Parklife

Decided to just up and post this entry even though it messes up the order.

Oh What a day.  My companions for the day were Emily and Dexter.  Emily I had met at a hostel months and months back, while Dexter I had contacted online through the couchsurfing website and we met for the first time that day because it hadn't worked out at other times.  Emily was over around 11 and we promptly started priming, and getting me ready by cutting my hair into a beaver-tail, which is a bit of a take on a mohawk.  I ended up changing into shorts and leaving my jumper behind which I was glad of since it was so hot during the day and later when I was in the middle of the crowds.  I also prepare a bunch of food to take with us. 4 sandwiches, and a bunch of celery and carrot sticks, mmm healthy sustenance.  We headed down to the festival at about 1 and caught the performance by Washington, I really hope she makes it out of Australia, her music is awesome.  After that we were a bit lost for a while I think I busted out the sandwiches and all so that I didn't suddenly become super drunk or pass-out or anything like that.  The next hour or two is a bit fuzzy because we wandered all over the place and weren't watching anyone in particular.  I think that was when I first met some of Dexter's other friends.  The next band we watched are called the Wombats, they were really popular the crowd was packed in pretty tight and the hill overlooking the stage was full of people.  I even got to fulfill the festival cliche of lifting a girl onto my shoulders for a song, she couldn't see, I thought it was fun, win/win.  After the Wombats, Kele, the former lead singer from Bloc Party played a set.  I thought he was amazing to watch.  The amount of energy and emotion that he put into his singing was inspiring.  I definitely think that if you are going to sing, even if it's in the car or along to music you should always go for it and give it your all since this is what the best performers do anyways.  Seeing his performance made me feel as thought the $150 price tag for the event was worth every penny.  After him we went to the main stage to wait for Missy Elliot to start.  There were all these boxes on the stage that spelled out "MISSY" and to start the show a troop of dancers came out and started stacking them up to spell out her name.  At this point I turned to the person next to me and said "It would be the best thing ever if she comes out of the boxes now".  The last box was put into place, the fronts of the boxes all opened up to reveal none other than Missy Elliot herself.  I went nuts.  The best part about the performance was all the dancers she had brought along there was cool choreography, and some amazing break dancing as well.  One guy spun on his head for what seemed like a minute, it was sweet.  I missed the last bit of her performance because I had to run to the toilet again, I think I must have caught tiny bladder syndrome from Cat (or I was just paranoid about hydration).  I was lucky though because I was back in line to the main stage just as everyone who was there to watch Missy was leaving and the next two acts were good enough to watch.  2manydjs and Groove Armada.  Dexter and I somehow ended up right at the front, reunited with his friends again, we still had no idea where Emily was.  I mostly just remember yelling a lot, jumping a lot and getting a very nice compliment on having cool eyes.  Oh and wearing my sunglasses at night, because so many people were.  The stage lights are still really bright even with sunnies on.  The Groove Armada performance was a highlight as well.  The lead chick had this zany jumpsuit on and some kind of jacket that she made look like feathers or wings, she also busted out the biggest retinue of 80s dance moves I have seen since Flashdance, epic.  After they ended I stayed up front and screamed for an encore, although some people left right away.  Silly folks, the last act always gives an encore!  They came back to play their biggest hit Superstylin'.  If you don't know it, look it up, and Paper Romance, which they open with and most anything else you can get your hands on really!


I can deffinitely recommend to get the music of Washington, The Wombats, Kele, Groove Armada
I wish I could have also watched Uffie, New Young Pony Club, Bag Raiders, The Glitch Mob, Cut Copy and The Dandy Warhols.  Unfortunately you can't do everything and I was glad of the picks I made! 

A dirty bed, a Birthday and an Island

I got to Perth and managed to catch up with Nicole and Cat for a drink on friday night.  I discovered that they won't serve you a Whiskey neat in your average Australian bar.  After all the driving I had done, the traffic stress and the cold I was extremely dissappointed.  I returned the camper the next day, after getting slightly lost again.  This time before meeting up with the girls I was on a mission to have a shower, ditch my stuff, and change clothes.  I ended up checking in to the first hostel I saw downtown, Grand Central Backpackers.  I threw my bag into the room and went to the first shower and it wasn't until I turned around to start the water that I realized there was no head on the shower, just a pipe coming out of the wall.  Since I already had all my clothes off and organized so they wouldn't get sprayed I just used it the best I could, not something I would have expected in Australia.  I had been "upgraded" for free to one of the 4 bedroom dorms.  There was enough floor space in it to open the door, and that was about it.  The bathroom across the hall had a shower in it that leaked under the door onto the hallway carpet so the scent that lingered was, unique.
We had a rather late lunch, wandered around the city a bit, and then had some drinks at a pub.  This was where Cat busted out the balloons she had bought to celebrate Nicole's birthday with.  We had a bit of fun with these, nearly an entire evening worth of entertainment.  By the time we got hungry it was difficult to find a place to get food the girls could eat from, they're not kidding when they say that Perth shuts down early.  We ended up re-enacting the broometime crew's last night together and got pizza and sat on the sidewalk again, I deffinitely felt more out of place doing so in a city than in a little town like Broome.  Odd as it seems even though we didn't do anything too interesting, this was one of the most fun days I've had in Australia.  I guess it's amazing what a difference the right company can make.

Notice the tiny little Quokka by the tree they were everywhere

Nicole flew back to Sydney on a late flight Saturday night.  Sunday was a quiet day, but Cat arranged for the two of us to go to Rottnest island on Monday, as it was going to be the only nice day for a little while.  I got up at about 5:30 so that I could catch the train down to Fremantle and we could catch the first ferry to the island and get a full day there.  There are no cars allowed on Rottnest island and it is too big to walk around it, so the transportation options are either to ride the bus, or hire a bicycle.  Better yet, if you have a friend, there is the option to hire a TANDEM bicycle!  This is exactly what we did, and though Cat wanted to be the driver the front seat was too high for her.  Our tandem earned the name Bouncy (which is somehow a reference to Beyonce Knowles), because compared to the regular bikes I've ridden in the past, she had a fat ass.

Cat posing with Bouncy

There was an absurd amount of laughing for no reason, mostly becaues Bouncy was just so amusing.  We were an awesome team, there were a couple of girls who also had a tandem that we passed at least twice while they were walking their bike up a hill.  They were taking the direct route while we stopped and saw everything on the way and still made it to the far end of the island first.  There was a gentleman from Perth with his wife who told us about a sea lion colony down a particular track.  We followed his direction and walked our bike down the 4x4 track.  The sea lions were just chilling out in the water, all grouped together in one particular spot.  Cat and I decided that this would be a good place to have our lunch and climbed down for a closer look.  Don't worry mom, safety was my first consideration so I kept my helmet on until we were safely lunching.  After lunch we stopped at the first toilets we saw, since Catherine has to use them more than a pregnant woman.  I dropped her off, and then went to park the bike since we had missed the pullout and Bouncy doesn't swing around too easily, low and behold the bus happens to drive by once Cat was safely in the toilets and I'm there riding a tandem bicycle all by myself.  I wonder what those passengers thought of it.

Me by the sea lion colony

We decided to go for a little dip in the ocean since it had gotten quite warm.  The water was nice and cold, it made me think of how Grandma Milne used to walk around in the lake with her pants rolled up early on a summer morning when the water was chilly.  At the end of the day we caught the ferry back to Fremantle, I decided to check in to Cat's hostel, the Old Fire Station, definitely a cool place, decently clean and solid facilities.  From there we plotted our escape to the South West and I also managed to arrange a coffee date with Julia.  It was so nice to hear a Canadian accent again, we sound awesome!

Across the street from where Julia and I had coffee

Team Chubb and Chauncey

This is a bit behind the times now but enjoy anyhow!


I managed to find a standby campervan relocation from Broome to Perth going on pretty much the exact days that I wanted to go so that I would have enough time in Broome, and enough time in Perth to see everybody and do the things I wanted to.  All the information I had on it was a pickup time and place, and I knew that it was a 2 berth hi-top camper.  When I picked it up I found out that it was pretty much the biggest camper 2 people could get, you could stand up and walk around in it, and was equipped with a shower and toilet, along with everything else you could possibly want in your home.  Since it was so massiveI decided that it would be okay to take Louise with Sharon and I because even though it wasn't strictly in compliance with the rules it wasn't going to hurt anyone and would even benefit the three of us.  We managed to get out of town around 11am and it was a balmy 28 degrees.  I drove about 800kms that day and we parked at some random rest stop.  I was obviously a bit tired and glad that the girls were there to take care of dinner for me, nice and easy tomato, cream corn and tuna on bread - no toaster :(

The next day we made it to Karijini National Park, despite a bit of traffic on the roads.  This was pretty funny to see when you hadn't seen this many vehicles in one spot after 1000kms of driving.  The park was absolutely beautiful.  The most amazing part of the gorges was that you could be less that 100m away from the gorge and unless you knew it was there you could walk right past.  All you can see is the rugged landscape of the Pilbara region stretching off around you and you follow the track that is there, expecting a bit of a walk at time and all of the sudden you make a sharp turn to start descending into the gorges.  Each of them is a hidden oasis of water, plants, birds and animals.  The pictures just cannot capture the majesty, especially with the little camera I had at my disposal.  We stayed in the park that night and woke up to a temperature around 12 degrees, the coldest I had seen, perhaps since I came to Australia.

intersection of 5 gorges

  Once we got out of the park I decided that I ought to take a break from driving since I wouldn't have a choice from that afternoon onwards.  Even though she did a good job of it, I was probably more stressed about having somebody else drive, especially since it was my money on the bond and name on the line.  When she eventually got too tired to drive she pulled over, it just so happened that we were only a couple kilometers down the road from Wyloo Station, one of the places owned by the same people I had worked for before going to Karratha!  When I left the station I never would have thought I would be back so close to it.  Even more peculiar was that the girls were going to go WWOOFing on Lyndon station, the neighbour to Maroonah, I had even met the guy who came and picked them up.  Despite the massive distances and space in the Pilbara region it sure is a small world. 

I was on my own, and my calculations were telling me that I wouldn't have many spare kilometers within the allowance I had been given.  The sights remaining on the coast were Monkey Mia, 300kms of driving round trip, Kalbarri an extra hundred or two, and the Pinnacles desert which I wasn't sure where it was and I didn't check the map I bought closely enough before the transaction, because it had no information on it!  I quickly decided that I would much rather get to Perth quickly and catch up with Nicole and Cat again, rather than go off on my own to do things for the sake of doing them.  I drove until about 10pm and luckily didn't see any kangaroos on the road as you will later learn are nothing like seeing deer on the highway.  The next morning I woke up at dawn and it was 4 degrees!  The blanket I had really wasn't cutting it anymore I luckily had tea and porridge for breakfast so I got something hot in my belly and let the sun into the camper then got on the road with the heater turned up to full.  I had a moment's doubt about making it back home to catch a bit of winter, but then I realized I was still wearing shorts and jandles rather than proper clothes and shoes.

I was a bit dissappointed when I drove past the turn to Kalbarri thinking that the pinnacles were surely somewhere in that national park.  I consoled myself by taking a random tourist drive and stopping for lunch in a quaint little village and having my lunch by the little jetty full of sea gulls.  These were proper gulls as they didn't have any interest in people food and didn't harrass me like my lunch breaks in Karratha.  I took the time to get my feet wet and the water was the perfect temperature for soaking my feet that were stiff from driving without cruise control.  I continued down the scenic route and low and behold I was on the route to the pinnacles!  It must have been my Jedi senses guiding me when I impulsively took that turn off, this is another reason why I go along with them.  I probably could have spent a long day investigating these mysterious rock formations, but I was quite sick of driving around on my own and satisfied myself by reading up on how they think the pinnacles formed and taking pictures.  I made the mistake of going on the drive around, because the lady at the entrance told me that "It's just under the length restriction, so you'll just have to go slow at a few spots".  I thought I would see more and it would be quicker than the walking track.  I deffinitely should have walked around because I was so stressed about damaging the van in the tight spots that I just wanted to get out of there.  I hardly took the chance to look around and enjoy it at all!

Chauncey at the Pinnacles

Despite a major delays due to a fatality accident on the freeway, getting lost everywhere I went once I hit the city and leaving the van so quickly I was still wearing my jandles, which are a no-no in city bars after 7pm.  I managed to catch up with Nicole and Cat and sneak into a pub for a couple of drinks with them.  The long journey south was over.  I travelled 2900km in four days, woke up to weather that was 10 degrees colder each day and wouldn't change a thing about the trip.


Chauncey was so massive that he beeped when I backed him up.