Basirk in Australia

The continuing adventures of Chris Bassett

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2003-09-07 22:52:11 [cont - read previous log entry first people]

Moved computers - that pile of sh1t crashed again! The owner blames Microsoft. I blame the owner.

Here we go, again!

There's some aerial photos of the Gold Coast here and here, but I was a lot higher than this and saw a lot more.

Just to make sure that I don't get all glum again, I've booked myself on the WRX Experience tomorrow, which involves me driving stupidly quickly in a Subaru WRX around a gravel track. Bring it on!

I'm heading back to Brisy day after tomorrow.
2003-09-07 22:21:29 - Surfers Paradise

I hate computers! I was in a great mood 5 minutes ago. I'd just completed a lengthy web log entry (which I'm not going to bother again in as much detail - sorry) and just as I'm finishing the whole thing crashes. Win95, IE4, PC from the Ark, and loads of rubbish loaded in the system tray - what should I expect. Piece of junk. They better not charge me for the last hour. Muppets.

Here we go again. GRRRR.

I was really not feeling that chippa a few days ago, so I decided to cheer myself up in the time-honoured fassion of spending loads of money. Yesterday I did the tandam skydive jump from 10,000 metres :)

There was a 5 minute "training session", after which I got togged up and bundled in the back of some ancient looking, and rather small, Cessna with one seat for the pilot. Vorn, my skydive buddy, showed me where to put my feet when the time came to jump, and we headed off. It took quite a while to reach 10,000ft and then Vorn clipped us together and opened the door. He then asked me to swing my legs out, which was quite nerve-wracking, and possible the scariest part of the whole event. And then he jumped.

It's not like I thought it would be. You don't get the stomach lurching feeling like you get on a rollercoaster. It was more like being stationary with the wind keeping you up. It was pretty cool at that altitude. The view was incredible. Spread out below was the entire Gold Coast, Sparkling water-ways and the built-up coastline, one long golden beach running for miles. Above was a perfectly clear blue sky. Fantastic! We fell for 35 seconds, plenty of time to take in the view, wave your arms and legs about, and scream like a maniac. The Vorn opened the parachute.

Again, it wasn't what I expected. There was no bone jarring snap as the 'chute opened. Instead it was a fast and firm deceleration. It seemed like we just stopped in mid-air. There was very little breeze and no real sense that we were falling at all. Vorn swung us around over the beach and the South Pacific, on the lookout for wales, but we didn't see any. We then swung back to the airport and chatted about the sights as we went.

The last couple of hundred metres you could tell that we were falling. Vorn has been jumping for 27 years and it showed as he made a great feather-light landing.

I was buzzing all the way back to the caravan park!

Just submitting this before the PC falls over again...
[cont]
2003-09-05 21:14:08 - Brisbane
- Surfers Paradise

We were up at 5:00am (!!!) this morning as Stu's check-in time was 3 hours before the 9:30 flight, and it's a 30min drive to the airport.

So now I am alone. Adrift in the great land that is Aus. I should be happy but I'm feeling very lost. I've lost all enthusiasm to do and see things. I nearly booked my flight home as last night and this morning I was feeling very homesick. Strange how it is only now affecting me. I have a week before my friend arrives and we travel down to Sydney. Until then I am visiting places near Brisy, and now I am at Surfers Paradise. My original idea of fossicking in Glen Innes seemed a bit too risky as it's a good days drive from Brisy and if anything should happen to the van then that rather stuffs up my friends plans!

Maybe I'll do my skydiving here at Surfers? Now there's a thought.

As far as work goes, I'll see how I feel when I get to Sydney. It would be a real shame not to even try to get work. I think I need to get a plan.
2003-09-05 00:43:54 - Brisbane

Stu is leaving tomorrow morning. I'll head off to Glen Innes again to do some fossicking for a few days then come back to Brisy on the 10th before my friend arrives on the 12th.

I have to say that I'm getting quite apprehensive about going it alone. This is what I was going to do originally, so I really shouldn't be that bothered by it. Hopefully I'll strike it rich in the gem fields and then I can do the west coast :)
2003-09-03 00:41:42 - Main Range N.P.
- Brisbane

We got to Main Range N.P. (west of Brisbane) on Monday, 1st Sept. The camping area sits in the gap where the road crosses the range (Cunninghams Gap) and is quite high up. There is a great mountain walk close by that takes you over 1000m up. We did the walk on Tuesday and the air was clear and cool which made for a great morning climb. I know I keep saying it, but the view from the top was fantastic. The lower slopes where sub-tropical rainforest, but as we went higher the trees thinned until you get just grass trees and shrubs. A nice fire in the evening rounded things off nicely.

I had my first tick incedent yesterday :/ Having done the bush walking, I noticed a tick on my jumper. Stu found another one on the back of my jumper. I found a third having a good old feast behind my ear! Yuk! Stu sprayed him liberally with bug killer and then a friendly ranger plucked the sucker out. Lovelly. The ranger wanted to keep it for a school talk he was doing - I let him! Just to top everything off, I got a glancing nibble from a spider this morning. The little bugger was hiding in my towel (left out overnight to dry) and he had a go when I dried my hands. I'm still alive so I guess it wasn't a deadly fiend.

Today we have returned to Brisy because Stu needs to go home sooner than expected. He's booked a flight for Saturday from here so I'll have a week on my own before a friend from home turns up to keep me company on the road south to Sydney.
2003-08-29 21:56:07 - Brisbane

Yep, still here! Most probably heading out on Sunday and going west towards a national park that we haven't visited yet - Main Range N.P.

We'll be back in Brisy for 12th Sept when we're meeting up with a friend. There shall then be a hectic few days as we act as tour guides and head down to Sydney. I'll then be left on my own as everyone flies off - friend to N.Z. and Stu back to Blighty.

Have to say that I'm a little nervous about being left on my own. If I was still travelling around then it wouldn't bother me half as much. However, I'm going to be looking for a job and even in the UK this is a pretty nerve-wracking experience.
2003-08-25 22:52:18 - Brisbane

Still in Brisbane. Weather hot in the sun and cool in the shade - really nice! Still reading books. Taking it easy. We got a good weekly rate at the caravan park so now we each pay 2.75 UKP a night until Sunday! Not bad, eh?

Bit of a problem with my rust patching. It would appear that the rust is coming through again! This is after spending a whole day trying to get all the rust off and then daubing copious amounts of anti-rust gloop over it! Grrr. When I come to sell the van I will just do a quick patch to make it look nice. Can't be bothered with re-doing it "properly".

Sorry the log has got so dull. It should pick up a bit in a few weeks. Honest.
2003-08-20 21:02:23 - Brisbane

Haven't done much since the last log entry. It's been quite nice weather and I had a good book to read (Red Strom Rising, Tom Clancy) so we just hung around. The weather has clouded over a bit now though, hence the trip into Brisbane city (the caravan park is on the outskirts).

My laptop research is now complete. I know what I want (IBM T40) but it appears the particular configuration I need is only available in the UK. It's also a lot of money so I'm going to hold off getting it until I'm sure that I need it. This is very difficult for me to do and it brings back memories of Uni and being skint. I'm not sure I like it much!

We'll be staying at the caravan park at least until Sunday.
2003-08-17 20:47:35 - Nimbin
- Lamington N.P.
- Brisbane

Nimbin is unlike any other place I've ever been to. It quite small with a population of around 600. It would seem that the majority of the population are hippies or people who don't fit in anywhere else. It would also seem that a sizeable number of the local residents have found a niche here selling home-grown cannabis. What I found quite amazing was the blatent disregard for discretion. There's none of this, "psst, something for the weekend mate?". Oh no. More like, "Want some smoko? I got hydra, skunk..." and holding large bags of aforementioned out for inspection. There must have been a dozen sellers along a 50 meter length of street (the street is about 52 meters long).

We went to the Hemp Museum which was totally far out, man. It told the story of Australia from Aboriginal times through to modern day and was really interesting. Being a museum of Hemp, there was also lots of info about the cannabis plant and its many uses (mostly to do with the tough nature of the fibre), many of which are no longer used due to the illegal status of the plant in most countries. There was a great Australian newspaper aricle written at the time when cannabis use was first observed in the country. The majority of the article described the reaction by polititions to the importing of the "evil drug". The last few lines of the article noted that the plant actually grows naturally in many places along the east coast of Australia!

The last room in the museum contained a seeting area where a number of tourists were getting stoned and someone was selling hash cookies.

It would appear that Nimbin is definately the exception. Like the Glastonbury Festival, police turn a blind eye to the goings on here which has resulted in an interesting (and chilled) place. Nimbin is set is an extremely pituresque area with few towns nearby to upset.

So then we moved onto Lamington National Park, which due to a slight navigational error was considerably further away than we first thought, and so we arrived just as it was getting dark. Yesterday we went on one of the walks which was quite nice, but it started to rain so at lunchtime we headed out towards Brisbane.

And that is where we are now. The weather has improved lending support to my theory that any place with 'Wales' is the name is doomed to enternal damp weather. As soon as we get into Queensland the weather seems to improve dramatically!

Don't know what we're doing or where we're going next. Might head a bit further north and/or go towards the coast. For the first time since getting here we don't actually have a plan. We've agreed that going south towards Victoria is probably a bad idea, as indicated by the huge number of Victorians heading north and staying in Queensland's caravan parks!
2003-08-15 22:32:52 - Glen Innes
- Coffs Harbour
- Lismore

Unfortunately, Boolabinda is closed until September, which scuppered our plans somewhat. Eventually we decided to cancel the van's safety check at Glen Innes and head to Coffs Harbour. Although beautifully sunny at Glen Innes, it was quite cold and tyhe coast is usually a lot warmer.

It certainly was warmer when we got to Coffs; it was also raining :( However, we did manage to get the van safety checked and rego'd that day (Friday) which was a real bonus.

Today we have travelled to Lismore again (I am there now) but we'll head off towards a place called Nimbin, which has a certain chilled reputation, man ;) Nimbin has such sights as the Hemp museum which could be quite entertaining. I don't think we'll be staying there the night - we'll probably head back to the coast (Byron Bay maybe) this evening.

Weather is still cool and wet, but it looks like it might pick up for Monday. The long-term plan is to head towards Brisbane and maybe further to get a bit of sun and warmth. Stu will probably be heading back during September, leaving me to do my Sydney work thing.
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