Sasky in Oz

Off-topic
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Today is Thursday; Thursday is shepherd’s pie

Just chronicling my travels to and around Australia. Sort of a digital diary.

Anyway I got the idea to come to Australia to fight fires during our off-season Part way through the summer. I applied for a working vacation visa back in August and expected it to take a couple weeks. Turns out they sent me an e-mail which went into my neglected junk-mail folder telling me that they would get me the visa as soon as I got a new passport as mine was due to expire within one year.

Meanwhile I was sent to Idaho as part of a 20-person crew to help out on their fires for a few weeks.

The application process opened and was closing while I was in the States so I had to fill out the application on my iPod, which was interesting to say the least. Once I had that out of the way I had to get my passport and Visa settled which was a bit of a scramble. They originally wanted me to be in Australia for an interview on the 18th, less than one week from when they originally contacted me.

They agreed to delay the interview until the 25th to give me time to get over there and ready for the interview.

I got my new passport on Monday the 17th, got my working vacation visa approved by Tuesday evening and had my tickets booked within a couple hours. I was flying out in just over a day. Time to start packing!

The flights were fairly uneventful. I left Saskatoon early on Thursday the 20th. I was supposed to have a 1-hour layover in Denver then 11 hours in San-Francisco, problem was they made us wait in the plane for 45 minutes for customs to open and by the time I got through US customs my connecting flight was supposed to be in the air half an hour ago.

Took a train, switched terminals, and ran to the gate for a (6th?) final boarding call, apparently there were strong side winds on the main runways and the flights were all backed up so we left about one hour behind schedule, which was alright by me.

The wait in SF was all right as there were some semi-hidden benches I could sleep on and plenty of shops to wander around. I had a $25 beer and burrito for lunch and a $13 pre-made sandwich and coffee for a snack. So much for food being cheep in the US.

The flight to Australia was pretty good, I sat between a lady that grew up in New Zealand but lives in Perth and a girl from Calgary going to see her auzzie boyfriend in Sidney. The only problem was I was right behind a bulkhead and while I had lots of knee room I could not stretch out my legs at all. It was also sort o funny taking off on the 20th and landing on the 22nd.

Switched planes in Sidney and flew to Melbourne where I took a buss to the city, put my stuff in a locker and wandered around for the morning and afternoon taking in the sights and sounds. I managed to set up a bank account at the only bank I could find that was open on Saturday and got a hold of my friend Sam who invited me to come out to his friends house outside the city for a barbeque and some drinks. We all stayed the night and I woke up fresh and rested at 8:45 am. Jet lag? What jet lag?

Sunday was a bit of a blur, met more people, saw some more places, got more used to people driving on the left side of the road and all the turnabouts everywhere.

Monday I went with Sam to another part of town where he had a physical and I went down the street and got a pre-paid SID card. My new phone number is 04########. I checked the option for international texts and calls. Not sure how much those cost though.

On Tuesday Sam had his fitness test and I had my interview. The fitness test was on the way to the interview so it worked out really well. I helped out a bit during the fitness test and met some firefighters from various bases. Everyone tested passed with a fair margin and we made some plans to meet up the next day for some drinks to discuss the summer.

I got to the interview about 20 minutes early which let me fill in some paperwork then had a really good interview with the base supervisor, the district manager and two crew leaders. I was feeling really good about how it went and they told me they would contact me within the next three weeks. After the interview I went with the base supervisor to finish up some other paperwork for police checks etc and he told me that the job that I applied for was already filled but there was a position at Powelltown (where the interview was) I told him I didn’t really care where I ended up and would actually prefer Powelltown as it was further from the city. He told me they would get in contact with me within the next 2 or three days.

The next morning I got a call saying I have been successful in securing a job at Powelltown and now just need to do a physical and a bit of training starting on October 22nd. I am pretty stoked about it and currently looking at places to stay/camp and a vehicle to get around in.

So far comparing to places I have been I would describe the outskirts and suburbs of Melbourne to be a sort of interesting combination of Guatemala, Santa Cruz, and the Fraser River Valley.

Is everybody happy? You bet your life we are!

ERIC

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Awesome Eric, I am soooooo jealous; so is Karen :smiley:

Did you bring a uni? Any plans to ride yet?

We’ll miss you in NM :frowning:

Send pics when you get time.

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I brought everything but a wheel. There should be a geared 26" wheel in the mail right now to make a nice versatile do-everything unicycle.

I am hoping it comes soon as I am planning on wandering aimlessly around the country side relatively soon. :slight_smile:

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Sounds like a great adventure getting underway Eric.

Take care of yourself and keep us posted.

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Welcome to Australia

You’re just in time for our 2 major grand finals.
The AFL and Rugby League.
By the way, there are some really nice Muni rides around Melbourne and a number of guys who I’m sure could show you around.
If you ever come up Sydney way we’d love to show you around.

Cheers

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Wherever you may roam, don’t let it be too far from the Internet. We need to hear stories!

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Please tell me you’ve lost the beard.

You really don’t need that insulation over there.

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Sounds awesome and like you are settling in quickly and nicely, good deal. Have a great trip. I hope your wheel comes quickly so you can enjoy riding too. Regards, Eric.

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Today is Sunday, Sunday is Church

Friday was Fish:

Friday was pretty uneventful. I was hopping that some money I was transferring from Canada to my new Australian account would show up so I could realistically buy a car on the weekend. The transaction was supposed to take 24 hours, not so lucky. I was also hopping to see a new unicycle wheel show up at the door so I could get everything set up and ready to ride. No dice.

It rained all day, I took Sam + Tam’s dog for a walk and that was about it.

Saturday was PayDay:

Well it was more Grand Final day.

Tam, Sam + I left the house at 10AM to make our way into the city to meet other people for Food and drinks at a place called Cushion where we all had advance tickets to be there for the game. It was the grand final match between the Sydney Swans and the Hawthorn (Tasmanian) Hawks Australian Football teams. At Cushion se met up with some people I met on my first night and some new faces including a girl from South Africa.

I had watched 3 games in preparation for the grand final to familiarize myself with the game and the rules. It’s really quite simple and a fun game to watch. Sort of like tackle team handball but you had to punch or kick the ball instead of throwing. I decided to cheer for the Swans because I had a red shirt and there was a Canadian on the team.

The game was a nail biter with some really good play on both sides and Sydney barely came out on top in the end with a 91-81 win.

Went to a bar afterward then went home. The grand final truly was an all day event.

Sunday was Church

Woke up a bit late today and checked to see if there was anything from the mailman from yesterday or if my money transferred. No unicycle wheel yet but the money had transferred. Unfortunately it is Sunday and the banks are closed and I don’t have a bank card yet. I can now get serious about a car search though.

By lucky coincidence there was a late night rider game being played in Regina, and 8 PM Saturday night in Regina is Sunday at noon in Melbourne so Sam and I were able to watch a afternoon rider game live in Australia through a website broadcasting a UK sports channel which covered CFL games.

Like the grand final, it was a great game. The riders held the Lions at bay and squeaked out another win.

For supper I had the best Kangaroo, egg, cheese and beet burger I have ever had.

Is everybody happy?

You bet your life we are!

ERIC

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It’s down to 1/4" but it is colder down here than back home. I am sure it will warm up to uncomfortable levels though once the summer rolls in proper.

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Go Riders go!!!

Any luck with the wheel yet?

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Today is Friday, Friday is Fish

Monday is shopping day

Monday I spent a good part of the morning scouring the interwebs for cheep cars. I was mostly focused on station wagons and hatch backs under $1000. I sent out a few feelers to some people selling their cars and then went to the bank to pull out some cash. After the bank I saw one car but it had a weird front-end shimmy, not something I wanted to have to get fixed to register the thing.

On the train ride back to Diamond Creek I got a call from the fire center intake lady saying that there was a problem with my police check. Apparently I just needed some sort of proof of residency along with my IDs to complete it and a bank statement would work since I am not getting any bills here.

Went grocery shopping, bought some raisin bread for half price.

Tuesday is Trains

(you can skip this one if you want, it’s just a long wild goose chase riding trains)

Tuesday it felt like I was on the train all day. I left the house at 9AM to catch the train to town to check out some cars and hopefully stop in at the bank to get a statement for the police check. I got off the train at my first spot and walked 1km to a dealership that advertises that all their cars come with a RWC. They had a hatchback I was interested in for $1300 but when I got there he said it was sold and that that particular car did not have a Road Worthy, humm OK there were two more cars I was going to look at. I was supposed to meet one guy around noon and another guy after 3:30.

Back on the train and headed for the center of the city then out towards the next car. I called the potential seller when I was arriving at the train station about 500m from where the car was. It was 12:12 and the guy was passively aggressive making a big deal about it being 12 minutes after noon, I figured it was still “around noon” and he started going off on a tangent. I hung up and switched trains back to the hub stations in the middle of the city.

At Flinders Street Station there seemed to be some kind of train traffic jam due to a scheduling SNAFU and we had to wait 20 minutes to get off. I found a newspaper and tried my hand at the sudoku puzzle.

Once I finally got off I quickly looked for my next one, as I didn’t want to be late again. I needed either a train to CRANBOURNE or PAKENHAM. I saw a sign for CRAIGIEBURN and jumped on.

I was a bit distracted by two hot lesbians making out a few seats away while I pretended to do another Suduko that I wasn’t paying attention to the stop names, I was going to the end of the track anyway and it would take well over an hour. When I did look up the next stop name I was a bit confused until I realized I was on the wrong train. I had been going northwest for the last 50 minutes when I should have been going south-east. CRANBOURNE and CRAIGIEBURN have way too many letters in common to be going in opposite directions.

I called the third seller telling him I was going to be late. He was very reasonable and offered to bring the car to the train station so I wouldn’t have to walk. I got back to downtown and this time caught the train to Pakenham (with connection to Cranbourne) and was happily on my way. Two stops from the connecting station the seller phoned me asking where I was, I told him where I was and that I would have to catch a connection, he was OK with that.

At Dandenong I got off and went to the other platform and where a train was ready to leave going south. I got in right before the doors closed.

After a while the seller called again wondering where I was, I told him I was on the connecting train and should be there shortly, he started asking about where it stopped last, I said it hadn’t stopped yet and it looked like I was getting out into the country. Apparently I was on the express train going direct to some town 50km past what the map said was the end of the line (where I was supposed to go) It would have been dark by the time I got back there so we called it off.

I got home a little bit before 11.

Wednesday is Peugeot

After the disappointing cars of the previous day and thinking about the cars the dealer showed me I upped the price on my search and lo and behold there were some that were actually road worthy.

I found an ad for a 95 Peugeot 306 that was only posted 9 hours ago that looked almost ideal. The best part was it stated back seats that folded “flat” I phoned the lady and she agreed to show me the car at 4:00 after work.

Turns out the girl selling it is a circus performer and signed a contract for a one year tour so was getting rid of the car. The seats did indeed fold flat with the front parts removed and she said that she has slept in the back but at under 5 feet she wouldn’t take much room. I am sure I can make it work for me if I incorporate a cooler or box.

Everything went very well and I brought the little French thing home (the car, not the girl)

Thursday is Rego Day

Went and got the car re-registered in my name, luckily I had a bank statement I picked up the other day for the police check as they also needed some sort of proof of residency. Not much exciting happened.

Friday is Fish (and road-trip)

Today I set up my unicycle and went out into the country again. Brought the bank statement to the fire base in Powelltown for the new police check and drove the little car down some roads more suited to 4x4s than small front wheel drive cars.

I checked out a couple free campsites near Powelltown that I might be using this summer. Both are nice in their own way but neither is quite ideal. I was hoping that by visiting them I could decide whether I want to go tent or hammock.

I tried out the wheel on some of the trails near one of the campsites. I had to forgo the brake due to clearance issues and I am not used to riding downhill brakeless anymore. Also my ineptitude for riding geared really surprised me. I was sure it didn’t seem that hard the first time.

I stopped for fish and chips on the way back so I could say “Friday is Fish”

Anyway I think it is time I start wandering around and seeing a bit more country. I am thinking of probably working my way east near the coast possibly out to Brisbane then taking a more Central road back in time for my physical on the 22nd.

So

Monday is Shopping Day
Tuesday is Trains
Wednesday is Peugeot
Thursday is Rego Day
Friday is Fish
Saturday is ???
Sunday is ???

Is everybody happy?

You bet your life we are!

ERIC

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Marvellous adventure and great write-ups, keep 'em coming.

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Hi Eric, nice to have you here in Aus! The weather will warm up plenty over the next 2 months and the bushfires will as well! Cheers, Geoff

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What Dave said.

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Hi Eric. I think you met my wife’s cousin riding his uni outside a laundromat the other day!

By the way there is a big road ride here this weekend (round the bay in a day). Unis are allowed to enter the 50km ride if your interested? I think there will be a few riding.

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What part of the kangaroo did you eat?

Are you drinking huge Foster’s Oil Cans?

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Hey Guys, I have been away from the internet for a while and my computer isn’t plugged in so I will try to summarize my trip since my last update fairly quickly.

I hit the road on Saturday the 6th and went down to the coast just east of Melbourne, went to see some penguins but they wanted $75 for a guided tour and that was the only way to get over the big fence blocking keeping people away from the cliffs and shoreline where you can see them. I saw some cool looking geese and some wallabies instead when I turned around and started working my way east along the coast.

A couple days later I made it to Wilson’s Premonitory Park where I had been told is really nice with good campgrounds. When I got there the campground was bigger than Bruno (my home town) and quite open but two thirds of it was blocked off concentrating everyone on one end during the off-season. I snuck in a cold shower and left before someone asked where I was camped and if I paid my fee.

Leaving the park it was starting to get dark and an unbelievable amount of animals were visible from the road. Mostly wallabies and koalas but also some emus and other animals.

I was going pretty slow with all the animals around when one of the wallabies decided to jump in front into the road only about 20 or 30m infront of me. I hit the brakes then I hit the wallaby right square in the middle of my grill. Plastic went flying my indicator lights popped out and the wallaby slid off the road and over a cliff.

My radiator was pushed in, my headlights were askew, the radiator fan fell out trim was gone and the badge on the front was missing. I went back and picked up all the pieces and amazingly everything just snapped back together like Lego. The plastic grill is cracked and the front lip of my hood is curved in a bit tighter than before but otherwise the car seems none worse for the wear. I have never had a car seemingly made of lego before.

After that I took a shortcut to nowhere and ended up on 80km of dirt road through a rainforest where it started to rain. The car didn’t really like the rough muddy roads but the trees and ferns were amazing and well worth the detour.

A couple days later after I crossed the border into New South Wales I found a huge brown spider that crawling on the inside of my windshield.

I made it to the outskirts of Sidney then turned inland and went to check out the interior. This was much drier and flatter than the forested mountainous coast. It was also easier to find little secluded camping spots with nobody else around. There was one spot where you had to go through 3 gates drive across about 3km of pasture and find yourself by a small clear stream with rapids above and below where you can park and camp. I stayed there three days in which time I saw 1 rancher about ¼ mile away on a quad and a couple with a caravan (camper trailer) from South Australia stopped by but decided it was too “slopey”

I got back into Victoria on Friday and did more scouting for spots to set up camp near Powelltown. I think I found a spot off a logging road about 4km from work that I would be able to unicycle to and from without trouble. I will have to find a brake solution though, it’s 3km of fairly steep downhill.

I have my Medical check tomorrow then back on the road going west this time, or possibly deeper into the outback. We will see where the turning wheels take me.

ERIC

rawcyclist: I did indeed meet your wife’s cousin, he seemed like a fine chap.

I also thought about signing up for the ride but was feeling decidedly rusty with the geared wheel I had just put together (my only unicycle over here). I will be back in striking distance again in mid november than the rest of the summer after that. Feel free to let me know about other rides and I will try my best to make it to those.

Billy: the meat.

and ¿no?

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Trip update:

It’s been a while since my last update. And in that time I have put on a few thousand km. Passed the medical check and the fitness test, and was officially offered the job.

I was briefly thinking about WWOOFing for a few weeks to save some money and as something to do but when looked into it I was not able to get an electronic version of the farm directory and would need to go back into the city to get the book or have it mailed, which would take longer than I was willing to wait around.

Instead I decided to check out the south coast. The coast was beautiful and I met some cool people at some of the campsites I stayed at for more than one night but it was awfully hot and humid. It rained just a few mm almost every night and I was getting sick of the humidity.

Where do you go for drier weather? To the outback! I decided that this might be my one and only chance to see Uluru (Ayers Rock), looked at my calendar, then at my map and decided that I could do the loop with time to spare.

I picked up a hitchhiker outside of Port Augusta for some company and possibly a second driver. Turned out he wasn’t the best company (not bad, just not great) and didn’t drive. We got to Cooper Peddy that night then I dropped him off at Erldunda the next day around noon. I was sort of insulted when he offered me $30 to drive him to Alice Springs (300km further down the road) when he hadn’t paid for any fuel for the previous 1200km.

I found a shady spot to park and have a nap since it was over 40˚ and closer to evening when it started to cool down I went out and saw the rock. It was big all right! Unfortunately I didn’t have a whole lot of time to see things before it started to get dark but it was cool anyway.

The next day I backtracked a bit to buy some fuel then went out to the other part of the park. I found the Kata Tjuats more impressive than Uluru and decided to try the canyon walk, thinking that since the walls or rock were almost vertical there would be some shade to be found. Bad assumption. The walls were indeed nearly vertical but so was the sun. In fact when I walked back I noticed that I could keep my body strait and stand with both feet on the shadow of my head and not overbalance. I retreated to a shade shelter and read my book until the sun was appreciably lower in the sky then set out to walk the valley of the winds, turns out it was closed after the first lookout point… due to high winds. It was still too hot for long walks anyway so I left before the sun went down and took some pictures on the way.

That evening there was a group setting up camp where I had stayed the nigh before, I moved over a bit but ended up sharing some supper with them. I was a group of travelers that met through a gumtree add (like Craig’s list) for traveling partners. It was a British guy, a French girl and a German couple just out of high school.

The next day we all went out early to see the sunrise on Urulu, which was a bit disappointing since it was surprisingly cloudy and we didn’t see the bright red color the rock is partially famous for when viewed at sunrise or sunset.

After the sunrise we made a group breakfast and lounged until 8:00 when we went on a guided cultural tour of one section of Urulu, after that we hid from the sun again, not accomplishing much other than a water fight before about 6:30 PM when I decided to go and see if I could ride the 10km path around Urulu before the sun went down and the park closes. The rest of the crew stuck around and were going to go to the sunset viewing area closer to 7:30.

I ended up not riding around after I took a wrong turn and ended up at a waterhole which was really cool and made me stop and reflect that I can ride pretnear anywhere but this is probably my last chance to take in any of this unique piece of geology so I stopped riding and started really looking around. I went to the sunrise viewing area for a different perspective at sunset then went back to my campsite.

After seeing Urulu I was starting to get tired of the super hot dry conditions so I came up with a plan for my route back towards Melbourne. I decided to see if I would be able to travel the “Plenty Highway” which was a 700km dry use only and 4x4 advised kind of road. I asked a few people if they though I could make it in a car, the general consensus was that since it had rained about 2mm in the last 3 months it should be dry and I should be able to make it in a car but it was sort of a stupid idea.

Turns out they were right. I bought extra supplies so I had enough fuel to turn around at any point and had enough food and water to last me a week and I set out. Two days later I emerged with a slightly crushed (and leaking) fuel filter and a brake line that was sort of dangling since some clips got broken. I detoured north to Mount Isa (which had a nice paved highway going to it but I was trying to avoid going that far north, as I was trying to go south-east) to buy a new fuel filter and a few other odds and ends easier found in larger centers.

I did see a nearly complete solar eclipse when out on the road which was really cool. I used the pinhole technique which worked really well.

Did a rest-stop repair and oil change then was back on the road.

After that it has been more driving than anything during the daylight hours as I have to get back to Powelltown for 8AM Monday the 26th I am currently in Camborne so can relax my pace and enjoy the last few days before training camp begins.

Everything is going swimminly and I am looking forward to training camp to start.

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I KNOW you KNWO how lucky you are, Eric.
Keep on having fun, discovering and most of all, keep us updated.