Australia

By now we should have been used to it all. We'd ridden motorcycles through mud-sludged farm tracks in Laos, trekked with elephants in the bush in Borneo, dodged crocs, warded off cheeky macaques in Indonesia, and hunted with gun-wielding strangers under a midnight electrical storm in Malaysia. But we hadn't driven on the left side of the road. And we hadn't met a special van named Velma.

Megan driving Velma

Velma's 'Just say Yes to Drugs' mantra

Our chance encounter with Velma, especially during the Christmas/high holiday season in Australia, was pure serendipity. We woke up one morning at the Bunk hostel in Brisbane and realized that if we wanted to travel in Australia, we had to actually work for it. Gone were the days of Asia when we could simply book a $2 bus the morning of our adventure. Not only was Australia booked... it was expensive. Luckily the backpacker information highway came in handy: call around to rental car companies and see if anyone needs a relo (relocation) on a vehicle from your Point A to B. Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef was in our sights, so we rung round to see if any campervan companies or hire car places needed to move vehicles north up to Cairns. We struck gold when we called wicked campers- they had a van, "the most colorful van in their fleet" that needed to get up to Cairns in a week... for $1 per day. A remarkable deal, really, considering that these vans normally go for $60/day or more. Even more shocking when you see the state these vans are in, but that comes in later.

Campervan culture is big in Australia. The average campervan isn't exactly like an American RV. It's more of a spiced-up utility/minivan, seats taken out of the bed and a foam mattress put inside for sleeping. Under the foam mattress are cabinets and compartments for linens and miscellaneous storage. At the back (accessible by opening up the rear door) is typically a small hand-pump operated sink, a tiny basin, plates, cups, a pan, a chilly bin (a delightful British/Aussie term for cooler), and a gas stove. Backpackers rent the cheapest ones from a company called Wicked, which has spiraled into a sort of alternatraveller culture of old- almost dead- VW and Mitsubishi vans, splashed with graffiti-style, pop-art drawings and PG-13 tags (one example, "I lost my virginity, but I still have the box it came in.") Yes, mildly to moderately offensive to holidaying Aussie families, but when a van's cheap, can you say no?

Sink and "kitchen"

We picked up Velma the next morning from the Wicked Van depot in downtown Brisbane. She was definitely colorful. Loud marijuana leaves, in all shades of green floated in a sea of orange and purple on her side doors. The back simply stated "We do acid to make the world seem normal." The inside was something out of a psychedelic nightmare- huge red and orange polka dots adorned the ceiling and interior doors. Her radio, A/C and power locks (plus some windows) were all broken. Great. Velma was a stick shift, so Megan, not Catt would be doing the driving. Driving on the opposite side of the road is hard enough in a new, functioning automatic rental. Shifting gears with your left hand is tricky business, especially in stop and go traffic, especially when the car you're driving has a broken 5th gear, reverse, and ignition barrel that's thisclose to breathing its last. Several angels worked overtime to ensure that we made it out of Brisbane and onto the freeway north towards Beerwah and the Glass Mountains in one piece. In the end, though, it was a great adventure. The first of many great vehicle adventures we would have in Oz, and later, New Zealand.

Our first stop that morning was the Glass Mountains, about 70 kms north of Brisbane, and Steve Irwin's famous Australia Zoo. Per Lonely Planet,

The Glasshouse Mountains are 16 ethereally shaped volcanic crags which emerge from the humid green surrounds in sporadic and Jurassic Park style. Towering over 500 m, with sheer rocky sides, these peaks were believed by Aboriginees to be a family of mountain spirits, the most distinctive of which is the father Tibrogargan.

We found a slightly sketchy looking caravan park with a spectacular location, perched right under the peaks, and... parked. There was no setting up of camp to be done, since we just sleep in the car. We are avid tent campers, so this was a sort of strange style of travel to get used to. The proprietor of the park gave a thinly disguised smirk of dismay as she assessed our van's paint job ("I hate those things.") It's true; we were a rolling "just say yes" advert to the youth of Queensland. Oh well. We ventured out into the mountains and investigated some walking paths. No one was around; the country in those parts was breathtakingly beautiful.

Glasshouse Mountains

Inside our campervan

That night as twilight neared, we made supper in the communal kitchen and encountered a very tan Dutch couple who'd just come from a sturdy looking 4WD; the only other campers that night in Beerwah. They had just capped off a four week driving tour through the outback. They were having steak- "something special every few days"- and we, the classic jar-sauce spaghetti. From every travellers' tale I've ever heard, there is nothing quite like the Australian outback- vast, dusty, dangerous, sun-baked, and empty. Many tourists venture into the outback unprepared, and many succumb to its heat, its venomous creatures, its challenges. This couple in particular had blown 3 tires on their 4WD in one day alone- and thankfully they had been travelling with 4 spare. We chatted with them in the communal kitchen until long after dark, swapping stories over our spaghetti and iceberg lettuce salad under a bowl of sparkling stars that punctuated a velvet Australian night sky, the Glass House mountain spirits a silhouetted black ridge against the inky blueness. The stars that night were so clear that between them we could easily see the Milky Way, thousands of stars sprinkled between the brighter points like shimmering powdered sugar. Enveloped in all of this beauty, we retired to Velma's foam mattress and caught some shut-eye.

The next morning we awoke, set up lawn chairs, and had our breakfast as the sun crested the top of the mountains. We were pumped to visit Australia Zoo, the late Steve Irwin's interactive park that played host to hundreds of various Australian animals, most notably, crocodiles. We decided to make a full day of it. Here are some pictures of the animals we learned about and met at Australia Zoo:

With Steve Irwin poster

The Irwins and and Catt... where's Wald-Oh?

Otters... these guys were extremely quick and animated. They were waiting for lunch in this picture.

Komodo dragon from Komodo and Rinca, Indonesia

Giant Tortoise. Australia Zoo was home to Harriet the famous giant tortoise until she passed away.

Tigers. Seeing them from behind a high walled fence and glass exposure gave us a new appreciation for the audacity of our tiger encounter at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

A croc getting fed at Australia Zoo's "Crocoseum"

Camel

Our favorites

A cassowary. These amazing creatures only live in Queensland and Papua New Guinea

Dingo

Tasmanian Devil... he was remarkably shy

I LOVE wombats.

Eclectus Parrot

Red parrot

Rainbow colored parrot

Black-necked stork

Echidna

One of the most touching aspects of a visit to Australia Zoo are the many tributes to the late Steve Irwin, "wildlife warrior" and national hero of Australia.

Unfortunately I had inadvertently left the lights on all day and Velma's battery had died by the time we got back out to the parking lot. A friendly car park attendant gave us a jump, though, and soon enough we were on our way... to Hervey Bay, and Fraser Island.

Australia. Oz. Aussie, aussie, aussie. Oi Oi Oi. Kangaroos. Pavlova. Cricket. Ahh...

Our arrival in Brisbane late at night on November 26th was akin to popping out on the other end of a black hole. We were majorly culture shocking the moment we stepped off the plane. I guess that's what a sudden jolt back into the "West" (in one of the technically most eastern of countries) after half a year in Asia will do to you. Brisbane is so orderly, tidy, safe, and, well, plain in comparison with Bangkok, and SE Asia in general.

Our flight from BKK to Brisbane mysteriously detoured to Sydney, first. While we waited in the Sydney airport for our onward flight to Brisbane, we were comforted (and a little weirded out) to see Christmas decorations everywhere. That's right, it was the end of November. All in all the journey took about 11 hours. 11 hours, for which we only paid about $150 each in airline tickets. I still don't understand what sort of black magic travel agency voodoo our travel "guy," Nick, at circletheplanet.com did to get us these tickets. And I'm not complaining. Or asking.

We landed in Brisbane and linked up with some other travellers from the UK to share a taxi into town. Our immediate shock was at how bloody expensive everything was in Australia. Much of this has to do from the relative strength of the Aussie dollar, helped by the mining boom out west around Perth. Most of it has to do with the general suckiness of the greenback these days. In Asia, where many of the currencies are pegged to, or affected by fluctuations in the dollar's value, this was less easy to recognize and didn't really affect us. In Australia, we were hurting. Our double room at a backpacker's (The Bunk) in Brisbane was $80! Unbelievable. Long gone, we found, would be the days of $3/hour massages and $1 meals. Oh well.

We spent our first day in Brisbane reliving the glory of sidewalks, crosswalks, and other Western world phenomenons ending in "-walk," and did a stroll through their beautifully manicured Botanic Gardens. Everything seemed to clean and orderly. The public toilets were delightful. Catt had to hold me back several times from walking into oncoming traffic... in Asia, the cars just go around you. Sadly, we didn't spend too much time seeing the sights as we were agonizing over onward travel, renting cars, and the general headache that is arranging holidays during the peak season in Australia. Also, my (Megan's) parents were rumoring to come for a visit, but without tickets in hand, we weren't sure when and where to plan to meet them.

Pictures of us wandering around Brisbane, Australia:

Skyline in Brisbane. We couldn't get over how clean and clear the air felt.

During our stay in Brisbane we made a trip out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the "world's first and largest koala sanctuary, with over 130 koalas." No kidding, there are tons of the narcoleptic, cute little beans there. They sleep upwards of 20 hours a day, perched lumpily on branches of trees, eyes shut, in blissful sleep. They're really adorable, and hysterical to watch. Here are the stars of Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, doing what they do best:

This is before the koala keeper handed the koala over to us for the below photo. She kind of looked like an Eastern European ice skater or something.

They had a "retirement area" for some of the older koalas. This lady was quite a grannie.

A big attraction at many zoos featuring Australian wildlife is having a "cuddle" photo. You pay an extra $15, or whatever, that goes towards the upkeep of the sanctuary in exchange for having a "koala cuddle" caught on camera. We decided to take advantage of this and get a picture. The koala looks like our child:

Proud Parents

In addition to the koalas, the sanctuary also had some wombats, cassowaries (large, flightless, brilliantly colored birds native to Oz and Papua New Guinea), and kangaroos. Like many zoos in Australia, the 'roos are housed in a separate portion of the sanctuary where they are free to hop around. You can buy some snacks for 50 cents to feed to them; awesome.

Here are some more pics of the wildlife at Lone Pine:

A wombat. We really wanted to cuddle a wombat, but it wasn't an option. Damn.

Feeding a juvenile kangaroo

Aussie sheep herder

Sheep herder with his dog. These canines are seriously smart animals...

A beautiful lorikeet at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Wombat love shack

After Brisbane, it was time to head north up the Queensland coast...