May 2008 - Asta La Vista Baby!
After leaving the home comforts of Surfers' Paradise, we were once again on the long and dusty road, this time to Brisbane. Where Chris, one half of the Australian couple we had met in Africa, had set a night out up for us with one of his friends. This turned out to be a very profitable venture for us, as it meant we had an endless supply of drinks being passed our way all night.
At one point during the night, we ventured into a club that seemed to favour dance music, and its patrons seemed to favor jumping up and down in time with it. Never one to turn down a bit of jumping, we dived straight in. I was happily jumping away when out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone holding a glow stick.
It took about two seconds to register that no, glow sticks were not being sold in the club, and no, I hadn't seen anyone selling them on the streets at all that night. That led me to the very sad conclusion that this person in fact had brought their own personal glow stick there.
Deeply disturbed by this I hurriedly left the bouncing throng and headed for the exit. After recovering in an Irish pub the day after - for the food i must add, we settled down to sleep safe in the knowledge that this was to be our last night in hostel rooms full of other people's mess, and the shining beacon on the horizon was our van.
On arrival at the van depot we looked around excitedly at the various vans: Mario Brothers, The Beatles, Pink Panther, and speculated on which one we would get....it turned out to be none other than Arnie himself, come to us in the form of the terminator van.
Brilliant. On the side it had a picture of Arnie in Terminator, half man half machine, and the best bit was, on the back, was painted "asta la vista baby" which gave me great satisfaction to know that's what people would see when we were overtaking them, as naturally we would be.
On receiving the van we drove straight to the nearest supermarket to stock up on all the home brand things we could find, even if they were completely unnecessary, and made our first meal out of the van - chicken stir fry.
This, unbeknownst to us at the time, would be the high point of food in the van, as meals from now on would vary from jam on bread, Ryvitas, and tuna (opened of course the nomad way of painstakingly stabbing the tin until we had carved a big enough hole to squeeze the tuna out of). We then travelled to Nambour to stay with friends of Meg's parents (it's all about who you know) and enjoyed some non-tuna orientated meals.
In keeping with the Aussie tradition of big things (by this point we had also seen the big pineapple and the big mango) we decided to start our own big thing photo collection. This included big sand hands and big sand shoes, lovingly carved by ourselves.
The van, although brilliant transport, and obviously a place to rest our weary heads, did prove troublesome however. For example in Harvey Bay a shop keeper accuses us of littering after we let water out into the gutter outside his shop. He then pretends to write down our number plate in a menacing fashion, which, to be honest would have been a bit more convincing if he had held his pencil the right way up. We also got moved on in the middle of the night by the police for illegally camping, and spent the next couple of weeks working out the best way to dodge paying car park fees.
Living out of the van with no constant access to a shower however, has made me appreciate the finer things in life. I can now boast a wealth of "life experiences", including, but not limited to - showering in petrol stations haunted by the thought of hairy truckers that used it before, lathering up with shampoo in swimming pool showers whilst the general public look on with horror, and finding good use to plug points located on lampposts on the street, by plugging the hairdryer into them and drying my hair in full view of everyone.
We went on a few day trips, to Frasier Island, Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef. On the trip to Frasier I had the feeling I may be prone to sea sickness. On the trip to Whitsundays, it was becoming more than a coincidence I couldn't lift my head up whilst the boat was moving. By the time we did the Great Barrier Reef I was seriously wondering why firstly I was on another bloody boat, and secondly why did I not take sea sickness tablets, having known before I was more than a little prone.
On these trips we had an opportunity to see some of Australia's marine life, and I must say I was impressed. Snorkeling in Whitsundays was the best experience, where, at every flip of a flipper was schools of fish waiting for you to swim through them. Saying that they most likely weren't waiting, they were probably going about there business, but swim through them we did. Some of the patterns on them were unbelievable with fluorescent colors that were reminiscent of the terrible glow stick.
We scuba dove the Great Barrier Reef which was, a very surreal experience. It was the first time I had tried scuba diving, and since i had slept the whole way through the induction to it, I was feeling a bit nervous.
When we first went underwater and dropped down, it felt really claustrophobic and looking at Alice, I was reassured to see the same blind panic in her eyes, which meant I wasn't being a bit of a wimp. After being underwater for a while though, it grew on me immensely and it was an amazing experience to see the reef up close.
Sufficiently wrinkled from all those days spent in the water, and at our final destination - Cairns, it was time to say goodbye to Watson, which was rather sad. Sadness was soon replaced with panic however as, when dropping her off at the airport she was told she had about 60 seconds to check in. At which point we threw her bags out after her and watched her hurry off into the distance.
Whilst in Cairns Alice and I stumbled across the Australian Idol auditions. After being told we couldn't in fact compete as we were not Australian residents, we went into the holding area to snoop around and managed to get in the background of numerous camera shots - result.
But, the day finally came when I had completely run out of money and had to return to the homeland of Wales, a day before Alice caught her flight to New Zealand. It was an emotional goodbye, and as I sat on the plane on the way home, looking at my in flight meal and wondering where the plastic ended and my food began.
I looked out of the window and saw Australia getting smaller and smaller ... Asta La Vista Baby!
Kayley Thomas - Porthcawl - 19 May 2008
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