Bundaberg

Their rum is shit, but their Gingerbeer is extraordinary! I will bring some home so you can try it. I'm leaving Melbourne tomorrow and head off to the Grampians tomorrow, I'll be back at the end of the week for some footy madness.

Admin

OK, I've updated some of the links to the right, either they don't go to blogs, or names and locations. I've also added a link to my flickr account. You do not need a subscription or need to sign up to view pictures the way you do for kodak or photo bucket, etc. The problem is I can't remember how to login to my account, so it'll be a while before I get new pictures up. Even if I could login, I don't have a digital camera. All my film is sitting between my feet in my camera bag right now. It's been a long way already, so it should make it back to the States safely enough. Also, there are upload limits so when I do start putting pictures up, they will come somewhat slowly.

And! I figured out what my shoes smell like. It's welding. My shoes smell like welding.

Melbourne!

I arrived in Melbourne last night from Alice Springs with no idea where I was staying or even how to get to the city. I got the last bed in the first hostel I went to. See, it all works out when you travel. That was only for last night though. So when I checked out today, the guy infront of me in the queue decided to check out early, so I was able to pick up his bed (at a cheaper rate!) and I don''t have to move for a couple of days. Just now I was looking online for AFL tickets -the entire reason I have even come to Melbourne- and discovered the premiership doesn't start until next weekend, which is when I leave! I thought I had fucked up big time but turns out the first game of the season is Friday night at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) so I am off to find myself a ticket before they vanish. I believe it will be a derby between Melbourne and the kangaroos (North Melbourne). I also need to figure out what to do for the rest of the week. I'm thinking the great ocean walk but the logistics for this are a bit difficult at the moment. Ya never know, it all seems to work out in the end.

I'll try to get posts about Adelaide and the Red Centre up in a few days and I need to do some Admin work too.

My Shoes Smell

This is sort of an adendum to my previous post. On Sunday the 4th, both Ethan and I were stung by a jellyfish whilst surfing at Manly beach. That wasn't so fun and made the session slightly painful. Also, my shoes still have a funny smell, not because of my feet, but because of all the junk I tramped through on the track. I hope it goes away. I also bought a hat, and times was wearing two hats at once on the track. I'm sure I looked rediculous. We will find out with the pictures.

Wombats Poop Out Cubes

Hello! I've just spent the last week dominating the overland track. Those 6 days and 7 nights of 100+ kilometers, 2 mountains, 2 gaps, eating off a small camp fuel stove, sleeping in below freezing temps on hard ground or wood planks, fending off possums from my food, getting freaked out by large tiger snakes and rubbing ointment on obscene looking blisters have been some of the best ever. I'm having trouble grasping that I have actually just completed the track. I've also had trouble describing what I saw and how I felt sitting on top of mountains and tramping across windswept alpine plains. Dumbstruck awe is what it would be I suppose. The bus spat me back out into civilisation the other day and I sat on the footpath scratching my head wondering where I go (to the hostel ofcourse) and what do I do now that I don't have to wake up at 7.30, pack up camp and start trekking through the bush. Last couple days have been quite lazy and I've been indulging into all the "good and bad" things of modern society: BBQ chicken pizza, light past 20.15, fish and chips, long hot showers, bed, coke, refrigerators, the Internets et al. Now that I've had my shower and clean clothes, I want nothing more to be thrown back out into the wilderness on my own. I've found something new that I enjoy very much and while the memories of this most recent adventure fade after being catalogued by my brain, I can only start to plan and prepare (or not prepare - did you hear about the guy that did the Overland Track without a sleeping bag?!) for the next one. Maybe the Milford Track, or the Misty Mountains, or the Appalaichan Trail, or, or, or. I ate tuna and pasta 5 nights in a row and every night it tasted better than the last.

I'm an idiot. I forgot about two hidden straps at the bottom of my pack that make it so my incredibly heavy pack doesn't kill my shoulders. So you might say the track dominated me, but I ultimate conquered. I remembered those straps for my last 11 km section of the track. Live and learn and then keep going. And I'll keep going to Adelaide.

BBNT

I am sitting in an orange walled restaurant waiting for a chicken burger and order of nachos. I have a backpack and coles go green bagto last me two months. Hey the nachos just came so I gotta wrap this up! I've moved out of 25 albert and will be in Tassie in a few days. It's Mardi Gras (in Sydney at least) so it'l be one big party tonight. One big Gay party.

Carry on.