Quote of the Day

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.
- Douglas MacArthur

Byron Bay

Well, I decided against the Great Barrier Reef... partly because it was more difficult than anticipated to find the right type of tour, partly because I arrived in Townsville on ANZAC Day and every single information provider was closed, partly because the weather was bad... but mainly because I had a good long thought and concluded that I really don't give a fuck about it. I don't care how famous it is, I'm not wasting a couple hundred dollars to see something I don't care one iota for.

Instead, I bring you these pictures, which I took yesterday. They're of an area just south of Byron Bay in New South Wales, and I think it's quite a pretty one. Great views, and the landscape is so green and lush and fertile. Same goes for Monday's drive from Port Macquarie down here to Katoomba, this is nothing like the barren wastelands of inner Australia. Also, it stopped raining this morning, yay! All pics here.

Best pizza so far

I've just stuffed face with the best pizza I've had so far in Australia - in fact, one of the best ever. It came from Pizza Capers in Port MacQuarie, New South Wales, and it was yummy. This is the list of ingredients: Black Angus Steak, Cajun Bacon, lemon peppered prawns, shallots, onion, capsicum, pizza sauce, mozarella and hollandaise. Also, an extra lemon wedge in the middle. Mmmmm, lemon. The thing is called Reef & Beef. Behold:

Quote of the Day

Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats, then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.
- Fred Allen

Ginger alert!

So it's official. Gingers are MADE, not born. No wonder they are soulless. I'd pity them if it wasn't for the fact that they're evil, little things through and through.

Birdie birdie nam nam

Yesterday we (yes, the hitchhikers were still with me, I only lost them last night!) made a stop at a gas station somewhere between Townsville and Rockhampton. These colorful birds were eyeing me from the moment I sat down at a stone table to eat my sandwiches. They were hopping quite close, and one even perched himself on the fence, just 3-4 feet away, clearly eyeing my food.

Ever the sucker, I threw some scraps of bread, which it caught mid-air. Then more birds came and started a rather loudmouthed begging for food. They were temporarily interrupted by the arrival of two crows, one of which was the biggest, fattest bird I ever hope to see. He was wary of me, but not more so than that he quickly jumped up to the bread vacated by the smaller birds and stuffed his little beak on it.

Sadly, at this point I had no camera with me, so you'll have to settle for some pics I took afterwards, which shows one of the smaller birds proudly displaying the remains of my lunch; basically the scraps that the crows couldn't be bothered with. This is all beginning to follow a certain pattern...

"Mine, all mine!"




"Beautiful plumage, eh?"

Quote of the Day

A dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit.
- Cecil B. DeMille

Quote of the Day

I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven’t got the guts to bite people themselves.
- August Strindberg

Quote of the Day

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
- William Dement

Queensland

Queensland has something of a reputation in Australia as a backwards and... well... redneck area. As Bill Bryson says in his book about Australia, "Down Under" ("In a sunburned country" for you yanks), most of the strange or crazy stories coming out of Oz originate in Queensland. Everything from jellyfish to croc attacks to plain weirdness. I can't personally attest to this yet, but I will say that the slogan the state has chosen - "The Smart State" - might possibly be something of a world record in irony.

These pics were all taken along the highway to Townsville.

War memorial in Julia Creek, where I spent the night. There's nothing to do in that town, but fortunately the place I stayed had huge steaks and the bartender was a very nice American, so at least I got me some good conversation.


More like 5 years BACKWARD. Or even 50.


The name of this geographical entity was Canal Creek, but some funny bastard had removed a couple of strategic letters. It's an alternative to sheep shagging, I guess.


We had to pull over and wait for ten minutes on order of da 'polis, because of these two huge trucks.

The Barkly Highway

The Barkly Highway stretches from Tennant Creek (well, strictly speaking it's 20 clicks north, but I think we're allowed some leeway in a country this big) in the Northern Territory 500 miles to Queensland, where it continues onto a junction and becomes the Flinders Highway all the way to Townsville, where these words are written. This is just a quick pictorial in all four directions to show you how incredibly lonely and empty this road is.

More from the Stuart Highway

On the way out of Alice Springs I picked up two hitchhikers; one French-Canadian guy and an Austrian girl. They were going to Townsville, same as me, so I had them along for about 48 hours. It turned out they had largely the same taste in music as myself, so the whole way from Alice up to Tennant Creek and then east to Townsville it's been a veritable orgy of Johnny Cash, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkle, Travis, etc, etc.

These pics are all from the last leg of the Stuart Highway, between Erldunda and Tennant Creek. When I say the last leg, I mean of MY trip; the highway continues for almost a thousand kilometers up to Darwin from Tennant Creek. I believe I've already mentioned that this is a really, really huge country? Also, somewhere up there I finally saw two LIVE, WILD KANGAROOS jumping across the road and into the bush, but I had no chance to capture them on camera, you'll just have to take my word for it.

A few miles north of Alice, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. Wheee!


The people at Erldunda trying to be cute. Of course to a Norwegian, the Ø is an actual letter, pronounced kinda like the "o" in "going home" when Cartman says "Screw you guys, I'm going home". Yes, I'm a well of pop-cultural references.


Barrow Creek, the most inbred place I ever hope to visit. A hole in the road on the way to Tennant Creek.


One place we definitely didn't stop. I suspect they go through quite a lot of tin foil in a year.


The roadsides and parking lots and even just the deserts are full of broken down cars. Some are burnt out, others look to be in mint condition.


From the place I spent the night in Tennant Creek. I believe the frogs are complimentary if you're French.


Why would an establishment 500 miles from the Queensland border have a warning sticker from Queensland authorities? These are the things that keep me awake at night.

Devil's Marbles: Rocks & Dingo

As you can see from these pics, the area is quite fascinating. Some mighty boulders stacked on top of other boulders, others are split as if with a very precise scalpel. I also got in some pic of a doglike creature just lying idly in one of the parking areas, looking very much like a dingo. Also, a very nice picture of a white tree; I think it might be related to the one in LOTR.

Desolate landscape.


Stones.






Split in two.


Colors in the desert.


Ish nice.




Dingo or dog?


These termite mounds can be seen by the roadside all over the Northern Territory. They range in size from tiny little molehills to huge; the size of big cars.

Devil's Marbles: A wallaby

Devil's Marbles, or Devil's Pebbles is an area of the Stuart Highway, about 100 km south of Tennant Creek. The stones are granite, and quite a sight. However, the most interesting thing there to me was this little wallaby sitting on a rock and stuffing his face, without a care in the world. All pics here.

"Oh no, not another photographer!"


"Pffffffffffffffffth!"


"What to choose... what to choose...?"


"Sniff, sniff"


"I do believe I'll have one of these."


"Mmmmmm, good choice."

Desert Park: Kangaroos!

So I finally got to see me some kangaroos. In captivity, sure, but still quite shy. Some of them fixed me with a look that suggested they'd stampede me if I got any closer, so I didn't. On the other hand, the babies were cute and cuddly.

All kangaroo pics here.

Kangaroo & baby.


Ready to kick my ass if I got any closer.


"Don't mind me, I'm just eating the wall."


"I've got two heads!"


Awwwww.

Desert Park in Alice Springs

The Desert Park is in Alice Springs, and is quite a nice place to kill an hour or two. Particularly if you've reached the conclusion that the only kangaroos you're going to see will be in captivity. Hrmph.

These are the non-kangaroo pictures. They tons have more animals, mainly birds and some other types of desert sceneries, but as I generally don't give a hoot about either, I didn't bother. They had one place called the nocturnal house, in which they showed (generally dimly displayed) nocturnal animals, such as snakes and spiders and rats, etc, etc. They also have a movie of about 20 mins which shows the development of the area from millions of years ago up to now. The timing of the shows is off in relation to the given times, so be sure to arrive about ten minutes early.

All pics here.

These pics were all taken with a flash. Half the time I could barely see my subject. This one came out extremely well; it was taken on the hunch that something may be sleeping inside the trunk; I couldn't really see a thing.


Whatcha looking at, huh? Huh?


These little rats/kangaroos/wallabies/whodafuckknows were running around chasing each other when they weren't eating.


Some of you will soon see one of these guys on a postcard.


Some bird with a funny hairdo.


They sell some mighty fine honey cakes in the cafe.


Some of you will know that I pop these eucalyptus-flavored fresh breath mints like crazy. I thought it would be a nice gesture to bring some of them home to visit the old country. Yes, them's eucalyptuses in the background.