1987).  She’s had only flat and one hobbled tire so far.  She’s checked for oil and water on a daily bases, that would have any army mechanic scratching his head.

Kangaroo Island

  A quick recap of the island events, some surfing (Miles 1^st time, my second).  A charter boat quite bumpy to the island no dolphins spotted.  Koala spotting, our first glimpse at the furry clawed creatures that seem to make no noise or so I thought.  Max, Miles and I managed to sneak out before dinner and do some Koala watching and oops I touched a baby’s butt too.  Fairy Penguin watching with special redlight flashlight, those little buggers travel up to 35kms during the day getting grump and only want to waddle home to take a nap for the nite.  Remarkable Rocks, or just get your face in the photo for the rocky crunch(see photo).  Seals, they make noise are smelly and well that’s about it.  Lots of beaches on the island, so we even got to get a good swim on.  Ending day too with watching and listening to a female Koala put the smack down on a horny male.  He eventually turned his back and feel asleep, reminding me of some bedtime moments with a ladyfriend.  Second nite sleeping in the Swag’s(check photo of day 3 wake-up). Having told some scary stories or boring ones that is around the campfire we 7 of us slept under the haunted tree of the hanging, scary i know.  Sand-boarding, a bit of a workout getting up and for some people a sandwich face on the way down(mostly Kelly&Mark)silly Poms.  Catching and eating the smaller freshwater crayfish, a truly primitive feeling but good in the stomach.  The dolphin charter on the way back proved plentiful, a small gang of bottle-nose buzzed around the boat for a good 5 minutes before tagging off, leaving me forgetful as I had promised Miles that I would jump in and join them in the ocean, something our great tour guide Lisa would of thought was too crazy I suspect. 

Adelaide Forgetting that The Ashes were in Adelaide, we tried to find a hostel in the city-center.  Glenelg, the local beach of Adelaide provided us with a much needed rest and relax spot.  The Jetty at sunset provided some entertainment as many squid fishers were in action.   The local girl who’s lack of understanding of marine life proved a funny sight in combination with a freshly caught snorting squid.  Amazing creatures they were indeed, I had a few flashbacks to snorkelling in Thailand and chasing these creatures.  Unlucky 4 me they are terribly quick.   After a day in Adelaide which proved informative as we learned and saw the whole Ashes history fuss. Next we checked into the OZ Backpackers and meet up with some interesting people who we got to learn a whole lot better as we had some days to kill before out Kangaroo Island 3-day tour.  The Brits or Poms 4 in total or was it 5 well, at the free BBQ they were a rowdy bunch trash talking the Canadians and Aussies before the weekly game of Pool Bingo. The two Canadians George and Kylie were a riot they had trouble with my American accent and my antics but much appreciated the trash talking I did as the Poms were shooting pool.  Together with Jabba our home grown Melbourne Victory Hooligan I managed to distract enough of the Poms to let still a Pom win but it wasn’t the main one.  That nite under some guidance from the German Constantine we managed to get the DJ to play eastern European (borat style)music.  After that we just requested anything cause we were the one’s making the party jump around.  

 The Gun Club Having seen a flyer with Shooting Range advertised on it, Miles and I booked a spot the following day to see what the whole hype was about. George was pretty bummed out to hear about out outing, he being a gun fan but a little low on the dow.  Upon arrival at the Gun Club we were given the Menu of gun options and main courses.  Both wanted to shoot the shotgun(Terminator Style) but without the
Arnold I mean.  We selected a 4 handgun plus+ one 10shots option on the shotgun, a total of 68 shots I believe it was.Having never fired a gun before I was wickedly excited but knew I would have to keep my cool and not joke around too much.  A DVD was presented with the do’s and don’t of the Gun Club, then is was just a quick walk to the range to get ready 4 the action.Starting with a Police style handgun I quickly learned hitting the target was a walk in the park.  As we progressed to the more powerful and bigger guns including the cowboy style guns I noticed I couldn’t keep the gun steady anymore. The bullets at this point had to be hand loaded and were almost as big as my pinky.  The last hanggun some sort of clint Eastwood clone was so powerful that I couldn’t hold the gun still before I managed to pull the trigger. This had me thinking of how all those Western movies must have had some lightweight dummies just for show.  Now it was time for the shotgun experience.  I noticed a rubbery cap on the butt of the shotgun and asked our range captain what exactly if was for? He replied with a comment about Girlie protection, so I requested it be removed. He warned of a mark the butt could make on the recoil, but at that point I just wanted to fire that sucker.  After a few words of wisdom is was go time, I cocked the shotgun and steadied myself for the blast. Focused and ready I slowly pulled and was surprised to hear just a small click, I apparently didn’t load the chamber correctly.  After a second try the gun popped my shoulder back and left me with a pinky shoulder for a couple of hours.  I enjoy the whole Gun Club experience but think I’ll just leave the shooting to Anne Oakley. 

Sunday Nite at the Karaoke Machine            Officially I was off to Kangaroo Island with Miles in the morning. He had caught a bug and was in bed for the second half of the day and evening.  One of the many German gals staying at the OZ backpackers was celebrating here birthday. So the gals made a nite of it by rounding up a posse and heading of to do the Karaoke Machine.With the high population of Asians in most cities threw out Australia there’s always a Karaoke Experience nearby.  We eventually landed a room about 3m x 4m with some lazy leather couches.  A quick look through the selection of songs proved a bit of a downer but Jonny Cash always gets people going even if they can’t muster up a decent Southern accent on the spot.  We booked a 2hour session and before we knew it most people had lost use of their voice and there were microphones all over the room, as the nite turned into a massive singalong.  Truly priceless and by no means the end of the nite.  There was a derby match between Chelsea and Liverpool later in the evening but most of the gals still had itchy feet and wanted to find a dance floor fast.  We located a swingin bar/slash/dance floor equipped.  Some of the locals were more than happy when they finally noticed the girlie posse shakin and bakin on the dance floor.  But like true gentlemen asking which of the birds was free?  I kinda explained the were celebrating a birthday and a flight back home to long awaited boyz of some sort. After that the locals seemed to give up more space than ever.  The buzz finished out and most of us made it back to the sports bar to catch most of the epic derby game before heading home to goof off in the Backpackers lounge. 

Streaky Bay –
Adelaide We could of reached
Adelaide in one long drive but diced it up into two days.  Stopping at Port Augusta the hub city where travellers from West and North meet.  Checking into the Big4 caravan park I noticed a hot tub, so I busted out my swimming goggles for some mini laps and unfortunately found out that the so called hot tub turned out to be the kiddie bath, so much for splashing. 

Albany to Esperance, Blowholes? 
Albany proved a fun place to take a break and spend the day doing some sightseeing.  Blowholes? What the heck are blowholes? We gottta check that out I thought.  Upon arrival we notice the ocean swell to be minimum, so we strolled down to the place of blowing without taking notice of the warning signs.  Turns  out those blowholes can blow a hat or cap clear off your head and even make it seem as if you where skydiving while standing on land. We managed to score a lifter to
Adelaide for our trip across the Nullaboor. The lovely but quiet Sandy from
Germany.  Turns out she wouldn’t budge on her age(so we’ll never know) but she was quiet as a mouse as we crossed the dessert, but turned out helpful for a few photo ops. Crossing the Nullarbor turned out to be a bit more fun when we decided to count dead kangaroo’s and roadtrains. Just 40km’s prior to reaching Norseman we had a sort of bubbled tire ring pull causing a hoppy bumpy ride into Norseman.  Lucky 4 us the local mechanics enjoyed the view as
Sandy stepped out of Wahnita.  They speedily fixed out wobbly tire and tried to offcourse in mechanic fashion sell us another unwanted item.            The ride across the first half of the so called Nullarbor proved not to bad, some dead roos, a phantom emu.  A really flat rabbit that Miles managed to make into a Desert Pancake just before the stop for the nite at the Madura-Motel which include a spidery surprise under the sheets upon inspection. 

Having spent the nite at Nadine’s we were well rested and ready to head south to encounter the best of
Southern Western Australia.  Managing to make it close to the Big Tree Grove we camped in our 1^st national park(Shannon N.P.), almost rent free. Testing out my snorkel gear in the middle of the woods seemed like a perfect idea until I discovered there wasn’t much water around just some stinky flys . Spending the nite in a log cabin on some hardwood we went out for a morning hike, encountering a giant Roo in the woods.  Starting the car proved a bit tricky as our battery had died during the nite. Lucky for us the hosts at the park had a jump-starter.  Turned out after lunch we even had a flat-tire which I accredited to Emil’s excellent driving on unsealed roads. We meet up with some Belguim’s at the repair shop where we got our flat plugged.  They had pulled the Diesel in the Petrol tank trick and it somehow seemed they would never see the Valley of the Giants(Walpole) that day.  We on the other hand were outta there within minutes , 7 bucks lighter  and looking forward 2 our high time walking experience.  Turned out we were greeted by some boyz Asians(2 Japanese & an Korean)and a Belguim high up about  45meters.  The seemed a bit friendly but turned out they were just couples looking 4 someone to snap a couple photos of the whole scene. 

Crossing the Nullarbor turned out to be a bit more fun when we decided to count dead kangaroo’s and roadtrains. Just 40km’s prior to reaching Norseman we had a sort of bubbled tire ring pull causing a hoppy bumpy ride into Norseman.  Lucky 4 us the local mechanics enjoyed the view as
Sandy stepped out of Wahnita.  They speedily fixed out wobbly tire and tried to offcourse in mechanic fashion sell us another unwanted item.            The ride across the first half of the so called Nullarbor proved not to bad, some dead roos, a phantom emu.  A really flat rabbit that Miles managed to make into a Desert Pancake just before the stop for the nite at the Madura-Motel which include a spidery surprise under the sheets upon inspection. 

Madura-Streaky
Bay Round 2 around the Nullarbor included a massive hour of dead roo’s and the Longest piece of straight road in
Australia(I should know I drove every km).  Wahnita not having cruise control proved tricky. An old high school soccer injury acts up if I have to push the gas too long. A sticky used to hold the back hatch was brought into action for a make-shift cruise control. This lasted about 2 minutes and then the old leg-foot combo was put back in action. After all that desert driving we need to see some ocean and found an excellent no frills bush-type camping near Streaky Bay with a couple of surfers from Italy and a surf Family who’s kid could be the next Kelly Slater, or so we thought.